A Video Game for my Daughter

Both of my sons love to play video games and so it has been a bit of a challenge to find a game that my 17-year-old daughter would want to play. A little while ago there was a charity drive at work where we could donate $5 to a local cause and then receive three random, yet unopened video games. The titles were from a number of different studios and I found myself with some interesting games. One was a basketball sports game that I gave away to someone on a plane. Another was a popular arcade game that my boys decided to keep. The third game was one that I thought my daughter would like: The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian from Disney Interactive Studios.

For some reason, my youngest son opened the packaging and gave it a shot. My daughter was so mad at him that she didn't ever bother to play the game. As I was home this Christmas break, I sat down with my daughter and played it with her. The game has been out since 2008 and includes a lot of different scenes from the movie. My daughter loves the Narnia movies and so that immediately held her interest to at least give the game a shot.

Prince Caspian is one of the few games I own that can be played in 1080i and the higher resolution allows for a lot of details in the game. There is an opening scene with a stain-glassed window that is really vivid. The game is also fun in that it can be played with one or two players on the same console. Ideally there should be two people playing at the same time, but one person works fine.

The game follows the movie where there are a number of characters working together for a common goal. You have to work with other creatures, such as giants, to accomplish your objectives. Sometimes you are trying to solve a puzzle while other times you are fighting with the bad guys. At one point in the game, we didn't know what we needed to do and were getting bored of killing the enemy. I wanted to get some help from the Internet and hit the "Start" button. That paused the game, but also gave a list of objectives. Once we understood what we were supposed to do, it became easy to complete the task.

My daughter and I played for about 3 hours and had a great time. It was a lot more entertaining than watching the movie (I preferred the other two Narnia movies). The game is rated T because of violence. It wasn't too graphic, but you do run around killing people. As it is from Disney, it is available for the PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, XBox 360, PC, Wii, and Nintendo DS. I would recommend it to any father wanting to spend some quality time with his children.

Need for Speed: The Run

I am supposed to be off on vacation but we had a disk go bad on one of our arrays and it required me to do a bit of maintenance for the office. The process of rebuilding the bad disk is about as exciting as watching dots get painted to the screen. Actually that is what was happening and so I took the chance to crack the cover of another EA game: Need for Speed: The Run. I had my laptop logged into the computer at work painting dots on one side, and my 32-inch HD TV showing the game on the other. Sometimes it is nice to be able to multitask.

Once again, EA uses the Frostbite 2 engine for this game. It is also used for Battlefield 3. My two sons love playing the Need for Speed games and so when I was down having lunch at EA at the beginning of December, I made sure to pick up a copy of the latest installment. I have to say that I have not been disappointed. You start the game duct-taped to the steering wheel of a Porsche 911 that is getting put in a car crusher. You have to escape and then are invited to drive in a race across the United States. You start in San Francisco and then try to get to New York. The only unbelievable part of the game is that you don't take Interstate 80 the whole way. Instead, you are relegated to back roads, which makes for a better video game.

I have never played another Need for Speed, but I have seen my sons play countless hours of the different versions. The Run has a lot of the same elements: you have to make certain time cutoffs, evade police, as well as pass a number of other racers over a given distance. You also have various cars to choose from. I naturally chose the BMW M3 to start as I am sort of a fan of BMWs in real life. However it was a bit tough when I kept crashing my car, especially since I really was rear-ended in my BMW yesterday. Luckily there was no damage to my car, but still, watching me destroy a virtual BMW almost brought tears to my eyes.

Need for Speed: The Run is rated T for language, mild suggestive themes, and violence. I didn't think it was nearly as violent as MotorStorm Apocalypse but there are a lot of car crashes. I also have not heard any foul language, but I am only a couple of hours into the game. I am playing in 720p resolution and the graphics look great. I wish I could play in 1080p, but the game doesn't support it. As it is from EA, you can get the game for PlayStation 3, XBox 360, PC, Wii, and Nintendo 3DS. I would recommend this title for anyone that likes driving games. Parents just don't base game play on whether or not you will let your kids ever get a driver's license.

A Skype Christmas

I thought I would take a break from video game reviews this evening and write about my Christmas. I used to love getting gifts on Christmas. Now that I am older, there are other things that make for a good holiday season. One thing that has been nice this year is having my older brother living so close to me in Utah. I spent the day at his new house visiting with him and his family.

Yesterday I enjoyed opening my gifts, but the best gift of all was being able to talk to my two oldest kids. My daughter is living near Cleveland, Ohio and my son is in Romania. With the help of Skype, we were all together as a family for the first time in seven months. We talked for over two hours and it was free. For a parent, it was the best Christmas gift ever.

Ratchet and Clank

After two days of violent video games, I decided it was time to play something a little more fun and geared towards everyone. After all, it is Christmas time and that generally means time with the family. I honestly can't remember how my son got started playing Ratchet and Clank games, but it started with the PS2. I believe my brother sent me one or two games and my youngest son loved them. I thought the titles were hilarious: Going Commando, Up Your Arsenal, and Size Matters. Then the PS3 came out and the titles weren't as funny, but the games still were.

Sometimes my scouts will show up at my office and have some spare time. I ask them if they want to play any video games and their eyes light up. When I ask them what they want to play, those same eyes gaze over with confusion. Ratchet & Clank is my first suggestion and all the boys give it a shot. It is easy to pick up and play for a short amount of time, but it is also full of different missions and can last a long time.

Tonight I pulled out my copy of Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction and played it with my 17-year-old daughter. She said it looked like fun as I went through the first several adventures. We couldn't play too long and this game was the perfect for the time that we had. I also have Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time as well as the new release of Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One. They are all very similar in humor as well as play. All 4 One adds the element of cooperation in that you and 3 of your friends can play at the same time on the same console as long as you have enough controllers. The other two titles have the advantage that they have been out for a while and can be purchased for around $30 new.

All 3 games are rated E 10+ because of alcohol reference, animated blood, crude humor, fantasy violence, and language. While that sounds like a lot, there really isn't much to worry about except the fantasy violence. The games are created by Insomniac games which is a Sony Computer Entertainment America studio. That means they are only available for the PlayStation 3 console. I would recommend the games for any family looking for a fun game they can play together.

MotorStorm Apocalypse

When I first got my PlayStation 3, there were several titles that I wanted to get. I kept seeing MotorStorm and wanted a copy. Since my brother worked for Sony at the time, I had him get me the game. I have to say that it was one of my favorites. The first MotorStorm takes place in southern Utah and is a very good representation of that part of the state. I have a buddy who is an avid four wheeler and was amazed at how realistic the game was. When the next version of MotorStorm came out, I was still having fun with the original and didn't feel the need to get it. Then I had someone offer to pick me up the third installment, MotorStorm Apocolypse, for $10. So I got it. Today I finally decided to put it in my PS3 and give it a shot.

MotorStorm Apocalypse was developed by Evolution Studios, LTD which belongs to Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE). Sony Computer Entertainment is the same company that makes the PlayStation consoles and so the game is only available for the PlayStation 3. They also try to show off all of the cool features available for the platform. One such feature is 3D. Unfortunately I don't have a 3D TV yet and so I didn't get to play that mode. If you have one of the new PlayStation 3D displays, you can play in SimulView. This allows two people to play on the same TV without having to split the screen.

I tried to play MotorStorm Apocalypse a week ago but it required a system update and so I didn't bother as I was limited for time. I didn't think anyone had been playing the game, but I was wrong. My son had completed the entire first day races. I tried the first race on the second day and kept finishing last, so I went back to the menu and started at the beginning. While the original title was like extreme off-road racing, Apocalypse takes extreme to a whole new level. Dare I say, an unbelievable level. You get to race around a vacant city that is experiencing severe earthquakes. Buildings are falling down around you as the race must go on. You even get the chance to race across the rooftops of skyscrapers. One wrong move and you get to fly off into oblivion. Furthermore, if you don't hit your boost at the right time, you don't make certain jumps and crash into the side of a building.

I like MotorStorm Apocalypse but prefer the original MotorStorm. It is rated T for crude humor, drug reference, language, suggestive themes, and violence. I did one full lap with a motorcyclist clinging to my front bumper. I would recommend it for anyone that likes driving games, has a PS3, and is into over-the-top scenarios.

Battlefield 3

My brother used to work for Sony PlayStation which is officially Sony Computer Entertainment of America. One year for my birthday, he got me a PlayStation 2 and sent me a copy of SOCOM 2. It was a first person shooter (FPS) and was a lot of fun. One nice thing about SOCOM was that you could play against others online as long as you had a broadband Internet connection. I used to get online once a week with my brother and other family members only to get shot to death for hours. FPS games are my favorite and so when Battlefield 3 came out, I used one of my contacts at Electronic Arts, also known as EA, to get me a copy. A neighbor who was one of my former scouts wanted to play the game and so I gave him my unopened copy. Then a few weeks ago, I found myself having lunch at EA in California with a different friend and picked myself up another copy. EA has this great store on their Redwood City campus and as long as you have an employee with you, you can get copies of their products for a huge discount. If you don't know anyone that works at EA, I highly recommend finding one, simply to get some of their products.

Battlefield 3 was developed by Dice, one of EA's studios, and created using the Frostbite 2 engine. The guys at Dice spend an insane amount of effort making sure that their engine is incredibly real. I have to say they succeeded. You can do things like blow up a building and then walk through that area. While most other FPS games make you feel like you are in a maze, Battlefield 3 is not like that. Of course if you do find yourself leaving the mission area, you have a number of seconds to get back on course or risk failing your mission.

The game runs on the PlayStation 3, XBox 360, and PC. Naturally I have it for the PlayStation 3 and the matching HD TV to go with it. The graphics are incredible and so you are going to want something better than standard 480p resolution. Mine is cranked up to 720p which is the best the game can do. To be honest, I thought it was 1080p when I started playing and didn't realize it was on the lesser setting until I checked the TV.

I have yet to play online as I am just trying to get familiar with the game. I'm sure it will be a lot of fun and once again I will spend a lot of time dying.

Battlefield 3 is rated M for blood, intense violence, and strong language. It has really strong language and I wish I could turn that off. I am all for realism, but I wish I could turn on some sort of censoring so that when the players swear, you hear a beep or a substitute word. It is also a first person shooter and so killing people is part of the game. Sometimes at really close range. So far I am enjoying the game and would recommend it to anyone who likes FPS games and isn't offended by strong language.

Christmas Break

Today was my first day of Christmas vacation. I couldn't help myself from reading some e-mail and responding. Otherwise I had a great day of skiing and playing video games. I have a stack of games that I would like to try now that I have some time to spare. I would like to use my next few blog entries to highlight some of these games. However before I get too deep in the reviews I thought I would provide some disclosure.

First, I work for a video game company. Corporate policy prohibits me from exposing who I work for, but it is one of the larger players in the industry. Just be warned that I might be pushing my own company's products.

Second, I get a huge discount on most of my games. I have friends at a lot of different game companies who help me get games for between $10 and $20. However I do own all of the games I will be reviewing.

Finally, I play games on my PS3. I have a pretty beefy desktop computer, but I don't use it for games.  I bought my PS3 several years ago during Christmas when they first came out. I paid full price and so it was not a gift from my company nor a discounted product from one of my buddies in the industry. my personal belief is that is the best console on the market right now. You may disagree and are entitled to your own opinion, but this is mine.

Stay tuned for my reviews.

Uncharted

My youngest son had a ski race in Park City today and I worked as an official. That means it was a really long day spent out in the cold. We got home and had a very nice dinner. Then my wife and daughter wanted to go and see some outdoor Christmas displays. They knew we wouldn't be interested and left us to do our own thing. We decided to play Uncharted 3.

Recently we started playing the first game in the series. Then I got busy and so my son started the second game and was able to finish without me. We still have yet to complete the first game but since we have the third one, my son opted to start it. I guess you could say that my son is tired of watching me play and wanted to move on.

It is interesting to see the evolution of the game. The first one was alot of fun because it was like taking part in an action movie. The second game added more twists and also more features. The third continues but also adds such things as muli-player so both of us can play at the same time. Of the three games, my son prefers the second. However I think that will change as we get more into this game. Either that or my son just hates having to play with his dad as a partner.

Effective Troubleshooting

Yesterday and today I spent several hours hunting down a computer problem in a production system at work. I did a pretty good job of narrowing down the problem to a piece of software. I changed the configuration file, upgraded to a newer version, and tried a number of other solutions only to have the problem continue.

My coworker and I were able to get the system limping along so we could sleep on the problem. We both woke up this morning with a similar idea on how to locate the true cause of the issue. It turns out that the real culprit was a database table was larger than it should be. The system was designed for this table to have a few hundred rows. Instead it had over 5 million. There was a clean-up script that wasn't running.

The first half of solving this problem meant I had to manually clean out the table. Trying to use an automated system would have brought the database machine crashing down. Once that was done, we had to get the clean-up script rewritten. That took a good part of the day, but we got it working. The total problem solution took a few hours to come up with. I just wish we had done a better job troubleshooting last night.

Christmas Lights

Yesterday was the day my wife and I decided to put up the family Christmas tree. It normally takes us a good couple of hours to set up the custom artificial tree. We like to string the lights as we put the tree together. We got about half done when the lights stopped working. Naturally we stopped to troubleshoot the them. At around 10:00 pm we decided to just go to the store and get a couple new strands of lights.

Today my wife went to six different stores and they didn't have the lights we needed. Thinking that I had all of the answers. I went out and didn't do any better. As we left the last store, my wife told me she was done and didn't need a Christmas tree this year.

Later this evening my wife was able to calm down and came up with a store that might have strands of lights. Without telling me she snuck off to a store and found what we were looking for. She was happy and we were able to get the tree set up. Now we just need to hang the decorations. Before this evening, I thought computers were the most frustrating thing on the planet. Nope, it is Christmas lights.

2011 Christmas List

It is that time of year where some of you may be still looking for gifts for that computer nerd in your life. It would be easy to list a lot of expensive gifts, but not everyone has a huge budget and so I will concentrate on gifts around $20.

Gift Cards

1. iTunes gift card. Not only is it good for music, you can get apps with them.
2. PlayStation Network gift card. There are a number of games that come in under $20 and you can let your recipient pick his or her own game.
3. Xbox Live Points Card. Like the PSN card, you can use it to download games as well as watch movies and game add-ons.

Video Games

1. Ratchet & Clank (any of the them). These are always a good choice and now that SCEA has released some of them as "classics," you can find them between $20 and $30.
2. Uncharted 1 or 2. Sure, Uncharted 3 was just released, your recipient may want to play episodes 1 and 2 first.
3. Need for Speed. There are a number of different versions of these games available for a number of platforms and right around $20.

Computer Accessories

1. USB Key Drive. They even have ones that look like keys and you never know when you are going to need one. I keep one in my jacket and it came in handy for a friend two nights ago.
   
2. HDMI Cables. What better way to connect your PS3, BluRay Player, or Computer to that high-end TV or monitor. Nothing ruins Christmas like looking for an open store because you don't have a cable.
3. Solar Charger for your phone. It's green and it can charge your phone.
   

Sure it would be nice if everyone could afford one of those new 3D televisions, but there is no need to take the next 3 years to pay it off. A little online shopping can go a long way. Good luck and Merry Christmas.

Bad Weather

Last night I got back to the boat and there was a nice note posted on the entrance to the marina. It said that there was a severe wind warning and it was unwise to take your boat out. I wasn't planning on going sailing and so it wasn't too much of an issue for me.

There is a high to the south and a low coming in from the north. When the two systems meet, it causes an incredible amount of wind. When this happens out in the middle of the ocean, large waves get created and boats sink. Here in the protected marina, my boat is fairly safe.

Interestingly enough, my wife forwarded me a message from the marina at the Great Salt Lake that was sent this afternoon. This storm is headed there after pummelling San Francisco. The e-mail stated that only a fool would go sailing for the next couple of days. I guess they are battening down the hatches there as well.

The Weather Channel has a great website, but my personal favorite is NOAA's. You can specify a city and state. Then it shows you the weather for a very specific area. You can see current conditions as well as the forecast. Right now, it is blowing at 22 miles per hour with gusts up to 33. The NOAA site seems to have the most accurate forecast. The weather channel does have one advantage though. If there is an area getting pasted by a huge weather event, like a hurricane, they have the best coverage.

Christmas Shopping

My kids are funny. They won't let my wife and I talk about Christmas until after Thanksgiving. They are always running around telling us to, "Respect the Turkey." Now that the day of feasting has passed, we can focus our attention on the biggest holiday of the year.

A decade ago, we just worried about Black Friday. Now we also have Cyber Monday, which was yesterday. When I got off the plane and into my office, my inbox was flooded with countless e-mails from every possible online retailer. The funny thing was that I had finished all of my Internet Christmas shopping. I still have one or two gifts to pick up, but they are the kind of gifts that I need to pick up in person.

As you go your own Christmas shopping on the Internet, there are some things to keep in mind:

1. Shop early. This morning I got an e-mail from FedEx saying that severe weather has hampered package delivery. This could happen again and so you don't want to assume a last-minute purchase will arrive on time.

2. Shop around. You may think you are getting the best deal at one site, only to discover you could have done better somewhere else. Doing a bit of looking will help keep you from discovering you could have paid less.

3. Shop quickly. Some of those great deals won't be around forever. When you find something you like at the best price possible, grab it. Assuming you can pick it up the next day may be a mistake. While you may be able to find it at a better price the closer it is to Christmas, you also run the risk of it being unavailable.

4. Shop with a budget. It is very easy to use your credit card to pick up all of your Christmas gifts. However you will eventually have to pay for them and you don't want to spend above your ability to pay.

Remember that this is the holiday season and it is supposed to be "the most wonderful time of the year." If you find yourself getting frustrated or angry, take some time off and relax a bit. Then try again when you feel better.

Thanksgiving

Today is Thanksgiving day and I thought I would jot a quick note about what I am thankful for with regards to technology:

1. The Internet. The Internet is truly amazing. It allows us to communicate with each other over vast differences. We can send e-mails, use Skype to video conference, broadcast messages, share pictures, get directions to Grandma's, purchase Christmas gifts at the lowest cost, and find out all sorts of useful and useless information.

2. Apple. They continue to innovate and make products that really are better than their competitors. That keeps the rest of technology moving forward. If the auto industry had a company like Apple, cars would be significantly better and the world would be a better place because of it.

3. Smartphones. It took me a while to give up my regular mobile phone and get a smartphone. Now that I have one, I find myself being much more efficient.

4. Flat panel displays. I have two on my computer at home and four on my desk at work. They are much lighter than their CRT counterparts and take a lot less energy to run. Go Green!

5. Desktop and laptop computers. Let's face it, without computers, we wouldn't have the Internet. Continual computer development is what made cell phones and smartphones possible. They have also driven the advancements in display technology and are part of the reason TV technology has changed so much.

Yes, technology is great and it is what allows me to have a job. However when you put things in perspective, it doesn't matter at all when compared with the good times spent during the Holiday season with family and friends. So I am off to spend time with the people in my life.

Happy Thanksgiving 2011!

A Tale of Two Tablets

Back in September I received word that I had won a computer table from CompUSA. They had a contest where they were giving out a tablet a day. When I was notified about winning the tablet, I was dubious. However it arrived last week while I was in Japan and my family wasted no time opening the box and playing with it.

Several weeks ago, I borrowed a tablet from work and so now I have two tablet computers. One is the Sony S1 and the other is a Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1. Both run the Android operating system and so it is interesting to have the two tablets side by side for comparison. You can get the same applications for both devices and so it is interesting to see just the differences in the hardware.

First, the Sony device is wedge-shaped, sort of like a thin 3-ring binder. At first I thought I would hate this ergonomic difference. The Samsung is more like the iPad and iPad2. While the Samsung is less bulky and easier to hold in my hand, I actually prefer the Sony. When I place the tablet on a desk or table, the slight tilt makes it much easier to read. It is also much easier to use with the on-screen keyboard. Point for Sony.

Second, there is a huge difference in speed. Using the two devices day after day, you notice that the Sony tablet is much faster than the Samsung. Even my kids notice the difference and have started to ask to play games on the Sony vs. the Samsung. Point 2 for Sony.

Third, the Samsung vibrates as a part of the user interface. When you type on the virtual keyboard, the device has a slight shudder that is very helpful in addition to the key-click sound both devices emit. I like this feature as I can turn off the sound and still have feedback when I am typing. Point for Samsung.

I really like both devices. It is also nice having two as one of the kids is always playing with one. It is not uncommon to go into my living room and see both tablets being used. Eventually I will have to give one of the tablets back and I am sure it will cause problems. Until then, I think you can't have too many tablet computers.

Stored-Value Cards

Today is my last one in Japan. I will be taking a plane back to Los Angeles and then continue back to Salt Lake. It has been a lot of fun here in Tokyo. My parting thought before heading back to the States is the ubiquity of stored-value cards here in the Far East.

I am always using my credit card to make purchases back home. It is easier than carrying cash and then I make sure to pay the full bill at the end of the month to avoid any extra charges. The problem with credit cards is that merchants need to be connected to bank card network. Otherwise there is no way to verify that the card is valid and the transaction is recorded correctly. With stored-value cards, there is an amount physically stored on the card. When a purchase is made, the price is subtracted from the card's balance and it doesn't require any communication with a central bank.

Stored-value cards are used all over Japan. When I arrived at the airport on Saturday evening, I picked up a card and have been using it for train travel around Tokyo. Then a few nights ago, I was in the mood for a little dessert. I stopped into a 7-Eleven and bought a Kit Kat. Rather than having to use cash, I just swiped my stored value card. I have to say it was very convenient.

There are problems with stored-value cards though. There are a number different card providers and not all of them are accepted everywhere. That means I can use my Suica card for trains and convenient stores. But to get lunch at the corporate cafeteria, I need an Edy card. There is also a Pasmo card, but I haven't bothered to pick one up.

Another problem is that if you lose your card, you can't get your money back. That is a huge incentive to keep a minimum amount of money on the card and not load it up with cash. Furthermore there are some unscrupulous individuals that are running around with card readers pulling cash off people's cards. All someone has to do is bump up against you with a card reader on the train and money is transferred from you to them.

It was interesting to see stored-value cards in action. I wouldn't want to replace my credit card with one, but they definitely are faster at the check-out counter. Especially when you need a Kit Kat before heading back to the hotel late at night.

Doing it Right

I am not staying at a particularly nice hotel in Japan, yet I am impressed with the features in my room. There are a bunch of tiny details that really make my stay comfortable. I don't think the Japanese woke up one day and said, "We are going to make the ultimate hotel room." Instead I imagine it was an iterative process where they asked themselves, "How do we make our hotel more comfortable than our competitors?" That is how Apple has had their success as well as Microsoft.

Nobody remembers versions 1 and 2 of Microsoft Windows. I do because I had one of the original copies of Windows 2. It was a horrible product that was a cross between DOS and the original Macintosh. Rather than having pretty icons, you had a listing of file names that you could click to access. Nobody bought it and so Microsoft realized they had to make it better. Then came Windows 3.0 and we saw that Microsoft learned their lesson. It would be nice if they continued to make things better instead of simply changing things.

Apple is similar. They released their first iPod and then continued to refine it as other competitors entered the market place. When Microsoft introduced their attempt at an MP3 player, Apple was already ahead of them and continued to distance themselves with a better product. When solid-state storage became affordable, Apple continued to offer the larger capacity disk-based iPods, but also introduced a line of smaller and sleeker ones as well.

Successful technology companies will always ask that important question, "How do we make our product more appealing than our customers?" and not simply, "How do we make money?" Now if I could just figure out how to get a heated toilet seat in my bathroom at home.

Google in Japan

Visiting a country where you don't speak the language can be a bit of a challenge sometimes. This is especially true in Japan where I don't even understand the characters. When I first got to my hotel here in Tokyo, I wanted to look up some of the sights near to where I am staying. Naturally I went to www.google.com. I was immediately redirected to www.google.co.jp. The user interface is so familiar that it didn't matter. I entered my search criteria and soon I was looking at a bunch of Japanese web sites. I didn't understand a single one and so I revised my search and added the word "English". That made all the difference.

Google owns a lot of web properties (such as this blog site) and so this instant localization occurs whenever I try to visit one of their sites. For instance, trying to log in to post today's blog, I had to figure out which one of the links was "Log in". Once I got in, the system is smart enough to know I prefer English over Japanese. Figuring out how to log in was the tough part.

When I first started working with a team based in Japan, I thought it would be enough to start learning a few basic words in Japanese. I figured that the written language would be too difficult to figure out and so I shouldn't even worry about it. The more I am in Japan, the more I realize that I may want to learn a few characters as well. I've only been here a couple of days, but I think I have "Search" and "Log in" pretty well figured out.

I Miss my iPhone

As I am in Japan, I have turned off my iPhone to avoid any surprise charges. It is kind of liberating not to have to carry a mobile phone with me all of the time. If anyone wants to get a hold of me, they have to send an e-mail or come and find me. However I am discovering that I am missing some of the other features of my iPhone.

I miss the map. I am in a strange new city. While I am pretty good at paying attention to where I am, it would be nice to have an interactive map, just in case I get lost. It would also make finding places to eat a lot easier. Right now, I pretty much walk around until I find something that looks good.

I miss my contact list. I have a new computer and have yet to transfer all of my contacts to it. That means if I want to send someone an e-mail, I have to have their address memorized or go through an involved process to get it. Generally I have decided not to send the e-mail and justify that it can wait until I get back home.

I miss my games. I don't play a lot of games on my iPhone, but yesterday I found myself with a few minutes to spare as I was resting on a couch. Usually I pull out my phone and play a game of Risk. Yesterday I just sat and watched a bunch of overworked Japanese engineers sleep or play with their own iPhones.

Yes, I also miss the phone. When I want to call my wife, I have to be at my computer and use Skype. If she is not on Skype, I have to send her a text message via e-mail and then she will contact me. It isn't a big deal, but there is something nice about being able to whip out your phone and call home any time you want.

Could I live without my iPhone? Sure. My quality of life isn't strongly effected by pocket technology. However, there are one or two things that go just a bit more smoothly because of it.

In Japan

This month starts a series of regular trips to Tokyo, Japan. I will probably be making the trip every couple of months. I have been to Japan before, but it has been at least fifteen years since I was last here. While I enjoyed my first trip to Japan, I was only here for two days. This time I get to spend an entire week and really get the chance to see the city.

There are several things that stand out relating to technology. First is the quality of the Internet service in the hotel. I have no problem using Skype to talk to my family back home. Yesterday we did a video conference for about 30 minutes and it didn't cost me a dime. While my iPhone has the ability to work all over the world, I have turned it off after hearing horror stories of people traveling internationally and getting phone bills worth about the same amount as a new compact car. Skype works great and so that is how I am communicating with my wife and kids.

The second thing that stands out is the quality of public transportation. I arrived into Haneda airport at 11pm on a Saturday evening. I got through customs, changed some money, and caught an express train to Shinagawa where I am staying. The train left exactly on time, was clean, and easy to figure out. This is a sharp contrast to the poor public transit system in the Bay Area. Last night I was with a group of coworkers and we missed our train by mere seconds. Not more than 5 minutes later, another train came along. In the Bay Area, we would have been stuck anywhere from 15 to 60 minutes waiting. Furthermore all the signs were in both Japanese and English, which made it easy to get around. The best part about the public transportation here is that it is affordable. It cost $5 to get from the airport to the hotel whereas the Bay Area would have cost over twice as much for the same distance.

Now that I am over my jet lag, I get to spend the next couple of days in the office. I will be interested to see what other technological differences I notice between here and back home. So far Japan has been fun and so I hope I am not disappointed.

I Hate Texting

I was the proverbial fly on the wall during a discussion this evening and it has caused me to consider my thoughts about texting. Before tonight I was firm in my hatred for the method of communication. You can chalk it up to all the bozos I see driving around, texting, and not paying attention to anyone else on the road. You can also chalk it up to an experience I had where my company was paying a consultant large sums of money only to have him spend all of his time texing and not doing any work for us.

Unfortunately I am old, compared to my kids, and I was informed that is how the current generation communicates. The question came up about what upper limit to the number of text messages should be set for a teenager. A father asked if 5,000 was the right number and a teen responded that it seemed high. So I asked the teen how many text messages he sent. "About a thousand," was his response. I was amazed. I only send and receive about 50 in any given month. But then look at the first sentence of this paragraph. Once again, I am old.

I guess I don't understand this new generation's infatuation with texting. I would much rather call someone and get an immediate answer to my question. Sure, I'll send a text if I am in the middle of something and need to get back to a person. However, if it takes more than two messages, it is time to pick up the phone. After all, isn't that why we all carry phones in the first place?

Video Game Content

I was riding in a car with one of my scouts when I heard him talk about a new video game coming out next week. He wants a copy. The boy is only 11 years old and wants game rated "M" for mature. Normally that wouldn't ruffle my feathers as I let my sons play first person shooter games and most of them are rated "M". Then I looked at the content found in the game.

It is one of those over-the-top titles just trying to be more outrageous than the current crop of outrageous games. While the adult in me can see the humor of some of the content, I'm not sure it is the best game for an 11 year old boy. The problem is that everyone in the boy's neighborhood is anxiously awaiting the release and so he has a lot of peer pressure to get a copy. I talked with the boy's mom and she wants to get it for him but doesn't know what is in it.

I was talking with some video game testers who are familiar with the title and they couldn't believe a little boy wanted such an adult game. It contains all the biggies including, but not limited to: strong language, violence, nudity, drug use, and sexual situations. For some, that is probably the selling point of the game. My recommendation for all parents of video game playing kids is to read the the fine print of the video game rating and discover what it contains. Then if you still have questions, go onto YouTube and download a trailer or two to see some of the content. Once you are informed, you can then let your child know if you plan to get the game. As for me, I think I will avoid the one my little Scout was interested in getting.

Table Computers

I am working on a project for tablet computers and so I picked one up from the office before heading out on Friday. After playing with it over the weekend, I have to say that they are a lot more useful than I originally would have given them credit. Furthermore, my 15-year-old son and 17-year-old daughter have been using it non-stop. I was glad when they finally went to school today so I can have a chance to use it.

Tablets generally come in one of 3 flavors: iPad, Android, or WebOS. The tablet I have is of the Android variety and is comparable to the iPad in size. Given my preference, I would like to try an iPad as I am an avid iPhone user. However my tablet was free and so I'm not complaining. Once I got it connected to my home network, I let my son use it and he made sure to load it up with all sorts of games and utilities. A word of caution: the same household rules that apply to the family computer should also apply to tablet computers.

While I like using my iPhone to do quick lookups on the Internet, the tablet is a much better platform. The screen is larger and easier to read. When I have to use the on-screen keyboard, it has larger buttons and I can almost touch type like when I am on a full-sized computer keyboard. My son also loaded up some of the books I am in the middle of going through. The tablet makes a great platform for reading, especially at night when I don't want to disturb my wife.

Now the real question: Does it increase my productivity? I would have to say No. While it is easier to do certain things, it is also easier to play games like Angry Birds. Last night when I should have been getting ready for the week, I was having an Angry Birds match with my son. Oh well. I just hope my company knows I am not giving my tablet back. It is way too fun to play with.

Time For a New Computer

It is time to replace one of my computers again. My company has finally given me a new laptop and it is a welcome change. My old laptop was between 5 and 6 years old. While it worked well for my needs, I am really enjoying my new MacBook Pro. The only problem is that now I need to install a bunch of my old software. Considering my old laptop ran Windows and my new one runs Mac OS X, this could be a problem.

My old laptop was plenty fast for what I used it for, which was mostly reading e-mail and logging into bigger computers. It's only flaw was that the battery life made it virtually unusable unless it was plugged into the wall. The nice thing about Mac laptops is their incredible battery life. I am looking forward to that on the flight home this evening. I might actually be able to get work done instead of just reading my magazine.

The GEEX Show

Saturday I spent some time at the gaming and electronics expo or GEEX show in Salt Lake. While there were a few exhibitors, the real meat of the show was in one of three areas: The LAN party, the 24-hour contest, or the center stage.

The LAN party was an excuse for all the nerds in Utah to bring their tricked-out computers someplace where other like-minded individuals could appreciate them. It was like a custom car show only instead of cars, it was computers. In order to show the real power of the machines, everyone was playing games. It was fun to see, but not really why I was there.

The center stage was where you could see the StarCraft tournament on one side and listen to video game professionals on the other. I stopped to listen to the Electronic Arts guys talk about their development process for creating the SIMS game. It was interesting, but I didn't really learn anything new.

My main reason for being there was to see what came out of the 24-hour contest. The organizers had everyone write down game ideas on little slips of paper that were tossed into a hat. Three slips of paper were then drawn and the contestants had 24 hours to incorporate 2 of the 3 items into a game built from scratch. This year the themes were: 8-bit, jewel, and disease. At the end of the 24-hour period, there were some pretty good games created. They started as simple as a text-based game and became as complex as something that could be published. I was impressed with what every team did in such a short amount of time.

GEEX was a fun event and I will definitely attend again next year. Now I just need to decide if I am going to enter the 24-hour contest.

My Presentation

I gave a presentation at PgWest on Wednesday this week. I wasn't going to attend the conference but one of the organizers called me and asked me to submit a paper. So I submitted the same one I gave at last year's conference. The talk went fairly well and I was able to do something I had never done before: ignore my slide set.

Before going to the conference, I told my wife that I didn't want to give the same presentation from the previous year but didn't really have time to revamp anything. I told her I wanted to poll the audience and find out why they were at my presentation. So that is what I did. Some people were there to find out more about the subject I was speaking about while others had specific questions.

Knowing what people were interested in finding out helped me tailor my presentation. It also got the audience involved and they were more eager to ask questions. About half-way through the talk, I abandoned my slide presentation and just showed examples on the computer. I think everyone appreciated something a bit different.

Paper Airline Tickets

This weekend I had to stay in the Bay Area for a mock earthquake drill. As luck would have it, there was an actual earthquake, albeit only a 3.2 magnitude rumble. As I didn't go back to Utah for the weekend, I decided to fly my wife to San Francisco and have her join me. It turned out to be a very fun weekend and we both enjoyed it a lot.

As with all airlines, my wife checked into her flight 24 hours before its scheduled departure. She then printed up her own ticket that she brought to the airport. For the return trip, we visited my office and repeated the process. The airline never had to print anything for my wife's flight. I have to ask myself how much the airline saves in paper and printing costs. I imagine it is significant.

Then there are applications for smart phones from most of the major airlines that don't require you to use any paper at all for your ticket. Simply bring up the app, show the special bar code at security, and then again before you board the plane.

20 years ago everyone was talking about how computers would reduce the amount of paper in the world. Unfortunately everyone was so accustomed to printing things that we saw a spike in the amount of paper used worldwide. Maybe now we should see that statistic drop. Unfortunately a quick search on the Internet doesn't provide any clue as to it that is happening or not. At least we know it is with regards to airline tickets.

Keeping Time

This week has been spent rebuilding and configuring servers in our research and development private cloud at work. Some time ago, our company's IT department decided to remove a machine that the rest of us use to keep all of our computers' clocks synchronized. One of my favorite sayings is: "A man with one watch knows what time it is, a man with two isn't quite sure." This is also true for computers and so when servers in a private cloud can't decide on the time, it wreaks havoc. In our case, it brought the cloud down and all of the machines with it.

In reality, not everything in the cloud came to a halt. The servers were still out there running just fine, we just lost all network connectivity to them and so it was impossible to log into them. The only solution was to stop the servers and restart them. If they were actual machines, a power cycle (or turning them off and on) would do the trick. As they are part of a cloud system, it requires that I reconfigure them once they come back up. All of the data in the database machines was preserved and so we didn't lose anything important. Furthermore I have simple scripts or small programs to reconfigure the servers, so rebuilding everything didn't require much thought, just time.

When I found out that our private cloud had crashed because of clocks not being in sync, I was pretty upset. I wondered how a few seconds difference could have such a negative effect. I guess it underscores the importance of keeping the correct time.

Downloading YouTube Videos

Last week my son asked if I could come and speak in his careers class. I wanted to include some videos and so I scoured the Internet looking for MPEGs that I could embed into a PowerPoint presentation. With the ubiquity of Flash and YouTube, there don't seem to be MPEG videos on the Internet any more. At least not the types of videos I was looking for.

Eventually I got tired of searching as I knew exactly where to get them: on YouTube. So I changed my search criteria to find out how to download them from YouTube.

Unfortunately you can't believe everything you read on the Internet. There were a lot of false starts that were just plain wrong. Eventually I was able to discover an "Add On" for Mozilla that allows you to save the Flash video file (with the .FLV extension). Once I had that downloaded, I discovered that PowerPoint doesn't understand them. I needed to convert the FLV file into an MPEG. I used the ffmpeg utility on Linux, but even that wasn't straight forward. I had to calculate bit rates and figure out the screen size. Luckily screen sizes are fairly standard and Adobe has a bit rate calculator. Once I figured that all out, I created the MPEGs from the FLVs and embedded them in my presentation.

This morning I delivered my presentation and it went very well. It took a lot longer to create my presentation than anticipated, but the kids loved the videos.

Smart Stoplights

There are three stoplights on my way to and from work each day. Considering I mostly use a bike path and and am only on the road for less than two miles, that seems to be a bit much. All of the lights are considered "smart lights" in that they have sensors in the pavement to detect when a car is present. Only one of the three can be triggered by a bicycle and so I have to hit the pedestrian button on the other two.

For some reason, a lot of people think that smart lights are triggered by the weight of the car. That isn't true. Instead there is a metal detector built into street. When you car passes over the detector (basically a piece of wire wound around a toilet paper tube), a signal is sent to the smart light's computer. In California, the system actually works and lights change accordingly. In Utah, they have some sort of algorithm that was written by some idiot that never got full credit for homework assignments in college. There is a bit of a delay that can be as long as a minute. This is meant to keep traffic flowing in high-congestion area. Unfortunately it seems like a huge waste of my time at 11:30 at night when I am coming home from the airport.

I would like to propose a new for of smart light. Instead of using a metal detector embedded in the street, why don't we use the camera mounted on top of the stoplight? After all, we have facial recognition software that does a pretty good job. Shouldn't we also be able to create automobile and bicycle recognition software? One of the problems with the metal detector method is that you have to be right over the sensor. Using a camera, you could see the cars approaching and determine that you want to keep traffic flowing as opposed to instantly switching lights. In the case where there are no cars coming because it is 11:30 at night, light changes would be much quicker.

Hopefully someone is thinking about this. After all, most stoplights already have cameras on them to monitor traffic flow and accidents. I'll bet we can even improve everyone's gas mileage as we will spend less time idling and more time at speed. Most importantly, I won't have to get off my bike to hit the pedestrian button to cross the street.

School Starts Again

It seems as if school starts earlier each year. Yesterday my kids went back to school. When I was younger, I remember starting the day after Labor day. I remember the school year shifting so that it started the week before Labor day as my own kids became of age. Now they are starting two weeks before.

Last night we headed down to the store to buy new school supplies. We keep a fairly well stocked stationary cabinet in my home office and so there wasn't much we needed. A few spiral-bound notebooks, highlighters, colored pencils and we were set.

It is also time to make sure the computers are set up and ready for the year. I need to update the operating system on the family computer as it is a few releases behind where it should be. I also need to make sure we have enough paper and toner for the two printers (one is color, the other black and white). It will probably be a few weeks before the first papers are due, but it is important to get these things taken care of before you are up into the wee hours of the morning helping your kid get that term paper printed. Running out of printer supplies at 1:00 am can lead to kids learning a whole new vocabulary.

Language Translation

A friend of mine asked me to help him translate some training material from English to French. Having lived in France and Belgium for several years, I speak French fluently. Unfortunately that is not the same as being able to write fluently. I would guess I have the spelling ability of about a 3rd grader. Luckily computers are really good at spelling and so I agreed to help my friend.

While I could have loaded up the French dictionary in my word processor, I instead opted to use an online translation program called BabelFish. It has been around since 1999 but I first came across it in 2003 when it was taken over by AltaVista, one of the original Internet search engines. Yahoo now hosts the site.

BabelFish is a reference to a fictitious animal in Douglas Adams' book, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. By putting this fish in your year, it can instantly translate any language into the one you understand. The website works similarly. Just type in your text in English, select the language you want the translation, and click the translate button. Presto, your text is instantly translated in another window. Most of the time, it is pretty close. Sometimes it doesn't get the correct meaning of a particular word, but that is an easy fix if you understand the language. BabelFish was a huge help to my friend's project. Too bad it wasn't completely automatic. If it was, I could copy and paste the text of the training material into the website and be done with it. Oh well, maybe in the next version.

My Old Boat

I got an e-mail today from an old friend. He is a yacht broker and helped me buy and sell my old boat. They say that the two happiest days of a boat owner are the day he buys a boat and the day he sells it. In my case, I was very sad to have to sell my beloved sailboat. The problem was that I couldn't justify owning it when I no longer worked in San Francisco at the time. The purpose of my buddy's e-mail was letting me know my boat is for sale again.

Looking at the photographs on the Internet brought back a flood of old memories. Most of them were good. I remember sailing her up the coast from Dana Point to San Francisco. We went through the mother of all storms and had to pull into Monterey to make repairs. I remembered how the family used to spend time on the boat and we called it "Camp Sail and Swim" because we would go out sailing or swim off the back of the boat in the marina.

Everyone I have shown the pictures to has asked if I want to buy the boat back. While there is a part of me that loves the idea, there is also a reason I chose a smaller one when I bought my latest boat. It sure was fun to see the old pictures though.

Internet Rumors and Lies

Yesterday I had a full day of work and didn't have much time to do anything else. In fact, I didn't get back to my boat until 8pm and then I had a bunch of boat chores before heading to bed. So I was a little annoyed that I had to respond to an e-mail from my mother-in-law where she continued to propagate Internet rumors and lies.

My mother-in-law is one of those people that receives an e-mail with a funny story or cute picture and broadcasts it to everyone in her electronic address book. Mostly I just skim over her messages and get on with my day. However sometimes she will forward stuff that is just wrong. Once she forwarded a message saying not to open any e-mails with a particular heading. Doing so would wipe out my hard drive and destroy my computer. I had to explain to her that what she suggested was impossible, especially since I read e-mail on a Linux computer. However even Windows users were safe as the recipient would have to run an attachment sent with the e-mail to cause damage. Merely looking at an e-mail would have no effect.

Yesterday's e-mail was supposedly a reprint of an article from the Wall Street Journal about what an incompetent moron our current president is. While many in the country may agree with that idea, it is not something you are going to openly read about in the Wall Street Journal. So I did a bit of searching on the Internet. Thirty seconds later I discovered that the article was not written by the alleged author and it only appeared in an online forum of the Wall Street Journal's readers' comments. In other words, in a place where anyone could have posted the message. That doesn't exactly make it a newsworthy story. If the author and place of publication are both lies, how much stock can one put in the content of the article? My guess is that any fact quoted is also a lie and shouldn't be trusted. Yet people do.

As you are reading e-mail from friends and family, please be careful about what you believe. Not everything you read on the Internet is true. If it were, there about a hundred Nigerians I need to get back to about helping them transfer money into my bank account.

Writing a Video Game

I currently work for a video game company but don't really do anything to create them. Recently I decided that if I work for such a company, I might want to write a simple game. While some organizations might discourage this, my company encourages it. Furthermore, if the game is any good, they will publish it and let me keep the majority of the proceeds. There are some limitations in that while I can use company equipment and time, I need to make sure I complete the rest of my work first. After all they hired me to look after very important database systems and not to write games.

Normally I head back to Utah on Friday nights. This weekend I am staying in the San Francisco area instead. I have completed my CERT training and needed to spend this morning going through a skills test. It was fun being able to put out a real fire using a fire extinguisher as opposed to just talking about it. There were lots of other things I got to do, but I was done a little after lunch. So what do I do with the rest of my weekend? I figured I would start writing my game.

There is a hard way to write a video game where you create everything from scratch. Then there is an easy way where you use a video game editor like Unity to help you create the game. I like the easy way and so I downloaded Unity and am playing with it today. I don't expect to create a game in a single weekend but I do hope I will have a good idea as to how long it will take. Now I just need a simple idea for a game.

Effective E-mail

This morning I got an e-mail that was forwarded from my mom. The message was announcing dates for a family reunion on her side of the family. There was no other information provided, only the dates and that information about hotels would be provided at a later date. The first question I asked myself was, "Where is the family reunion?"

I fired off an e-mail back to my mom asking for the location and she reminded me that it would be in Santa Cruz, California. E-mail is great in that it is almost instant and very close to free (as in no cost to use). The problem is that it also makes us lazy. When you had to send invitations to family reunions using the postal service, you made sure that you answered all of the "W" questions: Who, What, Why, Where, When. With e-mail, you can quickly fire off an invitation and if you forget something, send out a correction. Text messages are worse, but that is a subject for another day.

Taking the time to reread an e-mail and making sure it has all of the important information will help your recipients greatly. If the original sender of the e-mail had simply gone through the "W" questions before sending the message, I would not have had to take extra time to get clarification. After all, my wife's family is also planning a family reunion and I am having a difficult time coming up with ways of avoiding the both of them.

Saving Electricity

I used to leave my computer on all the time. One nice thing about Linux is that it doesn't require the nightly reboot like Windows used to (and maybe still does). The only problem with never turning off my computer was how much electricity it used. I never really quantified the numbers until recently. I was amazed at what I found.

Since I work out of town during the week and am only home on weekends (except for that one week a month that I get to work from home), I started turning off my computer on Sunday nights and didn't turn it back on until Saturday morning. The next time I got my electrical bill, it was $5 less than the previous month. Now there are a lot of things that can influence electricity usage and so I waited with anticipation for the next bill to arrive. This time it was $20 lower. Then summer hit and my electrical bill goes though the roof because of my air conditioner. However, I noticed that my electrical usage was lower for the same time over the previous year.

So how much money am I really saving by leaving my computer off during the week? Looking at my current electrical bill, I see that I am paying between 8 and 11 cents per kilowatt hour. I know that my computer sitting idle draws about 2 amps at 120 volts. Multiplying those two numbers together will give you 240 watts. So running my computer for about 4 hours is equal to 1 kilowatt hour of electricity. Doing some more arithmetic shows that my computer is off for a total of 5 days or 120 hours. Multiplying 240 watts by 120 hours equates to 28.8 kilowatt hours of electricity. If I use an average cost of 9 cents per kilowatt hour, I see that I am saving myself $2.59 per week. This works out to about $10.36 every month.

So the savings are not as huge as I originally thought. How come my bill seems so much lower? There must be other factors such as a general concern for the environment. At about the same time I started turning off my computer, I may have started working harder to turn off lights that were not in use. Looking at the electrical bill for months that I use the air conditioner, I have noticed that even though the average daily temperature is the same this year over last, I have gone from 68 kilowatt hours per day down to 43. That is huge! Not only is my computer a work device, it is also a space heater. Sometimes being "green" is a great way to save a little "green."

Virtual Private Networks

Recently I worked a deal with my current employer that allows me to work from my home in Utah one week a month. While my home is in the Salt Lake area, my office is in the San Francisco area and requires that I travel every Monday and Friday. This is the week I am home and I have to say it is a welcome change.

Computers greatly facilitate working from home. Since I spend most of my time in front of a screen in the office, it only stands to reason that I could just as easily spend that time at home in front of a similar screen. The only thing missing is the interaction with my co-workers. Fortunately for this week, that is a bonus as I have some software development to do and really don't want to be bothered by anyone.

Security is a key part of my job and so one of the technologies that allows me to work from home is a virtual private network or VPN. When I first start my computer in the morning, I have to run a simple program that asks for 3 different passwords. One is the usual password I use to log into the network when I am in the office. The other two are groups of numbers. The first number is a personal identification number that I have memorized and the second comes from a small electronic device I keep on my key chain. It generates a predictable-random number every 30 seconds. Once everything is entered, I click the connect button and my computer looks like it is part of my work network. My connection is only good for 8 hours. At the end of that time period, I get automatically logged off.

I like being able to work from home one week a month. It gives me more time to do those things that are normally done in the evening, like playing catch with my son, or replacing the fog light bulbs in my car. However there is a weak link with my VPN configuration, if I ever forget any of my passwords or lose my key chain FOB, I won't be able to work. OK, I don't really worry about my passwords, but I do worry about that little FOB. So far it seems fairly indestructible as I have accidentally taken it swimming and discovered it is waterproof. For the record, it wasn't an accident that the FOB was in my pocket, it was an accident that I went swimming wearing my street clothes. Sometimes that happens when you live part time on a boat.

Disneyland

For the past two years I have managed to miss my youngest daughter's birthday. This year I needed to do something special and make it up to her. Instead of having a party or getting her a big gift, my wife and I took her to Disneyland for two days. There were no siblings, just her. I was surprised that a 17-year old would want to spend her birthday with her parents, it involved one of her favorite places and so I was happy to oblige.

I have to confess that it has been a decade since I have been to Disneyland. In 2005, I took the family to DisneyWorld in Florida for a week. It was fun, but the kids actually preferred Arches National Park two months later. After being gone for so long, it was a fun return. My daughter reverted to a pleasant 5-year old that loved Daddy, yet was old enough not to complain nor have to use the restroom every 5 minutes.

What does Disneyland have to do with computers? Well a lot has changed in the past 10 years. When it came time to get tickets, there was the usual Internet searching for the best deal. We determined that we wanted Park Hopper tickets so we could visit both Disneyland and California Adventure on the same day. The best deal for two days turned out to be at SweetVacations.org. You can pick up a 2-day park hopper ticket for $125. That is almost $75 off the price from Disney's ticket office. Basically you register on their website and they send you a confirmation e-mail. Bring the confirmation e-mail on the first day of your visit with cash to pick up the tickets. They don't take credit cards, but at those savings, it shouldn't be a problem. Our tickets worked great both days we were there. When we were done, we just returned the tickets back to the office where we got them.

The next change that I saw at Disneyland was with all of the smart phone apps. If you have an iPhone, go to the app store and do a search on Disneyland. You will get a number of free and paid apps that provide real-time information about lines in the park. Suppose you have just finished at Pirates of the Caribbean and don't want to wait too long for your next ride. Simply pull out your app and it will show you wait times for the Haunted Mansion or the Indian Jones ride. Of course these things only work if you are also willing to post your own wait times as you stand in line. However, that is a small price to pay for maximizing your ride times.

Disneyland claims to be the "Happiest place on earth." When you have little ones crying in line, it is tough to believe, especially when you are paying $100 per day to be there. Now that I have experienced Disneyland with an older child, never having to wait in lines, and having spent close to half of regular costs, I find it much happier.

Internet Music

Lately I have been listening to a lot of music on the Internet. It makes me wonder how much longer traditional radio stations will be around. While I doubt they will all disappear completely, I do believe we will see a number of them cease to exist. After all, how many "Top 40" radio stations do we need in one broadcast area?

I started going to the Internet for music because I was tired of listening to the same songs over and over on the radio. The first place I went went was Pandora which is like an Internet radio station. You can listen for a number of hours each month for free as long as you are willing to also listen to advertisements. One nice thing about Pandora is that you can specify what types of music you hear. If you don't like a song, simply click on the thumbs-down icon and you will never hear it again.

Pandora is great when you want to hear different music than you might already have on your iPod or in your MP3 collection. Many regular broadcast radio stations also have an Internet presence and allow you to listen to their content even though you are half-way around the world. However, what about those times when you want to hear a specific song? For that, my preference is YouTube. If you bring up another browser tab, you don't even have to watch the music video (some of which are really awful).

YouTube has been a lot of fun lately. There were some songs that I remember hearing on the radio when I was a young kid and I have been able to listen to them again. I was really young when the Bay City Rollers released "Saturday Night" but I remember that it was very popular. I also remember C. W. McCall's "Convoy." I can't help but laugh when I go back to listen to some of those old songs. Some are still good while I can't understand what I found appealing in others. However, it is fun to take a walk down memory lane every once and a while.

Tablet Computers

When I first graduated from College 20 years ago, several computer manufactures announced tablet computers. None of them sold very well and it seems the idea was shelved. Then Apple announced the iPad. It was a huge success and now it seems everyone has a tablet computer, including the company where I now work.

Last night I found myself coming up with reasons to purchase a tablet computer. I have to travel once a week and would love to use one on the plane. The problem is that while I can rationalize all of the cool projects that I can do, the tablet would really just get used for games or watching movies. So that has me wondering if I should just get a portable game unit. I already have a Sony PSP and it doesn't get used much any more.

No, the appeal of a tablet is that it can be used for more than just game playing. That is why the iPhone and other smart phones have been so successful. You always carry your phone with you and to have it do more than one thing. On vacation with your family but left your camera at the hotel? Use your phone's to take a picture. On a long flight and are tired of reading your book? Watch a movie on the small screen or play a game. Maybe instead of getting a tablet, I should just get a newer phone.

Road Trip

I have decided that I no longer need a car in California. At least not for the summer. My boat, where I sleep is only 4 miles from the office and I need to ride my bike daily as I am getting too fat. I don't really go anywhere else and so cycling is a perfectly acceptable form of transportation.

Yesterday I used a frequent-flyer ticket and flew my 17-year-old daughter from Salt Lake to San Francisco to help me bring my car home. It was her first time flying alone and she was a bit apprehensive. When my wife dropped her at the airport, my daughter's fear was gone and she jumped out of the car at the curb-side-drop-off area. She then got to visit both Los Angeles and San Francisco airports.

I picked my daughter up at SFO and we headed the short distance back to my office where I finished up a few things before our long drive home. The last thing I did was a quick search of traffic using traffic.com to help me determine the best route out of the Bay Area. I'm glad I did because the San Mateo bridge was a parking lot. Using the Bay Bridge instead saved me lots of time.

As we head into this summer driving season and you find yourself starting from a major metropolitan area, take a look at traffic.com. You may find that the shortest route from home, isn't the quickest. It sure saved me a lot of grief.

Relearning C

The first computer language I learned was BASIC and I was in the 8th grade. It was fun to get the computer to do various things but I really enjoyed my next class which taught me Pascal. When I got to college, I learned a few more computer programing languages including C. I would have to say that C remains as my favorite language for a number of reasons.

Recently I started a new personal project and have chosen to do it in C. I thought about using something a little more modern like Python or Perl but need something that compiles to an incredibly fast program. The tradeoff is that I will have to spend more time writing code. It also means I will have to relearn many of the things I have forgotten about C.

C is one of those languages that has a lot of flexibility but also has a lot of pitfalls. Today I was working with pointers and made a minor mistake on the syntax. Because pointers are so flexible, the syntax was correct, I just wasn't getting the results I was expecting. I used an Internet search engine to look up various examples with no success. It turns out, I needed to include some parenthesis around one small section of code. I came up with the solution after thinking about the results I was getting for a while. Then things started working correctly.

Some might be discouraged by such an experience, but not me. I just realized that I need to do some relearning and that is one of the reasons I started this project. It is my understanding that colleges and universities have moved towards teaching Java instead of C and I think that is a mistake. If it was up to me, everyone would learn C as their first computer programming language. There is something about having to work hard to get your program running. It has a bit of a learning curve, but allows you to write complex programs that run really fast.

I Hate Foo Bar

The other day I was reading through a computer coding example and was confused by the words "foo" and "bar." I'm not sure how those two words crept into our vocabulary, but they are fairly ubiquitous and I don't like them. I know they are two words that don't really mean anything and are meant to be placeholders for other information, but I wish authors would stop using them.

If I was to write an example SQL query and wanted to use foo bar, it would look like this:

SELECT foo
FROM bar
WHERE gobblygook = 'more gobblygook';

While it is an example that shows the proper syntax of a SQL query, it is not nearly as easy to understand as the following:

SELECT employee_names
FROM employee_table
WHERE salary > 100000;

I don't have to translate that "foo" could also be something concrete like an employee name or that "bar" represents a table of employees. Simply by using examples that everyone can understand greatly improves readability and makes things much easier to understand.

In this age where everyone can be a published author (like with this blog) and you find yourself creating examples. Don't use "foo" or "bar." Instead, use real words that everyone will understand, even if they are just supposed to be placeholder words. Oh, and don't use "gobblygook" either.

Internet Learning

Yesterday I was riding home from the office when I got a flat tire on my bicycle. I have changed countless flat tires, but last night was one of the worst.

Wednesday is the day of our weekly office ride. We do an 11-mile loop around Foster City. To make it harder for myself, I do it on a mountain bike. Otherwise it would be too easy. After last night's ride, I did a bit of work at the office and then started the ride home. I had a wonderful meal planned as soon as I got back to the boat because I was very hungry. I was so hungry, I thought about raiding the vending machine before I left the office. Once I got the flat tire, I regretted not spending a few quarters.

One thing about fixing a flat tire is that you want to have a nice place to sit down. I walked a ways and found a park bench in the shade. Once I was comfortable, it didn't take long to patch the tire. I was amazed at how quickly my tire-changing experience returned even though I haven't had to patch a tire in over a year.

On my ride into the office this morning, I was glad to see that my patch was good and the tire was still holding air. I also thought about how there is no substitute for practicing what you learn. The Internet is a wonderful tool that provides all sorts of teaching tools. You can learn how to adjust the gear-shifting mechanism on your bike or how to repair a flat tire. Just remember to practice what you learn.

Where Am I?

It is nice to finally have summer here in the Bay Area. I rode my bike to work yesterday and then again today. With the high prices of gasoline, the bike is a huge money saver.

I was about a mile into my journey this morning when I came across a guy sitting on the ground with his really nice racing bike next to him. As I passed, I noticed there was a lot of blood on the pavement. It didn't take too long for my brain to register that the guy had been in an accident and probably needed some help. I stopped and turned around. When I rode up to the guy, I noticed that he had a huge gash in his chin and was on his cell phone trying to get one of his buddies to come pick him up.

The accident victim seemed glad that I came back to help and had me talk to his friend. While I knew where I was, I didn't know the names of any of the cross streets in the area. I pulled out my iPhone and pressed the "Where Am I" button in the map application. Then I zoomed in to read off the nearest cross streets. As we were on a bicycle path, we had to walk down a small path to get to the nearest road. We waited a couple of minutes for the friend to arrive.

Lately I have thinking that I don't need all of the features of the iPhone and could probably get by with something much simpler. However, today I was glad I had it and the simple "Where Am I" feature came in really handy.

Nutrition Facts

It is important to teach your children how to budget money. I have a college-age daughter and a college-age son that have different ideas of what that means. They are polar opposites. My son can save money, while my daughter can't. In an effort to help my daughter, I have tried to lead by example. She has $40 that she can spend each week on food. As I am in California during the week, I thought I could show her how easy it is to do.

I leave my house in Utah on Monday mornings at O-Dark-Thirty and catch a plane to the Bay Area. When I arrive, I hit the ATM and get $40 for cash. I use that cash during the week to buy food as well as transportation to and from the airport. Generally I go shopping on Monday night and try to cook all my own meals. Sometimes that works well and other times am running from work to another activity and have to resort to a meal-on-the-go.

I really do try to eat healthy, but sometimes I find myself at the McDonalds drive-thru ordering a couple McDoubles (two patties of beef with two slices of cheese on a hamburger bun). At a buck each, it is a very economical meal. Especially if you leave out the fries and soda. When I get tired of cheap hamburgers, there is always Taco Bell with their 89 cent tacos among a plethora of other fast-food choices. This begs the question of how healthy fast food really is. Here is a list of restaurants with links to their nutritional data:

Arby's
Burger King
Carls Jr.
Dairy Queen
Five Guys Burgers & Fries
Hardees
In-N-Out Burger
Jack in the Box
Little Caesars Pizza
McDonalds
Pizza Hut
Subway
Taco Bell
Togo's
Wendy's
White Castle

After compiling this list, I can see why obesity is such a problem in the United States. Even if you are eating "healthy" sandwiches at Subway, you have to leave off the mayonnaise and cheese and who does that? Nutritionally bankrupt food is really cheap and costs less than healthy food. No wonder we are so fat as a country.

Staying Current

It is important to stay current with the technologies you use on a daily basis. This is especially true of the ones you use at work. As I am a database guy that works mostly in PostgreSQL, I make sure that the PostgreSQL website is always present in one of my browser tabs. I also make sure to read all of the entries from Planet PostgreSQL.

Normally I can just skim over the postings. Today was different. There was a great story from Josh Berkus about racing to create a database with a billion tables. While that would be a database administrator's nightmare, it was interesting to see the results. Josh didn't succeed in getting to a billion tables as the machine crashed before then due to operating system limitations. It did make it to the 4 million table mark. I would be interested to see how many tables could be created on a system with fewer limits, but would have to slash my wrists if I ever got put in charge of a database with over a million tables.

The second interesting posting of the day was from Robert Haas at EnterpriseDB. While I used to work at EDB, Robert came after I left and so I don't know him other than from his blog. He talked about some of the performance optimizations the PostgreSQL developers are thinking of adding to version 9.2. I have to say I am impressed if they actually are able to make them work. Some of the projects for which I am responsible, require extreme database speed. Anything the developers can do to make it faster, make me happy.

Not everyone is a big fan of databases and so I don't suggest that you immediately go out and read up on PostgreSQL. However I can recommend that you find quality websites relating to the technology you use at your job and read them daily. It doesn't take much time and will help you keep on top of any new features that you might just need.

Solving Two Problems at Once

I had two goals when I started my work day: Upgrade a commercial software product and create a very complicated report. I will be able to get both done, but it has not been easy.

I started working on the software update first. It didn't take long to run into a problem and I knew I would. We have a complicated environment at work and one of the pieces of software we use didn't take this into account. That means we have to make some minor tweaks and modifications with the help of the product's technical support department. I got as far as I could and then put a call into support.

Since I was in a waiting pattern, I started collecting data for my complicated report. It would be nice if I could write a bunch of code and let the report run on its own. Unfortunately I have to gather the data for each month of a 3-year period by hand. Each month requires an increasing amount of computer time to run. While the first month only took 2 minutes, the last month is taking closer to 20.

At about the 6th month mark, I got a call back from technical support and we worked for a while installing the latest version of their product. Naturally there were times where the technical support engineer and I were waiting on the computer and so I would go back to my report and get data for another month or two. Eventually we got everything working. The only problem was that the upgrade required me to go back and set up all our user information again. At least I was able to hang up the phone and do that on my own while I continued working on my report.

When I started the day, the software update was my main focus. When I was waiting, I switched my focus to the complex report. Once I could continue with the update, I changed focus again. This cycle repeated itself throughout the day until the update was completed. Now I am working solely on the report. When you think about your computer doing multiple things at the same time, that is exactly the process it uses to switch between tasks. Now if I could only find something else to do while I wait for these final months of the report to complete, I'll be a happy camper.

Computer at the Dentist

Last week I broke a crown. I hate to admit that one of my teeth is covered in a porcelain shell, but it is true. I guess all that candy I ate as a child eventually caught up to me.

I immediately called a friend that is a dentist as I was out of town and needed to know if I had to take care of it soon or if it could wait until I saw my regular dentist in Utah. As the exposed tooth wasn't that sensitive, I was fine. Yesterday I met with my dentist and the crown replacement was a modern miracle.

In the past, crowns were a two-visit process. First they put in a temporary crown and you had to be careful how you ate for three weeks while the permanent crown was being fabricated from an impression they took of the original tooth. When the new crown came in, it was back to the dentist for another day of drooling because of a numb mouth.

This time, the dentist removed my busted up old crown and then took a picture of the remaining tooth. He used a 3-D computer program to design a new crown to fit over the tooth. There was a bit of shaping to make sure it fit between the adjacent teeth. Once the tooth was designed, he electronically sent the specifications to the lab (conveniently located in his basement). The lab machined a new crown out of a block of porcelain and it was ready 10 minutes later. I then had the new crown gently placed in my mouth to make sure it was a perfect fit. There was a bit of fine tuning the dentist was able to do with his drill and then it was sent back to the lab for polishing. 20 minutes later, the new crown was cemented in my mouth and I was good to go.

The whole process took a total of about 2 hours. Most of that time, the dentist was working with other patients. It killed part of my morning but was well worth the wait. I don't have to go back and that has me singing praises. After all, who likes to visit the dentist?

The Last Lecture

Last night I was feeling a little frustrated with the computer and so I decided to search for “Funniest YouTube Videos”. I find that watching funny videos is a great way to get myself laughing and feeling good. There were the usual videos that appeared and then I stumbled upon Time Magazine’s list of YouTube’s 50 Best Videos. Naturally there was some duplication of things I had seen earlier, but it was a long list and so I started going through them.

One video that stood out on the list was “Randy Pausch’s Last Lecture.” I had read about how this university professor had been diagnosed with cancer and was shortly going to die. Until now, I have resisted watching the video because I didn’t want to be reminded of my own mortality and mistakenly thought that would be very apparent. Boy was I wrong. The title of the lecture is something along the lines of how to accomplish your childhood dreams. Randy does a great job of outlining his own childhood dreams and then how he went about making them reality. He then talks about the satisfaction of helping others achieve their childhood dreams.

I would have to say that it was a great lecture. While I only watched part of the other videos on Time Magazine’s list, I watched all one hour and sixteen minutes of Randy’s. While I have managed to live out some of my own childhood dreams I definitely learned a lot. I even forwarded the link to my own nineteen-year-old son who is preparing to move to Romania for the next two years. Hopefully he appreciates the sage advice.