The concept of portability…

Portable versus fixed. It is always a question we have to consider. Fixed tends, in the long run, to be more sturdy. Portable offers the power of movement. Of course, the stronger you are or the smaller you are, the definition of portability changes radically. But it is something that you have to consider when buying technology. Will I never need to move it? It is part of the consumer functionality matrix. For enterprise systems, the choices are easier but normally not something that anyone has to figure out. Usually, a major group in the organization decides whether we are portable or fixed. From there, each of the users already knows. But in the consumer market, that is something we have to do ourselves.

The conversation of portability starts with Functionality and capabilities. Let’s talk about what that means. The first piece is the Functionality you are looking for in the device. For example, a camping solar array that is 100 pounds or designed as a fixed solar array won’t really help you camping unless you connect it to an RV. Portable solar power systems have to be around 3-10 pounds to be carried and moved about easily. Transportation of the device is a choice in that matter. Putting it on an RV, then it can weigh more overall. Carrying it to a primitive campsite, it has to be something you can easily carry in your backpack. I wouldn’t say I like having more than 24 pounds in my backpack, but I don’t hike to primitive campsites.

Capability refers to how you use the device and again focuses on the concept of what you need the device to do. For example, a Swiss army knife is portable, but you wouldn’t saw down a tree with one. It would take a long time. Chainsaws are better for that, but if the portability factor fits in your pocket, the reality s that the chainsaw won’t fit. I have thought about a matrix for a long time; for example, portability for me changes when my back hurts. That reduces what I am willing to carry. Portability in the summer for me is different than in the winter. I am willing to carry two hand warmers, a heavy coat, and huge gloves in the winter. In the summer, I try only to carry a single water bottle.

Just my early thinking on the concept of portability!

,doc

The great resignation

When I consider the ghost of technology future, which I often do, I find three things really interesting. The first is the value considerations around 5g networks. That market has an incredible value proposition from home, business, and cellular 5g. I wrote a long article (the link is below) where I got through some of the value today. One of the interesting things for me is the ongoing reality of 5g. The other thing that interests me right now is an evolution in business that I think is very interesting. Companies are looking at ways to reduce the impact of the great resignation. First, the reality of that resignation is something to consider.

Working from home –has its benefits for sure. For most of the past 20 years, I have worked from home, other than two jobs (where I was in the office 4 to 5 days a week). Now, working from home at one time in my career didn’t mean being home. It meant I was in another city, country, or state and unable to come home in the evening. But my office was my home. Now it means working in my home office. I can usually get more done in 4 hours in my home office than I can in 10 or more hours in the company office. I have more time to stop, reflect and have more resources available at home. Part of the great resignation is people wanting to continue working from home only.

That is the easy button answer. However, the reality of why people aren’t happy with their jobs is the reality of why people aren’t happy overall right now in our country and the world. Things are very negative right now, and that impact on most people is huge. The other side of the divide now (between what companies are seeing and what employees are seeing) is part of the issue as well. I think the value reality is where people are struggling right now (IMHO). I see value in what I do at work. But I know many people who do not see value in what they do at work. I suspect that lack of value makes it much easier to leave your job than in the past.

Hubpages article on 5g

https://hubpages.com/technology/Futurist-What-is-the-current-value-of-5g

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The windows and office insider programs

I do enjoy the Microsoft Insider program. I run Office Insider on two PCs and Windows 11 insider on one PC. There are two reasons why I do that. The first is I like to know what features are coming. When you consider what I do, that makes a lot of sense. The other reason is out of understanding. I tend to help several people with computer issues. I know the possible means of running different versions of operating systems, hardware, and software configurations.

That and I am a geek. There is nothing wrong with being a geek; somehow, that became a derogatory phrase. It isn’t all of us are geeks. If they are honest about it, most people are a geek in some fashion or another. At some point, it became associated with technologies and became derogatory. Abrupt subject change warning: One of the things I like in the newest version of the insider programs is a monthly newsletter that tells you what is new and how to use it. I enjoy playing around with the new features.

It takes time to move a feature from wished-for to possible in code. From possible code to beta and insider programs, The first to last step can be as long as five years or even more. But, getting to see and use that features in the preview version of windows and office is a great thing. Joining the programs is so much easier now than it used to be. Now you go into the control panel of your computer, and in the settings area, select the option of joining the insider program. It is that easy. You won’t get unstable builds; those are fixed when they deploy them to the insiders. You are, in my experience, about three months ahead of the non-insider or standard builds of Windows and Office.

It is a great program!

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On connectivity…

I often wonder about the importance of connection in the modern world. It always amazes me. People on TV always have the most amazing network connections, no matter where they are. In the middle of the desert? Well, we can still video chat! The reality of connectivity is that we don’t have that level today. We are heading in that direction and will continue on that path. But for now, you don’t get that kind of connection everywhere. I am speaking of that because the reality of those connections is not always considered.

1. Connectivity requires an antenna, both on your device and in the air.
2. The antenna must be connected to a network (now, the sad reality of hackers comes into play). That is why you don’t connect to any wifi you don’t know. My safety rule is to launch your VPN first when you connect to wifi. That protects you from someone capturing your information with a fake free wifi hotspot.
3. The last part of the connection is you have to have a need.

Why the last one is important is the quest for connection. When I first started in IT, we didn’t have the option of being or not being connected. You either had a connection at work or home, or you didn’t. I can remember on the weekend having to take my two-year-old daughter to the office because doing my job over a 9600 baud modem connection was impossible. I had a server down in Atlanta, and by the time my information got from Cincinnati to Atlanta and then back to me via modem, it took forever.

So we cruised down to the office. I got done in 30 minutes, which had taken 2 hours to do half of when I was home. Now, I can do more with more bandwidth at home. The reality of connections is critical. But, the reality of wiring becomes the last question. How much longer will we have networks that require wires?

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I finally realized what he was really saying.

Those who forget history often get wound around the axel.

The largest known GOP scandal was the Watergate Scandal. How you look at that (people charged with crimes and not changed but pardoned), there were about 20 people involved in that Scandal. There were whispers of the Scandal within hours, and multiple people ultimately testified and revealed what happened within weeks of the end of the election in 1972. Due to obstruction and other issues, it took around 20 months for the Scandal to end the presidency of Richard Nixon.

I just realized what Donald Trump is saying. Without any proof, Donald Trump is completely wrong or acknowledging that the other side is better than his side at cheating. Watergate broke within weeks of the event happening. Election fraud on the scale required to tip a presidential election in the United States would take many more than 20 people. How is it possible that none of them have spoken, and to date, most people arrested and charged with election fraud are Republican?

I worry about the ability of a group of 20 to hide a crime. While bad, breaking into the Watergate building is nowhere near falsifying a US Federal Election. The two are not even in the same category. For the most part, the Burglars of Watergate quickly turned the state’s evidence. The maximum sentences for those involved in Watergate were less than a decade. If there was election fraud, at the scale claimed, the penalties are huge (more than ten years in federal prison). Given the number of people required to create such fraud, the lower-end folks would certainly testify in order not to go to jail. A wise man once said, “To find a smoking gun, there had to be a gun in the first place.”

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Sometimes you just need a day to rest

I am sad to say that I was so tired yesterday that I didn’t get any of my tech projects on the books done. During the week, I have a lot less time to do things other than work-related. I guess I will leave my list unfinished and start again next weekend! No matter how good you are at writing the to-do list, you still have actually to do the things! Well begun, in my case, is having a good to-do list. Being exhausted meant the to-do list moved from required to aspirational. It happens sometimes, and well, you keep going!

One of the projects I backed on Kickstarter is exciting. For years, we’ve had one wheelbarrow (Ezra Pound, the surrealist poet who wrote the red wheel barrel, one of my favorite poems), but we now have an electric cart coming that will allow us to move. Things easily without straining the human! If you are interested, Buffalo carts are on Kickstarter as a funded project now, but I suspect once they start shipping, they will open up their eCommerce site. They have a very interesting product.

There was a time when I backed 30 projects a year. Now, I likely will back 2-3 projects in a year. It is more the not needing to add things to the mess that is my office than anything else. I am waiting for a couple of often delayed projects, but they have taken way more than two years to deliver. I suspect we will call that done and move on at some point. I will talk about my new favorite Podcast, the Planetary Societies weekly podcast, which is simply amazing. I love Matt Kaplan and all his guests; they are great fun.

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Do written or recorded lies have a half-life?

I do not recall that.

In the modern technology world, that is something few people can say, and honestly, the few that can really. But, if you are in office, representing people of an area in our country or any other country, what you say will be recorded. Political rhetoric has been protected for far too long. If you swear an oath of office, then every time you speak, you are bound by that oath of office. It makes me sad to hear an elected official say I do not remember if I did or didn’t say that.

The other great sadness in the US is the use of 1776 as a far-right rally8ing call. I want to point out that in 1776 the then united colonies of the Americans signed a declaration of independence from Great Britain. The person who wrote that document publicly said that he believed African Americans were inferior. The man was Thomas Jefferson. One of his revolutionary war counterparts left Jefferson all of his money when he passed away. The agreement between the two? Jefferson would have enough money to free his African American “enslaved” workforce.

Jefferson never did and left enslaved people as property to family members when he died. He broke a promise to a man who came to America, not as a future citizen but as a human being that believed in Freedom for all. Not one, not land owners, not people like him. No he was willing to give his life for the freedom of others. His name was  Tadeusz Kościuszko  .His story is not told in American Schools But he lived the life of freedom for all.

I am not running for office. I find the slogan (MAGA) Make American Great Again offensive for one word. Again, there is no time in history where any nation can say we were great. That sadly also runs for the US. In WWII, we had internment camps that housed Japanese Americans. A unit of soldiers from those camps was one of the most decorated during WWII.

Let’s make America Great. Let’s build a country where we can have the CRT discussion and talk about what has gone wrong. A country where there are no towns named for those who fought for the institutions that were not appropriate by any means. A land where all have a voice that is equal and that no one is above the law.

Hi, the recording of me is a fake. Yes, it is my voice. Yes, it was me speaking. But it is a fake.

As a long-time proponent of technology, I know that if you are not careful, technology is watching you. Let’s evaluate the reality we all live in. First, if you don’t commit a crime or say something you regret later, you know what? It doesn’t matter if someone records you. There is nothing there to see. While for those of you who remember Sgt. Shultz of Hogan’s Hero’s (I see nothing, I hear nothing) realizes that wasn’t always the case. Now in our modern world, everything is on camera.

It isn’t fake news when the news has you saying something that was recorded. No matter how you nuisance or change your original words, it doesn’t matter. You said it; you can’t deny you said it. You can come back and say I have changed my position. I understand today that political rhetoric is exempt from libel and its impact. But, I suspect politicians’ rhetoric would change radically if they were told, you are sworn into office when you speak your point; you are under the oath of whatever office you hold.

As if in a court of law, you are bound by the oath you took. Not only when speaking on behalf of your constituents. No, you are under oath every day you serve in your elected role. If you run for office, you are given great power, and to borrow from Marvel Comics, with GREAT POWER comes GREAT RESPONSIBILITY. I believe in free speech. But I understand the limits of that speech. I would like it if all of us lived by those limits applied to political rhetoric during campaigns. When a successful candidate takes office, everything they utter is bound to the oath they take from that point forward. That includes when they, as a sitting congressperson, are running for office again. They are bound by the oath they took.

Why is the free bird silent now?

One of the things that I’ve always liked is to challenge the things I know. Both with the people around me and by reading different accounts of events told from both sides. In part because my parents always taught me to consider the other side and the opinions of those on the other side. In part because that was something one of my heroes (Jimmy Carter, former US President) always talked about. Consider both sides of the argument. You may find one side wrong, but at least understand it.

I am considering both sides right now, and I worry. First off, I am not an extreme on either side. I much prefer the centrist view and position. There are things that I am very liberal about. In particular, I would suspect my position n Climate Change and science would be considered liberal to extremely liberal. My position on Critical Race Theory would be considered liberal. I do, however, tend towards the more centrist views of the military and the concepts of global intervention.

Look, this post is not to toot my own horn. It is simply to state that my intent as a person is to be open to discussing ideas. I do not, however, start a conversation with I am open to persuasion. That is a huge warning sign (people that say that are never open to persuasion. They are spoiling for an argument). One of my all-time favorite poets Maya Angelou, wrote the famous line, “I know why the caged bird sings.” That poem has impacted me since the first time I read it. But now I worry because the free bird is silent.

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ah the sound of music!

Anker, a company that started in the USB accessory world, has become one of the top home projector companies. I am impressed with their new portable laser projector. It is heavy, but that is to be expected; it can quickly fill a wall, or outside in the dark, you can make a theater anywhere. However, the thing that impresses me the most is the quality of the speakers they included with the projector. I have dabbled in the world of speakers for many years. I love the sound of music around me!

I started in the Sonos world for electronic speakers. I am impressed by the quality of the sound. In this case, it is both the sound of the Anker Laser Projector and the Sonos system. I love being able to play music in almost every room of the house. It makes Christmas that much better when you have music in every room. The next thing I will try with the Anker is connecting my iPhone to the device. It has AndroidTV installed so that I can run most of my applications on the device.

But, the iPhone has a built-in 5g network, so, in the long run, that is a better device to play streaming services on than the native AndroidTV device. That device requires an external network. The other option is to connect the projector to my MiFi. That is a portable 5g hotspot, so that I may do that as well. When we are camping, the long-term goal is to use our portable screen and relax by watching movies in the cool fall air. I don’t think we will be outside watching movies in the hot summer!

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