Smartphone Photos

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving when people will sit down at the dinner table and eat an incredible amount of food all in the name of giving thanks for our many blessings. In order to prepare for the festivities, my youngest son and I went for a rather lengthy hike today. We covered about 10.2 miles and wore my son's dog out. The dog is sleeping soundly on the couch and snoring loudly.

I had hoped to pick up a trail map from the visitor's center of the state park where we hiked today but found it closed because of the coming holiday. Instead I opted to take a photo of the map with my smartphone so I always had it with us even if we lost phone service on the hike, which we did. While I prefer to have a piece of paper for a map, the photo served us well.

This is not the first time I have used a picture on my phone to replace a map. It won't be the last either. As I think about it, a phone picture is a lot better for the environment as paper maps often turn into litter require a lot more resources to create.

A few years ago I took my kids and their spouses to Moab for a family vacation. One of the activities for the trip included rock climbing. We had a guidebook for the area we planned to climb. As we scoped out the area, a couple of other climbers not familiar with the area came and took a smartphone picture from the guidebook of another climbing area next to ours. It worked out well for all. They went to an area away from us so we didn't have to compete for climbing routes and the photo provided important information needed for the climbs.

Taking a picture of a map at the beginning of your hike or of pages out of a guidebook allow you to carry important information in the palm of your hand. All it takes is a little practice on using the photo and a phone with a charged battery. After all, the phone won't do you any good if it won't turn on.

Time for Another New Laptop

My youngest daughter and I got to spend the day together. My wife is accompanying my youngest son on a road trip as he moves to Ohio. That allowed my daughter and I to spend the day together rock climbing, buying wood to replace our backyard fence, and watching a movie together. During the course of the day, my daughter told me it is about time to replace her aging MacBook. I asked her why and she reminded me that her current computer is 8 years old. I think she may be right about replacing it.

I recently went through the exercise of replacing a computer and know that you pay a premium when you buy a Mac. However it is hard to argue with the fact that her current Mac is 8 years old and lasted her well. When I bought her that computer, I told her to take care of it as her next one would be her responsibility. She has treated it well and only now does she need to replace it.

Having spent 8 years with a Mac makes it difficult for her to want a Windows computer. She knows all of the ins and outs of the Mac operating system. I think a shift to Windows would confuse her. I asked her what she wants, thinking that she might go for the less expensive MacBook Air. Nope, she wants another MacBook Pro. Given the difference in prices, she will end up spending about $400 to $500 more than for the MacBook Air. I thought about it for a bit and realized that the Pro will probably last another 8 years while the Air would only last 4. That justifies the cost of the more expensive laptop as it will ultimately be cheaper in the long run.

It is important to note that not all Mac laptops are supposed to last that long. My oldest daughter gets only a couple of years before things start breaking as she is a little harsher on her computers than my youngest daughter. My youngest daughter also really only uses her computer to do things like visit social media sites and browse the Internet. She is not a software developer nor does she require a lot of horsepower.

My daughter didn't order the computer today as she is waiting to make sure she doesn't have any expensive bills coming up any time soon. She doesn't want to deplete her savings until she does a little financial forecasting first. This is good as it will give her some time to evaluate which options she wants and is willing to pay for. I'm sure she will be excited when the new computer comes.

Thinking About a Masters

I am one of the few people in the Research and Development Department without an advanced degree. I don't really mind as continuing in school has not really appealed to me until the past few weeks. My current degree is in Electrical and Computer Engineering. While in school I had the option of focusing on analog or digital. Naturally I chose the digital option as I really wanted to do stuff with computers and not radios. Now that I have an interest in ham radio, I see the benefits of the analog option but am glad that I chose the digital route.

A natural extension for me would be to go back to school and get a Masters in Computer Science or further my Electrical Engineering degree. I could also try for a Masters of Business Administration (MBA). Unfortunately that sounds really boring. When I got my university diploma it never listed anything other than I have a Bachelor of Science degree. I felt cheated. I could have the same piece of paper even if I spent my time playing in college and got a much simpler degree. So now I am thinking about focusing on Outdoor Leadership or Recreational Management.

Follow my logic. My experience vastly outweighs any accolades I would receive from continuing with a technical degree. At this point in my career, a Masters is merely a checklist item on someone's list. Why not focus on fun? I am already spending a lot of time doing things like SCUBA diving, backcountry skiing, and mountain climbing. Should I want to retire from video games or the tech industry, I could switch careers and become a backpacking or heli-skiing guide.

For those of you looking to do the opposite or to go from a non-technical degree and trying to get a Masters in Computer Science, I don't recommend it. There are some fundamental Math and Physics that you will have to review or learn. I would hate to have to go back and learn to do integration by parts, which is something I did frequently in my electronic circuits classes.

Now if I can only convince my company that an advanced degree in Outdoor Leadership is worth our tuition reimbursement program. I doubt it but it is worth a shot.

Unknown Places Becoming Popular

Recently my youngest son suggested I watch the movie "Gorging" as he thought I would like it. It is a documentary about canyoning or canyoneering and gives a brief history of the sport. This is something I discovered a little over a year ago when I toured Zion National Park's Subway. I then followed it up a month later by doing Pine Creek Canyon.

For those that don't know, canyoneering is where you follow a dry (or wet) stream bed as it winds its way down. The canyons the water forms in soft sandstone can be very deep and narrow. They can be very visually stunning. The Subway is mostly rock scrambling with only a couple of technical sections requiring a rappel. Pine Creek Canyon is much more involved with the final obstacle being a rappel of around 90 feet or so.

I enjoyed watching the movie as it showcased a number of places I have been. One of the points made by the movie is how the Internet has opened up a number of unknown places. We see a visually spectacular place and post it on a popular social media site. Then all of our friends re-post it until this once remote place is now swarming with tourists. The national park system has addressed this by issuing a limited number of permits for such places. This has helped cut down on some traffic but not all.

I have to agree with the conclusion the movie made. During my canyoneering adventures I have seen quite a few people in areas once thought to be remote. For the most part, people are good about taking care of the environment but that much traffic in a fragile desert environment may not be able to recover. So is this a bad thing? If so, do we blame the Internet or the crowds of passionate tourists?

My daughter suggested we hike The Subway at Zion National Park and until then, I had no idea it even existed. She found out about the hike because of my oldest son. My youngest son is how I found out about Pine Creek Canyon. I am not really sure we can blame the Internet for my interest in canyoneering. However if this is the first time you have heard about those places then we definitely can.

Personally I think the world is filled with a lot of great places to visit. I like reading about them and wouldn't have the chance without the Internet. Therefore I appreciate the ease of finding information on these formerly unknown places. Now it is important for me to treat this information carefully. Before heading into dangerous areas I need to make sure I have the correct training and proper equipment. Without the ubiquity of travel information I might show up ill prepared and that would be bad. Hopefully you agree. If not, let me know.

Adventure Vacation

I spent the first part of the week down in Zion National Park with my youngest daughter. She is out of school for a fall break and wanted to do something adventurous while I needed a short break from work. I had her set up the itinerary so I took care of the hotel. One of the hikes she wanted to do is called, "The Subway," and requires a permit in order to hike it.

The Subway at Zion National Park

As I left all of the itinerary planning to my daughter, I didn't worry about the technical things like the equipment we would need or if we would need help shuttling between the start and the end of the hike. We entered the lottery to get a permit the Monday before our arrival. If we didn't receive one, we had a backup plan. On Saturday at 1pm, my daughter received an e-mail from the National Park Service congratulating us on being awarded the chance to hike "The Subway." The next day we stopped by the park's visitor center to collect the permit.

In talking with the Park employee, we discovered that we needed to get dry suits as we would be swimming in very cold water to get through the hike. We would also need to do some repels during the hike but had all of the necessary equipment. We also needed to set up a shuttle as we would drop our car at the exit and take the shuttle 7 miles up the road to the beginning of the hike.

So what does all of this have to do with computers and technology? While we could look all of this up on the Internet, once we left the hotel at 6am on Monday morning to begin the hike, we couldn't rely on technology to help us get through the hike. We had no mobile phone service nor Internet. Furthermore the conditions for the hike can change from day-to-day and so none of the sources we looked at told us we would need wet suits or dry suits. We only got recommendations for them. However when we collected our permit, the National Park Service told us it was a requirement to have one or the other because of the nighttime freezing temperatures. I'm glad they required it as the rented dry suits came in handy during the hike.

We had a wonderful adventure on Monday and really enjoyed the hike. It took us about 2 hours to get through the beginning of the hike where we carefully navigated our way through an alpine forest and across Southern Utah's famous slick rock. It then took us 3 hours to exit the subway. When we look at how much time we spent actually in "The Subway," it was 4 hours of fun. Amazingly that time felt like only 15 minutes. We had a lot of fun and I recommend the hike.

Night Rock Climbing

My youngest daughter had her birthday a week ago and so my wife joined me in the Uinta Mountains to spend time with her. This daughter is the director of climbing for a summer camp and spends her weekdays teaching Boy Scouts how to climb. On Friday nights they will do night climbs and last week's evening of fun happened to fall right on my daughter's birthday.

My daughter had explained night climbs before but I had no idea what a party the evenings turn out to be. My daughter's boss has a set of outdoor speakers that he sets up with the help of stored music on his smartphone. Then all of the boys show up headlamps ready to climb about 50 feet. When I first heard of the event, I thought there might be 10 or so boys. Nope, imagine the entire camp showing up. Throw in the loud music, bobbing headlamps, and excitement of 14 to 18 year old boys. The sight impressed me and seemed like a lot of fun.

Last week my wife and I really enjoyed our evening watching our daughter celebrate her birthday. Our daughter enjoyed herself as well. In a world where I imagine most teenage boys enjoy video games and technology, it pleased me to see such a large group outside having good clean fun.

No Substitute for Paper

Recently I headed out with my family for a day of rock climbing. As a fairly novice rock climber, I usually make sure to purchase a guide for the area I plan to climb. Then I just throw it in my equipment bag and reference it before starting the climb. On this particular trip, we arrived at the climbing area just after two guys from California. They started pulling out their climbing equipment and I wanted to check that we were in the right area. They confirmed it and so we parked the car. Next I pulled out my trusty guide book to determine where we should set our equipment to begin our climb. Our new friends from California took a peculiar interest in the book.

A lot of people rely on smartphones to provided directions to specific locations. Rock climbing is no exception. Unfortunately we all decided to climb someplace so remote, none of us had mobile phone reception. The guys from California drove to the correct location based off of stored GPS coordinates but didn't have the rest of the information needed to start the climb. They consulted my guide book and found a nice place to go so we would not interfere with each other. They also took a picture of the guide book page for the area in case they needed more help.

Smartphones and the ubiquitous Internet have really cut down on how much printed information we need on a daily basis. However every once and a while you may find that there is no substitute for paper. I am not sure what our new friends would have done had I not come along with my trusty guide book.