Well...it's been FOREVER since I posted much of anything to my blog. Mostly, it's because I'm having too much fun reconnecting with people via Facebook. It's really sort of addicting in a fun way.
My sense is that I'll come back now and again to post things here on Opera...but the "daily" stuff will be in FB.
Okay, so I just joined Facebook so that I could look at a site for an old HYACK student that was getting married. I figured that I'd just join quickly, look at his site and then forget about it as it's one of a myriad of minimal registrations that I've done on other sites for various reasons.
And then...
...I received a bunch of friend requests from people I hadn't connected with in years. What a riot! So, I'm still thinking this will by my primary blogging-outlet, but Facebook is a nice add-on.
Essentially, it's a collection of freeware/open source applications that all can be run from a flashdrive or other form of portable media. With that, you could use any computer as "your own" as you would carry your entire desktop of these applications on to whatever computer you used...and never have to leave any personal information behind. It all would stay on the media drive.
Cool concept. Still downloading it to test it though.
Our TV reception is terrible. We don't have cable. We actually do have a satellite dish on our home (it was on the roof when we moved in), but don't have the service. We don't watch TV that much. We don't really want to watch enough TV to justify the monthly cost of paid-TV.
So today, the Patriots play the Chargers and our CBS reception is pretty bad. So, a bit of googling landed me at the channelsurfing.net site. It streams a small window (too bad no full screen), but at least it's clear! It also is about three or four minutes behind the live broadcast.
But at least we can tell the difference between the teams and see what the player's numbers are.
Just a quick FYI: there's a bug in the Opera blog servers that's hiding entries when you use the HTML LIST code. Their developers are aware of it and hopefully, they'll release a fix for it soon. So...if you see a blog entry with a list that only shows one entry, that's probably just the bug hiding the rest of them. For now, I'll just show my lists in good ol' text rather than the fancy bulleted/numbered lists.
Gizmodo reports that scientists have come up with a 30 year battery. Imagine turning your laptop on and leaving it running for the next 30 years with 'nary a power cord. How cool would that be?
Depending on the capacity of these sorts of batteries, that could bode well for electric vehicles too. Imagine..."Here's the keys to your new car, son/daughter. Don't forget to recharge when you turn 46 years old."
Laptops, pda's, phones, work lights, flashlights, stun guns, R/C cars/airplanes/boats, robots...running for 30 years at a time? Well, this sounds like something that calls for the standard response of:
30 year batteries? Well...that sounds great.
Why that response? Because everything sounds really good when you look at the glossy brochure. I'm just curious as to what some of the issues/concerns may be when you take a closer look at it. I mean, what good would a 30 year battery be if it can only generate enough power for a dimly lit night light in the hallway? Or, what if it generates a ridiculous amount of heat in the process? I hope it's would have better throughput capacity than the night light example and I would hope that it wouldn't generate an inordinate amount of heat...but you get the idea of my concern. Are there any downsides to this technology?
I looked at my blog a few days ago and was shocked to see my ClustrMap had been wiped clean. It went from 3500+ visitors from all over the world down to 10. Yikes!
Well, sometimes a fresh start is nice to have, I guess. <sigh>
So, there I was in the parking lot of our local gym at 5:30am in the hard pouring rain, pulling my stuff out of the backseat of my car to go in for a workout. "Whoops," I think, "my gym bag is on it's side. No biggie, I'll just grab it by the straps and put it on my shoulder." Unfortunately, I neglected to notice that the side pocket on my gym bag (the one where I keep my wallet, pager & Dash) is open. So, heartily I pull the bag and I hear a little clatter of plastic.
You know where this is going.
Aghast, I realize that my Dash flew out of the bag. I look next to my car and notice that the battery cover is sitting next to my Dash (which is screen-side up) in the same puddle of running water. Quickly, I pick it up, pull the exposed battery out and tap the water out of the unit.
So begins my day.
Thankfully, I tapped and blew all the water out of it that I could. I left it to dry in my locker. A couple of hours later, towards the end of my workout, I get a page from work as I'm on call for the hospital I work for. Reluctantly, I put my battery back into the handheld and make a phone call to an end user that's having problems accessing one of our systems. She says, "I'm having a really hard time hearing you" which makes me think (but not say), "Do I sound like I'm under water?" (groan). I then repull the battery and set a cool-temped hair dryer at the Dash for several minutes while I finish brushing my teeth and shaving. About 45 minutes later, I dry the handheld under the hand dryers at work for several cycles.
Then I put the battery in and try to turn it on...
...and it works!
I have no idea how long this is going to continue to work...but so far so good.
It's like Google Earth, except looking up at the sky instead of looking down at our planet.
The question from Isaiah 40:12 (ESV)
12Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand and marked off the heavens with a span, enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure and weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance?
The answer from the context of that verse and reason in general: That'd be God!
A thought occured to me today in a meeting, that the experience that end users go through during a new system implementation really parallels the 5 Stages of Grief. I'm sure this isn't a new realization to the world, but it was a new one to me. So, after a bit of googling and thought, here's how I think the 5 stages seem to apply to a new system implementation:
The Five Stages of Griefa New System Implementation
Denial-"this can't be happening to me", ... No crying. Not accepting or even acknowledging.... I see this in projects all the time. Usually, it's the initial shock of the news that a new system is coming. There's typically a person or core group that will champion the pusuit of a new system. Quite often though, the people or departments around that person or core group will often have a tough time seeing how any change to the current processes or system can be a good one or will just be too busy to acknowledge the coming project. Sometimes, it passes quickly while other times, it can wallow in the miasma of lower priorities. Often it requires the involvement of an executive for it to sink in with end users.
Anger-"why me?", feelings of wanting to fight back or get even... Unfortunately, I see this and counsel users through this a lot too. This comes and goes throughout an implementation depending on the complexity of the project and the users involved. For some users, it lasts well beyond the go live. But eventually, they'll generally come back around to stage 5.
Bargaining-bargaining often takes place before .... Attempting to make deals ... or attempting to make deals with God to stop or change the loss. Begging, wishing, praying .... In a system implementation, this is a sad, sad thing to see.
Depression-overwhelming feelings of hopelessness, frustration, bitterness, self pity, mourning loss of ... hopes, dreams and plans for the future. Feeling lack of control, feeling numb. Perhaps feeling suicidal. I often assure my users that things will be okay in the end and that the sun will come out in the morning. Most problems can be fixed. Those that can't can be worked around -- it may not be pretty or smooth, but generally, it's a doable thing. A fellow project leader observed that the last line "Perhaps feeling suicidal" really can be "Perhaps feeling murderous."
Acceptance- ...Finding the good that can come out of the pain of loss, finding comfort and healing. Our goals turn toward personal growth. Stay with fond memories.... This is a good place to end a project. Eventually, users will incorporate the new system into their processes so tightly, that when the system is unavailable, the 5 stages are repeated in a compressed manner because of lack of access to the system.
For the last line of the last point, it can go something like this:
"What? The system can't be down." Denial "We need this system up now! Who/what brought it down? Bring this back up now or I'll call <INSERT SENIOR EXECUTIVE NAME HERE>!" Anger & Bargaining "Ugh! This is terrible timing -- how are we going to backfill all of the information in time or complete our process? Do you know how many hours it's going to take to recover from this? We're going to have to go back to our paper processes?! Oh man...this is going to be ugly." Depression <<Pause>> "Okay, what needs to happen next to get this up and running? Here's what we'll do in the meantime..." Acceptance
I just posted a review of the Cardo Scala 700 Bluetooth headset here at epinions.com. All in all, this is a very nice headset and I would choose it over a Plantronics 510 Voyager any day.
Epinions doesn't allow reviews to embed pictures in their reviews. So this blog entry includes the pictures that I would have put in the review, had I had the ability to do so.
I had lunch with a couple of close friends yesterday (Dave & Jonathan). Jonathan mentioned an interesting idea he had when it comes to keeping in touch. You see, being the guys that we are, we all agreed that we tend to think about & pray for one another, but not really take time to call or visit because we're all married with multiple children, have busy work schedules & home lives, don't want to interrupt each other, etc.. So, his idea was to get a digital voice recorder, record messages for people when he thinks of them (e.g. to let them know he's thinking about them or praying for them or wondering about them), and then email the audio files to them so they can pick them up and listen to them at their convenience. That solves two problems: 1) thinking about them & them not ever knowing about it & 2) it allows people to pick the messages up at their convenience.
I was intrigued by the idea especially now that I own a T-Mobile Dash smartphone. I found that while I was in the email application, there was a quick menu option to insert a picture, a voice note or any other file on my device. When I choose "Voice Note", it brings up the built in Voice Note recorder. I can then record a message of whatever length (it looks like about 1 Meg per 45-60 seconds or so), insert it into the email and send it immediately via the Edge network (kinda slow for this sort of thing) or a WiFi connection (better than Edge) through my Gmail account.
Cool stuff!
I then proceded to send voice notes to our three kids, just to let them know how proud Jodi and I are of them, how much we love them and how we're excited for how God's preparing them for the future He's prepared.
After I did that, it occured to me that it could potentially be a good supplemental way to pass on snippets of important wisdom similar to what Dt 6:7 says, "You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down and when you rise." Back in the pre-industrial revolution days, families spent a lot more time together. Farmers farmed their farms with their family. Cattle herders herded their cattle with their sons. Blacksmiths smithed their bla- . . . er . . . "stuff" with their sons. Same went for other crafts as well. Family-owned businesses were how things were generally done. There was a lot more "walk by the way" time with children back then, or at least opportunities for those times, I think.
So, this doesn't replace teaching our kids face to face and shoulder to shoulder, but what I know about myself is that I'm pretty forgetful -- I think of things to teach & tell them on my way home from work and I forget by the time I pull into our garage (or even get to the next stop light). Again, it's potentially a nice supplemental way to redeem some of the time while I'm just puttering around, alone in our car between work and home.
Well, it finally occured to me why our cellphone reception in our home is so poor: our home isn't wrapped in paper-based Tyvek wrap . . . instead, it uses foil-backed foamboard. As far as cellphone reception goes . . . it's like living in a lead box!
So, for us to use our phones most effectively, we need to stay near a window for the strongest signal. Thankfully, our solarium has two stories of windows on the southern side of our home, so that's fairly easy to do.
Our neighbors work for US Cellular and I asked them what their reception was like inside their house. One of them uses US Cellular and said it fluctuates from 1-4 bars. The other uses Sprint and said that she needs to be by a window usually. Once I shared the foil-backed foamboard realization, they both said, "Oh . . . well THAT explains everything."
Great site for new worship music. The New Song Cafe is truly a great guitar resource where you can learn how to a play a song from the original artists.
WIDGETIZE