Tralfaz

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  • Apple Passbook – way cooler than I thought

    With the IOS 6 update on the Apple devices, one of the features that came with it was this thing call the “passbook”. I remember looking at it, and scratching my head, not really “getting” what it was for. I looked at the applications, and thought “so what”, and then promptly ignored it.

    Fast forward to last week. I was in Boston at a conference, and sitting on the show floor, I used the US Air application to check in online. There was an option to send it to the “passbook”, and on a whim I clicked on it.

    Bam, my boarding pass (with my trusted traveler ID precheck) was in the passbook. Way cool. No need to print my boarding pass.

    That got me thinking, what else might it be useful for? I had long ago installed the Starbucks app. Mainly to help me find a cuppa jo when I was out and about, but I got to wondering if it also worked. So I dug up my old starbucks ID and password (ancient, 2010 or so when I registered a couple of gift cards). Not only was my account still active, but there were three cards with a balance remaining on them, so I was able to move them all to one card, and then, you guessed it, send it to my passbook.

    To test this, this AM I hit Starbucks on the way in for a hot chocolate (I am still caffeine free, 7 weeks today), to try it out. Open the passbook, select my starbucks card, scan the code, and boom, $3.73 was deducted from my total, I got my hot chocolate, and I was away without having to open my wallet.

    Now I am on a mission to find out what else I can do with this. I know you can do movie tickets (but I rarely go to the movies).

    Way cool technology.

  • The dark ages of music

    No, this isn’t bitching about a genre, or a period of music per se, but instead it is a grumble at the practice of turning sub standard live recordings from the 70’s and 80’s into “new” albums. 

    In this period, many bands began recording themselves at all their shows. The Live albums were a popular addition to the catalog, and let fans enjoy their music with some variances. Great live performers came alive, and delivered phenomenal renditions. The inevitable guitar solo (which I mostly like) and drum solos (which are lame, unless you are Carl Palmer or Neil Peart) were bonuses.

    However, much of this recording was done on crappy analog tape, with piss poor microphones, and a shit-ton of muddle, and washed out highs and lows. Ugh.

    There were some great recordings (Frampton Comes Alive is one such, as is UFO’s “Strangers in the Night”), a lot of mediocrity.

    But all the good recordings from that era have all been made into records. 

    But today, it seems that everytime a washed up group stumbles across some old tape, they feel compelled to turn it into an album and release it. 

    Case in point: 

    I have long been a fan of progressive rock, and Emerson Lake and Palmer were titans in the 70’s and early 80’s. One of the first “Super groups”, they had a fabulous live album, “Welcome back my Friends …”, a triple disc set that I wore out on my stereo before buying a CD of it.

    In 2011, they found some moldy tapes (I am guessing here) of a concert they did in Montreal in 1977. It is available on Spotfy, and I have fired it up. 

    Groan. It sounds like it was recorded on a $40 panasonic cassette recorder. If it was a bootleg, I would be satisfied, but this is the real deal. Suckage.

    Please, regardless of how tempting it is to release new stuff 25 years after your band dissolved, DO NOT release crappy live recordings.  

    The only thing positive about this is that I didn’t buy the CD.

  • How the Twilight Zone Stories hold up

    I have been watching the original series of the Twilight Zone from the late 1950’s and early 1960’s. It has dawned on me that the stories have held up remarkably well a half century on.

    At the beginning of widespread broadcast TV, the Twilight Zone was a trend setter.
    At the beginning of widespread broadcast TV, the Twilight Zone was a trend setter.

    First, they were prolific. 35 episodes a season, where today a show struggles to deliver 12 or 14 episodes. Of course, this was possible as the sets were simple, the stories weren’t contiguous, and the actors were changed often. Rod Serling is a consistent thread though, and he was the driving force.

    Second, the episodes were 26-ish minutes. Today, a 30 minute show yields about 22 minutes of footage.

    Third, there was a revolving door of great actors. Burgess Meredith, Jack Klugman, Don Rickles, William Shatner, and others. They brought a lot of talent, and fun to the show.

    Time travel, magic gift sacks, aliens, nuclear armageddon were staples of the show, but not the major props in the episodes. The stories were solid, and have been repeated over and over again in shows like The Simpsons, Family Guy, American Dad, and many more.

    Good stuff, and the iconic image of Rod Serling, smoking his Pall Mall.

  • Taxi driver observations

    As a product manager, I get to travel the world, and unless I need the mobility afforded by a rental car, I usually rely on taxi services. They know the territory, they are (usually) a reasonable price, and you don’t have to worry about parking (a concern in big cities).

    However, I often have white knuckle cab rides.

    • Boston Apparently cabs in Boston don’t have turn signals. I have been in dozens of cabs here and can’t recall once seeing the driver indicate either a turn or a lane change. Amazingly, even in heavy traffic, they can make amazing time.
    • Seoul Legendary traffic, poorly marked streets and addresses, I have been involved with many wildly illegal U turns, quick wrong way trips in traffic (when oncoming traffic was queued at a light) and some amazing navigation to avoid long delays.
    • Tokyo Probably the most reasonable cab fares in the world (compared to local prices). Their drivers are courteous to a fault, almost never speak English, but always get you to where you are going. Pro-tip: If you are out drinking in Tokyo past the stop time of the trains, a cab driver will usually take whatever cash you have ($50 – $60) to get you back to your hotel, even if it would be a $150 fare. Really good guys!
    • Dubai Probably the cleanest cab I have ever been in. New, un-abused, and a pretty friendly driver. But one oddity is that there is a cab service with only women drivers. Seems to be a cultural thing.
    • India Wow. Traffic. Lots and LOTS of traffic. Try to not pay attention to the antics of your driver. It is all normal. Also, don’t be surprised if it takes 20 minutes to go 2 blocks. You really don’t want to get out and walk.
    • Singapore Since they drive on the wrong side of the road there, I always cab it. Fortunately, they have a very efficient cab service. Grab a card with the phone number to call for a cab, and you are one quick handy phone call away from a ride.
    • London Probably the most expensive taxi rides I have ever taken were in London and the surrounding areas. 2 – 3 miles with a bill of £18 (about $32 on my last visit). And the drivers expect a healthy tip. <cough, cough>. I often will work with the local office to hire a car and driver for lengthy trips in country. Far more cost effective.

    There are more, but in general I enjoy using the local cab services, and seeing what they bring to the table.

  • Apple lameness – Python edition

    I am an Apple person, fully vested, using their computers, their devices, and in general I am very satisfied. But I just had a bad experience, and I need to vent.

    I upgraded a few weeks ago to OS-X 10.9 (AKA “mavericks”, and it has gone reasonably well. However, 10.9 seriously broke python. First, Apple is always 2 or 3 releases behind. Usually not a big deal, as I am not on the bleeding edge, more of a hobbyist.

    But 10.9 broke it badly. Like it was throwing segmentation faults non stop, and pretty much unusable. Hell, I couldn’t even load the built in math module without it tossing a segmentation fault.

    I had set up my python the way I like it, I added the good packages (Apple does include numpy, but they miss a lot of other very useful modules) I use. Took me some time to get it all setup the way I like it, and they frigging broke it.

    Sigh, so I spent about 6 hours yesterday. Installing and compiling 2.7.6 which fixes what Apple broke. That required reinstalling the command line tools. Then I had to update and install numpy, scipy, matplotlib, and about 2 dozen prerequisites for these modules. Grrrr. That seriously interrupted my drinking time…

    I almost decided to go back to using EPD, but I know that pretty much sucks. Sigh.

    Apple does so much well, but when they mess up, they mess up mightily. I hope they fix this soon.

    (Oh, and the newest version of matplotlib has the XKCD graph styles. Totally worth the upgrade…)

  • Back on Spotify

    A couple months ago, I took the plunge. I canceled my Spotify premium account, and was grooving on the Apple iRadio option on iTunes. While I missed the “on demand” library, I thought that the radio stations on iTunes radio were great, with a very good algorithm at grouping songs in genre’s and subgenre’s.

    But a couple weeks ago I reactivated my Spotify premium membership. It was an easy decision, as with the launch of iTunes 11.0.3, the version that brought the radio, it also brought a version that was a buggy piece of crap.

    It used to be that the Windows version if iTunes sucked, but the Mac version was pretty solid. But this changed that equation for the worse. Instead of fixing the windows version, now the Mac version is garbage. It crashes, it hangs (I have force quit that program more times than I can count), it uses huge amounts of processor time (often pegging one processor), and in general it just sucks.

    Yes, the radio stations on Spotify are less awesome, but at least their software doesn’t make my machine whimper and crash.

    I will continue to listen to iRadio, but Spotify will remain a monthly charge. And I get all their on demand music that I don’t get on iTunes.

  • Caffeine free 1 Month

    Hi, I am a coffee-aholic, and it has been 4 weeks since my last date with the evil bean. I have a love hate relationship with coffee. I didn’t start drinking the evil brew until my 3rd year of university. Since then, I have been on and off the bean, often going several months before I break down and tuck into a mug of jo’.

    Like any true addict, as the effect begins to wane, I crank up the quantity that I consume until it adversely affects my sleep patterns. Then I need to go cold turkey.

    I am now 1 month into a caffeine free period, and I just made it through an intense week of sales meetings and training, usually the highest stress, least sleep week for me. And I survived it without resorting to the bean (but I would be lying if I said I wasn’t mightily tempted).

    I know that it is a matter of time until I fall off the wagon, but until then, I will be living coffee free.

  • Drive thru culture goes too far

    This is America, the place where the drive through was invented, and perfected. We expect to get our food instantly, coffee and donuts at any time without having to leave our cars.

    However, I have noticed some people who are slavish to the drive through culture.

    When cycling, on the weekend mornings, I ride by a Starbucks with a drive through. There are often 15 or 20 cars in line at the drive through. So, assuming 90 seconds per car, you are looking at 15 – 20 minutes minimum to get your coffee. Why on earth would you not just park and walk in? I don’t think I ever waited more than 5 minutes in line at even the busiest Starbuck’s I have been in.

    I occasionally will stop and grab a donut on the way into the office (Yeah, I know, they are bad for me). They have a drive through, and it usually takes about 30 seconds from ordering to driving away with my satchel of fat pills. Last Friday, I had a hankering, and got stuck behind a behemoth SUV who was ordering 3 dozen donuts, picking them out individually, and then they finally paid with a credit card. Really? Just park your damn SUV and walk in for that. Sheesh.

    But I often see people idling in queue, waiting on their takeout order.

  • Why I rarely use car washes

    When I bought my Stewie, I made the commitment to keep it clean. I washed it every week, waxed it typically once a month (give or take) and polished/sealed the paint every year. I have all the gear, and all the chemicals to do this, and I actually enjoy it.

    However, lately I have been pretty busy, and my schedule has slipped. I have gotten lazy, and there is a pretty decent hand wash place nearby. My time is valuable enough that it is worth the $15 to get my car cleaned. They do a good job, and take pretty good care of the finish. Not as good as my three bucket wash, but it is a good compromise.

    But it reminds me of what I hate about commercial car wash places. They have a “greeter” who keeps trying to up-sell you. Are you sure you don’t want the VIP wash for $12 more? “no”. But it comes with a free exterior wash in a week. “no”. How about a hand wax/detail? “no”. You can bring it back for it later if you are in a hurry… “no”.

    Now, I get that they are comped on how much they sell, and I appreciate the effort. But, the third time I decline, GIVE UP THE GHOST and move on.

    And then there are the vultures who want to repair your windshield. For the record, I have several repaired dings in my windshield (hey, I live in Arizona, the capital of cracked windshields), and it never fails that they zero in on me to offer their services. They are almost worse than the greeters.

    At least the team of finishers do a great job, and are appreciative of the few bucks I toss at them as a tip.

    It is time to get back in the habit of washing my cars myself. I need to lay in some supplies, but that is cheap.

  • Soccer Moms imperiling their kids

    Quick post today. This morning, I almost got creamed by a soccer mom dropping her precious kid off at school. She ran a red light to “beat the rush” to enter the local Basis school.
    Fortunately, I had anticipated the idiocy, and had my foot hovering on the brake.
    Basis schools are charters, who are selective in their admissions, looking for the bright stars. And from what I know, they do well.
    But the parents of those bright stars are pretty dim indeed in their driving.