It’s Sunday night, 11:02pm, April 13, 2014. I am dog tired.
My wife’s Uncle passed away last week. His funeral was Saturday in Ocean City, NJ. So Saturday began nice and early so we could leave the house by 7:45am. G had a Lacrosse game and J had an all day cub scout event so we dropped everyone off with coaches, scout leaders and friends and picked up my Sister-in-law at 8:30am. Got to the church for the wake around 10:30, mass at noon, burial, luncheon and then back on the road so we could get the sister-in-law home in time to pick up her sons. Pick up J at the scout leader’s house and Kathy drops J and me at home. She then goes to the end of G’s Lacross game, gets her and picks up the baby sitter. Why the baby sitter, you ask?. Because Saturday was my soon-to-be brother-in-law’s 13th annual Conshohocken birthday pub crawl. Kathy and I hit a couple of bars with that crowd and had dinner at the Great American Pub. I took the baby sitter home and then passed out in bed around midnight.
Today was simpler – all I did was rip out and relay 25-30 feet of brick walkway that had sunken from all the snow and rain this winter. There’s another 10-15 feet to go. We’re preparing for my J’s First Communion party in a few weeks and I was hoping to have the walkway completely relaid this weekend. Oh well.
I’m going to go upstairs and crawl into bed now.
I work from home and have nearly a decade. My setup consists of
- 15-inch MacBook Pro
- 24-inch external HD display
- Apple Bluetooth keyboard – the smaller one, without the numerical keypad
- Kensington Slimblade Trackball Mouse
- Plantronics Savi W740 DECT Headset.
- Logitech C910 WebCam
- iPhone 5s
- iPad 2 (I will upgrade to an iPad mini when it comes with TouchID)
- Parrot Zik Bluetooth Noise Canceling Headset (love ’em)
With all of these devices, many wireless, there are periodic odd behaviors I can’t resolve. For example, over the past year – seemingly at random – my Bluetooth Keyboard would just stop working. I’d try all the usual fixes… change the batteries, reset the keyboard, delete it from the MacBook settings, re-pair the two devices, etc. Nothing would work – until it magically would be fine. That’s where I was this morning. My MacBook could not see my keyboard no matter what I did. I was so frustrated I tested the batteries with a voltmeter to validate that the battery tester was working.
Then it happened. The kids are at school, my wife was out and yet, out of the blue, Led Zeppelin’s ‘Darlene’ starts coming from the family room. What the hell? Turns out the music was coming from my original iPad, which my wife uses. After checking that this wasn’t an alarm sounding, it hit me.
I had, for the first time in forever, decided to clean the keyboard. Just before the music started, I had been rubbing a Clorox wipe back and forth over the keys. The Apple Bluetooth Keyboard has keys specifically to control iTunes … or the music on an iOS device. And once, literally once on a business trip, I had paired this keyboard with that iPad. The random connection failures weren’t random. My keyboard was pairing with my wife’s iPad every time she got within 30 feet of my office… a situation that only became possible when we moved into our new house… about a year ago.
I haven’t figured out why the keyboard prioritized the iPad (20 feet away through a wall) instead of my laptop (18 inches away). But it doesn”t matter because the the fix was easy… just tell her iPad to forget my keyboard. Entertainingly, when I relayed this to my wife… she noted that this explained why her iPad would randomly start playing music on her, too.
Always loved Darlene.
Tuesday night we all went to bed, ready for a full day on Wednesday. Mother Nature had other plans and gave us the great Ice Storm of 2014. When we woke Wednesday morning, there was no power. I work from home, so don’t normally get the day off when it snows (much to my kids chagrin). But now…
- No power at home = no internet = no ability to work.
- No power at school = no heat = the kids stay home
We braved it out on Wednesday… playing a lot of Uno, sitting in front of the fire and exploring the cold, dark house with flashlights. Entertainingly, I can now answer the question, “What do I have to do to get my kids to practice the piano?”. Thursday, we got out of the house and found other places where we could keep warm. And then, Thursday night the electricity magically turned back on around 11:30 PM. We’re lucky as about half of my family in the area is still in the dark.
Oddly, we’ve had one major utility problem during the winter at each of our homes. In Pittsburgh, “new homeowner-itis” led to a night without heat a few weeks after my first daughter was born. (“HVAC’s have air filters? And if you don’t change them every so often the system shuts down? No, they didn’t mention that during the walk through.”) In Durham, the first floor HVAC system outright died right after my son was born. (In that case, the house had separate systems for the upstairs and down, so we were able to keep warm on the second floor.) We didn’t have any problems after my 3rd child was born… but we were still in Durham. Although she’s almost four now, we’re less than a year in our house in Broomall, so I guess it was time.
Hopefully, that will be it for this house. But, in the off chance it isn’t, I think I’ll pick up a generator when they’re on sale this summer.
When we bought the new house, I managed to convince my wife that we could live without cable and a DVR (and save some money). We hooked HD antennas to the TV’s for local programming and sports. We subscribed to Netflix for movies and TV shows and use the streaming options from the network websites for most other programs.
Netflix has been fantastic. There is a ton of content there and the kids haven’t missed a beat. Actually, they’re enjoying a lot of the 80’s cartoons I used to watch as a kid. The tabletop HD antennas have been ok. Bad weather or people standing in the wrong spot can kill the signal. I should really put a big antenna in the attic and will probably look at that in the summer. We briefly tried Hulu Plus because they offer current season programming (unlike Netflix). Unfortunately, they show a lot of commercials on top of their subscription fee. If we had started with Hulu it might have been ok, but Netflix’s commercial-free experience spoiled us. That’s when we turned to apps like WatchABC and the CBS app to watch current shows. That’s worked well as shows are available the day after the initial airing and stay for a few weeks. However, we had to sit around my 15-inch laptop or one of our iPads to watch anything. So, I ordered an Apple TV (3rd generation) and it arrived yesterday. (It was half off… so why not.)
The Apple TV mostly solves the problem. Some apps, like Youtube, will stream content from the iOS device to the Apple TV in full 1080 resolution. Other apps, like WatchABC, don’t enable streaming at all. To watch an ABC show on the Apple TV, I have to enable my iPad’s Airplay Mirroring capability. Since the iPad has a 4×3 aspect ration and the TV is 16:9, I lose a big part of my screen to black bars to the left and right. It works but is less than optimal. I really wish more broadcasters would implement the Airplay streaming mode.
Let me say that the whole setup only really works because we have a Logictech Harmony One remote. It’s programmed to set up the TV and receiver for any option with just one touch. Absent that, I think my wife wouldn’t care that we were saving $150 a month.
Last week, I finally upgraded to an iPhone 5s (32GB, Space Gray). This is my third iPhone; the first being a 3G and and the second the venerable 4. As a looooong time iPhone 4 user, I wanted to offer a few first impressions.
My upgrade had both push and pull aspects. The battery on my 4 was on its last legs – two to three hours of heavy use would exhaust it. If that were the only issue though, I could have just added an external battery pack. It was the Touch ID sensor that really got my attention, so let’s start there.
- Touch ID
I work for IBM and we are a very security conscious company (which should make all of our customers happy). However, being security conscious comes with a cost. Specifically, I am required to have an 8-digit alpha-numeric passcode on my phone and change it every 90 days. It is i-n-c-r-e-d-i-b-l-y cumbersome to enter this every time I need to use the device and it takes all the joy out of this always-on, instant availability technology. I know many IBM’ers that carry two devices so that they don’t have to put the passcode on their iPhone. But Touch ID has changed that. I can still have the complex, strong, secure passcode that IBM requires… but the instant access that I want. This is a huge plus. It’s such a plus that I may wait to replace my iPad 2 until the Mini gets Touch ID too. - The Weight
Yes, the 5s is a lot lighter than the 4. Interestingly enough, I prefer the feel of the 4 in my hand. It was incredibly solid. I carried that device for the last year without a case and it survived several drops without material damage. The downside was that I always felt the 4 in my pocket. It was heavy enough that it would tug my suit jacket to one side and I knew whether it was in my pants pocket. In contrast, I barely even notice the 5s. Even though the 5s doesn’t feel quite the same in the hand, the tradeoff is worth it. This is a strong positive… at least until the first time I leave it behind. - Siri
I don’t get all the jokes about Siri. This is incredible technology. The only problem is I want more. I was driving today and asked Siri for directions. It was spot on fantastic! I wouldn’t have had to take my eyes off the road at all if Siri could toggle settings for me. I normally leave my Location Services off to conserve the battery and Siri can’t turn them on. While It’s smart enough to know it can’t do that, and told me so, I hope it gains the ability in the future. - The Battery
So far, I’m not all that impressed. Remember, I’m coming from an iPhone 4 that only gave me a couple of hours of decent usage. During my early usage of the 4, I could charge it every other day so that’s my benchmark. On my new 5s, I can literally watch the battery meter drop a percentage point every 15-30 minutes. And this is with just about every bell and whistle turned off – background app updating, background app refreshes, Location services, etc, etc. I finally cranked down the screen brightness to 30% and that seems to have had a positive impact. Fortunately, the screen is more than bright enough for this to work fine. Right now, battery life is a minus. - Screen Size
This is one I find fascinating. I think I agree with Apple that the screen size on the 4 was the optimal experience for one-handed operation. The 5s is just tall enough that I cannot comfortably work the controls at the top of the screen without repositioning my hand. (I have to ask my wife her impression as I have reasonably large hands.) I expect this will be less of an issue over time as I retrain my muscle memory to hold the phone ‘correctly’. Although I also have a Galaxy Note 2 – with a screen larger than the entire 5s itself – I never noticed this problem. I’ll have to pay attention more when I use the Note 2, though. Since it is so large, I doubt I’ve even tried to use it with one hand.
Overall, I’m pretty pleased. This is a strong upgrade and with the big A7 chip, I’m hopeful my new 5s will have enough of horsepower to keep pace for the next couple of years.
One of the reasons we bought our house was the big back yard. Ok, our actual yard isn’t all that big. Our property is only about a third of an acre. However, there is at least an acre of ‘common space’ behind us that is all but inaccessible except through our property… so it might as well be ours.
Over the summer, the kids and I camped in the back yard. We set up a tent, had a fire, made smores and slept outside. They loved it. That gave my wife an idea. It turns out that my 5th grader’s new Girl Scout Troop had never been camping before. So last weekend, we hosted them here, at Camp Del Pizzo Pines!
While I helped with logistical support – getting the equipment where it needed to be – the troupe and the troupe leaders did all the real work. This wasn’t a sleep over. The girls set up tents, cooked, had a scavenger hunt, slept outside and policed the entire area the next morning. I was really proud of all them. They had a ton of fun and we really enjoyed hosting them.
Of course, my 3rd grader wasn’t happy about not being part of it. But, he’ll get his turn when he and I go camping with the Cub Scouts in a few weeks.
Sunday night was our first official night in our new home! We’ve actually had possession for about 3 weeks – enough time to repaint the living room, family room, two bedrooms, have new carpets installed on the second floor and stairs and move most of our belongings in. Yes, there are boxes everywhere.
The kids are excited about the basement with the big TV and pool table; that each has their own room; and there are other kids who live across the street. My son has been alternating between the upper and lower bunks in his new bunk beds. My oldest is thrilled because she has the biggest bed room (of the kids) and it’s purple. Meanwhile my youngest has graduated to a big girl bed. 🙂
A couple of quick stories. I am officially a big fan of Allied Moving and their North Carolina affiliate, Excel Moving & Storage. They took our possessions on January 14th and held them in storage for four months, delivering on May 15th. We’re still packing, but other than a handful of really minor dings or scratches, just about everything came through unscathed. The big test was the baby grand piano. It was purchased new, delivered without a scratch and never acquired so much as a ding in our old home. Other than my kids, the piano is my wife’s most prized possession. She was very relieved when the guys set it up and it looked just as good as when it was packed. All the people we dealt with – from the sales rep to the moving coordinator to the pickup and delivery teams were fantastic.
I can’t say the same thing about working with Wells Fargo to originate my mortgage. The people were very nice. However the requirements kept changing all during the lead up to close, they kept asking for the same documentation over and over and, since I didn’t have access to a fax machine, they wanted me to email them unencrypted PDFs. After all, I was informed, their email was secure. They couldn’t quite seem to grasp that in between my account and their ‘secure’ system was a whole lot of not secure. Moreover, it blew my mind that they gave me access to a very pretty web site to track my mortgage’s progress, but I couldn’t upload the documents directly to them through it.
But enough of that. How about a couple of pictures?
Yes, we even put the kids to work painting their closets!
You know it’s bad when your ten year old daughter points out at dinner that your blog hasn’t been updated since before Thanksgiving. Who decided she could have an iPod Touch for Christmas?
The big news is that we’ve sold our house in North Carolina, moved up to Philly, found a house and hope to close by the end of April.
When last I wrote, our old house had been on the market for a few months – with lots of interest but no offers. We came off the market in October, switched realtors and had a good debate about whether to relist over the holidays or wait until the Spring. In an ideal world, we didn’t want to have the move the kids in the middle of the school year. Assuming it could take another few months to find our buyer, we opted to relist and were back on the market the day after Thanksgiving. Eight days later, we were under contract and had a closing date of January 17th. So much for minimizing disruption.
The next six weeks were a blur. There were a couple of weekend trips north to look for a house, a mad dash to empty the storage unit and a little thing called Christmas, which we celebrated in Philly (so we could house hunt). The real packing didn’t begin until January 2nd. The movers came on the 15th, we closed on the 17th and left Durham on the 19th. We spent our last week in Durham living in a two room hotel suite, prepping the house for close and trying to say goodbye to as many people as possible. (We didn’t get to an awful lot of people – and for that I apologize.) While the move was clearly emotional for my wife, I think it was worse for my oldest daughter. At least my wife was looking forward to coming home. For my daughter, this was just a goodbye.
I will say that email and FaceTime have made the transition a lot easier for my kids. When I moved as a kid, the best you could hope for was a couple of letters before everyone drifted off into their lives.
Since we hadn’t found a new home and my parents didn’t want us to rush into such an important decision (aka: buy one of the houses we were looking at 45 minutes away), they offered to let us stay with them. As generous an offer as this was, it wasn’t easy to say yes. My ego didn’t like the idea of being nearly 40 and moving my wife and three children in with my parents. More importantly, we’re loud and disorganized and were going to disrupt my parents’ empty nest lives in a major way. On the whole, it’s gone relatively well. There have certainly been a few moments… but we’ve worked hard to contain the chaos and my Dad has been forgiving. (I think he really enjoys having the grandkids around.)
Our children have also weathered the transition well. As our realtor told us, going to a new school in the middle of the year made them rock stars for a while. However, the novelty has worn off and now they are going through the normal challenges of building new relationships. It’s hard but they were adamant that they didn’t want to switch schools again. We were fortunate enough to find exactly the house we wanted in an area that would keep them in the same school.
Now it’s all paperwork and phone calls to get ready for closing. It’s amazing how phone oriented the mortgage business is. It’s actually slowed down the process for me as I spend most of my day already on conference calls or on a plane. They really need an electronic interaction system with a secure way to upload the needed documents. But that’s another topic for another day.
As you can see, I’ve made some progress on the drive section. It’s been completely wrapped in ‘Aztec’ decals… which simulate the thousands of individual panels that make up the skin of the Enterprise. And when I say wrapped, I mean wrapped. Virtually every inch of this thing is covered. I can’t fully declare victory on the Secondary Hull yet, though. I still have to apply the detailed marking decals.
While I have the inevitable list of things I’d do differently “if only I had known”, I do have one major gripe. I got exactly the brand and color/number of paint specified in the instructions… including a blue/green mix called Duck Egg Blue. You can see this color on the Pylons, Nacelles and the top of the neck. The problem is that the decals in the same area have a blue coloring that’s supposed to match the Duck Egg Blue… and it’s not even close. I don’t know if Testor changed the color, the instructions were just wrong or the decals are off, but my color scheme doesn’t match the hero or other models I’ve seen online. I haven’t seen any indication of a mismatch in any of forum or other build instruction. I’m at a bit of a loss.
During a mentoring conversation the other day, I was asked to describe my ideal job and/or organization. I find questions like that – along with ‘Where do you see yourself in five years?’ and ‘What do you want to be when you grow up?” – to be a double-edged sword. While a clear answer makes it easier for others to help, it also cuts off unexpected opportunities that might have been much more interesting. Either way, I gave the topic some thought and came up with the description below. Feel free to share if this would be helpful to anyone you know.
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First, let me say that what follows should be taken as guidelines instead of rules. For the ‘right’ opportunity – defined as ‘I know it when I see it’ – I could go in virtually any direction. But there are some characteristics that define my ideal company right now.
- Aligned
An organization that uses a shared vision, values and culture to guide and reinforce decision-making across teams. When people understand where they are going and what kind of behavior is expected, they can be trusted to make good decisions without micro-management. On the other hand, constantly changing strategies; poorly conceived objectives; and a short-term focus create conflict and lead to selfish decisions. - Focused
An organization with a concrete view of the market, its role in it today and it’s aspiration for tomorrow. A willingness to say no to good ideas so that it can focus resources on executing the vision. It’s better to do a few things well versus many so-so. - Innovative
This isn’t necessarily just a technology or product statement. It could be business model or process. For example, I joined IBM as part of their unique EBO program – the way that IBM pursued new opportunities that were too small to for the mainstream businesses to notice. BTW: The concept of entrepreneurship in an established organization still fascinates me. - Produces technology (or products) that people use. I moved to the Sametime team because I wanted to work on products that people could see, touch and use… as opposed to middleware connecting systems. I’m a gadget guy. I love toys. Some days, I think I would love to be a reviewer for engagdet or gizmodo.
- Has a bit of a wow factor. Enough of a wow that I’m willing to tackle the mundane tasks because what we’re doing in the end is energizing.
- Geographically open-minded. My house is for sale and we intend to relocate to the Philadelphia area to be near family. I’m willing to travel if it means my wife and kids can be near the grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. On the flip side, I have not found working from home to be a challenge with all the communication tools at my disposal.
As far as the actual role…
- Most likely: Product / Solution Management, Strategy, New Product Development or Evangelism. This is what I’ve done for the last 10 years. I tend to be comfortable with what I call the ‘gray spaces’… areas where decisions need to be made with imperfect information and iterated on quickly. That was also one of the things that attracted me to Sametime. The collision of communications and collaboration opened up all sorts of new possibilities, market dynamics and new lines of competition.
- Secondarily, I would be open to exploring roles in Business Development and Acquisitions. I do a lot of the former and have been involved in several of the latter.
- Something with an external component. I like dealing with customers & partners. I find it very energizing / motivating.
- A suitably senior/executive level position.
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