Dead-End Technology

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Things I am Thankful For

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Generally I don't take the time to write in my blog on Thanksgiving but today I find myself with a bit of extra time by myself. My married kids are spending time with their in-laws and so I find myself alone on this peaceful Thursday. I thought I would write about some of the things I am thankful for. Naturally I am thankful for family and friends but I wanted to highlight some of the technologies that make our lives better.

We live in a marvelous time with a lot of modern conveniences such as refrigerators and microwaves. When I first started spending time on my boat in California almost 10 years ago, I didn't have a lot of these modern conveniences. In fact, my fridge didn't really work that well and I often had food spoil over the weekend. I have since fixed that. I also didn't have a microwave. I do now and use it every morning I stay on the boat. That is how I cook my oatmeal. I also use it to heat up water to clean my breakfast dishes. These are wonderful technological devices that make my life a lot easier.

I am thankful for computers. While they may actually complicate our lives, they do make certain things a lot easier. Connect one to the Internet and you have an infinite source of information. Of course, not all of it can be believed but if you know where to look you can find out anything.

I am thankful for smartphones with cameras. I don't know how we survived in the days before mobile phones. Then they added cameras and now I can take pictures of the beautiful mountain scenes I have experienced every day this week as I have ventured out to do some backcountry skiing. I get to brag a little bit as I send the pictures to my friends back in the Bay Area. I also appreciate being able to look up driving directions and answers to important questions such as if my flight is still on time.

Finally I am thankful for jet planes. Without them I would have to leave the mountains that I love and live full-time in the Bay Area for work. I tell people that the Bay Area is a great place if you are into shopping and good restaurants. It is horrible if you like spending time outside in the mountains. Locals there claim they have mountains but those are really just hills with very limited access. If you like rock climbing and skiing, you have to drive somewhere else or catch a plane.

Yes, there is a lot to be thankful for. Hopefully you are reading this after Thanksgiving and had the time to create your own list of things you are thankful for.

Paper or Electronic Boarding Pass

Yesterday I went to print my airplane boarding pass at the office before heading to the airport. One of my good friends seemed surprised that I didn't just send the boarding pass to my phone. He knows me as a technically-savvy guy and figured an electronic boarding pass on the phone is better than a printed one.

This is a discussion I have with several of my frequent flyer buddies all the time. Some of us prefer paper tickets while others prefer electronic ones. While I can't speak for everyone I can tell you why I prefer paper boarding passes: They are faster when going through TSA. When you spend as much time at an airport as I do, you start to notice that the people who slow down the security line are those trying to pull up their electronic tickets on their phones. The rest of us are stuck waiting behind them and even though we are not that much slower, it sure feels like it.

What is even worse is when a family tries to go through security and all of the tickets are on Dad or Mom's phone. You might as well just lie down and take a nap.

There is a secret if you insist on keeping your boarding pass on your phone. When you initially load the boarding pass onto your phone, look at it and take a screen shot being sure to capture the 2-dimensional bard code. Then you don't have to worry about having a fast network connection or where to pull up your boarding pass. Just bring up the screen shot and you will get through security without delay.

The second reason I prefer a paper boarding pass over using my phone is that the ticket readers take longer with a phone than with a piece of paper. Last night I boarded my flight from San Francisco to Salt Lake and my paper ticket scanned two to three times faster than Alex's who used his phone.

Now the detractors of paper tickets tout that they are not wasting paper by printing a ticket and they have a point. If saving paper is high on your list of priorities, then use the screenshot trick. As for me, I look for other ways of saving paper. Two pieces of paper a week is not that much. Also, paper does grow on trees.

A Relaxing Sunday

Tomorrow I don't have to wake up early and catch a flight to the Bay Area. Instead I will work the first three days of the week from home and have the next two days off. I try to make the most of my weekends and enjoy them up until the last minute. Knowing I don't have to catch a plane tomorrow has me much more at ease.

Normally I go to bed on Sunday evenings around 10:30 pm. That is because I have to wake up at 4:45 am on Monday to catch my flight. Tonight I can relax and not have to worry about what time to turn in. I also don't have to worry about packing my bags or making sure I have everything I will need for the week. Tonight is a much needed break.

So what am I going to do with all of this extra time? Read a book. Several years ago I picked up a book that contains journals from pioneers moving West in the mid 1800's. This morning I was able to crack off a chapter and realize how easy we have it today. While it may take me 11 hours to drive a car from my home in Salt Lake to the Bay Area, it took wagon trains months to cross the same distance. I also don't have to worry about my children dying of exposure along the way.

As we head into the Thanksgiving season, I have to say that I am thankful for the technology we have. I constantly utilize speedy transportation whether it be an automobile, train, or airplane. I also enjoy the benefits of instant electronic communication. This morning I sent an e-mail to my son in Armenia, half way around the world. I will have a response waiting for me tomorrow. Yes we live in wonderful times and I am thankful for that. I hope you are too.

Back in Japan

I am back in Tokyo, Japan once again and have taken advantage of a few technologies that have always existed but I haven't used until now. The flight from the West coast of the United States generally takes about 10 hours. Fortunately there are a lot of technologies that help make the trip go more quickly.

I have known that underneath the seat in front of me contains an outlet capable of charging laptop computers but have never bothered using it until now. I didn't print out my itinerary for the trip and so as I was filling out my customs and immigration paperwork, I plugged in my laptop and pulled my hotel information from it. As my laptop was plugged in, I could use it for other things during the trip without having to worry about draining my battery. I also plugged in my iPhone to the USB port on the plane. That kept my phone charged for the trip so I could do important things like play games.

There was nobody in the seat next to me for the flight and I appreciated that a lot. I left the US on Sunday which puts me into Japan late Monday night because of the International Date Line. So my first day in the office will be Tuesday. Most people like to fly to Japan and start the day on Monday. So if I left on Saturday, the flight would have been full. My flight was relatively empty and I was able to re-purpose the screen in the seat next to me. Instead of using it to watch a movie, I had it display our position on a map of the Pacific Ocean. When I would wake up from a quick nap, I could instantly see how long I had been asleep. It was kind of nice to keep up.

At one point during the flight, I had 3 displays all going at once and they all kept me entertained. I had a movie in one, our position in another, and information on my laptop in another. It was kind of nice and I passed the time nicely during the flight. 

Jet Lag

I am back in Utah after a nice week in Japan. The only problem with coming home is getting used to the time difference. The trip out is easy as you just have to stay up late. Flying back to the States requires a different tactic. Unfortunately I have yet to figure out what works. On my last trip, it took 3 or 4 days. This time doesn't seem to be doing much better and so I can't recommend my methods.

In the spirit of Thomas Edison and finding out what doesn't work, I cannot recommend napping during the day. It makes it tough to sleep through the night. Then you get stuck in the vicious cycle of napping the next day. Unofficially I may have fallen asleep at my desk this afternoon.

Rules For Everyone

I am watching a CBS special on Hurricane Sandy. It has already pasted the East coast of the United States and they are running short stories about the storm. Among a few of the reports are mentions of people sticking around even though they were told to evacuate. I guess some people think certain rules don't apply to them. We call those people idiots.

This morning I had to catch my weekly flight from Salt Lake to Oakland. I use the flight to catch an extra hour of sleep on Monday mornings. When the Southwest passenger took the middle seat next to me, I knew I would notice him for all of about 5 minutes. Then he pulled out his computer and started working. There is only so long before passengers are asked to turn off electronic devices and so I didn't give that a second thought. Soon the flight attendant asked passengers to shut down computers and cell phones. My neighbor did, but only long enough for the attendants to pass by. Then he pulled his computer out and began to work again covertly during the safety briefing. I thought about letting him know that he should turn it off but couldn't figure out how to do so without looking like an angry passenger. So I tried to get back to sleep. I guess he didn't think the electronics rule applied to him.

Certain rules exist to keep up safe. The electronics rule on airplanes is not because the electronics do anything to the plane or its navigation system. It is there because those electronics devices turn into projectiles during takeoff and landing. My seat neighbor was kind enough to put his computer away before it could cause harm. That was good for me as I hate getting hurt because someone else is an idiot.