Future Technology.

Earl and I had stopped at the local Microsoft store today just to look over their line of Surface products. It was the first time that I had a chance to go hands-on with the Microsoft Surface Studio, which is in all in one computer that can lay down like a drafting table so you can comfortably use a pen on it.

I was beyond impressed.

I know that it was just the other day that I mentioned that I was still solidly an Apple boy, but I have to say that Apple is completely missing the boat when it comes to this type of technology. Having a touchbar in a MacBook Pro does not even come close to being able to lay your computer monitor down and draw all over it. Carrying around multiple devices is tedious: for graphics or programming work I need to carry my MacBook Pro. For quick blogging and such on the go, I can take my iPad Pro. Of course, I always have my phone with me, so at times I could be carrying three different Apple devices all to do nearly similar things. Wouldn’t it be great if I could carry one device to fill this need? I’d be willing to pay a premium price for a device that can handle all of my needs. Having one device would bring us closer to making technology frictionless.

I want the technology that sustains the type of world as demonstrated in this video. I have shared this video, and others like it, before. I believe it’s worth sharing again.

18 March 2017 by Geek 0

Frictionless.

I have never made it a secret that I look up to Steve Jobs. Yeah, he was a bit crass and he might have improved on ideas that he got from others, but the man had a vision, more importantly he had a set of standards and expectations but most importantly, he did everything in his power to make all of those things come together.

This is one of the reason that I am an Apple fanboy. In a way I can’t believe that I am saying this, because I’ve toyed with many operating systems over the years. I was a Linux evangelist for a while. At one point I had used every iteration of Windows starting with Windows/286 in the mid 1980s right up until Windows 8.1. (I’ve toyed with Windows 10 a bit, it’s good but it still underwhelms me).

I could never get into Mac OS before Mac OS X (later MacOS came around), but ever since that day I bought Earl one of those pedestal iMacs, I’ve been hooked.

It just works. Notice that I didn’t say “It just works, most of the time” or “It just works some of the time.” Because even though some later iterations of MacOS and iOS have undergone some speed bumps in the quality control department, when you boil out the BS you’ll find that the offerings from Apple are still top in class.

People like to complain about the specs of new computers and how underpowered they are. Since the vast majority of computer users are using a web browser, a mail program, possibly a calendar and maybe a chat program of some sort, how much power do they really need? Do we need to fleece a 65 year old senior of their life savings for a computer with enough specs to render an animated film? No!

I’ve toyed with the idea of getting a Chromebook and storing all my stuff in the cloud. The NSA, the CIA and probably a whole bunch of other organizational alphabet soups are monitoring my behavior on the Internet at any given moment, why should I encourage them anymore by storing anything and everything I do in a web browser? There’s a certain amount of comfort in using a quality built laptop with a robust operating system to store my files. It’s taken me a little while to warm up to my latest MacBook Pro (which I purchased in July 2016 to replace its stolen older brother) but I love it. It works the way I want it to, it does what I want it to do and most importantly, it doesn’t create friction in my computing experience.

Working on a computer should be frictionless.

Folks at work are often surprised when I add features to the software that I write and maintain because I don’t provide documentation. I design and build software that doesn’t require a manual to operate it. If you need to refer to documentation to run a software program there’s a couple of things happening, namely, the software is poorly written and/or designed or the user is not educated enough to be embarking on the task to begin with. I believe in computer education. I believe in educating people to use computers safely. But more importantly I believe in making that education immersive. People learn best by doing, and a person should learn something every time they use a computer.

For much of his adult life, Steve Jobs asked himself one question on a regular basis: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” If the answer was “no” for too many days in a row, Steve knew that he had to change something about his life. I ask myself that question a lot. Am I happy guy? Am I happy with what I’m doing? Am I happy with where we live, with our opportunities?

My answers are almost always positive. I have the love of my life in my life and I have some extra love on top of that. I have a great group of friends. I fly airplanes, something that I’ve always dreamed of doing. And I love my job. I enjoy what I do, I work for what I believe is a great company and I believe that I am making a great contribution to the company I work for. There’s one sticking point that’s been bothering me but I’ll work through it.

My former manager sought me out for my position. When I accepted the position I insisted that I be able to use a Mac as my work computer. The company is a solid Microsoft shop. Working with Mac, and I’m not the only one in the company doing so, results in occasional shunning from new collaborate features the company is rolling out to its users. I work around them, I work through them, but that’s the part of me that doesn’t always get a positive answer when I ask myself if I’m completely happy. There’s too much friction in my computing experience at work and as I said before, I believe the working with tech should be as frictionless as possible. I know it’s of my own doing, using a Mac in a company that loves Microsoft, but nevertheless, I’m not alone and I believe that the powers that be should broaden their horizons and look at the entire wall, not just one picture.

Ever since my last surgery a couple of weeks ago I’ve decided to keep my blood pressure low by unbottling my feelings. Earl and I have had some lively discussions, mostly about politics. Some of the liveliness has been fueled by the good meds they had me on for a week or so, but it’s been good to feel engaged. Earl teaches me a lot. He’s the smarter man in the room. I learn from him every day. And the learning is frictionless. Except when I’m yelling with passion (not in anger).

I’m focused on living in the moment. Living for today. Unplugging and listening from time to time. Plugging in and sharing. Life is best when we know it’s finite for then when try to do as much as we can in the time that we have.

And we try to do it with as little friction as possible. Don’t be friction. Help the world glide and grow.

16 March 2017 by Ponderings and Musings 0

Three feet.

When all was said and done with this latest snow storm we received 36″ inches of snow in less than 48 hours. Recovering from surgery, I haven’t been able to help Earl with the clean up and when I tried to help out he let me know, in no uncertain terms, that I was to get my butt back inside and that he would handle it. All I was going to wipe off the Jeep but he was adamant. “No!”


We just got back from taking a drive around the area to see how our neighbors were making out with their snow cleanup efforts. Close to home the folks seem to be doing well. There’s a few houses down by the housing development that still have buried cars in their driveways, which are discernible only by a mailbox at the end of the driveway. Driving in the city of Utica was a different story, where many of the side streets barely had a car-width of snow plowed down through them and it looked like those efforts were achieved by well meaning residents of the street. The sidewalks? They were visible here and there but for the most part they were nowhere to be seen. There was a lot of foot traffic to and from the local markets, even though we were out well after dark.

I had to get out of the house a little bit, even if to drive around a few miles, because recovering from this surgery is making me a little stir crazy. I was honestly frustrated with the fact that I was unable to help Earl with the driveway cleanup. I wanted to shovel the stairs and porch so that we would have an alternate means of escape in the event of a fire or something, but he was having none of it. 

The man is a trouper.

The winds are starting to kick up a bit which could make for some interesting driving conditions for the next couple of days, but with spring just around the corner, I’m certain that we will be basking in the sun just as soon my surgery recovery comes to it’s (hopefully) wonderful conclusion.

15 March 2017 by Fun and Games Dept 0

Sane. Rational. Logical.

Now that the fun meds are about out of my system (aside from one nightly pill for the next two weeks) I feel the need to say this. It’s long, but not too ranty, so be patient.

Whether it comes to the weather, politics or any other hot topic of the day, we should have three expectations: sanity, logic and rationality. Be sane, logical and rational and we can have a discussion. Add some predictability along the way and we can negotiate. Hype things way beyond proportion (for ad ratings, to get noticed, to be demonstrative, to wave your arms, whatever) and the conversation falls apart. No one can negotiate with a raving lunatic. Don’t be a lunatic. Be the calming force in the room.

Look, I’ve had as much fun as the next hacker talking to Kellyanne Conway through her microwave for the past 24 hours. Unfortunately I often got a busy signal. But the fact of the matter is, she knows her microwave isn’t talking to her, we know that her microwave isn’t talking to her and believe it or not I really think the woman is just trying to do her job trying to bring some sort of logic to a whole bunch of lunacy. Honestly, I think she’s doing it wrong as she’s hyping and exacerbating an already irrational and insane situation. I think all of this could work and there could be some decent discussions if people started acting rationally. Ever since the Inauguration the country has been like Walmart on Black Friday before the cops came. Don’t be like that.

It’s like this “Storm of the Century” for the third time this decade. Don’t buy into the hype. Shun the cute names and the constant alerts. Yes, we are going to get some snow. Yes, the wind will blow. The East Coast (unfortunately earning the name the “crisis corridor”) will get a bunch of snow too. Here’s the deal. Be vigilant. Be prepared. Be smart. Don’t depend on others to bail you out unless you get in a hopeless situation. If you see someone that has lost all hope, be a good neighbor. But first and foremost, be the person that takes responsibility for your own actions. If everyone just owned who they are, what they are capable of and stopped blaming everyone else, we could together, regardless of ideology, make the entire world a better place.

That being said, I need to do this one more time before giving it a rest.

14 March 2017 by Why. 1

Winter.

Schools all around us are closing for tomorrow even though there hasn’t been a flake of snow in the air yet. Some models show us starting to see some snow around 0345, so the schools may be making a great decision but back in my day (gosh I sound old), they wouldn’t make that call until 5 o’clock in the morning. Oh well, times change, bars are lowered and time moves on.

I’ve had a weather station in the backyard since we moved into this house in 2003. The original one was struck by lightning but this one has survived for at least a decade and is doing quite well. I put a yard stick on the side of the post that supports the weather station and I marked the level from the ground in six inch increments up to four feet. We’ll see how much snow we really get here. I enjoy following the weather, I enjoy chasing weather and I enjoy reporting weather for the area. However, I refuse to buy into the hype that many love to engage in.

Be prepared, be vigilant, be safe.

13 March 2017 by Fun and Games Dept 0

Scary?

Does anyone think I could easily get on a commercial flight today and not freak out at least one passenger if any of my tubing showed?  

Good thing Steve Austin and Jaime Somers flew before the days of the TSA. 

I have no plans of flying with this apparatus (commercial or as a pilot) but it’d be a kick at airport security. I’d make a “whoo” and “boo” noise just to make the natives nervous. Maybe say a magic word like “Ali Baba”. 

I can be ridiculous. 

12 March 2017 by Fun and Games Dept 0

Winter.

The National Weather Service is predicting one to two feet of snow and 50 MPH winds for our area from Monday until Wednesday. One to two feet of snow in March is not particularly surprising for this time of year, but with the wind kicking up that high it could make for some interesting conditions in the area. We might pick up a few groceries just in case but we don’t intend on wiping out the shelves of every loaf of bread or gallon of milk we can lay our hands on. Water works just as well, and melted snow works well for water.

I’m just as anxious as the next guy for spring to be here but the fact of the matter is it’s still early March and early March is very much winter in this part of the country. Watching the snow fall and listening to the wind whip around, coupled with the fact that I’m still recovering my from my recent surgery, will give me the opportunity to study for my next aviation challenge: my written exam for my instrument rating. I’m still a dozen or so flight hours away from being ready for the checkride, but getting the written exam out of the way will be a good step in the right direction.

Mother Nature and my surgery may have conspired to keep me grounded for a while but I can still dream of flight while I study.

11 March 2017 by Fun and Games Dept 0

Advocacy.

As I grow older and the current presidential administration dumpster fire grows stronger, I find that I’m asking myself everyday what I can do to make the world a better place, specifically when it comes to equal rights for all. I need to find sure footing on that path because right now it feels like American society is literally all over the map when it comes to beliefs, rights, religion, health care and honestly, common sense.  This “us versus them” mentality, much like two warring tribes on an episode of “Survivor”, is going to lead our nation further into chaos. Without strong leadership, which we absolutely do not have anywhere in Washington at this time, the chaos is just going to get worse.

What can I do to accentuate the compassion in our people again? Throwing pot loads of money to political parties is futile. The GOP is a bunch of spineless, worthless people. The Democrats are in such disarray that I don’t believe in them nor do I believe they even have a clear path to the bathroom, let alone scoring any sort of hits in 2018.

I want to move us from a bad place to a good place, or at least help the effort in giving the movement a good shove, but I don’t know where to even begin. Rant on Twitter? It’s an echo chamber. Rant on Facebook? Please, people just want to forget the outside world and see pictures of people smiling and posing to convey having a great time. Write on my blog? It’ll get easier once I’m off my surgery recovery meds, but it’s a start. I started writing for the Medium platform a couple of months ago but there’s so many voices screaming on that platform, and so many people joining in the predictable endless crusade of self promotion, I had no idea on how to get my voice heard in there.

I need to find a platform where I can speak my peace and be part of something. My husband says I do a lot just by being me, an openly gay middle-aged man living in a really red area of a blue state. It’s a start.

But I’m ready to go further.

10 March 2017 by Ponderings and Musings 0

DST Again.

We were reminded at work today that Daylight Saving Time starts in the United States this Sunday at 0200. For those that don’t know what Daylight Saving Time is, it is an outdated practice of moving the clocks forward one hour to fool simple minded people into thinking that they’re getting an extra hour of sunlight everyday, thereby reinforcing the outdated thinking that humans should be enslaved to a man made concept of time and should only play when they are told to play and only work when they are told to work. Anyone with an IQ that exceeds a typical Interstate speed limit will tell you that the days of Daylight Saving Time has long outlived its usefulness but the sheep will baa baa baa about farmers loving it (they don’t), the energy savings that results from the change (energy use actually goes up) and that people are happier because they days are longer (who can be happy when we have Trump as President of the United States?).

We used to start Daylight Saving Time in mid April back when people were a bit more sane but then Baby Bush decided that it would be better to start it the second week of March. I don’t know what it’s doing in the rest of the country in the first half of March, and quite frankly, I don’t really care what it’s doing, but there’s a really good chance that the wind chill factor in these parts are going to be below zero and that we will have low visibility due to lake effect snow storms. Since we are suddenly on Daylight Saving Time on Sunday, I want every proponent of this idiotic messing around with the clocks, be it child, parent, grandparent or just plain imbecile, outside at 7:00 PM on Sunday evening enjoying their “extra hour of sunlight”. I don’t care that it’s minus 10 degrees Fahrenheit or that the snow is up to their tits, they want the “extra” sunlight, they better get their asses out there and enjoy it.

Me? I’m going to be in some jet lag induced fog until November when we stop trying to play God and actually rise and set with the actual sun instead of some man made measurement of time that doesn’t correspond with the position of the sun in the sky like we used to do for the past two or three thousand years. I’m going to be inside keeping warm and trying to decide if my Honeycomb cereal is lunch or dinner because God knows what time it will really be. I’ll be late for work on Monday morning and when I do get myself situated to actually work I won’t do much but ponder about the fact that I’m tired, I have no motivation and I really don’t have any interest in associating with someone that is all joyful because their simple mind has been fooled into thinking they have an “extra hour of sunlight” in their day.

If you want an extra hour of sunlight, get up earlier and get out of work earlier. Stop trying to dictate why the rest of the world has to play your stupid game of “easily fooled” just because your intelligence level is that of a mouth breather. I’m so tired of playing this “cater to the common lowest denominator” game. 

And while I’m ranting, if I have to endure one more idiot announce that they’ve set a meeting for “1:00 PM Eastern Standard Time” when it’s in the middle of July, I’m going to take their moronic nomenclature literally and join the meeting at “1:00 PM Eastern Standard Time”, which, for those that are have the attention span of a gnat, is actually “2:00 PM Eastern Daylight Time”.  Throwing in “standard time” to the time zone when you’re scheduling meetings is a futile attempt at trying to sound professional when in fact it makes you look like a big fat goon. I hope you choke on your donut.

If you think Daylight Saving Time is a great idea, you’re an idiot. You’re part of the problem. You have no solution and quite frankly you’re taking up too much space.

9 March 2017 by Everyone's A Critic. 1

About J.P.

Just a guy with a husband. We’ve been together 28 years and he still makes me see fireworks on a daily basis. Hiker. Storm Chaser. Private Pilot. Tech Guy. Hackerish.

Weird? Eccentric!

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