Ringtones

Yesterday I woke up to the sound of ducks quacking outside my boat and I wondered which of my kids decided to call my wife. The funny thing is that my wife's phone happened to be 600 miles away at the time. My wife has set up the duck quack ringtone for each of her kids. That way she knows it is one of her own children instead of a friend or stranger. So now I have become accustomed to wondering why one of the kids is calling whenever I hear duck quacks even though it may be an actual duck on the water outside my sailboat.

No Exciting Computers

I had a bit of time to think as I walked the 3 miles to my office this morning. Mostly I thought about how I had already crossed the threshold of distance to where summoning Uber seemed a waste even though it was raining. What driver would pick me up for such a short drive. I did think about other things and one of them surfaced again when I go to the gym at work and prepared to get another 30 minutes of exercise. I briefly glanced at the locker-room TV and noticed that one of the ESPN commentators has the same laptop I do. It seems like the vast majority of people have settled on the same few laptops. There just doesn't seem to be any exciting new computers these days.

Naturally I have spent part of my day thinking about the state of computing hardware and what would make me excited. The size of a laptop is something that used to differentiate various models. Now it seems we have settled on small, medium, or large and each has its merits. We also used to have peripherals such as floppy, CDROM, or DVD disk drives. Now it seems that everyone relies on network connections and doesn't need removable media any more. What about case material? Well you have the brushed aluminum look, solid black carbon fiber, or some colored plastic cover. All of that is boring. About the most exciting difference between laptops is the lit brand logo that appears on the back of the screen. Some love the simple Apple logo while others prefer the 3 intertwined-snakes for the gamer specific Razer laptops.

As I thought about the lack of excitement in the computer market right now, I realized that we can't really blame the hardware manufacturers. It is tough to get excited about new hardware when it all runs the same old software. You have your choice between Windows, MacOS, or Linux. Even then Linux really isn't an option for most people as it is still more of a hobbyist's operating system unless you are working with servers.

So what will it take to get me excited about a new computer or laptop? I don't know. Perhaps this just means there is a new opportunity out there for something extraordinary to come along. I would hate to think that computers have evolved as far as they will go.

Stupid Updates

It seems like every time I look at an electronic device, it has to do some sort of update. I came into work on Tuesday and started one of the Microsoft Office products only to discover it had a number of updates to download. Having 2 mobile phones makes the problem worse as one of them always seem to have some pending application update. Then last night I decided to set up my PS4 on my sailboat. It had been off since I brought it out in November. Not only did I need to update the system software, but every game I had played in the past 6 months had an updated that needed to download. I burned through 9 gigabytes of data in one evening.

This has me evaluating all of my electronic devices that are connected to the Internet. I don't keep a lot of apps on my phones unless I really use them. Periodically I go through and delete programs I haven't used in several months. When I turned on my PlayStation 4, I thought I deleted all of the game files I didn't think I would play. I probably should have deleted more of them. I also am sure not to install software on my computer unless I really need it.

All of this downloading and updating seems like I am keeping up with the latest features and sometimes that is true. Security updates are very important and should be installed as quickly as they appear. Unfortunately some of the updates don't really effect me. Most of the updates for the PS4 dealt with online play features and I don't really do a lot of that currently. Furthermore, Apple has a tendency to remove functionality in the name of simplicity. But what if I am using that feature?

Finally I question the size of all these downloads. Retrieving 9 gigabytes of data in one evening seems a bit excessive. My experience with bug fixes is that you should just have to send an update to a library and those can be very small. Maybe I just have a bunch of games that needed new content and there is no way to make that tiny. I will have to go through and see if I notice any difference. My guess is I won't.

The Excitement of a New Year

I know that calendars are relatively arbitrary in the sense that our new year is not the same as other parts of the world. However there is something refreshing about the changing of the year. It is like a blank canvas ready for a new painting. What adventures will the year have in store for you and me?

People often look at January as a time to make resolutions. Perhaps they will drop a few pounds or learn a new skill. Last year I took up the guitar and have enjoyed it since. This is also the time for the consumer electronics show (CES) in Las Vegas. One of my colleagues who attended remarked about how large it seemed this year as he got to see what new electronic gadgets will be available in the near future. In the United States, we will have a new President. The press and media think that will shake things up a bit.

Yes we have a new year and so it is time to anticipate what the year has in store for us. My hope is that there is some exciting new technologies that actually make our lives better.