Technical Demo Problems

Recently I joined a group of people where one person tried to connect a computer tablet to a large-screen television for a presentation. We all took our seats while the person tried to get things connected but it took awhile. I have been in that situation many times and the one thing I discovered is that if I am alone, I have a much better chance of getting things to work. When there is a crows present, I can't figure it out.

Seeing the struggle, I offered to go get a cable to directly connect the tablet to the screen. I walked out of the room and that is all it took for the presenter to figure things out. Once that happened, another person came to find me to let me know that things worked and we could begin.

Sometimes having someone offer to help is all it takes to figure things out on your own. When I find myself in a similar situation, I get distracted by all of the people in the room and forget even the simplest technical details. I have to consciously tell myself to take a breath and think through the problem. Then I will remember a simple detail that causes the trouble to disappear and technology to start working again. Hopefully this trick will work for you should you find yourself trying to troubleshoot something with distractions. 

Its the Little Things

I am always excited to get a new computer but also dread moving from my old one. Why? It is the little things that get forgotten. The Migration Assistant from Apple did a great job copying all of the files from my wife's old computer to her new one. Unfortunately that is not the only thing that needs to be done when setting up a new computer.

Yesterday morning my wife needed to print something. She discovered that while she had all of her files, she did not have access to either of her two printers. Unfortunately I had a lot to get done and couldn't help her out. Due to time constraints, we couldn't print what my wife needed and had to due without. In hindsight we should have tried to print the night before.

There are probably one or two more little things that need to be set up on my wife's computer. Right now we don't know what they are and won't until we need them. Hopefully we won't be under a time constraint and can get them configured correctly when that happens.

Disney+ Following Netflix

This morning my oldest daughter set all of the grandkids down to let them watch "Home Alone." Being lazy, I just logged into my Disney+ account and started the movie there. The kids enjoyed "Home Alone 2" last night and so it only seemed fitting to watch the first installment of the series today. I then headed out with my two sons for an entertaining morning activity. I didn't get a mile down the road before Disney+ decided to stop the movie and ask for a subscription verification. My daughter just found the movie on my Amazon Prime account and automatically charged me $4 so they could continue the movie. I am a little miffed as I do own a copy of the movie and now have to pay to watch it again. I'm not mad at my daughter though as it is only $4.

The reason Disney+ kicked my daughter off is because they are following Netflix and cracking down on multi-home account usage. I actually don't have my own Disney+ account and have been piggybacking on my son's. At the time I started doing that, Disney said it was perfectly fine for up to 8 accounts regardless of household. Now it seems they realize that is why the streaming video service continues to lose money.

If you are sharing a Disney+ account with someone else and all of a sudden discover you no longer have access, now you know why. I'm not sure if I will sign up for my own account as my wife and I don't watch a lot of television on our own. I will have to look at how often my grandkids are here and see if it warrants getting an account. Until then, I'll utilize the other 2 video streaming services I get for free: Amazon Prime and Netflix, thanks to my T-Mobile account.

Entertaining Small Children

This evening my wife and I have 4 of our 5 grandchildren spending the night. The youngest is just a hair too young to join the party and so he is sleeping in his own bed across the valley. The children are asleep now and I am free to share some of the wisdom I have gained from the experience.

The first order of business this evening included feeding the children. Anyone with kids between the ages of 3 and 7 know they are the meanest of food critics. Furthermore it is difficult to find a common meal they can all agree upon. Fortunately I had the foresight to know we had two choices: macaroni and cheese or pizza. We decided on a family-size pizza that is half cheese and half pepperoni. The kids loved it. For dessert we made a run to the nearby doughnut shop and picked out a dozen colored with different Holiday sprinkles. Kids loved them.

Next the kids had to decide between a number of different evening activities. Ultimately it boiled down to decorating gingerbread houses or watching a movie. The downside of gluing candy to fake buildings with nasty frosting is the candy. Children like to eat more of it than they place on the tiny structures making it nearly impossible to fall asleep at the end of the evening. I breathed a sigh of relief when they unanimously agreed upon the movie. Now the only decision laid in which movie to watch. My oldest grandson has seen "Home Alone 2" no less than 4 times this Holiday season and his dad is getting tired of watching it. He suggested this movie to his sister and cousins who immediately rejected the idea. He came to me almost in tears and I explained that he needed to do a better job of selling the movie and not trying to force his choice on anyone. It only took 30 seconds for the kids come to agreement and support my grandson's choice. He probably has a role in sales in his future.

We all sat down in front of the television and started the movie complete with popcorn and water bottles. My grandson loves the movie not for the talent of the actors but for the 20 minutes of the criminals getting the snot kicked out them by the young protagonist. My other grandchildren loved the slapstick comedy as well. Unfortunately this left everyone a little slap-happy and not wanting to go to sleep. There is also the effects that blue light has and keeping people awake when you really want them to go to sleep. I solved that with 30 minutes of light acoustic guitar practice to help calm everyone down. For the most part, it worked.

Should you find yourself trying to get cousins to try and sleep at the end of a fun day, remember to feed, entertain, and use music. Now I hope they stay asleep for the remainder of the night.

Merry Christmas

I hope you have had a Merry Christmas. For me, this year will be tough to beat. While I received some amazing gifts from my wife and kids, the most amazing gift I received is time with my family. My youngest son surprised me by flying in from Ohio. Then I got to spend the morning skiing with ALL of my grand kids. I got to do my favorite activity with my favorite people. We had a great time.

When my kids were young, I used to get them what I call Christmas toys. They are toys that the kids love to play for only until about New Year's and then they are quickly forgotten. As I get older, I actually miss those toys and continually ask my wife for one each year. Today she surprised me a couple of inexpensive remote-control cars. Both of my grandsons love cars and will enjoy playing with them over this Holiday season. They are really fast and tough to control so I imagine it won't take long before someone launches them off the stairs and we will see how indestructible they are. I'm not banking on both of them surviving too long.

Hopefully you have gotten to spend today with people you love and received at least one gift you hoped for. For me, this year has been all about the people and it has been a great day. 

The MacBook Air Data Transfer Worked as Expected

My wife's new MacBook Air arrived today as promised. I immediately opened the box and started setting up the computer for my wife. After asking for my preferred language (English) and geographical area (United States) it asked if I wanted to transfer data from an old computer, iCloud, or a Time Machine backup. I selected the old computer. It then told me to start the "Migration Assistant" on the original computer. It also told me I could find it in the "Applications" folder in the "Utilities" folder. I navigated to the right place, started the app, and selected the 3rd option which indicated it would be sending data to a new computer. Then I just sat back and let the computers do their thing.

I started the data transfer in the kitchen with only a single machine plugged into power and the other running on the battery. It suggested I apply power to both computers and I did. Then I decided with it being Christmas Eve and knowing we had a lot of food to prepare I should move the computers to a less busy area of the house. I unplugged both machines and found 2 new outlets in my bedroom. I let the process continue and it did so without interruption. My wife has a lot of photos and so it took about an hour to complete.

Once the data transferr finished, I had one or two more questions to answer. My wife had to log into her apple ID and then the setup finished. She is now ready to use her new computer. Apple has done a great job making the process of upgrading to a new computer as painless as possible. The only downside is that users get used to the ease and it is almost impossible to change platforms later.

Pulling Data Off a Dead Computer

My wife's new MacBook Air will arrive tomorrow and so I started the process of pulling data, files, and pictures off her old one. So how do you do that when the computer won't even boot? Today I worked to figure that out and had great success with the help of my oldest son.

The key to the process is that my son has a MacBook Air that is the same era as my wife's old one. He doesn't use it any more and loaned it to us. Having recently replaced the battery in the laptop, I have all the tools necessary to unscrew the screws for the case and access the internals. So after skiing this morning, I put both laptops on the kitchen table and removed the bottom panel for each computer. Then I gently removed the solid-state drive from my wife's and swapped it with my sons. The hard drives on MacBook Air laptops look more like a couple of chips on a printed circuit board (PCB) and could easily be mistaken for memory chips, which is exactly what they are, just a different kind of memory.

I screwed the back onto my son's laptop, flipped it over, and pressed the power button. The computer booted right up and I logged in. I made sure I could access all her files and then closed the lid, putting the computer into sleep mode. Then I put my son's solid-state drive into my wife's old computer, screwed the back panel back on, and tried to turn it on. Nothing happened which is what I expected. I really did this just to make sure I didn't lose any screws or parts.

My hope is that the new computer will work similarly to when I replaced my iPhone. All I had to do was put my old phone next to my new one and the initialization process for the new one automatically copied over everything from the old one. If it doesn't work that smoothly then I have a USB drive I can copy all of the important files to and then copy them to the new computer.

Not everyone has easy access to a second laptop and you may wonder what I might have done without it. There are devices you can get that are meant to access solid-state drives and my son also has one of those. Then of course, there is the option of going to the local thrift store like my 8-year-old neighbor and finding a cheap laptop similar to my wife's. Fortunately my first solution worked.

Best Buy For the Win

After careful consideration and thorough research I selected a new computer for my wife. I decided to get her a 13-inch MacBook air with 16 GB of RAM, the M3 processor, and 256 GB of solid-state storage. The next thing I needed to decide is where to buy it from.

Working for Sony, I have a number of fellow employees that have left and gone to work for Apple. I have helped a number of them pick up Sony products for a discount and they are willing to do the same for me. They receive a 15% discount on Apple products and so I used that as my base comparison price. If I couldn't find the computer cheaper somewhere else, I would call in a favor. That price came to $934.15 plus tax.

I keep getting daily e-mails for Costco and Best Buy, so I checked them first. Costco had the exact model I wanted for $899.99, which is cheaper than the Apple employee discount. Best Buy came in for a dollar less at an even $899.00. That became my new standard. My wife told me Amazon had a great price and so I looked there. They matched Best Buy at $899.00. I also looked at one of my favorite online stores: B&H Photo. They usually have great deals on Apple products and they didn't disappoint, or so I thought. They had the computer for $50 less. Then I carefully looked at the specs and saw that it was for the 8GB of RAM version. I'm glad I double checked all the specs. I came very close to making a big mistake.

Ultimately it came down to Amazon or Best Buy as the place to purchase the computer. How to decide? I looked at who could get it to me fastest as they both have free shipping. It turns out Best Buy beat Amazon by 2 days. That is where I made my purchase and I didn't have to call in a favor from a friend.

Online Insurance Quotes

I have never been one to shop around for lower insurance quotes and so I have resisted changing my auto policy. I currently bundle my cars, house, and sailboat with a single insurance company and have relied on the bundle discount to guarantee I'm paying the lowest price for the best coverage. Lately my wife has suggested we look at other insurance companies to see if we can get a better deal. Monday I pointed my browser at Progressive and entered my information to get a quote.

Not all insurance policies are the same. One has to pay careful attention to the coverage to make sure it is an apples-to-apples comparison between companies. That means making sure the deductibles are the same and coverage limits are as well. With auto insurance you also want to make sure things like rental car and glass coverage matches.

My current auto insurance needs to be renewed in January so I had my coverage in front of me when I put in numbers for the quote. The defaults are significantly less than my current policy and so I spent time adjusting them. As I have multiple cars, I can set deductibles and other parameters for each one. It took a few extra minutes. When I finished entering information, I had a quote for very comparable auto insurance. The quote came in at less than half of what I am currently paying. The savings surprised me and I will be switching automobile insurance companies. Furthermore I will reevaluate my homeowner's and sailboat's policies after the first of the year.

Now for the bad news: you can't do anything on the Internet without being tracked. This means I am getting a lot of ads promoting low-cost insurance. When I go to YouTube, 10% of the videos are on how someone saved a lot of money using different auto insurance. That doesn't include the insurance ads in the videos I do want to watch. I am also seeing ads in random websites I visit. Once I make the change, I don't plan on shopping around for at least a year so I won't be paying attention to those ads. Hopefully they go away soon.

The Internet is a very useful tool that can help us streamline tasks in our lives. Shopping for insurance is one of them. No longer are you required to call a company and provide countless amounts of information before getting a quote. Instead just fill out a series of forms at your leisure and you instantly get a quote. The only downside is the targeted advertising that follows.

MacBook Air or iPad Air

My wife recently went on a trip and brought her MacBook Air so she could do some work during her downtime. She used it for about 10 minutes and then shut it off to go play with grandkids. When she tried to turn it back on, nothing. We played with it a bit but decided to wait until we got home to really troubleshoot the problem. We got home and discovered she needs a new laptop. For the moment, she is making due with my old Chromebook I got for free but I have been wanting to replace it for the past 6 months. I figure I have a week before my wife will demand a replacement laptop.

Having used my Chromebook for around 6 years, it is a great device and will do everything my wife needs a computer to do. I thought about replacing her laptop with one and threw the idea out to my son, who works in technology. He suggested getting an iPad with a keyboard instead. This has brought on a research project over the past several days trying to figure out which device would be the best replacement.

Several months ago kids headed back to school or off to college and a number of articles appeared on the Internet as to which device parents should get for students. While my wife is not a student, she will use it like one and I found the articles very useful. I listed out what my wife uses a computer for and realized that a MacBook Air, an iPad Air, and a Chromebook would all work well. I could also throw a Windows laptop into the mix as my wife often uses Windows at work. Then I priced everything and discovered that if I get a keyboard for the iPad Air, the total price comes within $40 of the MacBook Air. Now I am shortcutting a lot of the technical details as you can find an older generation iPad for around $200, but I question the longevity of the device. When comparing computers, it is best to try and make the comparison as equal as possible with regards to CPU, RAM, and storage space. That is pretty easy with the Apple products, less clear-cut between them and Windows or Chromebook machines.

Right now I am leaning towards the Apple MacBook Air as it represents the least amount of a learning curve for my wife. It comes close to the same price as the iPad with keyboard but weighs significantly less. No it is not as versatile as you can separate the iPad from the keyboard, but knowing how my wife will use the computer, I think it to be the best choice. The only thing that can throw a wrench into those plans is that Costco has a Dell laptop that competes with the Apple one for about half the price. Ultimately I will leave it up to my wife to decide.

A Little Guidance Saves Time

On Monday I had to submit a purchase order request for some data quality assessment software. I have been at Sony for quite a few years but have never submitted a purchase order. This should have not been a time-sensitive matter but it took 2 weeks to get access to the system that allows me to submit purchase orders and the vendor started getting a little restless. Monday morning I received word that I had been granted access to our internal accounting system and felt excited to get this taken care of.

Having worked in software for decades, I didn't feel like I needed any extra training to use the accounting software. Then I logged into the system and discovered it to be a bit more complex than anticipated. I reached out to my contact in accounting who directed me to someone that could help me get the request completed. He couldn't meet immediately but I only needed to wait 30 minutes. When he became available, we jumped on a quick video call and I shared my screen with him. He then talked me through the process. We took about 10 minutes and everything got submitted correctly. The next day, the vendor successfully submitted the invoice.

As we walked through the steps necessary to submit the purchase order request, I realized I successfully filled in the correct information for 95% of what it needed. Having someone walk me through the process really streamlined things and helped me do it right the first time. You may be very skilled with technology but don't hesitate to ask for a little guidance for something you are doing for the first time. It may save you having to redo something because of a minor mistake. 

Christmas Shipping

Christmas is just around the corner and if you still have shopping to do, time is running out. Today I received an e-mail from a company from which I planned to get Christmas gifts. The e-mail said that orders need to be made soon if one hopes to receive the gifts before Christmas. Fortunately I had my orders ready and got them in before the deadline. My kids will receive their gifts before that important day in a few weeks.

There are a number of online retailers urging shoppers to get their orders in before it is too late. FedEx has listed the following dates that are important if you want to get gifts delivered on or before December 22nd:

• December 15 for FedEx Ground
• December 20 for 2-day delivery
• December 21 for 1-day delivery

They also go on to list that they will be doing modified home and ground delivery on the 23rd and 24th of December. All delivery services will be closed on December 25th, which is a good thing as I would hate to be forced to work that day myself.

UPS has a similar schedule where they say that December 20th is the last day to utilize 2-day delivery for packages that will arrive on the 24th. They then go on to say that 3-day deliveries sent on the 20th, won't be delivered until Friday the 27th. 

The Unites States Postal Service is also listing dates on their website. They include different schedules for Alaska and Hawaii, which is important. While some of the dates remain the same (i.e. First Class and Priority Mail service) Ground Advantage requires 2 extra days and Priority Mail Express Service 1 extra day. Otherwise the dates look similar to FedEx and UPS.

I want my Christmas gifts to arrive as close to the special day as possible and so some might think I have waited way too long before getting them shipped. Normally I would have to agree with one exception. This year, I have decided to get something that is perishable and so I don't want them to arrive too early. It would also be a huge disappointment for them to arrive late. Hopefully I timed it correctly this year and everything works out. Hopefully you also find the information above helpful this Holiday season if you still have gifts to send.

Killing Time in an Airport

This morning I find myself waiting for my son and his family's flight to arrive from Columbus, Ohio. I am here with my wife so at least I am not alone, which makes waiting a little easier. We have a lot of fog today and so flights are delayed coming in. So how can you pass the time at an airport waiting? That is a question I am sure a lot of people will be asking as they travel this Holiday season.

The airport in Salt Lake does not have a lot to keep you entertained outside of security. Once through security there are a lot of different shops and restaurants, including a Lego store which has a lot of different activities to keep one entertained. The only problem is that all of those little pieces are very easy to lose if you are not careful. So I'll pass on that activity for now. The real question is how to get through security if you are not flying. The easy solution is to purchase a fully refundable plane ticket for later in the day. Once you get through security, just cancel it and your money will be back on your credit card before you leave the airport. It is a trick I have used more than once.

Another thing to keep yourself entertained is to catch up on your e-mail. That is what my wife is doing right now. You do have to be careful with the free airport WiFi as it can be very easy for a hacker to steal your e-mail password. You may be better off using your phone as a hotspot and using it instead. Then there is my favorite, using a virtual private network or VPN that hides your network connection. I have a VPN for work and use it whenever I connect to the free airport WiFi. My e-mail only took me a few minutes this morning and so what should I do for the next hour?

I could watch a movie but it is too early in the day to start watching a movie. Perhaps if it is closer to the evening I would appreciate that more. I know my grandkids don't care what time of the day it is, they are always down for watching a movie. I'm sure that is what they are doing on the plane right now.

Last year for Christmas my wife got me a kindle electronic reader. I recently loaded up a new book on it and will probably pull that out shortly. Until then I've written in my blog, something else that helps pass the time. I could also annoy my wife. Maybe I should go get myself a breakfast burrito instead.

Computers in Cars

Yesterday I had to take my car in for its annual emissions test. When you buy a new car in Utah, you only need an emissions test every other year until it gets to a certain age. Then you need one every year in order to renew the registration. My car is old enough to require a test annually.

There are a number of places you can go to have the test done. I have a favorite place I have been taking my cars to for decades. They don't do anything other than emissions tests and the state restricts what they can charge for the test. Once the test is completed, the state has an immediate record if it passed or not. When it passes, I can log onto the state website and can see that information, pay the registration fee, and wait for the state to mail me my license-plate decals.

Yesterday I drove to the state test site and waited my turn. I didn't have to get out of my car, I just drove to an open garage door and waited for the car in front of me to complete its test. Then the service technicians waved me into the waiting bay. They connected a cable to my car's OBD-II port and my car's computer gave them all the information. A few minutes later the test completed and I found out I passed. I drove out the back of the garage bay and the guy waiting behind me pulled right in.

I remember buying a new car a couple decades ago and having the salesman tell me that the rapid rise in automobile costs had to do with the addition of new computers. Those computers have helped increase the reliability of most engines. They can tell you when a part has failed and needs to be replaced. They can also tell you how much your car is polluting. It is good that states around the country can tap into that information without any difficulty and help keep our air clean.

I left my house yesterday knowing I needed to get my car's emissions tested. Only twelve minutes later, I returned home with the task completed and ready to submit the results to the state. This is one case where computers have helped create efficiencies in my life. Hopefully you feel the same way.

Repeatability

Have you heard the story of a guy that traded a paperclip for a house? It didn't happen that simply. He traded the paperclip for something else and continued trading until he eventually had a much more expensive item. When I think about what he did, I imagine he took advantage of having something that someone else needed to the point where they would trade something more valuable for the less valuable item he had. I also doubt the process he followed is very repeatable. While someone could take some of the ideas, trades for different items would need to be substituted. Furthermore, I doubt many would have his same success.

This leads me to my topic of interest today and that is repeatability. When software engineers create a program, they require a team of quality assurance (QA) engineers to test their code to look for problems. The worst kinds of problems to find are non-repeatable ones. If the program runs 9 times out of 10, it becomes the QA engineer's responsibility to figure out the exact repeatable steps to find the one time it doesn't work.

One area where this becomes increasingly difficult is when using a program that creates random numbers. The whole point of random numbers is to make things unpredictable. This is why most random number programs have two calls. The primary call provides a random number. To make sure it is repeatable, it will always provide numbers in the same order. If you ask for a single digit random number, it might first provide a 3 and the next time you call the function it returns a 5. Stopping the program and restarting it give you the same numbers in order. This is very helpful when trying to locate software bugs. The important thing to remember is to also use the second call or randomize function. This tells the program to not use the same order but instead to mix it up.

Why is this important? Several years ago I noticed that the software provided by the governing body for ski racing forgot to include the randomize function in their software. My son attended a race at Jackson Hole and had yet to complete a Super-G race. He got lumped in with all the other first-timers. The weekend had 3 individual races where all the first-timers should have been given random starting orders within their group. Starting near the front has its advantages and so one would think my son would have his start position changed randomly. Nope the 10 to 15 racers all started in the same order for each of the 3 independent races. The developer of the software never randomized the start order as he or she should have. I tried to protest but ski coaches and race organizers don't understand the nuances of software development and accepted as fact that the coding had been done correctly.

When looking for software bugs, repeatability is important. It makes it a lot easier to find problems and fix them. Just remember to add in that randomize function at the end. Otherwise you are not really creating random numbers and that is one area hackers exploit to break into systems.