A cautionary technology tale

I've been watching a documentary on HBO as I work today about the Theranos company and Elizabeth Holmes. It's an extreme example, but when scaled it's a common problem in technology. I've seen versions of this play out over and over with different companies in the technology sector.

The basic premise is that they over promised and under delivered. They did it in spectacular fashion, and put people's lives in danger with medical testing that should never have been released to the public. All in a desperate attempt to keep the initial story afloat that they could do blood testing with an amazingly small blood sample. Turns out they couldn't do it, even though they said they could.

As Infocomm approaches, we will begin to see big claims from companies about new products. People make fun of "buzz word bingo" but just wait for "game changer", "transformative", and the like to start coming in the email box describing whatever new thing people will be showing at Infocomm. But how many of us have also become jaded enough that we ask for release dates expecting 6 months or more, or to see a demo but it's not quite able to be demoed yet? And when something does ship, who among us will be daring enough to take the chance that it's fully baked? How many have gotten burned and become unpaid beta testers? How much money has been wasted spending many multiples of the number of hours that a job should have taken, because a product wasn't tested yet?

So as we go to Orlando in June, we need to be watchful. Don't be taken in by the flashing lights and slick talk. Sometimes it pans out, but too often it doesn't. Watch your serial numbers on new products. If they are too low, you may have issues. Just protect yourself, and don't completely buy the hype.

Rejoining the fossil fueled automobile world

Last night I didn't expect to buy a car. I stopped at a dealership to look and see what was out there, in the hopes of buying something later this year. On the advice of a good friend, I checked out a Honda dealership last night. I knew next to nothing about Hondas, as I have owned GM cars exclusively since high school. The sort-of exception to this was my Isuzu Ascender, which was basically a GMC Envoy and was made by GM in Ohio.

My Chevy Volt has been a great car. I enjoyed it for most of the time I owned it. I went from 27k to 81k on the mileage. But since moving to an apartment, there have been some significant downside that has made itself very apparent. Firstly, since my knee replacement surgery last year it has been difficult to get into such a compact car. I have had to get in butt first, then sit on the seat and swing my legs into the car. This has been termed the "old man flop" by those who see me the most. Also, I've gotten into camping, and when I go I ended up packing the Volt to the ceiling with stuff. But perhaps the biggest was that I have nowhere convenient to charge the car anymore! I cant charge at the apartment, and the nearest high level charger is nearly 2 miles away. I can walk 20 minutes to a charger at work, but that's been weather dependent. So I was basically running my electric car on gas nearly all the time for the last year and getting about 35 MPG. Not great. I had been averaging near 80 when I was plugging in every day.

So I went in looking for a smaller, fuel efficient SUV. I wanted to be a little higher off the ground, since curbs and I didn't get along in the Volt, and if I could get close to my gas MPG I'd be happy. I was shown the Honda CRV, and wondered where it had been all my life! It had all wheel drive, a power seat that gave me everything I had in the Volt plus the stuff I had in the Ascender that I missed, a trunk with a spare tire and a jack (very important as I've spent the last two months dealing with tire issues and the Volt had no jack or spare), fold down seats, dual zone climate control, and basically all the tech I could ever want standard. I was voice texting within minutes with the integrated Apple Car Play. It has adaptive cruise control so it slows down if you come up on someone who is going too slow and follows at a safe distance and speed. And the silliest, but so far most useful thing I never know I needed but won't want to live without anymore - automatic high beam headlights. I turns them back to normal when it sees lights in front of you. It's amazing. All that and it gets about 33 MPG. Not a great loss from the Volt that I was running on gas the entire time anyway.

So we went back in, worked all the background stuff, they got it to where the price was where I wanted it, and bought it. So goodbye Volt, you were a good car. I enjoyed you very much, but you weren't right for my current life. I'd still recommend a Volt to anyone who has access to charging since electric is great and having the gas backup worked really well. But it just wasn't right for me anymore. But this new car feels super right, and I can't wait to take it on a long trip.

Terrible, no good, very bad, day

Some personal experience for today. I picked up a new pair of glasses yesterday afternoon, and at first I was completely wowed. Everything was so clear, it was great. However, as I looked more closely as the evening wore on, I noticed some fairly large issues, to the point that this morning I have my old glasses on to work.

I now have progressive lenses because I'm old. For those of you with good eyes, that means I have a lens with three focus areas that seamlessly flow from one to the other. The areas are distance vision at the top, intermediate in the middle, and close reading on the bottom. I've had a version of them for a year now and they work fairly well. The problem with the new ones is something is not right in the intermediate and short zones. The close focus point seems to be left of center. For those that know me, I rarely do anything left of center so this is an issue, lol. Also, I paid up for extra wide zones for my lenses, and the left one delivers. The right one is like looking through a tunnel, which makes everything in intermediate and close but slightly to the right be out of focus. Problems include the right monitor of my three monitor setup at work, as well as the entire center of my dashboard when I'm driving. I literally have to turn my head past the center of the dash just for it to come into focus.

So back to the eye Dr. I go this afternoon. After I get my car back from getting the tire replaced due to a screw that caused it to leak to almost flat this morning. Got it pumped up enough to get to work, but dropped it at the tire place near work and had them fix it under the road hazard protection. It just hasn't been my day so far....

Focus, focus, focus

Distraction is the driving force in life today. Multi-tasking is praised, and the constant push is to get more things done at once. But are you really getting more done? Studies show that people who multi-task generally don't get as much accomplished as people who focus on tasks. However, everything in the world right now is designed to break that focus, and take you away from the task at hand.

Instant email notifications pull you out of whatever you're working on to answer the siren's call of your phone or computer saying someone is trying to tell you something. Many times, it can lead to you feeling the need to take care of the email request immediately, which distracts from your current task. Sometimes it can take you away for an hour or more, then it takes time to get back into the mindset of your project until you get another ding, and the cycle repeats. Check email at set times throughout the day, and don't have it as a push notification on your phone. That way you control the email, as opposed to the email controlling you.

This goes for the open office concept as well from yesterday. Unless you artificially isolate yourself within your cube, you get bombarded by distractions all day long and are less efficient. Avoid this by avoiding the open office if you can, but if you can't try to keep yourself focused on what's in front of you. For me that's headphones and some driving music to keep me flowing.

The same can happen in business. Businesses lose focus from their core mission, and then falter. This can happen in a few different ways. Sometimes an offshoot of the main focus of a company grows until it rivals the main focus, and at that point a decision needs to be made of what the company wants to focus on. Maybe that means creating a new division that is focused on the new project. Maybe that's selling off that idea to another company. But if you have people being dragged between focuses, efficiency goes down. You can stretch people too thin, so make sure you don't ask employees to split too badly. If they are working on a couple of very different objectives, sit down and see what they would prefer to do, then work to get them back to focusing on the work they feel the most connection with.

Another example of distraction at the business level is calls for forced diversity in hiring. I see groups all day long posting about this type of person or that type of person and how we need to promote a certain group within an industry. When the focus shifts from the product being produced to physical traits of the person who is producing the product, it can have disastrous consequences. A better path would be for a business to focus on getting, training, and keeping the best possible workers regardless of physical traits in the pursuit of producing the best end product. When a business shifts it's core focus away from the product it is selling, that core of the business suffers. Always hire the best person for the job, no matter who they may be. Keep your obsession on the final outcome, be it what you're producing or the service you're providing. That's what really drives your bottom line, and will ensure you a better chance of being successful.

Focus is becoming a rare commodity in our daily lives. If you can work to regain some of that focus, you can get ahead of the crowd who is stuck getting pulled in 10 different directions, only to essentially remain standing still.

The dark side of collaboration ideas

Some things meant to make our lives easier just make them further complicated. I'm thinking specifically of things around the office like open office plans and recent collaboration tools.

Open office plans where supposed to encourage cooperation among workers and ad hock meetings. However everyone I have ever worked with in one of those environments has hated it. I personally wear headphones whenever I'm in the office, even though there is a noise cancelling system over the whole floor. The white noise just grates on me, and I get distracted by conversations around me. So I listen to music all day while I work, or I work from home. I'm much more productive when I can drop the distractions of the open office cube farm.

I had an experience with Microsoft Teams recently. It wasn't great. While it is a good tool for group  communication, like Slack, it is also a document storage device which can be good if you're just trying to archive documents for others to look at, but it doesn't work well if you're actively using those files, or if they are designed around a file structure that needs to be maintained. It has taken what was a single repository of files and split it into two. That increases the chance that there will be issues with not having the right version in the right place. This has been a common occurrence with many of these products, not just Teams. Sharepoint has the same issue from what I've seen, at least from the front end. There is a way for storage to work where you can still have working and published files, but it's a old fashioned drive folder system. In the haste to use the cloud for everything we seem to be cutting off functionality.

With a lot of these collaboration ideas, I'm reminded of Ian Malcolm from Jurassic Park. "You were so busy trying to figure out if you can do it, you didn't take time to think if you should." Sure you can create a world with all these collaboration ideas, but will anyone actually enjoy them and will anyone actually be made more efficient by them? That's a question that needs to be asked more often.

Personal finance basics, part 1

This will be the first in a series on personal finance. The first thing that has to happen is you need to stop digging the hole you're living in, and begin to fill in that hole.

If you're really wanting to get serious about paying down debt, you need to have more income. If you can't go out and earn more income, then you need to reduce expenses. Ways to do that include cooking at home, bargain shopping for everything even food, and getting rid of frivolous expenses. You can save a ton of money not eating out. Cable is expensive, so cutting the cord is a good plan. Select one or two streaming services that can give you the entertainment you want, and keep costs low. Basically, the idea is to squeeze as much out of your income as possible, so that you can then use it to dig yourself out.

As you are consolidating your expenses, you need to be evaluating your debts. My advice is rank them from highest interest rate to lowest. The lowest are going to be the cheapest in the long term, while conversely the highest will be the most expensive. Those are usually credit cards and things like that. Never pay the minimum payment on these, as you will never get ahead. Look at your statement on the credit card, and you will see various different totals you can pay. Minimum payment will have you paying forever. Look for the payment that is how much interest you are paying that month. The idea is to pay more than the interest for each month, so that you pay off the principle. Only then will you start to reduce your debt load. A good way to go about paying things down is to reduce your payment on your cheaper debt to the minimum payments to free up money that you can use on your most expensive debt. So combined with your savings from the expenses, you throw the maximum amount you can throw at your higher interest debt account. Pay that down as quickly as possible. Once that has been completed, you take that money and combine it with the the minimum payment from the next highest interest debt and pay that down as quickly as possible. Work your way down that way and get each paid off in succession. This process can take a few years of work, but it's worth it to be out from behind that mountain of debt. Once you've got that handled, it's time for phase two which is protecting yourself from life's issues. I'll cover that in the next installment in this series, found here - https://abstractions.avgrump.com/2019/04/personal-finance-basics-part-2.html

AV In The AM Response for 3/10/2019 - Technology Roadmap

I'm writing this to avoid multiple multi-post threads on #AVinTheAM from Twitter this morning. The topic is developing a roadmap for your client, who should be involved and what should be a part of it.

The first question deals with do you create a roadmap or is it handed to you by the client. The answer to this is both. Ideally you should work together with the client who has at least some vague ideas of what they would like to do, and help them distill that down into a plan for their systems. In a larger operation, that is basically taking the current rooms and bringing them up to a current standard. There may be some issues like a discontinued product here or there as you go along those 5 years, but there is usually a replacement that just has a couple more features that will fit right in. Other than infrastructure it is almost useless to try to predict new technology. If you really want to try to help yourself, you pull shielded Cat6 and fiber to each endpoint. That covers just about every possible variation of what could be placed at that endpoint, and from there it's just a box swap if you need a new input like a USB-C or something like that. Trends come and go, and trying to build a roadmap around them will lead you to the insane asylum.

The second question is who from your internal team would be involved in the creation of the roadmap, and how important is historical data in formulating that map. For me, that's a salesperson and an engineer. The salesperson is the face of the company to your client, and the engineer is there to make sure the system actually will do what it's being sold to do. Five years is about the time most companies that I've seen would take before a tech refresh, so as I said in the previous answer it's pretty much building a company's portfolio of rooms up to a current standard, and then starting that process over again after 5 years on the latest standard. And as always, the salesperson presents the roadmap as they are the main client facing person from the integrator, but the engineer should be there if technical questions arise, or questions about integrating with IT systems come up.

The third question involves adding marketing, training, and outreach to your roadmap. No, yes, no, in that order. You're already in, you don't need marketing and outreach at that point. You want to keep the conduit to and from the customer focused or else details will get lost. If you bombard the customer with info from many different directions, they can get overwhelmed and will probably go for someone who makes the process easier. Training is an ongoing issue, and needs to be addressed. Turnover at the client's facility especially requires you to hold training more than just at the end of the installation. Also, if you find you're holding training on a certain topic over and over, that can expose a design flaw that needs to be corrected in future versions of the systems. Training topics that are requested are a great feedback tool for engineers to see where the system has flaws and what needs to happen going forward.

The fourth question is about proprietary vs open systems. This really is a question of what's the best fit for the customer. I prefer an open system with many options, but sometimes it's best to standardize on a more proprietary setup. In UC you want it to be open and standards based to provide the most cross over with other systems and keep the communication open. If an endpoint doesn't have multiple ways to join a conference call, you should probably look at another end point.

The final question deals with catalog rooms. The answer is yes, you absolutely should have standardized room types for a customer, that are easy to deploy and you know will work the way they want with little extra training. Most rooms will fall into a couple types, and from there you can identify the real custom rooms that need to happen and devote resources to them.

Exercise update

Just a brief exercise update As of this morning, I'm at 13 real push ups and 55 body weight squats. For years I've done cheater push ups, from the knees. These are real deal, on the toes, push ups. And my quads are starting to complain at the 50 squat mark, but time for them to learn to deal with it.

I'm hoping that I can instill in myself some new habits going forward. I will admit to having missed a day or two. Like yesterday I did the push ups, but due to some exercise earlier int he day, my legs told me what to do with myself for squats. But that hasn't stopped the progression. Every day I add 1 push up and 5 body weight squats. Started with a baseline of 5 and 15 on March 1. Even if for some reason I don't do them on a day, those totals tick up for the next day. Tomorrow will be 14 and 60. The month should end with 35 push ups and 165 squats. That will be a major accomplishment for me.

If you've got goals, start small and build. If you keep building, even if it's small steps, you can eventually get anywhere.

A thousand beams of light

It's Fun Friday again, so time for some more theme park tech to chew on. Today it's light beam sensors. I know, you're saying to yourself that's boring as crap, what are you writing about that for? Well, they are frankly everywhere and are completely integral to keeping things moving, and your experience a good one at the parks, and in everyday life.

First, some places you might have encountered these sensors in your normal life include the beam that keeps the garage door from closing on you, at the supermarket where they have one across the belt to keep your items from just plowing into the cashier, certain alarm systems. In a theme park, they tend to be more hidden. In some shows, you may notice an old fashioned turn style that you walk through, it clicks the number up one, and the staff member then knows how many people have come in and if they are going to fill up the theater. They can then cut off the line to avoid too many people trying to find seats. But in newer attractions, you might notice yourself passing between two flat panels with a pair of holes on each side. These are light beam sensors, and the reason there are two is so that they know what direction the person passing between the bars is headed. That way they can add or subtract the right number of guests in the attraction.

Another example would be on the tracks of a ride. As a ride vehicle passes along the track and breaks the beam the central system can register that it has passed. Now it accurately knows how many train vehicles are on each track section and can throw on the brakes if something goes wrong, like if a vehicle hasn't registered as leaving a track section that can only accommodate a single vehicle, the system can automatically register this and put the brakes on another vehicle entering that section and avoid a collision.

A lot rides on little beams of light in a park, or even in your home life. It's a technology that's been around for a very long time, but it works and it's reliable. And that's why you may just be trusting a beam of light next time you ride a roller coaster to keep you having a good time, and not getting hurt. 

If all else fails, get a bigger gun

I made a choice last summer to buy a 20 gauge shotgun for myself, to see if I liked trap shooting, and if I was going to stick with it. It was cheaper than the normal 12 gauge, and a bit smaller, but it was good for an entry level gun. I've since then shot nearly every weekend unless the weather was completely terrible or I was out of town. I enjoy it, and there's certainly more expensive ways I could kill time.

But after trying the big 12 gauge version of my shotgun last week for league, I am definitely hooked on getting the regular size gun. It puts more b-b's down the range, makes it easier to break the clays as they fly, and generally gives you more power to break them. While it will effectively double my gun collection from 1 to 2, I think it's going to be a good purchase. It's something I do every week, and it's definitely more enjoyable to break more than you miss.

Something that can be learned from this is get the right tool for the job. Virtually no-one shoots a 20 gauge shotgun at the range. I've been one of maybe 2 people on any kind of consistent basis who shows up with a 20. Always do the research, know what you're getting into, and what you'll need to succeed in whatever you attempt. And get the right tools to get the job done.

Technology marches on

I have had a smart TV for a few years now, and have used the apps extensively that are built in. Things like Netflix, YouTube, and Amazon have become all I watch in my apartment after making the decision to cut the cord on normal TV. I had a smaller app that had been acting very strange for a few months now, and I recently found out why. This particular company merged with another company, and the name changed. However, I noticed that the app didn't change name, even as the content was being updated with the new hosts. Eventually, it just stopped working regularly. I've also noticed that YouTube wasn't working all that well with the app, and Netflix sometimes would be buggy as well. I figured out the work around, but it was still annoying.

I called the tech support for the smaller app that I was paying for and wasn't working. The first question they asked me was if I had a Samsung Smart TV. Surprised, I answered that yes that was my TV. They then told me that they have been trying to update the app with Samsung for months, but have had no success getting it updated, and no help from Samsung. He recommended a Roku and see how I liked that. I had always avoided getting a streaming box, since I had a TV that had it built in. However, I had gotten my parents a Roku for Christmas, and they seemed happy with it, so I gave it a try.

What a difference, to put it mildly. I purchased a Roku stick and it is working great. The picture is actually better than it was for the internal apps. And it was easy to set up the apps I already have subscriptions for. I'm very happy with the purchase, and wish I had done it months ago.

However, it makes me wonder about the future of Samsung Smart TV in particular, and built in apps in TV's in general. Will manufacturers continue to offer and support the apps native to their boxes? I've already seen some that say they have Roku built in. That seems like where we might be headed. Let the company who is only dealing with the apps deal with the apps, and let the TV manufacturers deal with the hardware. I'd be interested to see how things are shaping up in the Cedia world of residential audio visual, and what trends may be happening in that sphere. Apps were not a big part of commercial audio visual and I'm interested to see what is going to happen there as well. Depends on how the apps are used as tools in a commercial environment.

Been a long couple of days

I violated my own rule and didn't post for two weekdays, so I'll try to catch up a little. For this post, a little background: I am about 1 year after getting divorced. We had owned two dogs together, One of whom died about 5 years ago I think, and the other one who is still living. Arwen was my dog, through and through. If she had a problem, if she needed comfort, in her final months when she had tumors and I was keeping them dressed with bandages every night, it was me she came to. She was truly special to me and when she got to the end and I made the call that we needed to put her down it hit me very hard. Wesley, however, was my wife's dog. He came from abuse from men, so that translated to me especially at first. He bit me quite a few times but he was also loving when he wanted to be, so I put up with it. Many times I got close to wanting him gone, but I let him stay. He got better over the years, but he still had weird little triggers that would get him in trouble because he'd snap and bite.

Unfortunately Wesley has now been diagnosed with prostate cancer, and it's massively aggressive. He has literal weeks left to live. I'm going to go visit him today for a while, just sort-of to say goodbye. But I haven't lived with him for a year so his passing is a little easier for me than Arwen. However it's brought up a lot of memories of when we got to the end of her life and made me sadder than I have been in a while. Her death hit me really hard, especially since I'd been acting as nurse for her for months at that point. I really loved that dog. So while I sympathize with my ex, and I'm having some of those feelings come back, it's not really for this dog it's for MY dog. I'm generally a happy guy, so this has been a departure for me and I'm dealing with it.

No real over arching moral or point here, just sympathy for anyone who has lost a beloved pet, and to say give them as much love as you can because you never know when the time may come that you lose them.

An exercise routine for me for March

I'm working to get back into exercise, and have decided to use March as a springboard for it. My friend Mark did a challenge with a shit ton of pushups and pullups for February, so I'm doing something similar, but toned down for my older, fatter self.

I started out Friday with 5 pushups and 15 body weight squats. The idea is to add a pushup each day to the total and end up at 36 for pushups on the last day of the month. But I'll go for 40 because my OCD hurts. I'm trying to add 5 squats to each day, so yesterday was 20, and the end of the month is a ton I don't feel like doing the math for. At my peak of working out I was able to pull 200 without too much issue, so I think I'll be OK.

The short version is, I need to get back to being active again. My knee knocked me out for a while, but I've basically been told as long as I don't really run or go super high impact I can do whatever I want. So I'm starting with the squats and pushups. I also am working to incorporate the stretches for my knee into the workout as well, so that I retain the range of motion that I need to have for that. My goal right now is to not be any more worn out in June at Infocomm than I was on the years before my knee issues, and hopefully not be really worn out at all. Would be nice if I managed to get through it without taking handfuls of Ibuprofen. I'm working on diet as well, because I have an overall goal of being 50 pounds lighter than I am right now. Not sure if I'll get that by June, but if I work at it - maybe.....

The magic behind Walt Disney World's magic bands

My plan for Fridays is for them to be "Fun Fridays" around here, which for me is theme parks. I'll be writing about theme park tech, how they do things you may not know, and generally things that interest me. Here's the first entry into that category.

Anyone who has been to Walt Disney World in the last 5 years knows there is something new in the parks, and it's not just Toy Story land or Star Wars land. They are called magic bands, and nearly everyone in the parks has one on their wrist. The tech has even evolved in that short time with the introduction of magic band 2.0, but what is it really that people are wearing?

A magic band is a rubber bracelet that is worn on the wrist of people who are on Disney property. With it, you can do just about anything during your stay. Just by pressing "Mickey to Mickey" you can open your hotel door, gain entrance into the parks, shop in the stores and pay, and take advantage of the Fastpass+ system of reserving a time on particular rides. You also scan them with any Disney photographer to have pictures automatically appear in your online account, or to be verified as a passholder for certain perks. But what else can they do?

A magic band consists of two radio transmitters. One is a short range RFID transmitter, and the second is a longer range high frequency transmitter. The short range RFID works like any other you may have encountered, such as a key card for door access at work. It transmits a low level radio transmission that unique to the person wearing the band. This only works in close proximity, which is why you have to touch the Mickey face on your band to the Mickey face on whatever you're trying to effect, be it the hotel door, the entrance turn styles, or a credit card machine. You touch the Mickeys together, wait a moment for the machine to access the master database of everyone who has a magic band, then it turns green to recognize that the connection is made and the person is authorized to do whatever it is they are trying to do.

The longer range transmitter works like EZPass, the East Coast's version of the road toll paying little box on your windshield. A longer range scanner can read the info being broadcast from your band, and again match it up to you in a master database, and do things like let you automatically get the ride photos from a particular ride. It just scanned the band info of everyone in that vehicle and sent the picture to all of them. Behind the scenes, Disney can use this tech to track movements in the park. They can tell when crowds are swelling in an area, and shift staff to that area to make sure everything runs more smoothly.

Make no mistake, when you're on property at WDW, Disney probably has a good idea of where you are at all times, especially in the parks. They are collecting data to come up with better ways to part you from your money. But it's a trade off. You have to trust they are going to do what they can to make your trip better. That starts even at Orlando airport, when if you're staying on property you just get off your plane, put on your band, and head downstairs. They will scan your band there, great you by name, see what hotel you're staying at for your trip, and direct you to the right Disney shuttle bus.

All in all, the magic band program has been a complete success for Disney in Florida. I look forward to hopefully going to Disneyland in California in the next year or 2 and seeing how a Disney experience goes without magic bands.