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.