Recently I updated my work laptop's operating system to High Sierra. Naturally this broke a number of applications until I could update them as well. I updated everything except for iMovie and Garage Band as I kept getting a message about how my Apple ID did not have permissions to update those applications. I didn't worry about as I don't really use those apps on my work computer. However it is starting to get annoying that my computer tries to upgrade them each week but can't because of the Apple ID. Today I had a few minutes of time and so I went to the company help desk to see if they could help me.
Ultimately we came up with a workaround that involved creating a new user on my laptop and having the new user update those two programs. Once that worked, the help desk employee suggested that my laptop is getting old and is eligible to be replaced soon. On the way back to my desk I wondered how long I have had this computer. Then I realized I wrote about it in this blog. A quick search showed that I got it around February 4, 2016. We have a policy that allows me to replace the computers every 2 to 3 years. I will probably wait a bit but it is nice to have a written record of when I got it.
Friday, July 27, 2018
Tuesday, July 17, 2018
Cure for a Stroke
A good friend of mine suffered a stroke in December. He is one of those really healthy guys that just has bad genetics as he has suffered through several heart attacks as well. Unfortunately the stroke left him without the ability to speak. He is also unable to to use his right hand effectively but you wouldn't know that unless you are very observant or someone pointed it out to you.
Another friend came to me a month or so ago and said we need to use technology to help our friend recover and come up with a way for him to talk. He proposed creating a Google Glass application that can pair with a smartphone and talk for him. The original idea included looking at a keyboard on the Google Glass screen and spelling out words to be spoken by the phone. It sounds like a great idea, right?
Anyone who knows a stroke victim knows that there is often more damage than first meets the eye. While our friend can still read somewhat, he can't write, type, nor can he spell very well. It is very difficult for him to communicate with the rest of the world even though he can hear us and knows what we are saying. Talking with him is like playing 20 questions all the time and it gets old quickly.
A few more friends gathered with our stroke victim several weeks ago and flushed out some solutions. We decided that instead of trying to have our friend spell out words, we would use icons and pictures to represent phrases. We are doing prototyping work on a tablet computer. By selecting icons, we can create sentences to help our friend communicate. Now the trick is deciding what phrases are the most important and should be created first.
We have our friend's speech therapist who created a book of phrases that deal with time, eating, and other seemingly important stuff. While that is all fine, it doesn't represent the important conversations in our lives. I suggested a few more important phrases that probably need to be gathered first. Things like, "Are you single?" or "I'm a good listener." My friend is divorced and could probably use a date. These phrases are important for such activities but did not show up in the therapist's book. When I proposed them, you should have seen my friend light up.
The ability to communicate is important to us all. When my friend lost his ability to speak, he lost his purpose in life. Now we are trying to help him help others who have gone through similar ailments. Wouldn't it be great to add phrases like, "I have a tiny idea of what you are going through because I also suffered a stroke and lost the ability to speak," or, "Let me help you."
This is one of those projects that will never really end but it is a worthy cause for my time. I wish I could do more. While this may not be a cure for every stroke victim, it is something that will help a number of them and is very important to my friend. If you are interested in helping with the project, don't hesitate to leave a comment or contact me. One of the easiest ways to help is simply to think about your daily conversations and give us ideas of what phrases we should include in our app.
Another friend came to me a month or so ago and said we need to use technology to help our friend recover and come up with a way for him to talk. He proposed creating a Google Glass application that can pair with a smartphone and talk for him. The original idea included looking at a keyboard on the Google Glass screen and spelling out words to be spoken by the phone. It sounds like a great idea, right?
Anyone who knows a stroke victim knows that there is often more damage than first meets the eye. While our friend can still read somewhat, he can't write, type, nor can he spell very well. It is very difficult for him to communicate with the rest of the world even though he can hear us and knows what we are saying. Talking with him is like playing 20 questions all the time and it gets old quickly.
A few more friends gathered with our stroke victim several weeks ago and flushed out some solutions. We decided that instead of trying to have our friend spell out words, we would use icons and pictures to represent phrases. We are doing prototyping work on a tablet computer. By selecting icons, we can create sentences to help our friend communicate. Now the trick is deciding what phrases are the most important and should be created first.
We have our friend's speech therapist who created a book of phrases that deal with time, eating, and other seemingly important stuff. While that is all fine, it doesn't represent the important conversations in our lives. I suggested a few more important phrases that probably need to be gathered first. Things like, "Are you single?" or "I'm a good listener." My friend is divorced and could probably use a date. These phrases are important for such activities but did not show up in the therapist's book. When I proposed them, you should have seen my friend light up.
The ability to communicate is important to us all. When my friend lost his ability to speak, he lost his purpose in life. Now we are trying to help him help others who have gone through similar ailments. Wouldn't it be great to add phrases like, "I have a tiny idea of what you are going through because I also suffered a stroke and lost the ability to speak," or, "Let me help you."
This is one of those projects that will never really end but it is a worthy cause for my time. I wish I could do more. While this may not be a cure for every stroke victim, it is something that will help a number of them and is very important to my friend. If you are interested in helping with the project, don't hesitate to leave a comment or contact me. One of the easiest ways to help is simply to think about your daily conversations and give us ideas of what phrases we should include in our app.
Friday, July 13, 2018
Fixing a 24-Year-Old Air Conditioner
Yesterday afternoon my wife texted me and asked me to call her. I couldn't because of a meeting and so she sent me another message saying the air conditioner in our house broke. When I could finally call her, I had her run through some troubleshooting steps to see if we couldn't isolate the problem. Ultimately nothing we tried would bring the AC back on. As this is the really hot part of the year in Utah, cooling the house is very important.
I left the office and rode back to my boat trying to figure out what the problem could be. I thought about all of the steps I had my wife try and figured that we either lost the blower motor, the capacitor for the blower motor, or the computer that controls the blower motor. Based on some issues we had a few weeks ago, I figured it was a 95% chance the computer died. Using the power of a smartphone with a camera, my wife helped me figure out the part number for the old computer and find a replacement part on the Internet. The only problem is that I couldn't guarantee the arrival before the end of the weekend when I would have to catch a flight from Utah back to the Bay Area.
This morning I had my wife call around and see if she could find a replacement part locally. She did and it cost $175 while the same part can be purchased for $75 on the Internet. When it is 95 degrees outside, $100 is a small price to pay for being able to cool the house immediately and so I had her pick up the part.
This evening I boarded a plane back to Utah and my wife picked me up at the airport. We came home and I began working on fixing the AC. One would think it would be as simple as labeling all of the dozen or so wires and plugging them back into the new computer. Nope, the new board had a completely different configuration and only a few of the wires had the same labels.
I went to my desktop computer and looked up part numbers on the Internet. My old AC computer is part number ST9120G2008 and my replacement is ST9120U1011. I searched for a bit but couldn't find instructions on how to rewire the computer but I did find one clue: white wires are neutral. I found all of the neutral connections on the computer and started there. Next I found labels on the the old computer and matched them with the new one. That left only five unknown wires. Fortunately the instruction manual came with a very nice wiring diagram. I just had to recall all of my Electrical Engineering homework from a long time ago and I matched the remaining wires.
While carpenters like to measure twice and cut once, electrical engineers like to recheck their work and so I did. Then I checked it again. Once you let the magic smoke out of electrical components, they don't work very well after. I didn't want to have to spend another $175 for a wiring mistake. Once I convinced myself everything worked, I did a quick test. The blower motor started right up. I then tested the AC and it is now working to bring my house down from an unbearable 85 degrees to a more manageable 76.
I am not an HVAC specialist and normally I would call a repairman for such a job. In fact I have done that in the middle of winter when the heater stopped working. The problem turned out to be a $4 light switch. I still had to pay $120 for the service call. I figure at that rate, I can spend a bit of my own time and try to figure it out. Furthermore buying a new part through the repairman would run me about $300. I figure I saved myself around $245 doing the work myself. I also learned a lot in the process.
If you find yourself in a similar situation but have the slightest concern that you didn't correctly diagnose the problem, then call the repairman. If you think the Internet will help guide you through the fix, then give it a shot. You might just save yourself some serious cash.
I left the office and rode back to my boat trying to figure out what the problem could be. I thought about all of the steps I had my wife try and figured that we either lost the blower motor, the capacitor for the blower motor, or the computer that controls the blower motor. Based on some issues we had a few weeks ago, I figured it was a 95% chance the computer died. Using the power of a smartphone with a camera, my wife helped me figure out the part number for the old computer and find a replacement part on the Internet. The only problem is that I couldn't guarantee the arrival before the end of the weekend when I would have to catch a flight from Utah back to the Bay Area.
This morning I had my wife call around and see if she could find a replacement part locally. She did and it cost $175 while the same part can be purchased for $75 on the Internet. When it is 95 degrees outside, $100 is a small price to pay for being able to cool the house immediately and so I had her pick up the part.
This evening I boarded a plane back to Utah and my wife picked me up at the airport. We came home and I began working on fixing the AC. One would think it would be as simple as labeling all of the dozen or so wires and plugging them back into the new computer. Nope, the new board had a completely different configuration and only a few of the wires had the same labels.
I went to my desktop computer and looked up part numbers on the Internet. My old AC computer is part number ST9120G2008 and my replacement is ST9120U1011. I searched for a bit but couldn't find instructions on how to rewire the computer but I did find one clue: white wires are neutral. I found all of the neutral connections on the computer and started there. Next I found labels on the the old computer and matched them with the new one. That left only five unknown wires. Fortunately the instruction manual came with a very nice wiring diagram. I just had to recall all of my Electrical Engineering homework from a long time ago and I matched the remaining wires.
While carpenters like to measure twice and cut once, electrical engineers like to recheck their work and so I did. Then I checked it again. Once you let the magic smoke out of electrical components, they don't work very well after. I didn't want to have to spend another $175 for a wiring mistake. Once I convinced myself everything worked, I did a quick test. The blower motor started right up. I then tested the AC and it is now working to bring my house down from an unbearable 85 degrees to a more manageable 76.
I am not an HVAC specialist and normally I would call a repairman for such a job. In fact I have done that in the middle of winter when the heater stopped working. The problem turned out to be a $4 light switch. I still had to pay $120 for the service call. I figure at that rate, I can spend a bit of my own time and try to figure it out. Furthermore buying a new part through the repairman would run me about $300. I figure I saved myself around $245 doing the work myself. I also learned a lot in the process.
If you find yourself in a similar situation but have the slightest concern that you didn't correctly diagnose the problem, then call the repairman. If you think the Internet will help guide you through the fix, then give it a shot. You might just save yourself some serious cash.
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