Apple Going Downhill

Today I needed to update the operating system on my wife's Apple MacBook computer. The last time I needed to update the OS for another computer, I just bought a copy of Snow Leopard from the local store and loaded it onto the computer my kids use. It was a busy day being New Year's Eve, but my wife really wanted to get her computer fixed. So we braved the local Apple store on a holiday only to discover they don't carry it in the stores any more. The salesperson told me to order it online and they would send it to me. That wasn't going to help me today.

This is just one example of Apple not continuing to think about its customers. Another example is the iPhone 5. While some people love the phone, there are a number of unlucky customers that got a substandard product that doesn't work very well. My brother-in-law was one such user and is now trying to figure out how to unload his iPhone 5 for something that is usable. This has me holding onto my old iPhone a bit longer as I try to figure out what to replace it with. If only Google would polish the Android operating system so that it was at least close to the level of iOS.

Steve Jobs understood the importance of the customer and now it seems as if the new CEO is letting Apple start the downhill slide that eventually happens to all companies at the top of their industry. Sure that slide can be stopped, but Apple should wake up now before it is too late. As for me, I am starting to look at other options.

Sports Video Games

I think we all have our favorite types of video games and a lot of that depends on environment. I used to play a lot of arcade-style games when I was young but then didn't get back into games until I had kids of my own. One Christmas I got the family a Nintendo 64 and we spent all of our Christmas break playing Diddy Kong Racing. After that, my preference was racing games.

Eventually we all got tired of playing with the Nintendo 64 and it sat next to the TV for years. Then my brother sent me a PlayStation 2 for my birthday along with a copy of SOCOM II and I spent a year or so playing the online first person shooter with my extended family. We eventually got SOCOM III but didn't like it as much and our weekly night game eventually came to a stop. As you can imagine, my game genre of choice became first person shooters.

Last Christmas I borrowed a couple of Move controllers from work. The Move controller was created by Sony PlayStation and competes with both the Kinect from Microsoft and the motion controller for the Nintendo Wii. The kids had so much fun at Christmas that I went and bought a set so they could continue to play even after I had to return the borrowed equipment. I have never considered myself to be much of a sports game person but I can see myself getting into them now. My son challenged me to 9 holes of virtual golf. We were just playing the game that came with Sports Champions 2 and I have to say it was a lot of fun. My yard is covered in snow, yet I was able to play a quick round of golf. Even more amazing was the fact that the Move figured out I have a wicked hook in real life. I plan to play a lot more golf and see if it doesn't help me correct my bad habits. I'll try to remember to let you know this summer.

PS3 vs XBox 360

A couple of weeks before Christmas I found myself teaching the Snow Sports Merit Badge to a bunch of young scouts. These Scouts all know that I work for a video game company and so one of them asked which was better: PlayStation 3 or XBox 360. I am a PS3 fan simply because my brother used to work for Sony Computer Entertainment America (PlayStation) and got me hooked on their hardware. I have thought about picking up an XBox 360 but have a huge investment in PS3 games already. While I can get most video games at a significant discount, there is nothing available only on the XBox 360 that I want to play. Besides, I have enough toys and would rather spend money on other things.

My response to the scout was that I preferred the PlayStation 3. Naturally a lively argument ensued amongst the boys as there were one or two that were XBox fans. I did my best to stop the conversation and point out that the PlayStation 3 is technically more advanced than the XBox 360 and as an engineer, I prefer things that are technically superior. We then continued with the merit badge and tried to put the game console conversation to bed.

A couple of days later I was talking with the scout who started the PS3/XBox conversation. He said that he went to one of the video game stores and asked which was better. The store clerk claimed to have both machines and said that online play is better on the XBox than on the PS3. My first reaction was to defend the PS3 online game play but realized I was talking to a 12 year-old kid. It did get me thinking though. So I did a little research only to discover that the Internet is the worst possible medium for finding the truth. You have the XBox fans blasting the PS3 and PlayStation fans doing the same to the 360.

If you look at pure numbers, PS3 and XBox 360 are in a relative tie for 2nd place with regards to the Nintendo Wii. Furthermore, the best selling game this week is Just Dance 4 on the Wii. To an engineer, this doesn't make any sense. But then again, when is the real world rational.

Website Consistency

Last night it snowed again. Normally a skier would be very happy about fresh snow, but it has been snowing all week and I am sort of getting tired of skiing powder every day. Don't get me wrong, I love powder. I am just ready to ski in conditions where I can actually see where I am going.

One more problem with all of this constant snow is that it makes for very difficult driving. Yesterday I watched a lot of idiots slide off the road in their SUVs with summer tires. Four-wheel drive doesn't do anything for you if you don't have tires with an aggressive winter tread. I highly recommend metal studs in your tires for winter driving.

Before heading to Snowbird this morning for another day of skiing, I made sure to check their website to see if the road was open. There were conflicting messages on the home page. First there was a banner across the top exclaiming that the road would remain closed until 8:30 am for avalanche control. Immediately under the banner was a green light with a message saying the road was open. Checking the police department's website verified that the road was closed and not scheduled to open until 8:30 am. There is an old saying that applies to this: A man with one watch knows what time it is. A man with two isn't quite sure.

Sports Champions 2

A couple of days ago, I mentioned how two of my kids enjoy playing the Sports Champions video game for the PlayStation 3. Yesterday they received the next version of the game, which is fittingly called Sports Champions 2. Rather than refresh the games included in the first installment, the developers added a number of new games like tennis, skiing, and boxing. The kids immediately opened it and wanted to test out the skiing game after really skiing at Snowbird.

I was pretty tired and so I just sat on the couch and watched my son master the game in a relatively short amount of time. Unfortunately it is rather difficult to build a skiing simulator and this one has a number of flaws. The first comment my son made was how the controls are backwards. Sports Champions 2 requires the Move controllers and has you hold the controllers like ski poles. In skiing, you really want a quiet upper body and so having a platform to stand on would probably be a better controller. Even with this shortcoming, my son had an enjoyable afternoon pretending he was back on the slopes.

I watched as a few more of the new games were played and think it was a great Christmas gift for my teenaged children. I also think it helped somewhat with my son's skiing confidence. We went skiing back at Snowbird again this morning and my son found a good-sized cliff to jump. While he has skied off this cliff before, he launched himself higher and farther than the previous day. Of course I am willing to admit that his skiing confidence could be growing because the dude skis almost every single day. Though I am happy to report that my son would rather ski for real than play a video game. Hopefully that never changes.

Ski Racing in Park City

I have spent the last three days with my son ski racing in Park City. While skiing is a great sport to do in the winter, it is not very spectator friendly, especially yesterday and today. When we arrived at the parking lot yesterday, it was a crisp seven degrees Fahrenheit. This morning it was only one.

Today I rode up the chairlift with my son and asked him if he liked watching ski racing. He remarked that if he was at a ski resort, he would rather ski than watch a race. He elaborated that standing on the side of a mountain freezing was not a nice way to spend the day. I commented that watching ski racing was best done from the comfort of the living room couch. He agreed.

My wife had the luxury of viewing the results of the race from home today. While my son's races are not televised, the results are reported in real-time on the Live-Timing website. "Real-time," means that the Park City timing equipment has a feed directly to the web site. If my son had fallen during his first run, it would have listed him as a "did not finish" or DNF immediately after the fall. Since he finished his two runs, he had two times posted immediately after each respective run and she could see how he did.

While Live-Timing is not nearly as fun as watching a video of a race, you can still see the results. Furthermore you don't need to worry about getting frostbite. Trust me, I was concerned about that today.

Early Morning Skiing

Yesterday was a very busy day, but that means it was also very rewarding. I had a lot of work to do and so it was nice that I was invited to help the Snowbird Ski Team train early in the morning. I had to be at the mountain at 6:30 am and ready to ski. Yes, it was still dark and so it was a very surreal feeling going up the chairlift without being able to see much. My companion on the chairlift was a bundle of 20 slalom poles or gates. There were 2 more bundles being carried by other coaches on other chairs.

It was snowing just a little and the snowcats had smoothed out the hill the previous evening. That meant I got to ski on an inch of new snow covering perfectly groomed hills. It was like flying on a magic carpet.

I wish I could tell you that the sunrise was spectacular. I'm sure it would have been if the clouds hadn't obstructed the sky. I can say that it was nice to finally be able to see once the sun did come up.

I helped the coaches maintain the course while the ski racers had a nice 2 hours of course training before the general public was allowed on the mountain. When 9am came around, I helped take down the course and pack all of the slalom gates back down the mountain.

Several of my neighbors get up early to exercise and I have always thought they were crazy. Yesterday I found it very beneficial to ski for a couple of hours before starting to work. I was able to focus all day and managed to get a lot done. If you find yourself working in front of a computer for most of the day, it may do you some good to get out an exercise before going into the office. You just have to be careful not to over do it. Otherwise you will get to the office and need a nap.

Why Do We Have Malls

Last night I went with my youngest daughter to do some Christmas shopping. She had a list of places that she wanted to go and one of them was at the local shopping mall. I was amazed that we parked only 3 spaces from the front door. Then I was even more amazed at how empty it was inside. Sure it was a Tuesday evening, but I remember not being able to walk through a mall when I was a kid trying to do my own Christmas shopping.

I think online retailers have really taken a significant share of business from the local malls. How can small businesses compete with online prices? Everyone wants to get a good deal and an online presence is a lot less expensive than a brick-and-mortar storefront.

We visited exactly 3 stores in the mall. The first was the Vans store because I wanted to see what cool styles they had. I am looking for something specific and wanted to see if they had it. Nope, they didn't. However they did have a display where you could custom order your own shoes. No need to go to the mall though, just visit their website and order it from there.

The next store was a candy store where they had every candy I could think of. Naturally I had to get a little something for myself. That was one store worth going back to visit later.

The last store was Bed, Bath, and Beyond. While some of the stores had nobody in them, this one was full of women and girls picking up items. There were 4 check-out stations running as fast as they could and there was still a 5 minute line. It was as if the whole mall existed for that one store.

Naturally I came home and surfed the Internet for gifts to give my siblings. 20 minutes later, I had everybody shopped for and got the best prices available. I could see why the mall was seemingly empty. This leads me to the question of why we still have malls? Surely it can't be because of Bed, Bath, and Beyond.

2012 Christmas List

It is a bit later than usual, but I thought I ought to put out my annual Christmas list. All of my kids have shopped for me, but my wife is still looking. At least she says she is looking. I gave her a few ideas last week and she may have picked one of them up. She likes to play her proverbial cards pretty close to the vest this time of year.

I am really wanting a new TV, however they are still rather expensive unless you want something small. I don't. I want a big one and so that will have to wait for next year. I also want a new phone but still have not decided which one to get. It will probably take me several months of vacillating back and forth before I make a decision. While it would make my life easier if my wife would just get me a phone, it is something I want to pick out myself.

Here are some other ideas that almost everyone can afford:

An Electronic Transmitter Kit - Computers have replaced the hardware tinkering that used to take place, but building something you can show your friends without having to lug your computer around is still cool.

An Electronic Game Kit - Here is a kit that helps you build a small electronic memory game. While the game is pretty fun, building the kit is half the excitement.

A Remote Control Helicopter - Something to get the one you love outside. Well you could fly it inside, but might mark up the inside of your house.

A Hand-Crank Radio - Just in case those Mayans were onto something and the world really will end this year. You can open this gift a little early and listen to the news long after the power has gone out.

A Cable Tamer - To keep all of those computer cables from getting tangled behind your desk, or worse, in front of your desk.

A Computer Joystick - After playing with video game consoles, it can be tough to go back to the keyboard and mouse for computer games.

Hopefully this gives you a few ideas for that hard-to-shop-for guy in your house. If not, I'm sure there are a ton of other gift ideas on the Internet. Merry Christmas.

Sports Champions

One of my son's favorite games is Sports Champions and is only available on the PlayStation 3. It utilizes the Move controller and is a lot of fun to play. Even though I have never played the game before today, I have seen my son and daughter play it a lot. I have been gone all last week and my son wanted to spend some time with me. We decided to play Sports Champions and he proceeded to beat me like a slow horse.

Eventually I had to stop playing because I was getting a pretty fierce upper body workout. I know that a lot of people use the Wii to help them exercise. I always thought that was kind of goofy but now I am reconsidering that notion. Proof of that is that I have to write about it in my blog today because tomorrow I won't be able to lift my arms.

I hate to exercise and so I have to trick myself into doing it. I like to ride a bike because it is a lot more fun than running and reminds me of when I was a kid. Lifting weights? no, I'd rather go rock climbing. Besides I am one of the biggest weights I know. Now I have another tool in my bag of exercise tricks. If I can keep it up during Christmas break, I might be able to work off all those calories I plan to eat. Ah, who am I kidding, the best I can hope for is not to gain too much weight.

Dueling Resumes

We are in the process of hiring a few new people for our team and had an interesting situation at the office today. We received two resumes for the same person but from different employment firms. To make matters even worse, the same thing happened with a second person. That poses a problem for us. If we pick one firm over the other, we open ourselves to litigation. A standard practice among companies is to throw the duplicate resumes out and move on to other candidates. The policy works well when there are lots of resumes from which to choose. That is the case with these two positions we are hiring and so throwing them out doesn't hurt us, only the person looking for a job.

The economy is very fragile right now and it is important to do everything you can to make sure you get a job if you are looking for one. While it may seem like a good idea to send your resume to every one you can think of, you need to be sure that you don't submit your resume to the same company more than once. That means you should have employment agencies check with you before submitting your resume to a company. Otherwise you may exclude yourself from even getting an interview.

Java Blows

I have been working on a project at the office involving Java and it is much more complicated than it needs to be. Part of the problem is that we are using a piece of software that isn't that well documented. However the bulk of the problems stem from the overcomplexity that is now associated with Java. I needed a small program that needed to do three things. If my Java program requires a directory filled with various files just to do one of those tasks, there is a problem.

When I started my career at Oracle corporation, I had the luxury of learning one of the most complex relational database management systems on the planet. I watched as database administrators built their careers on this complexity, never having to learn another company's product. I then watched a number of Java developers do the same thing with this new language created by Sun Microsystems. I don't think it is a coincidence that Oracle now owns the rights to Java because of the Sun acquisition.

Lately I have been watching as Java has waned in popularity and other software development languages have risen to take its place. I just wish the death of Java wasn't taking so long. Do yourself a favor and if someone suggest using Java to create an application, just say, "No."

A New Phone

My iPhone is so old that everyone is wondering when I am going to replace it. I was thinking about getting the iPhone 5, but am not that impressed. Sure it has a little bigger screen and is thinner, but does it have the features I really need?

I have been looking at some other phones and have found one or two things that might be nice. I like the Sony Xperia TL as it can connect to your TV via an HDMI cable. That would make giving presentations so much easier. Rather than trying to get everyone to gather around a tiny phone, you just plug it into that monster TV in the family room and everyone can see your spectacular vacation photos. Of course the 13 megapixel camera means your photos won't be grainy when blown up to 65 inches.

Then there is the Sony Xperia Tipo Dual that has slots for 2 SIM cards which makes it easy to use the phone outside the United States. You can use one SIM slot for your normal carrier and then use a local SIM from the country you are visiting. I could really use that when I travel to Japan.

I also like having a separate keyboard and think the Motorola Photon Q - 4G LTE might be worth giving a shot. I used to have a Motorola Razor and really liked the phone before the battery finally stopped holding a charge. I talked with someone today that used to have a Nokia smart phone and he really liked the flip-out keyboard.

Finally, there is the Samsung Galaxy S III which seems to be getting a lot of publicity thanks to a ubiquitous ad campaign. I actually prefer a smaller screen and think the Galaxy S III is a bit to big for my taste. However Samsung has a number of other phones with features that deserve a closer look.

There really are a number of mobile phones that would make a suitable replacement for my old iPhone 3G. Now I just need to figure out what features I am looking for and how much I am willing to pay.

Mentoring

Last night I flew home from the Bay Area so I could see my daughter dance at BYU's Christmas Around the World. One of the regulars who also lives in Salt Lake but works in San Francisco joined me on the flight. It worked out well because he gave me a ride home from the airport and that gave us a chance to talk.

Yesterday was a traumatic day from my fellow commuter. He works for an animation studio and one of his fellow animators was let go. The reason for being fired was because the animator had failed to keep up with the latest technology. New guys were coming in and running circles around him. He had been warned but failed to act and was now paying the price.

My friend and I discussed how to keep from becoming irrelevant in the constantly changing hi-tech industries in which we work. Interestingly enough, we both came to the same conclusion. Both of us have taken fellow co-workers under our wings to help mentor. In return, those that we are mentoring are helping us by showing us all of the latest technologies. It is a win-win situation for all parties. Mentoring is often seen as someone with experience helping a novice, but that isn't the only help taking place.

Helping with Homework

I was trying to get to bed early on Monday night because I had to catch a flight to the Bay Area the next morning. I was just climbing into bed when my son came in asking for some help with his girlfriend's school project. She needed to take a music file and cut it down from 4 minutes to 2. I have Audacity on my Linux machine in my office and knew it could perform the task without any issues. I reluctantly got out of bed and stumbled to my home office with son and his friend in tow.

I should have known it was not as easy a task as it sounded simply because teenagers never give you the entire truth. The first hurdle came when I plugged the thumb-drive into my computer and saw that the audio file was only 860 bytes long. Most MP3 files are in the order of 5,000,000 bytes in size, which is not a lot when you think about it. The 860 bytes told me that someone copied a link to the file instead of the actual file. Curse you Windows! At least the Mac is smart enough to know that when you drag and drop a link from the desktop to your thumb-drive, it copies the actual file, not just the link.

My next task was to locate an alternate source of the original music file. I could pay $0.99, but was really just trying to get this done as quickly as possible without spending any money. Besides, my son's girlfriend had already paid to use the song and it was the principle of the matter. So I downloaded the movie file from YouTube, striped out the audio portion, and then expanded the audio track to a .WAV file. Don't ask me about the steps I used as I didn't bother to write them all down. It wasn't a trivial task, but it wasn't too complex either.

Now I like my son's girlfriend even though she may think differently. However she really had no idea how to cut the music file down so that it was under 2 minutes long. She couldn't decide if she wanted the first 2 minutes, the last 2 minutes, or something in between. Naturally I ended up trying all 3, which takes up a lot of time as you have to listen to each segment all the way through to make sure you got the right stuff. The last 2 minutes was "yuckie" and the middle 2 minutes just didn't sound right. I just took the first 2 minutes and cut it at an appropriate spot. She ended up with 1 minute and 43 seconds of music that sounded good.

The final task was to burn the newly edited music onto a  CD. Who uses CD's any more? I tried a few different ways to create a music CD but none of them worked. After 30 minutes of frustration, my son's girlfriend asked if it was in a format she could just stick on her iPod. It was and so I gave her the file. I wish I had known that before wasting precious sleep time. Finally we were done and I could head off to bed.

I love my son but was a little irritated with this last-minute homework request. I was up an hour and a half later than intended simply to help one of his friends. Never mind that we had just come off Thanksgiving break where I had plenty of time to help with such projects. As I drifted off to sleep, I realized that even though the project was not for my son, it was important to him. Therefore it was important to me and worth giving up 90 minutes of my evening.

No VPN Access

This morning I got up early and immediately went to work in my office at home. I got through my e-mail in a hurry and was feeling like I had a great start on the day. Then I had to run a quick errand. Rather than remain logged into my company's virtual private network (VPN), I logged out. My errand only took 20 minutes and when I got back in front of my computer, I tried to log in again. I got an error saying: "Your primary account has been disabled." Gee, I hope I didn't get fired. I like my job.

Actually I have a pretty good idea what the problem is. When I first started this job almost 2 and a half years ago, I was given 2 different accounts. On some of the computers at work, I log in using a mix of several characters from my first name with my complete last name. On the rest, I just use my first initial with my last name. It can be confusing at times and I ran into a problem a few weeks ago. Now our IT department is making an effort to unify all of my accounts and I am sure this is a temporary side-effect. It is a good thing Snowbird is open as I know how I am going to spend the rest of my day while they get this resolved.

Jet Lag

I am back in Utah after a nice week in Japan. The only problem with coming home is getting used to the time difference. The trip out is easy as you just have to stay up late. Flying back to the States requires a different tactic. Unfortunately I have yet to figure out what works. On my last trip, it took 3 or 4 days. This time doesn't seem to be doing much better and so I can't recommend my methods.

In the spirit of Thomas Edison and finding out what doesn't work, I cannot recommend napping during the day. It makes it tough to sleep through the night. Then you get stuck in the vicious cycle of napping the next day. Unofficially I may have fallen asleep at my desk this afternoon.

Music CDs in an MP3 World

I love living in the United States but it is also fun to visit other countries and experience other cultures. This evening I will be headed from Tokyo back to the US, but I have expanded my understanding of the Japanese people. One phenomenon here is the pop music group AKB48. It is a group made up of nubile young ladies ranging from the mid teens to the early 20s. I'm not sure where the number 48 comes from as there are 67 members of the group. They are split into 3 groups with 22 in Group A and 22 in Group B. The rest of the girls are trainees. As the girls get older, they graduate and younger girls audition to take their place.

The genius of the group is how members are voted in. When you purchase the CD single for one of the group's songs, you get a voting ticket that you can cast for your favorite member. So if there is someone you really like, you can purchase multiple CD's and stuff the ballot box in her favor. It is not uncommon for fans to purchase many copies of the same CD simply to cast more votes.

Everybody loves cute young girls and so you can't help but become interested in them. The music isn't bad and their music videos are fun to watch. I have to hand it to their producer as he has also figured out how to sell music CDs in an MP3 world. I wonder if it would work back in the States?

Japanese Keyboards

Yesterday I was at a meeting and got the opportunity to use a laptop with a Japanese keyboard. At first, it looks like a regular US keyboard until you take a closer look and realize extra keys are added at the expense of the space bar. The laptop I was using also had a smaller "SHIFT" key on the right side. I was trying to type in a password to a website and kept hitting the wrong key while I was aiming for the right-shift key. Eventually I had to stop trying to touch type and just look at the keys.

It wasn't until I started learning Japanese that I realized there are three different character sets for the Japanese language and all of them are used together. That means you can have all three in a single sentence. I understand the basic principles of how to use a Japanese keyboard, but am not an expert. It helps that most Japanese words can be "Romanized" or converted to Roman characters (those are the characters in the English alphabet). Then conversion software coverts the Roman syllables to the correct Japanese characters.

I am impressed that the Japanese have figured out how to adapt keyboards to their complex character sets. I'm glad I don't have to try and figure it out though as my fingers have the US keyboard pretty well memorized. I say my fingers have the keyboard memorized because if you ask me, I have to think really hard where specific keys are but my fingers jump right to them. Now if I could only figure out how to teach my fingers to spell.

American Newspaper

I left my hotel room this morning to go get breakfast and was glad to see an American newspaper outside my door. I am in Japan and so it wasn't just laying on the floor like most hotels back in the States. It was in a clear plexiglass newspaper holder on the wall just outside the door. As I was coming back from breakfast I started looking at all of the other guests' newspapers. Some were Japanese while others were American. Then I noticed that there were one or two other nationalities represented as well.

When you check into a hotel outside the United States, the hotel asks to see your passport. They will generally make a copy of it before handing it back to you. The hotel also asks you for your home address and so they have a really good idea where you live. There is no need to ask where you are from or what preference you have for your morning newspaper because they already know based on information they already have.

What does this have to do with computers? Well your computer knows an awful lot about you. So do your other electronic devices. If you are watching a movie on your iPhone or tablet computer and walk into an empty room with a television, shouldn't the television take over displaying your movie? You may not want to watch on the TV, but it sure would be nice for your iPhone to at least ask. There are hundreds of other similar examples. If I was willing to spend countless hours downloading various pieces of software and even more hours configuring things, I could make some of them a reality. If only my devices already had the software installed and could discover other devices on their own, it would make my life much easier. I think it would for everyone.

Big in Japan

There is a song by Alphaville that was popular when I was in high school entitled "Big in Japan." I have been singing the song this morning as I am in Japan and I think I got a hotel room normally set up for the locals. I am used to the beds being low, but this trip it feels like the sink in my bathroom is set unusually low. In the United States, I am of average height. Here in Japan, I feel taller than normal.

My flight was unusually empty last night and that was nice because I could spread out on the plane. I was able to grab a couple of seats by the window and didn't have anyone in front of me or behind me. That kept someone from leaning back on me and I didn't have to worry about leaning back on someone else. Oh the luxuries of an empty plane. This allowed me to pull out my computer and work on an article I am writing for a game development magazine.

There is nothing quite like a 12-hour flight to test the battery power of your laptop. Tablets are known for long battery life, but they are best suited for tasks that don't involve typing unless you have an optional keyboard. I brought my tablet with me on this trip but opted to leave the keyboard at home for weight-saving reasons. I needed my laptop anyways and pulled it out after watching a relaxing movie. The nice thing about using word processing software like Microsoft Word is that it does not eat a lot of battery juice. I cranked out around 1000 words yet used only 10% of my battery power. I could have kept going but my own personally battery needed recharging and so I took a nap.

My oldest daughter recently replaced the battery in her MacBook and found a really great deal. It was probably too great as she only gets about 2 hours before it is time to recharge. I can get close to 10 hours on my factory MacBook Pro battery if I am power conscious. The 2 hours works fine for my daughter who rarely is away from a power source for more than an hour. However if you intend be away from a power outlet for more than that, I highly recommend investing in a quality long-life battery.

Technology Can't Replace Mom and Dad

I have an international flight today as I head from Salt Lake to Tokyo, Japan. That means I had to be at the airport 2 hours early. I showed up and expected to spent time in lines. Just 15 minutes after I arrived, I am checked in, have gone through security, and have an hour and 45 minutes to kill before I leave. I figured I would add something to my blog today in the hopes of killing a little bit of time.

I was leaving the office on Thursday and was having a conversation with one of the department admins. She has two young kids and a mother that loves to play Grandma. The admin's mom wants to buy a Kindle Fire for each of the grandkids. The oldest is only 4 and the youngest isn't quite a year old. I am someone that embraces technology but can't see the logic in that purchase. The admin explained that her mom thinks the young kids can use it to watch videos or be read to. We both agreed that it is a bad idea though.

One of the joys of being a parent is reading to your kids. I used to read to my own kids every night. We read the complete Harry Potter series as well as a good chunk of the Hardy Boys mysteries. One of my kids favorite series was Swallows and Amazons. Research shows that while it is important for a mother to read to her children, it is also important for Dad to do so as well. So while we have technology that allows machines to read to our children, that doesn't mean it is a good idea. Trust me on this one.

Ski Season Around the Corner

Last night I flew home to Utah from the Bay Area because I will be heading to Japan on Sunday. I am attending a conference and last year I needed to leave on Saturday to make it in time. This year my team has decided to forget about the first day so we don't blow a weekend at home. I wish I had known that when I was making my flight arrangements a month ago. Oh well, I got an extra day to work from home. It actually worked out well though.

Before I left last night, my wife sent me a text indicating it was going to be a bumpy landing. She was not wrong, it was quite the roller coaster. That was because we had a storm coming in. There was a 40 degree temperature drop over night and this morning I had a bunch of snow in my front yard. It is a good thing my home office doesn't have any windows or I would have spent the day watching the snow pile up.

I am in my fourth year on the board of directors for the Snowbird Sports Education Foundation or Snowbird Ski Team. One of the perks is that I get a huge discount on my Snowbird Seasons Pass. The only problem with it is that I have to abide by certain rules. One of those is that I have to pick up my season's pass at specific times. This afternoon at 4pm was one of those times. I won't be around at the other times and so if I want to get my pass before the mountain opens, I had to get it today. So it worked out for me.

What does any of that have to do with computers? Well a number of resorts are getting ready to open and the best way to decide if it is worth making the trek to the mountains is by looking at their web cameras. Here are some links to some of my favorite mountains:

Alta, Utah
Snowbird, Utah
Snowbasin, Utah

Squaw Valley, California
Kirkwood, California

Vail, Colorado

Whistler, B.C., Canada

So You Want to Work in Video Games

When people find out that I work for a video game company, they always ask me how to get into the industry. This may be for themselves or for one of their kids. I get the question often enough that I thought I would take a stab at answering that question on this blog.

It is important to understand that in my current company, there is no middle class. There are either well-paid employees or low-paid employees. Nothing in the middle. So that means I have to answer the question twice as there are different standards for each class of employee.

The low-paid employees are the game testers. Some of them are really good at what they do. Unfortunately there are so many people trying to become game testers that we don't have to pay them very much. The job is also very short term and lasts between 8 to 18 months. Then we let them go and hire a new crop of video game players. If you want to be a tester, start looking at video game companies right after high school. You will also want to have fairly good writing skills as there is a lot of reporting associated with testing. The rest is just being at the right place at the right time. It is a great summer job that will look good on any aspiring software developer's resume.

The high-paid employees have corresponding educations to match. It is rare, not impossible, but rare for someone to join my department without a college education from a top-notch school. Looking at the current list of people we are trying to hire, there are a lot of requests for people with Masters and PhD degrees. You will need a good math and stats background as well as very strong computer skills. It also helps if you are passionate about video games.

Would I recommend a career in video games? Definitely. It sure beats going to work every day.

An Elegant Example

"Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away." - Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Antoine was a smart guy and one of my favorite writers. Of course it helps that I am fluent in French and can read his works as they were written. His quote about perfection is very true. Lately I have been working with a coworker to get a Hadoop cluster running and that has been an exercise in frustration. I am glad that Oracle had much better documentation writers when I was learning SQL. Otherwise I might be working in a completely different industry.

A lot of credit should go out to Bruce Scott for creating Oracle's scott/tiger example database tables. It started with just a couple of tables that could be used to provide examples for all of Oracle's SQL commands. The beauty of them was their simplicity. You basically had a table listing employees with basic information and a second table listing departments. Each employee belonged to a department, which allowed for a number of different JOIN examples between the two tables. Furthermore, each employee reported to another one except for KING, who as his name indicated, was the head honcho. Both tables were so small, you had them memorized after the first three examples. They were also so simple there was just a NAME column. No need to memorize a first name and a last name and the names were just a single syllable.

Version 6 of the Oracle database added a few more tables and then some genius decided to complicate things with an entirely new and overly complex set of tables. I understand that a lot of new features were added, but the simplicity of the original scott/tiger tables should have served as a pattern for future examples. Now I only wish Hadoop's document writers had noticed as well.

Election Night Alternatives

Halloween is one of those nights that children look forward to weeks before it happens. So is Christmas Eve. Tonight is the opposite. I will be so glad when this evening is over. I am tired of watching all of those political commercials or listening to them on the radio. One will be for a proposition or candidate while the next one will be against the previous ad. Recently there was a story about a young girl crying because of all the name calling. I can sympathize.

My trick for getting through this evening is to not turn on the TV. That is why I am on my computer adding to my blog. Later I will be doing other things on the Internet. There are a number of wholesome and worthwhile activities to be found there. If I was at the office, playing online video games would be a great start. As I am on my boat and don't have my gaming console, I will opt for something else.

I could watch a movie on Hulu or NetFlix, but my Internet connection is shared among a number of other boats and can be slow at times. This causes pauses in a streaming video and can be rather tedious. This evening I am going to do some software development. Previously I mentioned I am working on a new game and so I will work on that. That would be a better use of my time anyways.

Daylight Savings Time

This weekend we will be experiencing a semi-annual event that causes havoc with our clocks and watches: daylight savings time. In the spring we change from standard time to daylight time. In the fall, we go back to standard time. The idea behind the time change is that going on daylight savings time means we will use less electricity in the evenings for our lights. It was a good idea until air conditioning became so common. Now it is a toss-up as to if it saves any energy at all. One thing that is certain is that we all spend a lot of time adjusting clocks around our offices, homes, and wrists.

Computers also have to deal with daylight savings time. Most home computers are smart enough to automatically adjust themselves. So what happens with sophisticated servers? In the spring, we jump forward an hour and so it instantly goes from 2am to 3am. In the fall, we jump backwards from 2am to 1am. If there are any scheduled jobs meant to run between 1am and 2am, they get executed again. The autumn can be a good thing if every night at 1:30, the bank deposits extra money in your account. You get 2 deposits instead of 1. However the bank rarely just gives away money. The more common case is that they will charge a fee. In the fall, you will get charged twice and that can be a bad thing.

The way most servers get around daylight savings time is by staying on one timezone and that is generally UTC or universal coordinated time. Doing so keeps the time the same even during the spring and fall semi-annual time changes. This can save a lot of hassle. Trust me on this one as I had to move one of my servers from PDT to UTC this evening. The time change caused a lot of problems in the spring and was poised to do even more this next Sunday morning. Now I can sleep more soundly on Sunday evening and don't have to worry about fixing stuff on Monday morning.

Object-Oriented Programming

Object-oriented programming was all the rage twenty years ago. Traditional programming languages like "C" evolved to "C++" or Objective-C and included these new extensions. Software developers jumped on the bandwagon and extolled the virtues of this huge "paradigm shift." So what was all this hype about? Creating reusable code.

Fast forward to today and object-oriented program is still popular. It just isn't stressed as much as when it first arrived. The same can be said about air conditioning in automobiles. It used to be a luxury but now comes standard in most new vehicles. So twenty years later we have to ask if this once new enhancement has delivered on all of its promises.

The original selling point of reusable code was that software developers could build small little programs that could be put together to build larger systems. That is something that has been realized, albeit a little differently than originally thought. Today we have a number of building blocks that developers don't have to recreate when coding complex software. Companies like Google, Twitter, and LinkedIn have created software like Hadoop, Storm, and Kafka. These programs can then be used to make larger systems. This is helping developers throughout the world. So has object-oriented programming delivered? I would have to say, "YES!"

Rules For Everyone

I am watching a CBS special on Hurricane Sandy. It has already pasted the East coast of the United States and they are running short stories about the storm. Among a few of the reports are mentions of people sticking around even though they were told to evacuate. I guess some people think certain rules don't apply to them. We call those people idiots.

This morning I had to catch my weekly flight from Salt Lake to Oakland. I use the flight to catch an extra hour of sleep on Monday mornings. When the Southwest passenger took the middle seat next to me, I knew I would notice him for all of about 5 minutes. Then he pulled out his computer and started working. There is only so long before passengers are asked to turn off electronic devices and so I didn't give that a second thought. Soon the flight attendant asked passengers to shut down computers and cell phones. My neighbor did, but only long enough for the attendants to pass by. Then he pulled his computer out and began to work again covertly during the safety briefing. I thought about letting him know that he should turn it off but couldn't figure out how to do so without looking like an angry passenger. So I tried to get back to sleep. I guess he didn't think the electronics rule applied to him.

Certain rules exist to keep up safe. The electronics rule on airplanes is not because the electronics do anything to the plane or its navigation system. It is there because those electronics devices turn into projectiles during takeoff and landing. My seat neighbor was kind enough to put his computer away before it could cause harm. That was good for me as I hate getting hurt because someone else is an idiot.

Time To Vote

Today I voted. I will not be in my state of residence on Election Tuesday and so I took advantage of early voting here in Utah. There was one polling location open on Saturday and so I had to drive all the way to the city/county building in downtown Salt Lake. I was pleased I was able to vote as this is a very important election year.

In my eagerness to get downtown and vote, I probably didn't spend enough time researching the issues and/or candidates. My wife warned me that there were a few bozos and so I steered clear of them. What about everybody else? I hate political ads on the TV and so I tune them out. I don't think they are the best source of information anyways. As you may have a week or so before the election, I recommend you use your favorite Internet search engine and educate yourself on not only the candidates, but also the issues being voted on this year. I voted against any new taxes, but you may feel differently.

I try to avoid politics in my blog and so my only advice for the election this year is for the office of president: Mit Romney. While some believe it was nice to have a change in the Presidency these last 4 years, I think Obama's health care plan is just one more nail in the coffin for American jobs. I know a number of small to mid-sized companies that cannot afford the increase in health insurance premiums. With the ease of outsourcing jobs overseas these days, these small to mid-sized companies will find it much less expensive to employ someone in a foreign country.

Helping Others

In one of my previous posts, I explained how to get free lift tickets to Snowbird Ski Resort. It is that time of year where the Snowbird Sports Education Foundation just listed all of their races for the coming season and normal people can sign up to help. In return for spending a day freezing on the side of a mountain, you will receive 2 passes that can be used on another day during the season. If you are looking for a cheap way to go skiing, this is it.

I have spent a better part of my evening going through the list of volunteers that have already responded and adding names to the website. Unfortunately there are a few regular volunteers that offer to help and then never show up. If you ignore them, they sign up again and again. If you try to confront them about it, they claim they attended every race they signed up for. It isn't any fun to be the bad guy but I have to make room for people that actually help out.

Speaking of helping out, I think the world would be a much better place if we all helped each other out. There is a regular on my Monday morning flight that gives me a ride from the Oakland airport to my office in Foster City. It is on the way to his job in Redwood City and so it is only a minor inconvenience to drop me off. In return for the favor, I pay the toll across the San Mateo Bridge. If I was taking public transportation to get to my office, I would have to pay $10 and the bridge is only $5. It turns out we both save $5, which can add up over the course of several years.

This week as we were driving after getting off the plane in Oakland, my co-commuter asked about getting a PlayStation 3. Working for a video game company gives me access to discounted consoles like the PS3 as well as discounts on games. He told me what he wanted and I placed an order for him. I saved him about 50% as opposed to purchasing everything in the store and I was happy to help him out. Do I expect anything in return? Nope, and that's the way it should be.

Following Directions

This morning at work I helped perform an upgrade of some software I have helped create. It is made up of a bunch of small programs that have evolved over time. Each program is quite simple and very easy to understand. Together they form a complex system that runs on over a dozen different servers and process large amounts of data.

The upgrade seemed to be running smoothly and I was able to do my portion of the deployment without any issues. When we went to start several of the programs, we saw some errors. That led to everyone gathering around a collection of screens, trying to troubleshoot the problem as we were under a tight deadline to get the system back up and running.

As all of my stuff was working correctly, I acted as a messenger to one of our operations engineers who was at our data center in another part of the country. It would have been nice to talk to him on the phone but was impossible because of all the noise where he was. We had to resort to texting. The whole team worked together and we quickly diagnosed the problem. It turns out that the engineer doing most of the upgrade missed a critical step. Once we figured that out, everything came up nicely.

How did this critical step get missed? We had a list of instructions with every individual process outlined for the upgrade. The engineer was meticulously checking off each task as it was completed. After two pages of instructions, he got a little careless and checked twice after only completing one step. It was an easy mistake to make but shows the importance of carefully following directions. Not doing so in a car can get you lost. Not doing so with a bunch of computer servers can really screw things up.

Internet Data and Telephones

We have a school holiday in Utah during the month of October for the Utah Education Association or UEA. It is a 2-day conference where teachers go and learn how to be better educators. The rest of us refer to it as Utah's Exodus to Anaheim as it is a great time to take the family to Disneyland. I know that Disneyland can be crowded and so I wanted to avoid it at all costs. Instead I took my wife and son someplace else. Unfortunately I still found myself yesterday morning at the Los Angeles International Airport trying to catch a flight back to Salt Lake. Chaos is the only word that can describe the situation.

Our previous flight had a mechanical issue and so we were late getting to Los Angeles. We landed with 20 minutes before our next flight was scheduled to depart. While we all managed to get to the new gate with 10 minutes to spare, the airline saw fit to give our seats away. We were told it was an oversold flight. There was one remaining available seat and so I sent my wife home assuming my son and I would be able to catch a flight later in the day. Unfortunately there were no available flights to Salt Lake and the best any airline could do was put me on a plane the next morning. That was unacceptable as I had to catch a 6:45 am flight this morning out of Salt Lake.

I was glad to have my iPhone with the Southwest app as I could verify that they didn't have any flights. You see, I was on another carrier and the rest of the airline industry doesn't get along with Southwest and so they don't share flight information. Being able to look that up on my own helped me realize what a dire predicament I was in. It also illustrates that just because you have Internet accessible data, doesn't mean your problems will be solved. In my case it only illustrated how really screwed I was.

With no flights available it was time to go to plan B: Hertz rental car. Salt Lake is only a 9-hour drive from Los Angeles. A single phone call later to 1-800-CAR-GOLD and I had a reservation for an economy car. I then spent the rest of the day having quality time with my son while we made the drive. I arrived at home just after 9pm. When I asked my son where he wanted to go next year for UEA, he replied, "Let's just stay home."

A New Kind of Game

A few weeks ago, I had a coworker talk to me about an idea for a new type of game. I thought it was a great idea but needed some flushing out. Then a couple of days later I had a another friend give me another idea. This second friend also lives in Utah but works in the Bay Area. We fly out every Monday together and he gives me a ride from the Oakland airport to my office in Foster City. During the ride one morning, he suggested an idea for a computer video game.

Separately these two game ideas were pretty interesting. Combined, they make up a really amazing new kind of game. Tomorrow two of us and another friend are going to meet for lunch and start working on the idea. We will need to flush out a few details, but my hope is that we will be able to have a prototype running in time for the Christmas Holidays. Don't hold me to that date, as a number of unforeseen issues may arise, but that is my goal. Stay tuned as I will have more information as the game develops.

Secret Admirer

A few weeks ago I received an e-mail from an alleged secret admirer. I was pretty sure it was some sort of a scam and so I immediately deleted it. Then I started thinking about the e-mail a few days later. The fact that it made it through my spam filter had me questioning if it was a scam or not. It didn't take long for another e-mail to arrive elaborating on the original secret admirer message. I have to say that it was a bit flattering even though I am happily married. Deep down inside we all want to be admired by other people, even if they can't have us.

This second message got through my spam filter again and so I thought I would look into the anonymous e-card service to see if it was real. I confirmed my original suspicion as it didn't seem to exist. So I deleted the e-mail and went on my merry way.

Today I received a 3rd secret admirer e-mail and made a note of the pseudo name of the person who sent it. Then I did an Internet search on "lovebug1136" and discovered I am not the only one getting these e-mails. To see the same e-mails posted on sites just confirmed what I knew all along.

So what is the scam? You are asked to sign up for an online-dating service. Once you sign up, you can then search the pseudo name to see who "likes" you. The last thing I need is an online dating account. So if you get an e-mail from someone claiming to be a secret admirer and are not interested in creating an online dating account, you can probably delete it.

Ubiquitous WiFi

I'm not sure why, but Southwest changes its flight times about every other month. This week I am flying from Oakland to Salt Lake City at 4:00 pm while last month the flight was at 3:35 pm. You wouldn't think 25 minutes would make much of a difference, but I use public transportation to get from my office, near the San Francisco airport. As I have to go across the San Mateo bridge there is a single bus line I can use and it is mostly geared towards commuters. That means there is a bus at 11:00 am, one at 12:45 pm, and one at 2:30 pm. The 2:30 bus puts me at the airport way too late and so I take the 12:45 pm bus to catch my flight. I get to the airport at 2:00 pm if everything goes smoothly after taking a train and another bus. That gives me 2 full hours to waste at the airport. I liked it better when I was only wasting an hour and 35 minutes. Like I said, it may not sound like much, but week after week, it adds up.

This week I decided to maximize my time and came to the airport with a list of tasks to accomplish. Updating my blog was one such task. This wouldn't be possible without an Internet connection. Amazingly, I also had an Internet connection on the bus across the San Mateo bridge. Finally, chances are good that I will have an Internet connection on the flight as well.

Sometimes I want to be disconnected from the rest of the world and I loathe the ubiquitous availability of connections. However I really appreciate it when I can connect when I want to and get real work done. Besides, when I really want to get away from e-mail and the Internet, I just use the excuse that my battery died.

A College Degree

I have a brother-in-law that used to run around asking my wife's brothers how their college degrees were working out. At the time, there was a housing boom and he was making a seemingly huge amount of money with nothing but his high-school diploma and the knowledge of how to pound nails. Meanwhile my wife's brothers had spend large sums of money on their college educations and really didn't have much to show for it. I'm sure the "college" comment stung pretty bad at the time.

A little before my brother-in-law started taunting those around him, I threw him a proverbial bone and had him install a loft in my garage. He had been doing construction for some time and I figured he would do a better job than me. He told me the lumber to order and I had it delivered. Then I paid him quite well for his day of labor. That was a little over 10 years ago. Then last Thursday, that professionally-built loft that I mostly use to store empty boxes came crashing down. Had it not been for the garage-door rails, it would have crushed my two cars. Luckily I was able to get them out and the loft rebuilt without any serious damage. This time I consulted a close friend who is a mechanical engineer and he helped to ensure that the loft would never come down again.

I learned a lot about structural engineering this past weekend and I am glad there are people who spend a little extra time going to college and actually get degrees. Now the next time my brother-in-law brings up the topic of college, I can remind him that had he gone, my loft wouldn't have fallen down. You see, he didn't understand the sheer strength of grabber screws used to secure 2x4's to decks vs. lag screws used to secure joists to studs. I guess that is why he is out of work right now and my wife's brothers both have high-paying jobs.

Are You Better Off Now

It is election season and I try to avoid politics in my blog, but this is a question I keep hearing, "Are you better off today than you were 4 years ago?" One thing about technology is that it continues to evolve and so we should all be better off as time passes. The President of the United States could be a monkey with a dart board and we should all be better off with regards to our computers. So let's look back over the past 4 years and see how computer technology has improved.

When I look at my desk in my home office, I am much better off than I was 4 years ago. The biggest change is the advance in video monitor technology. I used to have a single 17-inch LCD monitor capable of displaying 1280x1024 pixels. Now I have 2 HDTV monitors on my desk. Both are seamlessly connected to my desktop computer and are capable of displaying 1920x1080 for a total size of 3840x1080 pixels. I don't know how I survived before.

Video monitors for my desktop are just the start. I also have a tablet computer. I actually have 2 tablet computers, both of which were given to me. I only keep 1 on my desk as the other one is kept upstairs in the bedroom. Most of the time I just use the tablet to play Pandora, but it is nice to be able to keep tabs on things when I leave the office without having to grab my laptop. The tablet is much lighter.

Speaking of laptops, I used to have a MacBook and now I have a MacBook Pro. The biggest difference there is that I now run a solid-state drive. They make great sense for a laptop because they are much more shock resistant. They are also a lot faster. My laptop boots in about the same amount of time as it takes me to count to 3. I'm still not sure about reliability, but my current drive is almost a year old and seems to be working great.

One final improvement worth mentioning is that we are starting to see more cloud technology. Sure some of it is just marketing. However we will start to see more services come to the cloud and life should improve because of it. Imagine walking into your house and having your digital camera automatically sync with your home network and upload your most recent photos to a staging area where you can sort them and share your favorites. We are almost there.

Technologically, we are all better off now than we were 4 years ago. Just don't let the politicians think they are responsible.

Agile Development

There are a number of methods that software development teams can use to help manage themselves. Years ago, teams would create detailed specifications over a period of months and then spend years coding only to discover they had built the wrong product. In 2001 a bunch of successful software developers met at a ski resort in Utah and created the Agile Manifesto. This then spurred a new process where developers would work on small pieces of the product with short release cycles so they could get constant feedback on what they were building. Then product users could provide instant feedback to ensure the development team is on the right track.

My current software development team uses Agile development and so the company hired an instructor to come in and teach a 2-day refresher course. It was interesting to spend a couple of days going through the training material. There were other teams new to the process taking part in the course and it was fun to see their reaction. Some were eager to embrace the method while others were less than eager to change their current development practices.

I have to say that there is one problem with Agile for me. I have a specific skill that requires me to work with a number of different teams. So while there is  about 4 hours a week of meeting overhead for the rest of the team members, I end up with about 12 hours a week of meetings. Considering there are only 40 hours of work during the work week, that means I only have 28 to get useful stuff done. So when someone gets all energetic about Agile, I have to bite my tongue to keep from grumbling too loudly.

I am hoping that the guys that created the Agile Manifesto will show up at Snowbird again, where they originally drafted the short statement, and come up with a way to keep me from going to so many meetings. I'd even provide a couple of lift tickets.

OpenDNS

Last Friday I briefly mentioned some of the dangers of the Internet. While most know that they exist, a large number of people are not quite sure what to do about them. When there was only one computer in the house, it was easy to install filtering software and make sure it stayed updated. Now it is not uncommon to have a number of computers and devices like iPhones, iTouches, and iPads using a common Internet connection. Trying to maintain all of those filtering software installations can be a chore.

Recently I had a friend explain OpenDNS and so I set myself up an account. Once you have an account, you can modify the router settings for your home Internet connection so that it goes through their servers. You can then control how much of the Internet all of the computers on your network can see. If you are only concerned about pornography, you can choose to filter out only those websites. While they still exist on the Internet, the domain name service or DNS system that is used to look up the offending site's computer address is redirected to a message saying the site is blocked.

There are a few other settings that I found particularly helpful. I really hate websites that try to install a bunch of junk on my computer and so there is a setting to filter out adware. When I first set up OpenDNS for my home network, I was only concerned about a few things. Since then I have set up a number of new filters, not because I feel they are bad for my kids, but because they are annoying. It is like being able to turn off all of the commercials on your TV. Now who wouldn't want that? I highly recommend OpenDNS even if it is just so you don't infect your computer with junk.

One Child, One Computer

I must confess that we are headed into the best time of the year. Football season is about to start. Ski stores have started gearing up for their preseason sales. Of course, let's not forget that school is just around the corner. Last year at this time, I mentioned that now is the time to start getting your computer ready for those kids in your house. I second my recommendations from last year and encourage you to make sure you have plenty of ink/toner for your printer and that your word processing software is up-to-date.

This year I only have one child at home using the family computer. That makes it effectively his own computer. My son knows better than to ask to put the computer in his room as we have a rule about that in the house. Good parents understand the dangers of allowing children, that is anyone under the age of 18, to keep computers in their rooms. While there is a lot of useful information on the Internet, there is also a lot that can harm your children as well. Even my college-age kids are encouraged to use their computers in the family room as opposed to their bedrooms.

My oldest daughter's laptop needs a new battery and so she wasn't able to fully comply with the laptop-in-the-family-room rule. That was not good for her this summer as she was constantly staying up late and watching Netflix into the wee hours of the morning. As she is 23, it didn't really bother me, but I use her as an example to other parents to show that pornography is not the only problem caused by computers in the bedroom. Luckily my daughter is wise and cancelled her Netflix subscription before heading off to school. She doesn't need anything else competing with her study time.

Hiking Yosemite

My son and I spent a week hiking around Yosemite National Park with my Scouts in California. It was a great trip and I highly recommend visiting our country's national parks when you have the chance. While my son has been to Yellowstone, Zions, and the Grand Canyon, he had not been to Yosemite.

My Scout Troop in California managed to get 3 campsites at the Hodgdon Meadows camp site where we set up a base camp. Two of the sites were adjacent to each other while the third was a short distance away. It actually worked out very well. We then had a number of hikes planned with one for each day we were there.

I relied on some of the other adults to know the trails and how to get to them. That was a mistake. We spent one day hiking all over Tuolumne Meadows looking for the trail head to Elizabeth Lake. I got home from the trip and did a quick Internet search only to get turn-by-turn directions on where to go. Had I done this same search before getting to Yosemite, my feet would have thanked me for saving them from a couple of extra miles I put on them that day.

My advice to everyone now is to do a quick Internet search before heading to any new place. Don't wait until you get there, do it before you leave. After all, we didn't have any phone service except in Yosemite Valley and so trying to use my iPhone's browser while I was there wouldn't have worked for this hike.

Compounding Problems

Today I had a busy day at the office and tomorrow doesn't look like it will be much better. There were some changes we made to our server infrastructure and ran into two problems. Unfortunately I need to make some more changes but those will have to wait. The last thing I want to do is compound the problems.

I was sailing back from Hawaii when I discovered "The Law of Compounding Problems." The law is based on the idea that serious accidents don't happen on their own but are a series of smaller ones that grow into something big. For instance, it is important to keep all ropes or lines on a sailboat properly stowed so that if a wave hits the boat and someone stumbles, they don't get tripped and fall overboard.

This law can be applied to computers as well. Perhaps you install new memory at the same time you upgrade your computer's operating system only to discover it now won't boot. Then you are left trying to figure out if the memory was installed wrong or if there is something with the new operating system. Throw in a third variable and fixing the problem can be almost impossible. That is why you want to ensure that you make sure each update to your computer works before adding something else.

Today we were able to isolate both of our problems. This allows us to fix them one-at-a-time without having to try and figure them both out at the same time. We still don't have solutions, but have some ideas. Once we get them taken care of, then I can make my changes.

Two Computers

I have a daughter headed to college in September. That means I got to buy her a computer that she will take to school. Luckily her birthday is in July and so I could get the laptop as a gift. I just had to decide which one to get. When I started writing this blog, one of my first postings was on which computer was the best to send with your kid to college. I was sending my oldest daughter off to school at the time and decided the MacBook was the best choice.

It is now 3 years later and the MacBook is no longer an option. Apple has two models, the MacBook Air and the MacBook Pro. Each one has a number of options ranging from screen size to memory. If you are really looking for the original MacBook, you can pick up a refurbished model from MyService. I sat my daughter down and gave her a choice between the Air, Pro, or a refurbished MacBook. Naturally, she didn't want the refurb and I can't say I blame her. I told her I would give here the difference in price to help pay for tuition and she still wanted the new computer. While the Air is a very light computer, my daughter wanted something with a little more horsepower. So I got her the least expensive MacBook Pro.

A few days later, one of my oldest son's old roommates sent me an e-mail asking for help getting a computer. I have a corporate discount to one of the major laptop manufacturers and could save him about $100 on an $800 laptop. I mentioned that my daughter turned down my corporate discount option and went for the more expensive Apple computer. His budget wouldn't let him spend more than the $700 and he wasn't interested in a refurbished Mac. We played around with the configuration and kept the price withing his budget.

My daughter loves her new computer and has been using it constantly since her birthday. I will be interested in comparing the two computers over their respective lives. When I bought my oldest daughter her computer, I was confident it would last. Now I have two computers bought at the same time to compare against each other.  Time will tell which is the best deal, but I'm betting on the Mac. My oldest daughter's MacBook has required an upgrade or two, but is still running strong.

Why Are College Text Books So Boring?

I was busy minding my own business today when one of my coworkers engaged me in a very important conversation. He mentioned that there are some changes happening in the group that will require me to study up on my probability and statistics knowledge. There are one or two things that I remember about the subject from my days in college, most importantly that the O-ring failure on the Space Shuttle Challenger was a major topic of discussion. We also learned that lotteries are a tax for people that are bad at math.

Knowing that I will head into work on Monday with a need to know something more than basic definitions, I pulled out my old stats textbook and started going through it. What a bore. There must be some subliminal memories it stirred up because I immediately wanted to take a nap. Oh how I fondly remember sleeping in various rooms throughout the university's library. My particular favorite room was one with several fireplaces and overstuffed leather chairs, but I digress.

My coworker is also in the process of refreshing his probability and statistics knowledge. He recommended a different book and I have to say that it looks infinitely more interesting. I cannot yet recommend it because I have yet to see the entire book, however it does look promising. My coworker is enjoying it so much, he even has gone through and done the math examples in the first half of the book.

This has me asking the question: Why are college text books so boring? Maybe it is just the classes I had to take, but there are very few text books that I ever enjoyed reading. There is one that does come to mind though and it fits nicely with the theme of my Blog: The Soul of a New Machine by Tracy Kidder. It was suggested reading for one of my Electrical Engineering classes and took me two days to read. Sometimes professors do get it right but I believe that is more rare than common.

Fixing Cars

It is a good thing I am working from home this week as two of my cars are requiring service attention. Last Friday my wife was out running errands in her Subaru when the air conditioning went out, probably associated with our dirt-road vacation last week. Then the "check engine" light came on in the Jeep Cherokee or XJ my kids drive. I don't know how people worked on cars before the Internet.

I was notified of my wife's Subaru problem before she even got home. So I started looking on the Internet to see if there were any common problems on her car. It turns out the clutch is less than reliable. When she got home, I opened the engine, looked at the air compressor, and could immediately see that it was indeed the clutch. Unfortunately they don't just sell clutches and I needed a whole new air compressor. Too bad those things are like $700 for just the part. As I have mechanical breakdown insurance on her car, I only had to cover the deductible and so I had a professional shop take care of the repair. Decharging and recharging the A/C system seemed like too much of a hassle to deal with at home. Had I been willing to do the work myself, there were YouTube videos showing me how.

Yesterday the Jeep XJ's warning light came on. While the car still ran, it is not a good idea to keep driving it until the problem was diagnosed. I pulled out my trusty OBD II computer, plugged it into the Jeep's socket under the dashboard and read off 2 codes that were being thrown: P0171 and P0133. A quick search on the Internet said that the fuel system is running lean and that the oxygen sensor before the catalytic converter is giving a slow response. My experience with OBD II codes is to deal with the 2nd one and it should take care of the first. Further searching on the Internet suggested that the O2 sensor needed replacing. So this morning, I headed to the trusty auto parts store before work and picked up a new one. My son then helped me replace it. Then I unplugged the battery for 15 minutes to reset the car's computer. I then let my son drive the Jeep for a bit to see if the engine light would come on again. So far, it hasn't.

Cars are getting much more complex to repair on your own. However with the Internet, it is also getting easier to fix certain problems.

The Observer Effect

I have run into a performance problem with one of my databases at work. We are constantly adding new records to the database and the system runs fine. When we try to augment the normal load with some extra data, the system slows to a crawl and I have been trying to figure out why.

I have a tool that will help me monitor performance. Every 2 seconds, it queries the program sending data into the database and asks how many packets of data are waiting to be saved. When the system is keeping up, this number is 0. When it is running slow, the number grows. Yesterday I got tied up with other things and turned my monitoring program off. I wasn't really paying close attention, but the performance seemed to increase because I wasn't watching.

This morning I wanted to see if there was a true performance increase or if it just seemed that way. I started loading data and made a note of the time. Yesterday it took almost exactly 2 hours to complete. This morning it took 1 hour and 40 minutes. I thought that was interesting and so I ran the test again. Sure enough, the second test completed in 1 hour and 50 minutes. While my monitoring of the system didn't slow things down too much, it did have an effect.

I guess you could say that the old cliche about a watched pot never boiling can be true. In Physics, this is called the Observer Effect, where merely observing something changes what is being observed.

Back From Vacation

My wife, son, and I just got back from 3 days in southern Utah at a nice little retreat. It was a wonderful mini vacation with a bunch of friends from the neighborhood. While I enjoy spending time in front of the computer, it is nice to get away and leave electronics behind. I did have my laptop with me, but only used it twice. Both times were to make sure I didn't have any pressing e-mails. In hindsight, I could have left it home.

Someone else planned the entire vacation for me so I just needed to show up. The place we stayed is called the Summit Chateau Lodge and is located near Brian Head ski resort. Naturally I checked out their website before heading down. They didn't mention if they had an Internet connection and so I gave them a call. The owner answered the phone and said that Verizon had data coverage in the area and he had a MiFi device that could allow up to 5 devices to connect to the Internet at the same time. That was all I needed as I didn't plan on doing much work.

As we prepared to leave on the trip, I needed to figure out what car to take. I prefer to do long drives in my sedan, but it is low to the ground and not very good on dirt roads. I plugged in "Summit Chateau Lodge" into maps.google.com and selected satellite view to see that it was a 3 to 4 mile dirt road leading to the resort. That meant my car was out of the question. As it was only 3 to 4 miles of dirt road, I opted for my wife's Subaru instead of the Jeep. While the Jeep would have been fun, the 200 miles of pavement getting to the dirt would have been less than comfortable. Besides, the Subaru Outback Sport gets much better gas mileage. Now that I am back I can say that the Subaru was the best choice. We had fun playing rally-car driver on the dirt road and my sedan would have had a difficult time making it up several steep sections without bottoming out.

Sure I could have gone on vacation without the Internet. Some of my fellow neighbors did. However it sure helped to go down prepared.

Flight Simulators

Last week I found myself monitoring numbers on a screen. It was one of those tasks that didn't require 100% of my attention but kept me from getting any other work done. It was the perfect scenario for improving my video game skills. I went to our in-house library and picked up a copy of Battlefield 3. I started playing this game around Christmas and did a quick write-up of it. Since then, I have not been able to get back to the game and so it was fun to start playing again.

As I was on one of my work video game consoles, I had to start from the very beginning and that acted as a good refresher for me. Then I got to the mission where I stopped playing at home: a flight mission. When flight simulators first came out, I thought they would be fun. Then I played a few and they were incredibly boring and/or incredibly hard to figure out. Part of the problem with a simulator is that you are in a chair with gravity always keeping your seat planted firmly in said chair. There is no sensation of movement other than what you see and that makes it tough to play the game. When Battlefield 3 got to the flight simulator during my Christmas break, I just lost interest and went on to play another game.

This time I decided to give it a shot and I am glad I did. It was a lot of fun and I really enjoyed the mission. In fact, I came home and had my son play it because it was so entertaining. One thing they did right is have a pilot fly the plane while you concentrated on using missiles and flares. You get to dogfight other planes and then take out ground targets. Both my son and I enjoyed it a lot. The only disappointment was that we now know they lied to us in the movie "Top Gun." In the movie they make it seem like Goose is just along for the ride and Maverick does all the fun stuff. In reality, the guy in back gets to shoot stuff too.

Form vs Function

I was driving in Utah this weekend and pulled up next to a beautiful black Ferrari. I have always wanted one and so it surprised my wife when I told her I would rather have my buddy's tricked-out Jeep (see the picture below). "Why?" was all she could ask once she recomposed herself. I explained that it all boils down to functionality. While I like the idea of owning a fast Italian sports car, it really isn't all that practical for the things I am doing in my life right now. I am happily married and so I don't need an expensive car to help beautiful young women see past my bald head and chubby belly. The speed limit is easily reached in even the most basic car. Yet a vehicle capable of operating in the worst travel conditions comes in handy when you spend as much time in the mountains as I do. Yep, right now I would take the Jeep.

What does this have to do with computers? Well I recently had a conversation with one of my coworkers who is in the process of upgrading one of his computers. He is really into music and so he purchased some expensive sound equipment. No, he didn't just get a high-end sound card, he picked up top-of-the-line studio speakers, mixing equipment and stuff that most normal people would never use, let alone be able to afford. While we were talking, I realized that it would be fun to do the same thing to my computer, but I don't need it. That made me think about how I really use my computer.

To be completely honest, I hardly ever really use my desktop computer. Instead, I use it to connect to other computers that are much more powerful and do the real processing on them. That means I need a fast network connection, which I already have. I also have a lot of windows open into these other servers and so it is nice to have a lot of screen real-estate. That means I need a graphics card capable of displaying to multiple large monitors. That graphics card requires a lot of memory to run well. So while my coworker built his computer for audio, I should concentrate on video.

A Ferrari is a beautiful car that most people would love to own. There are a lot of computers out there that are similar. They are really fast and look amazing. However it is important to look at your needs before buying one. If you are doing a lot of number crunching and need to be "seen" with the latest and greatest, I encourage you to get one. Otherwise if you are like me or my coworker, you might be better suited with a Jeep-like computer that is specialized for specific tasks.

Now that I think about it, I actually have both . . . computers that is. I am typing this blog tonight on my high-end Mac laptop (the Ferrari) while I also have the really fast computer with multiple large-screen monitors in my home office (the Jeep). Now I just wish I could afford both cars.

Oracle Alumni Dinner

On Tuesday evening I was able to attend an Oracle Alumni dinner at the Four Seasons Hotel in Palo Alto, California. The dinner was supposed to be for the 100 most influential people of Oracle in the early days. Don't ask how I got invited as I was still in high school when I first started working at Oracle in 1986 and played a very small part in helping the company.

It was fun to get together with a small group of friends from Oracle's early days. I would say that I knew about half of the people in attendance and it had been over 20 years since I had seen most them. A lot of the old Oracle Alumni have gone on to become CEO's at large software companies throughout Silicon Valley. It was fun for me to be able to talk with them and find out what they have been up to. I was amazed to discover how many of them have left the corporate world and started working with various charities. The thing that wasn't so surprising was how many of them went on to sit on various boards for other companies.

The evening eventually came to a close and it was sad to part company. Business cards were exchanged and promises of getting together again soon echoed through the room. Now I just hope it doesn't take another 20 years to get together again.

Gamification

I have been hearing a lot about gamification lately. For those that don't know, gamification is using ideas from games in non-game context. The classic example is adding a typing speed display inside a word processing program. Then you can see how fast you are typing and it spurs you to get faster and be more accurate.

This last week I started the Global Corporate Challenge with a group of people from work.  When we signed up, they sent us a backpack, a pair of socks, and 2 pedometers. The idea is to walk 10,000 steps every day for 6 weeks. If you decide to swim or bike, you can enter those distances and it converts them to equivalent steps. The GCC takes a page from gamification in that you compete with other teams around the world. Every day you enter the number of steps along with any biking and swimming and you can see how you stack up against other groups. There is also a virtual trip from London all the way around the world and you can see your location every day, which is another gamification idea.

When I am in the office in California, it is easy to get the minimum number of steps. I have the 4 mile ride each way to work. Also any time I want to get food, I walk. I can hit the 10,000 step mark sometime after lunch. At home it is a whole different story. I only end up walking about 4,000 steps in a day. My office is only 30 steps from my bedroom. The kitchen is half-way between the two.

As I am working from home this week, I had a very difficult time getting my 10,000 steps yesterday. Thursday was easy as I did a 15-mile bike ride, which came close to the 10,000 step requirement all on its own. But yesterday it was raining and I didn't want to ride in the rain. At lunch I took the dog for a walk and cracked off 2,500 steps. Towards the end of the day, I was still another 2,500 miles short and so I started doing laps around the kitchen. My wife told me to take the dog for another walk and that is how I was able to get my minimum steps for the day: walking outside in the dark with the dog.

Once again it is raining and so I am not about to take a bike ride. I'm thinking about connecting the pedometer to a paint shaker to help me get the required steps. That is probably cheating though. Besides the whole point of of the program is to get some daily exercise and watching a paint shaker doesn't count.

Pretty Data

Every Thursday afternoon I have a meeting with several data scientists and we discuss how things are going. I am going to end up missing the meeting today because I have another commitment. However it got me thinking about last week's meeting and the work I have done this week, as I still had to submit a progress report for everyone to review.

Last week we got to see a pretty graph in 3D space. The presenter rotated it around so you could tell it was really 3D and not just meant to look that way on the screen. Anyone that doesn't stare at data all day long for his or her job might have been impressed with the graphic. My first thought was, "So what? What does this graph tell me? All I can see are a bunch of dots that look like a vapor cloud."

Now I suppose I might be a little harsh, but seriously, if you had zoomed out, it would have looked like an oval dot on the screen. That got me thinking about what makes data useful. I may modify this in the future, but today I am thinking that useful data needs to tell a story and/or create an action. For instance, watching a graph of Facebook stock over the past few days indicates that the original investors got screwed, at least for now. This may cause others to see the stock as a good deal and buy some. Current investors may see this data and decide to unload it before it tanks any more (Facebook stock is actually up 2 points today . . . the last time I looked). When I look at a cloud of dots, I don't see a story, nor do I want to do anything. Well I may want to take a nap, but that doesn't count.

So the next time you see a bunch of data, ask yourself, "Is it useful? Does it tell a story? Does it make me want to do something? Or do I just want to take a nap?" If there is no story nor do you feel compelled to take action, then you can probably ignore it.