We Learned A Lot in 2020

A lot of people are really down on the year 2020 because of COVID-19 and all of the problems that it created for the world. I'd like to take a different point of view and say that it is a year we learned a lot. Furthermore we also progressed significantly in our technology and ability to work from home. Instead of complaining about 2020, I'd like to point out what we learned.

Most importantly we learned that global pandemics happen and we need to be prepared for them. Nobody complained when the Obama administration depleted our nation's pandemic supplies because we didn't think there was even a remote possibility it would be something we needed to be concerned about. Now we all know that while our healthcare system is significantly better than 100 years ago, it is not foolproof and we do need to worry about overloading it.

We learned that we don't need to be in the office to work. This one is my favorites as I have not had to go into my office since March. I find that I am actually more productive working from home. I also discovered that I don't get nearly as much done around the home as I thought I would when I traveled between Utah and California each week. I do appreciate the extra 6 hours a week I am not commuting by plane though. We have seen video conferencing technology rise to the occasion and get significantly better over the past year. I am thankful for that as I believe that we won't have to spend as much time in the office as we used to.

Some people have been very negatively effected by COVID-19 as they have lost their form of income. With every loss, there has also been a gain. A large number of people have learned how to cook instead of going out every night. Other people have turned to the great outdoors and exercise instead of sedentary forms of recreation. There have also been a number of new job opportunities created because of COVID-19. My neighbor that works in the movie industry has a job monitoring COVID-19 protocols on the movie sets, a job that didn't exist in 2019. Amazon cannot keep pace with the hiring they need to do for all of the online shopping being done. While some think that would be a lousy job, I have a neighbor who is thriving at Amazon and loves working there. Let's also not forget the huge number of people entering the healthcare field because it is now front and center in all of our lives. Always remember that when one door closes, another opens.

Yes, this has been a tough year for us all, but it is something we all have in common. On my way up to the ski hill this morning I heard the radio announcer say that normally a person will suffer through a trial alone. Perhaps family and friends may be there with the person. In 2020, we all suffered together. The entire world did and that has brought us all closer together . . . figuratively of course as we still need to social distance.

Time to Clean my Home Office

It is the end of 2020 and a lot has changed in the world. If you had told me that I would spend from March until now working from home instead of going into the office, I would not have believed you. It looks like I will continue to do so until July and maybe even longer. That has me doing some cleaning of my home office as old electronic equipment has a tendency to accumulate in it. Unfortunately it is not as easy as just throwing old computers in the trash and letting the garbage man deal with it.

The catalyst for my post today is that I have an old ham radio and linear amplifier that is just taking up space in my office. While I could set it up and play with it, I have newer radios that are easier to use and work significantly better. In one of my ham radio magazines, I found an add for a group that wants old radio donations and so I contacted them today. They will take the radio equipment and give me a tax donation receipt. The only catch is that they cannot pay for me to ship it to them. I will have to pay that but they will give me a second receipt equal to the shipping costs as a cash donation. I don't mind helping out an organization that uses my old equipment to help kids learn. So that is where I will be sending the radio. What else can I get rid of?

I have some really old televisions from before the flat-panel days. You shouldn't just dump those in the garbage no matter how tempting it may be. I also have a number of old desktop computers that I want to get rid of. Ultimately I would like to put everything in the back of my truck and take it to one place that will accept it all. The local Best Buy will accept most old electronics, including old television sets. A quick Internet search let me to Earth911.com that has a link at the top of the page titled, "Where to Recycle." Just tell it what you want to recycle and put in your zip code. I found a place near me that accepts all sorts of hazardous and electronic waste. It is managed by the local government and free for all residents of the county where I live.

Yes it would be nice to donate a bunch of worthless computer equipment and get a hefty tax write-off. Unfortunately your donation needs to be of value to someone in order to get a tax deduction. My old ham radio still can be used even though it was manufactured in 1965. The only use for a computer that old is in a museum.

One word of caution about old mobile phones and computers: you want to be sure to clean all of your information from them. For mobile phones it is easy, just beat the screen with a hammer and drop the thing in salt water for a day or so. It will corrode all of the electronics so they are unusable. For computers, be sure to remove the hard drive and destroy that. Rotating disks are a bit tougher to destroy and so pull all the screws out and tear the enclosure apart. Then rub your fingers all over the platters as that will make it almost impossible for anyone to pull data off the disk.

If destruction is not your method of choice for destroying old hard drives, you can always find a utility that allows you to write all 1's or 0's across the entire drive. That is probably a little more elegant but not nearly as much fun.

30 Years of Marriage

This week marks my wife and my 30th year of marriage. That is a significant milestone. No it doesn't have anything to do with technology or computers but I figured it is worth noting. In honor of my wife I figure it is only fair to share some of the comments she has made about technology and my career choice in the past.

When my wife and I first got married, she would tell people that, "While nerd may be a 4-letter word in high-school, it is an excellent career choice for a husband." Technology has generally done fairly well in keeping our bills paid and she recognized that early on. That being said, there have been several years in our married life where that wasn't the case. That can be said of quite a few career choices though.

My brothers also chose computers for their careers and we used to talk a lot about technologies when we would get together at family events. Often we would talk about the latest advances or our latest toys. My older brother's wife would make some comment about boring shop talk and my wife would quickly respond, "It's fine to talk about as it pays our bills." Yes, computers and technology can be a bit of a conversation bore for those not in the industry but I appreciate my wife putting up with and seeming interested in countless discussions we have had. 

Now for those thinking that Christmas is a great time to get married, I would say that it is. The only downside is that it is an awful time for your anniversary. We always wait until February to celebrate because trying to take a trip at Christmas is expensive and interferes with a lot of other things. Should you be considering a Christmas wedding, I suggest waiting until at least January. What a great way to start the new year.

An Evening Without Internet

Last night I lost my Internet service at the house. I first noticed it when my wife tried to look up an address on her smartphone so she could go get us a Christmas ham. Her phone had been having problems all day and so she thought it related to the mobile device. Fortunately my daughter mentioned that she also had connection problems on her laptop. I suggested that my wife turn WiFi off on her phone and see if she could get directions. Sure enough it worked and we now have a massive ham to celebrate the birth of someone that wouldn't have eaten ham. Anyways . . .

Spending an evening without Internet service is a bit tough in today's day and age. It really surprised me at how much I rely on my computers being able to connect to many others out there. I started with my PlayStation 5. I finished all of the tasks in Astro's Playroom and wanted to see what trophies I still needed to complete. PlayStation's trophy service requires being able to access the Internet.

Next I wanted to look up some potential investments. I have decided that it is time for me to get back into the stock market. For the past decade or so, I have relied on the expert of others to manage my investments. Back in my 30's I really enjoyed following individual companies and have opened an online trading account. I'll keep you posted if I do well or not but ultimately I couldn't do any research last night because of the lack of Internet. Too bad I don't get a copy the Wall Street Journal as I could have looked through that.

I thought about watching a Christmas movie but this year I have already seen the ones I have on DVD and Blu-ray. No Internet means no streaming video services and so I looked for other ways to kick off the first evening of my Holiday break. As the night wore on, I pulled out my guitar and Rocksmith only to be reminded that all of the extra songs I have purchased are not playable without a connection to the Internet to verify that I have the paid to play them. Sure Rocksmith comes with 60 songs but I wanted to rock out to all my Christmas ones. Instead I ended up playing my acoustic guitar with my songbook full of Christmas music.

Eventually my service provider got the Internet working again. I checked my e-mail and during the time that the Internet was down, I only received 2 messages which goes to show it wasn't down that long. However it still felt like an eternity.

To show how important the Internet is in our daily lives, I have the day off and here I am back on the Internet. Sure I got up and went skiing this morning at Snowbird. We got 16-inches of new snow last night and I had one spectacular run in untracked snow before the crowds destroyed any hopes of a repeat. When I got home, I did a few chores but have spent the past 2 hours utilizing my home Internet connection. I am done though and will be heading off to do things that don't require a computer . . . oh wait, I may continue one of my video games. Scratch that.

Outdated Instructions and Why Dates Matter

Recently I have experienced several problem with software updates on my various computers. It is easy to search the Internet and look for solutions. Unfortunately I find myself reading outdated instructions and it is only after going through the first several lines that I discover the solution is for a previous version of the software I am trying to fix. It makes me wish that every post on the Internet is required to have a date associated with it.

One would think that the problem could be solved by including software versions in the search string but that doesn't help. Search engines are amazing but they don't know the difference between version 6.1 and 6.1.3. At least with a posting date you have some idea of how recent the solution appeared online. If it is a new piece of software that released the day before, seeing a date of last year indicates you might want to keep looking.

I appreciate this blog and how it assigns a date to every post. If I give advice, you know when it was given. This is really helpful when you see two posts that disagree with each other. I may favor a particular laptop one year and a completely different one the next. This is because of constant change and in the evolution of products. My only hope is that products continue to get better and technology continues to advance.

I Miss My Sunday Newspaper

I know that for most people the daily newspaper disappeared quite a few years ago. I still subscribed to the Sunday paper as I enjoy spending one day a week browsing through a physical copy of the newspaper. Let's be honest, I browse the paper but read every word of the comics. Yesterday marked the first Sunday in many years that I didn't receive a newspaper.

Last week I cancelled my subscription to the Sunday newspaper because the company is changing how they deliver the paper. Instead of a daily newspaper or just the Sunday one, they are using the postal service to deliver a magazine once a week. If you want the daily news, you can get online access to it. As that doesn't interest me, I cancelled.

Yesterday I woke up and hoped the paperboy had made a mistake and delivered me a newspaper on accident. Unfortunately that didn't happen and so I headed to the breakfast table and tried to figure out something else to do while eating my Sunday morning meal. A quick Internet search revealed that I can get all of my comics online for free. I tried a number of different sites but eventually settled on one that had all of my usual reads.

Interestingly enough, as I stopped reading the daily paper years ago, I didn't realize that a number of the daily comics are actually in color. Now that I have found comics site I like, I may start reading them every day or at least when I have the time.

Units are Important

The amount of new snow is always important to skiers as it helps decide if it is worth it calling in sick for the day because of new snow. It also helps to know how cold it is at the ski resort. Both measurements require units of measure. If I say it is 22 degrees outside, that is a bit ambiguous. Is the unit of measure Fahrenheit or Celsius? If it is 22 degrees Fahrenheit, that is cold. In Celsius, it is downright pleasant.

This year we have had a skimpy snow year and so I have decided to list all new snow measurements in millimeters. Why? Because the numbers sound much better. Instead of saying we have about half an inch of new snow, the same amount can be described by 12 millimeters. The number 12 is much bigger than one half. Yes, they mean the same thing because of units but the larger number makes me feel like there is more snow in the mountains.

There are a lot of areas in our lives where we leave off units because it is implied. If I stand on the scale, I can tell my wife that I am down to 159 and she knows that my weight is in pounds and not kilograms. Sure I could throw her for a loop and say that I am down to 72 but she is not familiar with kilograms and would tell me we need to fix the scale.

Miles per hour is another such measurement. If you want to impress your friends, you could say that your GPS watch clocked you skiing at 91. After all, that is my highest speed yesterday skiing but the units of measure are in kilometers per hour and everyone in the United States would assume I meant miles per hour. In reality I hit 57 miles per hour yesterday which is normal for a given day of skiing.

As one of those people that went through high school and college learning both imperial measurements as well as the metric system, I think I am going to leave off units in my stories and use numbers that are the most impressive. I will convert all skiing speeds to kilometers per hour and just leave off the units.

You do have to be careful when you leave off the units of measure as it could cause some people to panic. Make the numbers look too good and people will think you are sick or just a chronic liar. If you tell someone you like going to the beach when it is 30 degrees outside and they might think you are a polar bear if you mean degrees Celsius but everyone else is thinking in degrees Fahrenheit. Now I know why I would get my homework problems wrong when I left off the units of measure in the answer.

A New Toy: Amazon Echo Show 8

My youngest son had to catch a plane back to Ohio this morning with his family. We enjoyed having him with us and had our family Christmas party last night before he left. We made sure to exchange gifts as part of the celebration. As with last year, all of my children went in on a gift together for me and my wife. They got us an Amazon Echo Show 8. Both of my sons have them and thought we would enjoy one.

I have thought about getting one of these devices but couldn't decide between a Google Home or the Amazon Echo. Now I don't have to decide as my children made the choice for us. I am quickly discovering there is an entire ecosystem created for these home connection devices. One that my kids want me to play with is the ability to "drop in." It is where I can just connect to their Echo Shows and see what they are doing. That sounds kind of fun but also a reason to make sure I am fully clothed any time I am near my Echo Show. My grandson has already demonstrated that he knows how to say, "Alexa, call Nana" as he talks to her at least once a day. I have a feeling we will get dropped in upon quite frequently.

I'm sure I will have more to write about as I play with the device. I only managed to set it up this morning and enjoyed watching my granddaughter dance to Disney music before she headed to the airport to catch her flight home. I hope it helps create many more similar fond memories.

Change Is Not Always Good

Working in technology I see a lot of companies changing user interfaces simply to differentiate them from older versions. Apple is famous for eliminating features available in previous versions of their software much to the disappointment of their users. More often than not though companies will change colors (Microsoft Windows serves as a great example of this) or where certain features are located with no additional benefits and I have to question why they do it.

Technology is not the only area where this happens. Today I got bit by a fashion change that had the potential to really embarrass me. Every year I look at early ski season sales for discounts on gear. I ski enough that my gear often wears out and needs replacing. This year I found too good deal on some ski pants and now know why. When I first bought the pants, I tried them on and noticed that the front zipper is operated using the left hand instead of the right. While I am fairly ambidextrous, I have been trained to zip and unzip pants with my right hand throughout my entire life. I didn't think it would be too much of a change until I skied up to the lodge this afternoon in a semi-panicked state as I headed to the restroom. When I bought my ski pants, my wife told me they were European. What she meant was You-re-a-pee-in as in You-re-a-pee-in-in-your-pants-in-an-emergency. That almost came true today. This is one of those cases where changing something just to be different can actually be a bad thing.

Should you happen to be working in software and think it would help to differentiate your product by changing a feature's location just to differentiate it from a previous version, remember that it could be confusing to some of your long-time users. They may not appreciate your stylistic updates. Now I need to go practice zipping and unzipping my pants with my left hand so I don't have an accident in the future.

Addicted to my Smartwatch

Recently I made two changes in my life and now find myself losing weight. One is a stricter control on how much sugar I eat. The second is my smartwatch. It is the Suunto Baro 9 and has the primary function of helping me to exercise more regularly. Yes it has a number of smartwatch functions such as displaying my text messages or letting me know who is calling without having to pull out my phone but its real strength lies elsewhere.

It has 2 alarms that I try to trigger every day. The first is the 10,000-step alarm. I always try to get 10,000 steps every day. Sometimes that can be difficult as often I only have half that many by dinner. That means a long walk in the cold-dark night after my evening meal. Several nights ago I ended up walking for 2 miles just to ensure I get my step goal for the day.

The second alarm I try to trigger the number of calories I have burned during the day. Just breathing and minimal activity burns a significant number of calories and so my watch prompts me to try and get an additional 500 calories. I usually exercise daily and don't have much trouble hitting that number. On occasion my evening walk will push me over my goal.

My watch has another feature that I didn't think I would use but do: sleep monitor. Every night my watch tracks my heart rate and movement to determine my sleep quality. Some nights I know I have not slept well but every morning I check how I did. I enjoy seeing how long I spent in deep sleep or just the overall general quality.

My most favorite feature of my smartwatch is that it tracks my ski runs. The GPS does a great job and overlays my path over a map of the ski area on my smartphone log that it syncs with at the end of my ski day. It tells me how many miles I have skied as well as many other statistics. Naturally my favorite stat is my maximum speed. For the past week that number has held steady at around 50 miles per hour. That surprises me as I didn't think I went that fast all the time.

My son who recommended the watch asked me today what I think of it. I have to report that I really like it. I highly recommend one, especially if you are trying to lose a little weight or increase your daily physical activity.

Another Hiccup with Apple's MacOS Big Sur

A week or so ago, I posted about an issue I have with Apple's update to Mac OS X with Big Sur. Today I ran into another issue that caused a problem. I will admit it is a small problem but one I am sure others may have. In my case, it arose because of a seldom used piece of software.

This all came about because of a problem with Microsoft Teams on the Mac. You used to be able to share your system audio on a video conference call and then the feature disappeared. It still exists on the Windows version and so I thought I might try using Windows running within VirtualBox on my Mac. It is something I set up a few months ago but never really use and so I tried firing it up. I was immediately halted by an error.

The first message I got told me to update to a later version of VirtualBox and so I installed the newer version. That didn't help as the error persisted and so I did a quick Internet search. I copied the entire error into my usual search engine needed to update a preference to allow VirtualBox to run. No it didn't take a lot of effort but annoyed me anyways. It doesn't take too many annoyances to really start hating a product.

With the problem fixed, I started VirtualBox and then loaded my Windows 10 virtual machine. Unfortunately I ran into a completely set of new problems related to Windows and so I will save that for another posting. Ultimately I discovered that I need to be careful before upgrading my computer to the next major version of Apple's new operating system. I won't know how much work it will take to fix little issues like this.

What Will Happen to Movie Theaters?

Last night I sat down with my wife and watched Disney's Mulan from the comfort of my own home.  My oldest son joined from his home across the valley and my youngest son did the same from Ohio. We all started the movie at the same time on Disney+ and then texted comments to each other throughout the movie. We are not real big talkers during movies and so we didn't communicate much during the film. This was our first experience with a watch party.

Mulan was an experiment for Disney on how to release films during the COVID-19 pandemic. They spent a lot of money making the film and then had to come up with a way to release the movie and still make money. Unfortunately they also had to compete with their original animated version as well. My sons, their families, and my wife all agree that the original was better. Therefore I don't think it is a fair test to see if releasing a movie for a premium fee is a good way to recoup Disney's investment. We all waited until last night as friends told us not to pay the premium and just wait for it to be free on Disney+. We had thought about paying to watch it earlier but were content to wait. I'm glad we did.

So I have to ask myself if this revenue model would work for other films? I think the answer is yes. I would have gladly paid $20 to see the movie Greyhound. Instead I just signed up for a free trial of Apple TV and got to see it without paying anything. I'm sure I am not the only one willing to pay to see the movie from the comfort of their own home.

So now I have to ask the question, "What will happen to movie theaters after COVID-19?" I much prefer my own home theater to having some kid kick the back of my chair throughout a movie. Large-screen televisions are really inexpensive and anyone can have a spectacular watching experience. Yes there are some like my neighbor who enjoys the theatrical experience but I don't know how big that demographic really is. We will have to see how things shake up next year. Until then, I don't plan to invest much in movie theater chains.

Christmas List 2020

It is that time of the year when I try to share some ideas for that hard-to-shop-for person on your Christmas list. In the past I have tried to focus on practical gifts that I would want. This year I am going to take a completely different path. In our family we have the idea of a "Christmas-Day" gift. It is a gift that you get on Christmas morning and play with for only a few days before you lose interest. This year I actually want something like that. When you only receive practical gifts, there is nothing to play with on Christmas day. This year, I want something to play with. A good example is something like a puzzle or a complex Lego set. Once you put everything together, you admire it for a bit, and then take it apart to possibly be played with at a later date.

The beauty of a Christmas-Day gift is that it is not something I would get myself. So without further explanation, here are some gifts I would enjoy receiving this year:

Just a box of Legos - This is just a set of Legos to go with my existing sets. It is great for allowing creative people to play and build.

Hogwart's Lego set - While I am on the topic of Legos, this is a set that I think would be fun to spend the day putting together. There are plenty of other large sets I would also like but this one I found quite easily.

Electronic Breadboard kit - Moving away from Legos and onto something a bit more practical yet fun is an electronic breadboard kit. This is something to get that budding electrical engineer in your family. My brother seemed to get one or two of these growing up but I never did. Perhaps that is why I studied Electrical Engineering in school as I always wanted one. No that I am grown, I would love to take some time during my Holiday break and just play with some electronic projects for fun.

Horizon Zero Dawn - Now if you get the chance to play video games on Christmas and you have a PlayStation 4, I recommend this one. It is a game that I really enjoyed playing and might be willing to play again. You can find the game at Best Buy for less than $10, which is less than I paid for my copy. Remember I work for PlayStation and so this might not be an unbiased recommendation.

Microsoft Flight Simulator - This is a game for your PC and is not one that I have played. This is something I would be interested in playing though. At $60 (from Best Buy for the standard version) it is the same price as most new video games.

If you are looking for low-cost gifts that fit into the Christmas-Day gift list, I really do enjoy a good 750 to 1000-piece puzzle. Puzzles are something you can always do with others and can be great fun for small groups.

Hopefully this gives you some ideas for that hard-to-shop-for person in your life.

A Day to Celebrate

Yesterday my youngest son had an interview with an engineering firm. They liked him enough that today they gave him a verbal offer followed shortly by a written offer. Furthermore they will provide tuition reimbursement so he can continue working on his masters degree. It is a day to celebrate in our family.

Throughout the long process of constantly looking for a job, he has become discouraged even though he had a plan B and started working on an advanced engineering degree. In our society, our self-worth is often tied to our ability to earn a living and when we lose a job or can't seem to find one, we become depressed. I didn't realize the extent of this until a recent family vacation when I made a comment that upset my son. I said something along the lines of, "There are a lot of jobs out there, you just have to be willing to look for them." I hadn't realized my son was looking but still couldn't find one. I thought he was content to continue his schooling and allow his wife's nursing job to take care of the family expenses. Needless to say he wasn't.

Naturally I got a text about the offer from my son and immediately called to congratulate him. I know how much this means to him and his little family. Sure I wish the job was a bit closer than Ohio but his happiness eclipses my own convenience. Besides I have a ton of frequent flyer miles and have been making sure to see him at least once every month. This month he will fly home for the Holidays and we will be sure to celebrate.

For those that are still looking for jobs during this time of COVID-19 and uncertainty, my heart goes out to you. My son found this job with the help of his wife's-sister's-boyfriend's father. It just goes to show that you should leverage everyone in your social network in your job hunt. You never know where help will come from.

Video Game Review: Astro's Playroom

My grandson has been spending a lot of time at my house this week and whenever he shows up, he wants to play Astro's Playroom. He calls it the "Robot Game." He'll come down in my office, which is where I have my PlayStation 5 set up, and we will play for an hour before we are asked to come join the rest of the family. That is fine though as you really don't want to play video games for more than an hour a day.

Astro's Playroom is a game that comes installed on all PlayStation 5 consoles. When I first saw the game, it didn't interest me that much. I actually didn't want to play it until my grandson wanted to spend time with me and I knew it would be a fun and safe game for him. We tried it out a bit and he really likes most of the game. There are certain levels that are a bit too intense and he doesn't like them. He also gets bored of watching me fail on a number of the challenges. Overall though, we have a lot of fun.

One of the purposes of the game is to get PlayStation 5 owners familiar with the DualSense wireless controller. If you are familiar with the PlayStation 4's DualShock 4 wireless controller, it is the next step in the evolution of input. It has all the bells and whistles of the previous controller and also includes haptic feedback. That means you feel things like recoil in the triggers when firing a gun. It adds a new level of sensing to the gaming experience and needs to be felt to be understood. This brings us back to Astro's Playroom and how it shows you all of the features of the DualSense wireless controller.

I encourage everyone to run through the game just to see what the new platform is capable of doing. The game only took me about 5 or so hours to complete and that includes explaining things to my grandson. It has an ESRB rating of E for Everyone and truly is a game that everyone can play and will enjoy.

It is important that I let everyone know that I do work in research and development at Sony Interactive Entertainment, which is the company responsible for the PlayStation 5 console. The game is free and didn't cost me anything, nor will it cost you as long as you own a PS5.

Apple's Email Update for Big Sur Blows

Generally I am a fan of Apple products. This is not because they are technically better than the competition but because they have a more polished look and feel. When you buy something from Apple, it just feels easier to use. On occasion they make a mistake and that happened with the latest update of their operating system. They made certain things more complex than they need to be and it is painful. The latest update to their e-mail program is a prime example.

A few days ago I was going through my e-mail and accidentally deleted a message that I still needed. I opened my trash only to discover that it wasn't there. Wait a second, does this mean that all of the e-mails I deleted got permanently removed from my computer? That is bad as it is easy to delete a group of messages when you only want to delete a single one in the thread. This sent me on a search to solve the problem.

The first thing I did was check my e-mail preferences. I had everything set to copy deleted messages to the trash and then purge the trash of all messages older than a month. I also experimented with deleting a message and then undoing the action. As expected, the deleted message reappeared in my inbox. That means the e-mail program was storing them somewhere and I just needed to find out where.

My next source of help came from an Internet search. I had to go through a number of messages on Apple's support forum but eventually found the culprit. The engineers decided that people might have multiple e-mail accounts and so they created multiple trash bins. When I looked at the trash folder "On My Mac," it didn't contain a single message. I needed to locate the trash bin associated with my e-mail account. Normally I would expect it to show up along with all of the other folders on the left side of my e-mail program. It wasn't there and so I needed to add it. How do you do that? There is a search box on the upper right side of the e-mail program and I searched for "Trash." Sure enough I had 2 trash folders: one on my mac and the other for the domain name for my e-mail. I clicked on the account trash folder and it crashed the e-mail program.

I found the right trash folder but couldn't get to it without crashing my e-mail. I did find a solution though. I simply clicked the "+" icon next next to the "Favorites" section on the left of my e-mail and added "All Trash" to it. Now I have to click on "All Trash" which brings up my 2 trash folders and I can see all of the e-mail I have deleted in the past month.

I don't know why the software developers at Apple went out of their way to complicate something that should be so simple. I wouldn't expect this from a company that generally creates intuitive user interfaces. Apple, you failed me on this one.

Thanksgiving 2020

Today is Thanksgiving and I thought I would write a quick note. Normally I would be heading to bed early today so I could catch a flight to Japan tomorrow morning. Fortunately I just have to wake up early so I can go skiing. COVID-19 is keeping me from traveling and I can't say that I miss it much. Instead of having to be somewhere in person, I will attend my annual meetings virtually and I am truly thankful for that. Before this year, that was thought to be impossible.

For some, this has been a tragic year and it is tough to find things to be thankful for. I do miss a lot of things that we can't do because of the global pandemic but I also see a number of little things that are worth celebrating. Hopefully you can see them to. Happy Thanksgiving 2020!

Playing Video Games with a 3 Year Old

A few days ago my 3-year-old grandson came over and wanted to play video games with me. He loves cars and so I gave him a PS3 controller while I played a racing game on the PS4. He didn't know that he wasn't really controlling the car on the TV and enjoyed our short time together playing the game. I would tell him to hold one of the triggers down to make the car go faster. Then I would look at what he did and made sure to match his actions. We both cheered when we won the game and received a trophy for our accomplishment.

A few days later he came over and wanted to play a new game on the PS5. I sat him on my lap and gave him a 2nd controller while I controlled the game. Every so often I would tell him to press the square button and then matched his movement to coincide. The game requires the player to move the controller around and it makes me smile as my grandson mimics my actions. We gather coins and collected PlayStation artifacts in "Astro's Playroom." Since we play as a robot, my grandson calls it "the robot game." Now every time he comes over he wants to play the robot game.

"Astro's Playroom" is the free game included with all PlayStation 5 consoles. I have to say that I enjoy playing it with him. While I could easily finish the game, I wait for him to come over before trying new areas in the game. He is also getting pretty good at hitting the square button to punch the bad robots and pressing the X button to jump. I have to pay close attention to him but if I do it right, he really thinks he is playing. My favorite is when a bad robot jumps out and surprises him. He gets excited and squeals anxiously.

Unfortunately it won't take my grandson long to figure out he isn't controlling the video game and he will want to play for real. My hope is that I have given him enough training so that he will be able to pick up the game movements and not get frustrated. Until then we are having fun playing games together and plan to do a lot of that during the Thanksgiving holiday. I imagine he will take over and be better than me by Christmas.

PS5 is Cheap Compared to Skiing

My youngest daughter is a ski instructor at Alta Ski Resort here in Utah. Before lunch I talked with her a bit and she looked into how much she makes per lesson compared with how much the resort makes. It is important this season as there won't be group lessons because of COVID-19. That means she will be giving private lessons all winter long. For an all-day private lesson, Alta Ski School charges $700. Let's not worry about how much of that my daughter will see (not much, if you are wondering). That figure startled her as it did me. I decided that if I was just getting into skiing, I couldn't afford it.

That $700 figure doesn't include ski equipment rentals, lift tickets, or food. So basically, if you need help learning how to ski, plan on dropping $1000 for a single day of skiing. All I can say is, "Wow!"

Now Alta is known as a relatively inexpensive place to ski. When I was in college, I liked Alta because a lift ticket cost so much less than other resorts in the area. Naturally my daughter and I became curious and looked at how much private lessons are at Park City. You can plan on dropping $900 there. We also looked at the most expensive resort in Utah and that is Deer Valley. During peak season, expect to spend over $1100 for private lessons there.

When the PlayStation 5 price was announced, I thought it a bit pricey. Now I realize that I can afford to play video games a lot easier than I can afford to go skiing. For the price of one day of skiing, I can get a PS5 and an XBox Series X. The only problem is finding a store with the new video game consoles.

The Right Size 4K Monitor

When I got my latest computer a few months ago, I made sure to pick up a 4K monitor. I started with a 27-inch one and quickly discovered that I couldn't really use all the pixels. I had to scale up the display or sit really close to the monitor with my reading glasses. That isn't very practical and so I looked for a new one. 

Instead of spending a lot of money, I purchased an inexpensive 4K 43-inch TV from Walmart.com for less than $200. My son makes fun of me because he thinks the quality of the image is not that great. For how I use my computer, it is perfect for me. I would not recommend this solution for someone doing extensive photo editing or creating scenic videos. But if you spend most of your time reading e-mail and surfing the web, it does a great job. 

The important thing is getting the right size. With almost 4,000 horizontal pixels (3840 actually) and 2160 vertical pixels, it is the equivalent of 4-1080p monitors stacked next to each other. It is a huge improvement of the 2-1080p monitors I had before it.

So remember when you go to get a 4K monitor, it isn't the number of pixels that is important, it is the size of those pixels. If the monitor is too small, you have to sit too close. If it is too large, it might not fit on your desk. My personal opinion is that 43-inches is about perfect for 4K.

Getting My PlayStation 5

Yesterday I received my PlayStation 5 at 10:10am thanks to next-day service from UPS. I have to say that it was a bitter-sweet moment. I am happy to have the latest generation video game console but I also see all of the problems people are going through to try and get one. I had a neighbor text me asking if I had a way of working magic so he could help his boss get one. I had to respond that I couldn't help my sons get any. I even tried.

My oldest son found out that Walmart would be making stock available throughout the day at specific times. In an effort to help him get one, I logged onto the Walmart site at 3 different times. On multiple occasions I got a PS5 in the shopping cart only to have them all sold out before I could finish paying for the device. I found the experience disappointing.

Today my youngest son wanted to log into my PS5 and remote play it. I have several new games loaded on my PS5 and told him to give one of them a try. He has been eagerly anticipating the new Spider-Man and really wanted to give it a go. Unfortunately his wife has made him promise he won't play it until he finishes his first semester of grad school. He did get a kick out playing with the new user interface (UI) all the way in Ohio while the physical machine is located with me in Utah.

For those that have yet to purchase the PlayStation 5, all I can say is that Sony is working hard to make more stock available as quickly as possible. While I work for the company I don't have any insight into how many units are being produced nor which stores have stock available right now. The only reason I have my console is that the company set aside enough units so that the employees could get them on day 1 if they wished. I sincerely appreciate that they did that for us.

Smartphone Camera to the Rescue

Tomorrow the PlayStation 5 will be made available in the United States and I will slowly start migrating all of my game play from the PS4 to the PS5. The PlayStation VR will work with the PS5 but you need an adapter. It is free but you must to request it from Sony. I went through that process this afternoon and discovered I required the serial number of the PSVR. The website does a great job explaining where it is and so I pulled out my reading glasses and headed to get the information.

Unfortunately the older I get, the worse my vision becomes. While I used to be able to read such tiny writing there is no way I could make out the serial numbers even with my glasses. Fortunately I had my phone with me and so I just took a picture of those tiny little numbers on the back of the PSVR control box. Then I zoomed in on the picture and could easily read the numbers. Now my adapter is on the way.

When phones first started getting cameras I thought they were a joke and wouldn't really be that useful. Then I started taking more pictures of spectacular sites simply because I have a camera with me all the time. Now the camera is my go-to device when I need to fill out warranty cards and other services that require serial numbers. Manufacturers always seem to hide them in difficult-to-read places. Just grabbing my phone and snapping a picture is so much easier. No need to hunt down a pen and paper to write the number down. Then when I am done with the picture, I can delete the photo.

Avoiding Internet Scams

Back in August my daughter sent me a link to an inflatable stand-up paddleboard (SUP) website that had a steep discount for outdoors enthusiasts. The site listed the retail price for the boards as being around $400 and my price would be around $70. I should have remembered that anything too good to be true usually is. I figured at that price, I should get 2 and so I did. I rationalized that even if it was a scam (it was) that I could afford to lose $140. In hindsight, I really should be more discriminating as I really don't want to lose $140.

After paying for the 2 paddleboards, I immediately got an e-mail from American Express saying that I purchased from a vendor that uses "SafeKey" and I am extra protected when shopping online. That sent a red flag as I do a lot of shopping online and have never received a similar message. If I ever see an e-mail like that again, I will know I am about to get scamed and take some of the cautions I am about to share with you. I have also told American Express that I think their message about SafeKey is a load of garbage and I don't trust it at all.

I received several messages from the paddleboard vendor about what I purchased and received shipping confirmation. Unfortunately the confirmation didn't match what I expected. When I made the online purchase I could only select shipping from DHL. When I looked up the shipment on DHL, they had no record of it. The shipping confirmation I received came from the Chinese postal service. By this point I knew I had been scamed and saved all e-mails.

I figured it was a scam early in the process as I told my oldest son I got a great deal on some paddleboards. When he looked at the manufacturer's site, he saw a retail price of $600. I looked at it and saw that it looked exactly like the site I used to order from but it also contained a warning about not to purchase $70 paddleboards as it was a scam. The difference in web address of the fake site and the real sight was very subtle and required careful reading. Naturally I called my credit card company (American Express) and immediately disputed the charge. I also put a block on the company so they cannot charge my credit card again for the next 4 years.

One of the e-mails I got early in the process told me that my credit card would be charged by Laycouture of Toledo. Interestingly enough, DON'T ever buy anything from them either. They have a website that appears to be selling women's underwear. Not lingerie but actual every-day underwear. When you click on any of the links though, they don't work and that is a huge red flag. The site looks very professional though as did the place I bought the paddleboards from.

About 2 weeks later I got a small package in the mail from China. It contained a set of Apple AirPods. I hate AirPods as they don't fit my ears and I think they are plain awful. Remember I do work for Sony and may be a bit biased. In any event, I had no idea who sent them. They could have been a birthday gift as they arrived just before that special day. I had also recently purchased an Apple Mac computer and AirPods were being sent as a gift for free. Ultimately it turns out that the fake paddleboard company had sent them so that when I disputed the charge to my credit card company, they had a record of me receiving something from them. It wasn't what I ordered but I did actually receive something. In hindsight I should have taken a picture as evidence. Instead I had my daughter sell them. If this happens to you, take a picture of the address label and what came in the box. Fortunately the US postal service has a record that they delivered the package into my mailbox. There is no way that 2 inflatable stand-up paddleboards that each weight 17.5 pounds will fit into my mailbox with paddles and a floor pump. So I had to document that.

Ultimately I have to document all of this with my credit card company and provide them the documentation saying that I did not receive what I purchased. I am still waiting to hear back from them as to whether or not I gave enough evidence of fraud. American Express has treated me well in the past and so I have no reason to believe I will have to pay the $140.

Always remember if something is too good of a deal, beware. The fake paddleboard company did an excellent job of making a believable website. It looked exactly like the real manufacturer's and I fell for it. Hopefully you can learn from my experience and avoid something like it in the future.

Multiple Streaming Services

This morning I went to spend 30 minutes on my indoor bike for my morning exercise when I noticed one of my streaming music services wasn't working correctly. When I go for a ride outside, I never listen to music as I need my sense of sound to keep from becoming a hood ornament. Inside it is a different story. If I don't have music, I have a very difficult time exercising. I have tried watching movies while using an indoor bike but music inspires me the best.

Naturally I closed my music app and reopened it. That seemed to work for 2 songs and then it busted again. At this point I decided to try my secondary streaming music source and used it to finish out my workout. It is times like this that I am glad I have both Pandora and Spotify streaming music accounts.

It is also good to have multiple streaming video accounts. There are a number of times that I will go to watch a movie only to discover problems. Sometimes it is a function of my Internet connection being too slow because everyone on the block is watching movies at the same time. Other times it is just the streaming service having issues. In any event it is nice to have multiple options. When my Internet connection is slow or goes out completely I have a huge library of DVD and Blu-ray discs that serve as a nice backup to keep me entertained.

We all have our favorite places to go for streaming services. Sometimes we spend a lot of time customizing our accounts so that recommendations are exactly what we are looking for each time we connect. This makes us reluctant to look at other vendors of similar services. Ultimately it is nice to have a backup service just in case your favorite is down for some reason. It isn't necessary to sign up for every possible solution but having at least one alternative is a good practice.

Imagined Perks of Working at PlayStation

When people find out I work for Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) which is the part of Sony responsible for the PlayStation product, they always ask if I can get them a free console. If I know the person really well I respond with something polite like, "No but that would be nice wouldn't it?" If it is a total stranger I might respond with something a little more cheeky like, "I only get one free one per year and I keep them for myself." The real answer is that employees get a minimal discount on console hardware, especially after a new product launch like the PlayStation 5. The discount, if anything will only be around $5 to $15. Towards the middle of the console's lifespan we are given the ability to purchase refurbished machines at a significant discount but are limited in how many we can purchase.

My son had a neighbor who failed to get a PlayStation 5 pre-order and was asking if anyone knew how to get one as her son's birthday is quickly approaching. My son replied, "My Dad works at PlayStation and can't even get me a PS5." It is a true statement and I appreciate him not setting me up for failure. I have seriously looked for ways to get each of my own children PS 5's but have come up short. Looks like I have to come up with some other idea for Christmas gifts.

One of the best perks of being an employee at SIE is that we do get a discount on games. Once again we are limited to only 2 copies of the same game per year but the price has been $15 per game. I imagine the price will go up for PS5 games as the retail price for video games has also gone up. I am also limited to games published by SIE. That means I can't help you with anything from Electronic Arts or Activision. One Christmas I had a neighbor come to my house and go through whatever games I still could purchase and buy them. After that, I put a limit on how much I help others with their Christmas gifts.

There are strings attached to the perks at working for a video game company. If I purchase the disk version of a game, it comes with the barcode scratched out so I can't return the game to a store or resell it as a new game. That means when I help someone get a game, he or she also has to abide by those same rules.

Finally there are the peripherals. I don't know why but every time I play any of the "God of War" games, I completely destroy a controller. It happened with the original 3 games remastered for the PS3 and again with the latest title on the PS4. So when I purchase any "God of War" game, I also pick up another controller as I know my current one will not make it through the end of the game. We get a nice discount on controllers, headsets, and other console peripherals. Once again, we do have some restrictions on how many we can get but each color counts as a separate product. That means I may only be able to get 2 black controllers per year but I also can get 2 red ones, 2 white ones, etc.

Now if you run into me at the airport or in public you know that I can't get you a free PlayStation console. Please don't ask for one. I wonder if people who work at Ferrari get asked if they get free cars?

Maintaining Your Electronics

Yesterday I brought a pair of skis into the shop to have new bindings mounted for the upcoming ski season. I own about 7 pairs of skis already and so you are probably wondering what is special about these new ones. I am trying out a new ski binding that works well in the resort but can also be used efficiently in the backcountry. Needless to say I am getting pretty excited about the upcoming ski season, especially since it snowed at my house on Sunday.

This morning I started going through my e-mail and saw an article about the Pieps DSP Pro changing from transmit to search or off modes. For those that don't know, Pieps is a small transceiver (both a radio transmitter and receiver) that is used to help find someone in the event of an avalanche burial. I use a different brand from BCA that I love and so I am not worried that I need to replace my transceiver. I still read the article. Basically there is a faulty switch caused by not properly maintaining the equipment. That is a polite way of placing blame on the user instead of the manufacturer.

This brings up the point of what the proper maintenance is for all of your electronics. Do you know what that means for you? When I received my new avalanche transceiver, I read through the very short manual but now don't recall anything about regular maintenance. Considering the thing may someday be the difference between a bad day and a downright tragedy, I may want to reread the manual. I do know that my avalanche air bag is due for maintenance and will be doing that in the next week or so.

What about other electronic devices? Should I be worried about my computer? My mobile phone? How about any of my PlayStation consoles or televisions? Ultimately most of the electronics I own will never be used to save a life. The only exception might be a mobile phone. If my television stops working, I can repair it under warranty or get a new one. While it may seem like I am miserable, I won't be dying any time soon.

So how do you maintain a mobile phone? Fortunately it is something you use every day and so it is easy to see if it is working correctly or not. If it stops working, get it replaced immediately. Some things to look at are cracked screens and bulging battery compartments. Older rechargeable batteries can start to swell and may need to be replaced. If you are up to the task yourself there is a great Internet resource called IFixIt.com. I am a huge fan and just used one of their battery kits on my wife's MacBook Air. I also used them to help replace the screen on her mobile phone when it had a crack that caused it to stop working correctly. 

If you have any electronic device that is used to save a life, please pay attention to proper maintenance procedures. That helps to ensure it will work when you need it. Oh and don't buy any Pieps DSP avalanche transceivers no matter how good the deal may seem. After today's article people will be dumping them in favor of a different brand or newer model.

Instructions Look Easier Than The Actual Experience

I have been watching a lot of cowboy movies and reading a lot of stories about the Wild West. Yesterday I got the idea that it might be fun to get a lever-action rifle to hang on the wall. We constantly hear how easy it is to purchase guns in the United States and so I thought it would be an easy process. It turns out that purchasing a rifle is a lot more complex than I thought. It leads me to believe that people pushing for stricter gun laws have no idea how tough the process actually is. Yes, there are shortcuts, the most glaring one being purchasing one from a private seller.

I am a huge fan of the Second Amendment here in the United States but have never owned a gun. I have often joked about how easy it is to get one in Utah and that we sell them in convenient stores here. That can't be farther from the truth. I read through the process and quickly wondered why people are pushing for more and more gun control. This reminded me of what happened the first I tried a few machine learning experiments.

When I first started playing with machine learning I thought it would be as simple as finding the right algorithm, putting in some training data, and then pulling out some magnificent results. Then I tried my first exercise and realized that the bulk of the work turned out to be massaging the training data into the right format. Then I cycled through a number of different algorithms to figure out which one provided the closest results only to discover that some don't produce consistent values. Finally I had to figure out how to take a trained model and turn it into a production system.

Ultimately I have found that it is not enough to read about doing something, especially technical tasks. In order to truly understand the task at hand, you have to run through the process. It is not enough to read the instructions, you have to pull out your tools and run through the steps yourself.

Does a Smartwatch Help You Exercise?

I have had the exact same watch for the past 15 years and never had to change the battery. The watch face contained a solar panel and I just used ambient light to keep the watch running. When I got the watch I knew that eventually the battery would need to be replaced and so it didn't surprise me when the watch finally died. Most people would be excited at the prospect of replacing 15-year-old technology but I really loved that watch and actually looked at getting another one exactly like it. I also had the option of just replacing the battery and keeping my old watch. Instead I decided to take the advice of my sons and look at some of the new smartwatches on the market and see if there is one that I liked.

One of the problems that I have with most smartwatches is that they require charging on a nightly basis. With all of the traveling that I do it means carrying the charging cradle with me on every trip. Sure I could get a second cradle but that adds expense and so I set my first requirement at having a watch last a minimum of a week before recharging. That eliminated quite a few products and brands including anything from Apple.

Next I looked at available features. There are very few smartwatches that don't integrate with your phone. In fact, that is one of the requirements for being a smartwatch and so I didn't have to worry about that. I did have to worry about built-in GPS or if I was OK using the one in my smartphone. I also needed to decide if I cared about size. I am not a fan of large watches but I do like being able to see the watch face as my eyes seem to be aging with the rest of my body. I carefully reviewed everything that matched my stringent battery requirements. Ultimately I decided on the Suunto 9 Baro.

I have had the watch since Thursday of last week and am trying to learn at least one new feature about the watch every day. Let's just say it is a bit complex. It seems to do everything. It will even tell me if a storm is quickly barrelling in so I have time to get my sailboat back in the marina (a feature I really could have used last weekend). When I start my morning ride on my indoor bicycle trainer, I tell the watch I am riding indoors and it keeps track of my time and calories burned. It also keeps track of my normal steps so I can see if I reach the suggested daily goal of 10,000. While you can, I don't recommend lowering that number.

After having my watch for just a few days over the weekend I have to say that there are a lot of features I didn't realize I was missing in my old watch. Does my new one help me exercise more? I have to say that it does. I looked at my watch last night and noticed I had yet to hit my daily step-goal. I had not and so I went for an early evening walk with my wife. Then I looked at my watch today during lunch. I was nowhere near the middle of my step goal and so I took a short walk after lunch. I also see how many calories I am burning during the day and am more conscious about how much I eat. While everyone says we burn about 2,000 calories a day, my watch is telling me I am sometimes below that number. I shouldn't need to tell you what happens when you eat more calories than you burn (hint: you get fat).

While I enjoy the Suunto 9 Baro it may not be the right smartwatch for you. I found mine on sale at 40% off for only $359.40 directly from the Suunto website. I feel that is a great price for all of the features included. Now we will see if it keeps me exercising.

Its Election Season Again

Today I got my mail-in ballot for the upcoming election. I will be so happy when election season is over as I am getting tired of all the mudslinging and name calling. I don't watch very much television but I am still seeing a lot of political ads. Personally I believe the desire to be an elected official disqualifies one from the position.

Every Wednesday we have a weekly social where a group of us gather on a video conferencing system and just chat. We don't talk much about work with the few exceptions of discussing the upcoming next-generation-console releases. As you can guess, today's topic was the election. I jokingly threw out the idea of just having candidates pay people for votes instead of spending all that money on useless advertising. Yes it is illegal but then at least we could stop having so many political ads. Think about it. Experts have estimated there will be around $7 Billion spent on advertising this year. Pulling out my trusty calculator and armed with the knowledge there are around 320 Million people in the United States, it works out to around $20 per person. Remember that I mentioned this is illegal so we can't do it.

So how do we cut down on election advertising spending? I propose the following: every dollar spent on political advertisements should be matched in a voter pool. That means if President Trump spends $1 on the election, a second dollar has to put into this voter pool. The same for former Vice President Biden. Then at the end of the election, the money in the voter pool should be split equally among every registered voter in the country. Instead of dreading election season, we might all start looking forward to it. I'm also sure it would get people to register that currently are not. What do you think?

The Problem with Starting a New Video Game

Several days ago I decided that I wanted to start a new video game on my PlayStation 4 console. I put the disc in the drive and waited for it to copy a few files to the hard drive. The process didn't take very long and I thought I was ready to start playing the game. Unfortunately that wasn't the case. I now had to wait for an Internet update before the game actually became available. I could play part of the game but quickly got bored and wondered why so many people enjoyed it this particular title.

The download took about an hour or two and I never waited for it to finish before quitting the game. Today I thought I would try again and see what difference the update made. Let's just say it is significant. I now have a story and natural progression to follow. I played for an hour or so this afternoon as I had the day off and earned several awards and trophies. Those little gems keep you wanting to play and made for a much more enjoyable experience.

Most gamers spend a long time deciding which video game they want to play next. Once they decide, they are patient enough to wait for updates to load. If you leave your PlayStation in stand-by mode and have a digital copy of the game you want to play, you can even start the download from your computer and have it notify you when it is done. Unfortunately that is not the way I sometimes play video games.

As someone that works for PlayStation, I have access to a lot of different games. Sometimes I will invite a group of people over to play but don't have any idea which game or games they would like to sample. This means starting a download and doing something else while we wait for the game to download and install. If I know what games people want to play before they arrive I can have everything queued up and ready to go. Unfortunately most of the groups I have had don't know what they want to play until they see my extensive library. Even then, picking a title to play can take a long time.

I don't see the trend of taking a long time to download a video game getting any better. If anything games are getting more complex and larger. I know that one of the advantages of the PlayStation 5 is that the included solid-state drive (SSD) allows you to keep a single copy of a graphical asset such as a tree and then reuse it multiple times throughout the game. I hope this means game files will shrink significantly. In order for that to happen though, game developers need to take advantage of that capability. Only after the PS5 is released will we be able to see if that has happened. I sure hope so because I really hate waiting so long for games to be really playable.

Problems with the Cloud

Microsoft used to run an ad where a woman at home had a problem to solve. She then says, "To the cloud," like it is a miracle solution that will solve all problems. I remember thinking how stupid the response seemed to me. She just needed to know how to use some of the software she probably already had on her computer. Since the ad first appeared, we have seen a number of software and services transition to Internet servers and I some of it doesn't make sense.

Last night I turned on the nightly news and saw a story about how 911 services went down around the state. The disruption caused the FCC to get involved as emergency calls are rather important. It turns out that Microsoft had an issue with their cloud authentication for several hours making it so people couldn't log into e-mail, Azure, Sharepoint, One-Drive, and a number of other services. I have to admit that I am a bit concerned when I see that Microsoft's cloud is running such important things as 911 services. I have never trusted Microsoft products for critical systems as I have had too many crashes and lost a significant amount of work throughout the years. That is one of the reasons I am writing this on a Mac and have my blog hosted by Google.

The Microsoft crash effected two of my tasks yesterday as Sony uses a number of Microsoft cloud products such as Sharepoint and Exchange (e-mail). Fortunately I had other things I could do and so I just moved onto those tasks until this morning. Now everything seems to be running smoothly.

So what went wrong? I did a quick Internet search this morning as I assumed there would be plenty of information about the outage. I was not wrong as a number of news sources felt the outage worth reporting. Ultimately they all use Microsoft as the source for the problem. Some speculated that this might be caused by some sort of Distributed Denial of Surface (DDoS) attack. Microsoft came and said that it wasn't. Their explanation revealed a "code issue" that kept their servers from processing login information appropriately. Does that concern anyone as much as it does me?

There are a number of services that benefit from moving from people's local computers up into the Internet cloud. Then there are some others that are best left to local hardware. Hopefully we are not all blinded by the promises of the cloud to be stupid about it.

Video Game Console Fanboys

With only a little over a month until the next video game consoles are released, there is a lot of opinions being shared online. There are several camps of people: PlayStation fanboys, XBox fanboys, and the undecided group trying to decide which console to buy. As someone who works for PlayStation, I am probably biased and so I will refrain from discussing the technical merits of either console. For me the big deciding factors are what I am used to and where I can get the cheapest games. You may agree with me yet still end up getting a different console than I will. That's just fine.

As I read through the various reviews and comments, I enjoy reading some good-natured ribbing  but some of the remarks are just plain mean. I don't like that at all, regardless of the product being discredited. It is also interesting to view how some people can read the same information and use it to argue against each other. Ultimately we should all agree to disagree with one another and not take it personally.

The most recent comments I have read deal with how Microsoft and Sony both handled the pre-order situation. Sony said that pre-orders for the PlayStation 5 would be available the day after their price and availability announcement. Unfortunately that is not what happened. As soon as the announcement finished, retailers made the consoles available and they quickly sold out. Those who waited for the day after missed out. Microsoft saw Sony's mistake and ensured that retailers didn't start selling before the agreed upon date and time. Then they sold out minutes after the consoles became available. So who had the better strategy?

Those in the Sony camp (remember, that is where I work but I am trying to be fair and impartial) defend what happen by saying things about how the unplanned release kept the bot authors from buying up all of the stock at the appointed time. Those in the Microsoft camp argue that at least they knew when to be in front of their computer or when to go stand in line at a retail outlet. So who is right? Ultimately it doesn't matter because both console makers underestimated how many people wanted to purchase the machines. This is my personal opinion but if my college Economics teacher taught me anything it is that if both Sony and Microsoft knew there was such pent up demand for the new consoles, they would have priced them higher.

I will admit that I am not a fan of rivalries. I think our sports culture does us a huge disservice by encouraging this hatred for the other team and it has started spilling out into other parts of our society. I would like to see it stop and this post is my attempt to enlighten everyone with my point of view from inside one of the major console vendors. Competition is good and companies rise to the challenge of trying to create better products because of it. If Microsoft decided to stop producing consoles and pushed all gaming onto the PC, tablets, or mobile devices, it would not be a win for Sony. The whole console segment of the video game market would suffer in the long run.

One more thing before I finish tonight is that Sony and Microsoft benefit each other in ways that most people don't see. A lot of my colleagues came from Microsoft and I have seen Sony employees leave us and go to them. We are like those sports teams that trade players from time-to-time. Therefore it is in my best interest to never badmouth the competition. After all, I may end up working for them one day and would hate to have one of my posts cause my future employer question my loyalty. In the end we really are working towards the same objective: create the best gaming console for a price we think people are willing to pay.

Video Game Review: Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout

Last night I had some free time and so I sat down to play one of the free games from my PS Plus subscription that came out in August: Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout. My son showed me the game when I visited him earlier this month. He has had a lot of fun playing it and so I thought I would give it a shot.

Normally I wouldn't write a game review until I have completed the game. With Fall Guys, it is hard to know when you are done as it is one of those games that just keeps going on and on as long as you are willing to play. The concept is that you and 59 other players join an online game where you try to get through a virtual obstacle course. The courses seem to be taken directly from the old 2008 television show called "Wipeout." Each run through an obstacle course narrows down the field. If you do well, you continue on. If not, you can watch other players or join another game. Once eliminated you receive points for your effort based on how well you did. You can then progress to higher levels which allow you to unlock clothing options to change your in-game appearance.

While playing with my son, we had a lot of fun. When one of us would die, we would pass the controller and let the other one play. When I played alone last night, I got bored rather quickly and only played for about half an hour before moving onto something else. During that 30 minute session, I racked up 6 trophies. If you are looking to quickly rack up trophies, then this is a good game for you. It is also a great game to play with others. I wish there was a couch-coop mode as I think it would be a fun group activity. Should you want to play with a friend, you will each need your own console and TV along with a copy of the game. There is a mechanism in the game for inviting friends to play with you and I imagine it would be a lot of fun and a great way to hang out with someone but also follow social distancing guidelines.

Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout is available for the PC from Steam as well as the PlayStation 4 console. If you made the effort to add it to your game library last month through PS Plus, then you could have gotten it for free. If you missed it, then it is $19.99 from the PlayStation store. While I would like to say that it is worth the $20 price tag, I am not sure I would purchase the game had I not gotten it for free. If you are looking for a casual game to play with a group of people, then it is well worth the price.

The game has an ESRB rating of E for everyone and I wouldn't have a problem playing it with my 3-year-old grandson.

How to Get the Latest Video Game Consoles

If you are a big fan of video games then you know that the latest generation of consoles from both Sony and Microsoft recently became available for pre-order. Shortly after, the pre-order allocation sold out. Now it Seemingly looks like the only way to get one of the newest consoles is to wait in line on release day or hope that you will get lucky and more units will be made available for pre-order at the exact time to you look on some retailers online site. Fortunately there is another way to get one of the latest video game consoles.

So what is the secret to getting one of the latest video game consoles? It is really quite simple. You just have to wait. I know that sounds like blaspheme but those who are patient will win this battle. The rest of my post will focus on why this is a smart move.

The first reason to wait is to stick it to the scalpers. A lot of people purchased several consoles in the hopes of selling them for a huge profit. Those that panic and need to have a console on day 1 will end up paying extra to those scalpers. Now if we collectively decide not to pay the premium and just wait, the scalpers will be punished by their own greed and get stuck with machines they won't be able to sell. I know this advice will not be followed by everyone but think of how it will effect scalper behavior in the future if we all agreed not to give in and pay their exorbitant costs.

Now let's be honest with ourselves, is there a game worth playing on day 1 of the console launch? I remember what happened when I got my PS4 on launch day. I picked up one of the launch games and still have yet to play it. I will admit that my sons took over the console and never gave me the chance to play but the reality is that most of the really good games arrived months later. I know both companies are trying to make the consoles worth buying on day 1 but I have a nice backlog of games for the existing consoles that will keep me busy for the foreseeable future. Furthermore most launch titles seem to show up for previous game consoles as well.

Microsoft's consoles will be in stores on November 10th and Sony's on the 12th. Those are both in the middle of the week (Tuesday and Thursday respectively). I have to go to work. If I did get the console on one of those days, I would have to wait until the weekend to start playing. Ideally I would pick up the console right before Thanksgiving so I could keep myself entertained during the long break . . . if I am not skiing. Looking at historical data from previous console launches, new inventory arrives at stores weekly. All you need to do is ask your local stores nicely when the next shipment will arrive and plan to be at the store early on those days. That gives you around 6 weeks to get lucky if you are looking to put one of the consoles under the Christmas tree.

Now for the big reveal. I actually work for one of the two video game console makers and it is company policy that I disclose this information so as not to mislead anyone. It is probably no secret that I work for PlayStation as I have always been a fan since my older brother worked for them and have the most experience with Sony products. So the next question is if I will be getting a PlayStation 5 on launch day? When the PlayStation 4 came out, all employees had the option of pre-ordering one that actually arrived 2 days early. Naturally I got one. We are still waiting for details on what will happen for employees with the PlayStation 5 but I imagine it will be similar to the PS4 launch with one or two minor differences. I plan to pick one up. Unfortunately I won't be able to use it until the weekend as I do have to go to work and have other projects that will keep me from playing games. However if I am not able to get one from work, I will follow my own advice and wait patiently for stores to have them restocked.

Oh, one last thing. While I work for Sony Interactive Entertainment (or PlayStation), I don't speak for the company and am very restricted in what I can say. All opinions represented are my own.

 

Video Game Review: Battlefield V

Recently I finished playing Battlefield V from Electronic Arts or EA on my PS4. I enjoyed playing both Battlefield 3 on the PS3 and Battlefield I on the PS4. Interestingly enough, you cannot rely on the ending number to figure out which game comes before others as the number one in Battlefield I refers to the World War I experience and came out after Battlefield 4.

I started playing Battlefield V several times for various research projects at work. When PlayStation Plus released Call of Duty: WWII, I became interested in the history of World War II. After completing the game, I headed back and restarted Battlefield V. While both games are fiction, they do have ties to actual events in the war and I enjoyed the historical aspects of both games.

While earlier versions of EA's Battlefield games focused on a single-player campaign, Battlefield I and Battlefield V have a relatively short campaign with an emphasis on online play. I didn't mind as I don't have as much time at home to play video games and didn't want to spend months on the same game. Battlefield V is only a 9-hour game to complete all of the campaign missions. There are 5 of them and the last one you play as a German tank commander towards the end of the war. All of the campaign battles take place in the European theater and so if you are looking for anything in the Pacific, you will have to try one of the online experiences.

I used to be a huge online player but had too many negative experiences where I would go online and get continually annihilated before I could fire my first shot. Since then I haven't really bothered except in the rare case where I want to get the platinum trophy for a particular game that requires an online trophy or two. The online experience for Battlefield V looks pretty good and so you will want to look at another review to get a complete picture of the game.

I have a work associate that used to work at EA who picked me up the game for only $20. Best Buy has the game for only $18 right now and I think it is well worth the price even if you only play the single-player campaign part of the game. If you are looking for a WWII-genre game and have not yet played Battlefield V, I recommend giving it a try. 

The game has an ESRB rating of M for Mature because of violence and language. War is never pretty and one thing playing war-related video games has taught me is that I never want to fight in a real war.

Video Conferencing Suggestions

I am finishing up my sixth month of working from home and last night found myself trying to decide between 2 different video conference calls. Actually there was a third one I could also have attended but opted not to long before last night. Video conference calls are not just for work either. One of the calls I didn't bother attending was for a personal hobby. I know that families are also holding them in place of getting together and risking the spread of COVID-19.

In the first few weeks of working from home, people tried to continue holding meetings as usual. It didn't take long for insightful organizations to realize one or two changes needed to be made. My company put out some specific guidelines for video conferencing and I think many of them are worth sharing.

One of the benefits of face-to-face meetings is that you get up from your desk and walk to a conference room. If you need to stop and use the restroom, you have the option. You also get a minor change of scenery. With video calls you can schedule them back-to-back all day long and never have to leave your desk. An early suggestion we received is to cut back on the length of meetings. Instead of a 30-minute meeting, make it 25. If it is usually an hour, make it 50 minutes. This will allow people time to gather thoughts between meetings, grab a drink or snack, and take a bio-break if needed. My personal preference is to start meetings on the hour or half-hour and end early. Starting 5 or 10 minutes late is a bit tougher for me as I find myself waiting at my desk for the appointed start time.

Another suggestion we received is to see if we can cut down on the number of meetings being held. Some days are so full of meetings that people don't have the chance to do actual real work. What I have done with my team is remove one of our daily stand-ups each week. For those that don't know, daily stand-ups are short meetings where the team quickly reviews progress of daily work. We have them Monday through Thursday but not on Friday. Should something come up and we need to cancel one of the meetings, we reserve Friday for a make-up, just in case.

Cutting down on the number of meetings also goes along with another suggestion: setting aside one day a week with no meetings, if possible. Unfortunately this is a tough one for some people. My boss has multiple meetings every day and so even though we don't have stand-ups on Friday, he still has meetings. I am one of the fortunate ones that has no meetings on Friday and so I don't have to worry about making sure I am at my desk during specific times throughout the day. I generally use this freedom to actually get stuff done. So far this morning I have taken care of a load of paperwork I haven't had time to get to during the week. I am also making sure to put together this posting during my lunch hour so it doesn't distract from the time I am at work.

There are many other suggestions ranging from what to wear (you don't have to wear pants as long as nobody can see your legs), how to make sure you pay attention (taking notes helps me), and always making sure you are muted unless speaking in the meeting. For those that find themselves attending way too many meetings, you can put together an avatar that will attend your meetings for you. It is a funny read and should put a smile on your face even if it does have one or two issues. Good luck with your next meeting.

What Will Work Look Like after COVID-19?

We had a group weekly meeting today at work and the question came about what the office environment will look like after COVID-19. A year ago I worked for a company that felt it important to show up at the office every day. My being able to work from home one day per week was considered a very special circumstance. Now that everyone is working from home, people are questioning the old corporate culture. Furthermore a lot of people are much more effective working from home.

Recently we hired a new project manager and while some of us are effectively working from home, on-boarding a new team member is less than ideal. It takes a lot more mentoring and hand holding to get the new person up to speed. So how will this effect work after COVID-19?

 The meeting at work today was held over Microsoft Teams, which is a relatively new video conferencing application. With the large number of people using the service, there is a lot of innovation happening with the tool. Furthermore there are a number of other similar services that are advancing at an equally rapid pace. Some of the new features being offered are making video conferencing a much more viable option as a replacement for in-person meetings. So how will this effect work after COVID-19?

My wife and I went for a walk this evening and the topic of our cancelled vacation came up. This led to the discussion of whether or not I will need to travel as much for work. I had one year where I went to Japan something like 7 times. We don't think it will be necessary to ever fly that much in the future but are not quite sure. Will other people want to be travelling as much as they have in?

Unfortunately I don't have any answers. I could make a prediction but will most likely be wrong. I would like to believe that I will be able to work from home most days of the week. That would really help me rack up the ski days in winter. I would like to believe that I will still get all of those wonderful trips to the exotic country of Japan. Unfortunately that doesn't work with the scenario of working from home more often. Ultimately the current work environment is evolving and we are not done yet. Hopefully we can all look forward to those changes. While many people are filing for unemployment, I sincerely hope there is a place for everyone and think there will be. Of all the things I want to be right about the last one is the most important.

A Free Meal from Uber

A few days ago I got an e-mail from Uber telling me I had a free meal up to a $30 value simply because I have an account with them. I have to admit that since I have not been flying much, I have not needed their ride-share services. I did recently try a restaurant delivery service and enjoyed it and so I thought I would give Uber Eats a try this evening. The catalyst for doing so is because my wife is helping my oldest daughter drive to Alabama for graduate school and I didn't want to cook anything for myself this evening.

The e-mail made it really easy to get a meal as I just needed to click on it. The link took me to ubereats.com. I just had to log into my Uber account and it had all of my billing information. It even showed an old $5 credit I had from using the ride-share service earlier this year. Then I looked for a type of food I might want for dinner. That can be tougher than it sounds.

This evening I selected Greek food. I had up to a $30 credit and so I made sure to get plenty of extra food so I have a few more meals later in the week. After all, my wife won't be back until late Thursday evening and while I am not a bad cook, I am preoccupied with other activities . . . like watching movies, playing video games, and practicing the guitar. I picked up a gyro for this evening along with a salad for tomorrow. The total came to something like $20. As with all food-delivery services, there are other fees to be aware of and my $30 credit didn't cover any of them. Those added up to $10 and so I had to come up with a small sum of money. I knew I would and so that didn't surprise me.

I placed my order and did not feel like it needed to be rushed to my house. Selecting the take-your-time option took $1 off the delivery fee and my estimate is that it slowed down the order by a maximum of only 5 to 10 minutes. It still arrived 20 minutes before the expected delivery time. Then I watched the map with the status of my order. I finished up a few projects from work and just kept the map in the background on my 3rd monitor, glancing at it every few moments.

Eventually a car appeared on the map and it surprised me that the car headed away from my house. I couldn't figure out why until I realized the Uber driver was headed to the restaurant to pick up the order. Then he headed towards my house. He took a much different route than I would have taken but I learned something new, he got there faster than I would have. I will have to remember that route the next time I am in that part of town.

My meal arrived earlier than promised and that is always nice. Furthermore it was still warm. I ate the gyro and put the rest of the food in the refrigerator. Now I just need to hope my youngest daughter doesn't investigate it when she comes home from work.

I still prefer to go out to restaurants as opposed to take-out food. However during these times of COVID-19, I would rank my experience with Uber Eats very similar to that of Doordash. I think they are about equal in price and service. If you get a coupon in your e-mail, I highly suggest using it.

First Flight Since March 7

This weekend my wife and I braved air travel and headed to Ohio to visit our son and his family. It is the first flight I have been on since March 7. I have to say that I felt reluctant to get on the plane due to COVID-19. After taking the journey, the flight was probably the safest part of the trip.

Normally I would have had someone drop us off at the airport but our daughter had to go to work. We could have parked at the airport but instead opted to take the train to the airport. It meant a 1-mile walk to the train station but I don't mind the exercise and so we did that. In hindsight, we should have parked at the airport. We had to change trains and have a 29-minute wait for a different train line in downtown Salt Lake. Neither my wife nor I minded the wait for our next train. What we did mind was the lack of thought for others on the train. I am not a fan of masks but they are required on the train. Not everyone felt obligated to wear one and about half of the passengers didn't bother. Unfortunately the people that didn't wear masks are part of the demographic in Salt Lake at most risk for COVID-19. I couldn't wait to get to the airport and off that train. Once there, I made sure to use a liberal quantity of hand sanitizer. I hope it works.

The security line at the airport moved very quickly and we found ourselves at the Southwest Airline gates. We had an early boarding number and found a row 4 seats back. I put my wife at the window and I took the isle. Southwest is not loading the planes to capacity so they can ensure all middle seats on the flight are empty. I appreciate that. Furthermore you are required to wear a mask on the flight. If you have some medical condition that prevents you from wearing a mask, they won't let you on the plane. The only exception is young children under the age of 2.

The flight went well to Chicago. The 2 and a half hour flight is the longest I have worn a mask since COVID-19 started. I hated it but am not complaining because I want everyone around me to be wearing a mask. We landed in Chicago and had to continue wearing masks until we got a pizza at one of few open restaurants in the airport. Once we finished the meal, the masks went back on. I have to admit that the airport really felt like a scene out of a zombie apocalypse movie.

The flight from Chicago to Cleveland lasted only 45 minutes and went quickly. My son picked us up at the airport and we had a relatively short drive to his home. Once there I could reflect on my flight experience. I feel a lot more comfortable about flying but it is not something I want to do frequently. In other words, I won't be doing it for work any time soon. I don't think I will be using the train any time soon though and would discourage anyone from doing so until COVID-19 has been resolved.

Growing Importance of Video Editing

There are a number of changes that have taken place in the world because of COVID-19 and more changes are coming. One of the changes I have noticed recently is the growing importance of video editing skills. It used to be that specialists would be responsible for such tasks. Now more and more people are having to put together videos as we are restricted from meeting in person because of the pandemic.

I first noticed videos proliferating as a form of communication within my community in Utah. Once a month I am being sent a link to a video. That video is very high-quality and provides updates on the local COVID-19 situation along with a message of encouragement in dealing with all of the various situations we are facing.

Now I am starting to see a number of presentations being done at work with videos instead of PowerPoint. The reasons for this are many. Some people feel more comfortable creating a video instead of speaking live. Others are trying to ensure time constraints are followed. I'm also sure others feel that video allows for a more flashy presentation. Ultimately video has some distinct advantages with more and more people taking advantage of them.

Several years ago I started putting together videos as a self-improvement project. I figured it would be a nice skill to have and have put together 4 videos so far that are available on my YouTube channel. I am in the middle of writing the narration for my next video about when I sailed a 37-foot racing sailboat from Hawaii to Los Angeles many years ago. Hopefully I will have it finished soon.

Here are some of the lessons I have learned creating my videos and hopefully they will help you:

1. Find a video editing tool that works for you and stick with it. Most tools have a number of features and it takes a bit of time to discover the full capabilities of the software you have chosen. I prefer using the Mac over Windows and so I use iMovie as it comes preloaded on all Macs.
2. Try to continually improve on your work. When I went to put together my most recent video, I went back and reviewed my 3 previous videos and made notes on what I could to improve. My 2020 Yurt video is my favorite because I fixed quite a few shortcomings found in the other videos.
3. Have people help review your videos. One of the most difficult things for me is to ask for someone to review my videos. While most comments I get are how well they look, I cringe when people find problems with them. Unfortunately those are the comments that will help you improve. I have one of my coworkers who is great at this and provides very useful feedback. He isn't malicious but sincerely wants to help me improve my work.
   
4. You don't have to use all of the features in your video editing software in every video. When word processing software began widespread use, some users felt obligated to use every font possible in a single-page document. In the end, it detracted from the work. The same can be said of video editing software. You don't need to use all 50 video transitions in a single 2-minute video. Make sure the features you use add to your message and don't detract from it.
5. Keep track of the settings for what you did so you can use what works or make things better for your next video. I feel like every time I go to create the narration for my videos, I have to relearn what settings I used on the last one. Now I keep copious notes during the video creation process so I don't have to relearn the various tools I use. 
   

Hopefully these 5 tips help should you want to start creating your own videos. As I get more experience with my next video, I'm sure I will be able to provide more hints and tricks.