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. 

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.

Video Calls Can Add to Holiday Events

Last Christmas my youngest son flew his family of 4 from Ohio to Utah to visit us during the Holidays. It really surprised my wife and I as we had just spent a week with them in Hawaii. We did not expect to see them again so soon. This year my wife and I surprised them by flying to Ohio the day before Christmas Eve and celebrating with them. My son didn't know we would arrive until 30 minutes before we drove up as we had planned the surprise with his wife.

Naturally we cleared the trip with all of our other children before booking flights back in August. That means everyone in the family had to keep a secret for 4 months. I had times I wanted to blab but kept the secret. A week before our trip, my son asked if we planned to come and surprise him. My response was, "We would have had to buy plane tickets back in August," which we did.

As we couldn't be with our other children we made sure to do video calls with everyone on Christmas. I remember 35 years ago thinking that would be a great technology as phone companies started sharing plans for the service. Now it is a reality that is as easy to do as making a call on your mobile phone. If you are not a fan of the iPhone and FaceTime, you can use What's App on Android and do the same thing. That means nobody has to be left out from seeing young kids open their magical gifts on that special day every year.

Ohio has a 2-hour time difference from Utah and so we had to make sure we didn't call my older son with his kids too early. Instead we waited for them to call us. Then we had a magical morning with cousins being able to talk to each other. As they both got trips to Orlando in February, we will all be together in just a few weeks. It will be a magical time for everyone. Fortunately we could all share in the excitement on Christmas morning, thanks to a video call. 

Camera on Your Phone

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

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

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

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

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

Map Directions on My Phone

Last week I spent 3 days in San Diego for work. I am fairly familiar with the area but still needed directions to find the quickest way from the airport to my company's office. I loaded the directions onto my phone before leaving the rental car lot. I drove straight to the office and arrived 30 minutes before my first scheduled meeting. The system worked well.

There is one unfortunate drawback to using your phone to help navigate. We become lazy and overly reliant on our mobile phones to help us get around. Once I made it to my office, I tried not to use any smartphone directions for the remainder of the trip. That required that I try to remember other locations in the area. I had a rough idea of where my hotel should be. Instead of looking up turn-by-turn directions, I drove to where I thought it would be and found it without any difficulty. When it came time to go to restaurants in the area, I found excellent places close to the office or near my hotel. One night a group of us walked from our different hotels and met without the need to drive around.

When I first started renting cars long before smartphones existed, I would get a paper map from the rental car company and use that to get around. Now we have a much better solution but I wonder how many people rely on smartphone navigation when they should be able to trust their own sense of direction. If you are brave and feel you have good navigational skills, trust your instincts and see if you can't enjoy the scenery more.

Phishing, Smishing, and Vishing

Every year Sony makes me take mandatory security training and I recently went through the exercise again. Whenever there is annual training, it is best to try and figure out what is new or has been changed. This year I learned two new terms: Smishing and Vishing.

I already know what Phishing is. Anyone who has had an e-mail account knows that scammers will try to send you an e-mail that plays on your emotions to get important personal information. Most of the time the e-mails are easy to spot and I quickly delete them.

The younger generations have mostly ignored e-mail and prefer phones. They fit in your pocket and so texting has become second nature to them. I used to hate texting as I saw it screw up a lot of meetings and slow things down. Now I don't mind it as it is an efficient way to communicate. This is what scammers use for Smishing, your mobile phone. It is the same thing as a Phishing attack but comes over your phone instead of through e-mail. Someone asking for the recently received code your bank texted to you would be an example of Smishing. The term is a mix of Phishing and SMS messaging. As with a Phishing attack, you should never share personal information via text messaging.

So what is Vishing? That is when a scammer calls you or uses voicemail to request sensitive information like passwords or bank information. With current artificial intelligence technology, scammers could call using your spouse or child's voice asking for a password. Therefore it is important to verify phone numbers whenever anyone asks for sensitive information. Even better would be to call the person back as phone numbers can be spoofed as well. Perhaps this is why there is a new word for something I have always considered Phishing until now.

There are relatively few scammers in the world but it feels like they are everywhere. This means we all need to be vigilant about not sharing secret information that would allow them to get into our bank accounts or steal our identity. Vocabulary for Phishing, Smishing, and Vishing just means that they are using every tool possible.

A New Mobile Phone

 A few weeks ago I wrote about trying to decide if I should get a new mobile phone and use it as a dedicated work phone. As luck would have it, the mobile phone I use as our house phone stopped holding a charge. While it used to go a week or so between charges, it could only go 24 hours. It was time to replace the device. Fortunately I had already done a lot of research and had some good ideas on what to replace it with.

The phone that stopped holding a charge was a very robust demo unit given to me by Sony. I loved that phone as it had one of the best cameras at the time. I took it with me to Fiji and captured some amazing photos that no other phone at the time could match. As that trip took place a year before COVID, phones have improved a lot since then. I also have not taken many photos with that phone since I relegated it to home-phone duty. In fact, I hardly ever answer that phone as the only people that call it are scam artists or telemarketers. It is nice to keep the phone number though as it is the one tied to countless accounts and we do receive important calls on it about twice a year.

I decided to list out all of the features I need in a phone and it wasn't that long. I need the phone to be able make calls, text, work with 5G, and be as cheap as possible. While my carrier offers free phones, that comes with the catch of a service contract for several years. While I doubt I will change wireless companies, I do want to keep that option open. Besides I knew I could find a pretty cheap phone based on previous research.

Next I did an Internet search on cheap Android phones. There is only one option if I needed an iPhone and that is the SE which costs more than I wanted to spend. The search string I used was, "Cheapest smartphones for 2023." I got a nice list and looked a bit more into each of them. Ultimately I decided on the Motorola Moto G Stylus 5G 256GB (Unlocked). Best Buy had them on sale for $200 and that is an amazing deal for what you get. It has a very fast processor, 256GB of storage, and a stylus for those times when your finger is just too fat.

So what are the downsides? The phone is massive. It is not quite large enough to be a tablet but it sure isn't small enough to fit in my pants pocket without being uncomfortable when I go to sit down. That is fine though as it technically is our home phone and will stay at the house.

I have had the phone for a couple of weeks now and it is working as expected. There are a number of software updates and they installed flawlessly. I've experimented with the phone to see if I should install my work e-mail and it would work perfectly for that. Now all I need to do is see about loading it with movies and bringing it on a plane so I don't have to rely on the seat-back screen in front of me.

Where's Grandma?

We have recently had a death in my wife's family and it has caused a huge disruption. Grandpa passed away and so the family needs to take extra care in providing for Grandma. Fortunately a lot of plans were in the works before the death as it was somewhat expected. After the funeral, the family had an event where everyone could share their memories of Grandpa. Everyone expected Grandma to let them know when she was leaving. Instead she snuck out and didn't tell anyone.

Grandma's departure didn't raise any red flags until she didn't show up at her daughter's house in a timely manner. Grandma was lost. Unfortunately she has a horrible habit of not charging her phone and everyone assumed it was dead. It was only mostly dead and wouldn't take a call. The family was able to access her credit card statement and see where she last purchased gas. Then one of Grandma's sons called the carrier of her mobile phone and was able to get a faint ping location. I have to admit that I didn't even know that was possible. They found her 7 hours away from home. Let's just say she got really lost. Needless to say, it was a rather sleepless night for everyone in the family as they worried about Grandma. Everyone could finally go to sleep when they could see the credit-card charge for a motel in the middle of nowhere. The next morning, Grandma's daughter drove to meet her and caravan home.

Last week the family got together and worked on solving some of the problems that led to Grandma getting lost. First, they got her a new phone with a long-lasting battery. Second they got her a wireless charger so she just has to put the phone on the charger next to her bed. Finally, they installed a tracking device in her car. I understand you can get them for your teenage drivers so you know where your kids have your car at all times. Guess what? It also works with Grandmas. Grandma saw that they were fiddling with her car and asked if it would help diagnose car problems. It does that too, so they responded in the affirmative not wanting her to know they were lo-jacking her car.

A couple of days ago, Grandma got caught eating a brownie before dinner. The daughter reminded Grandma that she was making dinner and a brownie would spoil the meal. Instead of a pithy response like, "I'm old and may not live until dessert," she stormed out of the house and drove away. Naturally she left her phone at home and nobody could track her. You would think that they could just look at the tracker information from the car. Funny story, nobody installed the software and that wasn't possible. That problem is now rectified. Fortunately Grandma cooled off a little bit and eventually came home.

The moral of the story is to be sure you finish installing all of the software for your tracking devices before you need it. Otherwise it won't be worth a thing.

Mobile Phones Can Be Painful

It is too hot here in Utah this summer but I still got on my bike and headed out for a morning ride today. I started the ride in the heat and it only got hotter. I looked forward to completing my ride but towards the end I came across an auto/pedestrian accident that lengthened my time in the sun. Guess who wins an an auto vs. pedestrian accident? If you said, "Nobody," you are correct. Fortunately the pedestrian was not hurt severely but did get taken away in an ambulance.

I arrived just after the accident happened and took it upon myself to direct traffic around the poor woman lying in the street. She had the young driver of the car next to her on the phone with emergency medical services, also known as 911. The poor driver was crying and explaining how the accident happened. While directing traffic I tried to help the other two people that stopped and were performing first aid while we waited for the paramedics to arrive.

So what happened? Why did a young girl getting off the freeway run into another woman walking across a crosswalk? I did not witness the accident and can only share what I heard at the scene and can surmise based on where the car stopped and the victim lay. Having seen my fair share of bicycle accidents, the pedestrian was not hit very hard. The driver came off the freeway and was slowing down as she came to the intersection. She was distracted by her phone and didn't see the pedestrian in the crosswalk until it was too late. She immediately stopped and got out of her car to help the injured person. That was mistake number 1 and the biggie.

There was a second mistake made by the pedestrian crossing the street. She was also on her phone and missed noticing that a car was coming down the road. Her mistake was significantly less important when finding fault for the accident but one that could have saved her some significant pain. Had she been paying careful attention to the cars on the road she might have been able to jump out of the way.

Please understand that I don't fault the pedestrian for getting hit. She was in a crosswalk and had the right of way regardless of if she was on her phone or not. My only point is that paying more attention to her surroundings could have kept her from receiving a minor face laceration, a bruised hip, and a concussion this morning.

Mobile phones are one of the greatest inventions of our time. We are all instantly contactable and can use them to remain more productive than we would be without them. Unfortunately they require our attention and sometimes that can be unhealthy. Fortunately in this morning's accident, nobody was seriously injured and the only severe consequence is that someone's insurance will go up.

Maintaining Your Electronics

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

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

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

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

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

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

Carefully Balancing Battery Power

Every week I participate in at least one emergency amateur radio (ham) net. My Sunday evening net usually includes a training item to help us keep our ham radio skills sharp. Our most common topic is making sure we keep radio batteries charged and always have spares. This comes up so much because someone will start talking and then drop off the air with the primary cause being a dead battery. The guilty party will sheepishly rejoin the group and admit to what we already knew: no power.

This evening I find myself nursing the battery life on one of my two mobile phones. I am at the airport waiting to catch my weekly flight from San Francisco to Salt Lake City. While taking the shuttle bus from my office to the airport, I have been listening to music on my phone. I used my work phone as it is the one paired with my wireless headphones.

For the flight home I plan to watch a movie. Once again I will be using my work phone as it has a larger screen than my personal phone. I just looked at my power meter and I am burning through my battery rather quickly. I decided to turn off my music to help conserve power so I have more than enough to watch a movie on the plane. On my flight there are USB port at each seat to charge electronic devices. Unfortunately I don't carry a charging cable with me for my work phone. I may just want to get a spare for this occasion. Then I won't have to work so carefully to balance battery power.

Taking the Stairs Instead of the Elevator

My office is on the 5th and top floor of our building. When we first moved into the space, I took the elevator and didn't even know where the stairs could be found. Then I had someone move to the desk next to me and he always took the stairs. His reason was for fitness. I started following his good example for a different reason: I was tired of stopping at all the floors every time I got in the elevator. I began to see people that take the stairs from the first to the second floor as being lazy. Eventually I started having feelings of hate towards those that held up the elevator for a single floor change. Fortunately I recognized that the problem was not with other people, but with myself. I have been taking the stairs for about a year now and I think it makes me a better person. I am kinder towards others and my legs are getting stronger in the process. I can now get up the stairs faster than most people in the elevator.

Recently I discovered a new benefit of taking the stairs: mobile phones work in the stairwell but they don't work in elevators. An elevator is effectively a metal cage and it can kill all but the strongest radio signals. A stairwell lets in those radio waves and enable conversations not possible before. Now I use my trips up and down the stairs as an excuse to return those calls that have come in during meetings. It is as if I have found an extra 20 minutes in my day.

I have grown accustom to climbing the stairs to the point where I don't sound like I have been exercising when I reach the 5th floor. Recently I had a visitor in the building and she willingly joined me up the stairs. At about the 4th floor, I noticed my her breath had become labored and I realized I probably should have taken the elevator.

Yes the stairs are better for your health and I highly recommend them. Also don't forget your phone works on them and take advantage of the extra time you have. You can even have a phone call without anyone evesdropping on your conversation because very few people use the stairs.

Mobile Phone Etiquette

I'm in the San Francisco airport waiting for a delayed flight to Salt Lake City. I always try to use this time to do something productive and so I thought I would put together a quick blog entry. I have been wondering what to write about when a flight attendant pulled out her phone and had a quick video call with her husband. It got me thinking about mobile phone etiquette and what behavior is acceptable and what is not. In looking through old blog entries, this is not the first time I have been intrigued by this topic.

Last week I had an experience where I was the one having the video call in public. I was at a restaurant when I got a video call from my 2-year old grandson. Had it been anyone else, I would have politely asked to reschedule the call so I could take it from the privacy of my boat or office. My grandson wouldn't have understood and I knew the call would only last a minute or two. So is it OK to take a video call if you know it is only going to be a few minutes?

I was at dinner with a friend from work and he asked me if I needed to step outside to take the call. Obviously he didn't want to hear my phone call, but he also didn't know it was my grandson. Should that make a difference?

Ultimately every situation is different and we need to be respectful of others when we take phone calls in public. Especially video calls where everyone can hear both sides of the conversation. It is not appropriate to start a video call from a public place like the flight attendant next to me. If someone initiates a call when you are in public, you have the option to decline the call or answer and quickly schedule a return call. And finally if you are in public and it is your 2-year old grandson, just ask forgiveness like I did at the restaurant instead of permission. My friend understood and he knows it is not something I do frequently.

Your Mobile Phone is Making You Unlikable

This morning my son sent me an article from Forbes talking about 9 different habits that make you less likeable. It is a great article in that it first talks about why it is important for people to like you. While some people may discount likeability, the article quotes a UCLA study about top traits for great leaders and they all boil down to likeability.

Scrolling through the list of 9 things that make one less likeable, I discovered that I probably have some changes in my own behavior that I need to make. One that caught my eye though is "Whipping out your phone." I thought about this one for a minute and realized that I really hate it when I am having a conversation with someone and they pull out their phone to check a message or look up something.

To quote the article: "Nothing turns someone off to you like a mid-conversation text message or even a quick glance at your phone. When you commit to a conversation, focus all of your energy on the conversation. You’ll find that conversations are more enjoyable and effective when you immerse yourself in them."

While you may be waiting for an important text or notification, unless someone is dying, you can most likely wait until your in-person conversation is over before pulling out your phone.

Now if I can get my own adult children to read this blog entry, I will be a happy father.

International WiFi Calling

I had the pleasure of spending last week in Fiji with my wife on a nice vacation. While some people don't care about mobile phone charges when traveling internationally, it is something that concerns me. For this trip I tried something new and it worked very well.

When I boarded my flight in Los Angeles, I made sure to put my phone into airplane mode. Then I turned back on the WiFi. When I arrived at my hotel in Fiji, I just connected to the hotel's WiFi internet and could easily make calls home without worrying about any extra charges being added to my monthly bill.

Those that do a lot of international travel probably have a mobile plan that provides for inexpensive usage outside the United States. That is what I have with the phone provided by my company. As I rarely travel internationally for pleasure I don't have anything like that for my personal phone. That being said, I still probably only saved myself about $10 in extra charges using WiFi calling instead of just turning off airplane mode and using my phone normally. If you are like me and appreciate saving $10 then this is a good trick to know.

Lost Mobile Phone

In the 20-plus years I have carried a mobile phone, I have never lost one until now. I did drop mine on a bike trail 7 years ago but a nice person called my son and I arranged to get it back. Then I lost my phone on Christmas eve and I won't be able to get it back until June as it is now buried on top of a mountain under a lot of new snow.

How did I lose my phone? I fell skiing. Last year I skied 80 days and only fell about 2 or 3 times. My fall on Saturday happened because I went skiing in a huge snowstorm and couldn't really see much. I didn't mind the blindness as all of the fresh snow made for a great ski day. One of my skis hit a large wind-blown mound of snow and threw me off balance. I spun around and landed on my back. I hit the ground hard and gave myself a slight headache even though I wore a helmet. That caused my phone to fall out of an inside pocket but stayed in my jacket. When I stood up, the phone fell out of the bottom of my jacket.

About an hour later I discovered that I no longer had my phone. I knew I lost it because of the fall and so I headed back to the scene of the accident. Unfortunately the ski patrol closed that part of the mountain because of extreme avalanche danger. Had I been able to get near my phone, I could have used my second phone to call it and I would have been able to locate it.

They finally opened that part of the mountain again today and I went looking for my phone. Between when I lost my phone and when I could finally look for it, 2 feet of fresh snow fell. I scouted around a bit but no hope existed for finding my phone. So this afternoon I went out and got a replacement one.

Fortunately I have a fairly recent backup of the data on my phone and am just missing a few notes, a handful of pictures (none really that important) and a list of blocked telephone numbers from telemarketers. I did learn a few things from this experience:

1. Backup the data on your phone regularly. My recent backup saved me from having to recreate my contacts list and kept me from losing some really precious photos.
2. Make sure you have a Find-My-Phone app installed on your phone. This will sound an audible alarm even if your phone is silenced. This didn't help me because the unsafe conditions prohibited from me getting to my phone in a timely manner, however it might help you.
3. If you are accident prone and have a tendency to break or lose your phone on a regular basis, spring for the replacement insurance. A new phone can be expensive. My mistake cost me over $400.
4. If you ski with your phone, make sure it is in a pocket with a zipper so it doesn't fall out. Both of my sons and my son-in-law reminded me of this even though I came to that conclusion 3 milliseconds after I discovered I had lost my phone.

Hopefully this friendly reminder will help someone who is about to lose his or her phone in the near future.

There's an App for That

Yesterday I attended a conference in Tokyo and one of the subjects included mobile phone applications. While you can generally use a web browser to access a number of useful websites, some of them provide smartphone applications to custom tailor the user interface experience to better fit the small screen sizes. My personal preference is to use the phone's browser instead of cluttering my phone with a bunch of apps that I rarely use. This places me in a specific category of users. The point of the presentation showed how much you can learn about a person based on their smartphone app usage.

The thing that I found interesting about the presentation is how accurate of a picture can be painted about you simply based the smartphone apps you use. Similarly that same information can be gathered from the websites you visit and how you use your computer.

For most of us, this isn't a big deal as we don't really use our computers for nefarious purposes. For others, this is rather bothersome. Fortunately the examples provided in yesterday's presentation were used to categorize users in to various demographic groups for ad sales purposes. However imagine if someone were to use that information to deny insurance benefits or keep you from getting a new job. It leads me to believe that we all need to be rather careful of our digital footprint. After all, someone might discover you have a clinical addiction to chocolate-chip cookies.

Mobile Phone Etiquette

I am at the airport waiting to catch my flight back to Salt Lake for the weekend. Normally I would be bored and trying to figure out something to do. Today I get the pleasure of listening to someone talk on the phone. In the past we used to have somewhat private phone booths that tried to absorb some of the sound. Now people just sit in their chairs carrying on a conversation about their latest prostrate exam like nobody else can hear them. Trust me, there are conversations I really don't want to hear.

The lure of listening in on other people's conversations used to be somewhat diminished by the fact you could only hear half of it. I don't know why but people now think it is perfectly acceptable to use Skype and FaceTime in public places. Every Thursday night as I wait to catch my flight home, I see at least one person with their phone held out like they are taking a selfie so they can FaceTime someone else. Not only can I hear the usual half of the conversation, I get to hear the whole thing. Tonight is no different.

For those that are interested, yes, that scab does look infected and he really should go to the doctor's to have it checked out.

Busy Signal vs. Fax Machine

While home in Utah last Friday, I was supposed to have carpet delivered and installed. My wife and I had picked this date 3 weeks earlier so I could be there to make sure everything went as planned. That morning my wife got a call from the installer that a family emergency had come up and we needed to reschedule. My wife let me know about the delay and I went into action fixing the wrong as we had spent weeks moving out of 3 bedrooms and ripping out the old carpet. I did not want to go another day without something we had already paid for.

I made my first call to the local store where we had purchased the carpet. It is a large chain store with many locations. I did that on purpose so that in the event that one installer had a family emergency, the company would have other installers they could call on to finish the job. The person helping me on the other end of the phone mistakenly hung up on me while trying to transfer me to her manager. Naturally I called back only to get hung up on a second time. That should have been a clue that this person did not know how to use a phone.

My next call went to the customer service department of this large store. I talked with a nice lady who eventually connected me back to the local store that I had called twice before. She routed me to the same employee that had hung up on me. This whole process didn't take long to write but actually took about 30 minutes of real time thanks to all of the automated phone systems and multiple explanations I had to make. Meanwhile the local store had tried several times to call me back but kept getting a busy signal.

With the ubiquity of call waiting and other features that come standard with our mobile phones, we don't realize that old hard-wired phone lines don't include them without extra charges. Some younger people today have never heard a busy signal and doesn't know what it sounds like. The lady at the local store kept saying she couldn't call me back because she kept getting a fax machine and didn't realize that fax machines sound nothing like a busy signal.

I probably made a mistake using an old land line instead of calling in on my mobile phone. However I called from my basement and prefer a land line down there instead of my mobile. I had to laugh about this person not knowing what a busy signal sounds like.

Ultimately I managed to resolve the issue and carpet got installed at 3pm that afternoon.

Pokémon Go

There is a new video game for your mobile phone that seems to be the latest craze and it is Pokémon Go. I have not downloaded it to either of my phones nor have I played it. I do have some work associates that are playing it and am amazed at how addicting it is.

Last night I went to dinner with a friend from work. We didn't have a set time to go but I finished my day at the office around 5pm and asked when he would be ready. His responded that he wouldn't be available until 7pm. I did a few things around the office and queried him again at 6pm to see if he could get away a bit earlier. He told me he could pull away from work at 6:15 and so I headed out to meet him. Why the delay? He had been playing Pokémon Go. Remember I work for a video game company and so playing games at work is a normal part of our day.

I don't have a car in the Bay Area as I use my bike to get around. That means my friend had to drive. He took me to his favorite Japanese restaurant. As we walked from his car, he had his phone out while looking for Pokémon. We got a table outside the restaurant which is not normal but as he is a regular they made an exception. We both appreciated that as the restaurant had reached the point that required reservations if you wanted to eat there. The outdoor table also afforded my friend the ability to continue playing Pokémon Go while we ate. We would talk and then every once and a while he would spin the character on his phone and collect free bits of stuff.

After dinner we walked around downtown San Mateo looking for my friend's favorite dessert place. We took a rather circuitous route in an effort to capture more Pokémon Go stuff. Then we took an equally roundabout way back to the car. San Mateo doesn't have much traffic but we took advantage of each stoplight to play more of the game. Eventually I got back to my office where I rode my bike back to my boat.

I asked my friend why he seemed so addicted to the game and he responded that he loved playing Pokémon as a kid. This brings back a number of those memories for him. He already understands the game and enjoys it. So if you are an old Pokémon fan, then you may want to give Pokémon Go a try. If you are like me and have too many other activities vying for your time, you may want to pass on this game. I'll let you decide.