Canada Day

I took my camera out to the annual Canada Parade last weekend.  This year's incarnation of the parade was a distinct improvement on previous parades I've seen in the John.  Most parades up here involve a load of big rigs with little to no decoration rolling down the street.  This year we had some actual floats.  Maybe there is hope yet.

Steve Jobs

I just finished the Steve Jobs biography by Walter Isaacson.  I had been curious about the book, but then it was sitting on the new books shelf the last time I went to the library.  I ended up grabbing it, not sure what to expect.  I had heard and read the same stories in the media as everyone else about Jobs and they were kind of interesting, but would I be able to make it through a whole tome about the man?  The answer is yes.

This book was actually, very well written.  The book is a good story that is mostly in chronological order, which makes it pretty easy to follow along.  The book also seems pretty balanced. although there are some pretty serious questions that are left unasked by the author.

I was surprised at how much of a dick Jobs was.  We have all heard what a jerk he could be, but he turned out to be a jerk most of the time and he never did feel bad about it.  Jobs didn't feel that the normal rules of social conduct applied to him.  He actually didn't feel that any of the rules applied to him.  This was what let him break them all in his time at Apple, but made him an asshole.

Jobs saw the world in black and white.  Something or someone was either the best thing ever or shit.  There was no in between.  This explains his perfectionism.  It had to be perfect or it was shit.  There is a reason that Apple products are so polished.  Jobs knew what he wanted and got the people around him to accomplish it, usually through bullying.

It was also interesting to find out the reason for Apple's end to end integration.  While it is true, that Jobs thought it was best for consumers, he more importantly needed the control.  Jobs was a massive control freak.  He did not want anyone opening up his creations and messing them up.  He didn't want anyone to make a program that would interfere with his vision.  Job's need to control everything in his life, was most important in the development of the Apple ecosystem we know today.

When I finished the book, I was very impressed with what Jobs had accomplished during his life.  Upon further review however, the story of Jobs life was the story of Apple with a brief interlude at NeXT and Pixar.  What I mean, is that the man had no other interests or accomplishments.  Jobs was married with a family, but he was often, distant, cold and neglectful towards them.  I think what I learned was that Jobs was a very complex man that helped usher in the digital age and later changed how we interact with said digital world.  But, I do not thing he was a great man.  Jobs was a great businessman and salesman, but not a great man.  He was actually a generally awful man who's accomplishments were one dimensional (but impressive in their area).

In short, I would recommend this book to anyone who likes a good story, likes Steve Jobs, hates Steve Jobs or is just curious about the man and/or Apple.

Fascination

I'd like to introduce you to my new fascination.  I recently purchased a Samsung Galaxy S III.  I had read lots of reviews and seen lots of pictures.  I was pretty sure that this phone was the one I wanted.  The day it came out, Jen and I went into Bell and sold our souls for a few pieces of shiny plastic and glass.

I must say, that so far I am very impressed with my phone.  The screen is gorgeous and large enough to read emails, etc. on.  Video looks pretty good on it too.  The dual core processor keeps this thing ticking along and I haven't detected any lag or stuttering yet, regardless of what or how much is running.  My only complaint would be the material the phone is made of is extremely slippery.  I don't have a case yet (none are available), so I handle the device very gingerly.  I have visions of the damn thing squirting out of my hand like a wet bar of soap.  That would send me into an unrecoverable emotional tailspin.

I have very few cell phone numbers yet, so I have had to keep myself busy texting my wife and discovering interesting apps.

Jen got her iPhone that she has been wishing for.  It has been pretty interesting comparing the two styles of OS.  iOS is almost idiot proof, while Android takes a bit more figuring and discovery.  So, far Android seems like it may have a bit more of an upside despite/because of it's complexity.  However, I've only scratched the surface.

Yay!  Another way to make summer fun/less productive.

Now Back to Our Regularly Scheduled Programming

School is finally over for another year.  The strike is over for another year.  It's time to relax.  Jen had me make a list of things I wanted to accomplish this summer.  One of them was to get back to blogging.  Working last summer really took the steam out of my blogging and I'm hoping to get my mojo back this summer.  We're travelling a bit this summer which will give me a little bit more to write about.  So here is the first of what will turn into many interesting blog posts.

I have been taking a camera course for the past couple of weeks.  This has made it a pretty hectic last couple of weeks of school.  Between baseball, camera course and nerd club, I'm busy every night of the week.  I  paid quite a bit of money for this course.  I had it recommended by a friend and I really wanted to get deeper into my camera so I could use it as more than an ultra-expensive point and shoot.  So, far the course has been underwhelming.  The first class was spent finding the basic buttons on our cameras.  I am someone who actually reads the manual, so I knew where 90% of the controls were and had a pretty good idea where to find the other 10%.  Unfortunately, most of the other students couldn't find much more than the power switch.  So, I sat with my thumb up my but while I waited for the instructor to help all the people without a clue.  Since then, we have talked about a lot of information that a quick perusal of a photography site or a Google search would have turned up quickly.  They have also been covered in such little detail  as to make the information not much more useful than a Google search.  Luckily, the last class was about shutter speed.  We looked at what it did (which I knew) but what you can do by changing it and also what kinds of speeds work best in what sorts of situations.  I also have some homework to do, so I'll be out shooting and actually getting somewhere.  Hopefully, things are looking up.

I may seem overly critical of my course, but it is true that teachers make the worst students.  I have spent the last five years developing curriculum for little people with a short attention span.  I also realize that there are lots of people who learn better when doing than just listening.  My course would be infinitely better with a few less handouts and more time hands-on.

Complaints done.  Happy Canada Day!

What is Reading?

I've been listening to a lot of audio books lately.  I find they are great to have on my iPod as I go for walks, mow the lawn, do yardwork or housework and especially nice while I'm hobbying.  I can get the audio books free from our library's web site and they have a large selection.  I have been hearing about other people listening to more audio books and I wondered if people are listening to more audio books, is that the same as people reading more?

When we teach kids to read, we tell them that they should be seeing images of what is happening in their head.  Reading is like watching a movie in your head.  Reading is getting engrossed in a story and or a world that does not necessarily exist.  When I listen to a book I visualize what is going on and I see the images.  Sometimes, I see the images even more vividly because the actual reading isn't using any of my mind power.  That aspect seems the same.

Thinking of books as art, we are exposed to good stories about people and places and trials and errors in both audio and text format.  I don't see much of a difference here.

When we read we are often exposed to language.  We see how language should look and sound.  We also see new words and hopefully, either through context or using the dictionary, learn what they mean.  As audio books have no text, we don't get any of this.  Listeners, especially younger ones are not exposed to the structure of language or new language.  If you have ever seen young people's writing, you'll know that they should be exposed to more proper language.  Maybe audio books are leading to the dumbing down of our society.  We will write in fragments and unintelligibly. One has to wonder who will write the audio books?

I think that reading and listening to books are two different experiences.  I think there is room for both, but I sure hope that audio never completely takes over.

Please Don't Ask That

I haven't told you a school story in a while, so I thought you might like this.  We are studying life cycles in science right now.  Today we were talking about eggs and animals that hatch.  I was reading a book about the life cycle of chickens.  The book had stated that eggs need to be fertilized in order to grow into a chick.  I reinforced that to make sure they knew we didn't eat baby chickens for breakfast.  One of my little guys asked me what fertilized means.  I had to tread carefully.  There is a very vocal minority of parents that are very religious and very conservative.  I explained that eggs only have half of the stuff that is required to make a baby chicken.  Fertilization gives it the second half of what it needs.  As I said this I was praying to everything that was holy, that he wouldn't ask me how fertilization happens.  I really didn't feel like dancing around the birds and the bees with 6 and 7 year olds.

Much to my relief, my answer seemed to satisfy the little ones and I powered through to the next page and didn't look into their little faces to check.

When Does Cool Become Uncool

I've been listening to a lot of tech podcasts and reading lots of tech blogs lately.  I am astounded by the amount of money that Apple makes in a single quarter.  I'm continually amazed with the shear number of people that buy iPhones and iPads.   There are lots of other phones (not really tablets) that are just as good and in some cases better than what Apple offers at this time, but people just go in and ask for an iPhone. The theory is that it is still a status symbol to have an iPhone and that it is socially cool to have one.  People don't buy Windows Phone because you don't see anyone toting one of those babies around town.

My question is, when does cool become uncool.  We have all seen trends hit the world by storm and everyone has to have the "X".  Then once everyone has "X" it's not cool to have it because everyone has one.  The great thinkers that decide these things, make up their minds that "Y" is now cool and "X" is only for losers and old people that jumped on the bandwagon too late.  I wonder if the iPhone will ever become that thing that was cool, but now is snickered at by teenagers as something only their moms and dads would use.

Granted, the Apple ecosystem and the growing number of lemmings that are tethered to it, make it more unlikely that the iPhone would become uncool as all of your "stuff" is with Apple and in their cloud (iSmog or whatever they call it).  Apple is great at making you need more iThings and to keep your existing (or even upgrade) your iThings so you can keep having access to your stuff.  So, maybe cool won't have anything to do with it, it will be just be inertia. I suppose only time will tell.