Jason Schroeder's Blog

Whew....

 

Boy, oh boy.  Big *thanks* to www.activetoys.com who came through in a pinch for a dad helping out Santa.  We got my two year old to go up and talk to the big guy last week (my four year old still won't... - sent a letter instead) and he asks for a 'digger', you know cool construction toys that can dig in the dirt/sand, etc.

 

Right up my alley.  No problem.  Find something that I think he will really like and scour the web.  (Ok, find something I like that doesn't actually require me to go to a real store...)  Well, found it at a fairly big name toy store (which I won't mention...) in stock, check shipping - yep, plenty of time before the big day.  Order, done.  Get a confirmation email.  Processing.  Day later another email.  In stock.  Day later another email.  In warehouse.  Day later another email.  Order canceled, sorry out of stock.  WTF.  Go to big toy store online web store.  In stock.  Big toy store online store sucks big time - won't use them again says r me.

 

Now, panic mode.  Crunch time now, on a weekend no less prior to the mass shipping rush for a hard to find (apparently) toy that I can now *not* live without ... (erm, make that something that I really think my two year old will like....).

 

Called a bunch of stores, no dice.  Found www.activetoys.com, have the 'digger' I want.  Online store says In Stock... hmm....  Order.  I email them expecting to need to get speedy shipping.  They call me on Sunday and say - don't worry, no problem.  I still worry.  A day later.  A day later.  Shipped, on it's way yesterday - early no less.

 

Thanks!

 

Happy Merry!

 

/jason

 

Ok - so here is the plan:

My day to day work connectivity
       -currently Toshiba M2 with JavaDS on linux
       -phase 1 - move to IBM 600e with JavaDS on Solaris 10
       -phase 2 - move to combination of SunRay@Home and something like the Treo

    *Connectivity to work email, internal browser apps, creating documentation and the like is simply overkill for the M2
    *I'd love to jump straight to phase 2, but alas - my @Home rollout won't come my way for a few months - plus I need to look @ my Treo vs. other options a little closer before making a decision on what to get
    *This may seem like a simple shift, but there is some cultural change here for me as well.  I am guilty of keeping my emails forever - and keeping local copies of nearly every document / reference / article, etc.  Hugely problematic for backups, organization, security, accessability, etc.  If I lose my laptop today - I've lost a great deal - plus I still can't find what I need....  So, as part of this phase 1 and in prep for a true phase 2, I am focusing on keeping my concentration of data server based.  In addition a greater focus on 'organized links' to reference docs instead of the actual docs.  To get me back to the mobile work person I should be - I have to remove this laptop dependency and use the laptop for what it really is... simply one of many devices I can use to access my centrally stored information and data.

Cell phone
        -current wonderful but dated Kyocera
        -move to something like the Treo mentioned above
        -let my wife use the Kyocera for a home plan (and get rid of her other not to be mentioned really crappy cell phone)

Software demo sandbox
       -The newly freed M2 now is available for a much more robust demo / development / POC / crash and burn sandbox for my work.

Home PC
        -current Dell 600
        -move to the Mac mini
        -make the Dell a Solaris 10 box with SunRay software.

    *My wife is not so happy with this idea, but I really think this is the right thing for us at this point in time.  What Apple has put together for a *nix/BSD home user system to me is simply amazing.  From ease of use and digital photography editing to Safari parental control stuff - I am going to have to talk my wife into this....  But I may just have to go and get one and let her yell at me for a few days till she decides it really was a good idea... ;-)
    *I'm toying with the idea of getting a couple of SunRay DTUs, and putting the soon to be freed Dell to work.  If I bump up the memory a bit, I'm curious how this guy will do presenting a couple of extra browser, VNC to the new Mac mini (one user session @ a time restriction)... points in the house.  Could be interesting.

/jason

I have been wowfully amis about keeping my mobile work / home use technology up to date and I am near a tipping point of simply being inefficient.  So, time to start a change.  But change from what to what?  Let me give you my profile to start.

We are a family of four with two boys ages 3 and 1.  My wife has her own 'job exclusive' laptop for vpn access into her work and uses our old home pc basically for browsing, email and does some digital picture type stuff.  My 3 year old is just starting to get into some of the 'educational' computer games but will quickly expand his investigation of this digital era we are in.  As for me, I use our home pc sparingly for browsing and keeping some financial stuff.  From a work perspective, I would classify as a typical Sun mobile person.  Our Sun field office is simply a drop in center - really just for a mailstop, so while I don't often travel outside the immediate area, I spend a great deal of time bouncing between a 'home office/toy room/guest room', working at various customer sites, car travel between customers, etc, etc.

Inventory:
    Wife work laptop
    My laptop from Sun (Toshiba M2 - nice) + an old personal laptop that I bought referb years ago (IBM Thinkpad 600e)
    Home PC - Dell 600e
    My work cell phone - Kyocera QCP 3035

My issues:
    -Our home Dell runs Windows 98 - and I refuse to upgrade....  <alarm, alarm>  Yeah, I know... so while I do take some elementary firewall precautions on our home network, and run current anti-virus/spyware - this keeps me up at night.
    -I rarely use the Dell, (not because of Windows) but because it lives in a makeshift closet/office/craft/junk room under the stairs that my wife loves....
    -My boys are going to quickly expand their use and need for technology
    -I want to enable better safeguards and limits to their technology use (parental control browsers /IM, etc, etc)
    -My wife enjoys working with digital pictures and movies, but is limited by what we currently have by the way of software to make this troublefree and easy
    -My work life revolves around the Toshiba laptop - in a bad, bad dependent way
    -I work from many customer sites on a temporary basis - and often don't have authentication through the customer proxies to access web, email, etc.  So, while I am at the customer, I am often cut off from the 'heartbeat' of Sun (Sun is _such_ an email driven company).  So, I spend my evenings catching up on email and mailling lists, etc, etc.
    -In my job, I tend to do a lot of proof of concepts and demos.  More often than not, those POC and demo requests today are for Solaris 10 and Solaris based software (go figure).  My core Toshiba laptop happily runs Java Desktop on linux.  I have been very happy with this, but this means that I use my Thinkpad (which has been running Solaris on Intel for 5 years) for these Solaris requests.  Using the Thinkpad for zones/dtrace/smf and the like is a piece of cake - a little more problematic for the 366mhz cpu to run Identity Manager....
    -Since I am so dependent on my primary laptop - I am very hesitent to toss on new alpha/beta stuff, change configs, experiment, etc - so my older laptop is my crash and burn / reload whatever bits I want sandbox.
    -I LOVE my cell phone.  This darn Kyocera with Verizon is simply the absolute best phone combination I have ever had.  I regularly go up and down ELEVATORS in many customer sites shielded for datacenters - and I have never dropped a call.  It's funny to watch the other people with me in the elevator just waiting for my call to get disconnected - never happens (of course that is mixed with some amount of pissedoffness that I am being very rude and talking on a cell in a multi-occupant, confined space...).  The problem is that by today's standards, this thing is obsolete - no email, very small screen, very early cut of browser based activity.

So, there you have it.  But I do have a plan to get me and our family back up to speed.  More on that next time.

/jason
   

Well, my oldest was not feeling well this morning, so he and I spent some time sitting on the couch in front of the TV (a rarity for us these days) just relaxing a bit.  As is the case for many kids his age, he is obsessed with everything Thomas and Friends.  You know, Thomas the Tank Engine....  He absolutely loves the wooden train sets (OK - I think they are pretty fun too....)

Wouldn't you know it, but UNC-TV had a Thomas marathon on this morning supporting their fund drive.  So, as I am sitting there reading the paper - my son wide eyed at the programming - the cutaway for the pledge drive came on. 

It took me a second (I was short a couple of cups of coffee at that point) and several doubletakes, but I finally caught on.  In perfect frame, right behind the nice lady standing next to the big yellow featherd Big Bird being created with all the new UNC-TV Kids member names - was...  yep - SunRays!  A big row of them, with smart cards even! 

How cool is that?  I have had more customer interest in SunRays in the past six months than I have in my entire five years at Sun.  POCs, presos, talks about integration, pilots - long distance SunRay implementations...  you name it.  Good stuff!

/jason

Well, the boss might not be doing Top Ten lists anymore, but I like them:

10> Snickerdoodles....  mmmmm - hot out of the oven.
9> Staying up late Christmas eve wrapping last minute presents watching as many hours of TBS's 24 hours of A Christmas Story as possible.
8> Picking out a real Christmas tree...
7> ...and putting the lights on.
6> An unexpected mid afternoon snowstorm
5> College football bowl games {sigh, going to miss the Cornhuskers this year though}
4> Fa La Latte from Caribou Coffee
3> A clear, cold night sky filled with stars
2> Getting my yearly Christmas tree ornament from my Aunt Bobby
1> Spending time with my family doing their favorite things this time of year...

Happy Holidays

/jason

For all of those who thought I was kidding on my earlier blog entry rant concerning the laughable state of the airline industry.  It just so happens that this weekend my youngest boy is getting baptised this weekend, and for some strange reason - our family wanted to come to town.

Three lottery tickets please - one for nana, one for grandma, one for aunt Molly.  Would you believe that the anticipated arrival times in the destination city for all three, on different airlines is within one hour of each other?  Well, you know the lottery - gaming people on golden promises and dreams.

Drumroll ...

Nana: Airline #1 from Dothan to Charlotte lottery.  Ahh, sorry an early loser.  Flight from Dothan was delayed long enough to miss the second leg of the flight out of Atlanta.  Instead of staying in the Atlanta airport, she chose to restart from scratch in the morning from Dothan.

Grandma:  Airline #2 from Omaha to Charlotte lottery.  First leg of the trek a success.  Even pulled out from the gate exactly on time for the second leg...  only to rush out onto the runway and park for unknown reasons.  Been there for an hour and a half so far.  Thank goodness for the Internet so I can check for up to the minute 'newly' predicted destination arrival times in those 15 minute intervals ... {10:20 ... 10:25 ... 10:55 ... 10:25 ... 11:05 ... }.  Are you on the edge of your seat in anticipation?  I am. 

Aunt Molly:  Airline #3 from Omaha to Charlotte lottery.  Some history here.  This was a ticket purchased from Airline #3 - but the actual "flying" was to be done by Airline #2.  Now even though Grandma and Aunt Molly were both actually doing some "flying" on the same airline, they are on different flights.  Each flight leaving Omaha within 10 minutes of each other, stopping in two different layover cities, and "theoretically" arriving in Charlotte within 5 minutes of each other....   Well, I guess this was the right way to go, because it appears that Aunt Molly gets the win with a early arrival - in the right city none the less.

One out of three - not bad odds.

/jason

I have to tell you that I find the topic of consumer privacy fascinating, and a little entertaining.  After all, I am an entertaining consumer and it just so happens that I work for a technology company.  Surprise for those who missed the memo. 

Well, I seem to get into these conversations with neighbors, family members, grandmas, etc every time some article appears talking about RFID embedded in clothing, some nitwit forgetting to renew their SSL cert <uh, never happend to us, right caz?> for DMV auto registration renewal or heaven forbid - some <gasp> targeted marketing conspiracy from the diaper company who somehow figured out that we have a five month old.  Heck, I didn't even know <just kidding, honey....>  "Well, you work for one of those Internet companies," grandma says, "be careful what you tell them."

So, let me boil it down for you.  Not only do I believe that consumer privacy doesn't exist today - it never has.  Get over it.  Don't believe me, bear with me for some examples.

• My grandma used to live in a small Nebraska town that my sister and I would visit in our younger years for weeks at a time over the summer.  One of our absolute favorite stops was at the Five and Dime store on main street.  We would walk down, open the door and look through all of the toy aisles while the soda jerk / owner, without a word being spoken, would whip up the best chocolate coke you have ever tasted and have it waiting for us at the counter.  My grandma would swing by and pick us up, <didn't have to pay - went on grandpa's tab> and as we walked home past the grocery store, the baker would often rush out with a fresh loaf of bread my family loved.
• My county launched a website about a year ago that lets anyone type in a street address.  Up pops a nice summary of information detailing the currently assessed tax value, the price I paid for the home and even some really cool zoomable aerial pictures. 
  
• Want my address?
  
• I absolutely hate random telemarketer calls.  I absolutely love the do not call list.  Frankly, I prefer to receive (e)mail concerning products and/or services in which I am keenly interested {ie: those diaper coupons were great by the way, thanks}.
• I have an aunt-in-law that absolutely refuses to email photos.  "Who knows who is going to see them..."
  

Ok, so?

• I would absolutely love to sit down with the soda jerk / owner and baker for an interview to find out just how much they have come to know about my Grandma, Grandpa and all their family over the years....  What a wealth of information they must have - what a great business opportunity to really know and understand their client base, deliver known desirable products, distinguish premium customers, uplevel the value of their targeted service. 
• How many people know what kind of home information is a part of public record?  I used to have to spend days at the government office searching through files to find out what my neighbors paid for their house <kidding>  now I can do it from the wireless coffee shop.
• How many people with some type of Internet access still opt to have a stack of phone books gathering dust in the garage?  Waisting valuable resources for an outdated service.
  
• Face it, we are consumers.  We want people to deliver us consumables.  It is desirable for me to only deal with consumables that I am interested in, or are applicable to my situation.  It is cheaper for creators of consumables to target those consumers whom are most likely to purchase, or add value to those who have already purchased. 
  
• My aunt-in-law never blinks an eye to drop off her film at any number of photo labs depending on the coupon she has to an attendant she doesn't know to be developed at some outsourced processing center.
  

So - what is fueling all of the increasing privacy debates?  Certainly not the type of information available.  Come on, say it with me volume, memory and access.  There is this amazingly incorrect sense of anonymity proliferated throughout our society.  Now, I would offer that each and every one of us would be able to sit down and have some opinion and sense of what pieces of data we would like to distribute.  Information is a business.  The more information I distribute, the increased potential of a correctly targeted service.  Today, we choose to interact in public, to walk around wearing certain types of clothing, in certain types of vehicles, at certain times of the day, to certain various places, looking at or purchasing certain types of things, with certain methods of payment, we visit certain websites, we communicate certain interests,...  Everything we do is a bit of this voluminous information that in some way, shape or form is a small piece of who we are.  Yesterday, the capacity to store this information was limited to the oft forgotten brain technology of keen observers.  Today, inevitable technology advances fueled by consumer and creator desire alike are increasingly making this readily available, already public volume of information accessible to those who seek it.

What is missing?  Fight technology with technology....  We have to come to grips with the fact that no-one, no-thing, no-opinion and no-action is anonymous.  The limit to which this information can be collected and acted upon is simply bound by the technology available to track and make use of it.  With this realization, we have to understand that responsibility for protection, classification and distribution of consumer data also falls in the hands of the very beings who create it.  The creation of an identity is absolutely critical to assigning, tracking and providing a platform for authorizing our very own bits of information.  A national identity card is a great start, Scott.  Quite frankly, I would prefer just one - I'd be happy to trade in the 20 or so off the top of my head that we have now {national vehicle privilege card, national tax number card, several national grocery preferred customer cards, national airline mile tracking card, national expense tab card, etc, etc, etc,}  but I guess that is another blog topic....

/jason

This is awesome.  Got a package in the mail today - my mom went through some of the old things in her basement and sent me over our childhood ColecoVison!!  This is just too cool - has all the pieces, the add on Super Action Controllers, all the original owners and game manuals plus Rocky, Donkey Kong, Q-bert, Zaxxon, Cosmic Avenger, Gorf ....  I am chomping at the bit to get this hooked up.

Yeah, yeah I know - I am not a real video game nut, but we do have a Playstation 2 {I love the Hot Shots Golf and Crash Nitro Cart} and some of the Playstation 'museum' games are out there....  But I am getting old, and pretty soon, my boys are going to be old enough to kick my butt in pretty much any of these games as my reflexes and memory for all the darn button combinations goes bye-bye.  So, I figure my only shot at some redemption will be blowing the dust off this baby and leveling the playing field a bit - I better start practicing!

We never got the bolt on computer with our ColecoVision game console though...  what the heck was that thing called {see, that memory thing is popping up already...}  Couldn't convince my dad that we needed it - and our school had just gotten a new Apple IIc ....

Thanks MOM!  I promise that I will get my homework done first!

/jason

What a sad state the airlines are in today. Now I am all for a minimal government, but enough is enough - the feds certainly couldn't do any worse. I will take part of the blame, about 10 years ago I moved my family across country. Now, with two boys added to my household, I have a grandma, aunt and uncle-in-law who dearly miss them. We do our very best to work out time on both sides several times a year, plop down some serious $$ for some airline lottery tickets and see if we are lucky enough to traverse the monumental abyss that appears to be Omaha <--> Charlotte.

Now, one side of the abyss happens to be a hub city, garnering those lucky souls with direct flights to other bustling hub cities and city bragging rights in return for a steep premium for the masses. Of course, our desired route has no direct flights, unless you purchase one of the cheaper tickets for flying into a city close to your destination, say a short two or three hour drive away. Rolling caution to the wind, aunt and uncle-in-law socked over some $$ for the lottery ticket about four months ago. Cashed in some of their sparse vacation time and packed for the trip. Only, they got the dreaded 12 hour advance call... sorry to inform you, your flight has been canceled because of weather predictions, slow sales and bad hair. Unfortunately, all of the surrounding flights are full of other passengers holding lottery tickets, so because we care we have a flight for you that only gets you to your destination 12 hours past your arranged/paid for time {but you have to fly for two hours in the wrong direction to your new connecting hub city}. Yea! That is just great, they will be there early - good thing they have the day off already.

Sadly, the first cancelation was so much fun, that after their first leg, real weather in another, unrelated hub city tossed havoc into the system. Planes with stranded pilots, pilots with stranded planes, stranded passengers {in italics because at this point all you have are potential passengers - passengers in my opinion are actually on a plane in the air going where they paid to go}. Thank goodness they are stranded in a hub, so much more exciting and just think of all the direct flights we could take to anywhere except the city in which we are trying to go. Great weather in the hub city even, can't go anywhere though, because instead we need to sit and watch our flight, sorry potential flight, get delayed 15 minute increments at a time. My guess is we will see them at some point tomorrow, only a day late. Not bad for a lottery.

This is certainly nothing new for frequent business travelers. Part of the process, part of the routine. Company paid for the ticket, delays and overnight extentions in the airport hotels really add up to company time anyway, right? Well, I have issues with the business side impact of this as well, but what really chaps my behind is when all this nonsense happens on individual, personal, family time. The aunt and uncle-in-law will worst case have their hard earned, hard planned long weekend cut by a 1/4 and potentially by a 1/3. Who makes that up? Not the airline - out of their control. Does their workplace grant them back a vacation day for the time spent in the airport? Does the hub city give them a key for the unexpected stay? Of course not. Expected to sit back and take it.We fly alot - this scenerio happens frequently! One out of every 4 flights. Not that much bad weather in the country to go around. Out of control. I'm off to buy a minivan I guess, would have been quicker..../jason

I have been a bit under the weather the last day or so. Came home and went up into my sudo 'home office' {ok, a corner of our junk room that the rest of the family allows me to have ;-) }. My wife went to pick up my oldest boy, now 2 1/2, from daycare and apparently on the way home told him that 'daddy has a head owie'. So, upstairs he marched to come see for himself. Scooped him up and as he sat on my lap he expressed the greatest small child concerned look I have ever seen. Searching for anything that would resemble a child's version of an 'owie', visible scrapes, hole in the head {no comments please ;-) }, etc with his brow tightly compressed. Finally after a few minutes of searching, he reached up with both hands, planted them on each side of my head and pulled in to lay a big SMACK of a kiss on my forehead proclaiming 'daddy owie all gone, come play choo choos.' You know, it worked.... /jason

Anyone who finds themselves near or through Omaha, NE at this time of year should do their very best to stop by and enjoy a game at the College World Series. Great college baseball games, great food and great fans. http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_pg=528&u_xid=365

Let's start with the fact that the Nebraska Cornhuskers are the greatest football team of all time. /jks