So, I've been pretty terrible about updating this blog. The last year or two has been pretty heavily dedicated to two things.
First, I've been working at EMC and it's been quite the uphill climb to get the knowledge of the products I support. Some of the deepest learning I've ever had. So, normally I just come home exhausted.
Second, I've been writing, if not on the blog. I finally got my first book up on Amazon. It's been a lot of work to get it done. But worth every agonizing moment I think.
I've also been working on the follow up to this book. It's still pretty early in the works but it's making progress.
And,, oddly enough, I've launched, with the help of my friend and co-writer Jamison Meurer, a side story as well.
Eventually the single story above will be a fully fleshed out universe that I and Jamison both hope you will be interested in.
Thanks for reading.
November 15, 2014
June 16, 2013
New House/8 Months
So I bought a new house. That's my excuse for not writing a post in the last 8 months. But that's really jumping a lot of time.
Over the last 8 months I've thought of a number of things to write about. I have a tablet review to write about even. I'm probably going to save that until I have 2 tablets I can review at the same time, which should be soon. The point is that I have not actually sat down to do any of the writing because things have been somewhat hectic for me for the last 8 months or so.
Somewhere a bit over a year ago I found out that I was going to lose my job at UC Irvine working on the National Children's Study. The study leaders decided to restructure the study and remove it from the University along with a number of other large schools. So it wasn't like I was getting fired and it wasn't like I was alone in my predicament. There were hundred of people around the country in the same boat including people I had come to know from the University of Utah and South Dakota State University to name a few.
The bright light in all of this was that I would be one of the lucky few to stay on until the very end. I had time to look for another job.
The sad thing was, I didn't find one. I watched about 8 months go by and couldn't find anything quite like what I wanted. What I was really looking for was a job in Utah doing some sort of IT. In the end I lost my job on September 30, 2012, my 32nd birthday.
My wife soon after was offered a job in Salt Lake City and so we packed up and returned to Utah. We moved into my wife's parent's basement where we would ultimately stay for the next 8 months.
I was only unemployed for a short time though it seemed quite long. I found work for a company called EMC, which a few days before the interview I had never heard of. Turns out EMC is one of the largest tech companies in the world and had recently opened an office in Draper, UT.
Along with the new job came a pretty good pay increase for me over my last job. Living in my in-law's basement it didn't take very long with my wife and I both working to realize that perhaps we could save up enough money to get a down payment on a house instead of endlessly renting.
With her parent's blessing we stayed in their house longer than we originally intended and started to look at homes. Being that this was the first time for us to buy we didn't really know what we were in for. Home shopping can be rather heart wrenching. You find one you like then lose it to another bidder. Or you find one you can afford and realize that the fixing of it will cost you more than you can afford.
One night as we were putting together what we thought was a final concession to get over with it and settle on a house we liked but were not sure we wanted for the asking price an email came in. My wife was getting the daily market change emails. A house that was previously out of our target range suddenly dropped $20K and into our range. We loved the pictures. It was a similar floor plan to the one we were looking at making final offer on that night anyway. The main difference was this new one was in a better area.
So we all jumped in cars and drove off to see this new house. This time we were so ready we carried an offer pre-filled out with us. We figured we had nothing to lose at this point.
We arrived at the house at nearly 9PM. The owner was working in the driveway. The kids were supposed to be asleep. The owner's wife came out and said we could come in because the kids were not asleep as of yet.
Inside the house was very nice to our eyes. It was not new but it was in good condition. It had amenities we were not expecting in our price range. In short it was just what we were looking for in our first home.
At this point I could go on and try to describe everything but I am going to just send you to the photos.
Enjoy:
Over the last 8 months I've thought of a number of things to write about. I have a tablet review to write about even. I'm probably going to save that until I have 2 tablets I can review at the same time, which should be soon. The point is that I have not actually sat down to do any of the writing because things have been somewhat hectic for me for the last 8 months or so.
Somewhere a bit over a year ago I found out that I was going to lose my job at UC Irvine working on the National Children's Study. The study leaders decided to restructure the study and remove it from the University along with a number of other large schools. So it wasn't like I was getting fired and it wasn't like I was alone in my predicament. There were hundred of people around the country in the same boat including people I had come to know from the University of Utah and South Dakota State University to name a few.
The bright light in all of this was that I would be one of the lucky few to stay on until the very end. I had time to look for another job.
The sad thing was, I didn't find one. I watched about 8 months go by and couldn't find anything quite like what I wanted. What I was really looking for was a job in Utah doing some sort of IT. In the end I lost my job on September 30, 2012, my 32nd birthday.
My wife soon after was offered a job in Salt Lake City and so we packed up and returned to Utah. We moved into my wife's parent's basement where we would ultimately stay for the next 8 months.
I was only unemployed for a short time though it seemed quite long. I found work for a company called EMC, which a few days before the interview I had never heard of. Turns out EMC is one of the largest tech companies in the world and had recently opened an office in Draper, UT.
Along with the new job came a pretty good pay increase for me over my last job. Living in my in-law's basement it didn't take very long with my wife and I both working to realize that perhaps we could save up enough money to get a down payment on a house instead of endlessly renting.
With her parent's blessing we stayed in their house longer than we originally intended and started to look at homes. Being that this was the first time for us to buy we didn't really know what we were in for. Home shopping can be rather heart wrenching. You find one you like then lose it to another bidder. Or you find one you can afford and realize that the fixing of it will cost you more than you can afford.
One night as we were putting together what we thought was a final concession to get over with it and settle on a house we liked but were not sure we wanted for the asking price an email came in. My wife was getting the daily market change emails. A house that was previously out of our target range suddenly dropped $20K and into our range. We loved the pictures. It was a similar floor plan to the one we were looking at making final offer on that night anyway. The main difference was this new one was in a better area.
So we all jumped in cars and drove off to see this new house. This time we were so ready we carried an offer pre-filled out with us. We figured we had nothing to lose at this point.
We arrived at the house at nearly 9PM. The owner was working in the driveway. The kids were supposed to be asleep. The owner's wife came out and said we could come in because the kids were not asleep as of yet.
Inside the house was very nice to our eyes. It was not new but it was in good condition. It had amenities we were not expecting in our price range. In short it was just what we were looking for in our first home.
At this point I could go on and try to describe everything but I am going to just send you to the photos.
Enjoy:
August 27, 2012
It's about...
Fiction has been a passion of mine for a long time. As I've mentioned many times I'm currently writing a novel of my own. It's currently being proofread by my sister, who consequently is doing a fantastic job. I was sitting around thinking about my life and career choices. I think sometimes when I try to think about these choices objectively I feel like I've made a lot of mistakes in this area. But when I stop and remember why I love fiction I remember why I made them and why given the opportunity I would make the exact same mistakes again.
In the past ten years of my life I have worked in a number of jobs. I've had a lot of relationships outside and in addition to these jobs. In many, if not all, of these I have received an identical feedback. Everyone seems to think I should have a career in [fill in the blank with whatever they do]. When I worked with engineers I was told often that I should go back to school and become an engineer because they believed I would be good at it. I once had a counselor (well more than once) tell me I should become a counselor.
I'm not writing all of this to brag. I'm just trying to create a setting. The fact is I'm not good at everything I have done or attempted but I excel at a great many things. This leads people to think I should become a person who does one of those things for money. Okay, maybe a little bragging. In my current and nearing complete job there are many people who have come to call me a modern renaissance man because I've become known as the person who can do anything that needs doing.
The most tempting of these things is counselling. Particularly clinical social work. You get to help people with problems they are facing in this line of work. But there is a huge downside. You have to help people with problems they are facing. The burn out rate for this is about the same as accounting. I understand it's something like 7 years. Not a long career for something that would take me an additional 4 years of schooling minimum to get into.
I'm not trying to say I don't want to help people. In fact the opposite is true. I love helping people. In fact I think this is central to my personality. For some reason I have this personality that others find approachable with their problems. I like to think over the years I've helped a lot of people with things. In some cases complete strangers.
Let's talk about problems. Problems are important. We all have them. In fact today I was reading an interesting post on an old friend's blog about their personal financial problems. I found their post to be important. It's important because financial problems are an opportunity for character growth. It's also important because their my friend and I can relate to this problem.
And the real importance of dealing with problems is in relating to those problems. In my younger years I was often met with unbelieving stares from adults that couldn't believe a teenager could relate or understand their adult problems due to lack of life experience. But I could. I can. I have always been able to relate to people and their problems very well.
The way I see it there are three ways to relate to problems other people are having. First, you have experienced it yourself. Second, you haven't experienced it but have experienced enough hard things to understand how hard a thing must be. Third, you can feel the pain of the person experiencing a problem without having any prior experience. I'll explain that one later.
As a teenager I think I had a lot of life experience that was unusual for people my age. I believe this was mostly due to the fact that my parents were much older than the parents of my peers. A lot of adults used to say I shouldn't know some of the things I knew about. Whatever.
Moving forward in my life there is a singular experience that has been more valuable to me than any other when it comes to problems. I battled deep depression as a teenager. I know this is probably common today. But let me relate the story as it relates to where I am going.
When I was 16 my parents moved from Vallejo, California to Orem, Utah. The adjustment was hard for me. I left all the friends I had in Vallejo. As a sidebar these friends are still my closest 16 years later. In Orem I had no friends. There were kids in my neighborhood and in my school. Most would not talk to me. The few who did were somewhat polite but not friends. In fact I can barely remember any of their names.
So for the whole year between 16 and 17 I was depressed. It was caused mostly by a feeling of being an outcast. It didn't help that my sister left for college in Idaho almost the moment we got to Utah. My parents were overworked at the time and often spent weeks at a time in London doing work. I was a loner and the other kids in the neighborhood made it abundantly clear that they didn't want to change that.
I turned to fiction at this time. Not that I didn't like to read already. I loved to read as far back as I can remember. I loved to read Indiana Jones novels and Star Wars novels from as young as 11. I just never engrossed myself in it as much as I did at that time in my life.
I started listening to punk rock in earnest at this time. It wasn't as important to me as my books but I almost always had something running through my head.
At this time in my life I really remember feeling terrible almost all the time. I felt like people just didn't want to be around me and I couldn't figure out why. I spent weeks at a time with minimal human interaction despite going to school and working fast food. It got to the point where I was honestly considering suicide at one point. Before you get alarmed this time passed. The point of this is how it passed.
When I read books filled with rich characters and amazing plots I felt like my world of problems were less significant. I actually didn't even feel my problems as long as I was engrossed in others problems. I especially liked fantasy novels because the problems they faced were often things that seems insurmountable. They helped me feel like my problems were only temporary. And in truth they were. Before the school year ended I had a friend. He was sort of strange in his own right and outcast a bit by his former California home.
So I learned that problems are often temporary. I learned that they can often be waded through with help from a good book. I learned that I wanted to belong. I also realized that I wanted to share this with other kids who needed to learn that they could also wade through troubled times with a few words penned by a caring author.
To this day I think the very core of Punk Rock is a sense of belonging for those who don't belong. Nobody who ever met me would guess for a second that I was a punk. I've never looked the part, ever. But when I'm at the show I belong. Put me in that mosh pit and I belong. The kids there and the adults there know me because I'm them. I'm the outcast. The thing I have come to understand as I grow older is that we are all their screaming and spinning and taking an elbow in the chin. In the mosh pit we all know that we are the bruised and the broken. That's why when we get knocked down the guy that knocked us down reaches down to pick us up and give us a hug that speaks volumes about our collective sense of belonging with those that don't belong.
Fiction is Punk Rock. It's where we belong when our problems seem insurmountable.
So I think back on my choice to write stories. It was a choice born out of a belief that I had to share the escape. I can't play music but I can weave a tale on occasion. So I feel it's my responsibility to share that story. From time to time I think it's also my responsibility to listen to your problems. Because your problems and my problems are the same. That's the secret to being able to understand adult problems when I was a teenager. I realized those were my problems in the future. It wasn't hard to put myself in those shoes and think them through if as an outsider in some sense.
So to finish the title, it's about belonging. It's about remembering we are all human and we all share these problems. It's about remembering that your problems were once my problems or may one day be my problems. Fiction is about us.
In the past ten years of my life I have worked in a number of jobs. I've had a lot of relationships outside and in addition to these jobs. In many, if not all, of these I have received an identical feedback. Everyone seems to think I should have a career in [fill in the blank with whatever they do]. When I worked with engineers I was told often that I should go back to school and become an engineer because they believed I would be good at it. I once had a counselor (well more than once) tell me I should become a counselor.
I'm not writing all of this to brag. I'm just trying to create a setting. The fact is I'm not good at everything I have done or attempted but I excel at a great many things. This leads people to think I should become a person who does one of those things for money. Okay, maybe a little bragging. In my current and nearing complete job there are many people who have come to call me a modern renaissance man because I've become known as the person who can do anything that needs doing.
The most tempting of these things is counselling. Particularly clinical social work. You get to help people with problems they are facing in this line of work. But there is a huge downside. You have to help people with problems they are facing. The burn out rate for this is about the same as accounting. I understand it's something like 7 years. Not a long career for something that would take me an additional 4 years of schooling minimum to get into.
I'm not trying to say I don't want to help people. In fact the opposite is true. I love helping people. In fact I think this is central to my personality. For some reason I have this personality that others find approachable with their problems. I like to think over the years I've helped a lot of people with things. In some cases complete strangers.
Let's talk about problems. Problems are important. We all have them. In fact today I was reading an interesting post on an old friend's blog about their personal financial problems. I found their post to be important. It's important because financial problems are an opportunity for character growth. It's also important because their my friend and I can relate to this problem.
And the real importance of dealing with problems is in relating to those problems. In my younger years I was often met with unbelieving stares from adults that couldn't believe a teenager could relate or understand their adult problems due to lack of life experience. But I could. I can. I have always been able to relate to people and their problems very well.
The way I see it there are three ways to relate to problems other people are having. First, you have experienced it yourself. Second, you haven't experienced it but have experienced enough hard things to understand how hard a thing must be. Third, you can feel the pain of the person experiencing a problem without having any prior experience. I'll explain that one later.
As a teenager I think I had a lot of life experience that was unusual for people my age. I believe this was mostly due to the fact that my parents were much older than the parents of my peers. A lot of adults used to say I shouldn't know some of the things I knew about. Whatever.
Moving forward in my life there is a singular experience that has been more valuable to me than any other when it comes to problems. I battled deep depression as a teenager. I know this is probably common today. But let me relate the story as it relates to where I am going.
When I was 16 my parents moved from Vallejo, California to Orem, Utah. The adjustment was hard for me. I left all the friends I had in Vallejo. As a sidebar these friends are still my closest 16 years later. In Orem I had no friends. There were kids in my neighborhood and in my school. Most would not talk to me. The few who did were somewhat polite but not friends. In fact I can barely remember any of their names.
So for the whole year between 16 and 17 I was depressed. It was caused mostly by a feeling of being an outcast. It didn't help that my sister left for college in Idaho almost the moment we got to Utah. My parents were overworked at the time and often spent weeks at a time in London doing work. I was a loner and the other kids in the neighborhood made it abundantly clear that they didn't want to change that.
I turned to fiction at this time. Not that I didn't like to read already. I loved to read as far back as I can remember. I loved to read Indiana Jones novels and Star Wars novels from as young as 11. I just never engrossed myself in it as much as I did at that time in my life.
I started listening to punk rock in earnest at this time. It wasn't as important to me as my books but I almost always had something running through my head.
At this time in my life I really remember feeling terrible almost all the time. I felt like people just didn't want to be around me and I couldn't figure out why. I spent weeks at a time with minimal human interaction despite going to school and working fast food. It got to the point where I was honestly considering suicide at one point. Before you get alarmed this time passed. The point of this is how it passed.
When I read books filled with rich characters and amazing plots I felt like my world of problems were less significant. I actually didn't even feel my problems as long as I was engrossed in others problems. I especially liked fantasy novels because the problems they faced were often things that seems insurmountable. They helped me feel like my problems were only temporary. And in truth they were. Before the school year ended I had a friend. He was sort of strange in his own right and outcast a bit by his former California home.
So I learned that problems are often temporary. I learned that they can often be waded through with help from a good book. I learned that I wanted to belong. I also realized that I wanted to share this with other kids who needed to learn that they could also wade through troubled times with a few words penned by a caring author.
To this day I think the very core of Punk Rock is a sense of belonging for those who don't belong. Nobody who ever met me would guess for a second that I was a punk. I've never looked the part, ever. But when I'm at the show I belong. Put me in that mosh pit and I belong. The kids there and the adults there know me because I'm them. I'm the outcast. The thing I have come to understand as I grow older is that we are all their screaming and spinning and taking an elbow in the chin. In the mosh pit we all know that we are the bruised and the broken. That's why when we get knocked down the guy that knocked us down reaches down to pick us up and give us a hug that speaks volumes about our collective sense of belonging with those that don't belong.
Fiction is Punk Rock. It's where we belong when our problems seem insurmountable.
So I think back on my choice to write stories. It was a choice born out of a belief that I had to share the escape. I can't play music but I can weave a tale on occasion. So I feel it's my responsibility to share that story. From time to time I think it's also my responsibility to listen to your problems. Because your problems and my problems are the same. That's the secret to being able to understand adult problems when I was a teenager. I realized those were my problems in the future. It wasn't hard to put myself in those shoes and think them through if as an outsider in some sense.
So to finish the title, it's about belonging. It's about remembering we are all human and we all share these problems. It's about remembering that your problems were once my problems or may one day be my problems. Fiction is about us.
Android Apps - Paid Edition
Perhaps by now you have had some fun playing with your free Android apps. Let's talk about what money can buy you now.
Before we get started talking about apps we should get out of the way that once you start buying stuff in the Play Store you will set have to set up account info. Basically the process is simple. You put a credit card on file. This card can then be associated with your Google or Gmail account (they are the same thing in case you didn't know). Once you have a credit card on file you are now utilizing the Google Wallet system. This comes in handy if you buy stuff from websites that allow you to checkout using Google Wallet. It's nice in that you don't have to have the website store your credit card info as Google let's them charge it without them keeping the card info.
I'll start with Google Play Music. Yeah, technically it's free. In fact it might be one of my favorite free apps. Here is how this one will work. First, since you have an Android phone already (I assume), you kind of already have this. If you ever try to buy any music in the Play Store you have this. But I want to make sure you utilize it correctly. You see Play Music is more than just an app for your phone. It's a music system. Start by going to play.google.com on your computer or laptop and clicking on "My Music". Once there you may have to set it up. This should be a few clicks at most. Once complete look for the "Upload Music" button on the right side of the screen. Follow the instructions to download and install the Google Music Manager. It'll be worth it.
The Google Music Manager is a very small program that uploads your music library to the cloud. What this means is that you will be able to access your music from anywhere there is an Internet connection. This is really good. It takes some time to upload a music library. It took me about 5 days actually. Times will vary depending on the size of your library. The good news is that you don't have to worry about losing your tunes again. They will be stored forever for free.
Now, back to the app. The reason this app is on my paid app list at the top is that buying music from the Play Store is a really great experience. A lot of the music I have purchased on sale at $4 or $6 for an album. Now the selection isn't perfect, for instance they still have basically no AC/DC, but it is growing. The part I love is that once you buy something it is instantly added to your library. If you want to download it later, no problem. The app makes offline a one click option from an album menu and for a computer the website allows you to download your entire library if you want in 1 click(ish).
A couple of games I recommend are the Cut The Rope series. I think there are a couple of games now. They are relatively low cost. I think I paid 99 cents for each of them. They are great little puzzle games you can play to kill a few minutes while waiting in the laundromat or for a movie to start.
Another game I found to be a real time waster is Plants vs Zombies. This game is great. Hours of playtime. What I found to be really interesting about it is that this game cost me $1.99. A long time ago I was interested in buying the PC version but was always turned off by the $19.99 price tag. It amazes me that the phone version costs a tenth of that and is the same game.
One last game to talk about. A friend recommended Where's My Water to me a while back. It's great. I think it's $1.99. I would say it's about as entertaining as Cut the Rope. Just be careful because this one is a battery drainer. Also it doesn't run great on older phones though it does run through the use of downgrading water effects.
A couple of honorable mentions. Though free I recommend the Amazon and Papa John's Pizza apps. Nothing like ordering a pizza from your car on the drive home from work. Amazon will come in handy when you want to do some price comparisons while you are out.
That's about it. I also own a Sudoku app that I paid money for. I used the free version for over a year. I paid money for it because I figured they people who made it did so good that they deserved my dollar. Otherwise I don't own very many paid apps. If you have any you would recommend leave it in the comments. I'm always looking for apps that cost money that are worth the price. I'm always looking for recommendations.
Before we get started talking about apps we should get out of the way that once you start buying stuff in the Play Store you will set have to set up account info. Basically the process is simple. You put a credit card on file. This card can then be associated with your Google or Gmail account (they are the same thing in case you didn't know). Once you have a credit card on file you are now utilizing the Google Wallet system. This comes in handy if you buy stuff from websites that allow you to checkout using Google Wallet. It's nice in that you don't have to have the website store your credit card info as Google let's them charge it without them keeping the card info.
I'll start with Google Play Music. Yeah, technically it's free. In fact it might be one of my favorite free apps. Here is how this one will work. First, since you have an Android phone already (I assume), you kind of already have this. If you ever try to buy any music in the Play Store you have this. But I want to make sure you utilize it correctly. You see Play Music is more than just an app for your phone. It's a music system. Start by going to play.google.com on your computer or laptop and clicking on "My Music". Once there you may have to set it up. This should be a few clicks at most. Once complete look for the "Upload Music" button on the right side of the screen. Follow the instructions to download and install the Google Music Manager. It'll be worth it.
The Google Music Manager is a very small program that uploads your music library to the cloud. What this means is that you will be able to access your music from anywhere there is an Internet connection. This is really good. It takes some time to upload a music library. It took me about 5 days actually. Times will vary depending on the size of your library. The good news is that you don't have to worry about losing your tunes again. They will be stored forever for free.
Now, back to the app. The reason this app is on my paid app list at the top is that buying music from the Play Store is a really great experience. A lot of the music I have purchased on sale at $4 or $6 for an album. Now the selection isn't perfect, for instance they still have basically no AC/DC, but it is growing. The part I love is that once you buy something it is instantly added to your library. If you want to download it later, no problem. The app makes offline a one click option from an album menu and for a computer the website allows you to download your entire library if you want in 1 click(ish).
A couple of games I recommend are the Cut The Rope series. I think there are a couple of games now. They are relatively low cost. I think I paid 99 cents for each of them. They are great little puzzle games you can play to kill a few minutes while waiting in the laundromat or for a movie to start.
Another game I found to be a real time waster is Plants vs Zombies. This game is great. Hours of playtime. What I found to be really interesting about it is that this game cost me $1.99. A long time ago I was interested in buying the PC version but was always turned off by the $19.99 price tag. It amazes me that the phone version costs a tenth of that and is the same game.
One last game to talk about. A friend recommended Where's My Water to me a while back. It's great. I think it's $1.99. I would say it's about as entertaining as Cut the Rope. Just be careful because this one is a battery drainer. Also it doesn't run great on older phones though it does run through the use of downgrading water effects.
A couple of honorable mentions. Though free I recommend the Amazon and Papa John's Pizza apps. Nothing like ordering a pizza from your car on the drive home from work. Amazon will come in handy when you want to do some price comparisons while you are out.
That's about it. I also own a Sudoku app that I paid money for. I used the free version for over a year. I paid money for it because I figured they people who made it did so good that they deserved my dollar. Otherwise I don't own very many paid apps. If you have any you would recommend leave it in the comments. I'm always looking for apps that cost money that are worth the price. I'm always looking for recommendations.
July 2, 2012
Android Apps - Free Edition
I got to thinking the other day about things I might write about. I realized that I've had an Android phone for more than 2 years and have yet to talk about those things that make smart phones great. So I am going to spend a bit of time reviewing and recommending a handful of apps that I find to be worth writing about, the free ones at least.
Whenever a conversation comes up with a friend thinking of getting a smart phone I mention that the number 1 app that I use and that I know others use is Google Maps. If you ever use a map program on your computer you know that it's a great way to get to new places and get around while you are in new places. Having this on your phone is awesome. I can't count the number of times when my wife and I have used it to find places to eat while we were already out somewhere. We love to read reviews of places nearby that we can see but are sometimes skeptical of. There have been times where Maps has helped my wife get home from trips around Los Angeles. And there have been many days where the traffic report in Maps has helped us avoid hours in gridlock. It's a no brainer really and it comes with almost any Android device. If you bought an Android phone and it wasn't already there you might consider returning it for something else.
Recently I read a good review for an app called Vlingo. Basically it is a voice search feature similar to Siri. Now Android comes stock with a voice search capability and has long before Siri ever showed up on an Apple device. Vlingo tries to expand on what is already there. One excellent feature is the safe driving mode. When turned on it will read your incoming text messages to you. It's not bad when going on long trips. Vlingo does a few things that Google's voice search doesn't. For instance it will open apps. I think this is the main shortcoming of the previous versions of Google's version. However, in coming months a new version of Voice Search is being packaged with the newest version of Android that will probably make Vlingo irrelevant. I'm not certain this feature will be ported to older versions of Android. So my recommendation is to go ahead and give Vlingo a try.
Another free app I recently downloaded that I can't get enough of is called Silent Time. This app is something that runs in the background once you set it up to provide you with, wait for it, silent time. I got used to CyanogenMod recently. CM has a similar feature built right in where you can set certain times of the day or night to not take phone calls. Silent time is a bit more powerful. It gives you options similar to alarm clocks. You can set up a lot of timers if you have a lot of needs. In my case I set up 3. I have 2 timers set up to make my phone shut up all night long during the weekdays and longer on weekends. I have a few friends in Africa that occasionally forget to parse the time difference when they call me. It's not fun having your phone ring in the middle of the night on a work day. Also since I use my phone as my alarm clock I find that I almost never turn it off at night. The last setting I have for church. Since I take my phone to church and always set it to vibrate I thought it would be convenient if the phone did the button pushing for me. The neat thing here is that it lets you distinguish between full silent and vibrate modes.
Some of my friends like to tell me they could never read a book on a phone. I currently have 4 apps designed mainly for reading. I have Nook, Kindle, Play Books and LDS Scriptures. At first I was skeptical of reading on such a small screen. I have been pleasantly surprised at how comfortable reading on a phone can be. I am currently reading The Reality Dysfunction on my Nook reader. There are a lot of eBook readers available now. Almost all of them have apps that can be used on a phone or a tablet. Why settle for 1 reader when I can have 4. I should add that they are not all equal. I personally prefer the Nook reader experience. The pages turn and it is easy to read type. I know other people prefer the Kindle app for other reasons. I have used them all and usually just read on whichever one sales me the book for the best price. If the prices are the same I default to the Nook. The apps are free though the books are not.
One last one I want to recommend trying is HeyTell. This is an app that reproduces the push to talk functionality of older phones like Nextel used to have. I remember my uncle had everyone on his construction crew carry those things around back in the day. Heytell doesn't use phone minutes. It sends short voice messages over the internet between users. It doesn't use your contacts like a phone either. You set up friend lists. Right now only a few people I know use it so I only message a few people. But for those few people it has replaced texting. It's simple and easy and the voice quality is excellent. The audio does come out of the speaker portion of your phone so if you have a bad speaker phone it will sound as good as your speaker can handle.
I have a lot more. I will follow this up later with some games and some things I actually spent money on.
Whenever a conversation comes up with a friend thinking of getting a smart phone I mention that the number 1 app that I use and that I know others use is Google Maps. If you ever use a map program on your computer you know that it's a great way to get to new places and get around while you are in new places. Having this on your phone is awesome. I can't count the number of times when my wife and I have used it to find places to eat while we were already out somewhere. We love to read reviews of places nearby that we can see but are sometimes skeptical of. There have been times where Maps has helped my wife get home from trips around Los Angeles. And there have been many days where the traffic report in Maps has helped us avoid hours in gridlock. It's a no brainer really and it comes with almost any Android device. If you bought an Android phone and it wasn't already there you might consider returning it for something else.
Recently I read a good review for an app called Vlingo. Basically it is a voice search feature similar to Siri. Now Android comes stock with a voice search capability and has long before Siri ever showed up on an Apple device. Vlingo tries to expand on what is already there. One excellent feature is the safe driving mode. When turned on it will read your incoming text messages to you. It's not bad when going on long trips. Vlingo does a few things that Google's voice search doesn't. For instance it will open apps. I think this is the main shortcoming of the previous versions of Google's version. However, in coming months a new version of Voice Search is being packaged with the newest version of Android that will probably make Vlingo irrelevant. I'm not certain this feature will be ported to older versions of Android. So my recommendation is to go ahead and give Vlingo a try.
Another free app I recently downloaded that I can't get enough of is called Silent Time. This app is something that runs in the background once you set it up to provide you with, wait for it, silent time. I got used to CyanogenMod recently. CM has a similar feature built right in where you can set certain times of the day or night to not take phone calls. Silent time is a bit more powerful. It gives you options similar to alarm clocks. You can set up a lot of timers if you have a lot of needs. In my case I set up 3. I have 2 timers set up to make my phone shut up all night long during the weekdays and longer on weekends. I have a few friends in Africa that occasionally forget to parse the time difference when they call me. It's not fun having your phone ring in the middle of the night on a work day. Also since I use my phone as my alarm clock I find that I almost never turn it off at night. The last setting I have for church. Since I take my phone to church and always set it to vibrate I thought it would be convenient if the phone did the button pushing for me. The neat thing here is that it lets you distinguish between full silent and vibrate modes.
Some of my friends like to tell me they could never read a book on a phone. I currently have 4 apps designed mainly for reading. I have Nook, Kindle, Play Books and LDS Scriptures. At first I was skeptical of reading on such a small screen. I have been pleasantly surprised at how comfortable reading on a phone can be. I am currently reading The Reality Dysfunction on my Nook reader. There are a lot of eBook readers available now. Almost all of them have apps that can be used on a phone or a tablet. Why settle for 1 reader when I can have 4. I should add that they are not all equal. I personally prefer the Nook reader experience. The pages turn and it is easy to read type. I know other people prefer the Kindle app for other reasons. I have used them all and usually just read on whichever one sales me the book for the best price. If the prices are the same I default to the Nook. The apps are free though the books are not.
One last one I want to recommend trying is HeyTell. This is an app that reproduces the push to talk functionality of older phones like Nextel used to have. I remember my uncle had everyone on his construction crew carry those things around back in the day. Heytell doesn't use phone minutes. It sends short voice messages over the internet between users. It doesn't use your contacts like a phone either. You set up friend lists. Right now only a few people I know use it so I only message a few people. But for those few people it has replaced texting. It's simple and easy and the voice quality is excellent. The audio does come out of the speaker portion of your phone so if you have a bad speaker phone it will sound as good as your speaker can handle.
I have a lot more. I will follow this up later with some games and some things I actually spent money on.
May 7, 2012
Generic
A couple of months ago my dad was in town for a quick visit. As it so happened this coincided with my supply of ibuprofen running out. So we made a quick trip to the pharmacy.
For years I've been buying my pain killers from Costco. They have at least 3 versions of ibuprofen that I am aware of. Kirkland Signature branded, Advil and Motrin IB. For a long time we were buying the house brand because it is less expensive and you get loads of it. In fact the last time we bought this hulk of a bottle we had to throw away a significant portion of it because it expired.
After that incident my wife and I decided that we should try the Advil branded version. Mostly because it was large while not being overly large. We were fairly confident at the very least that we wouldn't be paying for so much that it would end up in the trash.
The first thing that we noticed with the Advil brand is that it effected our headaches faster. It also lasted longer. It cost more for sure but we were able to finish our first bottle before it expired. So we had a positive experience all around despite the added cost.
It ran out about the time my dad was in town. In a rush we needed some more and so we went to the pharmacy. I reached out for the Advil and my dad stopped me. He pointed out that the pharmacy brand was less expensive and you got a heckuvalot more. At this point I was not yet totally convinced of the efficacy of Advil. I figured it could have been in my head. So I conceded. I bought this outrageously large bottle of generic ibuprofen.
Over the following weeks my wife was taking a lot of pain killers. Basically she hurt her tailbone pretty bad giving birth to our son. She was very sore for a long time. She first brought to my attention that she was taking more drugs. She said that she was concerned that she was getting used to ibuprofen because she found that she was taking more of it much more often. Essentially she was taking 4 pills every 2-3 hours instead of her previous 2 pills every 4-6. She was getting really concerned.
I occasionally get headaches. Mostly they are related to occasionally drinking caffeine. So I took some one night. It was right around bed time. I was starting to feel a pretty massive headache coming on. I took 4 pills and waited it out. Nothing happened. When I say nothing I mean that 2 hours later the headache was hitting me full power and I had to take 4 more pills when I went to bed. I woke up with a headache. It was around that time my wife told me to throw that stuff away and go get some Advil.
Ever since I've been thinking about why those and other generic drugs don't seem to work as well as name brand products. I think it has to do with reputation. Think of it like the Tylenol company. They are a company named after a single product. If the quality of that product became bad they would lose a lot of reputation and a lot of money along side it. Because of this I am willing to bet these manufacturers go to great lengths to ensure their product is of the highest quality standards.
Conversely generic manufacturers have no reputation to uphold. The label that will ultimately end up on the outside of the bottle doesn't have their name on it. It has the name of the store they are making the product for. So there really isn't any reason to go to any great length to ensure quality of product. Cutting corners increases revenue.
I don't want to throw a blanket over all drugs and say the generics are never as good. I would say that for the most part they are not as good though. I don't use a lot of drugs but those that I do I prefer the name brand.
This past weekend I had a cold. I found in our drug cabinet 2 Sudofed generics. They were both said to be 12 hour pills. Neither of them lasted more than 6 and their level of effectiveness was definitely in question. Late in the evening I asked the wife to get me some real Sudofed. She bought a pack of the 24 hours stuff. I took it 13 hours ago and am still feeling fine.
The lesson here is somewhat anecdotal I'll admit. However I'll be sticking to the name brand stuff for drugs.
For years I've been buying my pain killers from Costco. They have at least 3 versions of ibuprofen that I am aware of. Kirkland Signature branded, Advil and Motrin IB. For a long time we were buying the house brand because it is less expensive and you get loads of it. In fact the last time we bought this hulk of a bottle we had to throw away a significant portion of it because it expired.
After that incident my wife and I decided that we should try the Advil branded version. Mostly because it was large while not being overly large. We were fairly confident at the very least that we wouldn't be paying for so much that it would end up in the trash.
The first thing that we noticed with the Advil brand is that it effected our headaches faster. It also lasted longer. It cost more for sure but we were able to finish our first bottle before it expired. So we had a positive experience all around despite the added cost.
It ran out about the time my dad was in town. In a rush we needed some more and so we went to the pharmacy. I reached out for the Advil and my dad stopped me. He pointed out that the pharmacy brand was less expensive and you got a heckuvalot more. At this point I was not yet totally convinced of the efficacy of Advil. I figured it could have been in my head. So I conceded. I bought this outrageously large bottle of generic ibuprofen.
Over the following weeks my wife was taking a lot of pain killers. Basically she hurt her tailbone pretty bad giving birth to our son. She was very sore for a long time. She first brought to my attention that she was taking more drugs. She said that she was concerned that she was getting used to ibuprofen because she found that she was taking more of it much more often. Essentially she was taking 4 pills every 2-3 hours instead of her previous 2 pills every 4-6. She was getting really concerned.
I occasionally get headaches. Mostly they are related to occasionally drinking caffeine. So I took some one night. It was right around bed time. I was starting to feel a pretty massive headache coming on. I took 4 pills and waited it out. Nothing happened. When I say nothing I mean that 2 hours later the headache was hitting me full power and I had to take 4 more pills when I went to bed. I woke up with a headache. It was around that time my wife told me to throw that stuff away and go get some Advil.
Ever since I've been thinking about why those and other generic drugs don't seem to work as well as name brand products. I think it has to do with reputation. Think of it like the Tylenol company. They are a company named after a single product. If the quality of that product became bad they would lose a lot of reputation and a lot of money along side it. Because of this I am willing to bet these manufacturers go to great lengths to ensure their product is of the highest quality standards.
Conversely generic manufacturers have no reputation to uphold. The label that will ultimately end up on the outside of the bottle doesn't have their name on it. It has the name of the store they are making the product for. So there really isn't any reason to go to any great length to ensure quality of product. Cutting corners increases revenue.
I don't want to throw a blanket over all drugs and say the generics are never as good. I would say that for the most part they are not as good though. I don't use a lot of drugs but those that I do I prefer the name brand.
This past weekend I had a cold. I found in our drug cabinet 2 Sudofed generics. They were both said to be 12 hour pills. Neither of them lasted more than 6 and their level of effectiveness was definitely in question. Late in the evening I asked the wife to get me some real Sudofed. She bought a pack of the 24 hours stuff. I took it 13 hours ago and am still feeling fine.
The lesson here is somewhat anecdotal I'll admit. However I'll be sticking to the name brand stuff for drugs.
March 22, 2012
HDR Photography: High Dynamic Ruin
So, as you may know from my new blog, I am beginning photography as a hobby. As a beginner I do a lot of reading about my hobby and a lot of viewing other photographer's work. One major theme has become quite apparent to me lately, everyone thinks HDR photography is amazing. I'm going to explain why it is somewhat fascinating and yet terribly ruinous at the same time.
HDR stands for High Dynamic Range. The basic technique is that of taking 3 or more pictures in a row, from a tripod so as not to change any particulars, using different exposure settings. The idea is that you can then later smash them all together in Photoshop to create a picture where every single element is exposed perfectly. Here is an example. Open this picture in a new window and we'll discuss it a bit as we go along.
Before I discuss the particulars of this I just want to explain a few limitations of this technology. First nothing can be moving. This means that if you see a person in the photo then it is probably not using HDR. This goes for animals as well. Second the photographer cannot move either. If anything moves the final product will contain ghosts.
Now let's get back to that photograph. Take a good long look at it. Do you see now how nearly every object and space is filled with light? There are wisps of shadow here and there but for the most part these are wiped clean and clear for everyone to see. Even where the shadow lies the object underneath is still easily visible.
You have looked and seen everything this picture has to offer. If you need more examples just search the internet for HDR photos. They are everywhere these days. Sadly a lot of people who call themselves professional photographers are now using this technique everywhere. I think it is suppose to testify to their customers that they own the expensive equipment deemed necessary to take these kind of shots. You will probably see on your next camera purchase that there is a built in HDR function. It will soon be a major selling point for any camera.
Let me tell you why I hate it. Mainly it creates a false portrait. It creates something unreal. What you see in this photo is hyper realistic. It's cartoonish. The colors are false and the textures are false. It's an absurd representation of the actual cathedral.
This is about where people I talk to start to disagree with me. Let me explain in a different way. When is the last time you looked at a Rembrandt? I included a link so you will look at it before reading further. This is a masterfully painted scene. It's dynamic. It's moving. It's still yet in motion. Why is this painting so amazing? Really think about it and I'll get back to why I think it is in a moment.
I just want to interject for a second and say that photography isn't painting but does rely on the same principles. The main principle of both is lighting.
Now when a child paints a scene or colors one in crayon without knowing the first principle of art they do something interesting. A child will almost always paint or draw a picture with no shadows. Everything is seen. Every object is in full clarity. Even kids I grew up with that were very good at drawing things that were easily identifiable drew things that didn't have shadow.
So why is this an issue? It's because of how our minds perceive the world around us. Did you know that humans only see in 2 dimensions? I bet you thought it would be 3. Nope. We only see in 2. Our brains have these little tricks that are employed to interpret things in 3 dimensions. Some of those tricks include interpretation of perspective, focus and contrast. I know this is more links than normal for my articles.
Up until now I have been trying to lean this conversation towards contrast. Go back to the Rembrandt painting for a moment. Do you notice where the light is coming from? Do you see how the shadow over the right half of the boat increases the idea of peril?
Let's look at one more painting. This time one from J.M.W. Turner. In this painting you can see the light source very clearly. What I find incredible about this painting is that the light draws your gaze onto a single ship. That source of light frames the subject. It tells our eye what to look at. Keep looking at this for a moment.
I want to point out another interesting thing. There are ships in this painting in the background that are out of focus. You know they are ships because they are reasonably in focus to show their sails but there is no detail. This tells your mind, without you even knowing, that this is 3 dimensional. Check back on the cathedral. Everything is in focus. If you look at it again it will start to feel flat. It's missing at least 2 of the main elements that the brain uses to interpret dimensions. It still retains perspective thankfully. Without perspective this photograph would probably cause headaches.
Okay, so I hope by now you can understand why I hate HDR photography. My challenge to my couple of readers is to look at photos you really like and paintings you really like and see if they aren't full of contrast and focal planes. We may have to live with high tech children's photos but we don't have to like them.
Once again, if you want to look at my photos check out the link to my other blog on the right hand side. See if I have any idea how to follow my own criticism.
HDR stands for High Dynamic Range. The basic technique is that of taking 3 or more pictures in a row, from a tripod so as not to change any particulars, using different exposure settings. The idea is that you can then later smash them all together in Photoshop to create a picture where every single element is exposed perfectly. Here is an example. Open this picture in a new window and we'll discuss it a bit as we go along.
Before I discuss the particulars of this I just want to explain a few limitations of this technology. First nothing can be moving. This means that if you see a person in the photo then it is probably not using HDR. This goes for animals as well. Second the photographer cannot move either. If anything moves the final product will contain ghosts.
Now let's get back to that photograph. Take a good long look at it. Do you see now how nearly every object and space is filled with light? There are wisps of shadow here and there but for the most part these are wiped clean and clear for everyone to see. Even where the shadow lies the object underneath is still easily visible.
You have looked and seen everything this picture has to offer. If you need more examples just search the internet for HDR photos. They are everywhere these days. Sadly a lot of people who call themselves professional photographers are now using this technique everywhere. I think it is suppose to testify to their customers that they own the expensive equipment deemed necessary to take these kind of shots. You will probably see on your next camera purchase that there is a built in HDR function. It will soon be a major selling point for any camera.
Let me tell you why I hate it. Mainly it creates a false portrait. It creates something unreal. What you see in this photo is hyper realistic. It's cartoonish. The colors are false and the textures are false. It's an absurd representation of the actual cathedral.
This is about where people I talk to start to disagree with me. Let me explain in a different way. When is the last time you looked at a Rembrandt? I included a link so you will look at it before reading further. This is a masterfully painted scene. It's dynamic. It's moving. It's still yet in motion. Why is this painting so amazing? Really think about it and I'll get back to why I think it is in a moment.
I just want to interject for a second and say that photography isn't painting but does rely on the same principles. The main principle of both is lighting.
Now when a child paints a scene or colors one in crayon without knowing the first principle of art they do something interesting. A child will almost always paint or draw a picture with no shadows. Everything is seen. Every object is in full clarity. Even kids I grew up with that were very good at drawing things that were easily identifiable drew things that didn't have shadow.
So why is this an issue? It's because of how our minds perceive the world around us. Did you know that humans only see in 2 dimensions? I bet you thought it would be 3. Nope. We only see in 2. Our brains have these little tricks that are employed to interpret things in 3 dimensions. Some of those tricks include interpretation of perspective, focus and contrast. I know this is more links than normal for my articles.
Up until now I have been trying to lean this conversation towards contrast. Go back to the Rembrandt painting for a moment. Do you notice where the light is coming from? Do you see how the shadow over the right half of the boat increases the idea of peril?
Let's look at one more painting. This time one from J.M.W. Turner. In this painting you can see the light source very clearly. What I find incredible about this painting is that the light draws your gaze onto a single ship. That source of light frames the subject. It tells our eye what to look at. Keep looking at this for a moment.
I want to point out another interesting thing. There are ships in this painting in the background that are out of focus. You know they are ships because they are reasonably in focus to show their sails but there is no detail. This tells your mind, without you even knowing, that this is 3 dimensional. Check back on the cathedral. Everything is in focus. If you look at it again it will start to feel flat. It's missing at least 2 of the main elements that the brain uses to interpret dimensions. It still retains perspective thankfully. Without perspective this photograph would probably cause headaches.
Okay, so I hope by now you can understand why I hate HDR photography. My challenge to my couple of readers is to look at photos you really like and paintings you really like and see if they aren't full of contrast and focal planes. We may have to live with high tech children's photos but we don't have to like them.
Once again, if you want to look at my photos check out the link to my other blog on the right hand side. See if I have any idea how to follow my own criticism.
February 8, 2012
Teleportation
So this might be a strange entry. I want to talk about teleporters and their impact on the world.
Let me start by eliminating some of your preconceptions. First I am not talking about magical teleportation as in Nightcrawler from X-Men. I'm also not talking about beaming as seen in Star Trek or Stargate SG-1. Though what I want to talk about relates to the latter.
So the other day as I was driving home from work I was thinking about how great it would be if I could teleport home and skip all the time wasted. Then I started to mind drift into Star Trek and thought about how someone's body is essentially torn apart and put back together. A similar thing takes place in Stargate at one point but it is achieved through the use of a small platform that can transport a person or persons to any other platform on the planet. For a short time my mind drifted into slidewalks and such before returning to an idea.
My thought went kind of like this: Star Trek had it wrong in that you can't just rip a person apart and send them through the air or subspace and put them back together. It would hurt. Actually it would kill you and the person that arrived on the other side wouldn't be you. It would be a copy of you.
So I started to think about how teleportation could really be done. I came to one conclusion, it can only be done using a quantum tunnel. The truth is I don't know if such a thing exists or could exist. However, I can describe to you exactly what it would do and what it would feel like using it. I can also tell you some of what it would do to you and your life.
Let me describe this thing for you. It would be a platform of sorts. Think of it as something like a dock. It would probably be a round pad with concentric circles. The largest circle would be something like 6 feet across. Each circle would be somewhat smaller until the inner circle, which would be about the size of 1 person standing. The entire thing would have a door to enclose it, probably see through material like poly-carbonate.
The way it works is you stand on the platform and dial in another machine kind of like a telephone. The door closes as it dials. When a connection is made to the platform on the other end it would detect which circles were in use and adjust accordingly. When the other machine was ready and the connection was set you would suddenly be there.
That sounds pretty magical to me. But the way my brain thinks is a bit more detailed. The first thing I thought after this idea hit me was, "What would it feel like?" I was curious if someone using it would actually heave their lunch. I decided that the way it would feel is actually not unlike blinking and moving your head while your eyes are briefly closed. Occasionally it can make one dizzy but the brain mostly takes care of it. The reason it wouldn't be sickening is simply because the quantum tunnel is so short as to be indetectably small. You see, the quantum tunnel, if it exists or can be made, isn't really a tunnel. It works by placing you somewhere else. There is no travelling. You jump outside of space and time and suddenly are there.
It's really hard to explain without explaining quantum entanglement. And to be completely honest I'm not really a physicist and I am probably not qualified to explain it. I just think this is possible.
Okay, let's all just overlook the seemingly impossible parts and think about impact.
What would this technology do to you? I think I know part of what it would do to you and do to us as a species.
On a personal level you would probably spend a lot less time in a car. This means more family time. It means more personal time, if you want it. Which ultimately probably means more TV. It would mean a lot less radio time.
On a larger scale it wouldn't really be like Star Trek. At least not like the movies we see. It would mean the end to some very large car manufacturers. People all over would buy less vehicles. How many vehicles do you own? I own 2. If I suddenly bought one of these I would probably sell one of my cars to help buy it. As more and more homes bought these and more and more businesses and stores did I would likely consider sell both of my cars. I kind of think the perfect place for this is in the garage.
You know how the Internet has made the world smaller? I personally keep in touch with friends all over the country. One friend of mine and I often jokingly talk about sharing a meal at any given time even though I live in LA and he lives in San Francisco. This thing would make that joke a reality. I could live anywhere and see my friends every day if I wanted.
That got me thinking about work. Living in the Los Angeles area I make better money than I would living in Iowa or Utah or Idaho or Nevada. But most of the extra money I earn is wasted on the much higher cost of living (not to mention the highest in the country car insurance and nearly highest gas prices). With this device I could live in Iowa and my commute would still be non existent. So what I realized after that is people would begin to pour out of the large cities. Not everyone of course but a lot of people would realize they can live anywhere within a timezone maybe two of their employer and be just fine.
The next thing I realized is that international borders would be seriously threatened. The scariest part was the idea that a bomb could easily be transported from anywhere to anywhere. That made me a little crazy. I spent the next 10 or 20 minutes thinking about security measures this device would have to have. I'll skip that part here.
This post is kind of an insight to how I think. I realize this product isn't real. I believe it could be but not being a physicist I couldn't really postulate a real description of why I think it could be real. But hey, wouldn't it be really cool?!
Let me start by eliminating some of your preconceptions. First I am not talking about magical teleportation as in Nightcrawler from X-Men. I'm also not talking about beaming as seen in Star Trek or Stargate SG-1. Though what I want to talk about relates to the latter.
So the other day as I was driving home from work I was thinking about how great it would be if I could teleport home and skip all the time wasted. Then I started to mind drift into Star Trek and thought about how someone's body is essentially torn apart and put back together. A similar thing takes place in Stargate at one point but it is achieved through the use of a small platform that can transport a person or persons to any other platform on the planet. For a short time my mind drifted into slidewalks and such before returning to an idea.
My thought went kind of like this: Star Trek had it wrong in that you can't just rip a person apart and send them through the air or subspace and put them back together. It would hurt. Actually it would kill you and the person that arrived on the other side wouldn't be you. It would be a copy of you.
So I started to think about how teleportation could really be done. I came to one conclusion, it can only be done using a quantum tunnel. The truth is I don't know if such a thing exists or could exist. However, I can describe to you exactly what it would do and what it would feel like using it. I can also tell you some of what it would do to you and your life.
Let me describe this thing for you. It would be a platform of sorts. Think of it as something like a dock. It would probably be a round pad with concentric circles. The largest circle would be something like 6 feet across. Each circle would be somewhat smaller until the inner circle, which would be about the size of 1 person standing. The entire thing would have a door to enclose it, probably see through material like poly-carbonate.
The way it works is you stand on the platform and dial in another machine kind of like a telephone. The door closes as it dials. When a connection is made to the platform on the other end it would detect which circles were in use and adjust accordingly. When the other machine was ready and the connection was set you would suddenly be there.
That sounds pretty magical to me. But the way my brain thinks is a bit more detailed. The first thing I thought after this idea hit me was, "What would it feel like?" I was curious if someone using it would actually heave their lunch. I decided that the way it would feel is actually not unlike blinking and moving your head while your eyes are briefly closed. Occasionally it can make one dizzy but the brain mostly takes care of it. The reason it wouldn't be sickening is simply because the quantum tunnel is so short as to be indetectably small. You see, the quantum tunnel, if it exists or can be made, isn't really a tunnel. It works by placing you somewhere else. There is no travelling. You jump outside of space and time and suddenly are there.
It's really hard to explain without explaining quantum entanglement. And to be completely honest I'm not really a physicist and I am probably not qualified to explain it. I just think this is possible.
Okay, let's all just overlook the seemingly impossible parts and think about impact.
What would this technology do to you? I think I know part of what it would do to you and do to us as a species.
On a personal level you would probably spend a lot less time in a car. This means more family time. It means more personal time, if you want it. Which ultimately probably means more TV. It would mean a lot less radio time.
On a larger scale it wouldn't really be like Star Trek. At least not like the movies we see. It would mean the end to some very large car manufacturers. People all over would buy less vehicles. How many vehicles do you own? I own 2. If I suddenly bought one of these I would probably sell one of my cars to help buy it. As more and more homes bought these and more and more businesses and stores did I would likely consider sell both of my cars. I kind of think the perfect place for this is in the garage.
You know how the Internet has made the world smaller? I personally keep in touch with friends all over the country. One friend of mine and I often jokingly talk about sharing a meal at any given time even though I live in LA and he lives in San Francisco. This thing would make that joke a reality. I could live anywhere and see my friends every day if I wanted.
That got me thinking about work. Living in the Los Angeles area I make better money than I would living in Iowa or Utah or Idaho or Nevada. But most of the extra money I earn is wasted on the much higher cost of living (not to mention the highest in the country car insurance and nearly highest gas prices). With this device I could live in Iowa and my commute would still be non existent. So what I realized after that is people would begin to pour out of the large cities. Not everyone of course but a lot of people would realize they can live anywhere within a timezone maybe two of their employer and be just fine.
The next thing I realized is that international borders would be seriously threatened. The scariest part was the idea that a bomb could easily be transported from anywhere to anywhere. That made me a little crazy. I spent the next 10 or 20 minutes thinking about security measures this device would have to have. I'll skip that part here.
This post is kind of an insight to how I think. I realize this product isn't real. I believe it could be but not being a physicist I couldn't really postulate a real description of why I think it could be real. But hey, wouldn't it be really cool?!
January 17, 2012
Kids
So, I am sitting somewhere between hours and days away from having a child of my own. It's a strange feeling. We have been putting kids off for so long. Now that it's finally here I have had my head filled with interesting thoughts. No doubt many of my thoughts are reflections of what yours have been or will be. Either way I want to share some of mine.
I've specifically been thinking a lot about who this kid is going to be. Working in science has taught me a lot about genetics and how this is supposed to work biologically. Basically this kid is going to have some of my biology and some of my wife's. Then there is the random genetic mutations that exist outside of anything that we have. This all combines to make a person. But who is he? We are all more than our DNA.
I have my own hopes and expectations for my son. I often catch myself hoping that he will be a lot like me. I have to really watch that because I really don't want to project myself onto him. He won't have my experiences to mold him. He will have to live through his very own.
Choices are really the interesting part to me. I made a lot of choices that I think were really good. I chose not to smoke. I chose not to do drugs. I hope that my child will make similar choices but I know that those choices and others like them are rather individual. They are not often based upon the choices a parent makes once a child reaches a certain age.
What I am getting at is that I don't know this child. He is part of me and even though he hasn't been born yet I love him a lot. My love for him is so crazy and unexpected. It's just strange to think that this individual is my responsibility for the next 18 years and I really don't even know him.
I also often think about the changing world my kid is being born into. When my great grandparents were born their life expectancy was about 45 years. When my grandparents were born that leaped to 78. It's strangely possibly that my children can expect a life longer than 150. Being born at the dawn of the age of medical technology our children will see a world that might seem completely crazy to us today. Medical science is within decades of curing some of the most difficult diseases we know of.
As an explanation I have recently read articles on cures for cancer using modified HIV, cures for age, drugs that improve memory in Alzheimer's suffering mice and even read some interesting progress in Parkinson's and Diabetes. The world's largest health problem, Malaria, is currently being worked on by what is probably the largest private research fund in the history of the world (the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation).
Knowledge and education is also quite different than what it was when I was born. With instant access to information about any topic at their fingertips our children have the ability to be better informed than any of us were. The possibilities in education are vast and changing as different people experiment with how the Internet can improve things from homework to classroom lectures.
With all of these differences in the world the choices and developments in children will be different. I can't help but wonder how this will effect this small ball of humanity that is kicking around in my wife's belly. I don't really know who he is or who he can become any better than he does.
December 19, 2011
Why Not
Recently I have been receiving a few comments about the name I put on my two blogs. Not Much to Talk About and Not Much to Look At are both statements of how I feel about my art. I think it is really easy to look at these two titles as self deprecation and/or negativity. That isn't my intention. I'm writing this to clear it up.
As many I have a handful of readers at this point. Many of them are close friends or family and know me pretty well. There are a few others that don't know me as well. So I want to give a bit of background.
I went to college with the high aspirations of becoming a professional writer and possibly a film maker one day. I only wanted to tell stories. In my naivete I chose to major in English. I believed at the time that English was where one went to learn to write and create. I thought, for some strange reason that seems crazy now, that English was an arts degree.
In two and a half years studying English I was mentally rocked. Simply put I learned that English isn't where one learns to write or create but where one learns to undo the words which others have written. It's not a bastion of creativity but a cesspool of people who believe they are more intelligent than those who create.
I have to quickly interject that I don't view everyone in an English department as qualifying this. I know many good people who are just passionate about literature and want kids to learn it. I speak generally about what English as a subject is. Also, Alyssa, if you are reading this, I am sorry but I bring it up to make a point.
So after some serious suffering through lectures that made a serious attempt to make me hate myself, my manhood, my creativity and my opinion I finally decided on a new course of action. I knew I couldn't remain an English Major for fear of losing my already rapidly eroding personality. I decided to attempt to get into film school. I applied to NYU's film school. I thought my application had merit. I thought I had the understanding and talent to get in. In the end I didn't get in.
At this point I didn't return to school. I haven't returned since. I took my education in my own hands from the day I left school. I studied lighting and camera techniques for years. I bought a very expensive camera and started doing anything I could get paid to do with my camera. I taught myself editing and basic special effects. I spent all my time trying to figure out how to accomplish my lofty goals.
Eventually I settled on the idea that the only way I would find the success I desired would be to write a movie, move to Los Angeles and then sell it to a studio. You probably are starting to see a pattern of naive ideas. So in time I came up with a story and a plan. My wife and I eventually moved to Anaheim, CA where we live now. This move was probably the greatest decision for my personal career goals ever.
You see it's in Anaheim that I learned that what I thought I wanted to do wasn't exactly what I wanted to do. Shortening a lot of the story I will just say that I have been self teaching myself about writing and story telling with and without a camera and actors for quite some time at this point. Some time in the past year or so I realized that the stories I have been creating and making up in my head probably won't work as movies for one simple reason. That reason is that if they are tampered with very much at all the whole point of telling them goes up in smoke.
I suppose the real lesson I learned is that I am not a collaborative story teller. That isn't to say that I don't have a friend who I am collaborating with to tell a story or two. What I am saying is that a movie writer doesn't have enough allowance to tell the actors what the characters are thinking. That's the directors job at best. So no matter how I write the story as a script I get the same reaction. I got this over and over from readers, "Why isn't this a novel? I want to know what so and so is thinking."
Even though I came up with this blog before I realized I needed to tell my stories as novels the title really does summarize very well my feelings about my art. But let me spell it out more clearly.
Art is something with no intrinsic value. Art is valued by the artist and anyone who happens to like their work. My art and my love is in three things. I have always loved stories, music and imagery. I learned a long time ago I have no talent for music or painting/drawing/sculpture. I am very good at telling stories that make people feel. I am also a very visual thinker. I see the world in what I think sometimes are weird ways. I have only every been able to capture those ideas with cameras.
So I write and take pictures and make videos occasionally. I have only ever made a handful of money from any of it (mostly wedding videos). The "Not Much" statement is that I know what I have to say or show isn't very great or outstanding. It isn't likely to ever make me rich and famous. But that isn't to say it isn't going to make me happy.
Since I got my new camera and started my new blog I have to admit that I have been really happy with the results. I considered at one point locking the photos on my blog down and maybe asking for compensation like some "professional" photographers do on their websites. I thought about it and said to myself, I think I would rather just see one of those pictures on someone's desktop as a background than have thousands of dollars.
So the point of it all is that I recognize that I not a professional. I am a hobby writer. I am a hobby photographer. I hope you like what I make. I hope you like my pictures. I hope you like my stories once I finally publish it. I hope you tell your friends about these blogs. I hope my toothbrush reviews both inform and entertain you.
Thank you for visiting my site. It means a lot to me. Also, I love comments and discussion. Tell me what you like and don't like. Suggest things to me. If you have a favorite toothbrush or TV show or flower tell me about it. If you want me to take your picture let me know. Even though what I do isn't much I appreciate those who participate in it with me in any way.
I went to college with the high aspirations of becoming a professional writer and possibly a film maker one day. I only wanted to tell stories. In my naivete I chose to major in English. I believed at the time that English was where one went to learn to write and create. I thought, for some strange reason that seems crazy now, that English was an arts degree.
In two and a half years studying English I was mentally rocked. Simply put I learned that English isn't where one learns to write or create but where one learns to undo the words which others have written. It's not a bastion of creativity but a cesspool of people who believe they are more intelligent than those who create.
I have to quickly interject that I don't view everyone in an English department as qualifying this. I know many good people who are just passionate about literature and want kids to learn it. I speak generally about what English as a subject is. Also, Alyssa, if you are reading this, I am sorry but I bring it up to make a point.
So after some serious suffering through lectures that made a serious attempt to make me hate myself, my manhood, my creativity and my opinion I finally decided on a new course of action. I knew I couldn't remain an English Major for fear of losing my already rapidly eroding personality. I decided to attempt to get into film school. I applied to NYU's film school. I thought my application had merit. I thought I had the understanding and talent to get in. In the end I didn't get in.
At this point I didn't return to school. I haven't returned since. I took my education in my own hands from the day I left school. I studied lighting and camera techniques for years. I bought a very expensive camera and started doing anything I could get paid to do with my camera. I taught myself editing and basic special effects. I spent all my time trying to figure out how to accomplish my lofty goals.
Eventually I settled on the idea that the only way I would find the success I desired would be to write a movie, move to Los Angeles and then sell it to a studio. You probably are starting to see a pattern of naive ideas. So in time I came up with a story and a plan. My wife and I eventually moved to Anaheim, CA where we live now. This move was probably the greatest decision for my personal career goals ever.
You see it's in Anaheim that I learned that what I thought I wanted to do wasn't exactly what I wanted to do. Shortening a lot of the story I will just say that I have been self teaching myself about writing and story telling with and without a camera and actors for quite some time at this point. Some time in the past year or so I realized that the stories I have been creating and making up in my head probably won't work as movies for one simple reason. That reason is that if they are tampered with very much at all the whole point of telling them goes up in smoke.
I suppose the real lesson I learned is that I am not a collaborative story teller. That isn't to say that I don't have a friend who I am collaborating with to tell a story or two. What I am saying is that a movie writer doesn't have enough allowance to tell the actors what the characters are thinking. That's the directors job at best. So no matter how I write the story as a script I get the same reaction. I got this over and over from readers, "Why isn't this a novel? I want to know what so and so is thinking."
Even though I came up with this blog before I realized I needed to tell my stories as novels the title really does summarize very well my feelings about my art. But let me spell it out more clearly.
Art is something with no intrinsic value. Art is valued by the artist and anyone who happens to like their work. My art and my love is in three things. I have always loved stories, music and imagery. I learned a long time ago I have no talent for music or painting/drawing/sculpture. I am very good at telling stories that make people feel. I am also a very visual thinker. I see the world in what I think sometimes are weird ways. I have only every been able to capture those ideas with cameras.
So I write and take pictures and make videos occasionally. I have only ever made a handful of money from any of it (mostly wedding videos). The "Not Much" statement is that I know what I have to say or show isn't very great or outstanding. It isn't likely to ever make me rich and famous. But that isn't to say it isn't going to make me happy.
Since I got my new camera and started my new blog I have to admit that I have been really happy with the results. I considered at one point locking the photos on my blog down and maybe asking for compensation like some "professional" photographers do on their websites. I thought about it and said to myself, I think I would rather just see one of those pictures on someone's desktop as a background than have thousands of dollars.
So the point of it all is that I recognize that I not a professional. I am a hobby writer. I am a hobby photographer. I hope you like what I make. I hope you like my pictures. I hope you like my stories once I finally publish it. I hope you tell your friends about these blogs. I hope my toothbrush reviews both inform and entertain you.
Thank you for visiting my site. It means a lot to me. Also, I love comments and discussion. Tell me what you like and don't like. Suggest things to me. If you have a favorite toothbrush or TV show or flower tell me about it. If you want me to take your picture let me know. Even though what I do isn't much I appreciate those who participate in it with me in any way.
December 5, 2011
New Blog
I have a new Blog. It is not a replacement for this one. It is a blog to share some photos I'm taking. As part of the new blog roll out I have made some slight alterations to this blog to try to make them look a bit alike. They are by no means identical but they will have a lot of the same things in the sidebars.
So the plan for the new blog is to post some photography up with minimal discussion. I might just mention in a post why I am putting the picture up or what I like about it. There won't be lengthy words about it.
I hope you like it. I hope you check it out from time to time. I hope you tell your friends about it. This new blog is not a foray into some childhood dream to become a professional photographer so it is by no means a portfolio or a sales pitch. However, if you like anything I've posted and want me to take your picture let me know (my contact information can now be had through my "About me" link to the right side).
If you don't like something I've posted you can let me know in the comments about that photo. Just keep it constructive. I'm new to this and don't especially think I am any great photographer but I would hope people wouldn't post stuff like, "This just sucks." And now I know one of my friends will be posting that very thing soon.
EDIT: You can also get there by following the link on the right side of the page under "My Other Pages."
EDIT: You can also get there by following the link on the right side of the page under "My Other Pages."
October 26, 2011
HTML 5
My regular readers no doubt know that I am a computer enthusiast but that I am not a programmer. I can help you buy a computer. I can help you set it up. But if you want me to create a custom program you will be lucky if you can get a "Hello World!" from me even in Python (another story).
However, I would like to take a minute to talk about some new internet technology that is code related. As the title suggests I'm talking about HTML 5. What's so special about it? Let's take a look.
First of all let me explain the little bit about internet technology for beginners. When you view a web page what you are really seeing is an interpretation of codes. Layers of codes really. I don't mean code in the programming sense, although that is driving everything. What I mean is that you are seeing a bunch of rules on display.
Over the last couple of decades there have been rules created and recreated over and over that govern the way the internet is displayed in your browser. The reason for this is so the browsers can display the page you look at correctly. Years ago this was not really an issue but there were people that had the foresight to see a problem on the horizon. Today you might notice the problem.
About 2 years ago I started to notice that a lot of newer pages would work better in one browser than they did in another. The reason for this is that the various browsers out there have come up with different ways to interpret these rules.
Somewhere along the lines a product or two were created to fix these issues. Adobe had Flash. Java was created or implemented. There are a couple other systems out there that exist that are less well known but you probably use them every day. The idea behind these systems is that they work anywhere. Flash is perhaps the most well known now because so many games are built around Flash. A lot of fancy web sites are built around flash or incorporate flash to make things more showy.
So a couple of years ago this problem is heightened by what people call the "Browser Wars." You may have noticed that 10 years ago almost everyone used Internet Explorer or IE. Then came a few others like FireFox and Opera. More recently has come Google's Chrome. Now most people I work with use Chrome.
So the reason these browsers exist at all is because of some really simple ideas. Older Browsers were becoming cumbersome when it came to speed. Some of that speed is lost in the ability of the browser to interpret these rules. Over the last 2 years all the companies making browsers have been pressing hard to find ways to run these pages faster. New interpretation engines have been built. New code interpreters have been built. All with the idea of making things work better and faster. Chrome and Internet Explorer in their latest versions are the front line of the speed race.
Now back to HTML 5. This new set of rules and language is designed for something more than just speed. HTML 5 includes a lot of new features that embed things like animation and video directly into the page. Previously for this stuff to be done you needed Flash. Flash is an add on to any browser. This means that it doesn't just work it needs to be added on.
So essentially HTML 5 is all about user experience. It's a new set of rules that modern browsers need to follow so that people can design web sites that are more interactive and interesting than anything that has come before.
What do you need to experience it? This one is simple. You need a modern browser. You need Internet Explorer 9 or Chrome (version doesn't matter since it updates itself automatically) or the latest version of Opera or FireFox. My recommendation is either IE 9 or Chrome. The reason is that these two have the highest speed scores in almost all areas as of this posting. I personally use Chrome for nearly all of my Browsing needs now.
If you have a new browser and want to test it now go try the new Pandora.com or YouTube.com. You can also play around with http://ie.microsoft.com/testdrive/Default.html where Microsoft has created a bunch of simple pages that will test speed and let you goof around with some HTML 5 toys. I enjoyed shooting Mr. Potato Head out of a Cannon.
However, I would like to take a minute to talk about some new internet technology that is code related. As the title suggests I'm talking about HTML 5. What's so special about it? Let's take a look.
First of all let me explain the little bit about internet technology for beginners. When you view a web page what you are really seeing is an interpretation of codes. Layers of codes really. I don't mean code in the programming sense, although that is driving everything. What I mean is that you are seeing a bunch of rules on display.
Over the last couple of decades there have been rules created and recreated over and over that govern the way the internet is displayed in your browser. The reason for this is so the browsers can display the page you look at correctly. Years ago this was not really an issue but there were people that had the foresight to see a problem on the horizon. Today you might notice the problem.
About 2 years ago I started to notice that a lot of newer pages would work better in one browser than they did in another. The reason for this is that the various browsers out there have come up with different ways to interpret these rules.
Somewhere along the lines a product or two were created to fix these issues. Adobe had Flash. Java was created or implemented. There are a couple other systems out there that exist that are less well known but you probably use them every day. The idea behind these systems is that they work anywhere. Flash is perhaps the most well known now because so many games are built around Flash. A lot of fancy web sites are built around flash or incorporate flash to make things more showy.
So a couple of years ago this problem is heightened by what people call the "Browser Wars." You may have noticed that 10 years ago almost everyone used Internet Explorer or IE. Then came a few others like FireFox and Opera. More recently has come Google's Chrome. Now most people I work with use Chrome.
So the reason these browsers exist at all is because of some really simple ideas. Older Browsers were becoming cumbersome when it came to speed. Some of that speed is lost in the ability of the browser to interpret these rules. Over the last 2 years all the companies making browsers have been pressing hard to find ways to run these pages faster. New interpretation engines have been built. New code interpreters have been built. All with the idea of making things work better and faster. Chrome and Internet Explorer in their latest versions are the front line of the speed race.
Now back to HTML 5. This new set of rules and language is designed for something more than just speed. HTML 5 includes a lot of new features that embed things like animation and video directly into the page. Previously for this stuff to be done you needed Flash. Flash is an add on to any browser. This means that it doesn't just work it needs to be added on.
So essentially HTML 5 is all about user experience. It's a new set of rules that modern browsers need to follow so that people can design web sites that are more interactive and interesting than anything that has come before.
What do you need to experience it? This one is simple. You need a modern browser. You need Internet Explorer 9 or Chrome (version doesn't matter since it updates itself automatically) or the latest version of Opera or FireFox. My recommendation is either IE 9 or Chrome. The reason is that these two have the highest speed scores in almost all areas as of this posting. I personally use Chrome for nearly all of my Browsing needs now.
If you have a new browser and want to test it now go try the new Pandora.com or YouTube.com. You can also play around with http://ie.microsoft.com/testdrive/Default.html where Microsoft has created a bunch of simple pages that will test speed and let you goof around with some HTML 5 toys. I enjoyed shooting Mr. Potato Head out of a Cannon.
August 23, 2011
Excuses
When I started this blog I intended to maintain an average posting of once per month. I have up until now maintained that average. At this time I doubt I will be able to maintain that average as I am currently working on rewriting a script I wrote as a novel (I had to check but I think ultimately it will classify as a novel).
I intend to self publish through Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble through their Kindle and Nook books respectively. This project has become fairly important to me over the last year.
I intended to shop out the script in Hollywood. After some time of having the script sit on my nightstand I began to feel a bit glum about my prospects. Over time I handed copies of the script to a few individuals (probably about 40% of my blog readers as of today). The main feedback I get over and over is that everyone seems to want to see and understand what is going on. In script form there is little allowance for first drafts to include much other than dialog and basic descriptions.
Eventually I read a Nook Book called Demon Girl. It was a free book on Nook. I read the entire thing on my Android phone. I was impressed and started looking into this new form of self publication. It turns out it is rather easy, thanks to the Internet, to completely bypass traditional publishing houses.
The last person who read my script said one thing that really helped me make up my mind. She told me that she would really like to understand the back story and the thoughts of the characters I wrote. I realized at that time that since I have as of now no connections in Hollywood that I might as well go the direction of the novel. At the very least there might be even a handful of people that could enjoy my story. As of now it only gets read when I ask someone to. And then they often miss out on some of the stuff that exists solely in my head.
So, for the next few months I plan on focusing on writing my first draft. That means I won't be posting much on my blog. However, I do plan on posting updates about my progress. I don't know if these will be monthly or just periodic. We'll just have to see.
I have a number of blog posts in the works. I have some rough drafts saved for later.
In the meantime start telling your friends. Get the word out. You can expect to see my first novel out sometime next year. It will be tentatively titled Zero:(Something). I have copyrights to the title Zero:Rising. I may reuse that but since the novel is going to follow a slightly different storyline than the script I may rename it. Anyway, wish me luck and please read my story when it's done. I am only doing it in the hopes that someone somewhere will enjoy it and hopefully find that it enriches their lives.
I intend to self publish through Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble through their Kindle and Nook books respectively. This project has become fairly important to me over the last year.
I intended to shop out the script in Hollywood. After some time of having the script sit on my nightstand I began to feel a bit glum about my prospects. Over time I handed copies of the script to a few individuals (probably about 40% of my blog readers as of today). The main feedback I get over and over is that everyone seems to want to see and understand what is going on. In script form there is little allowance for first drafts to include much other than dialog and basic descriptions.
Eventually I read a Nook Book called Demon Girl. It was a free book on Nook. I read the entire thing on my Android phone. I was impressed and started looking into this new form of self publication. It turns out it is rather easy, thanks to the Internet, to completely bypass traditional publishing houses.
The last person who read my script said one thing that really helped me make up my mind. She told me that she would really like to understand the back story and the thoughts of the characters I wrote. I realized at that time that since I have as of now no connections in Hollywood that I might as well go the direction of the novel. At the very least there might be even a handful of people that could enjoy my story. As of now it only gets read when I ask someone to. And then they often miss out on some of the stuff that exists solely in my head.
So, for the next few months I plan on focusing on writing my first draft. That means I won't be posting much on my blog. However, I do plan on posting updates about my progress. I don't know if these will be monthly or just periodic. We'll just have to see.
I have a number of blog posts in the works. I have some rough drafts saved for later.
In the meantime start telling your friends. Get the word out. You can expect to see my first novel out sometime next year. It will be tentatively titled Zero:(Something). I have copyrights to the title Zero:Rising. I may reuse that but since the novel is going to follow a slightly different storyline than the script I may rename it. Anyway, wish me luck and please read my story when it's done. I am only doing it in the hopes that someone somewhere will enjoy it and hopefully find that it enriches their lives.
June 14, 2011
Paradigm
Do you know what the internet is? On a physical level it is essentially a network of connected computers. On a more philosophical level it may be a bunch of connected people or knowledge derived from humans. On a historical level it is something far bigger. I titled this article paradigm to discuss just how big of a thing the internet is.
A long time ago humans invented fire. Fire, as recent research suggests was transformative to the human experience. As you can imagine it provided a net of safety as well as the ability to cook. Much later it became the basic tool from which metals were made. Metal work was another transformative invention. Skipping over quite a few we get to the printing press. Anyone think the inventor of the printing press realized what his invention would really do?
The point is that as humanity progresses there are these inventions that rewrite our way of life. The wheel, the plow, animal husbandry, the printing press, possibly steel, the computer and later the internet. Since the internet really has come about publicly within many of our lifetimes it's easy to overlook as something we just use.
What I want to get you to think about is just how impactful the internet has been and how much it may will impact our future. And I don't want you to start having visions of SkyNet or any other dystopic nonsense dreamed up a fiction author.
Let's start by thinking back to about 1998. In those days you listened to your music on your stereo using a CD player. There was talk about the new "mini disc" that was set to take over the world. For a few of us there was this new idea that music could be placed into the computer and saved as MP3 files. I remember the first time I made some MP3s from my CDs. It seemed really cool at first. After a few days it really started to bore me simply because I didn't want to listen to music in front of the computer. I wanted to listen to it while washing my car or mowing the lawn. For that I would place a stereo in the garage and turn the volume up high enough the neighborhood could hear. This was in part done purposely by my as a measure of opposition to most of the radio tunes that were popular in the late 90s.
The comes along Napster. Napster, and later products, upset the music industry. It has taken nearly a decade for things to kind of level off but what the internet has done to the music industry is rather strange. People don't buy nearly as many CDs as before. Now people have the ability to buy only the songs they want instead of buying the album put out by that 1 hit wonder band of last week. People drop $1 for what they want and don't waste $10-20 buying an album that is mostly worthless. I know many of you have purchased a CD only to regret that the album was not what you were expecting.
Now we have things like Google Music Beta and Apple's similar offering. These allow us to place our music on the internet where we can access our tunes at any time on any computer connected to the internet. This post was originally going to be a review of that service. These type of innovations are customer friendly but not business friendly. Anyone following the music industry will tell you that if a new album sells 1,000,000 copies it's considered monumentally successful where in the 80's and 90's that was considered only marginally successful. Michael Jackson's Bad sold over 30,000,000 copies according to Wikipedia.
A similar change is currently happening in the movie industry. Over the last decade or so major Hollywood movie studios have been seeing decreased profits. This is, perhaps, due to the dying trend of home video purchases. This was another trend that peaked in the 80's and 90's with VHS and DVD. Movie studios prior to that did not sell many of their properties to consumers outside of the theater.
Netflix is currently, and almost single handedly, changing the industry using the power of the internet. Studios, oddly, are not catching on either. Many of the largest are locked in battle over their film properties. Some properties like Avatar have been vowed to never be shown on Netflix. Warner Brothers has pretty much said they are in a war to prevent Netflix from devaluing their properties. The silly thing is that the value of movies is dropping without regard their participation in Netflix. There are many contributing factors but one of them is simply that people can get more shows and movies then they could hope to watch over Netflix streamed over the internet for less than 1 DVD a month.
If Hollywood fails to adapt they will see more bankruptcy. Maybe you knew this but MGM recently finished filing bankruptcy. MGM has the largest catalog of movies in the world. Now that they are finished with bankruptcy and are moving forward with new management I fully expect that catalog to wind up on Netflix one way or another.
I know I skipped other internet movie delivery systems. They for the most part are stuck in the old paradigm of charging people huge amounts of money to own a copy of a movie. When it is instantly available it doesn't really matter if you own it or are borrowing it only that it's inexpensive.
So what's next? Honestly everything is next. Everything you we do will be changed by the internet. The internet hasn't even really had much time to change our lives. I know there are a few things that have begun to change but are not quite done changing. Education comes to mind. How many people do you know that got a college degree online on the cheap? Is there education any less valuable than if they had been sitting in the classroom? How about your homes? I know that over the last few years I have seen a number of changes in my home. My TV is connected to the internet. My gaming is mostly on the internet. My phone controls my computer over the internet (or my mom's computer if needed). I pay almost all of my bills that way now. In fact I have been known to complain that when I write a check it doesn't automatically update correctly in my mint.com account.
One final thought before I leave a couple videos for you to watch. There is a small field of science that studies these transformative technologies. Specifically the study how far apart they arrive. The information they study suggests that these things come in half the time the last one came in. So from fire to wheel is time X. From wheel to whatever was next is time Y. Y=0.5(X). They say that the transistor was one of these technologies. That was invented less than 100 years ago. What I am trying to say is that for most of us the internet is not the only transformative technology we will live to see. Some say the next one is a universal translator. I think it will probably be related to the previous link. Maybe it will be both.
Here are some videos to feed your thinker some more.
June 9, 2011
Moving
Once again the wife and I are moving. This seems to have become a fairly regular event in our lives. I am fully tired of it at this point in my life but sometimes you just have to do this stuff.
In all my years I have rarely lived in any single place for very long. I think the record at this point is still 6 years, my first 6 years. My father still lives in the home I was born into. But for various reasons I was only there for 6 years. From that point on I have moved more or less every 2 years. There were a couple of places I have lived for 3 or 5 years but for the most part 2 years is it.
Even since I have been married, about 8 years now and we are on our 7th place. But to be fair 2 of those 7 were parents homes and the latest one was always meant to be temporary.
We moved into our current apartment in hopes that one of the complex's townhouse style rentals would come available. One did and now we are moving into that, less than 1 year from when we moved into our current apartment.
We had one previous opportunity to move into a townhouse already and we passed it up. It was in the middle of the winter and we were a bit low on funds. So when another one opened up we decided that we just could not pass it up, even with the increase in rent.
So, why post about something so boring? Simple. We want to have room for company. We have lived in Anaheim, CA for almost 3 years now and have for the most part had company here and there. The last 6 months have seen a rather large rise in visitors and our little place is just a bit crowded when they come. So, if you are thinking about coming to visit let me know. Just give us 2 weeks or so to get into our new place, unless you want to help us move. That would be great.
In all my years I have rarely lived in any single place for very long. I think the record at this point is still 6 years, my first 6 years. My father still lives in the home I was born into. But for various reasons I was only there for 6 years. From that point on I have moved more or less every 2 years. There were a couple of places I have lived for 3 or 5 years but for the most part 2 years is it.
Even since I have been married, about 8 years now and we are on our 7th place. But to be fair 2 of those 7 were parents homes and the latest one was always meant to be temporary.
We moved into our current apartment in hopes that one of the complex's townhouse style rentals would come available. One did and now we are moving into that, less than 1 year from when we moved into our current apartment.
We had one previous opportunity to move into a townhouse already and we passed it up. It was in the middle of the winter and we were a bit low on funds. So when another one opened up we decided that we just could not pass it up, even with the increase in rent.
So, why post about something so boring? Simple. We want to have room for company. We have lived in Anaheim, CA for almost 3 years now and have for the most part had company here and there. The last 6 months have seen a rather large rise in visitors and our little place is just a bit crowded when they come. So, if you are thinking about coming to visit let me know. Just give us 2 weeks or so to get into our new place, unless you want to help us move. That would be great.
April 29, 2011
Science vs Technology
The so called smartphone is a handheld conundrum for me. On the one hand it is a concise summary of modern consumer technology and our ability to pack nearly all our daily computer needs into a small compact device. On the other hand the technology is limited by a small chemical reaction package that seems to improve at a snails pace. I'm talking about the battery of course.
This has got me to thinking about how technology seems to march on in some areas at leaps and bounds. Specifically I'm referring to the silicon that runs electronics. It has advanced at a predictable rate for over 30 years now. Basically our ability to fit transistors on a specified chip size has doubled every 2 years or so. By some accounts it doubles every 18 months.
What that means for the users of computers, which anymore is just about everyone, is that every couple of years our computer devices get about twice as good. Twice as good at doing things that you don't really notice usually. But over the last couple of years they have become better and better and using less electricity to accomplish the same tasks. This is essentially what allows us to have our iPhones and Androids.
The other major component, the battery is slightly different. Over the last 30 years batteries really haven't improved all that much. When I was a little kid you could buy rechargeable batteries. Most of these were nickel cadmium based. They work pretty well but they generally have less power than their alkaline counterparts. If you think back to that portable cassette tape player you had to have in 1984 you might recall that a set of Duracells would last longer than a set of rechargeable batteries. Then sometime in the mid to late 90s nickel metal hydride batteries became all the rage. They packed more punch for the pound and were much lower maintenance. But if you can recall cell phones from that era you will remember that they were usually huge.
Today the most common batteries are lithium based. There are a few different types in use but they all perform about the same. We use these because chemists have known for a long time that lithium packs more power per pound than nickel based batteries. In truth chemists know which elements would make the best batteries and have for a long time. But the march towards the better batteries has been slow.
So here is why I believe that is: science marches to the beat of the hypothesis while technology marches to the beat of necessity.
A typical science project starts out as an idea someone has. They might write something like: Perhaps A+B will produce X. They then design experiments to see if the proposed hypothesis is true or false and then they test it. They reserve the "deliverable" section for an afterthought. What I mean is that in scientific proposals the deliverables section is usually at the end and it usually is not a product. More often than not the only promise of a hypothesis is a process by which to replicate the intended results.
What I am saying is that science often doesn't move towards practical ideas and useful materials. Often it marches in random directions just to "see if it's possible." For example, a geneticist of sorts hypothesizes that it would be possible to grow a third leg on a frog. They design an experiment and eventually grow a third leg on a frog. Nowhere along the way do they bother to ask if it is even worth doing or if it will produce a useful product or add useful information to collective knowledge. Often the point of science is just to see if something can be done.
Technology on the other hand out of necessity has been mostly excluded from this process. Technology research is extremely expensive. It is currently highly profit driven and has been for some time. So technology often races after money. Money is made by selling stuff. You sell stuff if it will do the required job.
About 15 years ago I noticed a funny trend in computing technology. I was a teenager and I loved to play video games. They were at the time becoming highly sophisticated. This aggravated my father. He did not like that I would often take over his office computers after hours to play Star Craft and Age of Empires with my cousins. If only he knew how many times I broke his computers trying to get games to work on his network.
Anyway, I noticed something funny about computers at the time. Companies that manufactured parts would make something really cool and super powerful. A week after it was released some software would come along that would push that hardware to the very edge of what it could do. A few more weeks and it was almost useless to the newest games on the market. Often game makers would build a way for end users to tone down the game so it would not eat the computer's resources. There were some games that took up to a year before parts makers could make stuff that could really do it justice.
So technology marched on at a quick pace because software engineers, specifically game designers, wanted to do more and show their audience more. Hardware could barely keep up just trying to please the customers.
The same thing is driving the market now. It's less pronounced because in some sense the hardware has caught up. Console game machines can now reproduce beautiful scenes within games. PCs have moved along to the point where a gaming laptops are highly affordable, I'm writing this on one I got for $750.
iPad are going to be more and more important to every day users. These all rely heavily on batteries. The whole idea behind these things is mobility. So technology has moved towards that in high gear. New chips are being designed to be very powerful and consume little power.
The issue arises that batteries are not marching on as quickly. New technologies are being developed for batteries. Sadly they are mostly backed by universities that follow the hypothesis system. For instance, a new battery innovation was invented at Stanford about 3 years ago that would increase batteries charge time by about 8 times. The original scientist that made this new innovation said at the time it would take 5 years to get the innovation into production. As of today they are "expecting" a prototype of this battery for cell phones to be made available this year. Not a production unit, a prototype. 3 years to deliver a prototype. Why?
Simply put, it is not in the best interest of scientist to deliver products. Many times scientists work for institutions that retain part or all of the patents developed by their employees. So innovations don't get put out to market because the scientist gets funded to do research not paid royalties for each battery made using his process. So scientists would often rather come up with hypotheses that take years and years to prove or disprove simply to have job security and long term funding.
If Intel were researching this battery they would have had some kind of production unit with 12 months of announcing the idea of the new battery. If AMD were doing the same thing they might get something out in 9 months simply to beat Intel to the punch. If ARM holdings were behind it they would have drawn up plans for how to do it and would have sold licences to Texas Instruments, IBM and Nvidia and we would probably be seeing 8 versions out by Christmas time inside the best new cell phones.
Would it make you sad to know that while Stanford is making a battery with 8 times the charge of current cell phone batteries there are other companies out there making sodium batteries that are even better? Some of these batteries have been in R&D for a decade. There is one substance that science loves to talk about called carbon nano tubes that could potentially improve current batteries by 100 to 1000 times. This stuff was discovered in the 90s. It's a favorite in the research world. What I don't get is why nobody is researching mass production of it. I mean there are a few out there that do but why isn't energizer or Intel or IBM doing whatever they can to mass produce this stuff. Not only does it have the potential to increase battery power but it also has the potential to decrease the power consumed by electronics by around 100 times.
Imagine that for a minute and you might understand my distress. A cell phone that lasts 100 times longer on a single charge because it uses far less electricity to perform the same function plus a battery that is 100 to 1000 times smaller.
April 15, 2011
/epiphany
The other day I was joking around with one of my bosses at work about computers. I should explain that I was originally hired to do lab work exclusively but as our study has evolved my job has as well. I now do front line IT work for my office. Basically I do all the easy stuff so our main IT person can focus on software development for the time being. Essentially that means I fix all the simple problems and handle all the hardware issues. He still deals with all of the high level technical issues.
This has presented me with the second opportunity to work hands on in an environment mixed with Apple and Windows based machines. The first time being in college working for the student newspaper.
Because I am predominantly a PC or Windows user I occasionally make a jab at Apple because my boss is an old school Mac user. At this particular occasion I was making a jab at the fact that another bosses computer didn't come equipped to run Flash. Flash, as you may know, is something Steve Jobs has gone well out of his way to discourage.
The stupid part about the joke was that Flash is a third party internet browser plug in. For those who don't follow that simply means that essentially no computer system comes with Flash built in. The only exception to that rule is Chrome OS which as of now is still in development and not available for general consumption.
Realizing my stupidity and feeling quite ashamed I hid away in my cave (I am one of the lucky few that does not work from a cubicle) and began to research operating systems. This is something that has been a very great interest to me lately since my recent dabble in Linux.
Further explanation in my curiosity is that for a while now I had been wondering why Linux computers can see and alter files from another system. It seemed that if they were completely different systems they would not even be able to see the files from another computer system.
A decade or two ago you could not place a disk formatted for windows in a Mac and expect the Mac to even see the files. Heck you were lucky if the system could recognize the media and ask for a format. Somewhere along the line that all changed. Now we don't even think when we put a flash drive in any system and the thing just works all the way around. I wanted to know why for a while.
Fueled by my curiosity and embarrassment I went on the hunt. I found what I was looking for in Wikipedia in the form of historical information.
So here is my conclusion and a summary of what I learned. Computers are pretty much all the same. There are some minor differences between computers but most of those are superficial. All computers we use today from our desktop to the phone in our pockets are based on the same basic structures. All of these computers are descended from the same ancestry of information technology. They all speak the same language at the core. They all contain the same building blocks. The differences come in how these common blocks are utilized.
On the lowest level computers speak zeros and ones. For a long time people had to speak that code to program and use a computer. Eventually a shorthand was created to make this simpler. Then another shorthand was created and then another. These three shorthands were used on computers that would be unrecognizable as such to most of us.
Over time a new version of shorthand was created to translate any of the others into something that resembled plain language and the first real programming languages were born. Many of these languages were designed to be used with a specific machine. Over time certain of these machines became more dominant and with them the languages.
As computers became less expensive to manufacture and more powerful there came a time when companies decided that a command based interface would be even better as it would simplify the usage of the computer even more. It was at this time operating systems were born. An operating system is nothing more than a plain language interface for a computer. It means that you can get the computer to function on some level without even knowing how to program. The OS (as I will refer to it from here on out) is basically a layer of programming to separate the user from the machine languages that only experts learned so just about anyone could use a computer.
What really surprised me was that in the very earliest of days the OS of most machines was designed for just that machine just like earlier many machine languages were designed for a specific machine. As I began to wonder about this it occurred to me that the reason for this must be that each machine has specific hardware that another machine would not have had or needed.
A few years later and some clever people decided that these machine specific parts could be encoded in software called drivers. Then any OS could run on a particular machine as long as the drivers were available to the OS. Each driver would tell the OS how to communicate with the machines unique hardware setup.
It was at this time that the computer industry really began to have a place in our homes. Some of us had an Apple others an IBM.
Fast forward a few decades and we are back in the present. We have a handful of OS choices and they all can see the files made for and/or by another. Why is that? Well it's mostly because the origin is all the same. Apple's OS 1-9 ran a specific instruction system for drivers that were specific to any machine they made. Apple held onto control of their hardware and software to attempt to create a very simplified user experience that was meant to be hassle free. They were more or less successful. Microsoft used their various systems to create a broad view that would accept as much hardware as possible in just about any configuration. At the core they were 2 doing the same tasks.
Meanwhile there were a few other systems that most consumers were not aware of that are equally important. Unix and Linux were being developed for larger computer servers all these years. Unix is an OS designed to be extremely powerful and extremely stable and probably most importantly it was designed to manage a very large amount of resources that typical home computers would never have. Linux was a project that was designed to emulate Unix but be free and more importantly something that anyone could adapt and change.
One other system was being used with similar properties at the time. It was Windows NT. NT was designed originally for business users to give them a stable system capable of managing a lot of resources. With the release of Windows XP professional and onwards this is the only system Microsoft releases.
Some time in the last decade a few major shifts occurred and most of us were not aware of them happening. Apple dumped their original OS for a system based on Unix. They created a hybrid of a few versions of Unix systems and released it as OS X. At the time I thought the X stood for the number 10. Now I know it, like every version or Unix, uses an X to denote the Unix origin.
So, here we are in 2011 with a handful of OS choices. Windows 7 is a version of NT which in turn is a network intended system. OS X is at its core a server software platform. And Android which is increasingly popular for phones is based on the core components of Linux which is also designed for servers. All of our choices are essentially the same at the core in what they do and how they use the actual hardware.
So, where does that leave those of us who are consumers? If all our choices are the same then what choice do we have? The more I think about these kinds of questions the more I realize that today's computer user is in a position that is new and wonderful in the history of computers. It means that it doesn't really matter what we buy. Brand names are irrelevant now. All of these computers are now capable of interacting with each other. They are capable of sharing information and more importantly our collective ideas and understanding.
We live in a computer market where manufacturers have to compete for our dollars by providing us with value in areas that are actually important. We can buy the machine that best suits our own personal needs and wants and not be so concerned about whether or not it will be compatible with our office printer or network. We can be less concerned about how something works and more concerned with our own work and our own play.
While it is still true that not all software will run on every device this old concept is slowly dying. Software developers are realizing more and more that money is made in making software work everywhere and on everything. Other companies are working on ways to make software run on the server instead of the local machine. This gives anyone with an internet connection the ability to use their software from any computer or device. Google Docs is a great example of a really solid Office like software platform that works anywhere from a connected computer and in some places without regardless of what type of computer it is.
Next time you ask me what kind of computer I would recommend you buy ask yourself a few questions first: What software do I want to run on my new computer? Will it run on another type? Would that other type/brand/model fit my needs equally as well? What kind of money do I want to spend for a computer? Am I mainly going to be doing stuff on the internet? Am I going to play games on it? These kinds of questions are fundamental to your next computer purchase.
Some simple guidance. An Apple is going to generally cost a bit more than a Dell or an Acer. Some Acer computers are better for gaming than a Mac by virtue of a better video card built into many of them. An iPad has a lot of apps that you can only get on an iPad for now. In a year all of the most popular third party apps will be available on Android and a few months later on Windows (example Angry Birds). One thing you can only get on a Mac is the Macbook Air. Essentially it's the fastest computer around and comes in at a super light weight and highly efficient system. But in a year every other manufacturer will copy this.
So, the final point here is that when it comes to computers look to features that you want and that you need. Not at the ones Justin Long or Jerry Seinfeld mention in a TV ad. What do either of them know about you and your needs anyway?
This has presented me with the second opportunity to work hands on in an environment mixed with Apple and Windows based machines. The first time being in college working for the student newspaper.
Because I am predominantly a PC or Windows user I occasionally make a jab at Apple because my boss is an old school Mac user. At this particular occasion I was making a jab at the fact that another bosses computer didn't come equipped to run Flash. Flash, as you may know, is something Steve Jobs has gone well out of his way to discourage.
The stupid part about the joke was that Flash is a third party internet browser plug in. For those who don't follow that simply means that essentially no computer system comes with Flash built in. The only exception to that rule is Chrome OS which as of now is still in development and not available for general consumption.
Realizing my stupidity and feeling quite ashamed I hid away in my cave (I am one of the lucky few that does not work from a cubicle) and began to research operating systems. This is something that has been a very great interest to me lately since my recent dabble in Linux.
Further explanation in my curiosity is that for a while now I had been wondering why Linux computers can see and alter files from another system. It seemed that if they were completely different systems they would not even be able to see the files from another computer system.
A decade or two ago you could not place a disk formatted for windows in a Mac and expect the Mac to even see the files. Heck you were lucky if the system could recognize the media and ask for a format. Somewhere along the line that all changed. Now we don't even think when we put a flash drive in any system and the thing just works all the way around. I wanted to know why for a while.
Fueled by my curiosity and embarrassment I went on the hunt. I found what I was looking for in Wikipedia in the form of historical information.
So here is my conclusion and a summary of what I learned. Computers are pretty much all the same. There are some minor differences between computers but most of those are superficial. All computers we use today from our desktop to the phone in our pockets are based on the same basic structures. All of these computers are descended from the same ancestry of information technology. They all speak the same language at the core. They all contain the same building blocks. The differences come in how these common blocks are utilized.
On the lowest level computers speak zeros and ones. For a long time people had to speak that code to program and use a computer. Eventually a shorthand was created to make this simpler. Then another shorthand was created and then another. These three shorthands were used on computers that would be unrecognizable as such to most of us.
Over time a new version of shorthand was created to translate any of the others into something that resembled plain language and the first real programming languages were born. Many of these languages were designed to be used with a specific machine. Over time certain of these machines became more dominant and with them the languages.
As computers became less expensive to manufacture and more powerful there came a time when companies decided that a command based interface would be even better as it would simplify the usage of the computer even more. It was at this time operating systems were born. An operating system is nothing more than a plain language interface for a computer. It means that you can get the computer to function on some level without even knowing how to program. The OS (as I will refer to it from here on out) is basically a layer of programming to separate the user from the machine languages that only experts learned so just about anyone could use a computer.
What really surprised me was that in the very earliest of days the OS of most machines was designed for just that machine just like earlier many machine languages were designed for a specific machine. As I began to wonder about this it occurred to me that the reason for this must be that each machine has specific hardware that another machine would not have had or needed.
A few years later and some clever people decided that these machine specific parts could be encoded in software called drivers. Then any OS could run on a particular machine as long as the drivers were available to the OS. Each driver would tell the OS how to communicate with the machines unique hardware setup.
It was at this time that the computer industry really began to have a place in our homes. Some of us had an Apple others an IBM.
Fast forward a few decades and we are back in the present. We have a handful of OS choices and they all can see the files made for and/or by another. Why is that? Well it's mostly because the origin is all the same. Apple's OS 1-9 ran a specific instruction system for drivers that were specific to any machine they made. Apple held onto control of their hardware and software to attempt to create a very simplified user experience that was meant to be hassle free. They were more or less successful. Microsoft used their various systems to create a broad view that would accept as much hardware as possible in just about any configuration. At the core they were 2 doing the same tasks.
Meanwhile there were a few other systems that most consumers were not aware of that are equally important. Unix and Linux were being developed for larger computer servers all these years. Unix is an OS designed to be extremely powerful and extremely stable and probably most importantly it was designed to manage a very large amount of resources that typical home computers would never have. Linux was a project that was designed to emulate Unix but be free and more importantly something that anyone could adapt and change.
One other system was being used with similar properties at the time. It was Windows NT. NT was designed originally for business users to give them a stable system capable of managing a lot of resources. With the release of Windows XP professional and onwards this is the only system Microsoft releases.
Some time in the last decade a few major shifts occurred and most of us were not aware of them happening. Apple dumped their original OS for a system based on Unix. They created a hybrid of a few versions of Unix systems and released it as OS X. At the time I thought the X stood for the number 10. Now I know it, like every version or Unix, uses an X to denote the Unix origin.
So, here we are in 2011 with a handful of OS choices. Windows 7 is a version of NT which in turn is a network intended system. OS X is at its core a server software platform. And Android which is increasingly popular for phones is based on the core components of Linux which is also designed for servers. All of our choices are essentially the same at the core in what they do and how they use the actual hardware.
So, where does that leave those of us who are consumers? If all our choices are the same then what choice do we have? The more I think about these kinds of questions the more I realize that today's computer user is in a position that is new and wonderful in the history of computers. It means that it doesn't really matter what we buy. Brand names are irrelevant now. All of these computers are now capable of interacting with each other. They are capable of sharing information and more importantly our collective ideas and understanding.
We live in a computer market where manufacturers have to compete for our dollars by providing us with value in areas that are actually important. We can buy the machine that best suits our own personal needs and wants and not be so concerned about whether or not it will be compatible with our office printer or network. We can be less concerned about how something works and more concerned with our own work and our own play.
While it is still true that not all software will run on every device this old concept is slowly dying. Software developers are realizing more and more that money is made in making software work everywhere and on everything. Other companies are working on ways to make software run on the server instead of the local machine. This gives anyone with an internet connection the ability to use their software from any computer or device. Google Docs is a great example of a really solid Office like software platform that works anywhere from a connected computer and in some places without regardless of what type of computer it is.
Next time you ask me what kind of computer I would recommend you buy ask yourself a few questions first: What software do I want to run on my new computer? Will it run on another type? Would that other type/brand/model fit my needs equally as well? What kind of money do I want to spend for a computer? Am I mainly going to be doing stuff on the internet? Am I going to play games on it? These kinds of questions are fundamental to your next computer purchase.
Some simple guidance. An Apple is going to generally cost a bit more than a Dell or an Acer. Some Acer computers are better for gaming than a Mac by virtue of a better video card built into many of them. An iPad has a lot of apps that you can only get on an iPad for now. In a year all of the most popular third party apps will be available on Android and a few months later on Windows (example Angry Birds). One thing you can only get on a Mac is the Macbook Air. Essentially it's the fastest computer around and comes in at a super light weight and highly efficient system. But in a year every other manufacturer will copy this.
So, the final point here is that when it comes to computers look to features that you want and that you need. Not at the ones Justin Long or Jerry Seinfeld mention in a TV ad. What do either of them know about you and your needs anyway?
April 5, 2011
Linux... Finally
As an avid computer user and self-described tech geek/gadget fan I don't know why I didn't get to this earlier. But I have finally installed and run Linux on my computer. As a beginner I decided to go with Linux Mint.
Because I have been a long time Windows user and didn't really want to reinstall everything I have on my laptop should things go wrong I decided to go with a USB drive version (Trend Micro thinks this site is dangerous though it was not so the first time I visited). Basically what this means is that I have installed Linux Mint on my 8GB flash drive and when I want to run it I can use the boot menu to load it instead of Windows.
The initial installation took probably 15 minutes. That included downloading and installing on a new flash drive that was already empty. Then it took me a couple of minutes to enable the boot menu option on my laptop.
Running Linux Mint the first time was kind of strange. Overall it looks quite a bit like Windows. It is essentially a simple point and click interface like we are all used to. I would say that it just doesn't quite have the polish that Windows has, though if you are used to running Windows XP it may be a step up.
There is what is essentially a "Start" button in the lower left hand corner that will open up a menu where all of the preloaded programs are located. It comes with Open Office as well as Mozilla Firefox and a handful of other programs that essentially equate with things within Windows.
Being a Chrome user mainly I immediately went and downloaded Chrome for Linux and installed it. I used the version Google packaged for Ubuntu as I was told Mint and Ubuntu are very similar. It was really easy to install. Once it was downloaded I simply had to click the installation package and it ran an installer program. A minute later I was importing my bookmarks into Chrome and browsing the web.
And that ends the simplicity of using Linux. Everything I have attempted to do since installing Chrome has been something of a headache.
The next thing I tried to install was an anti-virus program. Linux users the world over will swear that you never need an anti-virus program in Linux. This fact I have seen debated in many forums. As I am not qualified to say I would just assume that no computer system is free from security issues. However, for my purposes I was hoping to install the software to scan Windows based systems from a safe environment. The idea being that if my laptop or a computer I support gets a serious infection I could boot to Mint and run a check on the drive(s) and clean the system.
I found a number of anti-virus programs designed to run within Linux that were advertised to scan Windows drives. Once I found one I was shocked at how difficult the system was to install. It required opening the command line terminal. Many of you may remember when computers ran DOS. You had to type commands into a black screen and hope that you typed them right in order for the computer to do anything. If you were studious you may have learned a lot of commands. You may remember some of them still. But in today's world that stuff is mostly forgotten and in many cases not needed. In the Linux world it is still how everything is done. The graphical user interface is still something of a facade.
To end this part of the story I'll just say that I still have not figured out how to install this anti-virus software or any other for that matter. Perhaps one day I will get online to learn the commands required. Yes it requires more than one command to install.
The next hurdle in my Linux adventure was when I tried to connect to my home internet using the wireless card in my laptop. I suppose Windows has made me lazy. I remember in the DOS days that all hardware came with driver disks. Even whole computers would come with disks containing drivers for preinstalled hardware. Then one day Microsoft decided that it would create a vast database of drivers and make it's operating system automatically detect new hardware and at least attempt to install it from its database.
Linux has some drivers built in. I have to say that the Ethernet port worked without installing additional drivers. The wireless card would not. I looked on the internet for some kind of fix. From what I can see so far the only possible way to make it work is to get a report from my system, upload it to an experts forum then wait and hope that the card is even supportable.
Now all this wouldn't be so bad, especially considering that Linux is free. However, it is difficult for me to live with these difficulties when many Linux advocates love to say things like, Linux can do anything Windows can do.
Can I play Starcraft on Linux natively? Can I run MS Office? No. In fact just browsing the web wirelessly has proven difficult to say the least.
I recently have run across statements on the internet
The point is my parents want to get on their computer and do something. They do anything from playing games to working on genealogy. The point is they don't have the patience to deal with command lines and I don't have the time to be doing it for them.
With Linux it may be possible to do anything one can do with Windows. But at this point in development Linux is far more confusing that most other computer systems out there. As computers get more powerful and more compact the users of computers are looking for simplicity and convenience. Computers should be a way for the average user to get more things done not a way to find more things that need getting done. From where I sit the only Linux based system that is even capable of this at this time is Google's Linux based Android, which ultimately only uses some Linux guts.
For now the world of computing for the masses still belongs to Microsoft Windows, Apple's OS X/iOS and Google's Android. My advice, don't get your parents or grandparents anything else.
Because I have been a long time Windows user and didn't really want to reinstall everything I have on my laptop should things go wrong I decided to go with a USB drive version (Trend Micro thinks this site is dangerous though it was not so the first time I visited). Basically what this means is that I have installed Linux Mint on my 8GB flash drive and when I want to run it I can use the boot menu to load it instead of Windows.
The initial installation took probably 15 minutes. That included downloading and installing on a new flash drive that was already empty. Then it took me a couple of minutes to enable the boot menu option on my laptop.
Running Linux Mint the first time was kind of strange. Overall it looks quite a bit like Windows. It is essentially a simple point and click interface like we are all used to. I would say that it just doesn't quite have the polish that Windows has, though if you are used to running Windows XP it may be a step up.
There is what is essentially a "Start" button in the lower left hand corner that will open up a menu where all of the preloaded programs are located. It comes with Open Office as well as Mozilla Firefox and a handful of other programs that essentially equate with things within Windows.
Being a Chrome user mainly I immediately went and downloaded Chrome for Linux and installed it. I used the version Google packaged for Ubuntu as I was told Mint and Ubuntu are very similar. It was really easy to install. Once it was downloaded I simply had to click the installation package and it ran an installer program. A minute later I was importing my bookmarks into Chrome and browsing the web.
And that ends the simplicity of using Linux. Everything I have attempted to do since installing Chrome has been something of a headache.
The next thing I tried to install was an anti-virus program. Linux users the world over will swear that you never need an anti-virus program in Linux. This fact I have seen debated in many forums. As I am not qualified to say I would just assume that no computer system is free from security issues. However, for my purposes I was hoping to install the software to scan Windows based systems from a safe environment. The idea being that if my laptop or a computer I support gets a serious infection I could boot to Mint and run a check on the drive(s) and clean the system.
I found a number of anti-virus programs designed to run within Linux that were advertised to scan Windows drives. Once I found one I was shocked at how difficult the system was to install. It required opening the command line terminal. Many of you may remember when computers ran DOS. You had to type commands into a black screen and hope that you typed them right in order for the computer to do anything. If you were studious you may have learned a lot of commands. You may remember some of them still. But in today's world that stuff is mostly forgotten and in many cases not needed. In the Linux world it is still how everything is done. The graphical user interface is still something of a facade.
To end this part of the story I'll just say that I still have not figured out how to install this anti-virus software or any other for that matter. Perhaps one day I will get online to learn the commands required. Yes it requires more than one command to install.
The next hurdle in my Linux adventure was when I tried to connect to my home internet using the wireless card in my laptop. I suppose Windows has made me lazy. I remember in the DOS days that all hardware came with driver disks. Even whole computers would come with disks containing drivers for preinstalled hardware. Then one day Microsoft decided that it would create a vast database of drivers and make it's operating system automatically detect new hardware and at least attempt to install it from its database.
Linux has some drivers built in. I have to say that the Ethernet port worked without installing additional drivers. The wireless card would not. I looked on the internet for some kind of fix. From what I can see so far the only possible way to make it work is to get a report from my system, upload it to an experts forum then wait and hope that the card is even supportable.
Now all this wouldn't be so bad, especially considering that Linux is free. However, it is difficult for me to live with these difficulties when many Linux advocates love to say things like, Linux can do anything Windows can do.
Can I play Starcraft on Linux natively? Can I run MS Office? No. In fact just browsing the web wirelessly has proven difficult to say the least.
I recently have run across statements on the internet
The point is my parents want to get on their computer and do something. They do anything from playing games to working on genealogy. The point is they don't have the patience to deal with command lines and I don't have the time to be doing it for them.
With Linux it may be possible to do anything one can do with Windows. But at this point in development Linux is far more confusing that most other computer systems out there. As computers get more powerful and more compact the users of computers are looking for simplicity and convenience. Computers should be a way for the average user to get more things done not a way to find more things that need getting done. From where I sit the only Linux based system that is even capable of this at this time is Google's Linux based Android, which ultimately only uses some Linux guts.
For now the world of computing for the masses still belongs to Microsoft Windows, Apple's OS X/iOS and Google's Android. My advice, don't get your parents or grandparents anything else.
March 30, 2011
/root
About 9 months ago I purchased an Android phone. Particularly I purchased the MyTouch 3G Slide from T-Mobile. For the most part it has been a positive experience. You can read my full review in the archive section for June 2010.
Recently I have had a handful of issues with my phone. The main issue is that the phone came with very limited space for installing apps. The Android Market now has a few hundred thousand apps to choose from, many of which are completely free. From time to time this presented a problem as my phone would run out of room.
At the time I purchased the phone I was under the impression that this particular model would soon receive an update that would give it a few extra capabilities. One of the main abilities was going to allow you to move apps from the phone to a micro SD card. This phone came with an 8 GB card. Up till now I have only filled my card about half way.
So for months now I have been waiting for the promise to be fulfilled. Yesterday I went so far as to call customer service in hopes that they could solve the issue or at the very least offer me a better phone for my years of loyalty and paying my bill on time. Nada.
Since I was completely tired of waiting I decided to do something brash. I rooted my phone. For those unaware of that term it simply means that I unlocked the phone to take complete control over it. It essentially grants you access to add or remove whatever you wish from the hardware you purchased. In my case it allowed me to remove the excessive junk that T-Mobile placed on my phone from the time of manufacturing.
One other perk to rooting an Android device is you have the ability to completely wipe out the operating system and install any other operating system based on the Android code. This was the main goal that I was aiming for.
In my case I was waiting months for the Android 2.2 system update. So, once I had access to the phone I simply found another operating system based on the 2.2 update. In my case I decided to go with the ever popular CyanogenMod 6.1. The base code behind it is Android 2.2. Essentially it promised to fulfill all of my hopes and dreams.
The process was a bit long. It required first installing the software development kit that Google has created for people who wish to create software for Android. Once I had this installed I used it to push certain software elements to the phone that allowed the phone to be booted into a special mode that allows you to erase and install components.
There were a few moments that were a bit scary. At one point I erased the system software on the phone and then rebooted into nothing. I got a bit concerned until I figured out how to boot into the loading program again which allowed me to install CyanogenMod.
If you are considering rooting and installing new operating software on your Android device I highly recommend you click on my link above and read up on it. Keep in mind that rooting your phone voids your warranty.
I have already noticed a couple of benefits from the new software. First of all everything runs faster. Programs download and install faster. They appear to run faster, though I am not 100% certain that they do. I also have more space available for apps. In addition to the extra space I now have the ability to move the apps to the SD card just as I wanted. I also have been able to unlock and use the Chrome-to-Phone add on feature for the Chrome browser.
In all honesty I was very hesitant to make the change. I was concerned about losing my warranty. I was concerned that I would lose out on the update whenever it comes out. After going through with the process I am actually glad I did it. By the time T-Mobile and HTC release the update to 2.2 I expect I'll be running a stable version of CyanogenMod based on 2.3 or 2.4.
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