2014-03-16
Junk closet at work.
There shouldn't be anything proprietary in this picture. This is just a bunch of junk that has gathered over the years. Probably ten times as much stuff has already gone out the door.
2014-03-15
2014-03-14
A keyboard makes a difference
2013-03-12
The new keyboard at work has actually made me more likely to type stuff. I’ve noticed that not only do I typ better on the keyboard,but I am more likely to decide to type something. It is like having a pen that hurts your hand and trying to type with it. Sadly, spelling mistakes have not vanished.
I would say that keyboards are important for development. If you read really old books they were written with the hand and paper and a pen. The hand takes a while to get the writing down. This forces you to think about what you want before you write it. Making corrections is even more of a pain in the carpal tunnel. This method requires more planning.
Keyboards are fast enough to allow an author to write as they think. Well, with practice. It almost as fast as just saying the words out loud.
Saying words out loud (TTS, Text To Speech) does not work. Not for me. I have tried this with several different methods and it always ends up being shit. What comes out is what a say and not what I meant. The method of generating the text does not get it right.l I spend more time correcting the mistakes than if I had just typed it in on the keyboard or, even worse, the on screen keyboard of my phone. If there is so much as a fan running in the next room as background noise, the TTS flips out.
Another problem with TTS is the fact that people don’t want to talk to their devices. When devices develop the ability to have conversations with us it will be different. Right now, if you say something to your device, it has canned responses or very rudimentary, yet complex choices. At some point you will speak with you computer or device about tasks and ideas instead of barking orders at it.
Recently, I has an episode of my wrist hurting. I have been trying different things to identify if something specific is causing an issue. I think this keyboard swap may help.
Notes
2014-03-12
Now low fat milk is bad for you? -Einstein-a-gogo
They are studying brains for remodeling, fixing of itself from injuries and disease, by scanning for cells that have been changed since the cold war with all the nuclear tests. Fascinating stuff. -Einstein-a-gogo
There are links between behavior and gut bacteria. -Einstein-a-gogo
A buddy of mine is in a 39 story building. I used this site to calculate his potential impact velocity.
PowerPoint is not the enemy. Learn how to communicate. Not just anyone is a good public speaker. Not Just anyone is a good author. Not just anyone is a good teacher. Not just anyone is a good student. These are all different things.
I got told I asked a good question in the weekly development meeting this morning. I’m such a dork. I’m all proud of myself.
Is QTPy (and QT) realy the industry standard for GUI?
Does anyone learn to read and write before learning to listen and speak? Then why are we trying to teach computers that way?
2014-03-13
2014-03-12
2014-03-11
Wifi at work
The guest wifi at work for internet access only. It is ridiculous. We have network wifi for work stuff. The network wifi works pretty well, but the the guest wifi is jacked. Let me count the ways.
Often, it just gets you nowhere. You sign on to the guest wifi without a password. You then go to any web page and you get prompted for a login. We use our user log in and it lets you on the internet. This works well for phones and personal devices so they do not intermingle with the business wifi. Keeps the networks separate. The guest wifi never works properly.
Half the time you sign on to the guest wifi and never get prompted. All your internet applications default to using wifi so you phone sits there not connected at all. No texts and in my case no phone calls because that is over wifi when connected as well. If you don’t remember to turn off wifi, you are just offline.
When you are prompted for a login, you get flopped back and forth between access points until your battery goes dead. This means really bad connections and missed data. This just lures you in to thinking you are rightly connected when really, you are just dangling on a cliff near the internet and not on it.
The only solution is not to use the wifi. This leads to using my 4g more, but I don’t really stream anything. I don’t know if it is just my office (the access point nearest me) that is the issue, or if it is a systemic issue thought the building.
When I tried to get help from the help desk about this, they didn’t even know what I was talking about. I got the chat window equivalent of a blank stare. Clearly the person on the other end was helping multiple people at once. Just gotta love that chat support.
Plane mistry
Recently, a bunch of antiaircraft missiles came up for sale on the international market. Apparently someone disarmed the Ukraine before all the recent protests and other troubles. Makes me wonder if the jetliner that vanished over the East Pacific was a dry run. That part of the ocean is littered with fishing vessels this time of year and would provide ample cover for escape. Not sure what kind of missiles were available, but that plane would have been pretty high up by the time it ran in to trouble.
Then I hear that some of the passenger's mobile phones were still pending as of Sunday evening. If that proves to be true then when the hell is going on with these poor people?
Someone came by this afternoon wondering what everyone’s consensus was about the plane crash> It turns out we have all heard several different accounts of what happened. Some of the news sites are not even calling it a crash any longer.
Notes
I’m trying not to be a fat bastard and there are donuts in the lunch room.
No lunch conversation today. Went to the parking garage and held a conversation with noone. Yes. I talk to myself. Sometimes not too quietly. The security guard hung out near me and just sort of waited around.
Swapped out my keyboard at work. I did have a fancy Dell keyboard. It looked snazzy and had some interesting layout that seemed to be ergonomic. I could not type on it reliably. I used it for many months. I grabbed a $20 keyboard out of a $25 bundle keyboard and mouse. the keys are much quieter, but the rubber feet make a squeak noise as I move the keyboard. Something I had no idea how much I do of course until I used this keyboard. Hopefully the feet will break in or I’ll park the keyboard in a good spot. So far so good.
There was a felony stop outside our office this afternoon. The whole side of the building was glued to the windows. Several guys were pulled out of a car and handcuffed. It was very LA if I’m honest.
Notes
2014-03-10
Pepsi was the first U. S. company to invest or do business in Russia.
I heard a couple people say they were not tired on the bus this morning. They were talking about the DST time change that happened Saturday night. I don’t know why people don’t remember, but it is this evening and Tuesday where the time change starts to hit you. Say you are not tired again tomorrow morning. Then, I will believe you are one of the tough ones.
All sides are getting setup for the midterm elections coming up later this year. I wish they spent as much time worrying about running the country as they did about getting elected. This is what term limitations are for. They prevent regime building on this scale.
Lunch Conversation
2014-03-10
- Plane crash
- We spoke a lot about the plane crash that happened earlier this weekend.
- We also cracked some rather inappropriate jokes about it.
- IBM exec on the plane that went down
- Kids
- Kids on flights
- Kids in hotel rooms
- Kids in cars
I pondered the number of flights in the world and wondered the number of them that have an IBM employee on them at any given moment. I bet every fifth flight in the world has someone from IBM on it.
The real talkers were not with us today apparently. The ride back to work was nearly silent.
Then in the afternoon we did something at work we hadn’t done in a long time. We actually took an afternoon break about fifteen minutes long in the lunch room. It was spontaneous. Just a bunch of people who walked by.
- Old TV shows
- McGyver
- Max Headroom
- Jim Henson did a show with Muppets and real people that was cool stories.
- Dark Crystal (movie)
- Quantum Leap
- That Andy Griffith show where he made a rocket and salvaged stuff from orbit.
- Airwolf
- Erkle
- Twilight Zone
- Time change
- Some love it and some hate it
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