Vacation Planning

This morning my wife and I went for a walk and she expressed a desire to hike rim-to-rim in the Grand Canyon. This is kind of like her idea of climbing Mt. Rainier. While it sounds like fun, it is not something you think about and then do the next day. there is a lot of training involved and requires about a year of preparation. Even then, there is no guarantee you will be successful.

As we walked, we talked about the logistics required for such an adventure. Do we start at the North Rim and hike to the South Rim? Do we stay at the lodges on each rim? How long is the hike and what is the expected elevation gain? We talked through some of the details, most importantly that we would do south to north. While it is a 22-mile hike, the drive requires 4 hours and needs to be factored into the planning.

Most vacations require some planning and the Internet has become very useful for such adventures. In the past, you might have to go through travel magazines or books to find information. Now you just use your favorite search engine and all the data you need is at your fingertips. Everything from lodging to tips for training. You can even find videos of someone else doing the same thing.

We came home from our walk and I immediately looked at lodging options. Sometimes staying in one of our National Parks requires reservations be made over a year in advance, other times you can't make reservations until after January. Fortunately we can reserve our lodging now, provided we avoid a few important dates.

My wife wants to do the adventure with some of her coworkers and so she needed to go to the office to confirm dates. She knows which ones to avoid and we should be able to make plans soon. Now all we need to do is to develop a training plan. And stick to it, of course.

Dead-End Technology

Growing up the world seemed full of endless possibilities. I remember reading a story about how one day we would travel on supersonic aircraft regularly. I also saw promises of personal jet packs and flying cars. Those ideas seemed wonderful to a young kid and the future looked bright. Unfortunately none of that has really materialized. Why not? There are physical limitations that create what I call dead-end technology.

While we did have supersonic passenger flights for several decades, the fuel costs made it prohibitively expensive for all but the super wealthy. Friction and gravity require a lot of energy to overcome and there are physical limits to what can be achieved. The same hold true with personal jet packs. When it comes to flying cars, there are numerous safety issues but technology may catch up to where that may be possible, just not soon.

My oldest daughter asked me if I am concerned about the increasing size of hurricanes and I told her there are physical limitations that will keep them from getting much bigger. What will increase is the number of large hurricanes and that is something to worry about. The highest sustained winds ever recorded came from the Pacific hurricane Patricia in 2015 with sustained wind speeds of 215 miles per hour (345 km/h). I doubt we will get above that number by more than one or two miles per hour. We'll just see more hurricanes getting close to that number.

So what about computers? How come they continue to get smaller, faster, and less expensive? The limitations placed on them have not been based on dead-end technology. The switch from vacuum tubes to transistors allowed them to shrink and require a lot less power. Advances in photo lithography have continued to allow them to get smaller. Unfortunately we are getting to a point where it will soon be physically impossible to continue the shrinking trend. Right now, the smallest traces on computer chips are only 3 atoms wide. That is tiny.

So have we reached the limit on computers? Nope. Currently computer chips are built in a very 2-dimensional way where they are mostly, but not completely, flat. Instead of computers being built on chips, we can build them into cubes. Let's see how far that gets us but I think there are plenty of advances that can be made.

About 20 years ago I helped my brother-in-law make some decisions about buying a new computer and told him to get the biggest and highest-resolution monitor he could afford. I told him it would last a long time because monitor technology seemed very stable and his monitor would last through multiple generations of computers. Then flat-screen monitors entered the market and proved me wrong. It took an unforeseen technology advancement to enhance the art of computer and television displays.

So what will it take to have supersonic air travel for the masses? Or those personal jet packs? We will have to throw away the dead-end technology like we did with cathode-ray tubes (CRT) and embrace new technologies like we did with LCD and LED screens. What that is for transportation, I don't know. It may be as simple as devising a low-energy method of defeating gravity or cheaper and denser forms of energy. All I know is I hope someone figures it out cause those personal jet packs look like a lot of fun.

Camera on Your Phone

When cameras first started becoming integrated with mobile phones, I thought it was a needless accessory. I expressed this thought to a good friend who owned an electrical business. He explained that the idea had merit as his guys could take pictures of electrical panels and send them to the office for help with difficult installations. I realized my position was a bit short sighted and opened up to the idea that they could be useful.

As smartphones continued to evolve it became very clear that having a camera integrated with a mobile phone opens up quite a few possibilities. Probably the one used most often is video calls. In my case, I spend a lot of time talking to my grand kids with video. They are young enough that our interactions never last very long but I get to see them as they grow even though a couple of them are half-way across the country.

Working for Sony, I have a really nice DSLR camera but I hardly ever use it. The camera on my phone is not nearly as nice but it is good enough. My wife and I spent a week in Disney World with two of our granddaughters and we took a lot of pictures using just our phones. At the end of the trip, we compiled all of the pictures into a book and have it sitting on a table in our living room. I wouldn't have tried that with the original camera phones due to poor picture quality but technology has evolved to being much better than film cameras prevalent back in the 80's and 90's.

Recently my wife and I returned to Orlando, Florida on business and we rented a car from a very reputable rental-car agency. When we returned our car before catching our flight home, I noticed a gentleman using his camera to take pictures of his car to document the condition with which he returned the vehicle. I thought it could be overkill until I got home and received an e-mail from the rental car company notifying me that the car I returned had damage: a scratch in the door. When I picked up the car several days earlier I noticed the car had a lot of scratches including the one on the door but didn't bother documenting them. When picking up the car, I mentioned the damage to the agent. In hindsight, I should have used the camera on my phone to document all of the damage on the car so as not to get blamed for a scratch I didn't create.

I have been wrong with the usefulness of several technologies and can admit when I have made a mistake. Cameras integrated into smartphones is actually very useful. There are constantly new uses I am discovering. Should you find yourself reaching for a pen to copy a note, remember that phone camera and take a picture. You will capture more information and don't have to worry about reading your own writing.

The Marriott Pillows Scam E-mail

I just checked my e-mail this morning and received an interesting message that is obviously a scam. The subject line says, "Welcome to Our Marriot Luxury Pillows Survey Zone." The first thing I noticed is that they spelled Marriott wrong as there are 2-T's at the end of the name, not 1. My curiosity drove me to figure out what the scam is.

I am not foolish enough to click on the link in the message and so I typed the subject of it into my usual Internet search engine and came across a nice Reddit post explaining the scam. Unfortunately it is a world-wide scam as people from the UK posted about it as well as fellow Americans. It seems you fill out the survey and then to get the pillows you have to pay a $7 or $8 shipping fee. Later they go back and try to charge you around $60. If you use a debit card, you have to rely on your bank to catch the fraud as credit card companies provide protection from such nefarious individuals.

I am a big fan of Marriott hotels having recently stayed at one during a trip to Orlando with 2 of my grand kids. I hate to see a good company like that associated with such a scam even though they can't control bad actors on the Internet. Hopefully others will see my post and not fall for such an obvious fraud. I also can't believe the thieves are only trying to get $60. That seems like a lot of work on their part for very little reward. I wonder if they think that is the threshold where people don't pursue recourse. Whatever their thoughts, don't click on the link and stay safe online.

A Camera For the Blind

One of the advantages about working for Sony is that we can attend product presentations about some of our very unique product offerings. Yesterday I spent about 30 minutes learning about a camera we are making for blind photographers. That sounds a bit strange and so I made sure to listen intently.

The person giving the presentation is a Sony employee working on the product who is also legally blind. He has macular degeneration that has slowly progressed to where he is now. Fortunately he has been able to work on this product that uses a retina projection system allowing him to effectively see as it bypasses the parts of his eye that are no longer working. Instead an eye-safe laser projects the image seen through the viewfinder directly onto his retina. I found the technology and product utterly amazing.

One of the first questions a colleague asked is if we can use the technology to make glasses, effectively giving blind people the ability to see. Someone else provided a link to an existing product and so the short answer is, yes. I'm sure that a number of those with similar macular degeneration would appreciate knowing there is hope to see again. I know I value my eyesight tremendously and would love to know this technology exists should I need it in the future.

One of the first things pointed out about the Sony DSC-HX99 RNV product is that it will not work for everyone. That is why there is a try-before-you-buy program with 2 options before making the purchase. The first is to ask for a demo unit that Sony will ship to you for a 2-week trial. The second is to visit a handful of retail outlets where you can try the device. I imagine everyone will have different results based on individual levels of sight. After all, it would be a very poor product experience to make the purchase only to discover it doesn't work. I like that Sony is providing a 2-week trial for those not located near one of the retail stores as there isn't one near me, should I be interested.

There are a lot of amazing technologies that are improving life for those with special needs, such as blindness. If someone told me that Sony is making a camera for this demographic, I would probably have laughed not thinking it was serious. Fortunately they are and providing hope to others. This is one of those products that make me glad to work for Sony.

I Voted Today

This year's election season has received a lot of attention. We have a former President who didn't win a second term trying again and the current Vice President who nobody voted for in the primaries. While your Presidential vote is very important, there are also a lot of other races that can use your input. I have been eagerly awaiting casting my choices this year and so when my mail-in ballot arrived today, I immediately opened it and scanned through all of my choices.

I carefully read the choices for the President/Vice-President race and had to chuckle at one entry. Here in Utah, there is a candidate named "Lucifer 'Justin Case' Everylove". When you read the name aloud, the whole Just-in-Case should elicit a giggle or two. I don't plan to vote for him but I did take the chance to look him up to see if he is for real. He is and is from New Hampshire. I think he only made it onto Utah's ballot but you have to give him props for being there. That being said, please don't waste your vote on a novelty candidate. I selected my candidate of choice and then moved onto everything else.

Naturally there are a number of races where I already knew who I would vote for and filled those in quickly. Then I came to a number of the lesser-known options. Who should I vote for when it comes to county assessor? If you want to take the easy way out, you can vote along party lines. Unfortunately you might not be making the best choice. I actually took the time to look up all the candidates and make sure I voted for people who share my same values. It added a few minutes to the voting process but know I know my picks are really who I want to see elected.

The next section of my ballot listed out Judges. While Utah judges are not elected, we have the right to vote if they should remain judges or be removed. The ballot even provided a website to visit with basic information about each judge. I reviewed the information and decided that 3 of the 11 or so judges should be removed. Each judge met the minimum quality requirements set forth by the State of Utah but 3 of them could use some improvement. I hope others in Utah spent as much time researching. People may disagree with my choices but at least their choices are also informed.

The second-to-last section dealt with taxes and I have some very strong opinions on those. I made my choices accordingly and then looked at the final section which talks about amendments to our State Constitution. Interestingly enough, 2 of the 4 amendments have been eliminated so that no matter how I vote, it won't matter. I looked up the other 2 and discovered the reasoning behind them. More importantly I discovered that not one single group is opposed to them. To me, that seems pretty intuitive as to how I should vote. It also helps that I agree with them as well. Understanding why they are being proposed helped as I made my choice too.

I have to admit that I have done more research for this election than any in the past. Normally I just ask my wife as she is the Political Science major. I encourage you to take extra time as you vote this year to make sure you are choosing representatives that align with your values. You may not think your vote counts but it definitely does for some of the smaller races in this election cycle. Should you live in a swing state like Pennsylvania, it definitely counts for the Presidential election too.

Playing with Large Language Models (LLMs)

Yesterday I participated in a hands-on lab to integrate large-language-model (LLM) technology to help generate complex SQL queries to look into our data. The lab only lasted an hour and I learned a lot during that time. It also highlighted one of the use cases for LLMs for more than just a toy to help write high-school papers.

When ChatGPT released, it garnered a lot of attention. While everyone seemed impressed, I didn't see a lot of people asking how the technology can be used for good. Automatic code generations seem to be one of those good uses that can really help us in our daily lives. Rather than spending countless hours writing thousands of lines of code to do something important, you can specify what you want and have created and the LLM will generate the code for you. That is what yesterday's lab explored.

For those that don't know SQL, it is a very simple and almost English-like language used to query databases. If you have a table that contains information about customers you can use something like this to query the database:

SELECT firsname, lastname, first_purchase_date FROM customers;

This will list out all customers' names and date when they made their first purchases. It is pretty simple, right? Well it gets complicated once you try to filter that data or include info from other tables in the database. While most of my queries are 25 lines or less, it is not uncommon for me to write 500-line ones. This is where an LLM can really help streamline my work.

In order to keep the lab under an hour, all the data and most of the code was created so I just needed to put it in the right place. I loaded the data into an online database server and downloaded the code to my laptop. The only modification I needed to do to the code was update the connection string to point to my online database. Then we ran through the code see how it worked.

The code included a file to describe the 3 tables in the lab and that turned out to be the secret sauce. I closely looked through the description file and realized that it would take about an hour per table to duplicate this file for the database I work with on a daily basis. When there are only 3 tables, this isn't a large effort. Unfortunately my database has thousands of tables and it would be a huge undertaking to use this technology in my environment.

I had hoped that the LLM would be able to look at my database tables and infer what information they contained. This is possible but unfortunately is not nearly as accurate as having a data expert provide this detail first.

I'm glad I attended the lab and I learned a lot. It also demystified what is going on with this particular LLM. While I hoped I could use the output of the lab to make it easier for non-data scientists to query the database, I did come away with a strong understanding of the underlying technology.

Prepare Early For Natural Disasters

A few weeks ago I spent some time in Orlando, Florida at Disney World. Naturally I have an interest in the area as hurricane Milton heads towards it and is expected to do some serious damage. It is no secret that I enjoy keeping up on hurricanes every summer and keep the National Hurricane Center's website up on my computer throughout the summer months. I watched from a safe distance as hurricane Helene came up the west-coast of Florida and slammed into the panhandle of the state. Now only a short time later I am watching what is happening with Milton.

I am safe in my home in Utah nowhere near the devastating storm and so it is fairly easy to lob suggestions at those in Florida. While it is easy to tell everyone to get to safety and evacuate, that is much more difficult for some to do. I don't have to worry about finding a place to go. I don't have to worry about lost wages from missing work. I don't have to worry about going on a long drive where I probably won't be able to find gasoline for my car along the way. About the only thing I have going for me is that my advice isn't tainted with emotion, only logic.

Hurricane Milton isn't expected to make landfall until Wednesday evening or early Thursday morning. To me that seems like a lot of time to evacuate from those areas most likely to be dangerous. The reality is that leaving is so much easier said than done. That is why my advice to everyone really is to prepare early. I imagine a last-minute flight out of Orlando is not going to be cheap. Local authorities plan to close the airport Wednesday ahead of the storm's arrival. Looking at Delta's website this evening, a round-trip flight from Orlando to Salt Lake leaving tomorrow and returning a week later is over $2000. Furthermore there is only one seat left on a single available flight. No you don't have to go all the way to Salt Lake to escape the storm but the options to Atlanta are not much better and still cost almost $700.

So how can you prepare for such events? Take some time and sit down with your family to think about all of the possible natural disasters that can happen in your area. Think about earthquakes, major storms, wildfires,  or other things you have heard about that have hit close to home. Then think about possible options on where you could evacuate, should the need arise. If you have nowhere to go, do you have the supplies you need to shelter in place?

One of my biggest concerns is a lengthy power outage during the dead of winter. While I heat my home with natural gas I still require electricity to run the blower motor to circulate that heat throughout my house. I have a generator that I can use but it would take a lot of work to disconnect the furnace blower from my home electrical system and connect it to the generator. I would also have to be very careful to run the generator outside and nowhere near any air vents into the house. I don't want to kill my family with carbon monoxide poisoning.

Once you create your plan of attack for a natural disaster, it is important to have your plan written down and kept in a safe place. Trying to remember all of the great ideas you had will be tough as you try to avoid panicking. It is also a good idea to review those ideas periodically as things change and you may have better solutions. There are also a lot of resources on the Internet that may help with your planning.

My heart goes out to all of those in harm's way right now. I hope the storm lessens in severity and it is a regular-old-thunderstorm by the time it makes landfall. Unfortunately mother nature doesn't care what I want and so I don't put any stock into that happening. Instead let's hope most are prepared and there is little to no loss of life.

Modern Medicine

Yesterday I spent my morning at the oral surgeon having half a wisdom tooth removed. Today I am singing praises about modern medicine and how little pain I have compared to what it would have been like 30-years ago. Everyone talks about how much computers have evolved in a relatively short amount of time. I think medicine comes close.

So why only half a tooth? When I first had my wisdom teeth reviewed for removal over 30 years ago, they didn't need to come out. As I continued to get dental check-ups, I could see the root of one tooth getting more and more entangled with a major nerve in my jaw. Removing the tooth could damage the nerve and as it didn't impact any other teeth, I left it in. Then as luck would have it, I developed an abscess near that non-impacted wisdom tooth necessitating its removal. After talking with my oral surgeon, he suggested only removing the infected part and leaving the roots. Now of course the roots may need to come out later but not right now.

I got home from the surgery yesterday and had no pain whatsoever. They gave me a time-release version of Novocaine that lasted all day. The only downside is that I spent the day looking like a stroke victim as I couldn't really control one side of my face. I didn't mind as I didn't plan to see anyone except my wife and she frequently sees me at my worst.

I am not a fan of opiates to help control pain and opted to go with the new super painkiller on the market: Tylenol mixed with Advil. New research is showing that taking the two over-the-counter medications is more effective than either by themselves even in stronger doses. This is a fairly recent development and I have to confess it works very well.

Anyone who has ever done a lot of yard work or exercised especially hard knows that the worst day for muscle pain is 2 days later. My surgeon told me to expect the most painful day to be tomorrow and not just the day after surgery. Today I am not too concerned as I feel relatively pain free. I am making sure to keep up on my Advil/Tylenol mix as well as using ice packs about every hour. We'll see how tomorrow goes.

When I found out I needed to have half a tooth removed, the surgeon made a comment that recovery would be more difficult at my age now than if I was 20. My thought is that medicine has evolved to the point where I am glad I had half a tooth removed today instead of a full tooth 30 years ago. I'm sure I am doing better as an old man than I would have as a young one way back when.

Working From Home

My LinkedIn feeds seem to be dominated by news from Amazon that they are making their employees return to work. Needless to say, the employees are not too happy about it. There are theories about how Amazon is going to use the new policy to get rid of surplus employees. Normally a company would layoff those that are not needed. With this new policy they will be able to fire them without severance benefits, saving themselves significant money.

As you can imagine, I think this policy is disappointing. I think that one thing we all learned from COVID-19 is that not everyone is required to be in the office to get work done. It is proven that some people are even more productive working from home as there are not as many distractions at home as there are in the office. I recognize this is not true for everyone.

Fortunately the company I work for is embracing the work-from-home concept. Sony recently sent out an e-mail to a large group of employees talking about how only spending 2 or 3 days in the office has become the new way of working. The e-mail then goes on discussing changes the company is making to reflect this new normal. It is encouraging to me to know that my company is keeping up with new work trends and not trying to enforce policies that make things miserable for everyone.

While there are a lot of employees that thrive working from home, there are also those employees that become less productive. My wife worked with someone that only got about 80% of her work done because of not being in the office. Unfortunately she insisted on traveling around the United States in a recreational vehicle (RV) and so having her come into the office could not be an option. The business owner opted to replace her with someone that now completes 100% of the work assigned. Doing it in the office is not a requirement.

Amazon may lose a lot of quality employees with their new policy. It would be better for them to take a more personalized approach and only require those that need to be in the office to return. Unfortunately that is much more difficult to implement than the blanket policy they have unveiled. I'm glad I didn't take that job at Amazon now.