Bringing an Avalanche Airbag on a Plane

Soon I will be headed to Ohio to visit my youngest son and his family. My son had 2 requests for this trip: bring a pair of skis he has at my house and bring his avalanche airbag. Now skis are easy to bring as the airlines are ready to handle them, especially out of Salt Lake. The airbag poses a unique challenge for airplane travel.

I don't imagine a lot of my readers know what an avalanche airbag is and why a skier would need one. Think about a bag of potato chips and how the largest ones always seem to be at the top of the bag while the crumbs sink to the bottom. The same thing happens in an avalanche where the largest objects will rise to the top and the smallest sink. The idea behind an airbag is that you instantly become larger and should float to the surface of the sliding snow and not sink to the bottom where you can quickly suffocate. In order to inflate the airbag, my son's bag has a canister of compressed air. FAA guidelines restrict any container of compressed air even though there is one for every life jacket under every seat.

I have never taken an avalanche airbag on a plane but my older son has and I vaguely remembered what he went through. The first thing is you have to let all of the compressed air out of the cylinder. Standard maintenance requires you do this once a year anyway and so I went into a room with lots of space. I put the backpack on and pulled the trigger cord. A large hissing noise ensued and I expanded to twice my normal size. As I write this I wonder if an avalanche airbag would be a great bear deterrent.

I took off the backpack and found the release button to empty the air out of the inflatable bag. Then I removed the canister before folding up the bag and repacking it like one would a parachute. Now that I had the empty cylinder, I didn't know what to do next and so I went to the source of all information: the Internet. I did a search on flying with an avalanche airbag and made sure to include the manufacturer's name. The result came back with step-by-step instructions on how to disassemble the cylinder and bring everything through airport security. Furthermore it listed the two airports in the world where you will have the most problems: one in Canada and one in Germany. Oh and if you are going to Japan, just leave the cylinder home and rent one when you get there.

The important thing I needed to know is to unscrew the top from the cylinder so TSA can inspect the inside of the empty cylinder which looks like a small metal water bottle. The top contains the release valve and a pressure gauge so you know if you have enough air in the cylinder. I tried with all my might to unscrew the top only to be thwarted by Bubba who cranked that sucker tight at the factory. I had to enlist the service of my wife and together we unscrewed the top so everything is now ready to head to the airport when that time comes.

The last helpful hint I got from the Internet said it is okay to check the airbag but carry the cylinder on the plane. That way you can explain what it is to TSA. Having heard horror stories about passengers called back to baggage check-in because of questionable items in checked bags, I will be sure to heed that advice. After all, I don't want to miss my flight dealing with questions. If I run into problems, I'll be sure to post a follow-up entry. 

First Snow of the Season

I slowly started waking up this morning when my phone started going crazy with text messages. Given the massive amount of rain we received last night, I figured it related to snow in the mountains. Sure enough, that is the primary subject of all those messages.

My son made the mistake of showing my 7-year-old granddaughter webcam pictures of the snow up at Alta. She responded, "Can we go skiing today?" My wife immediately shot back that her grandfather would take her, implying that there is no minimum amount of snow I wouldn't try to ski on. I will confess that the thought did cross my mind until I took a closer look at those webcam images. No we need a lot more snow before I'll brave the conditions. Fortunately we are expecting more precipitation through Wednesday. Unfortunately my schedule won't let me be able to take my granddaughter skiing until Friday afternoon and the snow might not be around then.

The Internet has given us a number of tools to help us know what is happening in the world around us. While it is easy enough to look out the window to see what the weather is doing, we can also use websites to see what the weather is doing anywhere. While I use it to check local ski resorts, I can also check out snow conditions in Colorado, France, or even Japan. For those that don't like the snow and cold, you can check beach webcams around the world. One of my buddies constantly has a webcam up on his computer of his favorite surfing beach in Hawaii.

This access to instant information had me remembering how I used to get ski-resort information as a teenager. Mobile phones didn't exist nor did digital cameras that make placing images online so easy. Now that I think about it, "online" didn't exist either. We didn't have the benefit of websites. We did get a daily newspaper though and could find all sorts of information there. If the paper didn't have what you wanted to know, you either did without or gave someone a phone call. You just needed to know who to call. 

My Mac Doesn't Want to Run the Newest Version of GIMP

The downside of a visit to Japan for work is that I spend a lot of time doing an expense report. I spent the week collecting receipts and then sit down to organize them when I return home. I know some of my colleagues take pictures of the receipt with their phones the moment they get them but I wait until I have a large workspace. I have a well-tested system for making sure I don't forget anything and am reluctant to change it.

I have a nice flatbed scanner that I use to digitize all of those receipts. Then I use use GIMP to edit those images before submitting them in my company's expense reporting system. I make sure to cut out any part of the image that is not needed and it makes for incredibly legible receipts.

Yesterday I went to start GIMP on my Mac only to be told an updated version of the software is available. I try to always use the latest version and so I installed the new one. Unfortunately I did not install it from Apple's App Store and so MacOS didn't want to let the program run. Normally I can just right-click on the application icon and that forces it to start. Yesterday that didn't work. I did a quick search and found that I needed to run the following command using the terminal:

xattr -cr /Applications/GIMP.app

I had to enter the administrator password to get the command to run, then right-click on the icon and select the "Open" option. That forced GIMP to run and it came up nicely. I quickly trimmed receipt images and then completed my expense report in a timely manner.

GIMP may not be as good as Adobe's Photoshop but it has all the features I need to do the image editing I need. Furthermore it is free and does not require an annual subscription. Should you find yourself needing to do some simple photo editing, I highly recommend it.  

Airline Apps

I spent last week in Japan with my wife and youngest daughter. I decided to try something new and flew through Honolulu on the way there. I didn't realize it adds 5 hours to the trip, not including the layover and so I probably won't do that again unless I spend a week or so in Hawaii before continuing on. When I boarded the plane the first leg of the trip, I discovered I had been upgraded to first class. That surprised me as it has been a long time since I have qualified for a first class upgrade on Delta Airlines. Furthermore I got upgraded to a lie-flat seat so I could sleep comfortably on the flight.

The upgrade surprise encouraged me to download Delta's specific application for my phone in the hopes I would not be caught unaware again. I have always resisted installing apps when I can get all the information I need from a website. Apps take up space on your phone and I would much rather use that space for something else. The only downside of the website is that it doesn't push updates to you and so you board a plane not knowing your seat has been switched.

I used the plane's WiFi to install the app and set it up. Then I could use the app throughout the rest of the trip. I used it to check in for my return flights home. I also upgraded my seats to Economy+ and gave my daughter those seats for the way home. While I have been to Japan many times, I have always used a paper ticket to go through security there. This time I didn't print anything and just used the ticket on the app. It worked flawlessly.

It has only been a single trip and I cannot definitely say that the app gives me anything I couldn't get from just going to the website. I'll keep using it for my future trips and see if there are any enlightening features that makes me want to keep it. If not, I'll remove it and free up space on my phone. 

My Cheap 4K TV Died

During the Pandemic I bought a new Mac computer and then paired it with a very inexpensive 4K television that I purchased from Walmart. Today that monitor died suddenly. One moment I was typing away and then the whole screen went blank. I tried turning it on and off again with no luck. I even let it sit for awhile but it truly died.

I can't say the death of my TV/Monitor came unexpectedly as it showed signs that end approached. A few days ago I noticed flickering in the middle-left of the screen. It only happened when the monitor had been off for awhile and then I turned it back on. Once the TV seemed to warm up, the flickering went away. That warned me it would soon bite the dust so I started looking at local deals for the best TVs.

My last TV/Monitor came from Walmart and so I started there at Walmart.com.  I didn't see any good deals and so I headed to my usual Internet search engine and quite a few options in the $150 range from Best Buy showed up. My local Walmart is right next to Best Buy and so I figured I would start at Best Buy should I need to rush out and purchase something. That is where I headed today when I got the black-screen of death.

I have to say that I didn't have any problem finding a parking spot as it seemed relatively empty on a Thursday evening. I pulled up near the front and walked right in. I quickly found the TV isle as it takes up about a quarter of the store. It took a few seconds for the salesperson to find me and ask if he could help. I told him I needed a 4K TV at 43-inches. He explained they don't make them that small. I told him they did and I had seen it online. Then he said that I would probably return it in 2 weeks because I would blow out the speakers. I explained I only needed it for a computer monitor and didn't care about sound.

Best Buy had several TV's that met my criteria and I could choose from a number of them. Ultimately I decided to go with Insignia even though the salesperson tried to up sell me a Sony or Samsung. I told him I work for Sony and get a really good deal on them but don't want to spend that much for a computer monitor. That brought up a whole other conversation I did my best to ignore. The guy had to get a forklift to grab my potential new purchase from the top shelf and so I helped him by moving a few boxes of other TV's out of the way. Once I had it, I headed to the checkout and paid for it.

I got home and unboxed the new TV so I could set it up and finish the work I started before my old screen died. I plugged everything in and had to go through a rather advanced setup as it is also a SmartTV. I really just wanted to get back to my work. Eventually the setup finished and I could see my old work. I almost brought the TV right back to the store because it looked awful. The text did not look crisp and I thought I the resolution got screwed up. I fiddled with settings on the computer but didn't have any luck.

Next I tried the settings on the TV. This is an important piece of information: Insignia televisions have a number of different picture modes:

• Standard
• Movie
• Dynamic
• Natural
• Game
• PC
• Custom

I started trying all of them to see which one looked the best. As you might guess, everything came into focus the moment I tried "PC." I would even go so far to say that it is significantly better than my old Walmart TV.  I am very pleased with my purchase and hope it lasts 6 years like my last one did. After tax, the total purchase came to $161.15. I think that is a bargain!

Empty Until You Need to Go Somewhere

I live on a very quiet street that rarely sees much traffic as I am on a cul-de-sac. The only time that changes is when I go to pull out of my driveway. Then it feels like everyone on the street needs to be on the road at the same time. I'll wait patiently before leaving as that is the polite thing to do.

That is a metaphor for my work today and as of late. I will start my day with very little that I have to get done immediately. Then I will get several messages all at the same time asking for a seemingly tidbits of information. The only problem is that it takes a significant amount of work to get that information. This creates a need to understand priorities.

Fortunately I can set priority levels for most tasks at work. The exception is when my boss asks for something. Naturally I set his priority as higher than all others as he controls raises and bonuses. The tough part is how to stop what I am doing, take a request, and then go back to what I originally started doing. In computer terms we call that a context switch and humans are not very good at it. That is what makes us lousy multitaskers no matter what anyone tells you.

One thing that has helped is I keep a work notebook where I can write down requests. That allows me to quickly go back to my previous task. The only time that becomes a problem is when I don't write enough of the necessary details. The more I do it though, the better I get.

I'm not sure why tasks and traffic comes in spurts. Life would be so much simpler if everything spread itself out evenly. I guess figuring out how to deal with simultaneous requests is a part of life. College probably taught me that.  

QR Codes Not Working

Lately I have received a number of QR codes that don't work. Recently I replaced the faucet in my kitchen and the new one did not come with printed instructions. Instead it had a QR code that I needed to scan with my phone's camera, which supposedly took me to directions on how to install the faucet. For some reason I went to a blank page. Ultimately I did an Internet search and found the instructions I needed but it turned out to be significantly more complex than I have come to expect from QR codes.

I didn't think much of the problem until I pointed my phone at another QR code only to experience another blank page. I thought it weird to run into two different problems so close together. While not every QR code I have ever used has worked right, I think I have had a 99% success rate with them. That is why we have all come to generally trust them.

All a QR code does is encode a text string into a picture. It is similar to a bar code except they only encode a group of numbers. That makes QR codes very useful for storing website addresses or URLs.  They don't have to store URLs though. You can go to your favorite QR code generator and create a code that says, "You are a great person." It might be fun to print up a bunch of stickers with a QR code that says, "You park like and idiot," and put them on people's cars that take multiple spots in a crowded lot. I just tried it and caused my phone to freak out as it tried to look for a URL. Still, it is possible.

As with anything computer related, QR codes should be thoroughly tested before replacing printed instructions. Should you decide to go this route, make sure the URL is in working order before printing the code. Then you have the advantage of being able to change the instructions at a moment's notice should there be something that needs clarification. I just hope I don't run into any more examples of QR codes not working. 

 

Ski Equipment Weekend

Today starts the annual ski-equipment weekend. What does that mean? Every year we get together as a family and see what ski equipment from last year needs to be replaced. When my kids were young, this was critical as they grew every summer. Sometimes kids would need new boots or outfits. Other times they would need everything. Fortunately it is now just my wife and me so it is not nearly as expensive as it used to be.

Skis are only meant to last 100 days and I ski more than that every season. Last year had such bad snow that I never really used my new skis and so I don't think I need new ones this year. I will still look though as I am always looking for a great deal on skis. My boots are pretty good and so I will keep the ones I have.

My wife got new skis last year and so she doesn't need new ones either. She went through her equipment and only needs a new helmet and goggles. I got a new helmet at the end of last year and don't need a new one. I also have several pairs of goggles and am good there. I actually don't need anything. This could be a very inexpensive Labor Day.

So why to we pick this weekend to refresh our ski equipment? It is when the best sales are scheduled. The weather is starting to change and so ski shops put things on sale. A lot of time it is to get rid of any unsold stuff from last season. Interestingly the whole advent of online shopping has really changed the Labor-Day-Ski-Sale dynamics. Long gone are the days when the ski shops would erect a tent in the parking lot with all the extra ski stuff. I miss those days as there is something about being able to handle the equipment before dropping the equivalent of a house down payment. I also don't think the deals are nearly as good. They don't have to be as online shops can drop the price of last year's equipment all summer long and get rid of excess inventory. Furthermore ski equipment manufacturers have better inventory management and don't overproduce like they used to.

One benefit of all the online shopping is I don't have to go anywhere. We used to drive all over the Salt Lake Valley. Now we just sit in front of the computer and look at pictures. Hopefully the wonderful snowfall in the marketing photos match the conditions we will see in a few months. I don't think I can take another poor snow year. 

 

What to do With All Those Digital Pictures

Saturday we got a lot of rain at my home in Salt Lake. I kept waiting for the rain to stop and would then run out and do yard work. While inside, I worked on organizing all of the photos I took with my wife while visiting Disney World with one of my granddaughters a few weeks ago. This sparked me to create this posting should you be wondering what to do with all of those digital photographs you have taking up space on your phone or computer.

The first grandchild trip to Disney was sort of on a whim. I wanted to go to Disneyland for my birthday and wanted my oldest grandson to come along. He happened to be 5 years old which is the perfect age for a Disney trip. I found a great deal staying at the Grand Californian, booked reservations, booked flights, bought park tickets, and headed to Anaheim 2 weeks later. I think we only took about 15 photos of the whole trip as we focused on having fun and not trying to capture the perfect moment. We also decided to do a similar trip whenever any of our grandkids turned the magic age of 5.

The second trip required a bit more planning as we had to pick up or oldest granddaughter in Ohio. We also booked accommodations in the Marriott vacation club in Orlando which is near Disney World and not Disneyland. When we checked in, the concierge sat us down and gave us a welcome basket full of a bunch of freebies. One happened to be a coupon for a photo book from Shutterfly. We knew we would redeem the free gift and made sure to take lots of pictures. Then at the end of the trip, my wife and I sat down to create the ultimate memory book. We uploaded the best pictures of the trip and filled 20 pages. Several weeks later, it appeared in the mail. I have to say it turned out awesome.

My grandson saw the nice book and I'm sure felt like he needed one too. My wife and I gathered up all 15 photos from his trip and supplemented the content with generic Disneyland pictures. Even then it still came out looking like an afterthought. We learned our lesson for the next time. So did the rest of the family. Whenever any grandkids come over they head straight to the picture books and relive the fun they had with Grandma and Grandpa.

The idea of photo books has caught on to the rest of the family. My youngest son's wife has gone so far as to create a photo book for each year. After January 1st, they pick the highlights from each month of the previous year and add them to a book. They don't worry how many pages they fill as you have the option to add more. They are also sure to include text under the pictures describing why it is important along with any stories to add flavor about the event. My daughter-in-law has even gone to previous years and created books all the way back to when they first got married.

So what should you do with all of those digital pictures taking up space on your devices? My advice is to pick the best ones and immortalize them in a photo book. There are lots of sources where you can have them made. I mentioned Shutterfly where we have had several printed. Our new favorite place is Walgreens as it can be printed and ready to pick up in an hour so you don't have to pay for shipping. It doesn't matter who you choose though as they all seem to have regular coupons putting the cost of a 20-page book in the $10 to $20 range. 

Once you have your photo books printed, I would leave them out for visitors to see and perhaps ask about. Not everyone wants to see your vacation photos but some will. Most importantly I would keep those books close to help you remember happy times on a rainy or sad day. It might just be what you need to lift your spirits.

Anecdotal vs. Statistical Evidence

This morning I went out for my usual morning bicycle ride. I love being out on my bike as it reminds me of the freedom I felt as a kid. Unfortunately not everyone shares in my excitement and I had a number of cars get way to close for comfort. I'm not sure how long I will be able to keep up the daily rides. Getting run off the road by inattentive drivers is never fun and has a tendency to shorten one's lifespan.

Utah law states that drivers cannot be any closer than 3 feet to cyclists on the street. Furthermore cyclists with wheels of a certain size are not allowed on sidewalks and are required to ride in the road. You'd be amazed at how many times I have had motorists tell me to ride on the sidewalk. Unfortunately it is illegal.

Today I had 3 different motorists see how close they could get to me on my bike. When I can feel the car with my elbow hairs, I think it is well inside that 3-foot limit cars are supposed to provide. Here is where statistics come to play in the story: Every single one of the cars that got too close had a University of Utah license plate. Ask me how I feel about the University of Utah right now.

Fortunately I spend my days working with data and know the difference between anecdotal and statistical evidence. Not everyone from the University of Utah is out to kill cyclists or scare the pants off them. The very small sample size of today's clueless drivers just happens to pull from a lot of University of Utah fans. I'm sure if I had been riding my bicycle a little further to the south and nearer to Brigham Young University, the license plates could easily have promoted that school.

The important thing to remember is that you experience with an easily identifiable group of people does not represent everyone in that group. Nowadays it is much too easy to apply labels and exclude large groups of people because of an unsavory experience with only a few members of that group. Knowing that doesn't make it easy to forgive them though. 

Why Kids Seem Technologically Gifted

Last week I had the pleasure of spending an entire week with my soon-to-be 5-year-old granddaughter at Disney World. When any of my grandkids turn 5, my wife and I take them to Disney with just the two of us. No parents. No siblings. She is the 4th to have such a trip and we had a wonderful time.

As my granddaughter lives in Ohio, I had to get on a plane, fly out to Ohio, pick her up, and fly to Orlando where we met my wife. In case you are interested, the whole trip involved 8 flights for me and 4 for my granddaughter. My wife had an easy trip with non-stops between Salt Lake and Orlando for a total of 2 flights. She gets the arduous journey the next time.

While doing all that flying, my granddaughter enlightened me with her technical skills. She is only 4 but will be 5 in September. Our first flight together started on tiny regional jet known as a CRJ. It didn't have any screens to keep us entertained and so I pulled out my Kindle Fire, connected to the plane's WiFi, logged into Netflix as a "Kid," and gave it to my co-traveler. I assumed she would watch one of the cartoons I started for her. It didn't take long for her to grow tired of the show I picked out and she told me she wanted to watch "Alphabet." I had no idea what that meant. Several minutes later I leaned over and saw that she had stopped the cartoon and started watching "Wicked for Good." It hit me that Alphabet is how she remembered the Elphaba character from the popular musical.

I didn't have to show my granddaughter how to change videos nor how to find what she wanted to watch. She had no problem stumbling around Netflix's UI and finding what she wanted to watch. Later I saw her rewinding the video for favorite songs or fast forwarding over scary parts.

After watching my granddaughter I realized that she has no problem jumping into new technology and figuring out how to use it. She builds on past experiences and if she doesn't know how to do something, she just tries it. I compared that to how I look at new things and feel like I don't want to make mistakes and am much more afraid to try something. Little kids don't worry about it. If something goes wrong, they hand the screen back to an adult and say, "It broke," leaving you to solve the problem they created.

While I cannot adopt the attitude that someone else will always be there to fix my mistakes, I can show a little more courage and not be afraid to just try stuff. This is especially true on a streaming platform. There is very little you can do to dig yourself into a hole. About the worst thing you can do is log yourself out of the service and Netflix makes that nearly impossible. I really had to go searching around for that when it came time to check out of our accommodations. Borrowing from my granddaughter's fearlessness of just trying things, I figured it out and now guests visiting my condo in Orlando can't log in as me.

What TV Resolution do you Need?

I want to begin by saying that I love my 85-inch 4K Sony television. The picture is amazing and the screen is huge. Being a Sony employee I get discounts on our electronic products and so I didn't have to pay full price. Before that I had a 60-inch 1080p Sony television that had the added benefit of being passive 3D. That is the same technology used in movie theaters so when I wanted more glasses, I could just bring the ones from the movie theater home with me. So the question is if I notice a difference and if I think an 8K television would be better.

First I have to say that I like the larger screen but that is not what I want to focus on today. I have a large theater room in my house and the 85-inches fits perfectly. The size of the television is constrained by where you will put it. If you are in a small apartment, 50-inches may be perfect. If you are sitting within a few feet of the screen, 85-inches is definitely too large.

Resolution is a different metric than size and refers to the number of pixels on the screen. Your standard television from 30 years ago had a resolution of 640x480. That is not very many pixels and it is tough to go back to those old displays now. The picture quality is not that great. Now try to go back and watch an old VHS video cassette. That resolution came in at 320x240 and is painful to watch now.

A 1080p screen means there are 1920x1080 pixels and became the gold standard for televisions about 10 years ago. We also moved from a 4x3 aspect ratio to 16x9 which created a wider screen but that is yet another metric we don't need to focus on. Let's stick with just the number of pixels on most screens.

I remember attending an internal Sony technology fair about 10 years ago and seeing the first 4K televisions. The pictures looked very lifelike and made great demos. I wondered how long it would take for content to become available as a 4K screen has as many pixels as 4 1080p ones. That means videos are that much larger and streaming services require that much more bandwidth to send them to you.

It didn't take long for content to arrive but did it really? Your common Blu-ray player is limited to 1080p. If you want to see anything in true 4K, you have to upgrade to the newer 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray player found in the PlayStation 5. Now you can try to stream that high resolution but the reality is that you won't get true 4K content. A streaming service like Netflix requires you to have the the premium service and all of your devices have to support 4K. Then you have to have the right Internet connection. The truth is that you will rarely see 4K content from any streaming service provider. That doesn't mean it is impossible, just rare.

People use televisions for more than just watching things. I used to spend a lot of time gaming and higher resolution monitors provide an advantage. While some games don't support the higher resolution, some do and they look amazing. I also have a 4K television that I have connected to my Mac computer and I like having that much screen real estate. It allows a lot of open windows at the same time.

So what resolution do you really need? If all you are doing is watching television and movies, your 1080p is just fine. I would not go out and buy a new TV. Now if something happened to your old television and it is time to get a new one, I would definitely recommend one that is 4K. I had a TV go bad in my vacation condo that I rent out and I replaced it with a 4K one. Yes I had to spend a little more but it should last awhile.

If you are big into gaming or use your television as a computer monitor, I highly recommend 4K and wouldn't even look at a lower resolution. Furthermore I would make sure the minimum size of my computer monitor is 43 inches. Smaller than that and you have to sit too close to the screen for it to be comfortable. My wife has a 4K monitor connected to her laptop that is 32 inches and she has reduced the resolution as it is too small at true 4K.

Now some of you are probably wondering if you need an 8K TV. Currently Sony does not make one and so you have to look at other manufacturers. Because of that, I won't be buying one soon. Furthermore there is little to no content available for them. Remember that 8K is like having 4 4K TV's. That minimum 43-inch monitor explodes to 86 inches if you want to use it as a computer monitor. That won't even fit on my desk. My neck hurts just thinking about it.

Eventually I may change my mind. As bandwidth from Internet providers increases and content becomes available, the change may make sense. I just don't see it right now. Should I need a new TV any time soon, I'll stick with 4K for now.  

A Win at the Right Time

In my youth I read an article about people who always look for contests to enter. They end up winning a lot and so I have always tried to enter events when they come across my desk. For awhile they provided me hope during dark times. While I didn't really win much, I did win a gift or two including a Samsung tablet.

Every Thursday and Friday I get e-mails from an association where I am a member. The e-mails have a number of contests I can enter and prizes range from $100 gift cards to thousands of dollars in cash prizes. I have been doing this for about 6 years and never won anything until today. I read my e-mail this morning and discovered I won a $100 gift card for Uber and Uber Eats. When I first saw the card, I thought about burning it on a nice dinner when I know my wife or I don't want to cook. Then I remembered it isn't just for food but also for Uber rides.

Soon my wife and I will be headed to Orlando with our 5-year-old grand daughter. Due to my wife's busy schedule I will be flying to Ohio to pick up the little one and my wife will meet us there. My flight gets in before 6pm while my wife doesn't arrive until well after 11pm. I worried about having to wake up late at night, wake my grand daughter, and go to the airport. No 5 year old wants to disturb their sleep nor does any adult that will have to deal with the child the next day.

I gave my free gift card to my wife and had her add it to her Uber account. Now when she arrives at 11pm, she can summon an Uber and I can continue sleeping as can my precious grand daughter. This will work out very well.

Winning a contest is never a given. In fact I hardly ever win but I don't mind trying if the only thing it costs is time, which truthfully isn't free. While I will always have a use for an Uber gift card, this one came at the perfect time and I am thankful. 

Using AI to do my Paperwork

Two days ago I became involved in a work process that did not go as planned. As can happen in all software, a unique set of circumstances arose that kept a task from completing. Imagine running out of an ingredient when making cookies. You cannot finish the task until you go to the store and purchase what is missing. That is what happened at work.

We received an alert from our monitoring service and engineers started working on it immediately. Several service-desk tickets got created and eventually we solved the problem. Now we need to document what went wrong and the solution we used. My boss gave me the task to write up an "Incident Report." I did not want to spend hours going through the various documentation we created and so I used AI to create the report.

Our service desk software includes an AI tool that probably just links into Gemini or ChatGPT. I clicked on the link to get the AI help and provided a prompt. I told it to "Create an incident report based on the service tickets." The AI thought about it for a solid 2 minutes and then spit out a well-formatted incident report. I read through the information and thought it did a pretty good job. Most importantly I didn't have to do it. I copied the output to where I needed to put the report and headed off to dinner.

This morning I met with my boss and reviewed the incident report. He purposely didn't instruct me to use AI but hoped I would. When he asked how long it took to create the documentation, I told him 2 minutes and he appreciated that I didn't spend a long time to create the report. 

Why Can't Stuff Just Work?

This morning I received a work e-mail indicating that something is broken with a system over which I am responsible. I quickly went to work troubleshooting the issue. I used AI to help me comb through our system documentation and found a number of possible leads on how to solve the issue. I threw it out to the people reporting the problem only to discover our documentation is incorrect. I had to go back to square one.

I'm trying to solve the issue at work when I get a text from my wife who can't get the new toner cartridges to work at the office. That shouldn't really bother me as I'm not paid to help troubleshoot her office computer problems. Unfortunately we have the same printer at home and I just bought the same toner cartridges for ours. While I don't need them to work now, I will in the future. Furthermore today is the 31st day after I received them from Amazon which means I am past the 30-day return window.

Now two problems to solve in the same day shouldn't be a problem. Any mother with a 4-year old knows that is the first 10 minutes of every day. However I try to ensure all of my technologies stay working and don't break down. Discovering you need to print something important only to have new toner cartridges not recognized might lead to panic and expletives. Fortunately my wife discovered that problem early.

To address the issue at work, I gathered more information and looked at possible solutions. Then I made sure not to commit to anything on the behalf of others. If I can fix something, then I can commit. If the solution involves others, I can't speak for their time. This keeps others from committing my time. It looks like we will need to have network engineers involved in the solution and so I need to make my notes available and let others solve the problem.

For the printer, I exchanged a number of messages with my wife. She was unable to get her printer working but succeeded in returning her work toner cartridges to Amazon. So I gave them a call. I explained the process she went through and how I have the same printer and would rather return unopened product which might be resold to someone that can use them. The Amazon customer service agent looked up the details of my purchase and immediately agreed to allow me to return them for a full refund.

Now the only problem is that my printer is almost out of toner and I need to order replacement cartridges. HP makes my printer and they have gotten wise to Chinese manufacturers selling compatible toner for half the price. To combat it, they require a special chip in new cartridges and regularly update printer firmware to reject any toner than their own. If you want to ensure your printer will continue to work, you have to buy new cartridges from HP. Yes they are more expensive but at least they should work, right? I sure hope so cause it is really expensive.

Still Not Done With the New Phone

Yesterday I felt so good getting my new phone completely set up. Little did I know I had more to do. I discovered that today during a meeting. I tried to log into a secure system and it needed my multi-factor-authentication (MFA) token. While some of the services got configured with the data transfer, some of them did not and I didn't realize it.

I use Microsoft Authenticator for most of my MFA access. I also have RSA and Okta set up on my phone but have done a good job of focusing using a single tool. For some reason my work account has some level of extra security. Copying the data from my old phone didn't copy the necessary information for my work account. When I went to log into a secure data system this morning, I never received a message with the MFA token used to complete the login. All I could do in my meeting was explain I updated my phone and would have to get the necessary information after the call finished.

All I needed to do is log into Microsoft Authenticator. When it came time to receive the MFA token, I made sure to turn on the old phone first as it could receive the token or 2-digit number to use. After that little dance, I turned my old phone off again and have MFA tokens being sent to the new phone.

Not wanting to miss something else, I logged into my RSA and Okta apps on my new phone. Neither of them are set up at all. I will have to use my old phone to fix that for my new phone. Right now it is not an emergency and so I can wait a day or two. The trick is not waiting too long as I don't want to have to use the excuse that I updated my phone months ago and never got around to getting everything installed. 

 

Time For a New Phone

Back in February I lost my phone on a roller coaster and miraculously retrieved it with the help of a bit of engineering. I wanted to replace the phone back then but then saw the price of a new phone and held off. Last week I finally got on the Apple website and purchased a new iPhone 17. Some people feel the need to have the latest phone with all the bells and whistles. I just need a smartphone that can be updated and takes good pictures. I didn't get the Pro model nor did I feel the need to wait 6 weeks for the iPhone 18 to come out. Besides the base model won't be available until around April 2027.

I ordered the phone on Thursday and it arrived at my house on Friday. Unfortunately I had to drive down to Southern Utah to see a play with my oldest daughter and so I needed to have a friend grab the phone off the front porch as I didn't trust an Apple box to make it through the weekend without a porch pirate running off with it.

I arrived home Saturday afternoon and knew transferring data from my old phone to the new one would take awhile so I put it off until Sunday. Until then I made sure it was fully charged. Then I got my old phone and new phone together to start the process of making the new one have all the software and data from my old phone.

I made sure to pair the two phones and started the transfer process. After about a minute, it stopped. I started again only to fail again. This happened two more times before I wanted to try something else. Unfortunately I initialized the phone without pulling any data from my old one. It transferred the SIM to the new phone in the form of an electronic or eSIM. The only thing my new phone had was my number but none of the data. I had to keep my old phone for all of the applications and needed my new phone to be a phone and text message receiver.

This morning I got up and had a number of meetings. I had to log into my company's VPN and fortunately I still received the multi-factor authentication token on the old phone. Once I completed my meetings, I logged onto Apple's tech support website and initiated a support chat session. They told me I needed to reset my phone to put it back in new-phone mode and try the transfer again. I told them I worried about erasing the eSIM and they said I could always contact my carrier and get it reinstalled.

I went to reset the phone only to be told I had to wait an hour. I guess that is a special feature for spouses that are tired of their partner doom scrolling and wanting to wipe the phone. It sort of upset me because I wanted to reset the phone immediately. I went and rode my indoor bike waiting for the hour to pass. Once again I am glad I had my old phone so I could listen to music while I rode.

It came time to reset the phone and so I did. When it came back up I expected it to be in new-phone mode. It wasn't. Apparently I needed to "Erase All Content and Settings." I clicked that menu option and expected to have to wait another hour. Fortunately it went into erase mode immediately. At this point I discovered something even Apple technical support didn't know: there is an option to erase everything but the eSIM. I clicked that and the phone came up as expected.

While in the chat with Apple tech support I learned another trick on how to transfer data from my old phone. The first time I tried it, I just set the two phones side-by-side and waited for Bluetooth to do the transfer. That didn't work and so this time I connected a cable from phone to the other. My old phone has a lightning port while the new phone has a USB-C. I couldn't find my cable like that and so I had to make one from an old lightning cable with a USB-A connector and a USB-A to USB-C converter. Surprise, surprise, it worked. The data transferred from my old phone to the new one in 16 minutes.

Unfortunately that is not the end of getting things working. I use a continuous glucose monitor or CGM to tell me my instantaneous blood sugar. They are good for 15 days and I am only halfway through the life of my current one. Without a prescription they are about $50 each from Amazon but I highly recommend getting one even if you are not diabetic. I didn't want to throw my current one away and start a new one. I looked at the website for my CGM and they had instructions on how to transfer the sensor from one phone to another. I followed them and the process worked perfectly.

The last thing I needed to do is connect all of my Bluetooth devices. I have some wireless earphones as well as a number of wireless speakers to connect. Oh yeah, I also needed to connect my smartwatch. That didn't take to long to get sorted and I felt successful. That amazed me because halfway through this whole process I considered ditching Apple products permanently. Unfortunately I still wasn't done though.

Apple engineers think they are smart and know what you want in a phone. While that may be true for Gen-Z and Millennials,  it is not true for me. The new interface has this concept of an "Always On" display. I don't like it. When I hit the sleep button on my phone, I want the screen to go black and not waste any battery. It is what I am used to. I don't need to see the time continually. That is what my watch is for. I turned that feature off and consider my new phone ready to use.

I am serious when I wrote that I almost ditched Apple products forever halfway through the transfer process. I have used the automatic transfer to move data from old phones to new ones in the past and thought it to be a time saver. If I had had to reinstall my eSIM, I would have boxed the phone up, sent it back to Apple, and gone back to my old phone until I could find a Android phone I could be willing to live with. That may have taken awhile. 

Planning a Family Vacation

I don't know how we planned family vacations before the ubiquity of the Internet and sites like AirBnB or VRBO. With tools like these you can quickly research family vacations and get a rough idea of what is feasible and what is not. Recently I had someone pay back a sizeable loan and so I have a little coin ready to spend. I thought I would take my adult kids and their families on a nice family vacation.

The first thing I did was quickly check on places I know we like to visit and got an idea of cost. Next I set a reasonable budget. I got some money back but don't want to spend the whole amount. I am preparing for retirement and want to make sure there is plenty for my wife and me. Some ideas I had include going to Hawaii, taking the family on a cruise, renting a large home near a National Park, as well as a few others. I talked to each of my kids and shared my thoughts.

Everyone likes the idea of Dad footing the bill for a family vacation but everyone has different interests. That is where Internet research can help. Doing a generic search for "Family Vacations" returns way too many results. Besides, while a family with young kids wants to do something like Disney World, my daughters who are single want to do other activities. We keep throwing out ideas but are still trying to decide what people want to do.

The other issue we have is getting everyone's schedules to coordinate. While we all love instant gratification and would love to leave right now for Hawaii, that doesn't fit everyone's schedule. My wife says I have too many trips planned in the next 2 months with a work trip to Japan, another to New York, a personal trip to Disney World with a grand daughter, and an October trip to Ohio to see our youngest son. Normally that wouldn't be a lot of travel for her but she is coming with me to Japan and New York so now it is.

I have always been a scheduler and my kids are too. That means all of my children have the next year planned. I guess we just need to find a time that works for everyone and commit it to the calendar. It may not be for a year or so but at least it will be planned.  

Google Maps in Dead Zones

My wife and I just completed a lengthy road trip to Glacier National Park. I knew we would put a couple thousand miles on the car so we rented one instead of taking a vehicle of our own. Besides neither my wife nor I have cars that get very good gas mileage. We purchase cars more for snow driving than summer and that makes them less than ideal for long drives.

As long as you stay on an interstate road, you are pretty much guaranteed to have mobile service the whole trip. What happens when you venture off into less-traveled paths? Well I can assure you that we had hours of travel in Montana with absolutely no mobile coverage whatsoever. I wondered what would happen in Google Maps and now I know.

I often complain that some software applications were written by people that never got full credit on their homework assignments in college. There are two companies where that is not the case: Apple and Google. Generally those guys know their stuff and this road trip proved that. Most of the time we would lose service and the app kept plugging along seamlessly. This became impressive when we could still see our car on the map. My guess is that the Google Maps app caches a number of map tiles in the surrounding area before you drive into coverage-less areas.

No it was not perfect. There were several instances in Glacier where the car appeared to be driving significantly to the right of the road. We seemed close enough I didn't worry about it. We also drove into some areas where the map showed nothing. For the most part it worked pretty well.

Google Maps turned into a lifesaver when we drove into Canada. The Toyota Corolla did not have a dual-unit speedometer. It only showed the current speed in miles per hour. That doesn't do much good when the speed limit is posted in kilometers per hour. Fortunately the moment we hit Canada, the units in Google Maps switched to metric and showed us our speed as captured in the GPS. I could see that 80 kph actually works out to 51 mph. I also kept track of the appropriate speeds for 60 kph and 40 kph. Those are the speed limits we encountered on the curvy mountain roads in in Waterton National Park.

The one letdown of trying to use Google Maps in dead zones is having it inaccurately provide your estimated arrival time over a lengthy drive. We started the drive with phone service and it had us arriving at home around 6pm. We drove into a dead zone and that time shot up to 6:30pm. We got back in service range and it came back down to 6pm. That happened a few times on the drive and so the second time, it didn't surprise me as much.

Overall Google Maps is a great application. We used it constantly to get around and keep from missing the turn on the small road to our cabin we rented. Without it we would have made quite a few U-turns. Furthermore it impressed us with how it worked even without mobile phone coverage. 

Planning a Road Trip

Last year my wife and I headed to Mt. Rushmore on a road trip. We did a bit of planning before we left but really had no idea what the trip would be like. We made reservations to ride an old steam-engine train and made sure to have hotel reservations when we got to town. Otherwise we didn't stress about filling every second with activities. The trip turned out to be wonderful and we had a great time.

This year we decided to do another road trip and will head to Glacier National Park. We made our hotel reservations back in March and will be staying in some cabins right at the entrance. While visiting Dinosaur National Monument a few weeks ago, we picked up our annual National Parks pass so we already have that taken care of. Last night we sat down and did a bit more planning so we have some ideas of activities to keep us busy.

First I pulled out our National Geographic book with information about all of the National Parks in the United States. That is a great resource to get an idea of what there is to do in Glacier National Park. As can be expected with physically printed media, there is a lot that is out of date. Fortunately a lot of information is still valid.

Next we pulled out the laptop and brought up Google Maps. That is such a great tool for looking at driving distances and times. We mapped the route from our house to the park. It will take almost 10 hours and so we will break up the first day and only drive part way. As with our Mt. Rushmore trip, we won't worry about hotel reservations that first night as we don't know when we will decide to stop driving. I don't know if I want to try to make it to Butte or will stop early in Dillon. There are lots of options in either location.

I have a cousin living in Somers, Montana and so I sent her a text message letting her know that we may stop in on our second day of the trip as it is on the way. My wife has an aunt living in Eureka, Montana about an hour outside the park so we sent her a text as well. It is nice to be able to visit extended family on such a trip.

Lastly we looked at all of the things to do in the park. There is a lot to see and some of it can be done in a car but the majority requires hiking. Then there are the option of horseback and boat rides as well. We created a rough itinerary of interesting things to do. As the park is combined with Waterton Park in Canada we decided we want to bring our passports to facilitate a border crossing, should we decide to do that. We also looked at the weather to help us decide the clothing to bring. Right now, highs are in the mid 60's and so we will be sure to pack appropriate jackets and pants, not just shorts and t-shirts.

I now feel prepared for the trip we will take in the next week or so. While I still have a printed road atlas for the United States, I appreciate being able to use the Internet to plan road trips. Furthermore after looking up directions, Google Maps wanted to know if it should send directions to my phone. After all, once in the car, that is how we will navigate. We still have some time though so I will pass for now. 

Putting on the Pith Helmet

 

 

Early in my career I heard the story of a software developer that had the unique practice of putting on a pith helmet whenever forced to debug his own code. I'm not sure how true the story is but it evokes the image of an early explorer trudging through the jungles of a distant continent. In my current role, I am often asked to search for system problems and help resolve them.

Last Friday I received a cry for help and immediately looked into the issue. My manager didn't like how I responded as he wanted me to find the source of the problem before bothering the group that reported it. I saw it differently as I wanted them to know that we immediately started looking at the issue and wondered if they had any more information they could provide to help diagnose the issue. Ultimately the only thing I could do was log a bug with another group in the company and have them research the root cause of the issue.

We told the group that reported the issue that we would work to get the issue resolved by Monday. Such is the luxury of working for a world-wide company like Sony. I can go enjoy my weekend and hope another team working in Japan or India has enough time to find the issue and resolve it before Monday even starts in the United States. Unfortunately sometimes an issue can be more difficult to troubleshoot and so it is important to get as much information as possible on Friday so we don't have any back-and-forth with questions.

Fortunately one of our excellent engineers saw the problem on Saturday and worked through the weekend to get it fixed. The root cause boiled down to "too much data." As this means the problem may arise again we have a two-pronged approach to solving it: The first is to monitor for larger-than-normal data sets. That will alert the operations team before the system users get a hint that something has gone wrong. The second is to modify the architecture to handle larger volumes of data.

This morning I came in and saw everything that had taken place over the weekend and could report back to the system user who noticed the problem. I could also share the resolutions that we plan to implement so it doesn't happen again. The user confirmed the problem fixed and I closed the bug appropriately.

While I like the idea of wearing a pith helmet to signify that I am trudging into the jungles of code, I am glad I have not adopted the practice. First, I work out of my home office so nobody would have any idea of the significance other than my wife who would just laugh at me. Second, I would have gotten a lot of strange looks and questions wearing the unique hat through the weekend. 

Don't Use Disney's Genie+ To Plan Your Day

My wife and I recently returned from Disney World and learned a lot. We acted as tour guides for my wife's office trip. We took two couples that had never been to Disney World before and they appreciated our knowledge and help. One of the wives had refrained from going to Disney's Flagship park because of how large it is wanted someone who knew the parks to act as a guide.

One of my wife's coworkers has serious fear-of-missing-out or FOMO and did a lot of research on her own. That meant a constant barrage of questions as to if we would do things and if not, the reason why. We appreciated her thoroughness but it got old quickly. One of her suggestions included using Disney's Genie+ app to help us plan our day. Basically you enter all the rides and attractions you want to experience and it will string together a list of how you should attack them based on crowd predictions. Just to humor her, we entered all the things we wanted to do on our first day. It came back and said we wanted to do too much and would not be able to fit it all in. We assured everyone we would be able to get everything done before the park closed and did.

Ultimately we managed to get a lucky break or two and the projected crowds did not materialize as expected. It also helped to visit attractions close to the ones we just exited. Every day we started at the parks' openings and finished everything we wanted to by 7pm or earlier. At Animal Kingdom we finished everything by 3:30pm.

I am not sure what AI technology Genie+ uses to create your schedule but I do know AI is wrong 80% of the time. That is my personal metric and yours may be different. In the case of Genie+ it told us we would not be able to visit all of the attractions we wanted to experience, yet we did. Your best bet when visiting Disney World is to pick your must-do ride and head there right when the park opens. Build your itinerary from there by visiting the next ride on your list that is near to where you are. Doing that you should be able to get everything in that you want to do. Good luck! 

LLM Demos All Look the Same

Last week I had the pleasure of attending the Snowflake Summit in San Francisco. As you might imagine, AI played a huge part in the conference. During the product feature keynote speech, Snowflake told us the answer to every question is CoCo, or their form of AI that uses Large Language Models or LLMs.

AI is much more encompassing than just LLMs but that is what everyone thinks of when we talk about AI right now. The downside to LLMs is that all of the demos look exactly the same. Snowflake kept trying to show us new features in their product, would bring up a chat prompt and type in some sort of question. It would think about it for a bit and then spit out a text answer. Sure you didn't need to code or type SQL queries to the database but there really wasn't any difference from one demo to the next.

Last year I attended only 3 days of the conference as I had to get home and couldn't stay for the final day. I should have taken a page out of last year's playbook and only stuck around for 3 days instead of the 4 I did this year. By the last day, I lost all excitement and couldn't wait to get home. In fact, I left the conference at noon and tried to catch an earlier flight back to Salt Lake.

Ultimately I came away from the conference feeling like I wasted some of my time. When all you have to do is pull up a chat prompt and enter your question, there is no need to learn the intricacies of the product. Don't know the syntax to join data from two separate data sources, just let the AI figure it out for you. The conference can be reduced from days to hours.

When I left the conference, Snowflake asked me to fill out a survey. They provided dates for the event next year and asked if I would attend in San Francisco. Naturally I politely declined as it just doesn't interest me any more. Now if they held the conference in Hawaii, I'd be there but doubt I would spend any time at the actual Summit. When it came time to put together a trip report, I could always ask AI to do it for me. 

3D Printing Summer 2026

I had my whole family visiting over the Memorial-Day weekend and we all had a lot of fun. On Monday my oldest son brought over a bunch of fidget toys he printed with his 3D printer. All of the kids loved playing with them and it got me thinking about how far the technology has come since I purchased my 3D printer. The printers you can get today are much more advanced and can do many different things.

My oldest son had a neighbor who got into 3D printing as a business. Every time the neighbor upgrades his printer, he gives the old one to my son. While my printer can print a single color, my son's can print multiple in the same print. There are a number of ways to do that. My son's printer has a single print head (where the hot plastic comes out of) and so it creates purge blocks where it dumps the previous color while waiting for the new one to be ready. Sometimes those purge blocks can be larger than the object you are printing and so you want to be careful with how often you change colors. My son's neighbor has a more expensive printer with multiple print heads, lessening the need to use purge blocks on color changes.

The fidget toys my son brought to our Memorial-Day celebration had multiple different colors and looked very nice compared to what I can print. My younger son who also has a 3D printer also expressed praise for the print quality. This had me asking if I should upgrade to a higher quality printer.

Truth be told, I don't have a lot of use for a 3D printer. Mine sits idle most of the year. About the only time I use it is during the Christmas Holidays when we create ornaments or small and inexpensive gifts for neighbors. It does not make sense for me to upgrade something I rarely use. Would being able to print multiple colors change that? Not really. For me, there is not a compelling reason to upgrade. That being said, there are a number of people using their 3D printers all the time and newer technology will improve what they are making. 

You Did Not Win a Free Cruise

A few months ago I received a letter in the mail. When I opened it up, it told me I had one 1 of several prizes. I looked at all of the rewards and tried to guess what I really won. Was it the free week at a hotel or the free 7-day cruise with airfare. I guessed the hotel but it turns out I won the cruise. So what's the catch? I had to sit through a timeshare sales presentation. Okay it wasn't a timeshare but a travel club. What's the difference? With a timeshare you own the deed to a piece of property you can visit once a year or every other year. With a travel club, you gain access to wholesale room rates for hotels around the world. In both instances you have to come up with $50K or so. Naturally I declined the purchase but followed up on the cruise.

I received an e-mail from Gocrv.com telling me how to redeem the free cruise. Basically I filled out a form indicated the dates I wanted to go and the departure port I wanted to leave from. I also paid a $200 deposit. I then called a number to schedule the trip. I had enough trips planned for the year and so I wanted the cruise to be towards the end of 2026. When I called the number and finally met with the vacation specialist, she told me to call back in May as their inventory had not yet released for dates towards the end of the year. Today I called back.

One thing I have been practicing is being nice to people when I travel. This past weekend I took a trip to Las Vegas to see Donny Osmond and when we went to check into the hotel, we had to wait a half hour before we could get a key to our room. Rather than pitch a fit, I politely waited in line to talk to a real person instead of the check-in kiosk. The gentlemen told me they didn't have any king rooms available. He then upgraded my wife and I to a junior suite. It paid to be polite. It may not always, but it did last weekend.

So I called the nice ladies at Gocrv.com this morning and made sure to be polite. I got to hear a number of fine-print details that they speed over in commercials and I agreed to the terms. Then she put me on hold to see what options I had for a weekend cruise in November leaving out of Port Canaveral, Florida. After about 10 minutes, she came back on the phone and told me she could get me a weekday cruise to Ensenada leaving out of Long Beach, California in October.

I have only been on 2 cruises in my life and the first one was the exact same cruise she proposed to me. Furthermore I would be required to pay an additional $350. I asked if there could be any other cruise available. She said there was not and so I politely told her I didn't want to repeat something I had already done and asked for a refund of my $200. She transferred me to customer service where I politely asked for my refund again. I was told I would get an e-mail with instructions on how to process that refund. That was an hour ago and I'm still waiting.

So here is the question: Did I really win a free cruise with airfare? Not really. When my wife and I went on the Ensenada cruise several years ago, the whole thing cost about $1000. Most of that was an upgraded balcony stateroom. I could have done it for $500 if I opted for an inside lower-deck stateroom like I had won. I could have effectively done the same cruise for $50 less. Ultimately I have learned there is no such thing as a free cruise, no matter what the literature says. The cost for learning that lesson is about 2 hours of my time total. That includes the sales pitch and all of the time spent on the phone talking through details. Hopefully you learn from my lesson and save yourself those couple of hours. 

Who Keeps Trying to Hack Me?

Every day I get a number of e-mails trying to steal my personal information. Normally my SPAM filter catches them and doesn't let them get to my inbox. Some do make it though and they can be annoying. Of course none of them come out and say they are trying to steal your personal information. Most of them are offering you some type of gift you will never receive.

My favorite says it is from Marriott and due to a recent stay they want to send me 2 of their famous pillows. First off, I didn't know Marriott hotels has famous pillows worth wanting. The first giveaway that the mail is a fraud is that they spell Marriott with a single "T" at the end. Anyone who stays at the hotel frequently knows how to spell it. I imagine that the e-mail is meant to trap people that don't stay often but want a free gift.

A similar message comes from a hardware store telling me I have won some free power tool. I've seen the e-mail come from Harbor Freight, Home Depot, and Lowe's. There are similar telltales that let me know it is not really from the company they claim to be. Most of the time it is a poorly-created logo. Ultimately the return address is a dead giveaway too. It might be from marriotpillows@somecompany.com or powertools@somecompany.com. If Marriott or Home Depot is giving you something, the return e-mail will be from their domain, not some other company.

One day I received 4 or 5 solicitations to steal my personal information and it really annoyed me. I decided I wanted to see who kept trying to trick me and if all of the attempts came from the same people. I hovered my mouse cursor over the button to claim my various prizes and made a note of the domain name that the link would take me to. I never clicked the link, I just wanted to see where it would take me.

Then I pulled up a terminal window on my Mac and typed in: "whois somecompany.com" for all of the domain names. Each e-mail had a different one and so all of the e-mails seemed to be coming from different people. The utility whois does a domain-name lookup and tells you who actually owns the domain. As expected all information pointed back to the same company in Bellevue, Washington that acts as a domain name supplier and is not one of the major players. From that I concluded that all of the personal information thieves are related.

I wondered if I should pursue the matter any further but decided against it. I have a lot more important things I can do with my time. Perhaps when I retire I will spend time going after malicious hackers. Not right now though.

Special note: The "whois" command does not come standard on Windows. You will need to download it from the Microsoft website. I think that is a shame as everyone should be able to easily use it without having to do anything special. 

Complicated Solutions

I am currently in the middle of a work project that continues to get more and more complicated and that has me somewhat frustrated. We have a number of groups that we want to onboard to our data platform. Back when I first started my career, that could be as simple as giving someone a user name and password. Thanks to hackers and everyone discovering that data is more valuable than gold, we have had to engineer safeguards to keep our data from falling into the wrong hands.

One of the first barriers we created is locking down the network. We have a system where users of our data platform have to be on our internal network before they can even log in. That is a good start but it is not foolproof. Someone can spoof IP addresses and make it look like they are on our network and so there are several other precautions we have taken to keep bad actors out of our data.

Sony is a large company and sometimes we purchase smaller ones. I am working with a recent acquisition and their network does not meet the company's high standards and so we need them to log into our network. At first I thought it would be as simple as having them log into our virtual private network or VPN. That sounds great except it also opens a number of security vulnerabilities. Instead we need them to log into a virtual desktop interface or VDI. This is the equivalent of logging into a new desktop computer. That allows us to tightly control what software is allowed on it and instantly wipe the computer clean should we discover a security breech. This extra VDI is turning into a major issue for me as I have to support getting all of the new users onboarded and figuring out who to charge for it.

Once I get everything working, I will still have other issues to work through. Using an extra VDI has the potential to slow things down. It also creates a layer of complexity. Imagine downloading a document. While you think it may be on your local machine, it actually resides on the VDI. If you need to get it to your laptop, there is an extra download step. Sometimes it gets confusing and people give up trying to get things to work.

Ultimately today's computing environments require vigilance when it comes to security. The downside is that solutions become more complicated. The upside is your data remains safe and that makes the extra precautions necessary.  

An Advertisement Worth Watching

My family knows I am a big fan of Disney. That is why it has been so hard for me over the past couple of years. Instead of making family-friendly movies, they have been preaching their own agenda that doesn't match my values nor my demographic. Today I saw an advertisement for the Disney Cruise Line that helped me feel the Disney magic of yesteryear.

Many years ago when I had young kids in my family, I had to go to Orlando to speak at an Oracle convention. I burned frequent flyer miles to bring the whole family and found an on-property hotel the company would pay for that could accommodate my wife and kids. Basically the only thing I had to pay for was park tickets and food. As our room had a kitchen, we just shopped at the local supermarket and came away with a bargain vacation.

Before that work-sponsored trip, our family vacations had consisted of camping in the mountains near our home. Don't get me wrong, I still love camping but really had my eyes opened. Since then my family has joined me on trips all over the country but they always get compared to that first trip to Disney World. For some reason we all found it magical.

Like the ad I saw today, we created traditions that my kids enjoy to this day. Furthermore I am making similar memories with my own grandkids. My wife and I have decided that next summer we are taking all of our grandkids over the age of 5 to Disney World without their parents so we can relive the magic of that first trip again.

Yes you might say today's ad struck a chord with me. Disney did a great job returning to what made them great in the first place. Let's hope they can do it again. 

Missed Flight Connection

Monday evening my wife and I flew home from visiting my son in Ohio. We got to the airport with plenty of time to make our flight only to discover it to be delayed. Normally we try to get nonstop flights but a layover in Detroit turned out to be less expensive. It also worked better with my work schedule as I could attend early-morning meetings on Monday with India. Unfortunately our flight out of Columbus got delayed by an hour and we only had a 45-minute layover.

Before boarding the flight we had 2 options. The first was to take the flight and hope that our connecting flight to Salt Lake also had a similar delay. The second was to spend the night in Columbus and take the early-morning flight out non-stop to Salt Lake. I felt like the second option admitted defeat before we even tried to get home and opted to get on an hour-delayed flight.

We arrived in Detroit and could see our connecting flight had yet to leave. As we guessed, it also had a delay and for a moment, we thought we could make it. We didn't as it pulled away from the gate about 5 minutes before we got there. In all my years of flying, I have only ever missed 2 connections resulting in me having to spend an extra night on the road and Monday night turned out to be one of them. Considering I have flown over 2 million miles, that is not bad.

My wife and I walked to a Delta Airlines customer service center and immediately talked to someone who could help us out. He quickly found our travel record and saw that I had attached my mobile phone to it. He sent a text with a link that opened a webpage offering us a selection of hotels to choose from. The first one, I didn't recognize the name and skipped over it. The rest I recognized as familiar brands such as Sheraton, Marriott, and Hilton. I knew I would not get any frequent-stay points and so it doesn't help to choose one where you have status. I picked one close by and started walking out of the airport.

The hotel had a free shuttle bus from the airport and so we walked to the shuttle pickup location. I decided to call the hotel to make sure we didn't need to schedule it and was told the driver was on his way. Soon enough he showed up and we made our way to the hotel. Upon check-in, I only needed to provide the confirmation number given when selecting the hotel for the evening. Furthermore Delta provided $48 in dining credit that the hotel restaurant easily took.

I did all of this on my smartphone. Not once did I need to pull out my computer. I also didn't have any paper voucher that could easily be lost. It all just worked. My wife and I had an enjoyable stay in Detroit complete with a late-night snack.

The next morning we caught an 8am flight to Salt Lake and made it home without any more adventure. Sure my wife missed a doctor's appointment and I barely made it home in time for my first meeting of the day, but we got home. My wife rescheduled her appointment and I only had to move a few activities around. Would I give Delta high marks for taking care of us? Yes. Am I upset about the inconvenience of taking an extra day to get home? Again yes, but circumstances being what they were, we did okay.

I am making a mental note to pay a few extra bucks and take nonstop flights when available. I am also very pleased with how the airline handled the problem. I've had another airline not be nearly so accommodating for a problem they caused and have not flown them in over 10 years nor do I plan to fly them ever again. But that is a story for another time. 

Double Checking Travel Plans

One of the best things about the Internet and most companies having an presence there is the ability to check things without having to call someone. Admittedly that means it is harder to talk to a real person but for double checking travel plans, it is a huge benefit. I rarely need to talk to someone about flights, rental cars, or hotels. When I do, I have special phone numbers that get me to a real human quickly.

This month I have several quick trips I am taking. Normally when I make flight reservations I also book a rental car. I have status with National and usually use them. Recently my status increased because of all the renting I did last year. That means I can rent a full-sized car for the price of a compact. It also means I get to the airport and can choose any car from the "Executive" level and don't have to rely on what is available in the "Emerald Isle." Yesterday I logged onto National's website to see if I booked the reservation for one of my trips before or after my status upgrade.

Imagine my surprise when I didn't see my reservation at all. It must have slipped my mind when I booked my flights. Being on the site, I quickly made a reservation. It asked if I wanted to use a free day I have earned and I opted not to as I the weekly rental rate is cheaper than knocking a day off my rental period. It gave me an idea though.

At the end of the month I will be headed to Disneyland with my wife. When I fly into the Los Angeles area I usually take Uber as it is less expensive than renting a car. Unfortunately the politicians in the area seem to be against Uber and keep imposing a number of extra fees which get passed onto the customer. Since I found myself on the rental car website, I decided to get an estimate on the price for a 2-day rental with one of those days being free. It means I will have to pay for hotel parking in Anaheim but it is still significantly less than a one-way ride between Disneyland and the airport. Naturally I made a reservation.

I'm glad I am an anxious traveler and discovered my mistake before assuming I had a rental car reservation. Without doing so, I would have gotten to my destination, jumped in a car on the lot, and then discovered I didn't have a reservation at the most inopportune moment. Yes, I saved myself some embarrassment.  

Lonely Ride Up the Mountain

This past winter will be one for the record books because of how warm it has been. Right now is the end of March but the weather thinks it is the end of April, if not May. Then Mother Nature decided to throw us a curve ball today with a cold front that brought temperatures at my house down to almost freezing. Unfortunately my truck did not like the sudden drop in temperature and decided to not let the radio work on my drive to the morning gym, Alta ski area. This is the 3rd time it has happened in the 7 years I have owned the truck. The simple fix is to allow the truck to warm up slightly, turn it off, and turn it back on. As the drive is not very long, I just drove to the ski area without the radio.

I had hoped my wife would like to ski with me for an hour this morning. She is not a fan of the freeze/thaw cycle we are having right now. In spring skiing, the snow starts out frozen solid. Imagine an ice-skating rink stuck on the side of a mountain. It is like that and if you don't know how to carve turns, skiing can be a little scary. Without my wife to join me, the ride up the mountain felt extra lonely.

There are also a number of displays that show up on my radio like time and outside temperature. Without the radio working, I couldn't see those either. I like to know the temperature so I can see it change over the 4000 vertical feet I climb to get to the ski area parking lot. Generally there is a 10-degree Fahrenheit difference but I had no idea today. All I could do is guess.

It is amazing how I have come to appreciate little modern conveniences for the short drive to the ski area. I thought about that and how technology provides feedback about the world around us. Something as simple as knowing the correct time is very comforting. Couple that with all the information we can get at our fingertips thanks to Smartphones and the Internet and we have the ability to be very aware of what is going on around us. Unfortunately we do not all take advantage of that information and there are a lot of ignorant people in the world. But that is a topic for another post.

The iPhone is Still a Poor Phone

Today I started with several meetings. Normally I would take them at home and use my home Internet connection. However I had a short break between my two morning meetings and my afternoon one and I wanted to get some exercise. My favorite winter exercise is skiing and so I drove the 25 minutes to Alta and used my phone for the meetings. I also had my computer if I needed it but I wanted to try something new to see if it would work.

My company uses Microsoft Teams for all of our meetings. Fortunately you can install Teams on your mobile phone for free. Yes, they want you to have an account with them but they also allow you to log in with just a meeting ID and password. I copied the information for my meetings onto a PostIt note and stuck it to the back of an Android phone I got to replace my home land line. When I got to Alta, I didn't bother getting out of my car and just logged into the first meeting.

I never really carry my Android phone anywhere because it is so large. That one quality made it perfect for my meeting this morning. Looking at a tiny screen can be tough for meetings and I wanted the largest one possible without having to pull out my laptop. The meeting went well as did the one after it. Then I could go ski for an hour before having to head home before my next meeting.

My experience this morning reminded me how poor my iPhone is as a phone or in this case how poor it is as an Internet connection. Lately my iPhone has lagged significantly with presentations to the point my view has lagged by several slides. That was not the case this morning. When I carried 2 phones it never was a contest as to which phone performed better. If I actually needed to talk with someone, I preferred anything other than my iPhone. I thought 5G would fix that for Internet connections but discovered that isn't the case.

Now in all fairness to Apple, my current iPhone is a 12-mini and needs to be replaced. I hope that Apple has spent some time improving their phone capabilities. Unfortunately given their past track record, I doubt that is the case but am hopeful. 

Artificial Intelligence Being Wrong

I recently visited Alaska to do some skiing and spent time away from my home ski areas Snowbird and Alta. First off, Alaska is a whole new kind of cold when it comes to skiing. I'm glad I opted to bring my warmest gear. 

While driving to the airport after a day of skiing at Aleyeska, I got a call from my ski buddy Jim. He said that AI told him Snowbird would be closing for midweek skiing at the beginning of April. Normally Snowbird stays open daily until it gets close to the end of the season and then it closes during the week and is only open on weekends. That normally doesn't happen until May. This is important as my buddy Jim will be coming to Utah for a week in April to do some skiing and that is kind of tough to do if the ski area is closed.

Yesterday I visited Snowbird and made sure to ask around if they announced any changes in their schedule. They have not. This begs the question how AI came up with a false schedule change. The answer is very important as it will help you understand why AI often provides the wrong answer to questions.

There are multiple ways that AI came up with an answer to when Snowbird would switch to weekend only skiing. The simplest answer is someone speculated on a date and the AI found such a posting and incorporated it into its knowledge base. This often happens in real life. Someone will state a guess as fact and we all believe the person. My dad once told me that magnets are created by hitting a piece of iron with a hammer really hard. While that may be one way to create a magnet, that is not how they are made. I recently corrected his misunderstanding. Doing the same thing with AI is a bit more involved.

Another way that AI can come up with false knowledge is through inference. We are having a particularly warm winter here in the western United States. When temperatures get above a certain point, snow starts melting quickly. This week we are expecting record highs and AI could recognize that when the average temperature gets above a certain point, Snowbird switches to weekend-only skiing. Unfortunately temperature is not how Snowbird determines when people are done skiing. They look at hotel reservations at their lodges as well as a number of other factors and will try to keep the daily schedule as long as Mother Nature allows.

The important thing to gather from this post is that Artificial Intelligence is often wrong. I don't know how many times I have asked Google a question only to have it spit back the wrong answer. While I have not kept close statistical records, I feel like I get the right answer from AI only about 20% of the time. It may point me in the right direction but I always verify the answer and augment what I am told with real human intelligence.  

Dining Reservations

Today I received an e-mail from the Cheesecake Factory. It reminded me that my wife and I have a gift card to the restaurant and so I immediately looked into getting a reservation for sometime this weekend. If you have never been, the Cheesecake Factory has a lengthy menu that reads more like a novel. I pretty much like everything on pages 6 through 27. They also always seem to have a line to get in and so reservations come highly recommended.

I logged onto the restaurant's website and selected a time on Friday evening. The website did a search and let me know they didn't have anything available at my requested time. So I searched for Saturday evening. Once again the site came back and didn't have anything at the time I requested but suggested a reservation only 30-minutes later. That works for me and my wife so I accepted the suggested time and we now have a date night planned. It did leave me wondering if the Cheesecake Factory's website always kicks out your first suggestion just to show you who is boss.

My experience this afternoon got me thinking about dining reservations in general. As I mentioned in a previous post, I spent last week in Orlando, Florida. One of my wife and my favorite things to do is to go to Disney Springs for dinner. You can make reservations on the Disney World app but often cannot get the restaurant you want because all the seats are taken. While there last week, I checked at one of the highly desired restaurants to see if they had any reservations later in the week. The receptionist looked at her calendar and gave me a time that worked. She then gave me an important piece of advice that will be very useful in the future: look at Open Table.

Open Table is a website that many restaurants use to book reservations. While the Boathouse in Disney Springs can be reserved using the Disney World app, it has more reservations available on Open Table. That is an important thing to know. Many times I have tried to get reservations in Disney Springs only to be disappointed and have to select someplace else to eat. Should that be the case in the future, I will check out Open Table. Hopefully that is a trick that works for you too.

Don't Lose Your Mobile Phone

I had the pleasure of spending last week in Orlando, Florida. While that is close to Disney World, I spent the week at other attractions including Legoland, Sea World, and Kennedy Space Center. On the last day we decided to double back and visit Sea World again. On the first day, we focused on all the animal shows, which are amazing. On the second day, we attempted some of the roller coasters.

Arriving at the park early allowed us to practically walk onto any of the rides we wanted. Eventually we found ourselves at Ice Breaker. My 8-year-old grandson wanted to ride with me and we had a great time on our first ride. Then he wanted to go again. Not having any line made it easy to experience it a second time. As we started our free fall, I noticed someone lost their mobile phone and thought they would be having a bad day. Then I checked my pocket and realized it was mine. I don't know how it fell out but it did and the only person to blame happened to be me.

Before riding the ride, we saw signs on the fence around the roller coaster with a QR code telling people how to report lost items. My grandson immediately asked what you should do if you lost your phone. We all laughed and didn't think anything of it until I lost my phone. Then my son used his to report the loss. Not wanting to give up on finding my phone, I started walking around the fence guarding the track from the public. In one of the few areas that had close access to the ride, I found my phone about 10 feet inside the fence. Now I couldn't reach through the fence and get my phone but I knew where to find it. I had hope.

I went back to the ride operators and asked if they could help me get the phone. They told me I needed to go to guest services, which I did. I waited in a 30-minute line only to be told to go to lost-and-found. I went there and was told I should have just asked the ride operators for help. I explained I did. They told me to go back to the ride and someone would help me get my phone. I walked back, which turned out to be about a mile or so and waited. Then I waited some more.

Eventually a young man came out and told me they would have to shut down the ride and he would go get the phone. I waited for another 15 minutes without any signs of the ride stopping and the young man eventually told me they would not stop the ride and I would have to come back that evening when the park closed down. Unfortunately I had a 7pm flight and so that was not an option. While waiting in the lost-and-found line, another park attendee told us stories of maintenance retrieving her phone only to have it stolen from the maintenance locker. The hope of Sea World getting me my phone back disappeared.

Think about it for a minute and when was the last time you backed up your phone? I don't think I have ever backed up mine. That means any of the pictures I took on the trip would be lost. I would have to download all of my applications again, including quite a few multi-factor-authentication (MFA) apps that I use for work. I started getting depressed and decided I wouldn't leave the park without my phone.

The young man that came to help me get my phone brought along an 8-foot claw and let me try my luck with it. His arm wasn't as long as mine and I could get the device fairly close to the phone but not quite reach it. At this point my inner Engineer kicked in and I wondered how I could extend the claw 2 more inches as that is all that I needed to reach my phone.

The first thing I tried was Geometry and picking the right slats in the fence to put the claw through. I could get close enough to the phone for the claw to reach it but couldn't see the phone due to a track support leg. I solved that by positioning my wife to help relay the outcome of my efforts. While I could reach the phone now, I couldn't grip it because the claw didn't have the usual rubber feet necessary to hold the phone. I asked my wife if she had any hair ties. She had 2 and I wrapped one around each of the claw ends. They provided enough friction for me to grab the phone and move it 2 inches closer. At this point I knew I would retrieve the phone. I just needed patience. On my next attempt, I got the phone withing 6 inches of the fence. At that point I reached through the iron slats and grabbed it. Amazingly the 50-foot fall didn't damage the phone. I didn't even crack the screen. That is amazing considering I don't have a screen protector.

I returned the claw and let them know I got the phone. My wife and I then left the park so we could pack up and get ready for our flight home. It felt good to be successful in retrieving my phone. In the future I will keep my phone in a zippered pocket and not rely on friction to keep the phone from falling out.

Waiting in a Virtual Queue

Today tickets went on sale for Disneyland's Star Wars Nite in April and May. Last year I had the pleasure of attending with my wife and daughter. We had a great time and planned on doing the event again this year. We hope to correct the mistake we made last year and not try to spend the morning and afternoon in the park. The event starts at 6pm and runs until 1am. They limit ticket sales and that allows you to walk onto almost any ride. Furthermore they have special events, unique food offerings, and themed swag.

I knew that tickets would go on sale this morning at 10am MST and so I started watching the clock as I did my morning exercise at Snowbird. I also knew they would start adding people to a virtual queue at 9:45. I happened to be on the Little Cloud chairlift at the time and so I pulled my phone out and joined the queue. I got to the top of the lift and saw that I had 20 minutes before I could make my purchase. I skied down to the mid-mountain lodge and checked my time. I had 15 minutes to wait. I skied to the bottom, walked to my car, took off my ski boots, and jumped into the car as my turn to buy tickets arrived. I quickly made the purchase and then put my phone away so I could drive home.

Last night I worried that I needed to be on the Disneyland website right at 9:45. Annual pass holders could purchase the special-event tickets a few days before the general public and some of the nights sold out. My worries turned out to be unfounded as tickets for all 4 nights are still available at 4:30pm today. However I thought it neat that I could log into the website on my phone while riding a chairlift and be placed in a virtual queue. That allowed me to stow my phone in a pocket and ski down the mountain without having to have my attention riveted to my phone. I wasn't sure turning off my screen would still allow my place to be held. It did and worked very well.

I always prefer to visit websites using my computer instead of my phone. This allows me to use a large display that is easy to read. I also don't worry about someone hacking my connection and getting my credit-card information. Fortunately my smartphone turned out to be the right tool for the job today. Any time I need to be in a virtual queue, I will use my phone in the future. 

 

Your Library Card and the Libby App

I have not had a library card for decades. I love to read but have purchased books instead of just borrowing them. This weekend my wife convinced me to go get a library card so I can use the Libby app on my Amazon kindle. The first thing that surprised me is that my local library is open on Saturdays.

To get my library card I just had show my local driver's license and confirm it had my correct address. I also filled out a short form and then the librarian gave me a choice of 4 colors for my card. I picked my favorite color and left the library. I went home and downloaded the Libby app from the Kindle store. It is also available for other Android and iOS devices. Once installed it asked me questions about my library card. I had to give the name of the county library I belonged to and then give my 15-digit card number. It quickly found my information and I could immediately start checking out electronic versions of books available to me. The current catalog has over 200 thousand titles.

I am currently reading a sailing memoir from someone that sailed around the world and so I didn't want to immediately reserve anything. I will wait until I finish my current book. I did look through a number of titles though. There are quite a few sailing magazines I can check out in addition to more books on the subject. I also did a cursory search of mountain-climbing titles. Spread amongst the non-fiction are quite a few novels, should I wish to escape from reality. I am excited to pick out my next read when my current one is finished.

I am not someone that has a lot of different apps loaded onto my phone or tablet. For me to actually download an app, there better be a good reason. If you like reading, I highly recommend Libby and should have gotten my library card a long time ago.  

Recording Guitar Music on my Computer

My youngest son's daughters are used to me playing the guitar when I go visit them in Ohio. It is a nightly ritual for me to sit on the end of a bed and play while the girls fall asleep. If I am allowed to play long enough, they fall asleep before I am done. The girls love it and so they asked me to record the guitar so they can listen to me playing even though I am in Utah.

It is a lot of work to set up the recording equipment and so I put it off until my oldest granddaughter asked me two days in a row. The second day, my son forwarded a video of an impassioned plea to record the music. How could I turn her down? On Saturday evening I pulled out my wife's old Mac laptop and connected it to my audio converter. Then I plugged in my acoustic-electric guitar and got ready to record.

The Mac comes with GarageBand which is great for recording audio onto your computer. I have a high-end microphone that I use to record audio for my YouTube videos but my guitar also plugs right in. I thought I could just start playing. I clicked on the GarageBand application only to have it crash repeatedly. The simplest solution is to reinstall the application so I loaded up the App Store and downloaded the latest version. That worked and I could run it on the laptop.

My audio converter connects to the computer though a USB cable and the Mac isn't quite sure what to do with audio afterwards. It can pull input from the converter but also send output to it even though it doesn't have a speaker. I had to go in and tell the Mac to use the device for input but to route output through the computer's speakers. I actually had headphones plugged into the Mac and couldn't hear anything until I adjusted these settings. Then I clicked the "Monitor" checkbox in GarageBand so I could hear my own playing and what the computer recorded.

When I play for my granddaughters before bed, they don't care if I make a mistake. When I practice for myself, I just play through the song and don't worry if the music doesn't sound 100% correct. All that changes when you record music to play over and over. I want it to be perfect and so it took me about 20 attempts on the first song before I felt I did it justice. Knowing I wanted to record around 15 songs, I had to come up with a better way to finish the project. Or I had to stop being so picky.

The first thing I did was to change how I recorded my songs. Instead of stopping the recording after a mistake and starting over, I would keep the recording going and just stop long enough so I knew where to cut the mistake from the track. That sped things up somewhat. I also decided to play each song through once before even attempting to record it. That helped a lot and I cut the number of takes from 20 down to just 1 or 2. Being less picky also had something to do with that.

It normally takes me about 20 minutes to go through the 15 or so songs I have memorized. Recording them took over an hour with all the stops and starts. It also made for great guitar practice as I could really see my common mistakes and work to fix them. I highly recommend recording your music practice on a periodic basis to help you improve. It is something I will incorporate into my practice.

I sent the music off to my son on Saturday evening thanks to some help from Google Drive. He put it on my granddaughters' music player. When I called them yesterday, I could hear my music in the background. This morning my son sent me a video of my oldest granddaughter listening to some of my songs and being happy that she can now hear them whenever she wants. That makes me feel great as a musician but even better as a grandpa.