My son finally made it home safely after two years in Armenia. I have been struggling with the decision on what computer to get him for his first year in college. I presented several choices to him and let him do some research for several days. He came back with a computer choice. Then I felt I needed to make one last look to make sure we reviewed all possible options.
There are several online computer vendors that allow you to specify the features you are looking for and so I visited Best Buy's. They have a store really close to my house and so I knew I could order it, have it shipped there for free, and pick it up rather quickly. I used the configuration tool and put in the options I thought would work best for a college freshman looking to start in the Mechanical Engineering department. Surprisingly I found a computer I had overlooked. I presented it to my son as a viable alternative to his choice and let him decide. I always believe that any large purchase should be thought about for at least a day. When I go to buy cars, I often tell the salesperson I want to sleep on it before I make a purchase. They hate that but then I don't have buyer's remorse. So I let my son sleep on the decision.
He came back and settled on a MacBook Air with an Intel i7 processor, 8GB of RAM, and a 128 GB solid-state drive. Sure I could have gotten more disk space, but with terabyte drives costing $70, why would you need to? I agreed with his decision and so I ordered the computer. The only problem with his choice is that the i7 is an upgrade and so it is not kept in stock at the Apple stores. I had to have it custom built. It will be here next week but is coming all the way from China. School starts on Monday so I hope my son doesn't need his computer until Wednesday when it is due to arrive.
Thursday, August 18, 2016
Thursday, August 11, 2016
You Work in Computers?
Several years ago I had someone ask me if I worked in computers. When I replied that I did, she told me that I must have any number of job opportunities because there seem to be so many computer job postings. I tried to explain that there are a lot of different areas and that while I may know databases very well, I am not a Java programmer nor would I be hired as a user interface developer. Unfortunately she didn't understand database, Java, user interface, nor the differences between them.
Today I had the chance to attend a series of presentation given by my company's staff of summer interns. My intern gave an excellent presentation on Kubernetes and I decided to stick around listening to others, trying to gauge how well he did. I quickly became aware of how many different disciplines there are in computer science. One person talked about a very in-depth graphics routine he spent the summer researching. Another talked about how she worked with game console software development kits (SDK's). It reminded me of how truly diverse jobs in computers can be.
Should you be interested in a computer job you might want to spend some time thinking about what interests you. My first professional experience with computers involved data and so I built my career around databases. My son has taken a liking to computer networks and so that is where he has found employment. Yes, the field of computers is large and varied. My only advice is that if you decide that a career with computers sounds right for you, continue learning. The field is always evolving and technologies from 20 years ago are different now. When I started out in databases, SQL was the language to learn. It is still applicable but now there are other data tools and to remain marketable, I have had to keep myself constantly educated.
In case you are interested, my intern did a magnificent job on his presentation and made the team proud.
Today I had the chance to attend a series of presentation given by my company's staff of summer interns. My intern gave an excellent presentation on Kubernetes and I decided to stick around listening to others, trying to gauge how well he did. I quickly became aware of how many different disciplines there are in computer science. One person talked about a very in-depth graphics routine he spent the summer researching. Another talked about how she worked with game console software development kits (SDK's). It reminded me of how truly diverse jobs in computers can be.
Should you be interested in a computer job you might want to spend some time thinking about what interests you. My first professional experience with computers involved data and so I built my career around databases. My son has taken a liking to computer networks and so that is where he has found employment. Yes, the field of computers is large and varied. My only advice is that if you decide that a career with computers sounds right for you, continue learning. The field is always evolving and technologies from 20 years ago are different now. When I started out in databases, SQL was the language to learn. It is still applicable but now there are other data tools and to remain marketable, I have had to keep myself constantly educated.
In case you are interested, my intern did a magnificent job on his presentation and made the team proud.
Thursday, August 4, 2016
Mobile Phone Etiquette
I am at the airport waiting to catch my flight back to Salt Lake for the weekend. Normally I would be bored and trying to figure out something to do. Today I get the pleasure of listening to someone talk on the phone. In the past we used to have somewhat private phone booths that tried to absorb some of the sound. Now people just sit in their chairs carrying on a conversation about their latest prostrate exam like nobody else can hear them. Trust me, there are conversations I really don't want to hear.
The lure of listening in on other people's conversations used to be somewhat diminished by the fact you could only hear half of it. I don't know why but people now think it is perfectly acceptable to use Skype and FaceTime in public places. Every Thursday night as I wait to catch my flight home, I see at least one person with their phone held out like they are taking a selfie so they can FaceTime someone else. Not only can I hear the usual half of the conversation, I get to hear the whole thing. Tonight is no different.
For those that are interested, yes, that scab does look infected and he really should go to the doctor's to have it checked out.
The lure of listening in on other people's conversations used to be somewhat diminished by the fact you could only hear half of it. I don't know why but people now think it is perfectly acceptable to use Skype and FaceTime in public places. Every Thursday night as I wait to catch my flight home, I see at least one person with their phone held out like they are taking a selfie so they can FaceTime someone else. Not only can I hear the usual half of the conversation, I get to hear the whole thing. Tonight is no different.
For those that are interested, yes, that scab does look infected and he really should go to the doctor's to have it checked out.
Tuesday, August 2, 2016
Busy Signal vs. Fax Machine
While home in Utah last Friday, I was supposed to have carpet delivered and installed. My wife and I had picked this date 3 weeks earlier so I could be there to make sure everything went as planned. That morning my wife got a call from the installer that a family emergency had come up and we needed to reschedule. My wife let me know about the delay and I went into action fixing the wrong as we had spent weeks moving out of 3 bedrooms and ripping out the old carpet. I did not want to go another day without something we had already paid for.
I made my first call to the local store where we had purchased the carpet. It is a large chain store with many locations. I did that on purpose so that in the event that one installer had a family emergency, the company would have other installers they could call on to finish the job. The person helping me on the other end of the phone mistakenly hung up on me while trying to transfer me to her manager. Naturally I called back only to get hung up on a second time. That should have been a clue that this person did not know how to use a phone.
My next call went to the customer service department of this large store. I talked with a nice lady who eventually connected me back to the local store that I had called twice before. She routed me to the same employee that had hung up on me. This whole process didn't take long to write but actually took about 30 minutes of real time thanks to all of the automated phone systems and multiple explanations I had to make. Meanwhile the local store had tried several times to call me back but kept getting a busy signal.
With the ubiquity of call waiting and other features that come standard with our mobile phones, we don't realize that old hard-wired phone lines don't include them without extra charges. Some younger people today have never heard a busy signal and doesn't know what it sounds like. The lady at the local store kept saying she couldn't call me back because she kept getting a fax machine and didn't realize that fax machines sound nothing like a busy signal.
I probably made a mistake using an old land line instead of calling in on my mobile phone. However I called from my basement and prefer a land line down there instead of my mobile. I had to laugh about this person not knowing what a busy signal sounds like.
Ultimately I managed to resolve the issue and carpet got installed at 3pm that afternoon.
I made my first call to the local store where we had purchased the carpet. It is a large chain store with many locations. I did that on purpose so that in the event that one installer had a family emergency, the company would have other installers they could call on to finish the job. The person helping me on the other end of the phone mistakenly hung up on me while trying to transfer me to her manager. Naturally I called back only to get hung up on a second time. That should have been a clue that this person did not know how to use a phone.
My next call went to the customer service department of this large store. I talked with a nice lady who eventually connected me back to the local store that I had called twice before. She routed me to the same employee that had hung up on me. This whole process didn't take long to write but actually took about 30 minutes of real time thanks to all of the automated phone systems and multiple explanations I had to make. Meanwhile the local store had tried several times to call me back but kept getting a busy signal.
With the ubiquity of call waiting and other features that come standard with our mobile phones, we don't realize that old hard-wired phone lines don't include them without extra charges. Some younger people today have never heard a busy signal and doesn't know what it sounds like. The lady at the local store kept saying she couldn't call me back because she kept getting a fax machine and didn't realize that fax machines sound nothing like a busy signal.
I probably made a mistake using an old land line instead of calling in on my mobile phone. However I called from my basement and prefer a land line down there instead of my mobile. I had to laugh about this person not knowing what a busy signal sounds like.
Ultimately I managed to resolve the issue and carpet got installed at 3pm that afternoon.
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