The Braseltons » Geek

Delivering Happiness book review – @dhbook

Tom — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 02:17:43 +0000

I was surprised when I was selected to receive an advance copy of Tony Hseih’s book, “Delivering Happiness”. On a whim, I registered at the Delivering Happiness website. I was accepted into the program and was sent two books. One was to read and one was to give away. In return, they asked for an honest review of the book. These are my own opinions and I have been known to over analyze at times.
Overall, I feel the book was quite interesting and I found it difficult to put down. I wanted to keep reading and find out how everything came to be at Zappos. It is refreshing to see a company treat customers with such care. This kind and respectful treatment is not only given to their customers but it is shared with their vendors as well.
Tony Hseih is certainly not an unknown on the Internet. His name is synonymous with Zappos and great company culture. One night, I was watching Diggnation with Alex Albrecht and Kevin Rose. Kevin said that he had read the book and it was very good. I was intrigued and started searching around a bit. I found the advance copy offer and hoped to be selected for a copy. I told them that even if I get the advance copy, I will still buy the book – I will still do so.
The book is divided into three (3) sections. I read the first section the first night. I could go on and tell you all of the key points about the book as other reviewers have but I will just keep to the points where I have strong opinions.
I was surprised to read how lazy Tony is throughout the book. While reading, I noticed that I would get pretty upset by some of the decisions that he made from being so lazy. These feelings pertain to his leaving Oracle, half-heartedly running a web design business and giving up 20% of his part of the LinkExchange deal. Once I read that he gave up the 20% because he didn’t like the culture, I almost flew through the roof. I would do almost anything for the money he just threw on the floor. If it was not an issue about money, suck it up and complete the year that Microsoft requested, then take the money you would have dismissed and donate it to a worthy cause. Don’t piss it away!
Some of the important corporate decisions were made on a whim with no forethought or planning afterwards. I can’t understand this at all. Every time there was a mistake made, more money was thrown into the fire. His success really stems from a great deal of luck and the good judgement didn’t come until Tony finally matured.
As the luck kicked in and Zappos was doing well as a company, Tony seemed to grow up. You could see his thought pattern and he started taking note of things that were making the company better. He realized that happy customers and happy employees would take his company to the next level. I also saw that he applied himself when he finally found the direction he wanted the company to turn. He studied about happiness and really focused on making their culture reflect the idea of happiness. His open policies and great working environment will convey to his customers and will only help their business.
There was a happy ending to the book. I am grateful for the opportunity to learn from the book and hope that others will enjoy it as much as I did.

Please visit their website: http://www.deliveringhappinessbook.com and get a copy too!

Fender Guitar or iPad

Tom — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 15:07:22 +0000

I won a little money last night. I figure since it was just a win that I would get something goofy I had planned to get an iPad. I was going to run to the Apple store this morning an pick one up. I then noticed that the 3G was coming out in a few days. I can wait.

Well, Tammy woke up and I told her what I won last night. I explained about the iPad I was going to get. She was going through a bag and handed me the gift that she got me yesterday. It was a guitar keychain. It reminded me how I want a guitar: Fender Stratocaster American Special HSS – Sunburst with black pick guard.

Doh! Which do I get?!?!

Tammy is a geek

Tom — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 14:34:36 +0000

Tammy is definately a geek. There was a problem with out website processing new videos. This morning, I came out and Tammy noticed that the videos have been fixed since I sent so many were sent last night. I told her it was a minor fix and it was silly.

I said that I will tell her three numbers and she will know what it was that was wrong. I said, “6, 4, ….”. I didn’t even get the third number out and she grinned. I forced out the last number, 4. 644 was the hint and she laughed and said, “permissions?”. I just shook my head and laughed. That was FAST! Yes, that was the latest issue with our video uploads. It was a permission problem.

There is GPS data in the iPhone Videos! [geek post]

Tom — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 05:07:33 +0000

// This is pretty geeky stuff but it is really fun for me. Basically it is about GPS data in iPhone 3GS videos and how I now access it.

I knew the iPhone 3GS’s pictures had GPS coordinates in them. You can easily access this data via the ‘exif_read_data’ in PHP 4.2.0 and above. That’s cool stuff to me. I wrote something to get all of the coordinates and link them to a Google map. That was nifty.

//Thar be coordinates

I was wondering if coordinates were in the videos. So, I opened iPhoto and checked out the detailed data of a video. Sure enough! The coordinates are in it! I tried to use the ‘exif_read_data’ but it spewed an error that they were not supported file types. In actual reading of the manual, sure enough, it is only for .jpg and .tif images. Crud.

//Getting deeper – just a matter of digging through the file

I put on my propeller hat and started hacking away and checking stuff out. Yep, found the data in the file. Easy squeazy. I dug out the coordinates and I am now able to do what I want with it. This is another reason that I host my own videos now. I can display any data that I want and how I want it displayed. It is really simple. My data, my display, my backups and my everything!

//Now display all of this cool data you found

I am working on a page to just list all of the videos (from now on) and have basic information that is searchable (even from the iPhone since I can’t CTRL-F or Command-F and find stuff on a page). Just a simple page with everything. I may do something else in a few years as I have plans if I continue to send videos to the blog. It is REALLY cool.

//I like to share

If you are geeky and wanna know how I did it, feel free to ask. You can figure it out too. The information is available.

Zoe and Oma are reading

Tom — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 20:47:29 +0000

Zoe is reading to Oma. Well, maybe the opposite?

iPad runs Flash

Tom — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 16:23:06 +0000

In a tweet today from TechCrunch, they point out that the iPad might run Flash media player.

I disagree. If you watched the keynote or (Engadget) live update, you saw the Lego symbol that represented “you are out of luck for watching Flash animations”.

iPad and iPhone printing support

Tom — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 02:37:31 +0000

I was reading an article at TechCrunch about things that the iPhone could learn from the iPad. When I got to the part about PDF creation support, I started thinking about something else.

If the iPad supports all of the iWork applications, will it be able to print from the iPad to a printer? Customers will want to print the documents that they create. If that is true, would Apple enable printing support for the iPhone? That would be excellent!

Spam was annoying but now it is fun

Tom — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 18:24:32 +0000

Internet spam is bad. Just stinking bad. Well, I daily get spam on our Wordpress blog that is not filtered by the plugins. This leaves me to fend for myself with deletion.

I don’t commonly get loads of comments on the website. They are usually close family and friends. Well, the other night, I opened the Wordpress app on the iPhone and it said that there were 99 comments. Darn spam! I marked them one by one. Each time it required many steps. I restarted the app later and noticed that there were 99 more. What?!?! It only displays 99 at a time and creates the list at the start of the application. I went to my computer and there were 274 spam comments waiting. It is easy to spot the spam because the are random user name strings, emails and content. The spam does share one thing: they try to link another site.

There are other spam plugins but I worry about future compatiblity and other people’s code. Wordpress is a VERY simple Content Management System and I would rather be the dictator of my environment. Perhaps that is why I wrote my own Twitter stuff for Wordpress also.

Anyway, since comments are held until I approve you at least once, they just sit there. I wrote a script that lists the possible spam waiting for moderation in the database. If I think it is all spam, I run another script to mark them as spam to be deleted permanently later. It saves me DAILY. I just deleted 34 since last night. It just took a couple of taps on my iPhone.

My steps to delete now are:
1. Open web browser
2. Click the bookmark for the “show spam” script
3. Quickly review the output
4. Click the bookmark for “Mark as spam”

That’s it. Please pull thru. Have a nice day and please come again.

iPad? Just upgrade my iPhone software

Tom — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 21:03:16 +0000

Jump to get an iPad? Naa, not for me. I would rather gripe about what I have right now.

Limits on the iPad are numerous. No Flash player, no camera and no calling capabilities. I don’t see a fit in my life for such a device. I have a laptop with a 500GB HDD that is portable. I have an iPhone that does some things while on the go without access to my computer (like this blog post).

Now I will take time to throw this out. I am sure that I have suggested it before but I will bring it up again. The iPhone can provide Video Out already. I wish they would include a Bluetooth driver in the operating system for an external keyboard and mouse. I could then just dock my iPhone in front of me, pair the KB and mouse and the monitor would be connected to the dock. Done. I have a dual display (the iPhone and an external monitor). Sure, you would HAVE to multitask at least two apps so I can have a Twitter client running on the phone and another application on the other display. That would be a sweet make-shift computer system.

Think about it, Apple. Make it so!

Mac OSX – Finder, Folder Actions. Use them? Maybe you should.

Tom — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 06:13:51 +0000

Do you use Folder Actions? I have not used them and just started looking at it. It is really powerful. Below is a quote from: SimpleHelp.net

In a nutshell, Folder Actions are scripts that can be attached to folders. They enable events (actions) to take place when items are added or removed from that folder. Events can also occur when the folder is opened, closed or moved.

You can use the canned scripts or create any Applescript or Automator task to be attached to the folder. Pretty powerful stuff if you use it. Just do a quick Google search and you can find many real-world uses and how to activate it. I’ll have to look more at this when I have time.

If you use Folder Actions, leave a comment with any tips or your usage.

Google returns how many queries a second?

Tom — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 19:59:14 +0000

I was reading an article from Joe Stump on Distributed vs Redundant systems and started geeking around.

I chose Google and how I would implement the their entire model. I read another article where Google serves up 293 Million queries a day (March 2009 numbers). I looked at that number and thought it was unimpressive.

I then began to calculate queries per second. It is 3,391 queries per second!!! Wowsers! They have to return the information in .0003 seconds or less! The dataset is, well, THE INTERNET!

Just for funsies, I ran a search on a MySQL database that wasn’t that large. It returned the results in .1412 seconds. That means that it would take 479 seconds for that computer to handle 3,391 queries. That’s 8 minutes for what Google spits out in a second! Their dataset is GIGANTIC to boot!

I figured a completely redundant method for databases, crawlers and front end servers and how to spit that out across the USA. It’s not all that bad. Just money and time!

A Prostitute Loophole?

Tom — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 21:53:03 +0000

I have never utilized the services of a prostitute nor do I desire to ever in the future but I always think odd things.

If a prostitute goes to jail for selling sex as a service, sell something else. Maybe she could carry a bag of candy. Each candy could represent a different service and the “John” can just buy an expensive piece of candy. Then, the prostitute can say (based on candy purchased) “Hey, you look good. I would like to perform [sexual action here] with/on you. So, the “John” is buying candy and the prostitute is asking for consentual sex as any adult can do.

I’m not in law enforcemnent and I am not a lawyer but that sounds like a workaround. Who knows. I’ll never find out first hand.

If you have an opinion on this, leave a comment!

Hospital room computer:Not how i would have done it.

Tom — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 19:13:43 +0000

There is a computer here in this hospital emergency room. I would not have configured it this way.

The image below shows the setup. At the top is an Uninterruptable Power Supply (UPS). In the middle is the computer. On the left is the monitor, keyboard and mouse. I would imagine that the computer system (computer, monitor, keyboard and mouse) was about $600-$700. The UPS was probably another $45. The elaborate wall mount to support all of this monstrosity is probably in the neighborhood of $1500. Total: $2145-$2245. Sheesh.

I would have rather seen a laptop in its place. The laptop has a battery in it anyway and is immune to power interruptions and can sustain power for at least a couple of hours. Another advantage would be that there would only be two cables, one for power and one for networking (versus 8 in the current configuration). The keyboard and display are built-in and don’t require additional mounting. It would be far easier to replace if it needed to be serviced. A really decent laptop can be purchased for $1000 easily. Add an external mouse ($20) for those who don’t like track pads. Let’s assume you could cut the mount price in half and say $750. Total: $1770.

That is a $375-$475 saving per room (guessing). That doesn’t even take in to consideration the cable mess and extra room.

I’m bored waiting and just think about weird stuff…

Fed up with YouTube upload on the iPhone!

Tom — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 22:43:47 +0000

Again, I am frustrated trying to upload a video to YouTube from my iPhone. It repeatedly says that it cannot upload the video! I am upset.

Instead of continuing to whine and do nothing, I am going to fix it. When I get back to my computer (and Internet), I will begin work on getting the video on the blog by sending the video via email and having it post automatically. That means if one wants to view the video, it will be in .m4v format. QuickTime plays it wonderfully.

I should be able to finish it by next week some time. My problem will be solved and I can then post my odd videos whenever I want!

Stay tuned!

Look kid, I have candy [iphone gripes again]

Tom — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 16:22:10 +0000

Look kid, I have candy.

That is what I have in my face right now. I am going to whine about my iPhone now. If you don’t wanna hear it, stop reading now.

The iPhone has great features. I feel it is a useful tool now and love the feature set. I would love it more if they all worked!

First: The Network
AT&T is lacking. I lose calls. I have poor call quality. Data is very sketchy. Enough said? I would love it if this really worked properly. I only have experience with Sprint and they were excellent with signal strength, data and quality of call audio. Option A against Option B? Easy choice but I now have the inferior of the two.

Second: YouTube Upload
That has to be the coolest thing but is the most hacked together crap on this planet. It does not live up to Apple’s standards as software. I constantly get “Cannot upload Video” when I try to share my videos. I want to share a cute video of Zoe right now but no matter what I do, I can’t get it to work. I usually try several times in a row and stand on alternating legs to make the video upload. I will even patiently wait until the next day to try again. No luck this time. If that is not bad enough right there, EVERY TIME you have to retype ALL of the information for the submission to YouTube. Then you get the same errror message each time. It does not describe the error it is having, just that it failed. Why did I fail? Network? Invalid text in one of the fields? It was unhappy? YouTube is overloaded? Grrr! Please update this hack as I enjoy the feature!

I think that I am finished griping. For now…

I am an artist

Tom — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 17:54:46 +0000

The family has skillz! We are artists!

We like to call this piece: Blueberry and Blackberry Remains

We are good!

“Playing” music

Tom — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 16:12:08 +0000

I picked up a guitar in Canada late August. I got an inexpensive one at a pawn shop just in case I don’t keep it up. I connect it to my computer and use the lessons in GarageBand and really enjoy them.

My little "studio"

Currently, I am learning Limelight from Alex Lifeson from the band Rush. I REALLY enjoy playing the guitar and practice at least two hours a day on guitar and occasionally on the keyboard as I have lessons for that also. I am having a blast! The sounds that I make cause the cat to convulse but I have a blast doing it.

We’ll see how I am doing by next August. I hope I can keep it up as it is extremely enjoyable.

Video-Saw this multi-touch demo on Geekbrief.tv

Tom — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 04:30:46 +0000

This is a great use of multitouch. I just wonder how long you have to prepare everything. Like getting all of the movies and pictures set up. Otherwise it is very interesting.

iPhone or real GPS?

Tom — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 01:58:38 +0000

Answer: Use a real GPS.

I have traveled a good bit recently. I have used a Garmin GPS in the RV, a Toyota GPS in the wife’s minivan and also an iPhone to supplement both at times. The biggest thing is when you have no service (read – AT&T sucks!) you will not have map data. If you are lost, do you want to look for cellular service so you can find your way out? NO! A real GPS has maps stored on the device and requires no outside information. I use the iPhone at times to look things up but it will never be good enough to be any type of automobile navigation. Save your pennies and get a real GPS. I have also owned a TomTom but I would recommend any Garmin over the TomTom. The Toyota GPS was more helpful in Canada in my experience (over Garmin).

TomTom released it’s navigation application for the iPhone and the link will take you to a review of the application if you want to see it.

iPhone Fix: Photos.app won’t see my new pictures that I am taking

Tom — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 01:15:19 +0000

Ok, Tammy already had this problem. I fixed it. I forgot how I did it and then I had the same problem. Sheesh. I’ll write it down now. I hope this can help someone.

iPhone model: iPhone 3GS/3.0 software.

Problem: You have several pictures in your camera roll and take another picture. The picture does not appear to have saved to the phone. You can connect the phone to your computer and import the photos that you took but they still do not appear on the phone.

Solution (Mac only – sorry Winders): Download the demo version of an application called PhoneView. Run the application with the phone connected. Change the preferences of the application by clicking “Show Entire Disk (Advanced Disk Mode)”

Click "Show Entire Disk..."

Close that and now you can look at the iPhone as a normal volume. Your objective is to delete “/DCIM/.MISC” from the phone. To do this, double click “DCIM”. Then, highlight “.MISC” and click the delete button at the top of the PhoneView application. That’s it. Use your phone as a camera again. All is good!

There was a write-up that I got that information from but it said to delete the entire “DCIM” directory. This would cause you to lose your photos. I did not want that so I played and did the minimum to make it work again and also not losing the valuable photos on the phone.

Observation: The last two operations that I did with the camera that could have caused this problem were – Trim a video and also save a picture from Mail.app that my wife sent (from another iPhone 3GS/3.0 software). I suspect the database file that maintains thumbnail information is corrupted. I would assume that either of the operations that I did before the problem could have caused the problem.

iPhone 3.0 Stocks.app is a nice upgrade

Tom — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 12:43:10 +0000

A beautiful upgrade to the iPhone with the new 3.0 software upgrade is the Stocks application.

I like the new “tilt to the side for a nice big detailed chart” option. I like the “swipe the chart” and getting detailed stick information and news on each symbol. I also like that you can see volume along with percentage and dollar value when you tap the number to the right of the symbol.

This is a welcome upgrade with little press.

[Video] – First video using my new iPhone 3GS (In the store!)

Tom — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 00:31:57 +0000

I took this while the guy was activating Tammy’s phone. Just checking out the YouTube upload feature.

Tom cracks me up

Tammy — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 20:23:55 +0000

So Tom and I are just about ready to head out to start our big trip. One of the things we want to do is to drain all the sediment out of the hot water heater. I’m nursing Zoe so Tom decided to go ahead and do that while I’m busy. He says “It’s just going to be difficult to get the hose thru the garage”. I said “Why not take it out the front door?” He just gave me a look and said “It’s still gonna be difficult to get to it” as he walked into the garage. I sat here feeding Zoe feeling very puzzled as the hot water heater is in the attic, so why is it 1- hard to get to and 2- why did he go to the garage? To get a hose? Then it hit me. He thinks it’s in the garage! Just as I start laughing, he comes in looking bewildered. He said, “It’s in the attic, isn’t it?”. Haha. He cracks me up!

IPhone or Palm Pre? Help me decide!

Tom — Tue, 26 May 2009 18:18:45 +0000

Since I have to get a new phone anyway, perhaps I should throw the Palm Pre in to the mix. I always loved my Palm Treo. That sucker would still be working today if I would have kept it. It was a rock that did more than I could have asked. I was disappointed when I first purchased my iPhone but I have learned to love it. It is really integrated in my life now.

If the Palm Pre would bring me the same amazing joy that the Treo did, I would switch without a doubt. I would abandon the closed iPhone. I liked the ability to quickly write applications for the Treo but find it a pain on the iPhone. Will the Pre be so easy? That would be grand. Would the Pre actually use Bluetooth like the Treo? The iPhone doesn’t.

Help me with my decision with your opinion. Leave comments with your views and tell me why I should buy one or the other.

Slow on updating for a while – iPhone + Saltwater = iPhone Upgrade

Tom — Mon, 25 May 2009 18:00:39 +0000

I have been chugging along with the old iPhone with no problems or need to upgrade. Everything has been great. Well, the day at the Capet’s house in the pool led to me jumping in with the phone in my pocket! Doh! I just goofed myself into a new phone. I’ll wait until the new ones come out in June and get one of those.

I’m having fun taking the phone apart and checking out the salty guts. Hopefully I’ll be back soon!

Oopsy

Tammy — Sat, 16 May 2009 12:33:46 +0000

Tom accidentally picked up the wrong size for cutting his hair this morning. Looks like he’s going SUPER short this time. Oh well, it grows back fast.

BETTER THAN SEX!

Tom — Thu, 14 May 2009 22:07:34 +0000

Tammy came home and said: “How about we go have dinner and then go watch Star Trek”. I shrugged and said, “Naa. Zoe would not make it through the movie.”

Well, here is where the good part comes in. Tammy said something like “Let me worry about Zoe. I’ll take care of her and walk her if she needs to walk.”

What the hell? That is complete frickin’ awesomeness! We don’t see movies much anymore. I am a movie buff and more so, I am a total STAR TREK GEEK! I don’t have to wait for DVD and I get to see it in the theater! Is it my birthday?

[Video] Brutus Entertainment Center Upgrade

Tom — Mon, 04 May 2009 04:12:40 +0000

When we got Brutus, he had a cheese ball 26″ television in the overhead console. It was FULL SIZED. It made horrible noise driving down the road. It was just a frightening beast above my head while driving. I quickly got rid of it and replaced it with the following:

20″ LCD Digital Television w/DVD built in on the side
Mac Mini with external 250GB HDD and iSight camera
Nintendo Wii
Old Playstation for some games that I had around

It works great and makes absolutely no noise driving. I love it.

Google is really nerdy-cool (Morse Code Google)

Tom — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 14:58:37 +0000

Morse Google

Google is Morse Code today. That is too cool!

[Video] I got a Flip Ultra for Tammy

Tom — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 01:22:45 +0000

There was a Flip Ultra video camera on Woot.com the other day for cheap. I was talking to Tammy about one of these so she can carry it with her and catch things with Zoe too as I hog the camera stuff usually… Imagine that. So, she has started putting some of her videos on YouTube too! Have a look: