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.