Tuesday my son and I got back from skiing and were spending the afternoon playing video games when my wife got home from work. She didn't think it was fair that she spent the day working and then came home to clean the house while we continued to have the day off. She strongly encouraged my son and I to help with the vacuuming. My son was with me when I purchased my wife's Christmas gift and wanted me to give it to her 3 days before Christmas. Why? Because the gift could have eliminated our need to do any vacuuming. I got my wife an iRobot Roomba 655.
My son pleaded with me to give it to her then so he wouldn't have to stop what he was doing and help with the house chores. I explained to him that secretly my wife was trying to see what she was getting for Christmas. She knew that I wanted to continue playing my game and that a request for help might lead to a clue as to what she was getting. If I had told her to wait until Christmas, she would know she was getting a robot vacuum, as it was high on her wish list this year.
Today we came home from skiing and my wife immediately put the robot vacuum to work while we made lunch. About 20 minutes later the vacuum returned to its charging station and announced its completion with a few chimes. My wife then emptied its completely full dust bin. She then programmed it to wake up at 3pm every Monday and Thursday to automatically vacuum the main level of our house.
Yes I have to say that the iRobot Roomba 655 is quite possibly the best Christmas gift I gave this year. Now when my wife asks for help around the house at least it won't be to vacuum.
Saturday, December 26, 2015
Friday, December 25, 2015
God Gives the best Christmas Gifts
Today is Christmas and this morning I received one of the best Christmas gifts ever: Christmas snow. There is something magical about Christmas snow. If you watch the "Frosty the Snowman" Christmas special, that is the important ingredient that brings Frosty back to life after he melts in a poinsettia greenhouse. In my case, I always have a wonderful ski experience with Christmas snow.
The whole family was up at 6am this morning opening gifts. We hung out eating candy from our stockings and then used Skype to talk to my son currently living in Armenia. Once we were done, we headed outside and had a serious amount of snow to remove from the driveway before we could head up the mountain to go skiing. That is always a good sign. It was especially nice to pull into the parking lot and immediately find a premium parking spot so close to the lifts.
We spent the next several hours skiing the wonderful fresh powder that has fallen over the past few days. It was glorious skiing where you could point your skis downhill and make the smallest of turns. There was so much snow, you didn't need to make a lot of turns to slow down. When you got to the bottom, you could look up and see your superb figure-8 ski tracks. It was as perfect as a day of skiing as could be. Life is good this Christmas.
The whole family was up at 6am this morning opening gifts. We hung out eating candy from our stockings and then used Skype to talk to my son currently living in Armenia. Once we were done, we headed outside and had a serious amount of snow to remove from the driveway before we could head up the mountain to go skiing. That is always a good sign. It was especially nice to pull into the parking lot and immediately find a premium parking spot so close to the lifts.
We spent the next several hours skiing the wonderful fresh powder that has fallen over the past few days. It was glorious skiing where you could point your skis downhill and make the smallest of turns. There was so much snow, you didn't need to make a lot of turns to slow down. When you got to the bottom, you could look up and see your superb figure-8 ski tracks. It was as perfect as a day of skiing as could be. Life is good this Christmas.
Thursday, December 24, 2015
Technology Musings on Christmas Eve
Today is Christmas Eve and I have spent it as I usually do by spending the morning up skiing. I enjoyed today much better than yesterday as more of the mountain is open to help dissipate the crowds. When the lines started getting too long, we called it quits and came home.
As I sit in front of my computer this afternoon, I find it difficult to comprehend that tomorrow will be Christmas. The day where the Christian world celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ. Sometimes it seems that science or technology can often be at odds with religion. During these times I am reminded of a quote by Albert Einstein that says something along the lines of, "The more I delve into the mysteries of the Universe, the more I believe in God." Einstein was a pretty smart guy and so we might want to think about what he has said before dismissing the existence of God as easily as we do.
As you go about celebrating Christmas throughout the remainder of today and all of tomorrow, remember to keep technology in perspective. Technology is here to help us live more comfortably while Jesus Christ taught us how to live with our fellow man. Both benefit us all, but one may be just a bit more important.
As I sit in front of my computer this afternoon, I find it difficult to comprehend that tomorrow will be Christmas. The day where the Christian world celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ. Sometimes it seems that science or technology can often be at odds with religion. During these times I am reminded of a quote by Albert Einstein that says something along the lines of, "The more I delve into the mysteries of the Universe, the more I believe in God." Einstein was a pretty smart guy and so we might want to think about what he has said before dismissing the existence of God as easily as we do.
As you go about celebrating Christmas throughout the remainder of today and all of tomorrow, remember to keep technology in perspective. Technology is here to help us live more comfortably while Jesus Christ taught us how to live with our fellow man. Both benefit us all, but one may be just a bit more important.
Wednesday, December 23, 2015
Finally Some Video Game Time
This rarely ever happens but today was one of those days where skiing was just not that great. All of the new snow makes it tough for the mountain to get everything open in a timely manner. When there are only 3 chairlifts running over the Christmas break, lines can get pretty long. After waiting in lift lines twice for about 45 minutes, I decided I was done skiing and headed home. One of the benefits of a season's pass at a ski resort is not having to stick around all day if you don't think the skiing is worth it. Today it wasn't.
I find that I am much more satisfied with my Saturdays when I try to get some errands taken care of around the house. While today isn't a Saturday, it sort of feels like one so when I finished skiing, I immediately attacked some necessary errands. Only after they were completed did I feel I could play video games. My oldest son took a look at my video game collection and laughed at me because I have such a large collection of unopened games. He took one out an put it in my console so I could start playing it. Then he pulled one out and put it in the second console and started playing it. Remember that it is Christmas break and so we have two TV's and two video game consoles in the TV room. It is a temporary thing though.
I enjoyed the suggestion from my son but opted for a different game. We both sat down and played for several hours. One of the nice things about the PlayStation 4 is that you can plug a headphones into the controller. My son had on his while I had on mine. That way we were not distracted by each other's game. It was a great way to pass the afternoon. With tomorrow being Christmas Eve, I doubt we will be doing much game playing and so it was good to have some time today.
I find that I am much more satisfied with my Saturdays when I try to get some errands taken care of around the house. While today isn't a Saturday, it sort of feels like one so when I finished skiing, I immediately attacked some necessary errands. Only after they were completed did I feel I could play video games. My oldest son took a look at my video game collection and laughed at me because I have such a large collection of unopened games. He took one out an put it in my console so I could start playing it. Then he pulled one out and put it in the second console and started playing it. Remember that it is Christmas break and so we have two TV's and two video game consoles in the TV room. It is a temporary thing though.
I enjoyed the suggestion from my son but opted for a different game. We both sat down and played for several hours. One of the nice things about the PlayStation 4 is that you can plug a headphones into the controller. My son had on his while I had on mine. That way we were not distracted by each other's game. It was a great way to pass the afternoon. With tomorrow being Christmas Eve, I doubt we will be doing much game playing and so it was good to have some time today.
Tuesday, December 22, 2015
The Risk of Buying Things Online
I have opted to forego a lot of the hassle of driving places to purchase Christmas gifts this year. Instead I have tried to purchase a number of things online. Most of the time this isn't an issue. However this year I am having to do a fair number of returns. I can't go into too many details as it is still before Christmas and I don't want to spoil anyone's surprise. There is one case where I did get something for myself: some active 3D glasses for a new computer monitor.
Normally I wouldn't buy anything for myself before Christmas except that I got a really great deal on a 3D monitor: $50. I knew it didn't come with the required glasses at that price and so I ordered a 4-pack of them from Amazon. Interestingly enough, the glasses ended up costing more than the monitor. Yesterday the glasses arrived and I was excited to test them with my monitor. Three of the four pairs work perfectly. The 4th pair needs to be returned.
Now Amazon has this awesome guarantee where if you are not satisfied, you can return the purchase for a full refund. The problem is, I don't want to return all of the glasses, just one pair. So I am trying to work with the seller and they want me to send back the bad pair on my dime. It is kind of a giant pain in the butt. Had I purchased them from retail store, it would just be a matter of driving to the store and getting them replaced.
Now if this was the only case of things not working the first time around this Christmas, I would chalk it up to a fluke. However it isn't and I am rather jaded with online purchases this year. Hopefully your experiences are different this year.
Normally I wouldn't buy anything for myself before Christmas except that I got a really great deal on a 3D monitor: $50. I knew it didn't come with the required glasses at that price and so I ordered a 4-pack of them from Amazon. Interestingly enough, the glasses ended up costing more than the monitor. Yesterday the glasses arrived and I was excited to test them with my monitor. Three of the four pairs work perfectly. The 4th pair needs to be returned.
Now Amazon has this awesome guarantee where if you are not satisfied, you can return the purchase for a full refund. The problem is, I don't want to return all of the glasses, just one pair. So I am trying to work with the seller and they want me to send back the bad pair on my dime. It is kind of a giant pain in the butt. Had I purchased them from retail store, it would just be a matter of driving to the store and getting them replaced.
Now if this was the only case of things not working the first time around this Christmas, I would chalk it up to a fluke. However it isn't and I am rather jaded with online purchases this year. Hopefully your experiences are different this year.
Saturday, December 19, 2015
Fixing a Slow Internet Connection
It is Christmas break and so my oldest son and I spent the afternoon setting up our PlayStation 4 consoles so we can kill bad guys together. Last night we saw the latest Star Wars movie and so naturally we plan to spend a fair bit of time playing Star Wars Battlefront.
This afternoon we got done skiing and decided that instead of playing split-screen coop we would each try playing on our own consoles. We set up a small monitor next to the big screen in the TV room and worked through the difficulties of having 2 consoles so close together. When we tried to initiate Share Play, we were told that my home Internet connection was too slow. So we pulled out some tools to see if we could fix the problem. The first was to bring in a laptop and run a speed test over the WiFi network. The tool of choice can be found at SpeedTest.net. I then ran another test on a computer hardwired into the home Internet connection. The wired connection tested at over 50 Megabits per second. The WiFi tested at only 2. That is a huge difference.
The next course of action was to try and figure out how we could speed things up over WiFi. My son introduced me to a tool on his Android phone called WiFi Analyzer from farproc. This showed us that all of my neighbors have their 2.5 Gigahertz WiFi routers all set up around channel 11. Guess where my WiFi connection was set? It was on "Auto" but was really using channel 11. My router only does 2.5 Gigahertz and so I manually set the channel to 3, where nobody seemed to be. I then reran the speed test and got much better numbers. Unfortunately they were not good enough for Share Play.
When trying to use Share Play you are told that it is best to use a wired Ethernet connection. Fortunately I have a large spool of CAT-5 cable and the tools to make Ethernet cables. We measured everything out and made 2 cables capable of reaching from the hub in my office to the PlayStation 4 consoles in the TV room. We tested the connection and the network ran sufficiently fast to use Share Play.
We got ready to play and then discovered that with Share Play, my son could watch me play or I could watch him. However we each couldn't play Star Wars Battlefront with only a single copy of the game. That was a bummer. Fortunately we each have a copy of the game and so we popped in the 2nd disk and have enjoyed several survival games together.
It is good that I now have enough network speed to use Share Play but the real problem turned out to be that we each needed our own copies of the game. I am glad we went through this exercise though as I now know a lot more about WiFi networking and have the tools to fix problems when they arise. Hopefully someone else finds this useful.
This afternoon we got done skiing and decided that instead of playing split-screen coop we would each try playing on our own consoles. We set up a small monitor next to the big screen in the TV room and worked through the difficulties of having 2 consoles so close together. When we tried to initiate Share Play, we were told that my home Internet connection was too slow. So we pulled out some tools to see if we could fix the problem. The first was to bring in a laptop and run a speed test over the WiFi network. The tool of choice can be found at SpeedTest.net. I then ran another test on a computer hardwired into the home Internet connection. The wired connection tested at over 50 Megabits per second. The WiFi tested at only 2. That is a huge difference.
The next course of action was to try and figure out how we could speed things up over WiFi. My son introduced me to a tool on his Android phone called WiFi Analyzer from farproc. This showed us that all of my neighbors have their 2.5 Gigahertz WiFi routers all set up around channel 11. Guess where my WiFi connection was set? It was on "Auto" but was really using channel 11. My router only does 2.5 Gigahertz and so I manually set the channel to 3, where nobody seemed to be. I then reran the speed test and got much better numbers. Unfortunately they were not good enough for Share Play.
When trying to use Share Play you are told that it is best to use a wired Ethernet connection. Fortunately I have a large spool of CAT-5 cable and the tools to make Ethernet cables. We measured everything out and made 2 cables capable of reaching from the hub in my office to the PlayStation 4 consoles in the TV room. We tested the connection and the network ran sufficiently fast to use Share Play.
We got ready to play and then discovered that with Share Play, my son could watch me play or I could watch him. However we each couldn't play Star Wars Battlefront with only a single copy of the game. That was a bummer. Fortunately we each have a copy of the game and so we popped in the 2nd disk and have enjoyed several survival games together.
It is good that I now have enough network speed to use Share Play but the real problem turned out to be that we each needed our own copies of the game. I am glad we went through this exercise though as I now know a lot more about WiFi networking and have the tools to fix problems when they arise. Hopefully someone else finds this useful.
Tuesday, December 15, 2015
My 2015 Christmas List
Normally at this time of year I like to put together a Christmas list to give people ideas for the season. Last year I took a departure from the norm and wished for small and simple things that didn't have anything to do with computers nor technology. I figured it is only fair that I try to go back to a regular list and provide some good ideas for those last-minute shoppers:
New Video Games: There are 2 games that I can recommend this year: Star Wars Battlefront and Fallout 4. My recommendation comes from playing one of the games at home a lot and the other comes from talking with other gamer players and listening to what they are playing. Both games seem to be a lot of fun and will bring countless hours of entertainment.
Old Video Games: I have a huge collection of older video games and have seen these for sale at rock-bottom prices in places like Target and Best Buy. My two favorite games that I have played this year have to be Tomb Raider and Red Dead Redemption. Both provided hours of enjoyment. I enjoyed Tomb Raider so much, I returned the copy I borrowed from a friend and purchased a version for the PS4 at Game Stop during a Black Friday sale for $15.
Television: I hate to recommend any one brand or model as everyone has such varying requirements. However I think that if you are in the market for a new TV you should consider upgrading to one of the 4K models. A normal HDTV has a resolution of 1920x1080 pixels. The new UltraHD TV's are 3840x2160. That is the equivalent of 4 HDTV's. Furthermore they are coming down in price so that they are actually affordable.
There are a number of other smaller gifts that you might consider. In the past I have recommended USB thumb drives. I don't see a need for these as much simply because there are a number of online places to exchange large computer files. You can never have too many memory cards though. The only trick is making sure you get the right ones. While it used to be safe to pick up SD cards in the past, there are a number of different format cards for different devices. I would love to add a memory card to my Android phone and my kids are always running out of space on the cards used in their DSLR cameras.
Another small gift recommendation in the past has been USB cables. I now have a huge supply of them but find myself lacking HDMI cables. HDMI cables are not that expensive and I would definitely appreciate having a few extras.
Hopefully your Christmas shopping is done and this list is useless. If not, I hope I have given one or two good ideas to choose from. Merry Christmas.
New Video Games: There are 2 games that I can recommend this year: Star Wars Battlefront and Fallout 4. My recommendation comes from playing one of the games at home a lot and the other comes from talking with other gamer players and listening to what they are playing. Both games seem to be a lot of fun and will bring countless hours of entertainment.
Old Video Games: I have a huge collection of older video games and have seen these for sale at rock-bottom prices in places like Target and Best Buy. My two favorite games that I have played this year have to be Tomb Raider and Red Dead Redemption. Both provided hours of enjoyment. I enjoyed Tomb Raider so much, I returned the copy I borrowed from a friend and purchased a version for the PS4 at Game Stop during a Black Friday sale for $15.
Television: I hate to recommend any one brand or model as everyone has such varying requirements. However I think that if you are in the market for a new TV you should consider upgrading to one of the 4K models. A normal HDTV has a resolution of 1920x1080 pixels. The new UltraHD TV's are 3840x2160. That is the equivalent of 4 HDTV's. Furthermore they are coming down in price so that they are actually affordable.
There are a number of other smaller gifts that you might consider. In the past I have recommended USB thumb drives. I don't see a need for these as much simply because there are a number of online places to exchange large computer files. You can never have too many memory cards though. The only trick is making sure you get the right ones. While it used to be safe to pick up SD cards in the past, there are a number of different format cards for different devices. I would love to add a memory card to my Android phone and my kids are always running out of space on the cards used in their DSLR cameras.
Another small gift recommendation in the past has been USB cables. I now have a huge supply of them but find myself lacking HDMI cables. HDMI cables are not that expensive and I would definitely appreciate having a few extras.
Hopefully your Christmas shopping is done and this list is useless. If not, I hope I have given one or two good ideas to choose from. Merry Christmas.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
