Feeling Better

I think that my vitamin C flush worked. I started to feel a little better yesterday. That was rough. I haven't felt that bad in a long time.

More importantley, I placed my order for the neruos audio 20G/256M backpack. Neuros still does not have them in stock but I decided to go ahead and put my order in. Hopefully they show up soon. I e-mailed them and asked why so long on the backorder. They responded within 48 hours to let me know that they were making changes to their qa system and that orders would be continued once the changes were complete, early March. It will be cool to get this and start playing with it.

Sick

The flu seems to be going around. I came down with it last Thursday afternoon. I had a 102F fever for about 2 days. I have afew things to post but haven't felt like posting much. I decided to check out wikipedias take on the flu. If you look at the symptoms listed, I have them all. The really bad thing about being sick is that the rest of the world doesn't stop to wait up for you, I still have things to get done, and doing anything is painful. What I really want to know is why this stuff only seems to spread in the winter? My theory is that people (at least in the midwest) go on vacations to warmer climates like Mexico, Jamaica, Bahamas etc. and are exposed to these viruses, then they bring it back home. Who knows.

My goal for the day is to drink about a gallon of Orange Juice and take around 12 grams of vitamin C, and do as little as possible. That should help. I have to go back to work tomorrow.

Playing With Rails

I have been playing with writing a weblog using Ruby Rails. Rails is a little difficult to understand at first, but I am starting to get it. It really makes web app development simple. I wanted to note a few observations:

• You can go from nowhere to someplace fast.


• It is based on MVC, so if you understand that, you will not have any problems.


• You have to use database adapters. I'm not sure why they did not use ruby's dbi instead. If they would have used dbi then there would be no need for adapters. There would only be one adapter that could use any dbd you wanted to use. Seems like a design oversight to me.


• I didn't want to use a full fledged MySQL database for this, because I wanted something on the order of instiki. Given the options I decided to use SQLite. This is a cool little database. I have never used it before. I think that it is perfect for small apps like mine, probably apps considerably larger also.


• My HTML skills need help. I need to learn how to use style sheets.

Irony

I had a meeting yesterday with a bunch of the bosses. It was interesting. We all sat down at these tables and I was the only one there without a laptop and a pda with a keyboard extension. I was by far the most technically inclined person there, and I was using pen and paper. Strange. The deal is that I was the only there that is not considered a "staff" person. So, I do not have a company visa card to go out and buy myself toys. My boss does have a that luxury. He asked me for a list of things that I wanted him to buy, but then he never went out and bought any of it. Not sure why he asked for a list if he wasn't going to buy any of it.

The Project

I started this blog to try to cover an engineering project that I am managing at work. It seems to have morphed into general technology subjects. That's ok. I will still talk about the project from time to time. Right now is one of those times.

I got in touch with my guy down south at the other company that we are working with. I was looking at our schedule and I have to think that all of our dates have slipped by a few months. This is not really a good thing. Why did the dates slip? The vendor put out a schedule that I said was too agressive to begin with. I'm glad that I told everyone I could that I didn't think that they could do the schedule. My ass is covered. The vendor that is doing the software is overextended. I call them, e-mail them, meet with them, and just generaly bug this piss out of them to get things to us on time. As a project manager, there is nothing that I can do at this point to keep these guys on schedule. In hindsight what would I do about these guys? At the start of this project I had some concerns about this vendor. One main concern I had was ensuring that they had a documented development process that they followed. What they had was a little looser than that, but they do have a process and they do use it for the most part. It is just your basic iterative waterfall model process. We should have used an XP process or one of the derivatives of it. If we would have used XP, I would not be asking for prototypes all the time, I wouldn't have to sweat the schedule so much because we would be making iterative progress that I could show to senior management. One saving grace for us is that we set up the conracts to pay out on deliveries. So, we haven't spent too much cash yet.

Waiting For Neuros

I haven't ordered the neuros yet. They are out of them. They expect to ship mid-february. That would be about now, so hopefully I will be able to order one sometime soon.

I have been throwing around the idea of a weekly podcast that covers baseball news. I am not sure if I have the time to devote to it though. I think that it would take a considerable amount of research time each week. I have also been throwing around the idea of a baseball weblog. I think that there is a need for it. Check out MLB's website. It is terrible. It is bloated and poorly designed. Whoever designed their website needs to go take some lessons from google. Sometimes less is more.

A Bunch of BS

I read this article today at siliconvalley.com. It is another FUD story about the future of engineering in the US. I am getting pretty sick of hearing this FUD.

U.S. shortcomings examined by the AeA include some often cited by corporate CEOs and policy-makers, such as inadequate science and math education at the kindergarten through 12th-grade level. The group's report -- ``Losing the Competitive Advantage?'' -- also lamented the decline in federal funding for research and development, slipping enrollments in university-level computer science courses and the barriers preventing skilled foreigners from obtaining U.S. visas.

Inadequate math and science education at the K-12 level? I really don't believe that K-12 math and science makes or breaks successful engineers. I've noted before, the most successful engineers that I have known are not the most technically brilliant. They are good communicators that can work just as well on a whiteboard in front of a room full of strangers as they can behind their desks in private. In addition I have not used that much math in my engineering career. A little bit of differential equations, but very little. One of my projects at Lockheed had a math intensive section. Lockheed would not let anyone without a Phd in mathematics touch it. So, what good would an awesome K-12 math and science program have done? None. I think the real deal with this is that the AEA has some Phd type researchers that have never done practical engineering work outside of the educational system. We keep it simple. Absolutely as simple as possible, but no simpler. If we need help with the math (hasn't ever really happened), we can hire consultants.

Slipping enrollments in university-level computer science courses? Hey guys, do you think that the lack of available employment in that field has anything to do with it? Want a hint? Yes. I'm not saying that the jobs are not out there, they are, but if you are entry level it has been tough to get a decent job since the tech bubble imploded. Something else to note is that most of these jobs are going to be located in major metro areas. The cost of entry level homes in these areas has more than doubled in the last few years, while the salaries for these entry level jobs has basically stayed flat at around $50k. What is the incentive to go into this difficult, stressful field and work long hard hours if you are not going to be able to make a decent living? One thing that the AEA types usually note is that baby boomers are going to start retiring and we will have a huge shortage of skilled workers. Unfortunately, they haven't started retiring yet, and those jobs are not available.

Barriers preventing skilled foreigners from obtaining U.S. visas? Does a lack of jobs qualify for a barrier? I have friends that I graduated with that have never worked as engineers. They could not find engineering jobs when we graduated in 2001 and took what they could get to pay the bills. I lucked out, my Linux/Perl hobby landed me a job. Every time I hear about big companies (Sun, HP etc.) lobbying to increase the H1B quota I have to wonder what the deal is. Have they advertised the jobs they are trying to fill?

Just my .02

Not Buying New Tunes

I was thinking about buying some new CD's today. But I have a problem with it. Every time I spend money on new music, I give the RIAA companies more cash to bribe our congress with and push their DRM/Non-interoperable Microsoft/Apple only, mandatory packet sniffers everywhere, broken internet world. I just can't do that in good concience. I'm not going to jump up and down and yell RIAA sucks or anything like that. The most effective action that I think I can take is to not buy their merchandise. If I went to a restaurant or store and was treated wrong by the management, I would not go back there. This is not really any different. I would also tell everyone I knew to not go there. It's that simple.

So, I have this dilemna. I want to get some new tunes, but I refuse to give RIAA companies any of my income. These are the options that I can think of:

1. Buy used CD's from the used cd trader places. They usually have some decent stuff, and I can get rid of our duplicates.


2. Buy music from independent artists that sell their tunes directly.

Those are the only options that I can come up with. I haven't heard too many RIAA encumbered artists lately that I like anyway, so I don't think I'll be missing out on much.

There was a time when recording companies were needed for distribution. That time is long gone. Why any artists still sign with these guys is beyond me. If you compare the minute royalties that artists get from sales vs. getting close to 100% by selling independentley, it only makes sense to sell independentley. Even with the potential reduction in sales by being independent, I still think the artists would come out on top financially.

Another Contender

Thanks to Ben for pointing out the iRiver IHP-120/140. This is a nice unit. It supports MP3, WMA and ogg files. It can be mounted as a USB mass storage device, and therefore used for file storage in addition to media. It also has a built in voice recorder and FM receiver. The only downside to it is that it does not have an FM transmitter. My primary use for this will be listening to podcasts in the car, so an FM transmitter is essential. I should note that I spend about 3 hours a week driving back and forth to a class at the U of Iowa in Iowa City.

In addition I have found some more information on the neuros unit. Neuros Audio has open sourced the firmware, synchronization software and electrical schematics for the neuros. Neuros Audio is commited to providing the open source development crowd with the information required to innovate for their product. To me, that is just icing on the cake. Kudos to Neuros Audio. I would have bought the unit anyway, but now I am excited about buying it.

It only makes sense to open your products up. As a company you only stand to gain by providing hobbyists/developers/hackers with information about your product. Motivated and talented customers will innovate for you, for free, in ways that your engineering staff did not have the time or resources to do. How can free engineering be a bad thing?

Portable Media Player

A few posts back I noted that I am searching for a portable media player and that my requirements were:

1. Linux Friendly


2. Plays ogg files


3. FM Transmitter


4. ~5G of storage

I have been doing some research on the possibilities. Here is a summary of my findings.

• ipod - The ipod can be used with Linux to some extent. There are reports of varying success with it. Basically you either get the windows model that has a FAT filesystem, or you install HFS+ support into you kernel. No big deal either way, however, ipod's do not support ogg files. No ogg support == no ipod. Why in the fsck apple would not build in support for ogg files is beyond me. Especially since ogg is unencumbered by patents/licenses etc. If the ipod supported ogg files, I would by one even though an FM transmitter is not built in. I have fonud transmitters for about $100.


• Rio Karma - This unit looks really cool. It comes in a 20G model. It has a built in ethernet port so you can communicate with it over a network. Supposedly the transfer software that comes with it is in java, so it works on anything. It plays ogg files. There have been several reports of problems with it rebooting and doing other buggy things. Some people have noted that Rio released a bios upgrade that fixed many of these problems. The Karma does not come with a built in FM transmitter and I could not find one for it. The Rio can not be mounted as a USB mass storage device, so it's drive can not be used for any type of file storage. If it came with a built in FM transmitter, I would probably buy this unit.


• Neuros 20G HD - The neuros has everything that I am looking for. Support for ogg, mp3, etc. A 20G drive. Built in FM transmitter with up to 250mW of output power. It can be mounted as a USB mass storage devie and used for file storage. There is an open source java app neurosdbm that can be used to manipulate the xml database files and transfers to the unit. I am not a huge java fan, but I figure that I can probably use the code as a reference and hack out something in ruby to download the podcasts I want and transfer them.
  

The neuros isn't as slick looking as the ipod, but asthetics are not really important to me since it won't be seen much anyway. My use will primarily be in the car, which is why the FM transmitter is such a plus.