This year Halloween is on a Tuesday and so I find myself in the Bay Area. Nobody will come trick-or-treating to my boat and so there is no need to provide anyone with candy. That is a good thing because I don't need any candy tempting me to eat more sugar than I already do. So I am wondering what I will do to make today unique from any other day of the week that I am on the boat.
I thought about playing a scary game. One of the free games for PS Plus subscribers is called Amnesia and is supposed to be scary. I started playing it at work last week and decided it is not a game that I enjoy, so I stopped playing it. This surprised a lot of my coworkers as they have all seen the critical acclaim it has received. Instead I will continue playing Uncharted 4. It should be a fun evening but not really different than last night as I did the same thing.
While I may not be in the Halloween mood, I have decided that tomorrow I will string up Christmas lights on my boat. Last year I did that for the first time and liked it so much I am looking forward to doing it again this year. Sure Christmas is several months away but I always enjoy the season and am looking forward to starting early this year. In the mean time, I hope everyone enjoys Halloween this year.
Tuesday, October 31, 2017
Monday, October 30, 2017
Enjoying a Solo Roadtrip
Thursday last week I drove my car from San Francisco back to Salt Lake. It is a trip I make about twice a year. Once I drive from Utah to California and then I drive the other way. I do it as I take a lot of vacation at the end of the calendar year and don't want to leave my car unused for such a long time. It is also a great time to do maintenance and take care of licensing.
There are a number of strategies I have used to combat boredom on the trip. On occasion I have enlisted one of my children to drive with me. My youngest daughter often shares with others about the time she flew to San Francisco and only stuck around for an hour or two before driving home. We had a fun time and listened to book on CD. We both enjoyed the fictional story and could talk about it as we drove the 11 hours.
Unfortunately my car is 17 years old and does not have a Bluetooth nor other type of audio connection. That eliminates being able to use a service like Audible. So before my trip on Thursday, I went to the local bookstore and purchased a non-fiction book on CD and loaded up the 6-disc changer in the trunk. At around the 5-hour mark, I swapped out CD's and loaded the remaining 3 as my book required 9 discs. The system works well but books on CD are more expensive than other sources or services.
My chosen listening material recounted the non-fictional story of Apollo 8. There are some familiar characters if you have seen the movie Apollo 13 and I enjoyed the references found in both. The story kept me entertained and the miles seemed to pass quickly. Of course, the 80-mile-per-hour speed limit in Utah and Nevada helped a lot too. If you find yourself wanting to go back and learn a bit about America's space program, I highly recommend the book. It is called "Apollo 8: The Thrilling Story of the First Mission to the Moon" by Jeffrey Kluger.
I plan to bring my car back to California after the new year as soon as I catch a weather window where I don't have to worry about snowstorms closing the freeway around Lake Tahoe. When I do, I will be sure to get another book to listen to. With enough warning, I can probably find a better source for the stories so I can play it from my smartphone instead of on CD. That should save me some money.
There are a number of strategies I have used to combat boredom on the trip. On occasion I have enlisted one of my children to drive with me. My youngest daughter often shares with others about the time she flew to San Francisco and only stuck around for an hour or two before driving home. We had a fun time and listened to book on CD. We both enjoyed the fictional story and could talk about it as we drove the 11 hours.
Unfortunately my car is 17 years old and does not have a Bluetooth nor other type of audio connection. That eliminates being able to use a service like Audible. So before my trip on Thursday, I went to the local bookstore and purchased a non-fiction book on CD and loaded up the 6-disc changer in the trunk. At around the 5-hour mark, I swapped out CD's and loaded the remaining 3 as my book required 9 discs. The system works well but books on CD are more expensive than other sources or services.
My chosen listening material recounted the non-fictional story of Apollo 8. There are some familiar characters if you have seen the movie Apollo 13 and I enjoyed the references found in both. The story kept me entertained and the miles seemed to pass quickly. Of course, the 80-mile-per-hour speed limit in Utah and Nevada helped a lot too. If you find yourself wanting to go back and learn a bit about America's space program, I highly recommend the book. It is called "Apollo 8: The Thrilling Story of the First Mission to the Moon" by Jeffrey Kluger.
I plan to bring my car back to California after the new year as soon as I catch a weather window where I don't have to worry about snowstorms closing the freeway around Lake Tahoe. When I do, I will be sure to get another book to listen to. With enough warning, I can probably find a better source for the stories so I can play it from my smartphone instead of on CD. That should save me some money.
Friday, October 27, 2017
My New Toy: An HP Chromebook 11 G5
Last week I received a package in the mail at work that contained a laptop sleeve. Included with it was a note from a vendor that told me how to get a Chromebook that fits perfectly in the sleeve. I thought about not contacting them because I knew it would involve a sales call. Then they guys around me at work actually thought talking to this vendor would be well worth our time. I submitted my information and soon received an e-mail from our sales representative. It is someone that I have had frequent contact with and so we set up a meeting to talk and catch up. That meeting happened yesterday and actually went very well.
I got home late last night from the Bay Area and my HP Chromebook 11 G5 was waiting for me on my desk. This morning I pulled it out and started playing with it. In order to use the device, you need to connect it to the Internet. That didn't take too long. Next I pulled up YouTube and played a video of one of my favorite songs. The speakers are not too bad considering the size of this very inexpensive device. Next I did a search to see what you can do with a Chromebook.
Over a decade ago I worked for an Oracle spin-off called Network Computer that later changed its name to Liberate Technologies. We created a Network Computer which is exactly what a Chromebook is now. If only we had continued refining our idea instead of going after the set-top box market, the company might still be around.
I have spent about an hour playing with this very functional device and think it is well worth the price I paid for it (free). If you are someone that uses your computer to read e-mail and surf the web, a Chromebook is a very inexpensive option with mine having a suggested price of around $200. I actually like it more than my Samsung tablet I got for free several years ago. Part of that is because of the keyboard included with the device. I also prefer using a mouse over a touchscreen. I hate fingerprints on my screen.
So would I run out and get a Chromebook? No, but only because I have a laptop that I don't mind carrying around. So what am I going to do with this free gift? I am going to put it in my kitchen for when my wife wants to look up recipes or one of the kids wants to surf the net. It is replacing a very old desktop computer that stopped working recently. I expect it will work quite well.
I got home late last night from the Bay Area and my HP Chromebook 11 G5 was waiting for me on my desk. This morning I pulled it out and started playing with it. In order to use the device, you need to connect it to the Internet. That didn't take too long. Next I pulled up YouTube and played a video of one of my favorite songs. The speakers are not too bad considering the size of this very inexpensive device. Next I did a search to see what you can do with a Chromebook.
Over a decade ago I worked for an Oracle spin-off called Network Computer that later changed its name to Liberate Technologies. We created a Network Computer which is exactly what a Chromebook is now. If only we had continued refining our idea instead of going after the set-top box market, the company might still be around.
I have spent about an hour playing with this very functional device and think it is well worth the price I paid for it (free). If you are someone that uses your computer to read e-mail and surf the web, a Chromebook is a very inexpensive option with mine having a suggested price of around $200. I actually like it more than my Samsung tablet I got for free several years ago. Part of that is because of the keyboard included with the device. I also prefer using a mouse over a touchscreen. I hate fingerprints on my screen.
So would I run out and get a Chromebook? No, but only because I have a laptop that I don't mind carrying around. So what am I going to do with this free gift? I am going to put it in my kitchen for when my wife wants to look up recipes or one of the kids wants to surf the net. It is replacing a very old desktop computer that stopped working recently. I expect it will work quite well.
Thursday, October 19, 2017
Video Game Review: Battlefield 1
Last night I finished playing EA's Battlefield 1 on my PlayStation 4. I started playing the game as I wanted a well-done title that didn't take a lot of time. Battlefield 1 definitely fit that criteria and I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed it. I only completed the campaign for the base game and didn't try any of the online play nor did I download any of the extra content. If I didn't have such a backlog of games to play I would give both a try.
I have to confess that my history of World War I is very shallow and that serves as the time period for the game. My understanding is that EA put a lot of effort into making the game historically accurate and that made the game very appealing. I always enjoy learning new things and doing so while playing a video game makes it more worthwhile. I especially appreciated knowing that the German tank in the recent Wonder Woman movie was actually British and I got that from this video game.
There are 5 different stories once you complete the opening section of the game. Each story can be played independently of the others and I took around 2 hours per story. I thought I would enjoy the flying one (Friends in High Places) the most and confess it is very well done. Several people in my office that have played the game would agree that it is the best one of the group. However last night I played the Arabian desert story (Nothing is Written) and enjoyed it even more. Part of my preference has to do with the character development as well as the environment. I have spent a bit of time in Southern Utah over the past week and the Arabian desert looks very similar in some regards. I felt very much at home. All 5 stories are very well done and enjoyable to play.
We have seen a lot of games set in World War II and I appreciated a new venue for this type of game. It helps put things in perspective and shows the importance of constantly improving technology.
Battlefield 1 has been available for a while and you can get an all access pass that includes new downloadable content as well as the original game for around $25. That is about what I paid for my copy of the game and is a good value for the price. It has an ESRB rating of M for Mature because of violence and strong language.
I have to confess that my history of World War I is very shallow and that serves as the time period for the game. My understanding is that EA put a lot of effort into making the game historically accurate and that made the game very appealing. I always enjoy learning new things and doing so while playing a video game makes it more worthwhile. I especially appreciated knowing that the German tank in the recent Wonder Woman movie was actually British and I got that from this video game.
There are 5 different stories once you complete the opening section of the game. Each story can be played independently of the others and I took around 2 hours per story. I thought I would enjoy the flying one (Friends in High Places) the most and confess it is very well done. Several people in my office that have played the game would agree that it is the best one of the group. However last night I played the Arabian desert story (Nothing is Written) and enjoyed it even more. Part of my preference has to do with the character development as well as the environment. I have spent a bit of time in Southern Utah over the past week and the Arabian desert looks very similar in some regards. I felt very much at home. All 5 stories are very well done and enjoyable to play.
We have seen a lot of games set in World War II and I appreciated a new venue for this type of game. It helps put things in perspective and shows the importance of constantly improving technology.
Battlefield 1 has been available for a while and you can get an all access pass that includes new downloadable content as well as the original game for around $25. That is about what I paid for my copy of the game and is a good value for the price. It has an ESRB rating of M for Mature because of violence and strong language.
Friday, October 13, 2017
My Halloween Movie List
I love this time of year as it means that ski season is just around the corner. It also means that we get to start the extended Holiday season that includes Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's. It also means it is time to start watching Halloween movies. Now I am not a big fan of scary movies and so when I think about Halloween movies, I think about fun ones. So with that preface, here is my list of Halloween movies that I enjoy.
Hocus Pocus - This is more of a fun movie than a scary one. Yes there are 3 witches that run around terrorizing a small New England town, but it is more comedic than horror.
Ghostbusters - I prefer the original as it brings back fond memories of my youth. Once again, this is more comedy than terror.
Casper - I used to come home from school and watch the old Casper cartoons. The movie is much better done and is a good way to celebrate Halloween.
Pirates of the Carribean - The original film got released in the summer of 2003, not even close to Halloween. However it is a very well done ghost story that ties into one of the classic rides in Disneyland. That makes it a good addition to my list.
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone - This film's original release date happened after Halloween but ultimately is a movie about witches and wizards. In my opinion, that makes it a great Halloween movie. It has a few scary parts but is mostly good entertainment.
Looking at this list, I realize that most of these movies are for children. I guess that makes me a big kid and I'm fine with that.
Hocus Pocus - This is more of a fun movie than a scary one. Yes there are 3 witches that run around terrorizing a small New England town, but it is more comedic than horror.
Ghostbusters - I prefer the original as it brings back fond memories of my youth. Once again, this is more comedy than terror.
Casper - I used to come home from school and watch the old Casper cartoons. The movie is much better done and is a good way to celebrate Halloween.
Pirates of the Carribean - The original film got released in the summer of 2003, not even close to Halloween. However it is a very well done ghost story that ties into one of the classic rides in Disneyland. That makes it a good addition to my list.
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone - This film's original release date happened after Halloween but ultimately is a movie about witches and wizards. In my opinion, that makes it a great Halloween movie. It has a few scary parts but is mostly good entertainment.
Looking at this list, I realize that most of these movies are for children. I guess that makes me a big kid and I'm fine with that.
Wednesday, October 11, 2017
Adventure Vacation
I spent the first part of the week down in Zion National Park with my youngest daughter. She is out of school for a fall break and wanted to do something adventurous while I needed a short break from work. I had her set up the itinerary so I took care of the hotel. One of the hikes she wanted to do is called, "The Subway," and requires a permit in order to hike it.
As I left all of the itinerary planning to my daughter, I didn't worry about the technical things like the equipment we would need or if we would need help shuttling between the start and the end of the hike. We entered the lottery to get a permit the Monday before our arrival. If we didn't receive one, we had a backup plan. On Saturday at 1pm, my daughter received an e-mail from the National Park Service congratulating us on being awarded the chance to hike "The Subway." The next day we stopped by the park's visitor center to collect the permit.
In talking with the Park employee, we discovered that we needed to get dry suits as we would be swimming in very cold water to get through the hike. We would also need to do some repels during the hike but had all of the necessary equipment. We also needed to set up a shuttle as we would drop our car at the exit and take the shuttle 7 miles up the road to the beginning of the hike.
So what does all of this have to do with computers and technology? While we could look all of this up on the Internet, once we left the hotel at 6am on Monday morning to begin the hike, we couldn't rely on technology to help us get through the hike. We had no mobile phone service nor Internet. Furthermore the conditions for the hike can change from day-to-day and so none of the sources we looked at told us we would need wet suits or dry suits. We only got recommendations for them. However when we collected our permit, the National Park Service told us it was a requirement to have one or the other because of the nighttime freezing temperatures. I'm glad they required it as the rented dry suits came in handy during the hike.
We had a wonderful adventure on Monday and really enjoyed the hike. It took us about 2 hours to get through the beginning of the hike where we carefully navigated our way through an alpine forest and across Southern Utah's famous slick rock. It then took us 3 hours to exit the subway. When we look at how much time we spent actually in "The Subway," it was 4 hours of fun. Amazingly that time felt like only 15 minutes. We had a lot of fun and I recommend the hike.
 |
| The Subway at Zion National Park |
In talking with the Park employee, we discovered that we needed to get dry suits as we would be swimming in very cold water to get through the hike. We would also need to do some repels during the hike but had all of the necessary equipment. We also needed to set up a shuttle as we would drop our car at the exit and take the shuttle 7 miles up the road to the beginning of the hike.
So what does all of this have to do with computers and technology? While we could look all of this up on the Internet, once we left the hotel at 6am on Monday morning to begin the hike, we couldn't rely on technology to help us get through the hike. We had no mobile phone service nor Internet. Furthermore the conditions for the hike can change from day-to-day and so none of the sources we looked at told us we would need wet suits or dry suits. We only got recommendations for them. However when we collected our permit, the National Park Service told us it was a requirement to have one or the other because of the nighttime freezing temperatures. I'm glad they required it as the rented dry suits came in handy during the hike.
We had a wonderful adventure on Monday and really enjoyed the hike. It took us about 2 hours to get through the beginning of the hike where we carefully navigated our way through an alpine forest and across Southern Utah's famous slick rock. It then took us 3 hours to exit the subway. When we look at how much time we spent actually in "The Subway," it was 4 hours of fun. Amazingly that time felt like only 15 minutes. We had a lot of fun and I recommend the hike.
Friday, October 6, 2017
A Scary Thought for Halloween
This morning I answered a one-question survey about what is the most scary Halloween character. A number of the usual suspects could be chosen. As a child, a monster would have definitely have made the list. Now that I am an adult, the most scary things in my life are much different. I am scared of things like getting extra random screening at the security in the airport or having the IRS decide I didn't pay my fair share of taxes. I am also afraid of illnesses like cancer or Alzheimer's disease.
If I stop to think about monsters, the scariest one on the earth today is man. Think about the recent mass shooting in Las Vegas and it has totally stolen the spotlight from natural disasters like hurricanes Irma and Maria. This has me rethinking several of the projects I am researching at work. I am helping to build some really fun technology, but in the wrong hands, it could be used to do much more scary things than any mass shooting to date.
Artificial Intelligence is one of the subjects I am researching and still think it is pretty stupid. However there are some areas where great progress is being made. Pull out any of the latest smartphones and try to take a picture of someone. The first thing you notice is that someone's face gets highlighted so you can provide a name or tag to be used by Facebook or some other social media site. This means that a tiny device that fits in your pocket knows the difference between a person and a random object. Now couple that with acoustic analysis where a couple of speakers can tell the direction that person's voice is coming from. A number of toy-robot researchers are using this technology to create robots that look at who is talking in a group of people. All of that seems pretty harmless and fun, right?
Now let's take that same technology that can recognize faces and knows how to aim at a person. I don't want to elaborate any more as I don't want to give anyone any ideas. However my realization this morning left me with a sick feeling in my stomach and the thought that while it isn't quite SkyNet from the Terminator movies, it is moving in that direction. Perhaps I shouldn't be so quick to dismiss the scary uses of Artificial Intelligence. Monsters are not the things scaring me this Halloween season.
If I stop to think about monsters, the scariest one on the earth today is man. Think about the recent mass shooting in Las Vegas and it has totally stolen the spotlight from natural disasters like hurricanes Irma and Maria. This has me rethinking several of the projects I am researching at work. I am helping to build some really fun technology, but in the wrong hands, it could be used to do much more scary things than any mass shooting to date.
Artificial Intelligence is one of the subjects I am researching and still think it is pretty stupid. However there are some areas where great progress is being made. Pull out any of the latest smartphones and try to take a picture of someone. The first thing you notice is that someone's face gets highlighted so you can provide a name or tag to be used by Facebook or some other social media site. This means that a tiny device that fits in your pocket knows the difference between a person and a random object. Now couple that with acoustic analysis where a couple of speakers can tell the direction that person's voice is coming from. A number of toy-robot researchers are using this technology to create robots that look at who is talking in a group of people. All of that seems pretty harmless and fun, right?
Now let's take that same technology that can recognize faces and knows how to aim at a person. I don't want to elaborate any more as I don't want to give anyone any ideas. However my realization this morning left me with a sick feeling in my stomach and the thought that while it isn't quite SkyNet from the Terminator movies, it is moving in that direction. Perhaps I shouldn't be so quick to dismiss the scary uses of Artificial Intelligence. Monsters are not the things scaring me this Halloween season.
Tuesday, October 3, 2017
Software Quality vs. Getting it Done
Yesterday I had to be at our San Francisco office for some meetings and arrived shortly before lunch. My office in San Mateo has a cafeteria and so I didn't know what my lunch options might be in that office. Sure I could have walked around and found something quite easily but I wanted to catch up with an old work associate and so I sent him a lunch invitation e-mail. He had the time and so we headed to his favorite place and caught up.
We didn't go any place fancy and I appreciated that. A simple meal is all I needed. We got to talk about the differences between the two offices that belong to the same company. Even though he is doing similar things as to when we worked together, there is a different feel to it. When we worked together, my friend felt like he could do the job correctly and fine-tune the software he created. In the new environment, he feels like there is more of a push to get something out and working. It doesn't matter if it is not optimal, it just needs to work. He mentioned that he appreciated being able to create quality software and not just quantity.
If you talk to a software developer, his or her code is never really finished. It just gets good enough to use. Therefore a healthy balance needs to be struck when creating software. Programs need to be created and they need to work. They also need to be put out in a finite amount of time. So if you see a video game release date moved to a further date, you can be sure the development team is wrestling with getting the product into your hands as a consumer but also making sure it meets minimum quality requirements.
We didn't go any place fancy and I appreciated that. A simple meal is all I needed. We got to talk about the differences between the two offices that belong to the same company. Even though he is doing similar things as to when we worked together, there is a different feel to it. When we worked together, my friend felt like he could do the job correctly and fine-tune the software he created. In the new environment, he feels like there is more of a push to get something out and working. It doesn't matter if it is not optimal, it just needs to work. He mentioned that he appreciated being able to create quality software and not just quantity.
If you talk to a software developer, his or her code is never really finished. It just gets good enough to use. Therefore a healthy balance needs to be struck when creating software. Programs need to be created and they need to work. They also need to be put out in a finite amount of time. So if you see a video game release date moved to a further date, you can be sure the development team is wrestling with getting the product into your hands as a consumer but also making sure it meets minimum quality requirements.
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