Geek

So “Pirates of the Caribbean” here at Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom opened this week after being down for refurbishment. One of the changes to the attraction was the elimination of the “wench sale” and they replaced it with a pirate selling valuable things. The refurbishment looks good.

Many of the E-ticket attractions at Disney snap your photo at the perfect moment. As you exit the attraction there’s often monitors with photos of the folks that are exiting along with you. In the olden days you would then decide if you wanted to purchase the photo or not by visiting the gift shop. With today’s technology you tap your MagicBand or Photo Pass card and add the photo to your account. It is then available for purchase online. We purchased Disney’s “Memory Maker” package for this trip, so all of these photos, in addition to the photos taken by photographers around the parks, are available for download almost immediately.

We were surprised to see multiple flashes on “Pirates of the Caribbean” because we didn’t think there was a photo opportunity on the attraction. As we exited the ride there were no monitors showing photos, so we just moved on.

This photo showed up in our Photo Pass feed late last night.

As a data geek I find this interesting. First of all, no one in our family tapped anything to correlate the photo with our Photo Pass feed. There was no MagicBand or Photo Pass confirmation action associated with this photo. So Disney figured out it was our photo all on their own.

At first I thought this was done through Facial Recognition, but I’m feeling more comfortable with another theory I have; they used GeoFencing. The “My Disney Experience” app on my phone has location services on but only when I’m using the app, not in the background. So this means the RFID chip in our MagicBands have enough juice for long range sensors. A quick look at Wikipedia confirms that the newer bands indeed work this way.

In many ways this technology is very, very cool. I like it a lot and the whole data connectivity geek in me grooves on this. The only thing that gives me a bit of pause is that it links my face with my Disney activity. Not overly nefarious in itself but it could be used for evil purposes if this technology were to fall in the wrong hands.

I’ll have to read up on the Disney Terms of Service. If Disney is making this information available to outside parties it will make me think twice. If Disney is using it for only Disney services, I think it’s pretty nifty.

For my friends at Voenix Rising. This still holds true, just add glue.

I was recently chastised on Twitter for mentioning that I had “OCD tendencies”. I don’t remember the tweet that I was responding to at the time, oh, yes I do, it had to do with people still criticizing Apple for “the notch” in the iPhone X. I said that if I could survive using an iPhone X 18 hours a day with the notch not bothering my “OCD tendencies” then it must not be a big deal.

The criticism was you either have OCD or you don’t, it’s like being partly pregnant and you can’t do OCD part way. Well excuse me for living.

I didn’t bother replying to the criticism about my choice of words surrounding OCD because it wasn’t really worth my time and the exercise would have been futile. I’ve never been clinically labeled with OCD but I can tell you this:

1. I will always straighten a crooked picture
2. I will always eat my meals by eating one food at a time, even deconstruction a meatball sub by eating the cheese first, eating all the meatballs, then eating the bread. I do the same thing with salads, eating all the cucumbers first, the tomatoes next and so on
3. I have a bad habit of correcting people during a conversation, for example, when they say “I could care less” (because it’s “I couldN’T care less”). I know, it’s rude of me
4. Road signs with off-center legend makes me crazy
5. This list could go on and on but you get the picture

My productivity practices, which include both my personal and professional lives, involve using a very specific way of me keeping my “to do” list organized. Because of my love for Apple products, I have always used macOS and iOS based software to manage all of my thoughts and subsequent Task Lists, namely using the software OmniFocus. I’ve used OmniFocus for many years. When work took away all the Macs and told us we had to use a Windows laptop to stay in compliance with company IT practices, I lost my ability to access OmniFocus on my work computer. This change in policy took effective October 1, 2017, and since then my focus has been less than stellar because I’ve been trying to find a way to compensate with some sort of “cross-platform” approach. The “OCD-like” side of me is bothered by the fact that I can no longer access the same list from all of my devices. I’ve tried a number of solutions to no avail:

1. Google Keep (which makes me crazy because I’m feeding Google’s ad habits) is blocked at work
2. I tried writing things down on paper but I don’t walk around with a notebook with me at all times, so when I had an idea I would type it into Notes on my iPhone but then have to remember to add it to the “official” written Task List
3. I tried keeping lists in OneNote, the company sanctioned software, but the less-than-stellar quality of Microsoft’s software resulted in syncing issues, forgetting my credentials for my work account, and lost information
4. I tried maintaining a plain-text file using ToDo.txt on Dropbox, which would have been available throughout all of my devices, until work blocked Dropbox because we are allowed to use only Microsoft’s OneDrive for “cloud storage”

I’ve ended up firing up my work Mac, which I still have in my possession with a claim that I need backup in case my Windows laptop dies. As a remote employee I always need a backup plan. This is working fairly well except that it’s bothering me to have two different laptops sitting on my desk. The Mac isn’t allowed to officially talk to the work network anymore, but it does work with the Office 365 connection so I can get to email and push things from my email into OmniFocus, but the solution is less than perfect.

Less than perfect bothers me.

My need for perfection, an “OCD-like” tendency of mine, is breaking my focus on getting my work done and making me focus on how I need to get my work done. Not having one bucket at my disposal anywhere I need to have it is distracting me. It takes my headphones and a well designed app called “Focus@Will” to help me find my productive center again and get back to writing code and leading my team.

I think I’ve found a solution with the Mac sitting next to my work-sanctioned Windows laptop and I’m going to have to keep swiveling my chair back and forth as needs arise.

It’s not perfect, and I’ll probably continue to tweak my process, but it’s probably the closest I’ll come to getting back to my productivity nirvana.

Heeding the advice of a tweet that flew by on my Twitter timeline this morning, I turned off the “predictive text bar” that likes to hover above my keyboard in iOS on my iPhone.

Ironically, this has made me able to type more accurately using both thumbs. I’m actually writing this blog entry at a decent clip.

The Predictive Text Bar was designed to predict what word you were trying include next in whatever you were typing on iOS. The feature was introduced a few years ago. There was a little bit of fanfare surrounding the inclusion. Words like “awesome” and “delight” were bandied about.

I’ve watched various words appear in this bar over the years but I think I’ve actually used the bar only once or twice. The removal of the bar seems to have sped everything up as well; my typing doesn’t feel nearly as laggy as it did before.

In 2018, It’s just works. With some work.

So I’m enjoying wireless charging on my iPhone X. I didn’t think it would be that big of deal but when I remembered that Starbucks has wireless chargers built in their tables I found my groove.

Earl and I purchased charging mats when we bought his new iPhone. Since I occasionally listen to headphones when I’m sleeping and because the iPhone X does not have a headphone jack, I needed a way to charge my phone and listen to my headphones at the same time. Dongles be damned, I’m going with the charging mat. It’s been quite enjoyable.

Overall I’m pleased with my new iPhone X. Any frustration has been with apps that haven’t adapted to the new display and a couple of the gestures. I still find myself swiping from every corner possible when I’m trying to bring up the flashlight. Double-clicking the power button does not feel intuitive to bring up Siri. But I’m getting used to these two things; the rest of the functionality of the phone has been spot on.

And I’m really loving the wireless charging capabilities.

This ad is brilliant. If you don’t understand Net Neutrality and why it’s important, perhaps you will after seeing this.

In the early 1980s, my hometown bought used street lamps from a horse track. We were excited to see these street lights installed because they emitted this new (to us) orange glow. Prior to the installation of these street lamps we had only known the white glow of mercury vapor lamps that had been around since the 1950s. These refurbished high-pressure sodium lamps were more energy efficient and would provide better visibility during the winter months in the Lake Ontario Snowbelt. I remember asking my mom to take us out in the 1978 Impala after dark so I could see what they looked like. It was quite exciting for a geek like me.

High-pressure Sodium street lights have bene the norm across the United States for the past 30+ years. Looking down across the darkened landscape from an airplane, you see that now familiar orange glow everywhere. Looking out our living room this evening as I type this blog entry, the hazy sky is lit with an orange glow. This color is very prevalent in the city of Chicago.

I find it comforting.

There are efforts to now install LED smart lights; bulbs that report to some centralized location that they are not working properly. The lamps are even more efficient than their sodium predecessors, but unfortunately, they give us this bluish-white light that is downright invasive.

When I go for my morning walk before work, I tend to avoid the streets that have been converted over to the LED lamps. They’re just too bright for my blurry morning vision. The light is harsh. We may be saving money but it feels like we’re inciting insanity with these bright, garish lights. As you walk down the street, houses are bathed in this very bright light. Someone must be making a ton of money on room darkening curtains and shades.

As a private pilot, I prepare for a night flight by staying out of bright lights as much as possible. The cockpit is illuminated with red or very dim lighting to keep our eyes adjusted to the dark. It makes it easier to see things in the darkened sky when are eyes are using more rods than cones in the relatively darkened environment. Much of our technology is designed to change the color wavelengths displayed on the monitor or display as it gets closer to bedtime. This helps our brain adjust; too much bluish-white light keeps us awake.

I have to think that animals living in the neighborhood must hate these new LED lights.

Have you ever been driving along a country road and had an expensive car with crazy bright LED headlights come at you? How disorienting do you find that to be? I have to wonder how much of our safety is compromised as our eyes adjust back to a darkened environment. LED lights at night, especially these ultra-white/bluish lights are blinding.

I’m hoping that the city of Chicago takes a long time rolling out these LED lamps and that the comfortable hue of high-pressure sodium lights stays around for many more years. While energy savings is always a good thing, light pollution and messed up circadian rhythms can not be good for a residential area.

Earl and I went shopping on Lincoln Square this afternoon. I stopped in to Q-Brothers to use a gift certificate and when I came out Earl showed me his phone. He had dropped it and the screen shattered.

This is the second screen in this phone. It has been showing signs of displeasure since it was dropped in some water a few weeks ago.

“I’m buying your birthday present early.”

Off we went to the Apple Store, where we bought Earl a brand new iPhone 8. He felt that the iPhone X was too much phone for him but the iPhone 8 felt familiar to his iPhone 6s, just faster. We also purchased a wireless charging mat for his nightstand.

Matt and Alex helped with the purchase; Matt coordinated the transaction and Alex sat with Earl and me at the “setup desk” as we went through the motions of wiping out Earl’s old phone and setting up the new one. I had a great conversation with both guys about where Apple is headed, and I had the opportunity to watch a Today at Apple session is progress.

As much as I complain about the quality of Apple’s offerings as of late, the fact of the matter is, I still believe they are giving us the best technological experience available to consumers today, especially when you look at connecting humans with technology. While any company can provide a product to use, Apple provides an experience.

Today’s adventure at the Apple store was absolutely top-notch and I have no complaints with how things went. It was fun to watch others setup their devices at the setup desk; it helped me understand how folks out in the wild manage passwords and accounts and all of that stuff. It also helped me understand how much patience you have to have to work in an Apple store.

Think Different. It’s something I do every day.