Yet Another Camera

I’m rough on cameras. My most recent one lasted all of six months. After being dropped during a wild wedding weekend in Baltimore it no longer took fully focused pictures.

Sigh.

The problem is that I take my camera everywhere because you never know when an interesting picture will present itself. I also believe that pictures make blog posts more interesting. As Rod Stewart sings, “every picture tells a story.”

That being said I really don’t consider myself a photographer. I’m just a point and shoot kind of guy that appreciates a good picture. When a photo opportunity presents itself and I find myself without my camera for some reason, I default to my phone or iPad.

I consider them to poor platforms for good photos and so when my latest camera crapped out I was bummed. I planned to procure a new camera after the holidays when everything goes on sale. Instead, my sister Kelly surprised me at Christmas with a brand new SonyDSC-TX20.

She chose well. The TX20 is a rugged beast. It is waterproof to a depth of 16 feet, shockproof to a drop of about five feet and dust proof, yet compact enough to slide into a pocket.

Hopefully this one will last awhile. 

Apple TV Blues

It never fails. No matter how simple a device appears to be I will inevitably encounter a problem. Such was my experience with Apple TV this weekend.

I didn't really need Apple TV. I bought it because I thought it would be a fun gift for the house this Christmas. Buying a gift for the whole family to share is a tradition I inherited from my father when he sometimes would buy a gift that everyone could enjoy, at least theoretically. After one too many movie nights sidetracked by a malfunctioning FIOS box, I figured for a hundred bucks Apple TV would give us more options.  

So I plunked down the hundred bucks at the Apple store in The Mall for Apple TV.

“Do you need an HDMI cable?” the store associate inquired.

“No thanks, I already have that.” I was thinking that I already two HDMI cables. When I originally hooked up my HDTV, I discovered the HDMI cable I bought was too short so I went back out and bought a longer one. I decided to keep the shorter one, just in case.

I should have recognized that question as a technological red flag. I didn't and consequently I began to see why I might need yet another HDMI cable.

I was an early adapter with my HDTV. Six years ago, when we moved into our new home, I bought the biggest LCD TV available at the time. It was a 40 inch Sony Bravia and it cost me four grand. This was back before the great recession hit and many thought spending four grand on a TV was a perfectly sensible thing to do.

Today of course you can buy a bigger and better TV for about a quarter of that. Sigh.

Anyway, as I went to hook up my hockey puck sized Apple TV box to my TV I realized that it only had one HDMI port and that was being used by the FIOS box.

The solution of course was to add another piece of hardware to mix. A trip to the Best Buy store in Columbia resulted in the purchase of a Rocketfish 4-port HDMI Selector, and another HDMI cable, adding another hundred bucks to the cost of my hundred dollar Apple TV. The worst part, it includes yet another remote!

It never fails.

Come Along

We did not escape Frankenstorm unmolested. The morning after, a fifteen foot Leland Cypress was listing starboard at a 45 degree angle against our fence. It hadn't toppled over…yet.

After Mama Wordbones and I conducted an amateur arborist triage we determined we needed a rope and a sturdy stake to stabilize the patient. We had rope but nothing in our stake inventory was suitable for a tree this size. We went to Home Depot…and then Lowes…neither of which carried the serious business stake we were looking for. Mama Wordbones suggested Southern States would have what we needed. They did. Mama Wordbones is a former country girl and country people know all about Southern States.

The stake and rope were sufficient to shore up the tree but to straighten her out we needed more muscle. At this point, my early life as a groundskeeper at Merriweather Post Pavilion came back into focus. It was in that point in my life that I learned about a tool called a come-along. “We need a come-along,” I declared.

At first I thought we could rent one. I mean this isn't a tool you use everyday. It could be years before we’ll have a need for it again.

Well, I found out yesterday that you can’t rent one, not at ABC Rental in Columbia anyway. I headed over to Home Depot.

“I’m looking for a come-along,” I said to the guy in the tool department. He looked at me like I had two heads. I gave him a decidedly non technical description of the device and he told me to wait while he found an older guy to deal with me. As I awaited his return I played around with this Rigid heavy duty boom box. A guy wearing a black Rigid jacket comes up and asks if I have any questions about the boom box. “No really, what I really want is a come-along.”

He took me right to them. A one ton come-along cost $31.76. That seemed very reasonable to me.

It worked like a charm too. Once we got it properly rigged to the tree it was easy street to an upright tree. I just cranked that big boy right back into place.

It turns that the proper name for this tool is also called a cable puller. To me it will forever be a come-along, one of the best tools around.

Disqus Interuptus

A regular reader and occasional contributor sent me an email yesterday saying that the Disqus commenting function on To2C was not working.

There does seem to be a problem. According to a notice from four days ago on the Disqus website “The Disqus embed is currently unavailable for some users. We're working to solve the problem as quickly as possible and will update our status when we have more information. Sorry for the disruption.”

Unfortunately my tech skills are rather limited in this regard so I am at their mercy to resolve the problem. If it doesn’t get fixed by this weekend I’ll give my friend Jamie call to see if he can help me out again.

In the meantime, to those who wish to throw in their two cents here, please hold those thoughts.

UPDATE 9:30 PM: It's working again. All it took was an upgrade to the latest version of Disqus and suddenly all is well. Thank you for your patience...

iPad In the Classroom

iPads in schools are spreading like an Arizona wildfire. According to this story by Winnie Hu in The New York Times, all across the country universities, high schools, middle schools, elementary schools and even kindergartens “are embracing the iPad as the latest tool to teach Kafka in multimedia, history through “Jeopardy”-like games and math with step-by-step animation of complex problems.”

“It has brought individual technology into the classroom without changing the classroom atmosphere,” said Alex Curtis, headmaster of the private Morristown-Beard School in New Jersey, which bought 60 iPads for $36,000 and is considering providing iPads to all students next fall." 

While there are also many who question the educational benefit of Apples latest hot product, those who have used them seem very enthusiastic. Scott Wolfe, a principal at an elementary school in New Jersey proclaimed the iPad to “be the biggest thing to hit school technology since the overhead projector.”

Closer to home, the Prince Georges County public school system is rolling out a pilot program with four middle schools. In this article by Liz Skalski in The Gazette interviewed James Richardson, the principal of one of the participating schools, Buck Lodge Middle. Richardson expects each  of his 775 students “to have an iPad to use next year.”

In HoCo, a Columbia company, Ease Technologies, is benefitting from integrating the iPad into a number of area school systems. The company already had an established business in working with Apple to set up computers in the schools and quickly seized the iPad initiative as well. They recently established a new 12,000 square foot systems integration center in HoCo to handle the new business.

All I know is that I want one. 

Wi-Fi Now Free in DC Airports

Passengers traveling through Reagan National and Dulles International airports can now avail themselves of free wi-fi service. According to this story by Jeff Clabaugh in the Baltimore Business Journal, the Washington Metro Airports Authority said “the decision to stop charging for access to the Wi-Fi networks at the airports was based on traveler feedback.”

I think it’s time we give BWI Thurgood Marshall some of that feedback too.

Now that’s a Truck

Mama Wordbones and CG are west county girls. Until we combined families five years ago, they were proud county girls. Mama Wordbones even grew a little corn on their three acre plot of land in Glenwood.

I mention this because they enjoy teasing me about my “city” ways. The most frequent target of their countrified derision is my SUV. I refer to it as my truck.

“That’s no truck!” they’ll equally exclaim. To this I always counter that, according to the MVA, my Ford Explorer is a “TRK”.

Of course there is no winning this argument, no matter what the State of Maryland thinks. There is no way these country girls will ever call an SUV a truck. It goes against their very rural roots. A truck, at the bare minimum, has an open bed for hauling stuff. Preferably it’s a little beat up too. You take a truck to the dump not to dinner.

Yesterday when I spotted this Deuce and a half for sale in Ellicott City, I asked Mama Wordbones if I would gain any country cred if I picked this baby up.

It’s a monster. This 1993 M35 A3 two and a half ton truck has six forty-two inch wheels, 170 horsepower CAT 3116 Diesel engine, a 15,000 lb winch, ether cold start, and an in-cab adjusting air tire inflation system.

Sweet!

The best part is that no special license is required to pilot this beast. I'm not sure it would fit in my driveway though.

How to Text a 12 Year Old

I stumbled across this handy little app today. It translates your texts into a language that a twelve year old can more easily relate to. OMG!

Junk Drawer Forensics

I have a drawer in our kitchen dedicated exclusively to my stuff. It is the repository of my car keys and other essential stuff. Yesterday, for the first time in five years, I decided to clean it out.

I should note that Mama Wordbones also has a junk drawer in the kitchen but hers is decidedly different. It is orderly and logically arranged. There is a place for everything and everything is in its place. Regular cleaning/purging is not required.

My drawer on the other hand is a study in chaos. There were things shoved in the back far reaches of the drawer that had long since lost their utility or meaning. The things I actually still used were being crowded out by the seemingly self replicating detritus of true junk. It was time to purge.

The biggest surprise of the purge was this pile of keys. I can honestly say that I have no idea what any of these keys unlock Obviously, at some point in time I was entrusted with these keys. I suppose the good news for those who entrusted me with them is that I didn’t lose them. The only question now is what to do with them.

One thing is certain though, they are not going back into my junk drawer.

Safe Haven

In development of an office building, the developer and their architect pay as much attention to the lobby design as they do to the exterior design, sometimes more. The object of the exterior design is something we call curb appeal that is intended to draw you in. The object of a good lobby design is to make a statement.

In our Emerson office project we chose to make our statement with local art. We commissioned Tilghman and Will Hemsley, a father-son artistic team from Kent Island, to craft something specifically for the building.  This is the same team that sculpted the Maryland Waterman’s Monument on Kent Island.

After two years of working with sketches and models, the result is a piece entitled “Safe Haven” which consists of three bronze geese in various stages of flight as they come to rest on a body of water, in this case a fountain in the middle of the two story lobby.

Tilghman, who also happens to captain a charter fishing boat called the Breezin’ Thru, explains that geese only land where they know it to be safe. Since EmersonOne features several construction upgrades that protect the buildings occupants in the event of a terrorist attack, this sculpture helps us reinforce that message to prospective tenants.

The geese were cast at the New Arts Foundry in Baltimore.

Some Geek Talk

Instead of clearing up the mess all over my home office desk, I’m playing around with Google Analytics. One of the things that grabbed my attention tonight were the stats on visitors web browsers. The dominance of Internet Explorer as the browser of choice has ended, on this blog at least. Easily a year ago, IE commanded at 60% of the browser traffic to Tales of Two Cities. Today, though IE (34.56%) is still the number one browser in use, that dominance has been sliced in half.

The combined numbers of Firefox (29.17%) and Safari (20.44%) are actually higher.

The sleeper in this browser battle is Chrome (14.39%). Right now it’s the fourth most popular browser here. A year ago it was in the low single digits. It also happens to be my browser of choice.I believe it is a good deal faster than IE.

No doubt the debut this spring of Google laptops will only further bolster those Chrome numbers. In that computer the browser is the operating system. 

Desktop Phone Demise

I experienced one of those technology shift moments today. You know, the kind of feeling you get when you suddenly realize you've been using one technology less and another, newer technology more.

The relative quiet in our office this week perhaps contributed to my heightened awareness of things. The phones are pretty quiet and that is unusual in our office. The phone has been the main tool on my desk for as long as I have been working. It's my Swiss army knife. Sure, we use our computers a good deal but actual deals are made on the phone, talking to somebody.

That much is still true. What’s changed is the actual phone. Up until recently, when I was seated at my desk, the ubiquitous black office desktop phone has ruled the roost. The desktop phone was my default phone for work.

That is no longer the case. I’m not sure when the trend actually started but it probably goes back to arrival of phones that were truly mobile, un-tethered from cars. Before long my mobile phone found a space on my desk right next to my desk phone. The new technology had made its beachhead.

Little did I know that almost two years ago, The Gartner Group predicted that by 2011 “although most users will still also have a desktop phone, mobile phones will become more prevalent and replace desktop voice hardware to become the primary device." 

Today, the bulk of the calls I’ve received while sitting at my desk, have been on my Droid X. I also noticed that I make more outgoing calls with this phone because it’s easier.

It looks like The Gartner Group may be on to something here.

The Blogging Browser Blues

Fellow HoCo blogger Sarah Says first alerted me to this issue last night in message on facebook. She shared an anonymous message that was posted on her blog.

Sarah,
Please be a dear and let the two stooges at ToTCities and HOCOrising know that if they've seen a contraction in comments this week it's because of something technical. Some ppl are unable to post. Which may be a blessing in some cases. Nonetheless, they may want to know. 

First off, Sarah is a dear. I have had the pleasure to meet with her and I like her. If you haven’t checked out her blog, please do so, particularly if you have an interest in transportation issues.

Anyway…

I was completely unaware that there was any problem with commenting on my blog. Some posts compel people to comment, others not so much. It’s all good. So when there is a drop off in commenting, I don’t immediately take notice.

Until today that is. That’s when I attempted to post a comment on HoCo Rising about my big scoop. It wouldn’t take. I noticed that I was using Internet Explorer as my browser. I usually use the Google Chrome browser so I switched back to Chrome and the comment problem disappeared.

I am not really that technically astute so I have no earthly idea why Disqus commenting is working on Chrome but not with IE but there it is. What do you expect from a stooge after all?

In any event, I hope this gets resolved sooner rather than later. In the meantime  if anyone ever has any technical issue such as this, feel free to drop me an email at wordbones@verizon.net. I may reach out to a friend to get some help in fixing the problem.

Catching Up with “The Hammer”

It’s funny how much things can change in three years. Back in October of 2007 when I wrote this post about Mona “The Hammer” Shaw, I had recently switched from Comcast to Verizon FIOS, after years of putting up with awful customer service from Comcast. Mona had achieved national fame when her frustration with Comcast customer service drove her to act of civil disobedience; she demolished a Comcast customer service reps computer with a hammer.

This past Sunday, in The Post Magazine, Neely Tucker caught back up with Mona who still “doesn't have any regrets about laying waste to her local Comcast office with said construction tool”

“Her celebrity began when Comcast couldn't provide her steady service of its Triple Play option, which combined phone, cable and Internet service. After the Shaws' many complaints, Comcast cut off service entirely. She went to the office to speak to a manager, Comcast had her wait two hours and the manager left for the day. The next Monday morning, it was hammer time. Shaw demolished the customer service rep's monitor, keyboard and telephone. While people ducked under desks and called the cops, Shaw bellowed: "Have I got your attention now?"

The funny thing is that she remains a Comcast customer.

“She has Verizon for the telephone service and Comcast for the Internet. "To tell you the truth, I have fewer problems with Comcast than I do with Verizon."

I can certainly relate to that. I wonder if she’d let me borrow that hammer…

Offline

“Can you tell me how many green lights are on the router?”

That was easy, none.

I had arrived home in the late afternoon on Friday only to find that I couldn’t get on the internet. When I called the Verizon FIOS support number the recording suggested I try the online troubleshooting first as “that often is the quickest way to fix a problem,” or something like that.

That of course assumes you can get online.

When I finally got the opportunity to speak with customer service we quickly ascertained that the cause of my disconnect was a bad transformer.

“We’ll ship one out to you and you should have it by Monday.”

Monday!

That was it, despite my entreaties that there must be some way to get this seemingly simple part sooner, the bottom line was that our household would be without internet this weekend. I first broke the news to Peanut.

“No You Tube?”

No You Tube.

“No Facebook?”

No Facebook.

Blog posts of course were out of the question as well, from home at least. Though theoretically doable, I just wasn’t up to attempting a blog post with my smart phone.

It wasn’t just the internet that was affected by this equipment failure either. The FIOS On Demand service was also disabled. No internet no on demand, who knew?

Peanut was relieved to discover that Fred the Movie wouldn’t be impacted though. She had been looking forward to this all week.

As for me, I too am grateful that the broadcast of the Ravens game will not be affected either.

Go Ravens!

Verizon Killer App

I mentioned in a previous post that I had downloaded the NFL Mobile App for my Verizon smart phoney. When I wrote that post I had not yet fully come to appreciate how truly great this app is…if you are a football fan that is.

Last Thursday, as I watched the opening game of the season on NBC I realized that the game was also live on my phone (albeit with a short delay). The implications of this were immediately obvious to me. I can now watch NFL games even if I am compelled to be away from the warm embrace of my couch and high def TV on Sundays.

Need to go shopping with the spouse or SO?

You still got game.

Your turn to take the kids bowling?

You still got game.

This is huge.

The Other Terminal

Mama Wordbones and CG arrived back at BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport Thursday night after a seven day jaunt through London and Paris. I was there to greet them in the International terminal.

The International terminal is not like the other terminal. It is the lesser terminal in many ways. There are no shops. It’s big. It’s empty. The lower level arrivals area is even bleaker, more closely resembling a bus terminal.

Everyone who is there to greet someone must wait until the newly arrived spend a little quality time with the US Customs Service and emerge through the translucent glass doors. It doesn’t happen all at once. Every time the doors part all eyes turn to the opening to see if this time it will be their people, most of the time you just sit and wait.

The only distraction in this otherwise drab environment is the Freedom Shrine, copies of historic documents protected by a Plexiglas shield.

An app saved me. True, I have been critical of apps since becoming a smart phoney, but Thursday night, while hunched over on a backless metal bench in the International terminal, I began to see the possibilities. I watched a series of ten minute NFL highlight videos. I was happy.

Last week Verizon sent me a notice on my phone that I could download the NFL app for free. I didn’t get an opportunity to check it out until that Thursday night in the bleakest part of BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport.

I was just finishing my fourth video about Chase Daniel, the third string quarterback for the Saints who had a break out game against the Texans, when Mama Wordbones and CG strolled through the open doors.

Touchdown!

A Riddle Wrapped in a Mystery inside an Enigma

A colleague bought my attention to a detail I missed in the logo for the newly established Cyber Command at Fort Meade. Appropriately enough, inside the gold ring is an encrypted message. According to this story by Noah Shachtman in Wired, “On the logo’s inner gold ring is a code: 9ec4c12949a4f31474f299058ce2b22a.”

This coded message relates to the commands mission.

Wired held a contest for the first person, presumably someone outside the command, who could crack the code. The winner got a t-shirt or a ticket to the International Spy Museum.

It only took a little over three hours for the winner, a commenter named “jemelehill,” to crack it.

“USCYBERCOM plans, coordinates, integrates, synchronizes and conducts activities to: direct the operations and defense of specified Department of Defense information networks and; prepare to, and when directed, conduct full spectrum military cyberspace operations in order to enable actions in all domains, ensure US/Allied freedom of action in cyberspace and deny the same to our adversaries”

That’s pretty straightforward stuff. I actually liked some of the wrong answers like, “I’m sorry, Dave. I’m afraid I can’t do that,” or “If you can read this, send your resume to jobs@nsa.gov.”

Dislocated

Another company’s growing pains has given me pain this week. Martek Biosciences is expanding their headquarters’ offices in the Columbia Business Center on Dobbin Road. I think they are taking over another 16,000 square feet or so in the nine building office park. We are in their way.

Our operation occupies a pleasant little 1,600 square foot suite just across a tree lined sidewalk from Martek. I see the Martek people in their offices every time I go in and out of my office. We smile politely at each other. Sometimes we nod our heads. We’ve been together for over two years now.

Now they are consuming our space.

It’s not all so bad of course. Our landlord has gone beyond his lease obligation to relocate us to comparable space and cover our costs. He threw in a couple of nice upgrades to keep us happy.

The best part is that we’ll now get cable. Comcast hadn’t wired up our current building yet. The new building is wired.

Still, moving is a pain in the you know what. Last week we packed, today the systems furniture guys dismantled our systems. Our tech guy is having issues with Comcast on the switchover to their service and if there is something I really need it is undoubtedly buried in a mismarked box somewhere.

On the other hand a growing Martek is good for Columbia, good for HoCo and good for Maryland.

No pain, no gain.

Error Message for CA

The Columbia Association has been working on a new customer service software program for over four years. It’s not anywhere close to being finished.

According to this story by Jennifer Broadwater in The Columbia Flier, “this week announced another setback in the launch of its long-awaited Customer Service System — software that’s been under development since 2006 and is intended to vastly modernize the way members sign up and pay for CA programs.”

Wow!

Four years can be a lifetime for information technologies. To put that into perspective, four years ago nobody ever heard of an app or an iPhone.

So far the homeowners association has spent almost $3 million for a program that’s buggier than an Arkansas summer. I seem to recall that some CA senior staff even traveled to India at one point to assist in the programs development. Now they are going to spend even more money to see if someone can salvage this mess.

“The CA board of directors has approved Nelson’s recommendations to hire the outside firm to evaluate the software and also to hire an outside project manager to launch the system.”

You can’t really pin this screw up on Phil Nelson, the association president. He has only been on the job for a little more than a year. Perhaps the finger is better pointed towards certain CA board members who have been around since this project was initiated, such as the current chair, Cynthia Coyle.