Some good news
Posted by Dave in Uncategorized on February 5, 2010
The economy seems to picking up. Work is busier than it has been in almost 2 years. Orders are coming in better than forecasts and the hourly workers are getting plenty of overtime. I can see in the stores as well, more people shopping. People also seem to be a bit more optimistic about the future as well. We are not out of the woods yet, but, as long as this is not a double dip recession, I think we will be ok. I have been getting more calls from headhunters aka recruiters as well.
I have to agree with my wife, you can only go so long cutting people and inventory before things have to be ordered and building has to start again. That being said, I don’t think the real estate market is going to bounce back for a long time, if ever. I think the boom of the early ’00’s was a one time bubble, and it really can’t be repeated. We just can’t afford to have homes go up 20% a year with incomes going up 3%. I wish the recovery was faster, but we are dealing with trillions of dollars of debt accumulated over a long time. People are scared of spending money, but, you eventually have no choice. You can only patch stuff together for so long. Most people who have a job now will probably have still have a job in the foreseeable future.
I feel bad for all the people laid off. I would pursue the headhunters more, but there are other people out there who are out of a job. I actually like my job, and more money would not make my life that much happier (as strange as that sounds.) I really do believe, once you get over the $50,000 to $60,000 mark, the extra money does not buy happiness. Some of the happiest moments of my life were when I was making half of what I am now.
I really do believe things are picking up, but whomever thought Obama would be a magic man and make the economy turn around in months, not years, was deluding themselves. I know it is going to take a while. We just have to very careful not to create another bubble, or we will end up in 2008 all over again. I just know 2 solid years of recession is a long time. I also feel more hopeful about the year ahead than in the last 2 years.
A society of hoarders
A fascinating show on television is called Hoarders. It details the lives of people who go beyond just a messy house, and where stuff takes over peoples’ lives. At first, I thought, maybe this was just an exception to how people live, but a recent trip to an antique store made me think it may run deeper than that.
In just about any antique store (I admit it, I really like going to antique stores) and you will see the following:
Safety Razor blades, in their original containers.
Boxes for food, not made for decades.
Sealed containers for pop, decades past it’s prime, unopened.
Boxed toys, never played with.
Medicine, still in containers, that would probably kill you if you tried them,
Tins, boxes, and used containers of all sorts.
Huge assortments of clothes from the last 80 years.
Why were these items not thrown out? They served no more useful purpose. Why keep an empty box of Ritz Crackers from 1964? I think the answer is, as a society, we have a really hard time throwing things away. I totally understand why furniture is in antique stores, it was designed to last for decades or even centuries, but razor blades? They were meant to used and thrown away. Why buy a toy, and never play with it? I can understand keeping the box if you want to keep it safe when you are not using it, but never opening it? I guess there are some really young collectors out there. I hope this is the case.
As Americans, we treasure our stuff. We hate getting rid of it because we paid money for it, and it sometimes has an emotional attachment. I find myself guilty of this as well. A personal story: For years I had 2 or 3 LARGE boxes full of cables and random electronics. I could not get rid of all those cables, dongles, and boxes of unknown usefulness. With cleaning up the basement, I finally got the nerve to start tossing cables. It took 3 rounds, but I am finally down to one, fairly small box of cables. In that box, everything in there is useful. All that outdated technology is gone. I was never going to need 20 RCA cables or an amplifier for a phonograph. It was really hard to admit that and just toss the crap out. This was just a few boxes in my basement. Try this times 120,000,000 households and you can see how antique stores and eBay are so well stocked.
Why do we treasure our stuff so much? I really don’t want to point the finger at our consumer society, but I don’t what else to blame. It has afflicted us with a need to accumulate stuff and make it nearly impossible to get rid of it, unless you are dead. I have a hunch about 95% of the stock of antique stores is estate objects. I still want to know how many broaches were made between 1910 and 1960. I am guessing about 2 billion. Buy, why did the dead keep these things? This can’t be a recent thing, since so many of the objects out there are decades old. Is it a post WWII thing? Post Depression? I am guessing the Great Depression really made people hold onto their things beyond their useful life and they passed those habits to their children. My Mother in Law was definitely affected in this way as well. Though, one has to wonder, how much of it is what your parents taught you and how much of it is what commercial messages are? I am not an anthropologist or psychologist, but if there are any readers out there who are, why do we keep these things?
Netbook tech note
Posted by Dave in Computers, Linux, Technology on February 1, 2010
A quick bit of advice, if you want to extend the battery life of your Linux (and probaby windows) netbook and use Firefox, install Flashblock. It turns out when ANY flash animation is playing, the processor clocks to maximum and the CPU use goes way up. The faster the clock, the more power it uses and the more heat it generates. The nice thing about Flashblock is that you can decide if you want to see something like a Flash video you can, but most of the time you can just load a web page quickly and easily without sucking down the battery. What made me realize this was thinking about the iPad. It is very quick on the net, and the reason, partially, is that it does not run Flash. So, no Flash increases battery life, speeds page load times, and makes the machine look like it is blazing fast on the internet. You only really notice the lack of Flash on some sites, like Ikea and Rolex, both of witch are impossible to use without flash. Most of the time, it just blocks annoying ads.
A bit of childhood
Going through my collection of HO trains, I spotted a bit of my childhood I thought was lost forever, my favorite Matchbox car!
Using my little, home made light tent, I was able to take a decent photo. You can see how simple, even lighting really helps macro shots. It was a favorite toy of mine, I remember playing with it for hours. I am glad Glenn will be able to enjoy it as well.
The Challenger
Posted by Dave in Social, Technology on January 28, 2010
24 years ago the Space Shuttle Challenger disintegrated shortly after it was launched. I was 11 going on 12 years old at the time. I was sitting in an English class in 6th grade at the time. I still remember the look of shock the teacher had that day when she told us what happened. I guess it is like you will always remember where you were when you first heard about the World Trade Center on 9/11 or when Kennedy was shot, or where you where when man first stepped in the moon. I didn’t get to see it live, since I was in school and most of my siblings were home sick that day. It was a sad day for Americans, and a sad day for space exploration.
Today, it is used as an engineering and management example of what not to do and how important communication is in an organization. I think most problems stem from communication issues. 9/11? Lack of communication between Federal agencies. Marriages breaking up? Lack of communication between the partners. Mars Lander failure? Lack of communication between the designers for what system of measurements was used. Hurricane Katrina? Lack of communication with FEMA and the inability to warn the residents in timely matter. In this day and age of world wide communication, it is the lack of proper interpersonal skills and clear understanding that gets us.
Unfortunately, this mistake gets repeated over and over and I really don’t know if it will ever be fixed. I think it is really part of human nature. It could be because we evolved to deal with relatively small groups and our genetic heritage just fails us when we pass a certain point of people. Where I work, word of mouth is so much faster than formal e-mails it is not even funny. It was like that at my last job as well. I would be willing to bet it is a pretty common problem not just in American culture, but a world wide phenomenon in corporate culture with companies with over 15 people.
So, in th end, if we just communicated more effectively, a lot more people would be alive right now. Thank you for teaching us an important lesson, flight crew of the Space Shuttle Challenger, but I doubt it will really sink in for a long time.
The iPad
Posted by Dave in Computers, Technology on January 27, 2010
Wow, what a really pointless device. It looks like a giant iPod touch. Wait, it IS a giant iPod touch. Runs the same software, single tasks. (Let me digress, single tasking in 2010 is totally unacceptable.) and starts with 16GB of storage. My not the greatest netbook has 10 TIMES the storage, a fast processor, can can multi task as good as any desktop since it runs desktop software. Oh, and my netbook can display flash sites correctly and has a real keyboard. It also only weighs about a pound more than the iPad and costs a couple of hundred less.
I am sure the Apple lovers will snatch it up, but is just seems so impractical. You can’t put it in your pocket, you can’t type a novel on it, and you can’t watch Flash videos on it. You end up with a fast, but limited web surfing computer that is not a portable as an iPhone, but not as practical as a netbook. I guess the real advantage is that is will make a half way decent e-book and it runs existing iPhone/iPod touch apps. It looks like a great way to make money at Apple, but not a great overall device. The iPhone is much more practical, sad to say, at least you can use it as a phone.
But, hey, even I am talking about it, so it has succeeded in getting our attention, however short lived it will be. By the way, the name sounds like a feminine napkin. Just saying.
Kids these days
A recent article highlighted the fact that among youth today, if they are not awake or in school, they are looking at a screen or consuming media. Why is this a problem? Well, starting at a glowing screen can really lead to obesity (yes, I watched a lot of TV and computers as a youth, and I am obese) and it really does not help your interaction with the real world. I think a big problem will be when the kids who are used to being to text, type, view all the time try go without is going to be a very hard adjustment. When you ‘go out’ now, you are really not disconnected from anything, to the point that you may physically be somewhere, but mentally, you are connected to cyberspace.
In my best old man voice: When I was a kid, when you went out, you were out. You really, truly were disconnected from the digital world. Heck, there barely was a digital world. If your phone rang, it was back in your house, and you had to come home to your answering machine. If you wanted to make a phone call on the road, you had to find a pay phone and hope you had some change. If you had the honor of having e-mail via a BBS or Quantum link, you had to go home, dial in, and check it. There was no world wide web. If you wanted to research a paper, you had to go the library and look at paper books or encyclopedias. If you wanted news, you had to wait until 6 or 10 o’clock at night or wait for the morning paper. Was it better back then? I don’t know. I know it was a lot simpler. Now, I can barely buy a phone without a data plan.
I think being really disconnected from time to time really separates my generation from the one currently going through the school systems of this fine nation. It is going to be a hell of a culture shock when the kids have to work for the Gen X’ers who will be ruling (and are ruling) the corporate world. Yes, we saw the digital age be born, but we also know what is still important. Face time. Real, adult verbal communication with controlled body language, neat clothes, and a firm handshake. Guess what kids, my parents and grandparents did it this way, and I don’t think it is going to change. That iPhone, Blackberry, etc. turn it off or you are going to lose your job. When you are at work, they expect you to work (most of the time.) I accept the fact everyone goofs off, but with the super connectedness of this world, it is almost constant.
Do I want to go back to the way things were? No, but there needs to be a happy medium, or today’s youth is going to be really messed up. I know I have to work at not being on a computer or screen every day. As soon as I turn off the screens and just talk, play, build, or read a book, I am so much happier. There are things I like, but things that I hate. I like the safety of a cell phone, but I hate how I can’t really get away from it, unless I turn it off or leave it at home. I like how we have a world of information at our fingertips, but I hate all the distractions of being on-line. As a bit of retroness, I am using my netbook like an old fashioned world processor, since I purposely disconnect it from the Internet when I write blog entries. I type with no distractions. This whole post took less than 15 minutes to type, with proofreading, since I have no distractions. I refuse to get a smart phone unless I have no choice. What I really want is a cell phone with some decent voice and long battery life, but unless I stick with my ‘grandpa’ phone, I will not get that in a new phone. I love my GPS, but I still know how to read maps and use a compass or the sun and street numbers.
In the end, I am sure some youth will turn out fine, but I think they will not be as happy as the generation before for many reasons. I know I will work as hard as I can teach Glenn the importance of learning of how to fix things and building things. The importance of being outside and enjoying nature. The importance of the warmth of the sun against your face and the bite of the air on a cold winter’s day. The importance of knowing the value of money and the how hard it can be to earn. The importance of simplicity and enjoying what you have. Kids brought up this way will be the achievers. The ones who do nothing but stare at screens will ask you if you want fries with that or will be living in their parents’ basement until they are 45.
If you don’t agree with what I have to say, too bad. It’s my blog and you don’t pay the bill for it, I do. 
Classic Shaving, the Wet Shave
Posted by Dave in Personal Care on January 26, 2010
On Christmas I received a very unique set of gifts that I asked for. What are they? An old fashioned double edged safety razor, badger hair shaving brush, and glycerin (rum scented, no less) shaving soap. Why did I want this? Two reasons, I am sick of paying 4 bucks a cartridge for my Mach 3 and I wanted a shaving experience that was more than just get the hairs off as quickly as possible with a from the can shaving cream followed by a douse with burning alcohol.
Shaving with a safety razor brings us back to a time around 100 years ago when the safety razor first came out. Why are they called safety razors? Because they are a lot safer to use than the traditional strait edged razor. The strait edged razor can give you a wonderful shave, but they take a bit of practice to learn, and hey, holding a 4 inch long razor sharp blade to your neck is not the most comforting thing. Before the modern safety razor, most people relied on other family members or a barber to shave them. Talk about trust. Well, as time marched on, Gillette discovered too much competition in the blade market and created the replaceable cartridge razor (proprietary, locked in to one maker.) Also, the disposable razor came along as well and the skill of using a traditional, double edge safety razor for a wet shave was not passed onto the next generation in the US. In other parts of the world, double edged safety razors are still very common, due to low costs and reliability. So, now we are left with expensive, but easy to use razors.
In their defense, modern razors usually do an excellent job, in fact, too good for some. It turns out with African Americans (and people with really curly hair) that the modern, multi-blade design causes ingrown hairs aka razor bumps. The blades actually pull up the hair, cut it, then the hair goes back beneath the surface of the skin, curls around, and causes an ingrown hair. It can happen with people of all descents, especially with the crazy number of blades out there. But, if you have pretty tough skin and don’t get ingrown hairs, they make a lot of sense to use. They are fast, give a long lasting shave, and can be purchased anywhere. In contrast, I wanted to just slow down a little bit and actually enjoy and even look forward to my shave. Think about it, looking forward to a shave!
The equipment:
The razor handle:
This is an inexpensive, Parker of India double blade razor handle. You can pick it up off Amazon for about $28. There are many styles, shaped, weights, etc. It is all down to personal preference, but most websites out there recommend getting a longer handled model, since they are easier to control. You can pick up a nice German made model in the $50 to $150 range. Considering this will probably be the last razor you buy, the cost really is very reasonable.
The Blades:
I have been using Shark super chrome blades, and have had good luck so far. Even “good” blades come in at a whopping 15 to 20 cents each. You can see where some of my motivation came from. You can buy 100 packs of blades for $16.99, so just under 17 cents a blade. This should also provide you enough blades for two years. You do go through about a blade a week. But, for the price of a 3 pack of Mach 3 replacement heads, you get 2 years worth of shaves.
The Brush:
A Tweezerman badger hair brush. Wait? Badger? Yep, the best brushes out there are made from silver badger hair. No, I don’t know how they are harvested, but I don’t belong to PETA either. All I know is that is works great. Apparently badger hair can hold a lot of water in it after being soaked just a few seconds. I can attest to this, even after shaving for 10 minutes (newbie jitters) there is still enough water in there to make a nice lather. Cost, about $15 for an basic brush, you can pay more if you want. Again, this may be a once or twice in a lifetime purchase.
The Soap:
I have been using Col Conk’s World’s Famous Shaving Soap. By the name alone, you know it works. I have the Bay Rum version and it smells awesome. A three pack will set you back less than $8.00. It should last you about 2 to 3 years. You can get away with saving cream, but the combination of brush and soap is a much more enjoyable experience.
The Mug:
60 cents at a thrift store. Or, you can use a mug you don’t care about anymore. Wide mouth and fairly heavy works best.
The Aftershave:
Do yourself a favor, throw out the burning, stinging, skin drying aftershave. It may smell pretty, but it is just brutal on your face. Get a good quality aftershave moisturizing cream for your face. $5.00 at Target. I don’t know how long it will last, I am still on my first container.
The actual wet shaving process:
To be honest, I was just not sure when I first started. I nicked the crap out of my face after using a Mach 3 for many years. The problem is too much pressure. You need a very light touch. There are many websites describing what you should do (with videos) but this is my routine:
- Lay out everything you will need, razor, mug with soap, brush, and aftershave before you begin
- Wash your face with warm, almost hot water. It open up your pores and help soften the bristles.
- Leave your face wet, this is why it is called a wet shave.
- Fill the sink bowl with warm, almost hot water.
- Soak your brush bristles in the water for about 2 seconds
- Remove from the bowl and a wait until the bristles stop dripping
- Quickly wisk the shaving brush over the soap, applying almost no downward pressure until the tips of the bristles have soap on them.
- Paint your face with light brush strokes with the brush until a nice lather is formed. This takes about a minute. Follow the natural pattern of your bristles in an up and down motion. Again, this is with very little pressure. Some recommend a circular motion, but I prefer up and down. This raises the hairs to allow for a better shave. This also gently ex-foliates and feels shockingly enjoyable.
- Hold the handle such that you maintain a 30 degree angle relative to your skin. This is the hard part and the hardest part to explain. With short, LIGHT, strokes, follow the natural growth of your hairs. DO NOT GO AGAINST THE GRAIN on the first pass of your shave. It hurts like hell. You won’t nick yourself, but it pulls the hairs and will give you some nasty razor burn. Use a very, very light touch, with NO DOWNWARD PRESSURE. The weight of the razor handle is more than enough. If you are doing it right, you can hear each hair as it is being cut. If you can’t you will be bleeding shortly and are pushing too hard.
- Use short strokes to begin. Remember, this not a race!
- After the first pass, re-wet your face and re-lather
- Now, shave ACROSS not AGAINST the grain.
- Problem areas are: Mustache, chin, and lower neck/Adam’s apple. I don’t have a good hint for these, just practice.
- Repeat until you have a shave that suits you. This can take 3 or 4 passes. Yes, 3 or 4 passes. Again, this is not a race.
- Wash any remaining soap with COLD water. This closes up your pores and helps stop any bleeding.
- Apply something to stop the bleeding. Some recommend alum, but after my first few shaves, this is really not much of an issue.
- Pat, don’t rub dry your face.
- Apply a good quality aftershave cream. Traditional alcohol based aftershaves hurt and dry out your skin.
After you are all done, you will notice a few things. You will have a really nice, comfortable shave and it takes a lot more time than you are used to. With my Mach 3, I was done in about a minute. With the double edged razor, it takes about 5 to 10 minutes. This may seem like an eternity, but this is your face we are talking about. After you stop cutting yourself, you will find you are looking forward to the process of shaving. It is a pleasure, not a chore. For those who just want a quick shave in the morning, this is not for you. For people who want a good, affordable shave that will take care of even the toughest beards, this may be for you. Personally, I look forward to my little respite of the day, with a patient shave and quality tools. My favorite analogy for the difference between modern cartridge or disposable razors and a quality double edged razor wet shave is the difference between a manual or automatic transmission car. They both do the same thing, but one requires much more attention from the driver. It is not for everyone, but I like it.
Ubuntu back on the Netbook (9.10)
Ah, finally, some Linux again on the Netbook. I fully agree with a statement my wife Tiffany made last night, Netbook makers should just admit they really suck at running any version of Windows and just install Linux on there all the time. It is much smaller, can run on much less RAM, and never crashes. The never crashes is the most crucial thing to me. My typical Windows XP computing experience on the netbook:
Boot the machine. Pretty quick.
Wait the desktop to load and wait for the hard drive to stop grinding away.
Acknowledge even more updates are needed.
Install operating system updates.
Acknowledge virus scan updates needed.
Install virus scanner updates.
Reboot machine
Wait for updates to install while shutting down.
Wait for the desktop to come back.
Get more warning about updates.
Rinse, repeat about 3 times.
Finally get to working desktop (which I have unused icons on, acknowledge that warning.)
Try to run a web browser and virus scanning software at the same time.
Cry
The sad thing is, under Windows XP, the netbooks can surf the web, ok, and run basic productivity, barely.
Under Linux I can surf at almost full speed, perform real world computing, such as image editing and word processing, and not worry about if I have extra icons on my desktop or an update needs to be performed. All at the same time. I know for a fact Microsoft wants netbooks dead. Why do you think paid pundits are all saying netbooks are dead already. It’s because you can’t charge $300 for an operating system on a item which often costs less than $300. Heck, even the OEM price is close to $85 for most versions of Windows. This is a HUGE chunk of the price of a netbook. We have not even begun to count the price of some decent productivity software, like Office or Photoshop, which cost more than the hardware!
Under Linux (Ubuntu in this case) I have a FREE (As in free beer) Office Suite, OpenOffice 3.1. It is not a stripped down, basic office suite, but the exact same software I run on my desktop. Then I have the GIMP. Again, this is not stripped down, basic graphics program, but something that can rival Photoshop for any home user. They both free and run much better under Linux than Windows. I also have video editors, sounds editors, games, and a thousands of other applications, for free, available to me. So, to summarize, I can pay Around $400 for a decent netbook + $300 for MS Office, + $80 for Photoshop Elements (or $600 for full version) + $??? for everything else. So, you are looking at spending $1,000 or so for your “Cheap” netbook, or you can get it with Linux on there and spend $350 nothing extra. Hmm, which should I choose? This is why Mircosoft wants netbooks to die, and die quickly. Sadly, the makers of netbooks want them to die as well. Not enough profit and just as many warrany repairs and unhappy customers as a $1,500 laptop they made a couple hundred bucks on.
If netbooks go away, it is not because the public does not want them or abandons them for iPhones or tablets, it is because the makers and Microsoft can’t make much money off of them. In the end, that is why companies are in business, to make money. If they don’t, they kill the product, and who can blame them? They just won’t be honest why they killed them off.
Cyberphreak.com in 2010
Posted by Dave in Computers, Family, Friends, General Comments on January 27, 2010
As a reversal of recent times, you will be seeing a lot more content on Cyberphreak.com. Now that I have stopped using a website that shall remain nameless, I have more time to concentrate on my blog, my family, and everything else that really matters. Expect more technology news, musings, photography and just more in general. It is nice being able to type something more than 140 or 250 characters.
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