Geek

Privacy.

Yesterday I mentioned Google Now and the upcoming Google Glass that will be hitting the consumer market next year. If you’re not following along with my posts on a regular basis, Google Now is a predictive tool that takes all of the personal information you’ve given Google and suggests various things, like restaurants in the area you might like, traffic details for your commute home, the scores of your favorite teams, etc. I think it’s pretty nifty software and I am very impressed by it. Google Glass is a wearable device that ties to your smartphone and affords you much of the same information as well as giving you the capability of taking a photo or a video (and a bunch of other things) right from these “eyeglasses”. It’s pretty magical; all you have to do is say “OK Glass, take a picture” and it takes a picture at whatever the glasses are pointed at.

There is a concern that Google Glass is going to invade our privacy even more by capturing people and the like in everyday use without the “target” knowing it.

I kind of get that, but here’s the deal. Google Glass doesn’t take a picture without the photographer speaking out loud. You’re going to hear someone say “OK Glass, take a photo” or “OK Glass, take a video”. (Google Glass takes only 10 seconds of video at a time). I can point to THOUSANDS of “sneaky pics” scattered all over the internet where people are doing there normal, everyday thing in public and someone has captured the moment on a smartphone (Droid, iPhone, whatever) without the person knowing it. It’s commonplace. Because of the voice commanded interface, Google Glass is less likely to be used for this type of activity.

Do I like the invasion of technology into our lives this way? Yes and no. I like the fact that we’ve come up with tech that does all of this predictive stuff and that we are able to connect with others anywhere in the world with ease. I’m sorry, but that ability makes me feel more connected and human with my fellow human beings. Perhaps if we were more connected with one another we’d be less likely to kill each other. As I typed that last sentence I had to rethink it because in reality, there are times when I see what other, random people do and I just think they’re outrageously and hideously stupid, but that’s a whole additional blog entry.

The fact of the matter is, being in public is no longer confined to the walls of the space you’re currently in. Do I think a person should wear their Google Glass to the bathroom? That’s just tacky, just like the folks that carry on phone conversations in the bathroom.

Paradigms are shifting and I really think there’s going to be a disconnect between the old school and the new way. If people remembered to be respectful with their use of new technology, there wouldn’t be an issue. It’s not the technology that’s the problem, it’s the people using it. And they only way we’re going to get better at that is by educating others and adjusting our social behaviors.

My, we’ve come along way with privacy concerns since the days where my social security number was printed on thousands of receipts when I was a cashier at a now defunct department store chain. Let’s talk about that sometime!

Do No Evil?

Chances are that if you’re reading this blog, you’re probably reading a feed of it, whether it be via a Twitter link, via Facebook or Google+ or by what is called an RSS feed. Many folks that follow blogs and the like via RSS use a service from Google called Google Reader.

Google announced today that they’re sunsetting their Google Reader service.

In the interest of trying not to use salty language, I won’t type what I said when I found this out. To say this is disappointing would be accurate. There are worse things in the world, but I keep up on all those blogs in the right hand margin via the Google Reader service. Using Google Reader, and apps that use the API, I am able to keep up on news from many sources and I’m also able to read the blog entries of many fellow bloggers that sit down and take the time to write out their thoughts in spurts that are longer than 140 characters.

By the way, I added a new blog to the blog roll today. Hello Tom Whittaker!

I’m bummed (but not about Tom’s blog).

Since Google has randomly decided to end support for Google Reader, and judging by the outrage on Twitter and the like, I’m not the only person that’s bummed, I begin to wonder what other services Google might kill in the future. Tired of supporting Gmail? Kill it.

Tired of supporting Blogger? Kill it. (That’d be hard for many bloggers, including the very popular Joe.My.God..

Tired of supporting Google Wallet? Kill it.

They’ve done the same thing with countless other products and quite frankly, Google is just erratic enough to make me stay solidly in the Apple/iOS walled garden. Apple might be thought of as evil by some, but at least their evilness is complete and solid.

Google’s mantra has always been “Do No Evil.” I hope that someday they live up that mantra. Because right now they’re failing at it.

Firsts.

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So this is my first time publishing a blog post using in flight WiFi. I’m kind of excited about it. I’m flying Delta today and I’m finding this plane (CRJ700) to be quite comfortable, especially when compared to the Dash-8s I usually fly out of SYR.

I’m such a geek.

Old.

I’m a tech snob. This isn’t something to be described as a negative aspect of my personality, it’s actually something that I’m kind of proud of. With technology where it is today, I think that the right tools are available to do what the masses need to do. I also fully believe that if you’re going to embrace technology, you need to do it properly, with the best tools you can get your hands on. This is something that has taken me years to realize; saving money isn’t going to save you money in the long run.

About a year ago, when I found out that I was going to be on a more frequent work on-call rotation, it was suggested that I finally get a company mobile phone. I took this advice and filled out the appropriate forms and waited for the red tape to unwind itself a bit. Our company is aligned with AT&T, so I knew that my smartphone choices would be different than what I was familiar with on Verizon. I was fairly surprised when I was told that I couldn’t have a smartphone of anytime, but rather I had two or three choices of flip phones to choose from.

Oh joy.

I ended up getting some Samsung flip phone that is so poorly designed that I have never used it. I have never given out my company mobile number to anyone, not even to the company. Instead, I opted to get a Google Voice number, which I can then direct anywhere I want to direct it.

Now, I’m not wasting company funds. When I am officially on-call, the Google Voice number is directed to my personal iPhone and to the piece of crap Samsung flip phone. The latter direction is just so that I have something audible to startle me awake should I get a call in the middle of the night. The piece of crap Samsung flip phone sits on my nightstand and does nothing even mobile related. The moment I am officially off-call I power down the phone and shove it away in a drawer.

The piece of crap Samsung flip phone doesn’t hold a charge for longer than 24 hours. It beeps and burps and chirps randomly at all hours of the night. I don’t know if it’s some sort of audible notification stating, “my battery is charged!” or what but it’s annoying. If I pick up the phone like you’re going to make or answer a call, I always hit the PTT button on the side by mistake which throws the phone into some sort of warning notification hell telling me that my PTT is going to charge me something. I don’t even know what my PTT Is. There is a constant notification on my screen stating that I missed a call on the 29th of December, even though I have pecked at the keyboard to get beyond this notification countless times. And did I mention that my iPhone has a better battery life than this thing?

The folks at work were kind enough to provide me with a holster to carry the phone on my belt. Sorry ma’am, but if I’m going to carry a holster that size on my belt, it’s going to have a Glock in it and people are going to be impressed, not laughing uproariously at me.

Through casual observation at work, I have noticed that most of the folks that you would think have a company cell phone actually carry a personal smartphone instead, with their company number forwarded to their personal phone. Most of the time the personal device of choice is an iPhone. Smart choices for smart people!

Flip phones were quaint back in their day but it’s time to move on. I don’t care if it’s an iPhone or an Android device, but in today’s business world where you need to be connected, you need to have a device that isn’t on the cheap and is going to do the job properly. Especially when you’re part of the telecommunications world.

Guess what I’m not packing with me for my business trip today.

Backed Up.

So I wiped out my Flickr account earlier this week. Before I did to, I remembered to back up all my photos and save them to my primary desktop computer, an iMac running iPhoto.

It was at this moment that I remembered that I had wiped out my iMac a few months ago and had never loaded my photos back into iPhoto.

I then panicked, thinking I had lost all of my photographs of the last ten years. It turns out I had saved everything on an old hard drive. I restored my iPhoto library successfully but all of this panic was a stark reminder that I need to get a backup solution back in place for our various computer systems. I checked with the budget department and was approved to purchase a Time Capsule for our Macinhouse. Off to the Apple store tomorrow!

I’m such a geek. And as a reminder of this, here is a restored picture of me from 2009 playing the part of Mr. Telephone Man.

iPad.

So, aside from a complete flirtatious betrayal last fall with a Google Nexus 7, I have been an iPad fanatic since the days of the first generation iPad (it took me about six months to get my hands on the first one). Though on a couple of occasions I have tried to convince myself that I would be better off with a laptop, the truth of the matter is, I love the portability, the convenience and the computing power of my iPad. I take it everywhere and I use it for a myriad of reasons.

I love it.

When I went on my business trip last week I brought my iPad along for the ride. Since we were traveling in Canada, I felt a little stifled due to the lack of cellular data availability (US carriers have some of the stupidest cellular plans known to the world, and yes, I realize that is a ‘first world problem’) but I still brought it along, figuring I could use it in the hotel room. There’s something very nice about being able to FaceTime with your loved one back home. I didn’t think I would bring it along for the meetings that we were traveling for; I’m often the only one in a conference room with my iPad and sometimes I feel self-conscious about that. Besides, with the lack of data connectivity, I worried that I wouldn’t be able to access the documents I needed for the trip. So I printed what I needed and brought along my leather binder with a fresh pad of note paper.

Imagine my surprise when I sat down at the conference room last Thursday morning and came to the rapid realization that I was the ONLY one at the table without some sort of computing device. The vice-president that I was traveling with had her iPad 2, complete with a portable keyboard. The vendor representative had his iPad 3 and a Lenovo laptop. The others in the room all had some sort of Windows XP power laptops.

Suddenly feeling self-conscious of the fact that I did not have an iPad with me, I started fiddling with my iPhone 5. To compensate, I asked the host, “do you have a wi-fi hotspot for public use?” The vice-president was happy that I asked, though the answer was to the negative.

After the meetings and on our way home, I asked the VP if she liked her portable keyboard. She answered in the affirmative and that led to a lengthy discussion about iPads and Macs and the like. Outside of the building that I normally work at, it seems to be standard operating procedure to bring along an iPad or a laptop. The company is definitely headed in that direction and the culture of the company is following suit. In fact, the use of personal iOS devices is leading to Macs becoming much more prevalent throughout the corporation I work for.

I find this all very exciting.

So when I leave for the next round of business travel on Sunday, you know that I’ll have my iPad with me and that I will be ready to use it in the training seminars and at the meetings that I will be attending. To make it all the better, my Apple Bluetooth keyboard case will be arriving from Amazon today (yay Prime membership shipping!).

I’ll have to share a photo with the gentle readers.

Telecommuting.

I don’t work for Yahoo. I do work for a Fortune 500 technology company and it’s a job that I like. I complain about my job from time to time, but earlier today my supervisor told me that I was a valued employee and I responded that I love what I do. And that’s true. I have a good gig.

One of the many reasons I love my job is because I have the flexibility of working from home three days a week. I love this benefit and it has boosted my productivity considerably. I’ve always been a loner. I work best when I’m in my own little zone with minimal distractions. I’m not much for water cooler chatter and I’m easily thrown off my game with what I call “fly-bys”: people stopping by to ask a question or tell me a quick anecdote or something like that.

Another plus is that there are times when I feel my most creative at 3 a.m. Because I have a home office setup with all my work goodies in its own little office space, I am able to go downstairs and start writing code any time I feel the urge to. And because my company has excellent collaborative tools (phones, IM, webcams and the like), I still feel part of the team that I work with. While next week I will be meeting several of my teammates face to face for the first time, the truth of the matter is I feel like I already know them. And while I think we’ll work together even better when we all meet each other in person, I think I’m part of a really good team now. Our collaborative tools give us the opportunity to brainstorm and be the team that we are.

Marissa Mayer, the CEO of Yahoo (the sixth CEO of Yahoo in six years, I may add), announced a ban on telecommuting for all Yahoo! employees. To foster teamwork and improve productivity, come June, all Yahoo employees must work from the office. “Shoulder to shoulder. Brainstorming. Creative collaboration!” All of this can only be accomplished in person at Yahoo, apparently. Perhaps they’ve never heard of Yahoo! Messenger. Perhaps they have and have finally given up the ghost of using it for anything productive.

I don’t know about other telecommuters, but when I’m working from home I’m focused on my productivity. I know that working from home is a privilege and I’m not going to compromise that privilege by slacking off. I’m focused on getting stuff done. When I work from my office, I’m focused on the number of hours I work. And the number of hours I would spend commuting. And the price of gas. And where I’m going to go for lunch.

Not all jobs lend themselves to telecommuting opportunities. But many positions in the telecommunications and technology sector do; heck, we make the tools so that others can telecommute! And doesn’t Yahoo sell services for telecommuting purposes? I think this speaks to the quality of Yahoo’s products if they can’t even effectively telecommute using their own products and platforms.

We often hear about green companies and ways of scaling back on the damage that we are doing to the environment. Telecommuting actually helps with this; there’s simply not as many vehicles on the road burning up gas just so people can get to the office. As a productive, happy and proactive telecommuter in a team environment, I am lending my talents to making great things happen at the company I work for. I feel like we are soundly in the 21st century and I want to do what I can to make that experience better.

If I worked at the office five days a week, eight hours a day, it’d be just another job.

Perhaps Yahoo just wants to be another mediocre technology company. With decisions such as Marissa Mayer’s telecommuting ban, it seems like they’re headed in the right direction for that.

And that direction would be backwards. I’m happy that I work in a company with forward motion. I look forward to contributing to that motion by working where I work best.

And sometimes, that happens to be at home.

Training.

So today at work I began four days of training classes for the week. For five hours of each remaining work day this week, I sit in front of my laptop in the privacy of my home office and, along with nine other class participants, get guided through an overview of a multi-million dollar software package. Later this month and next month is when the real training takes place, with in-depth coursework designed to stimulate all sorts of neurons in my head.

The training was originally suppose to take place in exotic places such as Dallas, Texas and Rochester, New York, but the company discovered that it is cheaper to have everyone participate virtually and remotely, via the very technology that we provide to the masses. As a result of this epiphany, most of the travel plans were scrapped in favor of this telecommuting arrangement. I am still traveling to Dallas for a week in the beginning of March for some of this frivolity in person. That week will be the first time that I meet most of my peers face-to-face. I am looking forward to the experience.

I have to be honest and admit that this telecommuting way of learning is actually working well for me. Maybe I should have done this for most of my educational career. Sitting in front of my computer in the solitude of my office and not worrying about what other people around me are doing or wondering how my flight home is going to go is actually helping me stay focused. I don’t feel distracted, I feel energized. Forty years ago my kindergarten teacher identified me as a “loner” and I guess that’s one thing she got right. (We ignore her other assessment of me, in which she told my mother that I was learning disabled. She just didn’t get me as I didn’t really fit into the “no child is really any different than any other child”  mentality.)  I’ve taken lots of notes, I’ve shut down anything that could be distracting and I’m actually learning something. Just from this first class I have come up with several ways to integrate my software package into this platform that we’re developing. My inner geek is excited and I can’t wait to implement some ideas and learn more when we get into the more in depth classes later in the month.

I’m looking forward to the next session tomorrow.