Geek

As a solid Gen-Xer and seeing the growth of technology first hand, I have always been fascinated by what we call “legacy” technology today. I can vividly remember standing in line with my mother at the local DMV, watching a clerk carefully enter information about my Dad’s motorcycle in a big terminal. Looking over her glasses, with the proper forms filled out and clipped on an arm attached to the terminal, she carefully entered each piece of information, following the flashing green cursor for guidance into the Mohawk Data Sciences terminal, eventually hitting “SEND” and writing a number on the form with a red pen. A few moments later the very loud printer clacked its way through printing the registration form. When presented with the paperwork, I saw the very “high-tech” lettering on the form and I was excited. This was the future!

Of course, I’m now sitting in a Starbucks, where I flashed my smartphone in front of a scanner attached to a scant slab of silicon posing as a cash register, typing a blog entry on a slightly bigger piece of silicon. This iPad I’m using has the capacity of literally thousands if not millions pieces of the equipment that was once used to power the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles.

And we take it for granted.

Legacy computing is wicked cool to me because we were discovering this new era of technology and trying all sorts of different things to try to make our lives better. The future would be high-tech and we’d be smarter because of it.

Now people are falling into fountains while trying to take a “selfie” with their phone while making duck faces.

Google I/O, the big developer conference for the company that has become a verb, is taking place this week and I watched part of the keynote today. The one thing that struck me is Google is still thinking of new ways to do things, kinda. I’m confused as to why we would want an AI voice to call a car rental reservation system when theoretically the AI should just be able to connect to the system without acting like a human. I mean, having a robot call a restaurant to place a reservation, when the restaurant most likely has an electronic means of way of accomplishing that same task, is like taking the time to type a note into Microsoft Word, printing it, and then sending it by fax. Yes, it can be accomplished but is it the most efficient or practical way?

Sometimes our legacy thinking gets in the way.

Even though I gripe about new technology doing things the “old way”, I still admire the effort. I just wish we could get past the entrenched paradigm and start thinking outside the box. Back in the “legacy computing” days I admired people thought outside of the box to get into the box we seem trapped in today. Google’s announcements today aside, too many computing companies are playing it too safe. I keep waiting for some company to apply legacy thinking to today’s technology and take us to the next level. We shouldn’t be complacent, we need to be explorers.

I want the forward thinking that brought us legacy computing to bring us the next big thing. What will we do to move forward?

So a couple of weeks ago I signed up for the Car2Go Car Sharing Service. Like it’s earlier predecessor ZipCar, Car2Go has a fleet of vehicles that you share with others on the service. Unlike ZipCar, you can park a Car2Go vehicle anywhere in it’s “home area”, which in my case is an approved area in Chicago. The Car2Go fleet here in Chicago has three choices: a little Smart Car, or two different models of Mercedes-Benz. The rates are reasonable and charged by the minute.

I’ve noticed Car2Go vehicles in the neighborhood for months, so I knew there were plenty of cars nearby at any given time. I signed up for the service by providing a picture of my license, front and back, and providing credit card information. It took a few weeks to get my license approved.

Using the service is simple. You find a car nearby, reserve it up to 30 minutes in advance of using it, and then find the car when you’re ready to go. Once you’re at the car, make sure there’s no damage to report, and then enter your PIN in the app. Another PIN will display on an electronic doohickey on the dash, enter that and the car will unlock. Once in the car you can grab the keys from a special holder and off you go.

The first car I drove this evening reeked of pot smoke, so whoever drove it before me must have been well baked during their use of the car. Comforting, but not surprising these days. I rolled down the window and aired out the car as I drove to my destination.

Once I arrived I simply found a legal parking spot for the car, turned it off, stowed the keys in the designated area and got out. I then ended my trip on the app. The car locked itself, gave me a beep-beep confirmation and I was done.

The only thing that was weird to me was that I intentionally locked the keys in the car.

I did the same thing for the trip home, though I didn’t use the same car as someone had already taken that. The second car didn’t smell like pot smoke but one of the tires had low tire pressure, which I reported on the app.

I really like the idea of using technology in this fashion and using Car2Go was actually cheaper than hiring a Lyft or Uber for this particular trip.

I like the idea of using Car2Go and the idea of sharing cars in this fashion. It doesn’t make sense for us to have two vehicles just sitting in the garage when we don’t need them (hence the sale of the Jeep earlier this week). But it does make sense to have cars readily available to share with others who have embraced this type of technology.

Recently someone hacked the Car2Go app and stole a bunch of Mercedes here in Chicago. I haven’t followed the news close enough to find out if the vehicles were recovered, but despite that setback, I think Car2Go is an excellent service and I look forward to continue to use it.

It was simple to use, and that’s what’s important about today’s technology. Now, if we could just do something about the pot smoke.

I have two computers for sale. If you are interested, please contact me via email.

Lenovo ThinkPad X201

• Currently running Kali Linux
• 4GB RAM
• 320GB HDD
• i5 Processor: CPU M 540 @ 2.53 GHz x4
• Graphics: Intel Ironlake Mobile
• includes battery and power supply
• $100 or best offer plus shipping

Lenovo ThinkPad T410

• currently running Ubuntu Linux 19.04
• 8GB RAM
• 240 GB SSD (solid state drive)
• i5 Processor M540 @ 2.53 GHz x4
• Graphics: NVS 3100M/PCIe/SSE2
• comes with two batteries and one power supply
• $150 or best offer plus shipping

Both laptops will be wiped out and have a fresh install of Linux on them. No Windows keys provided with these computers. Stickers will remain on the T410, you can decide if you want them or not.

My husband and I are back from seeing “Avengers: Endgame”. I won’t go into details about the plot, so I shall keep this short. The three hour running time felt less than an hour. It’s beautiful to look at, the story is solid, and the acting is well done. By far it was my favorite “Avengers” movie and I give it a solid A+.

And I must say, I really, really like Brie Larson as Captain Marvel. Her part was just one of an all around phenomenal cast, but wow, I really like her portrayal of the character.

We’ll probably see the movie again. Worth every penny and then some.

Three points of geekdom:

1. Yes, I wrote an iOS Shortcut to easily record every train I ride on the ‘L’.
2. Sometimes I ride the same car twice in one day
3. Sometimes I hop cars at an intermediate stop, usually on the Red Line, because well, it’s the Red Line.

I am at our local Starbucks. In celebration of Good Friday and Easter weekend, I let the team leave early today and I followed my own cue and called it a day a little while ago. Earl is at work, so I’m headed out to go exploring.

It’s 42ºF and the wind is gusting to 35 MPH, so it’s a bit chilly. Hence a cup of coffee before I go walking.

I was second in line when waiting to place my orders; in front of me was a young woman who was having a bit of a struggle with placing her order. She wanted sips for testing, she asked for many foams, squirts, and other associated potions to be added to her brew. She spoke loudly and she strove to engage the attention of at least three of the baristas behind the counter. Meeting her needs was a team effort.

Living in Chicago I take great delight in silently watching how folks use their smartphones, especially if they’re using an Apple device. The woman in front of me had an iPhone of indeterminate model type as it was bedazzled and bejeweled in several ways. The only way I knew it was an iPhone was from the placement of the camera and the way the icons were arranged on her screen. Like a good digital citizen, she was paying for her demanding order with the Starbucks app. I watched her as she flicked through six screens of icons, the vast majority of them folders where multiple apps lived together, waiting for their next opportunity give her user magic.

Apparently her filing methods with multiple folders has a flaw because she was really struggling to find the Starbucks app to pay. This was adding to the frustration of my wait. It took every ounce of my being to not scream out “double click the button and grab it in your Wallet”! Folks do realize they can add their Starbucks card to the very convenient Apple Wallet and access it there, right? I then countered in my head that there was a good chance that she was going to use a reward and I’m not familiar with the handling of Starbucks Frequent Flyer points in the wallet app. As I was processing this in my mind, I noticed she was still flicking through multiple screens, opening and closing folders, looking for the coveted Starbucks app. I then convinced myself to not scream out “pull down from the top and start typing Starbucks!”. I’ve observed that many do not realize there’s a search function built right there into iOS. They hunt and peck and flick and stab at their phone looking for the icon off the app they’re searching for, when all they need to do is pull down from the top of the screen and type the name of the app. Once they do that, voila, there’s the icon they’re looking for.

Eventually “Jody” (I saw her name emblazoned on the screen when she stabbed and opened the wrong app at one point of her quest) found the Starbucks app and told the barista she wanted to use a reward. Ugh. Starbucks changed their reward system on tax day and you now need more points to get what you used to get for less points. Earl and I discovered this earlier in the week, and I just knew that like us, she didn’t know about the change in policy.

She didn’t.

So then she didn’t have enough money on her card to pay but she was pretty efficient in refilling her card. It looks like she used ApplePay to accomplish the card refill, so there is that. All is not lost.

This whole endeavor got me to wondering as to how many folks only know the basics of using their phones. There’s so many things you can do with an iOS device (or an Android device for that matter), but folks only use the basics of stabbing at icons, typing on a keyboard, and flicking to scroll. There’s so many ways to search, find, and use applications. Apple has given us many ways to make using our iDevices as quick and as effortless as possible. It just takes a bit of experience and a dash of education.

Perhaps more people need to attend one of the “Today At Apple” seminars or something.

NBC News has a story on Facebook and its efforts to monetize your data. Again

Do. Not. Trust. Facebook.

Mark Zuckerberg leveraged Facebook user data to fight rivals and help friends, leaked documents show

It’s a sunny day in Chicago today. It’s windy, but the temperature is in the low 50s. It fits within April expectations. Tomorrow we’re suppose to get rain, freezing rain, and much colder temperatures, only to return to today’s type of weather on Monday.

It’s all normal for April in Chicago.

After writing two cranky blog entries last night I relaxed in front of the television watching an episode of “Star Trek: Voyager” (I’m currently on season two) and then I watched the first episode of the fourth season of “Black Mirror”. Earl doesn’t like “Black Mirror” but I enjoy the series. It’s geeky, it’s thought provoking, and it’s eerie enough to keep me on the edge (at times) but not horrifying to give me nightmares.

The episode I watched last night was called “U.S.S. Callister”. The trailer made it look like a parody of Star Trek but it was so much more. I won’t spoil it (even though it’s been out for a while) but I found the story clever.

I love geeky things.

On Wednesday we saw the first photo of a Black Hole, a force in the Universe so powerful that not even light can escape from it. Before this photograph no one even knew what a Black Hole looked like. Might I add, this photograph is of a Black Hole over 55 million-light years from Earth, in a distant galaxy far outside the Milky Way. It takes eight minutes for the light to travel for the Sun to our planet. This Black Hole has a mass 6.5 billion times bigger than the Sun.

Can we stop for just a moment and talk about the fact that despite all the nonsense going on in the world, in particular the United States, despite the number of people clamoring to eschew science, critical thought, and/or intelligent debate, and despite the hype of people that believe the Earth is flat or that vaccinations are bad for our civilization, we still live in an age where we have figured out how to photograph something 55 million light years away from us? I mean, how awesome is that?

Flipping through the various news source on the subject I did run across on idiotic Slate article where the author complained about the photo being fuzzy and uninteresting.

Uninteresting for the uninitiated, I say. I find this photograph and the science, determination, and hard work behind it to make it happen, to be absolutely fascinating. Ever since the Space Shuttle fleet was grounded I’ve felt like many in the United States no longer cared about space exploration. The drive that took us to the stars has been replaced by Tweets, Selfies, and Orange Buffoons. This photograph of a Black Hole in galaxy Messier 87, 55 million light years away from Earth, gives me hope. Hope that we are still moving toward a Star Trek type age where poverty and war are a thing of the past and exploration of the stars makes us a better species.

Forget the selfies, bring on more photos of wonders in the universe. The possibilities are endless.