The next few posts I write - here and in my other blogs, as they come up - are something of an experiment. I'm trying the new (draft) version of blogger, just to see what is coming.
If you want to try it, login to www.blogger.com as usual, then go to "draft.blogger.com" and you can see what it looks like. From there you can also make it your default version if you so choose.
Not sure what to make of it just yet, but I am keeping an open mind.
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Monday, July 18, 2011
Living With A Chromebook, Part 1
For a bit over a week now I have been using a Chromebook - specifically a Samsung with both Wifi and 3G - because I am sick and tired of big clunky laptops and desktop machines. In this post - and possibly some others that follow (thus "Part 1") - I will do my best to document the good, the bad, and the ugly of this experience.
First, a bit about me, just to set the stage and my own expectations. I have done software development for 25 years now, with a couple of breaks when I was deliberately jobless. I have used computers starting with a TRS-80 model 1, then on to a Compaq Deskpro, innumerable different machines at college, from mainframes on down, then DOS, OS/2, Windows, and Apple machines at work. Then I abandoned Windows and Apple and went to Unix via a different series of jobs. My home machines now - other than the Chromebook - all run Linux of one sort or another.
In terms of what I do with computers, I am one or two steps above most users in terms of complexity, but I am not among what I would consider the elite power users. I don't generally write programs for fun, but I do maintain my own website, for example. The place where I probably do the oddest thing at home involves maintaining an encrypted file system that can be mounted (or not) in which I store a list of the jillions of passwords I have around the internet.
Most of what I do, like others, is done in a web browser. I read email, watch a few videos, use a few social networks, and consume news and other media. You, your mom, and maybe your grandmother do the same things on their computers. The things that we also share that generally happen outside the browser - word processing, spreadsheets, etc. - are also things that are happening inside the browser now, and which I have been doing there for some time.
Games are another matter entirely. Mostly I don't bother as I find a lot of them boring and/or repetitious. Still, a few hold my interest for a while.
With that all stated up front, this post will list out the things I consider good and bad about the Chromebook so far. Here we go...
The Good
First, a bit about me, just to set the stage and my own expectations. I have done software development for 25 years now, with a couple of breaks when I was deliberately jobless. I have used computers starting with a TRS-80 model 1, then on to a Compaq Deskpro, innumerable different machines at college, from mainframes on down, then DOS, OS/2, Windows, and Apple machines at work. Then I abandoned Windows and Apple and went to Unix via a different series of jobs. My home machines now - other than the Chromebook - all run Linux of one sort or another.
In terms of what I do with computers, I am one or two steps above most users in terms of complexity, but I am not among what I would consider the elite power users. I don't generally write programs for fun, but I do maintain my own website, for example. The place where I probably do the oddest thing at home involves maintaining an encrypted file system that can be mounted (or not) in which I store a list of the jillions of passwords I have around the internet.
Most of what I do, like others, is done in a web browser. I read email, watch a few videos, use a few social networks, and consume news and other media. You, your mom, and maybe your grandmother do the same things on their computers. The things that we also share that generally happen outside the browser - word processing, spreadsheets, etc. - are also things that are happening inside the browser now, and which I have been doing there for some time.
Games are another matter entirely. Mostly I don't bother as I find a lot of them boring and/or repetitious. Still, a few hold my interest for a while.
With that all stated up front, this post will list out the things I consider good and bad about the Chromebook so far. Here we go...
The Good
- The Chromebook is small and light. That turns out to be very nice. Nicer than I expected, in fact. The screen is large enough to be easy to use, but overall this device is quite capable. I am not yet certain if I could use it as an eReader, though. Reading with it in bed might be a challenge as it pretty large in comparison to a kindle or ipad, and the dedicated keyboard I wanted so much (see below) would be a hindrance for that application. Or so I suspect. I'll have to try that at some point, but in the mean time I am quite happy with its size, shape, and weight.
- Good Screen. Nice and bright, easily read, etc. I am pleased with it.
- A Real Keyboard. I didn't want a tablet because I wanted a real keyboard. Imagine trying to write this blog entry on an on-screen keyboard. No thanks. And while an outboard keyboard is possible for a tablet, it makes it two separate things and thus rather hard to hold onto while sitting in a comfy chair, or whatever. For me a built in keyboard was a requirement, and this one has good key feel, though it appears the key spacing may be different from what I am used to. (Lots of typos that I have to fix. Will get over that with more time.)
- The apps just work, mostly. I am not a big app user. My G1 has just a few loaded onto it, and I've only paid for one app ever over there. I am still mostly living in the web itself (rather than in apps running withing the browser) on the Chromebook, but I see there are apps here - I've even poked at a couple - and I am certain they will continue to grow and thrive. In fact, the offline aspects of the Chromebook will require more apps over time, so seeing them is a good thing. The only issue I see so far is that at least some of the apps I have looked at in the Web Store indicate they won't run on the Chromebook. I am guessing there are some differences between the Chrome browser as it runs here and on a "real" computer. Everything I have installed so far has been fine, but that isn't a guarantee they will all work.
- Fantastic battery life. I am getting 8 hours or so out of a charge, and I pretty mush just ignore it until the warning pops up to tell me I have 15 to 20 minutes left. Then I plug it in and let it charge while continuing to work. Simple, and quite nice to be unplugged for so long.
- Amazingly quick start up. A cold boot really is 10 seconds or less. (My linux boxes boot in 50-70 seconds, depending on what you count as boot time. I discounted login time but did include time to launch X and start the browser, to make it a fair comparison with what the Chromebook does.) Even better, though, is sleep mode. Close the cover and it's off. Open it up again and within 2 seconds it's at the login prompt, waiting for your password. For me this is a game changer. I no longer have to leave a computer running all day to have access quickly when I want it. Just open the lid, enter my password, and I'm there. Nice, but it does require changing some habits. No need to set the machine aside - lid open - when I go do something else. Close it. Open when done. Easy, but different.
- Touchy trackpad - it's huge and easy to tap accidentally. I find that at times my cursor has suddenly moved elsewhere thanks to a stray finger or palm grazing the track pad. This is a learning thing, and (to be honest) I have never liked track pads before, but this one is growing on me. It's large enough to let me accomplish quite a bit with one or two gestures, which is good. But it is really sensitive, and click-to-tap, which I have enabled for another reason, makes it more so. I expect to be past this in another week or two and just using it like it was completely normal. I could plug in a USB mouse simply enough, but I really want to keep this to be just the one thing, not something I have to have dedicated space to use.
- The mouse button in the track pad is stiff. There is a single mouse button built into the trackpad, and if you push down hard enough on it you will hear it click. I wanted to use it (as opposed to tap-to-click) but it is so stiff as to make that difficult. I've resorted to tap-to-click and the corresponding risk of accidental mouse clicks when fingers stray. So far it's working, but a slightly less stiff button would have made me happier.
- Unknown keyboard shortcuts and unexpected happenings (like tabs opening). Another thing I have to get used to (and figure out) rather than a real problem. If you're prone to typos, these things happen. Just a few minutes ago I figured out that the key with a magnifying glass on it - where the caps lock key would normally be - opens a new window, and also closes an unused window. (Or maybe it closes the current window... I don't really know which it does yet.) Between hitting that when going for 'a' and the occasional stray mouse movement as described above, I find that a few times a day I am wondering what the heck just happened and have to take my hands off the keyboard and undo whatever I just did. There is a map of the various keyboard shortcuts available, and I looked at it once from an online tutorial I read a week ago, but I have no idea where it is now. (Keyboard shortcuts bug me in general, though. Having them is fine, but make them really, REALLY easy to find out about, OK? Both Windows and MacOS have zillions of these things now and I never seem to know what they are. I can navigate my way around inside vi, though, so go figure.)
- Occasional glitches in video. On my first day I was going through Google's tutorials and there were some videos. Loading them was simple, and they mostly worked, but on one page there were just black boxes where YouTube videos should have been. On another the video played but without sound. In both cases I reloaded the page and everything worked, and I haven't see the issue since, so I don't know what it was I saw.
- A fan. I was hoping for a totally fanless computer, finally. No such luck. There is a CPU fan on this puppy and it varies in speed depending on what you're doing, though it is pretty quiet overall. There are also vents on the bottom of the case that bug me. Setting this machine on your lap won't make you sterile, but I don't know if it will overheat if those vents are blocked by your clothing.
- Oddities in 3G registration. I have barely tried 3G yet. WiFi in my house works fine, and it has also worked at at local restaurant just as well. But I did register for 3G and had two glitches in the process. The first was that registration would not work at my home. I am in a rural area, but we have Verizon service here and it should have worked. In fact, once I registered it elsewhere it does work at home, but I had to do the registration in town. The second glitch was that the registration form was designed by someone whose elevator didn't go all the way to the top. It kept bouncing back to me saying my credit card information wasn't accepted, and I kept looking it over and it was fine. Eventually it dawned on my that I had to remove the spaces from the CC number. Why they couldn't remove them while processing the form data - particularly since they let me enter them in the first place - I don't know. But once I deleted the spaces everything went through. A nit, I know, but user experience matters, and this was just stupid.
That's my list, at least for now. I clearly have to make some changes in my life, like move my passwords out of my encrypted file system and into some sort of online password repository. I am researching those and may have an answer for that soon.
I'd like to see a command line here so I can ssh to to remote machines. That would make things much simpler for me when I work on my web sites. I'd also like to see some blinking lights on the menu bar when it's doing network access. It would be nice to know if any bottle necks are related to data not moving at all, or just moving slowly.
I expect these sorts of issues will be resolved with time, and I have every reason to think that Google's Chromebook idea is going to work out well in the end. Having my data stored in the cloud doesn't bother me. If I have private data of some sort, though, I'd like a way to encrypt it here before it goes to the cloud. I expect that is coming someday, from some cloud based service provider.
In the meantime, google docs is a great set of apps for all kinds of work, and the so called limitation of having to be online while working isn't really that big a deal, at least not to me.
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Long time gone
Boy have I been away for a while. Busy is too polite a word for it, but whatever the name it's not been much fun.
At the moment, though, things appear to be settling down a bit. The next couple of weeks will be rocky as a result of visitors in town, but after that things may be calmer, which means I might have time to write more. (And even as I say that the phone across the room warbles to tell me that a new text message has arrived. Yay.)
In any case I have a new toy that may make writing a bit more interesting, or possible. A new Chromebook has arrived, and it has a few interesting features that I am starting to figure out. Hopefully the next month or three will see it getting substantial use, and this blog - and other things - will benefit.
That said, the next two weeks will not be filled with posts, so give me a little time to get past other commitments first.
Have a great summer!
At the moment, though, things appear to be settling down a bit. The next couple of weeks will be rocky as a result of visitors in town, but after that things may be calmer, which means I might have time to write more. (And even as I say that the phone across the room warbles to tell me that a new text message has arrived. Yay.)
In any case I have a new toy that may make writing a bit more interesting, or possible. A new Chromebook has arrived, and it has a few interesting features that I am starting to figure out. Hopefully the next month or three will see it getting substantial use, and this blog - and other things - will benefit.
That said, the next two weeks will not be filled with posts, so give me a little time to get past other commitments first.
Have a great summer!
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
On A More Serious Note
I don't know what to make of the US's recent work in Libya.
First of all, please don't get me wrong. From what I can tell Gaddafi is a complete nitwit. He's dangerous and loony, I know. Getting him out of power, should that happen, is likely to be a good thing. And keeping him from killing innocents is definitely good as well.
But, where does it all end?
We're currently involved in three simultaneous wars, which has to be some kind of record.
And the costs of such things are staggering. I hear so many politicians complaining about the budget these days. The single fastest way to reduce the short term deficit would be to get out of Iraq, Afghanistan, and (now) Libya. The cruise missiles we're firing at Libya are awfully expensive things, not to mention planes and pilots.
More interesting to me than costs, though, is our reputation. The US was already seen by far too many as a bully. Some countries want us to continue in our role as "world policeman" while others are terrified of that very same thing. I can't yet find a way that our involvement in Libya does much good for our reputation overall, even if in the end it benefits the Libyan people. Just wait until there are a few confirmed civilian casualties as a result of coalition air strikes, for example, to see how badly things might go, even in Libya itself.
And we pick our battles so carefully. We intervene in Iraq and Libya, but not in North Korea, nor China during the Tiananmen Square uprising? Why or why not? What about the other middle east countries currently seeing varying levels of protest? Should we help the Yemenese people if things take an ugly turn there? How about Bahrain? Or Saudi Arabia, where recent descriptions of the overwhelming response to a possible protest astounded me.
I suspect we gave up the moral high ground a long, long time ago, and now all the decisions are simply pragmatic in nature. We can intervene in Libya because we have cover from the UN, and the Arab League, but can't do anything against North Korea or China because they have nukes. Libya has oil we want, by the way, as does Saudi Arabia. The calculus around whether intervention helps or hinders our oil habit must be very interesting at the highest levels of power.
I'd rather we stepped back and honesty answered the questions: Should we be intervening? Why or why not?
I don't claim to know the answers in any given case. These are complicated issues, and there are arguments on all sides, but it appears to me as if the US is getting involved in far too many conflicts of late, to our own detriment in various ways. It's like the default is to start shooting.
Something about that feels wrong.
First of all, please don't get me wrong. From what I can tell Gaddafi is a complete nitwit. He's dangerous and loony, I know. Getting him out of power, should that happen, is likely to be a good thing. And keeping him from killing innocents is definitely good as well.
But, where does it all end?
We're currently involved in three simultaneous wars, which has to be some kind of record.
And the costs of such things are staggering. I hear so many politicians complaining about the budget these days. The single fastest way to reduce the short term deficit would be to get out of Iraq, Afghanistan, and (now) Libya. The cruise missiles we're firing at Libya are awfully expensive things, not to mention planes and pilots.
More interesting to me than costs, though, is our reputation. The US was already seen by far too many as a bully. Some countries want us to continue in our role as "world policeman" while others are terrified of that very same thing. I can't yet find a way that our involvement in Libya does much good for our reputation overall, even if in the end it benefits the Libyan people. Just wait until there are a few confirmed civilian casualties as a result of coalition air strikes, for example, to see how badly things might go, even in Libya itself.
And we pick our battles so carefully. We intervene in Iraq and Libya, but not in North Korea, nor China during the Tiananmen Square uprising? Why or why not? What about the other middle east countries currently seeing varying levels of protest? Should we help the Yemenese people if things take an ugly turn there? How about Bahrain? Or Saudi Arabia, where recent descriptions of the overwhelming response to a possible protest astounded me.
I suspect we gave up the moral high ground a long, long time ago, and now all the decisions are simply pragmatic in nature. We can intervene in Libya because we have cover from the UN, and the Arab League, but can't do anything against North Korea or China because they have nukes. Libya has oil we want, by the way, as does Saudi Arabia. The calculus around whether intervention helps or hinders our oil habit must be very interesting at the highest levels of power.
I'd rather we stepped back and honesty answered the questions: Should we be intervening? Why or why not?
I don't claim to know the answers in any given case. These are complicated issues, and there are arguments on all sides, but it appears to me as if the US is getting involved in far too many conflicts of late, to our own detriment in various ways. It's like the default is to start shooting.
Something about that feels wrong.
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Humans in Groups: not good
I went to a concert last night. I do this regularly. My wife plays in a symphony, you see, so I find myself in concert halls with several hundred - perhaps a couple thousand, I dunno - total strangers, trying to listen to music played by humans without amplification. Not fun.
Last night was cough night. The music would get quiet and an entirely different symphony of coughing would appear. Why? Maybe it's flu season. Maybe the audience doesn't care. They're mostly old enough that they might not even be capable of hearing each other cough. Whatever, I found it annoying.
I also hate going to movies in theaters. Even a small audience is distracting. Someone will suddenly have an unimaginably difficult time opening some candy wrapper at exactly the wrong moment, for example. And several times young, white, male individuals between the ages of 15 and 25 have been extremely disruptive - read "stupid" - at movies I have been at, even when the total audience numbered less than 20.
I am fast becoming a hermit where shared experiences are the goal. As if that sentence made any sense. If a bunch of people watch the same DVD separately, have they had a shared experience? Maybe, but they definitely haven't been disturbed by the rest of the people in the theater (or whatever) while trying to enjoy it.
Recently I went to a Roger Waters concert, where he performed The Wall live. It was an amazing show, with video to die for, sound to drown out everything, and so on. It was, in fact, the best concert I have ever been to. But guess what... I didn't get to lose myself in the show. People around us were doing all kinds of distracting (and stupid) things, and the fact that the music was so loud I needed earplugs didn't mean I couldn't hear the idiots around me.
We've lost something, somewhere. The idea that civility meant not bugging your neighbor seems to be gone. And not even the oldest among us (who still get out and about, anyway) understand that.
Of course I probably bug those around me at concerts too. I can't sit that still for that long - my limbs fall asleep - and I wind up having to shift around a bit. I apologize to those who have had to sit near me. At least I try to be quiet, though.
Anyway, there isn't anything to be done about this. It's a shame, though. If you'd only sit down, shut up, and pay attention you might learn something, or at least enjoy the show. But that'll never happen.
Last night was cough night. The music would get quiet and an entirely different symphony of coughing would appear. Why? Maybe it's flu season. Maybe the audience doesn't care. They're mostly old enough that they might not even be capable of hearing each other cough. Whatever, I found it annoying.
I also hate going to movies in theaters. Even a small audience is distracting. Someone will suddenly have an unimaginably difficult time opening some candy wrapper at exactly the wrong moment, for example. And several times young, white, male individuals between the ages of 15 and 25 have been extremely disruptive - read "stupid" - at movies I have been at, even when the total audience numbered less than 20.
I am fast becoming a hermit where shared experiences are the goal. As if that sentence made any sense. If a bunch of people watch the same DVD separately, have they had a shared experience? Maybe, but they definitely haven't been disturbed by the rest of the people in the theater (or whatever) while trying to enjoy it.
Recently I went to a Roger Waters concert, where he performed The Wall live. It was an amazing show, with video to die for, sound to drown out everything, and so on. It was, in fact, the best concert I have ever been to. But guess what... I didn't get to lose myself in the show. People around us were doing all kinds of distracting (and stupid) things, and the fact that the music was so loud I needed earplugs didn't mean I couldn't hear the idiots around me.
We've lost something, somewhere. The idea that civility meant not bugging your neighbor seems to be gone. And not even the oldest among us (who still get out and about, anyway) understand that.
Of course I probably bug those around me at concerts too. I can't sit that still for that long - my limbs fall asleep - and I wind up having to shift around a bit. I apologize to those who have had to sit near me. At least I try to be quiet, though.
Anyway, there isn't anything to be done about this. It's a shame, though. If you'd only sit down, shut up, and pay attention you might learn something, or at least enjoy the show. But that'll never happen.
Monday, February 28, 2011
Podcasts Stink
All kinds of people I know are listening to podcasts these days, and I keep wondering why.
This morning I tripped over a link to a podcast with someone I wanted to hear more from, so I decided to listen to it. This one, at least, I wanted to hear, right?
Wrong.
Yes, there are aspects to recorded speech that don't show up in the written word, which is interesting at some level, but there are all kinds of cruft in there too. Cruft that gets removed in a written presentation. More importantly, though, podcasts fall into a gray area regarding how much attention they require.
If you're actually listening to them, it's hard to do something else, like work, at the same time, but that's one of the supposed benefits of podcasts - the ability to listen whenever you want and when you have the ability to do so. Yet if it's actually interesting it still demands more attention than I can give it if I want to do something else. And this is why I don't want to listen to podcasts or audio books while driving. It's also probably the reason that cell phones are so dangerous when used by drivers. We're not paying full attention to the job at hand. For the record, I have the same issue with radio news and similar format shows. If I am really paying attention to them, nothing else is - or should - be going on.
Then again, podcasts are not as immersive as a video of some sort. There's nothing to watch while I'm listening, so I'm slightly bored, looking for something else to do, even if I am interested in the content. It's only engaging half my brain, or something like that.
The resulting mental confusion drives me nuts. The podcast idea sounds so simple and yet it really doesn't work.
But wait, I hear you cry, what about music? Don't you listen to music the same way? The answer is "yes", but with caveats. As with a podcast, if I am actually paying attention to the music I can't really to much of anything else. But beyond that, I suspect music uses a different part of the brain. Podcasts are using the speech centers extensively, music not so much. Yes, I know, vocal music does to some extent, but once you've heard it once or twice and know the lyrics, they fade a bit and you process them more as music and less as speech. Or at least it seems that way to me. The first time I hear a piece of vocal music, I have to listen closely and parse the lyrics out, thus consuming more attention, and making it more difficult to do other things. Later times it takes less effort and I can ignore it much more easily.
In any case, even if that theory is complete hogwash (which it might well be), music doesn't demand the same kind of (or amount of) attention from me that a podcast does. Even so, when doing something that requires thought - writing, etc. - I typically turn the music off (or way down) so I can focus exclusively on what I am doing.
Another objection to podcasts is their horrible inefficiency. Let's say I really need the information in a 30 minute podcast. I can burn the 30 minutes and listen to it, or, if the alternative is available I could download the text contents and read it. The download would be very quick - there isn't that much speech in 30 minutes of real time - and reading it would be much faster than 30 minutes too. Plus, I can reread and find interesting bits quickly in text, something that a podcast makes difficult at best.
As a vehicle for moving information around, podcasts stink. This morning's attempt was a total flop. I abandoned it after about 15 minutes. It was, sadly, a waste of time. Give me the contents in text form, please. Really.
This morning I tripped over a link to a podcast with someone I wanted to hear more from, so I decided to listen to it. This one, at least, I wanted to hear, right?
Wrong.
Yes, there are aspects to recorded speech that don't show up in the written word, which is interesting at some level, but there are all kinds of cruft in there too. Cruft that gets removed in a written presentation. More importantly, though, podcasts fall into a gray area regarding how much attention they require.
If you're actually listening to them, it's hard to do something else, like work, at the same time, but that's one of the supposed benefits of podcasts - the ability to listen whenever you want and when you have the ability to do so. Yet if it's actually interesting it still demands more attention than I can give it if I want to do something else. And this is why I don't want to listen to podcasts or audio books while driving. It's also probably the reason that cell phones are so dangerous when used by drivers. We're not paying full attention to the job at hand. For the record, I have the same issue with radio news and similar format shows. If I am really paying attention to them, nothing else is - or should - be going on.
Then again, podcasts are not as immersive as a video of some sort. There's nothing to watch while I'm listening, so I'm slightly bored, looking for something else to do, even if I am interested in the content. It's only engaging half my brain, or something like that.
The resulting mental confusion drives me nuts. The podcast idea sounds so simple and yet it really doesn't work.
But wait, I hear you cry, what about music? Don't you listen to music the same way? The answer is "yes", but with caveats. As with a podcast, if I am actually paying attention to the music I can't really to much of anything else. But beyond that, I suspect music uses a different part of the brain. Podcasts are using the speech centers extensively, music not so much. Yes, I know, vocal music does to some extent, but once you've heard it once or twice and know the lyrics, they fade a bit and you process them more as music and less as speech. Or at least it seems that way to me. The first time I hear a piece of vocal music, I have to listen closely and parse the lyrics out, thus consuming more attention, and making it more difficult to do other things. Later times it takes less effort and I can ignore it much more easily.
In any case, even if that theory is complete hogwash (which it might well be), music doesn't demand the same kind of (or amount of) attention from me that a podcast does. Even so, when doing something that requires thought - writing, etc. - I typically turn the music off (or way down) so I can focus exclusively on what I am doing.
Another objection to podcasts is their horrible inefficiency. Let's say I really need the information in a 30 minute podcast. I can burn the 30 minutes and listen to it, or, if the alternative is available I could download the text contents and read it. The download would be very quick - there isn't that much speech in 30 minutes of real time - and reading it would be much faster than 30 minutes too. Plus, I can reread and find interesting bits quickly in text, something that a podcast makes difficult at best.
As a vehicle for moving information around, podcasts stink. This morning's attempt was a total flop. I abandoned it after about 15 minutes. It was, sadly, a waste of time. Give me the contents in text form, please. Really.
Friday, February 25, 2011
Thoughts on Stress
Many things can mess with your head, of course, and we're all different in terms of what affects us, but for me stress is a killer.
The house remodel isn't done yet. In fact, though it is nearing completion, it may be another month before we can do the final sign off with the county. I hope it is faster than that, but it may take that long or longer for reasons that are entirely out of my control.
Oddly, despite the fact that the vast majority of the time remaining is spent waiting for things to get done, not with people actively working at the house, it is still very stressful for me. Very stressful. And that stress just cripples me in other ways.
I'd like to do some serious fiction writing, but just finding the energy is hard. I'd like to carve more stone, but the same issues apply, along with cold weather making things tougher to do. I'd like to go back to the gym twice a week, but the vagaries of scheduling the times when the contractors are here makes me hesitate to do even that.
In all, there are a lot of things that keep me from moving forward with life, and I find it all very frustrating.
One of these days it will be done, and I will move on. I just hope that day comes sooner rather than later. I need this project to end.
The house remodel isn't done yet. In fact, though it is nearing completion, it may be another month before we can do the final sign off with the county. I hope it is faster than that, but it may take that long or longer for reasons that are entirely out of my control.
Oddly, despite the fact that the vast majority of the time remaining is spent waiting for things to get done, not with people actively working at the house, it is still very stressful for me. Very stressful. And that stress just cripples me in other ways.
I'd like to do some serious fiction writing, but just finding the energy is hard. I'd like to carve more stone, but the same issues apply, along with cold weather making things tougher to do. I'd like to go back to the gym twice a week, but the vagaries of scheduling the times when the contractors are here makes me hesitate to do even that.
In all, there are a lot of things that keep me from moving forward with life, and I find it all very frustrating.
One of these days it will be done, and I will move on. I just hope that day comes sooner rather than later. I need this project to end.
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
On Driving Across Country
Yes, I've been gone a long time. Sorry. Many things got in the way: work, life, and so on. I hope that is changing, but back to the topic at hand.
We recently completed yet another drive from California to Illinois for the purposes of seeing family over the holidays and I have a few awards to give out as a result.
But first, "Why drive instead of fly?" I hear you ask. Well, because it's a lot cheaper.
Tickets for two from SJC to ORD would cost, oh, $800 or so. Then add the cost of putting two dogs in a kennel for two weeks. That's a big total. It's a lot cheaper to drive, bring the dogs, and pay for gas and hotels than it is to fly. And we once had a dog lose over 10% of her body weight in a kennel because she wouldn't eat. We didn't like that.
Anyway... on to the awards:
To Iowa, for having the least technically competent drivers anywhere along I80 between California and Chicago. Over the holidays of 2009 we saw a vast number of wrecks in Iowa after an ice storm. I am happy to say that this year, though there was no ice storm, the state of Iowa continues to impress with their total lack of driving ability. Either these folks don't teach driving at all, or they have all collectively forgotten what they were taught. Driving in Iowa is not for the weak of heart.
To Illinois, for having the most self centered drivers on the road. Rest assured that when driving in the Chicago area or on 88 between Iowa and Chicago there isn't a single other driver on the road who cares about you, your goals, or your safety. All they care about is getting to their destination as quickly as possible, regardless of what that may do to anyone else on the road. Turn signals? Fugetaboutit. Following room? No one needs that. Speed limits? Ha! Just get there baby... ASAP. Other places might classify lots of what we saw as reckless driving. Not Illinois. There it's just the usual stuff. Yawn.
To Wyoming, for having the worst stretch of road we have ever driven on. On 12/30/2010, I80 west of Green River was an unbroken sheet of ice, from side to side of the road including both shoulders, and continuing for 20 solid miles. We'd had blowing snow and blizzard conditions - nearing white out fairly often - through all of Wyoming, and the road wasn't great, but they were trying. Plows were out with sand or salt, and the road was OK. We stopped in Green River for gas and decided, since the road had been passable, to continue. What we found just outside of town really made us wonder about the Wyoming department of transportation. I am not exaggerating: 20 uninterrupted miles of ice. Plus the wonder of trucks flying past us at 50 or 60 MPH on that surface. We saw several wrecked big rigs, but all had been traveling in the other direction that morning. Why none of the nitwits that passed us as we limped along didn't die in fiery wrecks we really don't know.
To the I80 drivers just west of Sparks NV, for the best impersonation of a Mad Max movie we have ever seen. On our outbound trip we stopped in Sparks for the night. We got moving the next morning only to find both lanes of the interstate completely stopped for nearly two hours. Lots of emergency equipment drove by on the shoulder, east bound, most of which we never saw again once we finally did get moving. But we did see a lot of wrecks: overturns, collisions, solo spin outs, a jack-knifed big rig, and so on. Most of these had no emergency equipment present and appeared recent, which was a challenge given the road wasn't in particularly bad shape. And this wasn't a chain reaction thing. These were all separate wrecks, scattered over several miles. We never did find the actual cause of the stoppage so we'll never know what was really going on. Some might argue that Nevada should get the award for least competent drivers as a result of this little event, but experience tells us that Iowans are still the ones to beat.
And there you have it. The 2010/2011 holiday driving awards from yours truly. I hope to avoid this next year by staying home.
We recently completed yet another drive from California to Illinois for the purposes of seeing family over the holidays and I have a few awards to give out as a result.
But first, "Why drive instead of fly?" I hear you ask. Well, because it's a lot cheaper.
Tickets for two from SJC to ORD would cost, oh, $800 or so. Then add the cost of putting two dogs in a kennel for two weeks. That's a big total. It's a lot cheaper to drive, bring the dogs, and pay for gas and hotels than it is to fly. And we once had a dog lose over 10% of her body weight in a kennel because she wouldn't eat. We didn't like that.
Anyway... on to the awards:
To Iowa, for having the least technically competent drivers anywhere along I80 between California and Chicago. Over the holidays of 2009 we saw a vast number of wrecks in Iowa after an ice storm. I am happy to say that this year, though there was no ice storm, the state of Iowa continues to impress with their total lack of driving ability. Either these folks don't teach driving at all, or they have all collectively forgotten what they were taught. Driving in Iowa is not for the weak of heart.
To Illinois, for having the most self centered drivers on the road. Rest assured that when driving in the Chicago area or on 88 between Iowa and Chicago there isn't a single other driver on the road who cares about you, your goals, or your safety. All they care about is getting to their destination as quickly as possible, regardless of what that may do to anyone else on the road. Turn signals? Fugetaboutit. Following room? No one needs that. Speed limits? Ha! Just get there baby... ASAP. Other places might classify lots of what we saw as reckless driving. Not Illinois. There it's just the usual stuff. Yawn.
To Wyoming, for having the worst stretch of road we have ever driven on. On 12/30/2010, I80 west of Green River was an unbroken sheet of ice, from side to side of the road including both shoulders, and continuing for 20 solid miles. We'd had blowing snow and blizzard conditions - nearing white out fairly often - through all of Wyoming, and the road wasn't great, but they were trying. Plows were out with sand or salt, and the road was OK. We stopped in Green River for gas and decided, since the road had been passable, to continue. What we found just outside of town really made us wonder about the Wyoming department of transportation. I am not exaggerating: 20 uninterrupted miles of ice. Plus the wonder of trucks flying past us at 50 or 60 MPH on that surface. We saw several wrecked big rigs, but all had been traveling in the other direction that morning. Why none of the nitwits that passed us as we limped along didn't die in fiery wrecks we really don't know.
To the I80 drivers just west of Sparks NV, for the best impersonation of a Mad Max movie we have ever seen. On our outbound trip we stopped in Sparks for the night. We got moving the next morning only to find both lanes of the interstate completely stopped for nearly two hours. Lots of emergency equipment drove by on the shoulder, east bound, most of which we never saw again once we finally did get moving. But we did see a lot of wrecks: overturns, collisions, solo spin outs, a jack-knifed big rig, and so on. Most of these had no emergency equipment present and appeared recent, which was a challenge given the road wasn't in particularly bad shape. And this wasn't a chain reaction thing. These were all separate wrecks, scattered over several miles. We never did find the actual cause of the stoppage so we'll never know what was really going on. Some might argue that Nevada should get the award for least competent drivers as a result of this little event, but experience tells us that Iowans are still the ones to beat.
And there you have it. The 2010/2011 holiday driving awards from yours truly. I hope to avoid this next year by staying home.
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Rumours of my Death are Greatly Exaggerated
It's been a long time since I wrote here. Or at least it feels like I long time. I started work on June 14th, I think, and Mr. Toad's Wild Ride hasn't ended since.
What to tell you?
Well, firstly, work is, well... work. My employer and I are both equally surprised to learn that they wound up hiring me for an operations job, not really (in my mind, anyway) a release engineering position.
Yes, technically it is release engineering, but the reality is that for the foreseeable future I am doing support and debugging of applications and the existing release process. Without intending to slight him, the person who used to do this work, and who has now moved on, had a very high tolerance for pain, errors, unexplicable behavior, and so on. As I figure things out I need to spend time fixing things just to keep sane. Adding simple things like, oh, error handling, would be good in a lot of places.
The house remodel project continues. Slowly. The original estimate was 8 weeks. We're at 16 now and still going strong. There is visible progress and not only has demolition ended, but construction has happened. We have a new kitchen roof, for example, and the main deck is being put into place now, though that is taking plenty of time too, and has not been without surprises.
I hope we actually get things done this year. At this point, though there are still 5 months left, I cannot say with certainty it will happen.
There isn't much else to report right now, and until the house is done and I get to feeling like I have enough of a clue at the office there probably won't be. I appreciate your patience in the meantime.
What to tell you?
Well, firstly, work is, well... work. My employer and I are both equally surprised to learn that they wound up hiring me for an operations job, not really (in my mind, anyway) a release engineering position.
Yes, technically it is release engineering, but the reality is that for the foreseeable future I am doing support and debugging of applications and the existing release process. Without intending to slight him, the person who used to do this work, and who has now moved on, had a very high tolerance for pain, errors, unexplicable behavior, and so on. As I figure things out I need to spend time fixing things just to keep sane. Adding simple things like, oh, error handling, would be good in a lot of places.
The house remodel project continues. Slowly. The original estimate was 8 weeks. We're at 16 now and still going strong. There is visible progress and not only has demolition ended, but construction has happened. We have a new kitchen roof, for example, and the main deck is being put into place now, though that is taking plenty of time too, and has not been without surprises.
I hope we actually get things done this year. At this point, though there are still 5 months left, I cannot say with certainty it will happen.
There isn't much else to report right now, and until the house is done and I get to feeling like I have enough of a clue at the office there probably won't be. I appreciate your patience in the meantime.
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Gone over a month... *sigh*
Life has gotten really complicated. Too many projects that destroy any ability to think.
This blog is not dead. I will return, but probably not for another couple of months. At least not with any regularity.
Sorry!
This blog is not dead. I will return, but probably not for another couple of months. At least not with any regularity.
Sorry!
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