Following Directions

This morning at work I helped perform an upgrade of some software I have helped create. It is made up of a bunch of small programs that have evolved over time. Each program is quite simple and very easy to understand. Together they form a complex system that runs on over a dozen different servers and process large amounts of data.

The upgrade seemed to be running smoothly and I was able to do my portion of the deployment without any issues. When we went to start several of the programs, we saw some errors. That led to everyone gathering around a collection of screens, trying to troubleshoot the problem as we were under a tight deadline to get the system back up and running.

As all of my stuff was working correctly, I acted as a messenger to one of our operations engineers who was at our data center in another part of the country. It would have been nice to talk to him on the phone but was impossible because of all the noise where he was. We had to resort to texting. The whole team worked together and we quickly diagnosed the problem. It turns out that the engineer doing most of the upgrade missed a critical step. Once we figured that out, everything came up nicely.

How did this critical step get missed? We had a list of instructions with every individual process outlined for the upgrade. The engineer was meticulously checking off each task as it was completed. After two pages of instructions, he got a little careless and checked twice after only completing one step. It was an easy mistake to make but shows the importance of carefully following directions. Not doing so in a car can get you lost. Not doing so with a bunch of computer servers can really screw things up.

Internet Data and Telephones

We have a school holiday in Utah during the month of October for the Utah Education Association or UEA. It is a 2-day conference where teachers go and learn how to be better educators. The rest of us refer to it as Utah's Exodus to Anaheim as it is a great time to take the family to Disneyland. I know that Disneyland can be crowded and so I wanted to avoid it at all costs. Instead I took my wife and son someplace else. Unfortunately I still found myself yesterday morning at the Los Angeles International Airport trying to catch a flight back to Salt Lake. Chaos is the only word that can describe the situation.

Our previous flight had a mechanical issue and so we were late getting to Los Angeles. We landed with 20 minutes before our next flight was scheduled to depart. While we all managed to get to the new gate with 10 minutes to spare, the airline saw fit to give our seats away. We were told it was an oversold flight. There was one remaining available seat and so I sent my wife home assuming my son and I would be able to catch a flight later in the day. Unfortunately there were no available flights to Salt Lake and the best any airline could do was put me on a plane the next morning. That was unacceptable as I had to catch a 6:45 am flight this morning out of Salt Lake.

I was glad to have my iPhone with the Southwest app as I could verify that they didn't have any flights. You see, I was on another carrier and the rest of the airline industry doesn't get along with Southwest and so they don't share flight information. Being able to look that up on my own helped me realize what a dire predicament I was in. It also illustrates that just because you have Internet accessible data, doesn't mean your problems will be solved. In my case it only illustrated how really screwed I was.

With no flights available it was time to go to plan B: Hertz rental car. Salt Lake is only a 9-hour drive from Los Angeles. A single phone call later to 1-800-CAR-GOLD and I had a reservation for an economy car. I then spent the rest of the day having quality time with my son while we made the drive. I arrived at home just after 9pm. When I asked my son where he wanted to go next year for UEA, he replied, "Let's just stay home."

A New Kind of Game

A few weeks ago, I had a coworker talk to me about an idea for a new type of game. I thought it was a great idea but needed some flushing out. Then a couple of days later I had a another friend give me another idea. This second friend also lives in Utah but works in the Bay Area. We fly out every Monday together and he gives me a ride from the Oakland airport to my office in Foster City. During the ride one morning, he suggested an idea for a computer video game.

Separately these two game ideas were pretty interesting. Combined, they make up a really amazing new kind of game. Tomorrow two of us and another friend are going to meet for lunch and start working on the idea. We will need to flush out a few details, but my hope is that we will be able to have a prototype running in time for the Christmas Holidays. Don't hold me to that date, as a number of unforeseen issues may arise, but that is my goal. Stay tuned as I will have more information as the game develops.

Secret Admirer

A few weeks ago I received an e-mail from an alleged secret admirer. I was pretty sure it was some sort of a scam and so I immediately deleted it. Then I started thinking about the e-mail a few days later. The fact that it made it through my spam filter had me questioning if it was a scam or not. It didn't take long for another e-mail to arrive elaborating on the original secret admirer message. I have to say that it was a bit flattering even though I am happily married. Deep down inside we all want to be admired by other people, even if they can't have us.

This second message got through my spam filter again and so I thought I would look into the anonymous e-card service to see if it was real. I confirmed my original suspicion as it didn't seem to exist. So I deleted the e-mail and went on my merry way.

Today I received a 3rd secret admirer e-mail and made a note of the pseudo name of the person who sent it. Then I did an Internet search on "lovebug1136" and discovered I am not the only one getting these e-mails. To see the same e-mails posted on sites just confirmed what I knew all along.

So what is the scam? You are asked to sign up for an online-dating service. Once you sign up, you can then search the pseudo name to see who "likes" you. The last thing I need is an online dating account. So if you get an e-mail from someone claiming to be a secret admirer and are not interested in creating an online dating account, you can probably delete it.

Ubiquitous WiFi

I'm not sure why, but Southwest changes its flight times about every other month. This week I am flying from Oakland to Salt Lake City at 4:00 pm while last month the flight was at 3:35 pm. You wouldn't think 25 minutes would make much of a difference, but I use public transportation to get from my office, near the San Francisco airport. As I have to go across the San Mateo bridge there is a single bus line I can use and it is mostly geared towards commuters. That means there is a bus at 11:00 am, one at 12:45 pm, and one at 2:30 pm. The 2:30 bus puts me at the airport way too late and so I take the 12:45 pm bus to catch my flight. I get to the airport at 2:00 pm if everything goes smoothly after taking a train and another bus. That gives me 2 full hours to waste at the airport. I liked it better when I was only wasting an hour and 35 minutes. Like I said, it may not sound like much, but week after week, it adds up.

This week I decided to maximize my time and came to the airport with a list of tasks to accomplish. Updating my blog was one such task. This wouldn't be possible without an Internet connection. Amazingly, I also had an Internet connection on the bus across the San Mateo bridge. Finally, chances are good that I will have an Internet connection on the flight as well.

Sometimes I want to be disconnected from the rest of the world and I loathe the ubiquitous availability of connections. However I really appreciate it when I can connect when I want to and get real work done. Besides, when I really want to get away from e-mail and the Internet, I just use the excuse that my battery died.

A College Degree

I have a brother-in-law that used to run around asking my wife's brothers how their college degrees were working out. At the time, there was a housing boom and he was making a seemingly huge amount of money with nothing but his high-school diploma and the knowledge of how to pound nails. Meanwhile my wife's brothers had spend large sums of money on their college educations and really didn't have much to show for it. I'm sure the "college" comment stung pretty bad at the time.

A little before my brother-in-law started taunting those around him, I threw him a proverbial bone and had him install a loft in my garage. He had been doing construction for some time and I figured he would do a better job than me. He told me the lumber to order and I had it delivered. Then I paid him quite well for his day of labor. That was a little over 10 years ago. Then last Thursday, that professionally-built loft that I mostly use to store empty boxes came crashing down. Had it not been for the garage-door rails, it would have crushed my two cars. Luckily I was able to get them out and the loft rebuilt without any serious damage. This time I consulted a close friend who is a mechanical engineer and he helped to ensure that the loft would never come down again.

I learned a lot about structural engineering this past weekend and I am glad there are people who spend a little extra time going to college and actually get degrees. Now the next time my brother-in-law brings up the topic of college, I can remind him that had he gone, my loft wouldn't have fallen down. You see, he didn't understand the sheer strength of grabber screws used to secure 2x4's to decks vs. lag screws used to secure joists to studs. I guess that is why he is out of work right now and my wife's brothers both have high-paying jobs.

Are You Better Off Now

It is election season and I try to avoid politics in my blog, but this is a question I keep hearing, "Are you better off today than you were 4 years ago?" One thing about technology is that it continues to evolve and so we should all be better off as time passes. The President of the United States could be a monkey with a dart board and we should all be better off with regards to our computers. So let's look back over the past 4 years and see how computer technology has improved.

When I look at my desk in my home office, I am much better off than I was 4 years ago. The biggest change is the advance in video monitor technology. I used to have a single 17-inch LCD monitor capable of displaying 1280x1024 pixels. Now I have 2 HDTV monitors on my desk. Both are seamlessly connected to my desktop computer and are capable of displaying 1920x1080 for a total size of 3840x1080 pixels. I don't know how I survived before.

Video monitors for my desktop are just the start. I also have a tablet computer. I actually have 2 tablet computers, both of which were given to me. I only keep 1 on my desk as the other one is kept upstairs in the bedroom. Most of the time I just use the tablet to play Pandora, but it is nice to be able to keep tabs on things when I leave the office without having to grab my laptop. The tablet is much lighter.

Speaking of laptops, I used to have a MacBook and now I have a MacBook Pro. The biggest difference there is that I now run a solid-state drive. They make great sense for a laptop because they are much more shock resistant. They are also a lot faster. My laptop boots in about the same amount of time as it takes me to count to 3. I'm still not sure about reliability, but my current drive is almost a year old and seems to be working great.

One final improvement worth mentioning is that we are starting to see more cloud technology. Sure some of it is just marketing. However we will start to see more services come to the cloud and life should improve because of it. Imagine walking into your house and having your digital camera automatically sync with your home network and upload your most recent photos to a staging area where you can sort them and share your favorites. We are almost there.

Technologically, we are all better off now than we were 4 years ago. Just don't let the politicians think they are responsible.