Christmas After Christmas

I once got in trouble for telling my wife I was going to purchase something for myself right before Christmas. It was a pair of snow boots and I didn't think anyone would be getting them for me as boots really should be tried on before they are bought. I was headed out the door when my wife stopped me and told me that is what she got me for Christmas that year. I felt bad and since then we have a rule in the family: you are not allowed to buy anything for yourself from November 1st until Christmas day.

Now that Christmas is over, I have spent the past couple of days online purchasing things that I needed but didn't get for Christmas. There are a number of auto parts that I need to fix up my daughter's Jeep. I also had to get a brake kit for my BMW as the rear brakes are really squeaky.

I didn't limit my shopping to just physical goods as I also picked up some hotel reservations. My wife and I got free seasons passes to Jackson Hole ski resort, which is only a 4 or 5 hour drive. Naturally they are only good if you use them and we try to take a ski trip or two each year above and beyond the daily skiing I do when I am in Utah. We have two trips planned for the year and found a place with $65/night room rates. Normally I would stay away from budget deals, but we have stayed there before and the place isn't too bad.

Finally there were a number of flight reservations that I needed to make. I fly twice a week whether I want to or not and so that takes a bit of coordination. Most of my flights are on Southwest as they generally have the best deals. Sometimes I can find a better price on Delta and so it is nice to open multiple browser windows and compare ticket costs.

Sadly I spent more on the Christmas after Christmas than I did on Christmas. Perhaps there is a flaw in our rule of not buying stuff in November and December.

No Time for Video Games

I love this time of the year as I don't have to go back to California until after New Year's. Normally I find myself playing video games and hanging out with the family. This year I have not had time to play any video games because I have been spending so much time with the family. That is a good thing. I didn't even notice that PlayStation Network (PSN) nor XBox Live were down on Christmas. In fact it took one day for XBox Live and several days to get PSN back up. Hopefully that didn't ruin your Christmas as I am sure a lot of gamers out there wanted to play with their new toys.

Today is the start of an uninterrupted week of vacation. My wife has to work and so I am hanging out with my oldest son. He has a dentist appointment this morning and so I am going through e-mail and shovelling the new snow while I wait for him to come home. When he gets here we will head up skiing for a bit. I guess I could be playing video games right now but it feels weird playing games before noon. We'll see how I feel after skiing.

Video Game Review: FIFA 15

Christmas break is the best time of the year for me to catch up on playing video games. Unfortunately this year I have not had much of a time to play. I have spent a lot of time working on cars, skiing, and taking care of household chores. My oldest son has been home using my PlayStation 4 and playing FIFA 15. My review of the game is based on watching him play.

I have to say that the graphics on the PS4 are incredibly real. Even though you are playing a video game, it looks like you are watching a real soccer match. The announcers you hear as you play complete the experience and do a great job of describing what is taking place.

My son really enjoys how the game plays. You control a single player on the screen but can rotate through the other players so you are always close to the ball. There is a small read triangle that indicates which player you are controlling. When you are cycle through the the character you created at the beginning of the game, the red triangle is highlighted. Your ultimate goal is to make him look good. If you have other controllers, your friends can play with or against you.

Actual soccer matches are around 90 minutes long. The clock runs a little faster in FIFA 15 and so they only last about 12 minutes. When my son has a quick 15 minutes, he runs down to the TV room and plays a match. That is not nearly as quick as some of the other casual games you can play on your phone, but doesn't blow an entire evening like other games have a tendency to do.

FIFA 15 is available for the the PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, XBox 360, and XBox One. It is rated E for everyone. I recommend it for those that like sports games, any fan of Soccer, and those with multiple controllers for their console that love to have friends over to play.

Smartphone App Review: Snocru

I was skiing at Snowbird this past weekend with my oldest son and he showed me a really fun smartphone application called Snocru. I have never really thought there was much of a use for an app while skiing as the mere act of using a smartphone means you have to pull off your glove and your fingers get cold. My son proved me wrong with this one.

We got to the top of the chair where my son quickly removed his phone, took off his glove, started the app, replaced his glove, and we started skiing. We got to the bottom of the run, got on another chair and my son pulled out his phone. It had mapped our run an interactive trail map. It also told him his top speed. A typical GPS app can do that and so I wasn't too impressed. Then my son's phone started buzzing.

Snocru is another one of those social media apps that allow you to interact with other skiers at the same area. People that we didn't know saw that our top speed was just a hair under 60 miles per hour (actually 59.6). It triggered some thresholds on their phones and my son received a number of invitations to ski with others on the hill. If my son was skiing alone, he could have accepted the invitations and been kept from having to ski all by himself. Sometimes I like to ski alone but it is generally more fun to ski with others and Snocru is great for introducing you to new skiers of your same ability.

Now for the downside. GPS functions are required to plot your course on the mountain and they eat up a lot of your phone's battery. So this is one of those apps that will suck power from your phone at an alarming rate. I also find that a GPS is good at speed calculations on flat ground but are significantly off when going up and down hills. Do I believe we were skiing at 60 miles per hour? Not really as we weren't going that fast. At least it didn't seem like it. I could be wrong though.

Snocru is available for both Android and iPhones.

Home for Christmas

Yesterday I made it home after a very adventurous drive. Even after all of my preparations that my wife thought was overkill, I still had a number of unknown variables to deal with. My Jeep had no problem in the snow as I crossed the Sierras on I-80. I did have to stop at the chain control station but the guy waved me right through as he saw I was in a 4-wheel-drive vehicle with awesome snow tires. I was glad I knew where the cheap hotel in Reno was. A word of caution though, the price of the room was only about 60% of the total cost. There were a number of taxes and fees. My $25 room ended up costing $36.04. It was well worth the price as having to spend the night in my car was not something I was looking forward to. I also got a hot shower in the morning.

The real adventure happened after I got through the expected hard part of the trip. My Jeep threw a "check engine" code when I got into Reno. I didn't think anything of it as it was one of those you-can-ignore codes. It turns out, I shouldn't have ignored the code. The engine was running too lean and it was causing problems. Every time I stopped for gas, it would throw a code and the car would struggle to stay running. I would clear the code and the car seemed to run fine only to act up 100 miles later. Eventually I figured out what was going wrong. Whenever you car illuminates the "check engine" light, it runs the fuel a little richer. Your gas mileage goes downhill but the car still runs. Even though you turn off the light, it still runs a bit rich for the next 90 or so miles. I knew this was the case but didn't figure it out until I was about 200 miles from home. Then I left the service light on and limped home. I was glad to pull into my driveway and know that I don't have to go anywhere for the next 20 days.

I still have to work for the next few days but I get to do it from home instead of out in California. That will give me plenty of time to track down the problem on my Jeep, play a few video games, and spend a lot of time skiing.

Road Trip 2014

I am back in the Bay Area but only for one night. I flew out this morning and will be driving my car back to Utah tomorrow evening after work. For past road trips, I have wanted to leave work early to get an early start on the drive. Experience has taught me I am better off waiting until 7pm so I don't have to fight traffic from San Francisco to Sacramento. It can seriously add 4 hours to the drive.

My wife is laughing at me as I am working extra hard to be prepared for this trip. This evening I gathered with one of my co-workers and analyzed the traffic patterns out of the area using Google Maps with the traffic setting turned on. My co-worker even showed me how to look at statistical averages as it has been raining today and there were more than the normal numbers of accidents.

Rain in the area means it is snowing in the mountains. The car I am driving back is a 1998 Jeep Cherokee and one of the best four-wheel drives I have ever owned. It also has relatively new tires with excellent winter tread and so I should not be too concerned about the snow. I shouldn't be, but I am and so I am checking the Caltrans website that has cameras showing the conditions along the road. I have driven I-80 many times and so I know where the trouble spots are. Yes there is snow on the road and even an accident or two. However there doesn't seem to be a long line of cars because the road is closed, so that is a good sign.

The weather tomorrow will play a huge role in my trip and so I am checking out the my favorite website at www.weather.gov. While I may not appreciate some parts of our government, they do a very good job of providing weather information. Right now there is a "Winter Weather Advisory" for the first part of my trip, a "Special Weather Statement" for the middle of my trip, and a "Hazardous Weather Outlook" for the end of my trip. I could probably postpone my trip by a day if I need to, but the weather forecast doesn't seem to be improving over the next week and I don't want to hang out here too long.

Normally I drive all the way through without stopping. As it is winter and cold outside, I don't want to get somewhere in the middle of the Nevada desert and be so tired I have to pull over and try to sleep. I also have Kayak open and am looking at hotels in Winnemucca which happens to be the half-way point of the trip. I don't see any super cheap rates and so I won't be making any reservations. However if I come across something a little less expensive than $65 along the way, I may just pull in and get a good night's rest before continuing in the morning.

Yes my wife is right and I am probably over thinking this trip. I just want to make sure I get home safe and sound. After all, when something goes wrong on a road trip in the middle of the summer, you don't run the risk of freezing to death or having other cars slide into you.

Real-Time Websites

I got up this morning and went skiing up at Snowbird. It has been a while since we have gotten any new snow so I was glad to look on their website and see we had 4 inches of it overnight. My wife and I had a good morning of skiing while it continued snowing and then we came home. I was eager to see how much snow fell while we were skiing. Imagine my surprise when Snowbird's website still registered the same 4 inches. I kept checking throughout the day as it continued snowing only to see the same number.

Snowbird is not the only website that has a problem keeping their website updated. I was trying to get real-time weather reports this last Thursday as the San Francisco area was pounded with a storm. All I wanted was a live picture of the marina where I keep my sailboat. The yacht club located in the marina claimed to have a webcam pointed in the general direction of my boat. Unfortunately I couldn't find the page with live pictures. They did have an automated feed of the anemometer in the marina so I could see the strength of the wind. That let me know that my boat was fine.

The secret to having a real-time website is not having to manually update it. There needs to be some sort of automatic feed to keep the website up to date with the latest information. Something like an anemometer or web camera. I think the people responsible to input the latest snow totals were out skiing instead of doing their job. I can't say I blame them though. I would be too.

A Time to Call "The Guy"

Generally I am pretty good at fixing things on my own. Every once and a while, it is good to call "my guy" to fix something. There are certain things you don't want to fix yourself as it can be dangerous. When my garage door spring broke, I didn't fix it. Instead I called my garage door guy. Garage door springs store a lot of potential energy that can be fatal if you are not careful. My guy did a great job, charged a reasonable price, and nobody got hurt.

This past week I got a call from my wife and she told me that our very expensive oven wasn't working. I thought about fixing it myself but quickly remembered that it runs on 220 volts. That is twice the amount found in your normal wall electrical sockets. "Danger" was the main thought running through my mind and so I had my wife call her home appliance repair guy. He came out to the house today and discovered the problem in about 2 minutes. That included sliding the oven out from the wall so he could see the back. It turns out a $35 part failed and needs replaced. He ordered a new one and will install it early next week.

It was very educational for me to watch my wife's "guy" work. Should something similar happen in the future, I now know what to do. First, turn off the circuit breaker to the oven. Then carefully slide the oven away from the wall so I can inspect the electrical cord. If something doesn't look right, replace the part with a new one. Before watching the repairman, I might have tried to jury rig it. That would have been bad as my fix might have caused a fire and burned my house down.

When it comes to fixing computers, you don't have to worry about them running at 220 volts or having large mechanical springs that can kill you. About the worst you can do is shock yourself. As long as you avoid opening a power supply or stick to software, I encourage you to use your favorite Internet search engine and see if you can't fix any problems on your own. If you are uncomfortable with that, think about all of the technical people you know and see if you can't figure out who is "your guy."

Uncharted 4: A Thief's End

I was going through my e-mail earlier today and received a note from PlayStation with news of a trailer for the new Uncharted 4: A Thief's End game. The trailer shows 15 minutes of game play and it looks amazing. I am a big fan of the Uncharted series of video games and will add that to my must have list when it becomes available. Uncharted is one of those games that makes it worth owning a PlayStation video game console as it isn't available anywhere else.

Uncharted: Drake's Fortune first came out in November of 2007 and was an interesting game in that it played more like an interactive movie than a video game. I got the game shortly after its release and found it to be a lot of fun. I made the mistake of introducing it to my sons who also enjoyed it unceasingly. When Uncharted 2: Among Thieves came out in October of 2009, I immediately picked up a copy and my sons attacked it with vigor. Naturally we couldn't wait to pick up Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception when it came out in November of 2011.

My youngest son really enjoyed the second game and thought it was the best of the three until about half way through the third one. Then he decided it was the best but felt the last two were a lot better games than the first one. We were all sad that there weren't going to be any more Uncharted games. Then the PlayStation Vita came out and had another Uncharted game among the launch titles. When they showed the Uncharted 4 demo at E3 this year, we were all pleasantly surprised.

The recent game play video puts Uncharted 4 as coming out in 2015 which means we don't have to wait too long.

Video Game Review: Dead Space 3

A few months ago I was able to download Dead Space 3 for my PS3. Tonight was the first time I have been able to play the game and so I thought I would give a quick review. The PlayStation 4 and XBox One are selling well but there are still a number of games for the older generation consoles that can be found at very low prices. My hope is that this will help you pick an inexpensive Christmas gift for that gamer in your life.

The game starts with a number of quick videos giving you some background. I can only assume they surmise the activities of the first two games, seeing as I never played them. It is enough to get you interested. Game play begins as a soldier in a snowy world looking for something. I have been playing games on the PS3 again and so the graphics look pretty good. Had I gone from a PS4 back to the 3, I probably couldn't say that. I especially like how the transition from video to game play is seamless and that the videos are not done at a higher quality. You get to find your way through the snow with the help of a path control that shows you where to go. I thought it was well done and helps first-timers get to where the real action begins.

I have to admit that I have only played the game for an hour or so but found it very entertaining. There are a number of zombie-type monsters that can be rather difficult to kill even on the easiest or "casual" setting. The graphics are also pretty gruesome and quickly became a turn-off to continue playing the game. I have decided that I will probably go back to Mass Effect for the time being but may continue with Dead Space 3 afterwards.

Dead Space 3 is published by EA and is available for the PC, PlayStation 3, and XBox 360. I would recommend the game for older teenagers and young adults. If you are looking for that family game that everyone will enjoy, this is not it.

A Different Kind of Christmas List

Every year at the beginning of December I try to compile a list of Christmas gifts that I would like to receive. Most of the time I try to keep the ideas centered around technology items. This year I am going to do something a little different. While I enjoy gifts as much as anyone, I have come to the conclusion that anything that I can buy, I will get for myself even if it is not Christmas or my birthday. In thinking about this Holiday season, these are gifts that don't cost anything but things that I want anyways.

My children to be successful - Most of the time parents think they want their kids to be happy when what they really want is for them to be successful. Happiness should be a by product of that success, not the main focus. Unfortunately that means children need some growing experiences and that can be hard to watch. The end result is well worth it. This past year I have spent a lot of time with my oldest son working on a 1996 Jeep Cherokee. We have rebuilt the upper half of the engine, replaced a number of sensors, replaced the exhaust, and turned a beat-up old car into something much more reliable. It has not been an easy journey, but now my son has the skills he needs to diagnose most car problems. I think I can call that a success and the joy we felt when we were done far outweighs any of the pain felt along the way.

My wife to feel loved - I have to be honest in saying that my wife does not like being alone as much as she is. I spend four days a week away from home and I know she gets lonely a lot. I try to make it up to her as best I can but circumstances make being together all of the time impossible. My wife and I are not alone. There are a number of other spouses out there that travel as much or more than I do. My wife is a huge support to me as I try to further myself in my career and do something that I think matters. I appreciate her for that and I hope she knows and feels that she is loved.

My kids to know I am proud of them - Sometimes we push our children to be successful and they may think that they don't live up to our expectations. I am very proud of the accomplishments of my kids and I hope they know that.

There are a number of other non-material things I could ask for this Christmas but the reality is that they don't really matter. If you have a good family where everyone tries their best and forgives any other shortcomings, then you have everything you need for Christmas. May you have a great Holiday season.

It is Good to be Home

Friday night I made it from Tokyo back to Salt Lake without too much difficulty. It is good to be home again. Unfortunately it is a short weekend as I have to head to California for the week ahead. Two days in my own house is not enough and so I am looking forward to being able to return again Thursday evening.

While in Tokyo I used a number of technologies to keep in touch with my wife. Normally I use Skype but my wife's schedule didn't allow it this time. At least not computer to computer. I did use Skype on my iPhone while in my hotel and called my wife directly on her mobile phone number. It cost me only a few cents per minute but was well worth it.

My wife wasn't always available to talk and so I sent her a number of text messages. I kept my iPhone in airplane mode and just turned on the WiFi. As my wife and I both have iPhones, we were able to exchange text messages over WiFi and without me having to connect to the local network in Japan. I have written about this before and my son informs me that you can do the same thing with Android phones, but I have yet to give it a shot.

Next week my wife and my schedules should sync up a bit more nicely and that will make talking much easier. I love that technology has made it easier to call home as I will be missing it a lot this week.

A Change in Customs and Immigration

I just landed in Los Angeles after flying from Tokyo's Hanada airport. I was here just 2 months ago and was surprised that I didn't have to fill out the usual customs and immigration form. They told us on the plane that it was not necessary for those of us traveling with a US passport. Then the passenger sitting next to me told me that his wife flew through LAX a few days earlier and it was a breeze to get through the usual welcome-back-to-the-USA process.

We were landed 15 minutes early and that gave me an even 2 hours to clear customs, change terminals, go through security again, and walk to the furthest gate from the door. Two hours is plenty of time and so I wasn't sweating the layover, but I was interested in how the kiosk would streamline things. Guess what? It actually made things longer.

The old process would have you fill out a form on the plane. With a 10-hour flight, taking 5 minutes to fill out a form was not an arduous task. Now you go to a kiosk and answer a few questions on a touch-screen terminal. They also take your picture. Because they scan your passport, there is less of a chance for errors. When you are done, the kiosk prints out a form that looks somewhat similar to the one you used to fill out on the plane. The rest of the process is exactly the same as it was before. The net is that have one additional stop on your trip through customs and immigration.

I am trying to decide if this computer kiosk makes my life easier or not. On the one hand, the Federal Government now has a more efficient method of entering this information into their massive database. On the other, I have to make an extra stop before I am considered on American soil. If the extra stop means we can hire more customs and immigrations officers so I never have to wait very long, then I am all for the new technology. However I don't think it will work that way.

How Long to Keep Your Laptop

One thing I have noticed in Japan this week is how everyone seems to have the latest and greatest mobile phone, but how the Japanese will hold onto ancient laptops. When I took the train from the airport to my hotel on Monday evening, everyone seemed to be on their phone and either listening to music or playing some sort of game. All of the phones looked to be the latest and greatest offerings from Apple or Sony. I'm not sure what market share Samsung has in Japan, but based on a very informal non-scientific survey, it can't be much.

I have continued to watch as people around me remain entertained by their phones and the trends I noticed on Monday night seem to be holding. I contrast that with the laptops I see people using around me at the office. Now it could just be the company I work for, but my Japanese coworkers seem to keep their laptops forever. I sort of understand this as my current laptop is about 3 years old and even though company policy allows me to replace it after 2 years, I am fine keeping it for now. There is a lot of work required to transfer all of my files to a new computer and I don't want to take the time to do it. Here they take it to the extreme though as some resort to taped on keys to keep them running.

As I travel through Japan it is very clear that natural resources are very scarce in this highly populated country. Nobody drives cars as everyone takes the train. Houses and apartments are small and in tall buildings because usable land is minimal. There is also no such thing as a regular garbage can. All garbage is sorted into various recycling bins so it can be efficiently processed and reused. It makes me wonder if this effects the thinking of the people here and so they hold onto certain items longer. Laptops require more resources than phones which means phones can be replaced more often. Perhaps this is a lesson we should all learn.

Waiting for E-mail

It is a little after 6am here in Tokyo this morning and I am busy going through my morning ritual. One of the best ways I know on fighting jet lag is to try and stay on your old schedule as much as possible. So in Japan that means waking up at 4 or 5am and going to bed fairly early. The time difference is as much as 8 hours from home and so that is not a foolproof way of dealing with being a third of a way around the world, but it does help.

I have been up since 4:45 this morning and running through my daily routine. I start by trying to sleep as long as possible. Then I sit in bed and read the daily newspaper that is delivered to my hotel room. English papers in Japan are only about 10 pages and so that is a quick read. The stories haven't changed much since I was last here about 2 months ago. After the paper I sit down and read e-mail. I start with my personal e-mail and even though I received about 45 messages, thanks to a good spam filter, there were really only 2 or 3 messages that were important to me. Then I log into my work e-mail and that is where I am now.

Unfortunately it takes a while for Microsoft Outlook to sync with the servers and so I am patiently waiting for my e-mail to download to my laptop. Once that is done, I can attack all of those things from the office back in the States that have been happening while I slept. After all, it is a little after 1 in the afternoon back there and everyone has had an entire morning to flood my inbox with inquiries and requests. Perhaps now is a good time for a shower.

Cyber Monday in Tokyo

Once again I find myself in Tokyo, Japan. This is the fifth trip this year and just happened to occur over Cyber Monday. Due to air travel and crossing the international date line at just the right time, my Cyber Monday was all of about 4 hours long. That means I didn't really get the chance to partake in all of the online shopping deals. I'm not really sure I missed much as most of my Christmas shopping is already done. However I am starting to realized the breadth of deals being offered online at this time of the year.

My e-mail inbox filled up with a number of advertisements related to travel deals and I feel I may have missed some of the best prices of the year. I know my dad took advantage of the low airfare as he forwarded me a message for a trip he will be taking with my mom in February. For someone that commutes weekly between my home in Salt Lake City and my office in the San Francisco Bay Area, I'm wondering if it is too late to cash in on some cheap flights.

I also enjoy taking my wife on quick vacations every quarter and wonder if there were some spectacular destination hotels having jaw-dropping deals. I already have my long weekends away booked for the first two quarters of the year but am vacillating on what to do for the third one. Perhaps I will log into some travel sites and see if there are any great deal on Alaskan cruises or a trip to Hawaii. Holiday deals associated with Black Friday used to be restricted to toys and things that could be wrapped to put under a Christmas tree. Now everything goes on sale and can be had a discounted price. What a crazy world we live in.

Christmas Music

This year I have tried to be a bit more proactive when it comes to helping my wife set up all of the Christmas decorations. Yesterday we put up the outside Christmas lights and today we put up the Christmas tree. As we were working today, my wife wanted to listen to Christmas music.

In the past my wife has kept a ton of Christmas music on her iPhone. For some reason she took it off and so she left it up to me to figure out how to get some Holiday music going while we put up the tree. I thought about setting up a Christmas station on Pandora. However that would have required finding speakers for my tablet or smartphone and so I pulled out an old boom-box with a built-in CD player. My wife then located about 20 Christmas CDs and we put one in.

It worked quite well and we enjoyed the music for about 40 minutes. Then the music stopped. We were still working on decorating and so my wife changed CDs and we kept going. Once again we were good, but only for about 40 minutes. It took us several hours to set things up and the music helped speed the process along. The only problem was that it felt like we were constantly changing CDs.

I'm not sure what is more annoying: listening to commercials every few songs that come with the free version of Pandora or having to swap out CDs every 40 minutes or so. Ultimately I decided that MP3 players like the iPod have really spoiled me and it is tough to go back to older music formats like CDs.

Video Game Review: Mass Effect Part I

It is the beginning of the Holiday season now and so I thought I would start my video game review a bit earlier than usual. A few weeks ago I was visiting a friend at Electronic Arts and was able to pick up a copy of the Mass Effect trilogy. I have wanted to play the series for a while and when I saw the bundle for $30, couldn't resist. This long weekend I was finally able to find some time crack open the case and start playing the game.

I have the game for my PS3 system and it is tough to going back to the PS3 after playing games on the PS4 for the past year. I only took a few minutes of play to get used to the older console. Mass Effect is one of those games where you make multiple choices throughout the game and each choice has far-reaching effects. There is also a first-person shooter element and I enjoy first person shooter games.

Mass Effect has been out for a number of years and so there wasn't any updates I needed to download when I started the game. However it did have to install the game on my PS3's hard drive. That seemed to take forever. I think it would have been faster to go to the store, buy a solid-state drive, and install it. I didn't do that, instead I went and had lunch. It was ready when I came back.

The game was a lot like a Uncharted in that it played like movie. I was surprised at how many glitches there were in the game, given its age. Once I had to quite the game and come back in because I had walked into a corner. The two people I was leading wouldn't get out of the way when I tried to back out and I was stuck.

I am only a couple of hours into the first of the three games. It is worth continuing to play as I find it very entertaining. I may have to take a break though as I have to head back to work in a few days. However I will pick it back up again during the Christmas break and will give an update as I get further along.

Track pad Preferences

I have two laptops that I switch between when I am at home in Utah. One is my Mac laptop from work. The other is a Sony VAIO. Sony is no longer in the laptop business and when they were unloading their laptops, I picked one up cheap. I tried to give it to my wife, but she couldn't get use to Windows 8.1 and refuses to use it. I have taken it over and use it for personal things like writing in this blog.

Each of my laptops uses a track pad as a substitute for the mouse. The VAIO also has a touch screen but I hate fingerprints on my screen and so I never use it. I am strictly a track pad kind of a guy. The track pads on both computers are very similar with only one difference: the VAIO has three invisible buttons I can click with my thumb while the Mac only has a single button. I say the three buttons are invisible because there is no line that distinguishes where one button ends and another begins. It makes for a seamless track pad on the VAIO and I am sure the designers thought it was a great idea. I hate it though. I am always clicking the right or center buttons when I mean to click the left one.

As there is only a single button on the Mac, I have to use one of my fingers and hold the CTL key to simulate the right mouse button. While it sounds like more work, I actually prefer it. You may disagree but after swapping between two laptops for the better part of several months, I have to say I prefer a single mouse button on a track pad. Unfortunately the Windows 8.1 control panel doesn't allow you to simulate a single button. Too bad.

PlayStation TV

Working in the video game industry gets me access to discounts not available to the general public. A month or so ago I was thinking about buying another PlayStation 4. I already have one but was looking to add one to the television I have in my bedroom and the price was very attractive. While my wife is not much of a video game player, she does like to watch Blu-ray movies. I ran the idea by some guys at work and they suggested I get a PlayStation TV instead.

A PlayStation 4 costs $399 while a PlayStation TV only costs $99. Without doing any more research, I ordered one and happily set it up when it arrived. Then I didn't do anything with it. It has sat next to my bedroom TV for about a month and last night I finally decided to give it a shot. My wife and I were going to address Christmas cards and watch a movie. I ran downstairs and put the Blu-ray into my PS4. Then I headed back upstairs.

I turned on the PlayStation TV and there was an icon to connect to my PS4. I selected it and was immediately told I needed to update the system software. I figured that would happen as I have not had the device on for a month. The update only took a few minutes. It also told me I would be able to have up to 4 PlayStation TV's connect to a single PS4. I thought that was pretty cool.

When you connect to the PS4, it shows you the home screen for the PS4 and you would think you were actually on the more expensive device. I selected the Blu-ray movie and was told I couldn't watch it. I was able to play a game on the PS4 but couldn't watch a movie. Bummer! That was the whole reason I got the PlayStation TV. Perhaps it is a feature they will add in the future but for now it doesn't work. I wonder if I can still use my discount on a PS4?

Beware of Static Electricity

This evening I went to plug my phone in and there was a nice blue spark. The cold dry air in Utah increases the amount of static electricity that we humans generate. Sometimes I can't touch my dog without shocking her. No wonder she runs and hides at this time of the year.

Electronics are very sensitive to static electricity and can be ruined by it. When I first got married, I touched a corded phone and it never worked again. I could answer the phone but the dial pad didn't work and so I couldn't make any calls. I had to go buy a new one. For a $25 phone, that really isn't a big issue. For a $500 mobile phone, static electricity will make a grown man cry.

Should you find yourself shocking everything you touch, try to ground yourself before reaching for your phone or it's power cord. Try to touch the metal case of your laptop before reaching for the keyboard or mouse. Most well-designed modern electronics are meant to discharge some static electricity. Just don't assume everything is well designed.

A Relaxing Sunday

Tomorrow I don't have to wake up early and catch a flight to the Bay Area. Instead I will work the first three days of the week from home and have the next two days off. I try to make the most of my weekends and enjoy them up until the last minute. Knowing I don't have to catch a plane tomorrow has me much more at ease.

Normally I go to bed on Sunday evenings around 10:30 pm. That is because I have to wake up at 4:45 am on Monday to catch my flight. Tonight I can relax and not have to worry about what time to turn in. I also don't have to worry about packing my bags or making sure I have everything I will need for the week. Tonight is a much needed break.

So what am I going to do with all of this extra time? Read a book. Several years ago I picked up a book that contains journals from pioneers moving West in the mid 1800's. This morning I was able to crack off a chapter and realize how easy we have it today. While it may take me 11 hours to drive a car from my home in Salt Lake to the Bay Area, it took wagon trains months to cross the same distance. I also don't have to worry about my children dying of exposure along the way.

As we head into the Thanksgiving season, I have to say that I am thankful for the technology we have. I constantly utilize speedy transportation whether it be an automobile, train, or airplane. I also enjoy the benefits of instant electronic communication. This morning I sent an e-mail to my son in Armenia, half way around the world. I will have a response waiting for me tomorrow. Yes we live in wonderful times and I am thankful for that. I hope you are too.

The Humor in Spam E-mail

I have a pretty good filter that eliminates a lot of unwanted e-mail. Unfortunately it may be a little too good as I have to go through my filter list daily to make sure I am not missing any important messages. I quickly skim the subjects and the sender. If there is anything that I think might be important, I can view it without having it sent to my inbox.

Weird Al Yankovic did a song about a decade ago making fun of the absurdity of horoscopes and so with a little creative license, I would like to add my thoughts about all of the Spam e-mails I see on a daily basis.

Lose 20 pounds overnight - As someone who has lost about 30 pounds in the past 3 months, I know what it takes to lose weight. It really is a simple trick: eat less food and exercise more. Unfortunately the only way to lose 20 pounds overnight is to have one of your legs amputated. I've grown attached to mine and want to keep them so I won't be trying to lose 20 pounds overnight.

Reverse diabetes with this one simple trick - For a lot of people there really is one simple trick for reversing type 2 diabetes and that is to lose weight. However I think those that have type 1 diabetes are offended by such claims. Losing weight also doesn't guarantee you will reverse diabetes, but you may keep it at bay for a while. I'm sorry as I really do want there to be a magic cure for diabetes. Unfortunately it is not that simple for everyone. If you do have diabetes, please see your doctor and get help.

These women want to date you - If I was living below the poverty level of some 3rd world country and you offered to fly me to the United States or some other equally wealthy country, I'd want to date you to. There are much less expensive ways of getting a date though. Besides, this is most likely a scam.

Have an affair tonight - No, I like my wife and wouldn't want to do anything to hurt her. I suppose there are some that might find this e-mail entertaining, but I'll pass.

Find out if he is cheating on you - I think this e-mail is sent by the same people that sent the previous e-mail. Anyone who responds to the previous e-mail is put on a list and all they have to do is check to see if your name is on the list.

I will pay you $2 Million if you help me deposit this money - I get something like this on a daily basis. Remember that if something is too good to be true, it generally is. This is a good way to have someone give up bank account information that bad guys use to clean out savings accounts.

You've won a prize - Ok, I'll admit that once I really did win a prize and they notified me by e-mail. However they provided information that I had given them when I signed up for the contest and so I knew it was real. Generally speaking though, you didn't win anything and it is just another scam.

Repayment of the money lost in a scam - This one is just sad even if it is a bit clever. If someone was gullible enough to get scammed once, they just might fall for it again in the hopes of getting their money back. Too bad it doesn't really work that way. 

I'm stuck in a foreign country and need your help to get home - I actually almost fell for this one. I got an e-mail from someone I barely know claiming that he was stuck in some foreign country and needed me to wire him some money so he could buy a plane ticket home. I didn't know him well enough to just call his family and ask if he was traveling and so it was tempting to respond and send him a few bucks. However I travel enough internationally to have seen the holes in his story and figured it was a scam. I was tempted though.

I wish there was something I could do to keep people from sending me so much junk e-mail. Unfortunately that is just the price we pay for being able to exchange messages so easily. Every once and a while I do crack a smile as I read some of these unwanted messages. Perhaps I just need to view them as entertainment and humor. After all, that is what the small print says about horoscopes.

Low-Tech Solutions

Last night it was time to fly from the Bay Area home to Salt Lake. I fly with a friend who lives in Utah like me and also works just South of San Francisco. He usually picks me up at my office and we drive to the Oakland airport. My buddy has arranged parking in a garage close to the airport but it still requires that we walk about a mile to catch a shuttle bus to the terminal. Usually it is a pleasant walk even though it might be in the dark. Last night it was pouring rain. That complicated things.

We knew it was going to be a wet walk and so I picked up some large trash bags from the office. I also had the foresight to copy down the numbers to 3 different taxi cab companies that operate in the Oakland airport area.

We got to the garage and decided it was too wet to try and walk, so we called each of the cab companies. Others must have had a similar idea because we couldn't get a taxi for 30 minutes. That was going to make us late for the flight. Ultimately we had to walk to the shuttle stop armed with only our large garbage bags. We stayed mostly dry until the sidewalk started flooding. It didn't take long before our feet were soaked. Our only recourse was to pull out more plastic bags and put them over our feet. The bags lasted only moments before they succumbed to the asphalt and grew holes.

My travel partner and I made it to the airport and while we were not completely dry, our luggage was, thanks to our low-tech plastic bags. With all of the technology around us, sometimes it is something as simple as a plastic bag that can solve a problem.

Satisfaction in Coding

A couple of days ago I was adding an entry to this blog when I noticed that I had "Assembly Language" as one of my labels. It briefly reminded me of some assembly language programming I had to do while in college. For those that don't know, assembly language is one step above the ones and zeros that computers understand. Nobody wants to remember that 00000001 is the command to move the contents of register A to register B and so the designers of the Intel 8088 microprocessor created the MOVAB command. MOVAB is much easier to understand for us humans. Very few people program in Assembly Language as it can be rather tedious. However those programs are small and run incredibly fast.

Thinking back to my college classes reminded me how much fun coding is. When I first started at my current job, I got to do quite a bit of SQL coding. Now I do less and less as I am managing a bunch of developers. Every once and a while, I will get to do something technical and I feel a great sense of satisfaction.

Last night I got back to my boat early and had time to play around with a bit of coding. It felt good to create few lines of Python and watch them do something interesting. Once again, I am back on the boat early and plan to continue with my sample coding. I'm not planning to write the next version of Tetris or a better game than Angry Birds, but that doesn't matter. Coding allows me to build something. It allows me to create something. Writing software allows me to turn ideas into reality with virtually no cost other than my time. That alone is its own reward.

Duct Tape

We are expecting rain in the Bay Area tomorrow and so I went out to my Jeep and applied Duct tape to a rusted section of the roof. This is a very temporary fix as the tape will only accelerate the oxidation process. I really should remove the rust, weld a piece of sheet metal over the hole, and properly paint the repair. All of that will have to wait until my Christmas break when I can get the Jeep back to my home garage in Utah and take the time to do things right.

My duct tape fix is all I have time for this evening and is symbolic of a number of technological fixes we apply to problems. Sneakernet is one such example that a number of us old-timers used to use. Instead of taking the time to set up a network between two computers, we would copy files to floppy disks, walk the disks to the second computer, and copy the files off the floppies. For large amounts of data, this was a painfully slow process and it would have been better to take the time so put the computer on the network.

Duct tape fixes are fine for certain problems but should be used sparingly. They only become a problem when we use them too often and are unwilling to look into more elegant solutions. So if you find yourself constantly doing something on your computer, take the time to do a quick Internet search and see if there are suggestions for a better way to do things. You may just save yourself some time.

Reading the Sunday Newspaper

Last night I had the option of sitting down and watching a movie with my wife or reading a book while she read the Sunday paper. I watched a movie with my wife the previous two nights and so I opted to sit down and read a book. I am glad I did as it was very relaxing and enjoyable.

I know that electronic readers like the Kindle and Nook have replaced books while tablets have replaced newspapers. However there is something therapeutic about reading from something that doesn't require batteries. It is also nice to unfold a newspaper and spread it out on a table or ottoman as you can see much more at once than you can with even the largest of tablets.

Several years ago we stopped taking the daily paper and only subscribed to the one on Sunday. Truth be told, I like reading the comics. I'm not the only one as my youngest son used to call dibs on them when I was done. He is now living in Armenia but has asked that we forward him the Sunday comics on occasion. My wife is a bit more thorough with the Sunday paper. She likes to go through all of the ads in search of something interesting. Then she carefully reads each section of the paper paying more attention to certain articles and less to others. When she is done, she folds everything up and puts the paper in our recycle bin.

We are one of the few families I know that still subscribes to a physical newspaper. I think that is pretty sad as some of my fondest memories are from reading the Sunday newspaper when I was young. I enjoy and embrace technology as that is how I make my living. However sitting back on a Sunday evening and watching my wife enjoy reading makes it worth the small price we pay. If you haven't read a real newspaper in a while, spend a few quarters and pick one up. See if you don't feel a satisfaction you don't get from an electronic format. If you do, you may want to think about subscribing. Newspapers really aren't that expensive.

A Ski Rack for the Jeep

Last month I bought my wife a new Jeep Wrangler. The first addition is getting a ski rack for it since there is snow falling in the mountains around my house. Unfortunately the Jeep Wrangler is a tough car to outfit with a ski rack. You can mount one on the hard top but that involves drilling holes. Besides we don't yet have a hard top as ours came with a soft top.

I didn't want to wait for one to arrive by mail and so I headed to the local ski shop. Both Thule and Yakima make ski racks meant to mount on bike carriers that attach to trailer hitches. We wanted a ski rack that attaches to our spare tire. The ski shop just had ski racks for the top of a car. Next we headed to REI. REI had the Thule racks and we were able see that we needed to get their rack for skis that attaches to a bike rack. We also saw that they have a bike rack that attaches to a spare tire and is compatible with the ski rack we need. Unfortunately the combo was rather expensive at $465 for both.

Being a computer expert and knowing that you can always get a better price online, I came home with my wife and we fired up the computer. Guess what? Everyone wanted $465 for the combo. I couldn't believe that a better deal didn't exist on the Internet. In the end, my wife and I headed down to REI and made the purchase. As I am an REI member, I was able to use my 20% discount on a single item. I used it on the more expensive piece of the 2-part rack. That means the local store had the better price than the Internet.

We brought everything home and looked at putting it together. In the end, we decided that the best option for our ski rack was actually to mount it to a trailer hitch bike rack we already own. Since we bought both pieces from a local shop, we can take back the piece we don't need, save ourselves $200, and not have to pay shipping costs. Sometimes it pays to shop at a local store instead of trying to buy everything online.

The Best Tasting Milk Chocolate

Computers are good for a number of things including product reviews. However some products are best reviewed by the purchaser. Chocolate is one. Yesterday we decided to have a milk chocolate taste test in the office. It was very interesting as I was the one that set up the test.

Unfortunately I can no longer eat milk chocolate as it is not part of my super strict diet. Dark chocolate is, but everyone wanted to know which milk chocolate was the best. We had seven different brands and it was up to me to arrange them up and label them so nobody would know what chocolate they were eating. All I needed to do was break them into similar sized pieces and put them face-down on the plates. I then labeled each chocolate with a single letter. We tried the following:

• Godiva
• Dove
• Hershey's
• Ghiradelli
• Cadbury
• Lindt
• Meiji

For those that don't travel to Tokyo much, the last one is from Japan.

I would love to tell you which was everyone's favorite, but then that would ruin the experience for you. This is one time you want to discover the answer for yourself.

What Did We Do Before the Internet?

My wife and I gave our 2008 Subaru to our oldest son a few weeks ago. We thought we were doing him a favor. It turns out we unloaded a minor problem for us only to give it to him. Being a responsible father means that it is now my problem again. The clutch was getting really close to burning out. Now it is slipping and we get to repair it. What does this have to do with the Internet? That is how we diagnosed the problem and also the means for figuring out the best course of action to fix it.

My son described the problem to me over the course of two or three verbal paragraphs. I did a quick search on the Internet and discovered the clutch is slipping. It is only a matter of time before it burns out completely and the car is no longer drivable. Next I looked at what it would take to repair it. You can get a clutch replacement kit for about $200 online. The only question is if it is enough to completely repair the clutch. A quick search revealed a nice video talking about the problem and roughly how to fix it. Armed with a lot more knowledge and a few more Internet searches, my son and I are confident we can solve the problem on our own.

This leads me to the question of today's entry: What did we do before the Internet? It feels like any time there is a problem I need solved or a question I need answered, the Internet has one. Not all of the answers are correct, but there is a lot of guidance that didn't exist before. Now I get to spend a Saturday working on the car with my son.

A New Washing Machine

My wife and I have been looking for a new washing machine for about 6 months. Our current one is slowly dying and we are doing all we can to keep it going. Coming up on the Holiday season, there are a number of deals and so we waited until we found a great price on the one we want. Today I decided to order it online. It should arrive in a couple of weeks.

Interestingly enough, one of my co-workers asked about my method for purchasing appliances without realizing I had just bought a large one. I explained that the repair man keeps coming to our house to fix our washing machine and so I keep asking him which major brand he repairs the least. While I appreciate all of the online reviews available for any possible purchase you can make, the one review I trust the most is that of someone that repairs the product on a daily basis.

There are numerous stories of companies planting good reviews as well as unsatisfied customers complaining too loudly about the smallest of problems. One would think it all balances out in the end because of the volume of reviews. However I am not so sure and so I place more weight in the review of a trusted adviser and less weight in the voice of the masses. After all, everyone stupidly purchased those front-loading washers and they became super popular. Never mind that you can't interrupt the washing cycle should you have mistakenly left something out. Now everyone is discovering that there is an engineering flaw with them where they don't drain properly. A little water remains in the bottom which creates a playground for mold, mildew, and some really nasty smelling bacteria that has people tossing them out in favor of top-loading washers.

So what brand of washing machine did we get? Whirlpool. I'd write a glowing review but I have yet to use it. Besides I'm not so sure I would trust the review, nor should you.

Cyberwidows

When the Internet exploded about a decade ago and everyone started putting up Websites, somebody coined the term "Cyberwidow." It referred to wives that were neglected in the evening because husbands were busy playing online games or surfing the Internet. As someone who works in the video game industry, I fear I only help contribute to the problem. Therefore I feel it is appropriate for me to help provide my own personal remedy.

About a month ago I was talking with one of my friends. We were talking about our wives and he mentioned that it is important to get away for a weekend, without the kids, and go do something fun. His recommendation included a quarterly time-frame. I have to say that I agree. My kids are grown and all moved out so it is just me and my wife. Yet we still try to get away once a year. Conincidently we were having the conversation just after I returned from a weekend in San Diego and so I felt like I was doing my part. That was back in September.

Now it is November and a different quarter. This past weekend I took my wife to Moab, Utah. One of my favorite national park is Arches and it is spectacular. I think it ranks right up there with Yellowstone and Yosemite. Arches National Park is located just outside of Moab and has some adventurous hikes with amazing scenery. Moab also happens to be mountain bike capital of the world and at the same time, four-wheel-drive capital of the world. It just so happens that I recently bought my wife a brand new Jeep Wrangler Rubicon. We used the trip to do a bit of hiking and break in my wife's new car. It was fun and most importantly, nothing broke.

The whole weekend was very inexpensive. We opted to stay in a hotel where breakfast was included in the price of the room. They had a hot tub and pool that felt rejuvenating even though it was only 45 degrees Fahrenheit outside overnight. Throw in gas for the Jeep, eating at restaurants, and entry into the park for a total cost under $200. Remember that a happy wife equals a happy life. Life is pretty good for me right now.

An E-mail From my Sister

I just got an e-mail from my sister and thought it was great that she was thinking about me. The message looked like it came from her in that it even had the line at the bottom that said it was sent from her iPhone. My sister has an iPhone and so one would think the link that she suggested really came from her. The reality is that the message wasn't from her and I knew even before I subjected myself to more spam e-mail.

So how did I know the message really wasn't from my sister? It is easy because I also have an iPhone. I know how tough it is to type on my iPhone's keyboard and there is no way I would spell out an entire URL with all of the little various characters that make up the tracking signature. The characters at the end of my alleged sister's e-mail were "3b5pmwcxdk5sympms0" and there is no way I would type all that out.

Another hint that the e-mail really wasn't from my sister was that she sent me it from her iPhone. Why wouldn't she send me a text? It would have been faster for her and she knows I respond to text messages much more quickly than I do with e-mail.

The next time you get an e-mail from one of your friends that contains a link to click on, simply ask yourself a few questions. Does the e-mail look legitimate? Are there hidden clues that indicate it not being a genuine e-mail? If you do have a question, you can always expand the e-mail headers and see where the e-mail originated. While the reply-to field was my sister's e-mail address, the originating e-mail address wasn't. I think I will just send an e-mail to my sister saying "Hello".

Computer Tradeshows

I recently attended the Strata + Hadoop World conference in New York and it reminded me of the first computer tradeshow I ever attended: COMDEX. I was going to school at the time and was working as a consultant to pay my way. Las Vegas was only a few hours away by car and so a couple of us loaded into one and headed down. We spent 2 days at the conference and came home with a ton of crap. None of us realized that they gave away free stuff at conferences and so we gathered something from every booth we visited. Our bags got so full, we had to find more. In the end, the conference was more about gathering and not at all about computers. Unfortunately most of the stuff I picked up was useless and got thrown away.

I'm not sure why COMDEX died but eventually it did and for that I am sad. I will always remember it as a fun place even though I didn't learn much about computers.

Fast forward through all of the conferences and tradeshows I have attended and now I realize it isn't about the free stuff I bring home, it is about learning and improving my own skills. Strata + Hadoop World is an interesting conference because it mostly revolves around processing and analyzing large amounts of data. As video games produce large amounts of data, it is very relevant to what I do. I learned a lot at the conference but also picked up a couple of T-shirts in the process. After all, I had to live up to my original COMDEX roots.

Programming Languages

My oldest son is back in college and currently working on a really long programming assignment. The course requires him to use the Java programming language and he is not very happy about it. At the beginning of the project, he was told by the teaching assistants that his code would approach 5,000 lines of code and take 3 weeks to write. Part of the reason for the class is to show the flexibility of Java. My son doesn't see it that way. His preference would have been to use Erlang. He could do everything the 5,000-line Java program does with 25 to 30 lines in Erlang.

This brings up the topic of programming languages. Not all of them are created equal. If you want to write something that runs very fast and only needs to run on one platform, do it in Assembly. If you need something to run as fast as possible but it may run on a number of different operating system (i.e. Linux, Windows, or Mac), then use C. If you are working with statistics then R is your best choice. A good software developer will know the benefits of a number of different languages and apply the best one for the problem at hand.

Does that mean that every software developer should know every language out there? No, but he or she should be familiar with a number of different languages along with the strengths and weaknesses of each. Software developers should also be experimenting with new languages when time permits and not rely on one language to do everything. After all, 30 lines in one language is a whole lot less work than 5,000 even if you have to learn a new language. The 30 lines of code is also a lot easier to maintain.

Time for Glasses

I just had my birthday and have to say that getting old really sucks. While I tell everyone that I am still 17, my true age is slightly north of that. Ok, maybe a lot north of that. This year for my birthday I got a string of doctor's appointments and news that I had better start taking better care of myself. One of those doctor's appointments was with an eye doctor.

My vision has always been pretty good and so I have never felt it necessary to visit an eye doctor. This year I couldn't opt out of it as my regular care physician made me go. My wife celebrated that I was finally visiting the optometrist as she has been wearing glasses for most of our married life. She was in the room when I sat down for the eye exam. The eye chart went up on the wall and I got to read off a bunch of letters. Then I read the smaller ones and had it confirmed that I still have 20/20 vision. That was the good news and I had a smug look on my face as my wife accepted the news that I don't need glasses for distance.

Then it came time to test my reading vision. My wife knew the outcome as she has slowly watched my arms become too short to read the time on my watch. I wish I could say that I came away from the appointment without needing any glasses. Fortunately I only need them to read and I don't think they are that strong of a value. Furthermore I can get them at any drugstore without a prescription. So Friday evening I picked up a 3-pak of glasses: one for the house, one for the boat, and one for the office.

I have been wearing my glasses in the evenings and have felt a much stronger urge to read. I didn't think my desire to read had diminished that much in the past few years. However now I find it much more enjoyable and realize that my diminishing eyesight has had a negative effect on my reading habits. So if you find yourself not wanting to read as much as you used to, you might want to get your eyes checked. Of course you also have the option to get an electronic reading device like a Kindle and just use a bigger font.

Internet Reliability

"Don't believe everything to read on the Internet" -Abraham Lincoln

I am not sure who actually coined the above quote but it is funny because there is no way Abraham Lincoln could have made such a comment. It also illustrates the point that there is a lot of false information on the Internet. One has to be careful about where pearls of wisdom are found.

One benefit of newspapers is that there are editors to ensure facts are checked and lies are not printed. It doesn't always work, but it does most of the time. On the Internet, anyone with enough technical knowledge can print whatever they want. There is nothing to prevent the spreading of false conspiracy theories, non-working medical remedies, or untrue rumors. Therefore it is important to take everything you read on the Internet with a grain of salt.

There are a number of websites that do contain truthful information and it is important to be able to separate fact from fiction. It is rare that you will get bad medical information from the Mayo Clinic or WebMD. However I would double-check Jimmy-Bobs recipe for ridding yourself of the flu. If something sounds too good to be true, then it probably is. One nice thing about the Internet though is that if you find an untruthful site, spin the wheel and search again. Chances are you will find a reliable site with the information you need.

Using Your Tablet as a Second Display

I recently added another computer to my desk at work. The new computer came with another couple of monitors and so now I have 6 huge monitors on my desk. If I wasn't so swamped I would have them set up already. I did get one set up with my Mac laptop and it has been very nice.

In a couple of weeks I will be headed back to Japan and am hoping the flight will be as empty as it has been in the past. If that is the case, I will be able to spread out to the seat next to me. I have gotten used to having multiple monitors and was wondering if there is a way to turn one of my tablets into a second display. Guess what? It turns out there is software out there that does just that. It is called Air Display and a lot of people think it works really well. The program is not free but is reasonably priced at $9.99. I have yet to buy it and try it out but am thinking I should before my next trip.

Air Display works with Mac and Windows computers as well as iPad or Android tablets. It may even work with iPhones and Android phones but they are too small for me to use them as a second screen; even the new larger-sized iPhone.

Off to College

It is Labor-Day weekend and a lot of college students are headed off to school if they are not already there. My oldest son packed up this morning. My wife and I helped him load his car and it was funny to see the things he is bringing. His school is less than an hour away and so he didn't need all of the normal things most kids bring. For instance, all of his ski stuff is still at the house because he won't need it until almost next semester.

It didn't take too long to load his clothes in the car. It was everything else that took a while. The bulk of the things he is bringing are electronic items. While most kids are happy with a laptop, my son has two: one for work and his personal computer. I know that when I headed off to school, I brought a lot of books. My son had two. He put them next to a three-foot stack of video games and his DVD movie collection, which made for a hilarious picture. He also is bringing a second computer monitor and laser printer. Then there is the PlayStation 3 to play all of his games on.

Fortunately we didn't have to help him load his 40-inch television as that is already down at school. His older sister and her husband have been borrowing it during the summer. They will be sad to give it up but knew he would want it back.

I do confess that I am worried about my son at school this year. He only has three semesters left but his packing list looks more like he is an entertainment major instead of a computer science one. Hopefully he doesn't let all of his electronics distract him from his studies.

Windows Technical Support

Lately I have been getting phone calls from a company claiming that my computer is sending messages to their server and indicating there is a problem. When the phone calls first started, they claimed to be from "Windows Technical Support." I promptly informed them that I don't have any computers running Windows and that they should stop calling me. Did that stop the calls? Nope.

Two weeks ago I files a complaint with the Do Not Call registry as this company was not smart enough to mask their number from caller ID. Did the calls stop? Nope. The company continued calling with a "Blocked" caller ID number. Normally I wouldn't answer such calls but the marina in California where I keep my sailboat also has a "Blocked" caller ID number and so last week I answered the phone thinking it was them. My wife was lucky enough to be in my home office when the call came and it went something like this:

I answered, "Hello, this is Matt."

The female voice replied, "May I please speak with Matthew Bennett?"

"This is him."

"Hello, this is Susan with Computer Technical Support."

I noticed they had changed the name of the company somewhat but thought I would try to be polite. "Yes, and why are you calling."

"We noticed that your computer is sending us data that indicates it is having some problems."

I was intrigued but knew it was the same people that have been bugging me and so I asked a very important question, "Oh really, what kind of computer do I have?"

"It is a computer running the Microsoft Windows operating system."

While that would account for most of the computers in the world, I don't have a single computer that has booted into Windows over the past 2 months and so I replied, "You are a liar. My laptop is a Mac and my desktop runs Linux." I may or may not have said a few more things before I rudely hung up on her.

I was relaying this story to one of my work colleagues and he responded that it is a scam and they got his mother recently. While they only billed her credit card for $90, there is a chance they will use the credit card number for other purposes and so my colleague had his mother cancel her card. After all, you can't really trust a crook to only steal $90.

If you take a step back and think about it, Microsoft technical support wouldn't bother calling you if it noticed a problem. They have much quicker ways of taking your money and don't need to rely on telemarketers posing as technical support. Besides, you might just ask them about a real problem you are having because there are so many.

Sailing Log

Saturday I went sailing on the Great Salt Lake. Every time the boat goes out, an entry is made in our log book. This week I noticed that we are getting to the end of the book and so I stopped by the local boating shop on the way home. I couldn't find their log books and so I asked one of the sales people for help. She said that their selection was very limited because everyone is moving to computers to keep track of their boating adventures. Nothing matched what I was looking for and so I figured I could just order something online.

Saturday evening I pulled out my laptop and did a search for log books in the hopes of finding the exact same book we have used for our previous 2 log books. Unfortunately it is out of print and while I could order the book from Amazon, it will cost me $122! It is only worth about $20 and so I kept searching. Unfortunately I can't find anything that matches exactly what I am looking for and so I am going to have to make my own. It will be as simple as purchasing waterproof paper, printing log sheets on both sides of the paper, and having it spiral bound at Kinkos/FedEx.

Now don't get me wrong. I love computers and think they are great for keeping track of information. However they don't really mix with water. We ruined a perfectly good laptop when we sailed back from Hawaii. The computer survived the 21-day trip but was useless afterwards. While you can purchase water-resistant laptops, they are expensive and completely unnecessary when compared with the low cost of waterproof paper and a cheap pen. This is one of those examples were we try to apply technology to a problem where it is not needed.

Back in Japan

I am back in Tokyo, Japan once again and have taken advantage of a few technologies that have always existed but I haven't used until now. The flight from the West coast of the United States generally takes about 10 hours. Fortunately there are a lot of technologies that help make the trip go more quickly.

I have known that underneath the seat in front of me contains an outlet capable of charging laptop computers but have never bothered using it until now. I didn't print out my itinerary for the trip and so as I was filling out my customs and immigration paperwork, I plugged in my laptop and pulled my hotel information from it. As my laptop was plugged in, I could use it for other things during the trip without having to worry about draining my battery. I also plugged in my iPhone to the USB port on the plane. That kept my phone charged for the trip so I could do important things like play games.

There was nobody in the seat next to me for the flight and I appreciated that a lot. I left the US on Sunday which puts me into Japan late Monday night because of the International Date Line. So my first day in the office will be Tuesday. Most people like to fly to Japan and start the day on Monday. So if I left on Saturday, the flight would have been full. My flight was relatively empty and I was able to re-purpose the screen in the seat next to me. Instead of using it to watch a movie, I had it display our position on a map of the Pacific Ocean. When I would wake up from a quick nap, I could instantly see how long I had been asleep. It was kind of nice to keep up.

At one point during the flight, I had 3 displays all going at once and they all kept me entertained. I had a movie in one, our position in another, and information on my laptop in another. It was kind of nice and I passed the time nicely during the flight. 

Pictures of Dad on Vacation

June has been insanely busy for me. The month started out with my youngest son graduating from high school. I gave him a choice to go anywhere in the United States to celebrate and he opted to head to Yellowstone National Park. He likes the outdoors and would rather spend time hiking around in nature as opposed to waiting in line at an overcrowded amusement park. So as soon as graduation was over, we jumped in the car and made the 5 hour drive to our nation's first national park.

If you have not been to Yellowstone National Park, it is huge. Plan on spending some time in your car as you visit the various places in the park. We entered from West Yellowstone and had to get to Grant's Village on the southeast corner of the park. We tried to take the lower loop going counter-clockwise but got stuck in an insane wildlife traffic-jam. There was a bison walking in the road and nobody could go around it. After going a quarter of a mile in a half-hour, we turned around and headed in a clockwise direction around the lower loop. Fortunately we made our 6pm dinner reservations in Grant's Village. I knew I was in trouble when my son pulled out his camera to take a picture of me at the same time I pulled out my Android phone to check e-mail.

We did a lot of hiking and seeing wonderful sites over the next 3 days and my son always had his camera ready. Did he ever bother to take pictures of the beautiful scenery around us? Nope, he waited until I had a quiet and uneventful moment to check e-mail. We came back from vacation and the only pictures my son took were of me on my phone. Fortunately my wife had her camera on the trip and she actually paid attention to the scenery and wildlife.

I love my son and he makes me laugh as he managed to get some pretty funny pictures. He also reminded me that sometimes it is just fine to let go of the office and relax on a vacation.

Direct Mail vs. SPAM E-mail

One of the first things I do in the morning is to check my e-mail. I have two primary e-mail accounts with an additional three e-mail accounts that get forwarded to my primary personal e-mail. That means I have a total of five e-mail accounts for just one person. I have a pretty good SPAM filter that eliminates a lot of junk e-mail but I still have to go through about 25 to 30 junk e-mails every morning. I never even read them. I look at who sent them and maybe the title or subject before clicking the delete button. When I do bother to look at what is in my SPAM folder, there are generally 200 to 300 daily messages that I don't ever even see.

As this week is my son's high school graduation, I am working from home for a couple of days. I just got the mail from the mailbox and noticed there was some junk mail there as well. Unlike my e-mail, I at least looked at the pictures and glanced over the postcards and letters. I also went through every page of a department store catalog advertising Father's Day gifts.

I'm sure that I am not unique. There is an added value to something tangible even if it is a printed piece of paper or postcard. Now did I purchase anything based off SPAM e-mail or junk mail from my physical mailbox? No, but at least with physical mail, I got some piece of the message that was sent.

Technology is like a pendulum in that one year everyone is looking at technology as a huge benefit. Then the pendulum swings and we realize that the original technology wasn't as huge a benefit as we all thought it would be and either move to a new technology or go back to how we were doing things before. Judging from my physical mailbox today, direct mail is making a comeback.

Goodnight Tokyo

I am at the Haneda airport in Tokyo getting ready to catch my flight back to the United States and thought I would try to kill some time. I was only here a month ago and it is funny to see the same crew that checked me onto my flight last month is here again this evening. It is probably pretty sad that I recognize them. I don't even recognize the gate agents in Salt Lake nor Oakland and I fly there almost every week.

This has been a tough trip for me. I have been waking up at 5am each morning so I could work with people back in the States before starting a full day at the office in Tokyo. At about 8pm, I am ready to crawl into bed and have been asleep before 9pm each night. Right now it is close to 11pm and I am dying. All I want to do is get on the plane so I can fall asleep.

While here in the airport I have been talking with an older gentleman who makes an annual pilgrimage to Tokyo where he was born. He then spends 2 weeks hiking around one of the Japanese islands. This evening we have been comparing notes about mobile phone coverage. As mentioned earlier this week, I have kept my personal phone on airplane mode and so it hasn't been used. My work phone is with AT&T. My new friend has a phone with Verizon and he has remarked that coverage this year was not nearly as good as last year. As I have spent most of my time in Tokyo, coverage has been great and I can't complain.

There is always the option of renting a phone when you visit a different country. It is generally less expensive than trying to use your own phone as long as you are using it for data and local in-country phone calls. If you travel internationally frequently, you may want to consider adding an international plan to your phone. Either that or do like I do with my personal phone and turn it off for the trip. You might just enjoy the silence.

Score a Point for iPhone

I am back in Japan only a month after I was here last. I love coming to visit but this was a bit of a quick return trip. Fortunately it is because of a new project that needs some coordinating instead of something bad.

I decided to try something a bit different on this trip in that I have left my iPhone in airplane mode instead of turning it off for the week. That means it won't try to connect with the very expensive phone network here in Japan. As most of the apps on an iPhone are worthless without data connectivity, I have turned on my WiFi network while still keeping the phone in airplane mode. One benefit of that is that I am still able to send text messages to other iPhones. That is because iPhones use iMessage when both parties are using Apple products. That allows you to get text messages on your iPad. I can't send messages to Android or Windows phones, but as my wife has an iPhone, it doesn't matter.

This has been great because Skype has really been awful lately. On Mother's Day, we tried to use it to talk to our daughter in North Carolina. The calls kept getting dropped and we kept having to reconnect. Here in Japan, I can only get about 30 seconds of the call before it gets dropped.

It is kind of nice to still be able to keep in contact with my wife via text messaging even though I am so far away. While iMessage isn't perfect, it is working. I have to keep the phone awake to keep the WiFi signal going, but I am not sure if that is because of the hotel or how WiFi works in airplane mode. I will keep playing with it to see what magic makes it work.

While I enjoy my Android phone and think it is better for certain tasks, I have to give a point to my iPhone for communication use on International travel. At least for those of us paying our own wireless phone bills. For those with employer provided mobile phones, it doesn't matter as you never see the bill.

Online Updates

This morning I looked at my Android phone and noticed that it automatically updated 2 of my applications. Then I looked at my iPhone and noticed there are 7 applications that should be updated. Then I turned on my surround sound system and noticed it needed updating and so I did that. Once my surround sound completed, my son told me my PlayStation 4 also needs an update. I feel like I am in a never-ending cycle of updates.

I think it is great that all of these applications and devices can get updates when they are needed. I do think it is getting out of hand though. It seems like I can't turn on an electronic device, play a video game, or make a phone call without being told there is an update that needs to be installed.

I think I am going to read an old-fashioned book with real paper for pages. It may be outdated technology but it doesn't require any time to power up. It never runs out of batteries. Most importantly all major updates were included at time of printing, long before the book entered my house.

Creating a PowerPoint Template

I have to give a presentation in about 6 weeks and needed to create a new PowerPoint template. Normally a company will have a standard set of templates to use, but my presentation will be given to numerous organizations and other presenters will have the option of using the template that I created today. So none of our existing templates seemed like a good choice.

At first I thought creating a PowerPoint template was going to be easy. I looked at a few of the standard ones I have used but quickly realized none of them were going to work for me. So I started with the blank white template that comes with every version of Microsoft Office. There was a company logo I wanted to use and so I added it from one of my other templates. Then there were some graphics that I copied over from others. Finally I pulled in a background that I like as it does a good job of representing large amounts of data, which is what my presentation is all about. Unfortunately the graphic was just too colorful and nobody could read any text placed on top of it regardless of the color or font. PowerPoint provides a few tools to lighten up the graphic and so I did to the point where black text was easily recognized and actually looked good.

I was pretty happy with the few sample slides I put together and called over one of my coworkers to let me know his thoughts. He thought it looked pretty good except for the font. Naturally I listened to his advice changed the font to something I have liked in the past. It was amazing how the presentation popped off the page with such a subtle change.

I must say that I am pretty happy with the presentation so far. It took me about five times as long to put together the template as I expected and probably am not finished. Remember that if you have to put together any presentations and want to create your own template. There were a lot of trips between "Master Slide" view and my presentation, but in the end it turned out pretty good.

A Tale of Two Projects

This past weekend I spent time digging a giant hole in my front yard looking for a water main break. Fortunately I found the problem on my first hole as there were two likely places the leak could have been. Once I found the problem but before fixing it, my son decided he would try and resolve a problem with his car. In the process he learned that you never start another project until one is complete. As the water was off in the house, he couldn't wash his hands after working on the car until the first problem was completely solved. He also managed to break both his car and my other son's car in the process and so at the end of the afternoon, we went from having one project to three.

My son's problem was actually fairly simple. In the process of replacing the cylinder head on his 1996 Jeep Cherokee, we broke one of the temperature sensors that screws into the the engine. My son wanted to replace it with a new one and so he went to the auto part store. He immediately broke that sensor in the process of trying to put it in. Naturally that was the only one the store had. Fortunately he was able to bring it back, get his money back, find another sensor at a different auto parts store, and break the new sensor. Another trip to the second auto part store and he got another one. Yes, the temperature sensor is incredibly brittle and breaks easily. One would think they would make them a bit more resilient.

The 1996 Jeep Cherokee actually has two engine temperature sensors and the one my son kept breaking is the one that sends information to the temperature gauge on the dashboard. Unfortunately the new one told my son that his engine was overheating and so my son couldn't go out with friends that evening. He was pretty bummed. When we popped the hood and checked the engine, it didn't seem any hotter than normal and didn't have the usual signs of the radiator boiling over. So we needed to determine if the engine was really overheating or if the temperature gauge was bad.

I'm a firm believer in the saying that "A man with one watch knows what time it is, a man with two isn't quite sure." In 1997, the engineers at Jeep decided the second temperature sensor in the Jeep Cherokee was superfluous and removed it. Fortunately for us, our job was to tap into the second sensor on my son's Cherokee and see if it was giving the same high-temperature results. All we needed to do was to tap into the car's OBD-II computer. Fortunately my son has a code reader that is a little more sophisticated than mine and it reads various parameters that include the engine temperature. The only catch is that the car has to throw a check-engine code first. My son tried unplugging various sensors only to have the engine keep running without any problems. He even tried unplugging one of the spark plugs with no luck. Finally he pulled the plug on one of the fuel injectors and the car threw a code immediately. He checked the code and the engine parameters and discovered that the engine was in its optimal operating temperature. That means the gauge sensor was wrong and his car really wasn't overheating. We now know why the engineers at Jeep took out the separate gauge sensor and just use one now.

The weekend is over and the hole in my front yard is now filled in. My son's Jeeps is running fine and the erroneous temperature gauge seems to be fixing itself. My son has also fixed the problem that arose on my other son's car. It took a couple of days, but things seem to be back to normal. At least until the next weekend.

Don't Start Bioshock Infinite Unless You Have Time

Earlier this week, I downloaded a copy of Bioshock Infinite for my PS3. The artistic rendering of the characters made it seem interesting to me and so I started playing it. My oldest son had played earlier versions of the game and coached me through the first few minutes. He instructed me to spend time looking around and collecting items. It was good advice.

My son had to head back to his apartment at school and left me to play alone. It is a good thing I was playing at home on the TV in my bedroom. When my wife got tired she came in and told me to turn it off and go to bed. Had I been alone on the boat in the Bay Area, I would have kept playing all night long. When I did turn it off, I was half tempted to wait until my wife was fast asleep so I could keep playing. I knew better though because if she woke up and caught me sitting on the end of the bed playing a video game, I would be in serious trouble.

Bioshock Infinite is a great game for me. I like first person shooter games but have grown tired of the constant attention you have to pay to keep from getting killed. This game has a little bit of puzzle solving, a little bit of exploring, and a little bit of shooting. It all adds up to a fun game that I have enjoyed playing the last few nights. I think I am doing pretty good at not playing during the work day as that would be easy to do.

I downloaded the game to my PS3 from the PlayStation Network as it is free this month for PlayStation Plus members. This game alone makes it worth the annual fee for PlayStation Plus. I highly recommend it.

Spring Break in Japan

Last week was Spring Break for my youngest son who is a senior in high school. I had a trip scheduled to Japan and so I took him with me along with my wife. I spent my days at the office while they spent their days sightseeing and touring Tokyo. We had one day where they were scheduled to go to Kamakura but they were not able to go because my wife wasn't feeling well. Sixteen-hour time changes can really do a number on you physically.

We are back from Japan now and so I can finally post about the trip. Why wait until we are back? Because my empty house could become a target for thieves if they knew I was gone. As nobody was at my house, I also sent my ferocious German Sheppard to a doggie spa. She does a perfect job of keeping undesirable elements from even thinking about horking my stuff. For those that don't know, "hork" is a Canadian word synonymous with "steal." With my favorite burglar alarm gone, I kept quiet about being in Japan.

I made sure to wake up early every day and do a bit of touring with my wife and son. We would look for a place to eat breakfast and quickly grew fond of western-style coffee shops. They make great breakfast sandwiches that my son and I really enjoyed. As we would go on our morning walk, we noticed that the Japanese don't really lock their bikes. You have to love a polite society that respects each other's property. I wish it was that way in the United States. Then we wouldn't have to worry about keeping our vacation plans secret until we got back.

The point I am trying to make is that posting travel plans is something best done after the trip. Otherwise someone could hork your stuff. If you have good stuff that you like and want to keep, then don't tell everyone on Facebook that you are in some exotic locale. It might not be there when you get back.

Spring is in the Air

I took a couple days off last week so I could help run the last ski race of the season at Snowbird. I am responsible for recruiting volunteers and making sure they show up. As the requirements to be either a finish or start referee limits the pool of volunteers, I often end up being one of them. The start referee at a ski race is a thankless job that requires a bladder of steel as you are stuck at the top of the race hill all day long. Fortunately I had someone who wanted the job for all but one day. Even then, I had someone willing to stay at the top of the race course when I needed to take a bio break.

I switched off being the finish referee with my wife for the remaining three days. This allowed me to do a bit of skiing with friends from work. When I would get tired and need a break, I would head down to the race hill and relieve my wife. On Sunday, I took full-time duty as the finish ref and sat at the bottom of the race hill in a wet snowstorm. After almost 4 hours in the elements, I felt frozen and the need to go inside. It was at this point that a number of the boys came down the race course wearing helmets, goggles, gloves, skis, ski boots, their race bib, swimsuits, and nothing else. What a crazy bunch of guys. I couldn't help but laugh as I saw them go by.

This morning I got on a plane and headed to sunny California. It was so warm, I rode back to my boat this evening without a jacket and enjoyed the warm spring air. I'm not quite ready for ski season to be over but I am looking forward to not being so cold. As it warms up outside, take the opportunity to grab your laptop or tablet and see if you can spend more time outdoors. I have had the boat opened up this evening as I work on the computer and it has been wonderful. Of course I did have to put my sweater back on once the sun went down, but it felt good to be out in the fresh air.