For the past several weeks I have been trying to complete one final task in God of War. I have one last Valkyrie to "free" but just can't seem to be able to do it. Last night I came as close as I ever have but still fell short. I am trying to decide this evening if I am going to try again or just give up on the game and practice guitar.
Looking back I can see that I finished the main story of the game back at the end of August. Then it took me another month to finish a lot of the side quests that I never got around to doing. This past month I have not had a lot of time to play games in the evening because of other commitments. That means I will have 30 minutes here or there to put into the game. That works because after 30 minutes of getting my butt kicked, I don't really feel like playing much more anyways.
I guess that is how you tell when you are done with a video game: it is no longer fun to play. I have played quite a few games and never got past some of the beginnings. Often times that is because I have so many other things to do. Sometimes it is because I just lose interest in the game and it is no longer fun to play. When that happens to you, feel free to stop playing.
Wednesday, October 30, 2019
Friday, October 25, 2019
Driving with Earphones
While riding my bike to work this past week I witnessed a near accident because the driver of a car was wearing earphones. The bike path I take to work runs alongside a dog park. That means it crosses the parking lot where drivers have to stop and watch for cyclists. On Tuesday a guy on a road bike passed me on my much slower mountain bike. He came to the crossing at the same time as a driver wearing earphones. The driver stopped but never bothered looking to see if any bikers might be approaching. He started going as this other cyclist, who was not required to stop, got to this minor intersection. The cyclist realized the driver was not paying attention and slammed on his brakes before getting T-boned by the much larger truck. The cyclist tried to yell at the driver but the driver couldn't hear a thing because of the earphones. The driver then proceeded through the intersection without yielding to the cyclist.
As a cyclist, you have to be aware of your surroundings and pay attention to all of the inattentive people driving cars. It is my experience that headphones make drivers less attentive and I think they should be illegal to wear while operating a bike or motor vehicle. The state of California agrees with me. Its law states:
Wearing headsets or earplugs in both ears is not permitted while driving or operating a bicycle, unless designed to aid hearing or specifically designed to attenuate injurious noise levels.
Not wanting to provide the wrong information, I looked up the law for Utah. There is no law against wearing headphones while driving. That really surprised me but I guess that explains why I see a lot of drivers cruising down the road listening to headphones and not worried about getting pulled over. If you are interested in finding out the law in your state, AAA has a great page that lists every state with its headphone law.
I found it interesting that my last blog post talked about headphones and then I had this recent experience. It made for a good follow-up for today. Fortunately I was glad I didn't have to help scrape the poor cyclist off the pavement on Tuesday.
As a cyclist, you have to be aware of your surroundings and pay attention to all of the inattentive people driving cars. It is my experience that headphones make drivers less attentive and I think they should be illegal to wear while operating a bike or motor vehicle. The state of California agrees with me. Its law states:
Wearing headsets or earplugs in both ears is not permitted while driving or operating a bicycle, unless designed to aid hearing or specifically designed to attenuate injurious noise levels.
Not wanting to provide the wrong information, I looked up the law for Utah. There is no law against wearing headphones while driving. That really surprised me but I guess that explains why I see a lot of drivers cruising down the road listening to headphones and not worried about getting pulled over. If you are interested in finding out the law in your state, AAA has a great page that lists every state with its headphone law.
I found it interesting that my last blog post talked about headphones and then I had this recent experience. It made for a good follow-up for today. Fortunately I was glad I didn't have to help scrape the poor cyclist off the pavement on Tuesday.
Wednesday, October 16, 2019
Apple EarPods are Incredibly Uncomfortable
Last week I had a flight and forgot my comfortable earphones. They are the in-ear type that also have noise cancelling and I love them. I always keep a spare set of earphones in my computer bag and so I pulled out my spare pair of Apple EarPods. They seem to be incredibly popular as I see a lot of people walking around with the telltale white buds hanging out of their ears. Unfortunately I hate them as they are the most uncomfortable pair of earphones I own.
I am usually a fan of Apple products but I think this is one case where everyone has bought into a severely inferior product. Perhaps my ears are different than everyone else in the world, however I believe that a lot of people are really into pain. I just can't believe that people willingly put those things in their ears.
It also is not just a comfort thing. The sound quality from my less-expensive earphones is vastly superior to that of the EarPods. I used to not really be able to tell the difference between various sound products. Now that I am actively practicing the guitar, my ears have become significantly better at distinguishing between high-quality and low-quality sound. The EarPods have a very rattly sound. This could be because they don't fit my ears very well. In any event, I am not a fan of this Apple product.
So you may be asking which headphone brands I prefer. I have tried a number of products and suggest going with a brand that is known for higher-quality sound. I have several Sony headphones and enjoy them all. With Sony, you pay for what you get so spending more gives a better headphone. That being said, even the cheapest Sony headphones fit my ears much better than the EarPods.
I also have some Skullcandy headphones and think they are pretty good as well. I will confess that I did sit next to the CEO of Skullcandy once on a flight and we had a great time discussing the merits of various headphone manufacturers.
I am usually a fan of Apple products but I think this is one case where everyone has bought into a severely inferior product. Perhaps my ears are different than everyone else in the world, however I believe that a lot of people are really into pain. I just can't believe that people willingly put those things in their ears.
It also is not just a comfort thing. The sound quality from my less-expensive earphones is vastly superior to that of the EarPods. I used to not really be able to tell the difference between various sound products. Now that I am actively practicing the guitar, my ears have become significantly better at distinguishing between high-quality and low-quality sound. The EarPods have a very rattly sound. This could be because they don't fit my ears very well. In any event, I am not a fan of this Apple product.
So you may be asking which headphone brands I prefer. I have tried a number of products and suggest going with a brand that is known for higher-quality sound. I have several Sony headphones and enjoy them all. With Sony, you pay for what you get so spending more gives a better headphone. That being said, even the cheapest Sony headphones fit my ears much better than the EarPods.
I also have some Skullcandy headphones and think they are pretty good as well. I will confess that I did sit next to the CEO of Skullcandy once on a flight and we had a great time discussing the merits of various headphone manufacturers.
Wednesday, October 2, 2019
A Possible Uber Discount
I have been using Uber to get from my office to the San Francisco Airport recently and have noticed a steady increase in cost for the same distance. It has gotten to the point of me looking at other alternatives and today that may have worked in my favor.
Last week I used Uber to get to the airport and my cost was either $20 for Uber Pool (shared ride with other people) or $25 for Uber X (direct non-stop by myself). This is consistent with costs for the past few weeks. In going through my receipt, I noticed a $7 surcharge because of the airport. I know that there is a BART train that is non-stop and leaves from the Millbrae station, which is close to the airport. The cost is only $5 and so I checked to see how much Uber would cost just to get to Millbrae. When I saw the cost at only $10 for Uber Pool, I thought I would do that this evening. Just to make sure I did a fair comparison, I checked how much it would cost to the airport. Instead of $20, the cost came up at only $15 and so I booked Uber. After all, it saved me from having a train transfer.
While going through the airport security I thought about it and wonder if the programmers at Uber recognize when customers are trying to save money. If I was a developer looking for ways to differentiate my rideshare application from others, I would look for little nuances like that.
Anyone that has used Uber for any amount of time know that there are a number of factors that determine pricing. Ever try to hail an Uber or Lyft after a concert? It is really expensive unless you can get a fair distance from the concert venue. It could be that my reduction in price today is reflective of a number of other factors and I just got lucky. Fortunately I will have many more opportunities in the near future to test out my hypothesis. I'll be sure to keep you posted.
Last week I used Uber to get to the airport and my cost was either $20 for Uber Pool (shared ride with other people) or $25 for Uber X (direct non-stop by myself). This is consistent with costs for the past few weeks. In going through my receipt, I noticed a $7 surcharge because of the airport. I know that there is a BART train that is non-stop and leaves from the Millbrae station, which is close to the airport. The cost is only $5 and so I checked to see how much Uber would cost just to get to Millbrae. When I saw the cost at only $10 for Uber Pool, I thought I would do that this evening. Just to make sure I did a fair comparison, I checked how much it would cost to the airport. Instead of $20, the cost came up at only $15 and so I booked Uber. After all, it saved me from having a train transfer.
While going through the airport security I thought about it and wonder if the programmers at Uber recognize when customers are trying to save money. If I was a developer looking for ways to differentiate my rideshare application from others, I would look for little nuances like that.
Anyone that has used Uber for any amount of time know that there are a number of factors that determine pricing. Ever try to hail an Uber or Lyft after a concert? It is really expensive unless you can get a fair distance from the concert venue. It could be that my reduction in price today is reflective of a number of other factors and I just got lucky. Fortunately I will have many more opportunities in the near future to test out my hypothesis. I'll be sure to keep you posted.
Tuesday, October 1, 2019
Time to Change my Password Again
This morning I got an automated e-mail telling me it is time to change my password again. I have been getting them for the past several days and if I wait until tomorrow it will be too late. I have written in the past about ideas for passwords and I got another good suggestion today.
The password for my laptop has remained relatively the same for the past 10 iterations. I use something like "ThisIsVersion1ofMyPassword." It is a long sentence and all I need to do is change the version number to the next one in the sequence. It works well except I didn't want to start adding 2-digit numbers. One of my colleagues suggested using letters. At first I thought that would be a horrible idea because "ThisIsVersionaofMyPassword" just doesn't make as much sense. Sure it is easy to remember and I definitely think it makes it more difficult for people to guess my password. After all, what does "a" represent?
I thought about it a bit more and remembered the line from the movie "The Martian" where Matt Damon has an epiphany with hexadecimals. For those that don't know, hexadecimal is a base-16 numbering system. Instead of creating new symbols for the numbers between 10 and 15, you just use the letters a, b, c, d, e, and f. The letter a is equivalent to 10, b = 11, c = 12, etc. If you ever take a peek at your computer or phone's MAC address, it is stored in a hexadecimal number. So to me, "ThisIsVersionaofMyPassword" is really equivalent to "ThisIsVersion10ofMyPassword" but with one less character.
While saving one character in a really long password is not that big of a deal, I have discovered that typing a single letter is significantly easier than typing a number. Don't get me wrong, I still include other numbers in my passwords to make them more difficult to guess. Reducing the amount of them makes my password easier to type. Hopefully you will find this trick useful with your passwords as well.
The password for my laptop has remained relatively the same for the past 10 iterations. I use something like "ThisIsVersion1ofMyPassword." It is a long sentence and all I need to do is change the version number to the next one in the sequence. It works well except I didn't want to start adding 2-digit numbers. One of my colleagues suggested using letters. At first I thought that would be a horrible idea because "ThisIsVersionaofMyPassword" just doesn't make as much sense. Sure it is easy to remember and I definitely think it makes it more difficult for people to guess my password. After all, what does "a" represent?
I thought about it a bit more and remembered the line from the movie "The Martian" where Matt Damon has an epiphany with hexadecimals. For those that don't know, hexadecimal is a base-16 numbering system. Instead of creating new symbols for the numbers between 10 and 15, you just use the letters a, b, c, d, e, and f. The letter a is equivalent to 10, b = 11, c = 12, etc. If you ever take a peek at your computer or phone's MAC address, it is stored in a hexadecimal number. So to me, "ThisIsVersionaofMyPassword" is really equivalent to "ThisIsVersion10ofMyPassword" but with one less character.
While saving one character in a really long password is not that big of a deal, I have discovered that typing a single letter is significantly easier than typing a number. Don't get me wrong, I still include other numbers in my passwords to make them more difficult to guess. Reducing the amount of them makes my password easier to type. Hopefully you will find this trick useful with your passwords as well.
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