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February 28, 2012
Satisfaction is Not Guaranteed
Kids are amazing, and their minds are ALWAYS going full speed ahead, aren't they?
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A few days ago we pulled into the Wal-Mart parking lot. As we were sitting in the car preparing to run into the store, my oldest daughter read out loud: "Satisfaction Guaranteed." A slight pause. Then: "Hey Dad, that's false advertising!"
"What?? Why is that."
"Wal-Mart can't guarantee that you will be satisfied."
"Well they try - what that means is that if you aren't happy with whatever it is that you bought, then you can return the item and get your money back. So either you are satisfied with your item, or you have your money back and are satisfied with that."
"But they are leaving out a third group of people."
"Who's that?"
"Well what if I really REALLY wanted something. But then I bought it at Wal-Mart and it didn't work as advertised. Now I'm stuck."
"Well then you can return it for a refund."
"But that doesn't help me. I really want this thing, but I'm mad now because it doesn't work. But if I take it back and get my money back, then I'm also not happy because then I don't have the thing. I want it! I don't want my money, I'd be happy to spend it on the thing, if only the darn thing would work! See? There is no way I could be satisfied."
"I guess you're right."
"So then that's false advertising, and Wal-Mart should take that sign down."
The mind of an 11 year old.
Posted by Hammer at 11:50 PM | Comments (0)
February 21, 2012
Canada's Federal Debt 2012: Still Rising
Canada is going deeper into debt - federally, that is. This is the third fiscal year in a row where the Conservative Party of Canada have carried through on their plans for a non-balanced budget.
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It's likely no surprise that Canada isn't paying off its federal debt, and instead we continue to accumulate even more debt. I say "no surprise" because everyday type of people that I talk to about finance all seem to have heard that so many countries in the world are either bankrupt, going bankrupt, or are otherwise "in bad financial shape". However, even though most people seem to accept a deficit budget as normal, I still don't think it's warranted. Since we already have $550 Billion of federal debt to pay off, we shouldn't be adding to it and I don't think that a balanced budget is too much to ask for.
Amounts taken from Public Accounts of Canada and added to last year's graph
Sadly, this ever-growing federal debt will make a growing portion of tax dollars from upcoming generations of middle class taxpayers go towards servicing the debt. This past fiscal year $30.8 Billion was paid in public debt charges [source: Details of Expenses and Revenues 2011] That's much more than the $19.9 Billion that was paid out for Employment Insurance benefits, and it's almost as much the $35.6 Billion that was paid out for Old Age Security benefits.
I don't know about most Canadians, but personally I'd rather that we were spending less of that $30.8 Billion on servicing the federal debt, and more of it on useful programs.
Posted by Hammer at 12:53 AM | Comments (0)
February 13, 2012
Move Twitter Content Pane Left
I have been using Twitter for a while, and each time they change their site design it takes a bit of time to get used to it again. However, their last change (which I only recently inherited) didn't sit well with me; I don't like the content pane on the right. Here's a way to move it back to the left...
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Note that this user script only works in Chrome. I tried it in Firefox with Greasemonkey installed, but it didn't work and I didn't take any time to debug it since I use Chrome. So, if you want to use this script, try it in Chrome.
Installation
Here is a link to the script:
twitleft.user.js
After you click the link, you will get a warning at the bottom of your browser, and you will need to click "continue". Then you will get a second warning, saying that this script will be running when you are on twitter.com, you will need to click "install" here. Finally, you will get one more notice saying that the script is installed.
If you want to disable or remove it in the future, just go to your extensions menu and find TwitLeft, and click remove.
Posted by Hammer at 09:37 AM | Comments (0)
February 12, 2012
First Years in Residence
I spent the first two years of university living in residence. These were segregated dorms rooms, just large enough to hold a bed, desk, and dresser/closet. Living in residence was both a blessing and a curse...
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Since I didn't live in the city where I went to university, my parents had a few choices on how to set me up for accommodations while I was attending university. I say they had choices as since my first two years of university were paid in full by them I wasn't in much of a position to argue. They settled on residence because it was close to all of my classes (and I hated getting up in the morning, so perhaps I might make it to my classes) and because it came with a meal plan (they were very concerned that I wouldn't have enough time to cook for myself). Sounded good to me.
I didn't know what to expect at residence, since everything I had seen on TV and in movies was all about American fraternity houses where every weekend eventually ended up as a massive party that destroyed the whole place, police on the front lawn and all. I was pretty sure that wasn't what awaited me.
My first year room was a double, and I ended up sharing it with a guy that I knew from my old high school. We didn't ask to be placed together, the residence office did that on their own. It worked out OK for me, but not so good for him: he was the kind of guy whose good grades came from hours of studying and hard work, while I was the kind of guy whose good grades came without too much effort. While he was trying to study each weekend, I was in and out, making plans and making noise.
First year university was also when I started up my first serious relationship - the kind of relationship that is guaranteed to distract one from studies. At that time, I was also still working part time as a mobile disc jockey, playing music almost every weekend. On top of my heavy course load, I was busy.
I'd like to say that I really tried to make a go of it in my first year, but my heart wasn't in it. Since I was younger than most of the other first year students due to skipping a grade, the novelty of getting into "the university bar scene" while under-age was quite compelling. I was also enrolled in Mechanical Engineering, which was the degree that I thought my parents wanted me to get. If there's one thing that I know to be true now, it's that getting a university degree is something you have to want for yourself. I ended up passing first year Engineering with an average of around 60%. Coming from 85% in high school, this was a shock to my parents, but I explained it away by saying that everyone's grades dropped from high school to university. Sadly, they trusted me on this.
In second year, I had my own single room. It looked like this:
Larger version
What a mess. The only thing that is in a nice, neat pile is the laundry that my Mom had done and folded for me the last time that I was home. If I walked into one of my daughters' rooms and saw a mess like this today, I wouldn't be happy. The guy in the picture isn't me, it's Vance. Vance lived across the hall from me, and from time to time he would come over to use my computer. We all usually left our rooms unlocked back then, so it wasn't uncommon for me to come back to my room to find someone using my computer for homework - not everyone had a computer in 1989. I didn't mind, because while they were in my room they would usually also answer the phone for me and take messages (I didn't have an answering machine).
Of course I failed out after my second year of university - that was inevitable. The Dean of Engineering wrote me a stern letter, and asked me to take some time off to re-evaluate my priorities in life. I still have that letter. When people ask me why I failed out, my usual reply was, "how was I supposed to study when there were girls walking by in the hall wearing sexy black lingerie?" Although that story was true, I did see girls walk by in their underwear, they weren't the reason that I failed university.
When I returned to studies after a two-year "life break", I came back to the programs that I wanted to take (Electrical Engineering and Computer Science). My parents also helped me buy a house, and I became a landlord by renting out the basement and a room upstairs. I cooked all my own meals. In the end, living in that house was less expensive and I was eating better (as far as quality of food), and there were almost zero distractions.
I found that I actually *could* do homework and study in the right environment. I ended up taking 13 (yes, thirteen) classes in one very busy term, but I worked my ass off and passed them all with good marks - while STILL running my own mobile DJ business! At the end of my degrees in 1996 I had four employees working for me and I was also dating again. It could all be done if I wanted it.
Residence is now just a place in my memory where I had some great times, met some awesome friends that I still have today, and also learned a lot about myself. It just isn't the place where I studied.
Posted by Hammer at 11:45 PM | Comments (0)
February 09, 2012
11 Year Old Game Development: Happy Cats
Ever since my daughter decided that she wanted to develop an iPhone game, she's been wracking her brain for ideas. Then after she comes up with an idea, there is a rapid-fire question and answer period with Dad (me). Here's her idea for "Happy Cats".
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One Saturday afternoon I walked by as my daughter was furiously drawing with pencil and paper. When I asked what she was doing, I was amused to learn that it wasn't homework, it was her latest iPhone game idea.
"It's my new game, Happy Cats".
"Oh," I replied, "how does it work?"
"Here, let me show you Dad!"
This was the picture that she turned to show to me while she explained:
"So remember when you told me that I couldn't just copy Angry Birds?"
"Yes."
"Well this isn't a copy, it's the OPPOSITE! See? Angry becomes Happy, and Birds becomes Cats. Happy Cats!! And then the Angry Birds guys won't get mad at me because I'm not stealing their idea."
"Oh."
"But - and here's the good part - I still get to use their name in my description! See? I can say 'If you like Angry Birds, then try Happy Cats' and then I still get to mention Angry Birds so that people who are searching for 'Angry Birds' will also find my game!"
"So this is all about marketing..."
"Of course! There are so many games now, how else will people find mine?"
"You got me there. Do you think your game will be fun for those people?"
"Sure! See, here's how it works...." She then proceeds to tell me more about the game mechanics, which as it turns out are actually pretty funny: you collect birds to throw into the cat's mouth, and the cat eats up all the birds. Then the cat is happy.
While this is going on, her little sister overhears our conversation and runs to her room, coming back with a piece of paper in hand. She thrusts the paper at me, "Dad, look at my game!"
Here is the diagram from my younger daughter:
After hearing the explanation of how this game works, my older daughter turns to the younger one and says, "well that's not bad, but nobody will buy your game, because they won't find it. Happy Cats is better because people will find it."
Then they get into heated discussion of whether it's more important to concentrate on game play or marketing. I don't think there was ever any agreement on this.
Posted by Hammer at 01:29 PM | Comments (0)
February 01, 2012
The Cloud Brought Me Back Down
In 2005 I wrote an article How Do Normal People Survive With One, in which I outline all the benefits of running multiple computers. In just over six years, it seems that everything has changed...
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I no longer run multiple computers. We have one computer only, and it's a Mac. Of course I switched to a Mac years ago, and haven't had any reason to switch away since.
This one Mac, combined with Windows running in VMware Fusion, does everything that we need it to do. Even more interesting, though, is the slow evolution to "cloud computing" we're making. I would call it baby steps. One thing at a time, and only if the benefits outweigh the cost and/or risk.
Here are the things I talked about in 2005, and how I'm solving them today:
1. SENDING LARGE FILES TO PEOPLE
I rarely do this any more. I used to send and receive most pictures via email in the past, but now I and most everyone else are simply posting them online (Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, etc) and then sending people the link (if they haven't already been notified by virtue of association).
2. BACKING UP MY DESKTOP COMPUTER
I use Time Machine, which came bundled with a Mac OS X upgrade a while ago, to back up my computer to an external hard drive. I also use BackBlaze to back up that same data. This two-step approach (with one step being off site) has made me feel a lot better than even doing my own backups to a local server.
3. EASY UPGRADES OF MY DESKTOP COMPUTER
Last time I upgraded it was a breeze - Mac OS X came with some kind of "move your stuff to a new computer" program, and I used it. It was painless. But even if there was a problem, I knew that BackBlaze was there to save me.
4. RECORDING TV SHOWS FROM REMOTE
I love our new solution to this one: we don't watch TV. OK, we watch a tiny bit, but it isn't conventional broadcast programming; we do not have cable or satellite. We have an Apple TV, and we do stream YouTube, TED talks and such - but there is no Saturday morning cartoon watching around here. Our daughters don't seem to be traumatized by the lack of television, so I think it's going to be like this for a long time.
5. UNLIMITED EMAIL ALIASES
I switch to using HostGator for web site hosting, and discovered that their web site control panel allowed unlimited email alias creation. I still do create a new email alias for each new web site that I sign up to, so I do have over a hundred aliases now. Apparently you can also do something similar with Gmail, but I haven't tried it.
So all of the reasons I gave years ago are now no longer relevant. And all of the new solutions are related to cloud service providers.
There are two more benefits: we no longer need to consume space for multiple computers, and there is no longer maintenance costs for multiple computers. I gave all of my extra computers and computer parts away a few years ago, and haven't looked back since.
Posted by Hammer at 12:16 AM | Comments (0)