My son has a ski race in Sun Valley this weekend and so it is interesting to watch him pack. He thought about bringing my PlayStation Vita on the trip but then decided it would be a distraction. As he was contemplating whether or not to bring the hand-held game console, he didn't even consider bringing the charger for it. Whenever I go anywhere I always make sure to throw in the battery chargers long before the actual devices.
When I was growing up, it seemed like rechargeable batteries were always dying. Electronics today have much better battery life and the effect is that the youth today don't really worry about batteries dying. Battery life is good enough that it lasts for a couple of days and so my son has no need to worry about bringing chargers, just the toys. I wish I could be so carefree.
Thursday, January 30, 2014
Tuesday, January 28, 2014
Instagram and Social Media
I know it sounds kind of weird when I say that I am not a big fan of social media. It probably sounds even more strange when I write it in a blog as a blog is a form of social media. There are a number of different social media tools though and it is some of those other tools that I think are unworthy of my time.
One of the Monday morning regulars that I fly with from Salt Lake City to the Bay Area was telling me about how his daughter's weekend was ruined by Instagram. I am not much of a photographer and don't feel the need to post pictures of my various events for people to see and so I must confess that I disliked Instagram even before I heard his story.
My friend's preteen daughter was busy this weekend with soccer games and missed out on getting an invite to a party. The next day she checked into Instagram and saw all sorts of pictures of her friends having a good time without her. It was devastating to her self-esteem. My friend had to sit down with his daughter and comfort her. I didn't get the details of what he said but he did mention that social media has gotten out of control. I agree with him. My takeaway from his story was that his daughter got out of the house and actually did something worthy of her time by playing soccer.
While I may think that social media tools like Instagram and Facebook are a waste of time, there are some benefits they do provide. Last Friday we were at work watching the Mavericks Invitational that came about because of Twitter. My understanding is that on Monday the weather was predicted to be perfect for the event on Friday and so everyone leveraged Twitter to organize the event and get the competitors in place.
I think the important thing to remember with social media is true with anything we find desirable: moderation. While a jelly doughnut tastes good, too many of them will have you looking like the Michelin man. Furthermore you may think you were the life of the party and want everyone to bask in your glory but reality is you probably look like a dork . . . and if you have been eating all of the hors d'oeuvres, the Michelin man too.
One of the Monday morning regulars that I fly with from Salt Lake City to the Bay Area was telling me about how his daughter's weekend was ruined by Instagram. I am not much of a photographer and don't feel the need to post pictures of my various events for people to see and so I must confess that I disliked Instagram even before I heard his story.
My friend's preteen daughter was busy this weekend with soccer games and missed out on getting an invite to a party. The next day she checked into Instagram and saw all sorts of pictures of her friends having a good time without her. It was devastating to her self-esteem. My friend had to sit down with his daughter and comfort her. I didn't get the details of what he said but he did mention that social media has gotten out of control. I agree with him. My takeaway from his story was that his daughter got out of the house and actually did something worthy of her time by playing soccer.
While I may think that social media tools like Instagram and Facebook are a waste of time, there are some benefits they do provide. Last Friday we were at work watching the Mavericks Invitational that came about because of Twitter. My understanding is that on Monday the weather was predicted to be perfect for the event on Friday and so everyone leveraged Twitter to organize the event and get the competitors in place.
I think the important thing to remember with social media is true with anything we find desirable: moderation. While a jelly doughnut tastes good, too many of them will have you looking like the Michelin man. Furthermore you may think you were the life of the party and want everyone to bask in your glory but reality is you probably look like a dork . . . and if you have been eating all of the hors d'oeuvres, the Michelin man too.
Thursday, January 23, 2014
Satisfaction of a Job Well Done
This past weekend I spent 15 hours working with my sons to rebuild the top half of an engine. The 1996 Jeep Cherokee that my oldest son drives was misfiring in one of the cylinders. We worked on all of the possible causes and determined one of the valves was bad on the 3rd cylinder. I could have paid $800 for a valve job as I don't know how to do that. Instead I just purchased a new cylinder head for $300 and replaced it with my boys.
We started working on the engine Friday night. We were not sure how easy the exhaust manifold bolts would be to remove and we wanted them to soak in PB Blaster overnight. We drained the radiator, removed the power steering pump, and sprayed the bolts. The next morning my son removed the air compressor for the air conditioning system without disconnecting the refrigerant hoses. By then we had enough stuff removed from the engine we could remove the valve cover and head. Sure it took a bit longer than a certified mechanic but after putting everything back together, the engine started right up. We were all very happy and there was much rejoicing.
The next morning my oldest son posted pictures of our handiwork on his Facebook page. It was a huge accomplishment for all of us and we felt like we were ready to tackle more complex automotive projects. The whole experience made me realize that experiencing success is a vital part of the human existence. More importantly, it is up to us to create our own successes. Should you be looking for your own success, my advice is to avoid computers. Most people think I am bald because of my kids. Nope, it is because I work with computers.
We started working on the engine Friday night. We were not sure how easy the exhaust manifold bolts would be to remove and we wanted them to soak in PB Blaster overnight. We drained the radiator, removed the power steering pump, and sprayed the bolts. The next morning my son removed the air compressor for the air conditioning system without disconnecting the refrigerant hoses. By then we had enough stuff removed from the engine we could remove the valve cover and head. Sure it took a bit longer than a certified mechanic but after putting everything back together, the engine started right up. We were all very happy and there was much rejoicing.
The next morning my oldest son posted pictures of our handiwork on his Facebook page. It was a huge accomplishment for all of us and we felt like we were ready to tackle more complex automotive projects. The whole experience made me realize that experiencing success is a vital part of the human existence. More importantly, it is up to us to create our own successes. Should you be looking for your own success, my advice is to avoid computers. Most people think I am bald because of my kids. Nope, it is because I work with computers.
Wednesday, January 22, 2014
A Little Coding
It has been a while since I have done any real computer programming. Sure I work on a computer all day and spend a lot of time writing SQL statements but I don't really count SQL as a programming language. I figure I have been getting a little rusty and so I have taken it upon myself to do a little coding every evening when I get back to the boat. When I am at home in Utah, there is too much to do each evening. When I am on the boat in California, there is nothing to do but watch television. I figure it is a good time to refresh my programming skills.
It is best to start with what I already know and so I have a simple example C program that converts IP addresses into integers. An IP address is simply 4 numbers separated by a dot. My IP address is something like "101.102.103.104". This can be converted into an integer simply by breaking the numbers up and thinking of them in binary format (that will be in 1's and 0's). If you take 101 as a decimal number and shift it to the left by 24 bits, add it to 102 shifted to the left by 16 bits, add it to 103 shifted to the left by 8 bits, and add it to 104, you are left with an unsigned 32-bit integer that is the equivalent of your IP address. This is a number between 0 and 4,294,967,295.
Now the question you need to ask is why? Isn't it easier to remember 101.102.103.104 than some seemingly random integer? Yes, but it also takes more space. The IP address requires up to 16 bytes when left as a string. The unsigned integer only requires 4 bytes. With computers that have gigabytes of memory, does 12 bytes really matter? Yes, when you are trying to remember 90 million IP addresses. 4 times 90 million is only 360 megabytes of memory where 16 times 90 million is well over a gigabyte.
My little program is working in the C programming language because that is what I am most familiar with. Now my goal is to rewrite it in a number of other languages so I can become familiar with them. When I am finished, I want to compare execution times and see which is fastest. I also want to see which one is easiest to understand, easiest to code, and fewest number of lines. It may sound like a boring exercise but my hope is that it will help improve my coding skills at the same time I learn about a number of new languages. It also has a practical application to a problem I am trying to solve at work and so that makes it significantly more interesting.
It is best to start with what I already know and so I have a simple example C program that converts IP addresses into integers. An IP address is simply 4 numbers separated by a dot. My IP address is something like "101.102.103.104". This can be converted into an integer simply by breaking the numbers up and thinking of them in binary format (that will be in 1's and 0's). If you take 101 as a decimal number and shift it to the left by 24 bits, add it to 102 shifted to the left by 16 bits, add it to 103 shifted to the left by 8 bits, and add it to 104, you are left with an unsigned 32-bit integer that is the equivalent of your IP address. This is a number between 0 and 4,294,967,295.
Now the question you need to ask is why? Isn't it easier to remember 101.102.103.104 than some seemingly random integer? Yes, but it also takes more space. The IP address requires up to 16 bytes when left as a string. The unsigned integer only requires 4 bytes. With computers that have gigabytes of memory, does 12 bytes really matter? Yes, when you are trying to remember 90 million IP addresses. 4 times 90 million is only 360 megabytes of memory where 16 times 90 million is well over a gigabyte.
My little program is working in the C programming language because that is what I am most familiar with. Now my goal is to rewrite it in a number of other languages so I can become familiar with them. When I am finished, I want to compare execution times and see which is fastest. I also want to see which one is easiest to understand, easiest to code, and fewest number of lines. It may sound like a boring exercise but my hope is that it will help improve my coding skills at the same time I learn about a number of new languages. It also has a practical application to a problem I am trying to solve at work and so that makes it significantly more interesting.
Friday, January 10, 2014
Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas
No I was not subjected to a tradeshow my first week back from vacation but there were several of my coworkers that were. Today a number of them showed up back at the office and gave me a quick rundown of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. Last year the show was fairly boring. This year reports are that it was even more boring. I'm not sure if that is a bad thing or if it is good in that I get to hold onto more of my money this year.
The big buzz from the major consumer electronics companies is 4K television. The picture is the equivalent resolution of having 4 HD televisions. That means that when you get close to the screen, you see incredible detail. Unfortunately we are still lacking content for them and so I wouldn't rush right out and buy a 4K television. You also don't see much of difference between HD and 4K when you sit at reasonable distances from the screen.
Another product category making noise this year is wearable devices. There were a number of vendors that had various bracelets that measured calories burned throughout your day. Some of the better ones interact with your smartphone while others can interface with your computer. This seems to be a category that will need a bit of maturity before we see some real leaders.
I was able to watch several press conferences of the CES event and feel that the most innovative technology was in the digital camera space. Sony has their a7 or Alpha 7 camera that does away with the mirror found in most digital SLR cameras. This makes the camera lighter and also allows you to take faster pictures. This is not really necessary for portrait shots, but is critical for capturing the right action ones. CES also showed a number of features from full-featured cameras making their way into our smartphones. There are a number of manufacturers that include cameras with better than 10 megapixels in their phones. We are also starting to see image processing features such as background blur or defocus.
One of the bad things about a show like CES is that a lot of what is shown looks good in a showroom but won't see much use in real life. The hard part is sifting through all of the features and gadgets and trying to predict what will get used. We'll see if any of the things I think are cool gain mainstream adoption.
The big buzz from the major consumer electronics companies is 4K television. The picture is the equivalent resolution of having 4 HD televisions. That means that when you get close to the screen, you see incredible detail. Unfortunately we are still lacking content for them and so I wouldn't rush right out and buy a 4K television. You also don't see much of difference between HD and 4K when you sit at reasonable distances from the screen.
Another product category making noise this year is wearable devices. There were a number of vendors that had various bracelets that measured calories burned throughout your day. Some of the better ones interact with your smartphone while others can interface with your computer. This seems to be a category that will need a bit of maturity before we see some real leaders.
I was able to watch several press conferences of the CES event and feel that the most innovative technology was in the digital camera space. Sony has their a7 or Alpha 7 camera that does away with the mirror found in most digital SLR cameras. This makes the camera lighter and also allows you to take faster pictures. This is not really necessary for portrait shots, but is critical for capturing the right action ones. CES also showed a number of features from full-featured cameras making their way into our smartphones. There are a number of manufacturers that include cameras with better than 10 megapixels in their phones. We are also starting to see image processing features such as background blur or defocus.
One of the bad things about a show like CES is that a lot of what is shown looks good in a showroom but won't see much use in real life. The hard part is sifting through all of the features and gadgets and trying to predict what will get used. We'll see if any of the things I think are cool gain mainstream adoption.
Monday, January 6, 2014
Tough to go Back to Work
For some reason this Christmas and New Year's vacation seemed longer than previous years. That made it really tough to get up and get on the airplane to go back to work this morning. I don't think I am the only one that found it tough to go back as everyone in the office seemed to share the same idea that another week of vacation would be just fine.
My flight to the office was later than usual and so instead of sleeping, I pulled out my laptop and did some e-mail. I have sort of gotten used to having WiFi on my Southwest flights lately and it helped me get ahead on things in the office before I even arrived. That helped making going back to work a little easier. Now I just need to figure out how to get motivated to go back tomorrow. Maybe I should schedule some time to do some product testing and play more video games.
My flight to the office was later than usual and so instead of sleeping, I pulled out my laptop and did some e-mail. I have sort of gotten used to having WiFi on my Southwest flights lately and it helped me get ahead on things in the office before I even arrived. That helped making going back to work a little easier. Now I just need to figure out how to get motivated to go back tomorrow. Maybe I should schedule some time to do some product testing and play more video games.
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