Only British TV Could Do This

May 14, 2011August 22, 2018 Lorin Olsen

Television programming in the US can be very innovative. But sometimes, domestic issues can only be discussed in foreign media. And so Steven Moffat (a writer for “Doctor Who”) chose to include President Richard M. Nixon in two episodes of the series. When I watched these episodes, I marveled at the fun (and the respect) that Steven Moffat showed to this former President.
Here in the United States, very few people even talk about Richard Nixon. Yes, he is discussed in history texts. But I can’t think of a single time that I or my contemporaries have included this President in our discussions. He is either reviled or simply ignored in America. I know of no one who is kind, gracious or even the least bit deferential towards this man.
But a Scottish writer of a Welsh production company dared to make President Nixon a featured character in two episodes of their flagship series. And they did a really fine job of it as well. The character (as written by Moffat) was a reasonable representation of a man who was being swept away by an extraordinary situation. And Moffat decided to go a step further: this characterization of Nixon dealt with aliens. And this version of President Nixon is now a “companion” of the Doctor. I NEVER would have imagined Nixon as a companion. But there he was.
The story was a middle-of-the-road Doctor Who narrative about aliens and the Doctor’s love for humanity. It had the typical forward references to whatever the culminating episode will be this year. And it had the obligatory Steven Moffat fascination with silence as a conduit for fear. [Note: I really like this theme being woven in many Moffat stories. But I really wonder why Moffat has such a fascination.]
But I am not a TV critic. I am a Doctor Who fan and I am a student of history. For me, I find it exhilarating that people are talking about Nixon after all these years. And they are talking about him as a man – not as a humiliated President. I love the “in jokes” about tape recording things. And I really like the implied (but never stated) consideration of the missing minutes of audio tape.
Bottom line: This was a respectful and innovative consideration of Richard Nixon, the man. Unfortunately, it was only an average Doctor Who episode.
-Roo

KCCC, Here I Come!

May 8, 2011August 22, 2018 Lorin Olsen

If you follow my Twitter stream, then you already know that I will be competing in the Kansas City Corporate Challenge (KCCC) bike race. I hesitate to predict how well (or poorly) that I will do. But I will be in the race. And I am so pumped about it.
Since the start of the year, I’ve logged about 2000 miles of bicycle commuting. I’ve also lost over thirty-five pounds of dead weight. I’m not at my ideal weight yet. But I am in better shape than I’ve been for almost five years. And I’ve been training on “Black Beauty” (my Surly Long Haul trucker).
Black Beauty is a delicious beast. But she is a Clydesdale built for a Clydesdale. While I am making excellent progress towards my goals, she is not what I need for KCCC. I need light weight and sheer pedal power. So I’ve spent some time (and a few sovereigns) getting my other beauty into shape.
To meet the need for speed, I got my Trek 2300 serviced and returned last week. I replaced a well-worn chain. And I had the whole drive train serviced. I also replaced the pedals with new SPD SL pedals. [Note: Next time I do this, I won’t change pedals because I’m having some trouble getting accustomed to the new attachment system. Hopefully, I’ll get it down before Wednesday.] Almost as important, I was greeted with an excellent surprise last Friday: I had hit my pre-race weight loss goal.
So I hope that I am ready. My goal is to get a top ten finish in the fifty-plus age bracket. That goal is within reach. But I do covet everyone’s prayers on the matter. I always worry on group starts. My eyes really do make a difference at the start. And since the race is relatively short, a bad start may just doom my hopes.
But whatever happens, I am so glad that I am competing. I am happy and healthy about the race. And I’ll get points for the team no matter how I finish. But I really do want to achieve my personal goal. Pray that I can win the all important mental battle against my own doubts and fears.
-Roo

New Skin for Old Wine?

May 8, 2011August 22, 2018 Lorin Olsen

If you haven’t noticed it yet, I’ll let you in on a secret: I’ve cleaned up the look of the blog. And I do believe that it is quite a bit nicer than it was before.
What did I do? Well, I decided that it was time to start using some professional themes to improve the visual appeal of the site. Yes, there are some excellent free themes for WordPress. But after taking a look at a few of the professional themes, I realized that I really needed to update the look and feel of the site. In particular, I needed to make the content far more accessible.
To do this, I had to take a few key first steps:

I needed to clean up my content taxonomy. When I started this blog, terms like “folksonomy” were all the rage. And my site had a very sparse category structure. That’s was fine then. It was not so good now. So I reduced the total number of high-level categories. And I created a loose hierarchy.
I then went back and re-categorized a few hundred posts so that they would match the new category structure. This was quite a chore. But I just finished my first pass on the old content. All posts are now categorized somehow.

With these steps done, I looked for a theme that would utilize the new category structure.
But I wanted to get more content within easy viewing. So the theme that I chose shows multiple columns of content on the home screen. In addition, I wanted to be able to use a thin header image to minimize the picture muddle (and download time) for mobile devices. So I chose a theme that has a clean and simple look. My hope is that it draws the reader to the article headers.
After reorganizing the content and using a fresh theme, I think I’ve got a look that meets many of the requests that I’ve heard from the readers.
But here is something more interesting – at least, for me. I had to look at all of the content that I’ve posted over the last five years. And it is very insightful to review your own thoughts after several years. Here are some quick content takeaways:

I really do love technology. Wile there are lots of posts on lots of subjects, I do write quite a bit about technology.
I have been very accurate on some predictions – and very inaccurate on others. I’m glad I’m not a prophet because you would have to stone me. But I can say that many of my predictions about the large waves within the technology industry are spot on. I tend to fall down when predicting things about the company (and/or the products) that I am working for/with when I post something. To remedy this, I’ll make sure I highlight a bias based upon company/product loyalty.
I have a peculiar obsession with security and privacy. I haven’t worked in IT security for almost twenty-seven years. But I still write about security. And I really do seem to spend a lot of time talking about privacy and anonymity. And since these technologies overlap political issues, I can get very animated about them.
I don’t write nearly enough about my faith. Yes, I do write about my faith in Jesus. But most of that content surfaces on Twitter or Facebook. I wonder if that means anything. I should probably spend more time writing thoughtful posts on this blog.
I really do have a fantastic family. I have a big grin on my face as I write this. When I started blogging on this site, Dana was still in high school and playing AAU ball. She has now graduated from college.Cindy has been through three different employers in the period that I have been blogging. And she is very close to earning her master’s degree.
But I really haven’t spent a lot of time talking about ALL of my children. I have some fantastic kids. And I haven’t blogged about all of them. That’s a shame. I will be writing more about Meredith and Bailey this summer. Both are getting married. And I really love being the proud father of the bride – twice!
As much as I am a bicycling kangaroo, I haven’t spent much time (lately) discussing my bicycling exploits. I’ll have to remedy that. And I really need to spend a little more time talking about local cycling. So I have joined the Johnson County Bike Club. And I’ll start putting up a few more posts about bicycle commuting and cycling in the KC area.

So after re-launching the site, I’ve made a few new resolutions about content. Keep me on track by letting me know when I’m missing the mark with your content interests. My goal with this blog is to write thoughtful posts that might even challenge you. I promise o be transparent – and a little more prolific. Please hold me to that promise!
-Roo

Clouds: Just Water and Particulates

May 8, 2011August 22, 2018 Lorin Olsen

What is cloud computing? There are so many definitions. I won’t trivialize the subject by recounting a litany of terms. But I’ve been in computing for over thirty years. And “the cloud” looks a lot like data center computing in the mainframe era or data center computing in the client-server era.
I find it curious that cloud computing emphasizes “the cloud” rather than the client. We used to draw diagrams with a cloud that represented the network and the services that weren’t under our control. We controlled the things at the edge. We were the client. And then we connected clients to “the cloud” that linked one set of users with other users (or servers). So the cloud was something that we didn’t dare describe. It was fluffy and “out there” for someone else to deal with. We trusted someone else to ensure its maintenance, availability and security.
Microsoft tells us to take our computing “to the cloud.” Their slick ads are fascinating – especially when you consider that they are just repackaging Windows Live. They want us to trust their services to fulfill our needs. That means Passport. That means storage. That means chat and mail. And that means trust. We should trust them to do what we need to have done.
Amazon has launched its “cloud” services in the form of the Amazon Cloud Drive. I’ve written about this one before. And I really like it. And Amazon has a killer retail purchasing and fulfillment infrastructure. To Amazon, a “cloud service” is anything that they control. Hmmm. That sounds a lot like Microsoft’s definition. Of course, we trust Amazon – because they aren’t someone “nefarious” (like Microsoft). And when we use Amazon’s cloud services, we buy things from Amazon. In my case, I’ve recently bought all sorts of music from Amazon. I don’t even want to tell my wife how many dollars that I’ve spent.
And Google has always had cloud-based services. They include web mail, web chat, web images, web apps, and even web printing. I like a lot of Google’s services – especially since I use a Google Android-based phone. And like Amazon, Google can claim some followers just because they aren’t Microsoft. The claim is simple: “we know you can’t trust Microsoft – so trust us instead.”
[Note: The silly claim that we should eschew Microsoft reminds me so much of the “anyone but IBM” crowd that emerged during the PC era. Or was that the “anyone but Sun” crowd that emerged during the early client-server era. Or is that the “anyone but Google” crowd that is starting to gain steam these days.]
With that background, let’s charge to the premise: there are good and bad aspects to “cloud computing.” Like real clouds, good things come from the sky. Rain comes from the sky. Rain is needed for life and health. But there are also bad things that come from the cloud. All you have to do is see a lightning storm or read the recent reports from the South: storms can kill.
Cloud computing shares this zen view of things. The cloud offers great advantages. You can “outsource” lots of mundane tasks to someone else. They can do the heavy lifting. Microsoft can do the legacy PC work. Amazon can do the retail purchasing and fulfillment work. Google can do the search and data mining services. And Rackspace can meet your hosting needs. [Note: You can also buy all sorts of services from service providers like WordPress. For example, I just bought a premium theme from them.]
But along with the needed “rain” that comes with the cloud, there are some fierce downsides with cloud computing. If you trust someone who makes mistakes (uh, like everyone does), then bad things can happen. For example, you could have your gaming data compromised when PSN is compromised. Thankfully, I don’t have a PS3. And I’m not on the PSN network. But I do use LastPass. So who is the bigger fool? Is it my future son-in-law who lost things via PSN or is it me?
My bottom-line is simple. If you trust someone else, you are risking the violation of that trust. That violation can be intentional or unintentional. Do not consider anything as safe. From my vantage point, everyone can fail. Indeed, the only way to ensure the safety of your valuables is to store them where moths and rust cannot attack them. The only secure investment of trust is an investment in our Savior. Here’s my tired, old motto: In God we trust. All others pay cash.
But between now and the hereafter, I have to make daily trust decisions. My current trust decisions are as follows:

I trust Bank of America with my cash flow.
I trust Fidelity with my investment portfolio.
I trust Amazon for purchasing and delivery.
I trust Google for authentication, search and generalized web-services (like mail, voice and remote services).
I trust the government for defense services (both locally and internationally).
I trust local governments for traffic services.
I trust my wife for almost all meta-services. I also trust her as my most intimate financial adviser/partner. And while I can cook, I really do trust her to give me a better standard of living. [Note: I trust Bailey for cookies.]

In summary, the cloud is nothing new. It is simply the investment of trust in an external provider. In the past, we trusted everything to a small number of providers. Today, that circle of trust is much wider. So we have to be more savvy as we manage an ever-widening trust ecosystem. Be prepared to switch providers quickly. Be prepared to do periodic reviews of anyone who provides you with trusted services. And please remember that the only person who you can truly trust is the one who created you and the one who died for you.
Finally, let’s talk analogies and symbolism. God created you and He died for you. Easter was the ultimate reminder of that simple fact. But the example you should remember today is your Mom. She carried you and she nurtured you. And she would surely die for you. On this Mother’s day, remember to thank your Mom for being the foundation of your trust ecosystem.
-Roo

Amazon Cloud Drive Musings

April 2, 2011August 22, 2018 Lorin Olsen

After uploading all of my Amazon MP3 purchases to my Amazon Cloud Drive, I used almost all of the 5GB that Amazon provided. I felt a little cheated because I made these purchases through Amazon. Amazon is even making you offers of additional storage for new MP3 purchases. Since I can see the record of all of these “legacy” transactions on my Amazon account, why couldn’t Amazon honor these purchases?
And then it struck me: Amazon is killing many birds with a single stone.

If you purchase and leave your music on Amazon, then Amazon saves a lot of money. They can keep a single copy of the song in their storage farm. And then they just point your Cloud Drive pointer to this original content. If you have a really popular album, then they save multiple instances of storage. And these savings apply to transmission costs as well. Why download 100 or 1,00 or 10,000 copies of a song to thousands of customers? Cut out the storage costs and cut out the download costs. [Note: The transmission costs do occur on the back-end whenever you listen to the music. In fact, each time you listen to the music, you and Amazon are incurring that download.]
Amazon can layer any number of services back into this offering. They can include cover art, and all sorts of other metadata. And they can add things over time.
Amazon is storing the content – so they control it. This may not sound like much. But I suspect that this is a big deal to their content partners. For content that Amazon vends and stores, there is no real issue. But if a customer uploads content and it turns out that the content is obviously unlicensed, then Amazon has rights regarding content embargoes, content filtering and even content elimination. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if Amazon does content analysis on behalf of their content partners.

And none of these benefits accrue for older purchased content that would need to be reloaded back to Amazon.
But Amazon is risking very little by not addressing legacy purchases. They have a much bigger issue that they must address head-on: customer perception. Amazon is risking a lot based upon their belief that customers won’t mind having their content stored for them. I’m not certain if this is a good bet or not.
People get positively possessive about things that they have purchased. They want to use it in all sorts of ways. For example, I like to include song snippets in videos that I’ve bult for the kids and their sports teams. I would be upset if I had paid for content and couldn’t use it. In fact, I would consider that a violation of fair use. Not having access to this content in any way that I want (and at any time that I want) may result in some very dissatisfied customers.
For my part, I am still unsure about having “rights” to something without having anything substantial. Thus far, I only have two movies purchased via Amazon Video on Demand. [Note: I’ve also completed my first Amazon MP3 purchase that is stored exclusively on Amazon’s servers.] Yet I have dozens of digital movies on my media server. And I have hundreds of DVD and Blu-Ray discs in a cabinet. And I have thousands of digital music files on my media server. I could certainly buy more “rights” to other content that is stored off-site. But it just doesn’t seem the same to me. Proximity equals control and control equals confidence.
As I think about it, I like the Amazon Kindle model a little bit better. I do have the rights to books I’ve ordered. And I can view them anywhere – as long as I download them first. [Note: I do wonder why Amazon isn’t streaming book content as well as music content as it is less bandwidth intensive.] Either way, I feel very connected to the Kindle content – wherever it is. I think that this is because I have something to touch – i.e., the Kindle itself.
But I’m sure that Amazon customer studies have been through all of this. I am sure that they have recent data that suggests that younger customers are more comfortable with less concrete content. It’s just old farts like me that want to have something that is a little more tangible.
In a few years, all of this will be moot. Content will be stored in the cloud. And you won’t have direct and personal access to it – except via a technology broker (like Amazon). And that situation has the little “Lost in Space” robot (that is inside my head) screaming “Danger, Will Robinson.”
I am also reminded of the Doctor Who episode entitled “The Long Game.” In this episode, people have to pay for “access” to important information. The more you pay, the more “access” you receive. Surely this is not the future of computing. I certainly hope not.
-Roo

Liberty 2.0: Not Quite Gingerbread – But Very Sweet

April 2, 2011August 22, 2018 Lorin Olsen

The Android Gingerbread SDK has been out for many weeks. And we are just starting to see some custom ROM’s starting to show up. In fact, there was quite a bit of buzz about a “leak” of Verizon’s Droid 2 Gingerbread build. I was sorely tempted to dive right into this one.
But I chose to wait. I bypassed the fancy bauble that might have fascinated me for a moment. Instead, I decided to support @kejar and @jrummy by installing their latest build of the Liberty ROM. And I am so glad that I did. This new version of their ROM is wonderful. It is clean and fast. And it has all of the stability that you can expect from a Froyo-based build. And since it is based on the most common Android platform, all of the apps that I depend upon are fully supported on the build. Better still, I am comfortable because all of the newest apps are still within my reach – including the latest Amazon Cloud Drive player.
So what does Liberty 2.0 bring to the table? For me, the big ticket items are as follows:

Busybox 1.17.2
Sysctl enabled by default
Cron scheduler enabled
Some amazing updates to the Liberty Toolbox
Tons of themes, tons of fixes, and a couple key Blur features

Do these changes give me all that I want? Of course not. I want Gingerbread. Give me some of that sweetness. Of course, once I have that, I want some Honeycomb as well. But for now, I have Liberty – and I am thrilled. This version is more stable. This version looks sharper (mostly due to wider theme support). And this version runs everything I have. I can wait a little longer for Moto, Verizon and the Liberty team to give me Libertybread.
-Roo
P.S. As you may be able to tell, I’m using the EpicBlue Theme. It really rocks!
P.P.S. I went ahead and purchased the *Donate* version of the Liberty Toolbox (from the Amazon Market). You should too!

Does Amazon Have the Whole Enchilada?

April 2, 2011August 22, 2018 Lorin Olsen

For those who have read my musings for some time, you’ll know that I use a lot of Amazon services.

I have purchased music from Amazon for many years. Why would I use Amazon’s music service when iTunes owned the market? Because I really believe in competition. And I really believe in good prices. And I really believe in digital freedom. Consequently, I’ve bought many dozens of albums from Amazon’s music service. And recently, I’ve purchased from both my home computer and my Android phone.
I’ve also used Amazon’s Video service for a few years. Amazon decided that they would boldly venture into the same market that Netflix and Blockbuster had already captured. I originally chose Amazon because they weren’t Apple. But then I began to use their service more fully. And I realized that because they weren’t Apple, they were intrinsically better.
Yeah, that’s an exaggeration. But not by much. I bought a Panasonic Blu-Ray player. And it included streaming from Amazon VOD. Because both Amazon and Panasonic had an established history of leveraging open source technologies, it was a natural harmony. And as my Viera Cast capabilities grew, so have the Amazon VOD capabilities – especially with the Amazon prime membership that my wife has.
But while I’ve had Amazon VOD for about two years, I haven’t really exploited it much until I had the right wireless infrastructure at home. Now that I have that in place, it’s been wonderful using the Amazon service. I can get almost any video I want whenever I want it. And if I choose to buy it, then Amazon has provided a video locker to store the digital content in.
Since getting my Android phone last year, I have been waiting for Amazon to open up their own Android market. This week, they finally made it official and started vending apps using their retail purchasing engine. I haven’t bought a lot of apps from them yet. But if they provide the same application re-installs that the Google market does, then I may switch my purchases to Amazon. [Note: I really love automatic reinstallation of apps from the Android market. Every time that I switch ROM’s, I need to reload my system. So this is a sticking point for me.]

I’ve used a lot of “cloud-based” storage in the past. While at Microsoft, I tinkered with SkyDrive. BTW, this was a revolutionary concept that suffered from a horrible implementation. [Note: That is quite typical for many Microsoft technologies. They can always out-market you on technology that they acquire. And they can almost always build really cool new things. But they oftentimes have trouble building and marketing first-generation technology.]
But when SkyDrive didn’t seize the market, the most notable cloud-based storage tool in the market became DropBox. DropBox got a lot of the technology right. And they really captured a chunk of the geek market. Indeed, Cindy and I have used DropBox for several years. And it has been a wonderful success whenever she has needed a collaborative storage platform for her master’s degree classwork. But like SkyDrive, DropBox never made a big enough splash in the market to begin to seize the consumer marketplace.
And now it’s Amazon’s turn.
I REALLY love the cloud storage offering that Amazon released this week. If you’ve had your head in the clouds (or had your head stuck somewhere else), then I will tell you that the Amazon service is called the Amazon Cloud Drive. I love the name. It leverages the notion of the cloud (as popularized by Microsoft ads) and adds to it the simple and well-understood notion of the “drive” as storage. Hence, Cloud Drive may well be a marketing winner.
And the Cloud Drive offering is fairly complete. You can use it on your PC or Mac. And you can use it on your phone. And you can use it on a tablet. So far, it seems to really “sing” with music-based files. Of course, that makes sense as music files are the largest commodity that will be stored. It will be months (or maybe even years) before videos will become a ubiquitous on the service. So adroit mastery of music files hits the Amazon sweet spot.
And they have chosen a good niche for the amount of free storage. It is larger than either DropBox or SkyDrive. The current offering is 5GB for free. I suspect that Apple and Google may try and best this with a 25GB offering. But we’ll have to see. The folks at Forbes think that the first major reply will be to up the storage limits. If that happens, I would bet that Amazon will respond. That might be a fun price war to watch.
So far, I really like the first volley in the impending digital storage wars. Like the folks at Forbes, I see Apple and Google jumping in on this. And I think that Google may just buy DropBox. They don’t need the DropBox tech. But they may want the customers and the buzz. But I also think that you may see some other folks jumping in. I do believe that Microsoft may burnish and re-launch SkyDrive. If they do, this might be hella fun.
And I really think that storage vendors and media player vendors are going to want to get in on the action. While they may not be able to make a complete offering themselves, it will be nice to see how they are used as channel providers to the bigger players.
So what will it take to win? Winners (and survivors) will need the following:

They will need capital to purchase and implement the vast quantities of storage that may be required.
They will need established data center management skills to make the cloud-based storage initiative viable.
They will need marketing to get the message to customers
They will need partners for channel depth and diversity of correlated features/capabilities.
They will need digital content.
They will need a retail channel (with a strong purchasing and delivery engine).

Google has many of these. I do think that they lack diverse content – although YouTube does help. What they really need is some content partners – like Sony???
Apple has some of these. Nevertheless, they lack a robust and diverse partner ecosystem. Yes, they have lots of partners. But they re so closed that they are technologically inbred. And they don’t have a lot of online storage already in their pipeline. Yes, they sell content. But they don’t really store it for their customers. They move it to their customers’ devices.
Amazon has most of these (except for the brand identity across many markets). They do have all of the pieces in place. But no one knows that. They have content. They have storage. They have the retail channel. But they need critical mind-share in the consumer marketplace
I think that the market can bear all three of these big players – for now. And Amazon is first out of the gate. If they can capture enough early market, they may be the big winner.
I just wish that I could get “credit” for all of the Amazon MP3 purchases I’ve already made. I hate to move all my stuff right back to them – and then have to buy additional storage. It’s not fair! Wah! Wah! Wah!
-Roo

Who Needs Newgrass When There’s Great Bluegrass?

March 27, 2011August 22, 2018 Lorin Olsen

So when I heard that she had released a sophomore album (entitled Daybreak), I just had to download the album. And like the first album, this one is magnificent. From the very first track, Hull distinguishes herself as an amazing mandolin player. More importantly, she has really extended her vocal capabilities. She is no longer the little child with a nice voice. She is a woman with a wonderful voice.

And her mandolin prowess has grown. She handles instrumental tunes (like “Bombshell” and “Chasin’ Skies”) with an easy grace. You can really sense her skill (and her love of the instrument) in both of these works. At the same time, she seems equally comfortable blending classic bluegrass themes (like faith and family) into modern musical harmonies.

My favorite song is “The Land of the Living.” This song expresses a simple and well-worn faith that is honest – and not trivialized. I would love to hear her sing and play an entire album devoted to her faith. But in many ways, the simple and understated faith motifs throughout this album may be even more catching for people who did not grow up in the church community.

Finally, this album makes no apologies for its traditional bluegrass appeal. She doesn’t hide the instruments. She doesn’t hide the messages. But she doesn’t bludgeon the listeners with them either. She simply sings and plays about what she has seen and heard. This is a remarkable album from a very remarkable young woman.

I can’t wait for her next album. But until then, I think this one is going to get quite a bit of play around my house.

-Roo

Who Needs Newgrass When There's Great Bluegrass?

March 27, 2011August 22, 2018 Lorin Olsen

In December 2009, I purchased a very nice mandolin for my wife. I did this because my wife Cindy is a fabulous musician. I had heard her play the ukulele earlier in the year. She played wonderfully – especially since the ukulele was a new instrument for her. So to assist her with the motivation needed to conquer yet another new instrument (i.e., the mandolin), I figured that I’d buy her an album of good mandolin music. Several people recommended Sierra Hull’s premiere album (entitled Secrets). I was blown away by the musicianship and the poised maturity that the then 16-year old Hull exhibited on the album.
So when I heard that she had released a sophomore album (entitled Daybreak), I just had to download the album. And like the first album, this one is magnificent. From the very first track, Hull distinguishes herself as an amazing mandolin player. More importantly, she has really extended her vocal capabilities. She is no longer the little child with a nice voice. She is a woman with a wonderful voice.
And her mandolin prowess has grown. She handles instrumental tunes (like “Bombshell” and “Chasin’ Skies”) with an easy grace. You can really sense her skill (and her love of the instrument) in both of these works. At the same time, she seems equally comfortable blending classic bluegrass themes (like faith and family) into modern musical harmonies.
My favorite song is “The Land of the Living.” This song expresses a simple and well-worn faith that is honest – and not trivialized. I would love to hear her sing and play an entire album devoted to her faith. But in many ways, the simple and understated faith motifs throughout this album may be even more catching for people who did not grow up in the church community.
Finally, this album makes no apologies for its traditional bluegrass appeal. She doesn’t hide the instruments. She doesn’t hide the messages. But she doesn’t bludgeon the listeners with them either. She simply sings and plays about what she has seen and heard. This is a remarkable album from a very remarkable young woman.
I can’t wait for her next album. But until then, I think this one is going to get quite a bit of play around my house.
-Roo

Milestones: Are They Worth Remembering?

March 27, 2011August 22, 2018 Lorin Olsen

Um, yes! They are DEFINITELY worth noting. At least I think so. And since I’m writing this post, I think I’ll remember an important milestone for this year: For those who are reading this from my blog, you’ll notice that my Wigle counter has tipped over 10,000 discovered access points.
Is this a Christopher Columbus moment of discovery? Of course not. All it indicates is that I live in an affluent area where access points are very prevalent. Nevertheless, reaching this milestone is important to me. The number indicates that I’ve found over 10,000 access points during my recent bicycle commuting efforts. It is a symbol for lots of miles on my bike. And it implies prestige points in an otherwise invisible ego campaign! 😉
If you think about this mathematically, consider a circle with a radius of about twelve miles. Since my path is varied (i.e., not just a straight line), I must simplify and say that I ride within a given fraction of the circle. For further simplification, let’s assume that the slice is roughly an eighth of the circle’s area. That means that I’ve found 10K “new” access points in an area of approximately 56 1/2 square miles. That equates to 176+ access points per square mile.
That doesn’t sound like much. And it probably isn’t. But here are the probable reasons that the number is so low:
1) I have probably overestimated the size of my “slice” of the circle. In fact, I guarantee that I have because I ride on roads. If I were honest, I’d have to say that while I have ridden around an arc that is similar to 1/8 of the overall area, I’ve probably NOT covered that area very thoroughly. Indeed, the area that I have thorough coverage for may only be a sixty-fourth of the circle’s area. If I used that number, I’d see 1400+ access points per square mile!
2) There is a lot of unusable (and/or undeveloped) land between home and my office. So we have a very uneven distribution of houses and businesses. But we could simplify and assume that we have an evenly distributed population. If anything, I travel the more populous areas to ensure that I have ample visibility.
Of course, I’m not the only person who has pondered this subject. In fact, there is an awesome paper (written by Kipp Jones and Ling Liu of Georgia Tech) that talks about some of the issues associated with WiFi density in and around population centers.
And there is an even more impressive article by Luke Driskell (Lousiana State University). In his article, Mr. Driskell attempts to describe how WiFi density is a solid indicator of differences in the economic makeup of neighborhoods in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Of course, there are distinct implications (in Mr. Driskell’s paper) about how public WiFi may bridge some of the economic differences. But for purposes of my analysis, I just wanted to know whether 176+ access points per square mile is indicative of a lot of access points or simply a few.
So what have I determined? First, if I want to make conclusions from numbers, I need to be more rigorous. Second, I need to map my thesis to real demographic data (i.e., neighborhood economic data). I certainly observed that some of the poorer neighborhoods I ride through have fewer access points. But if I want to prove the hypothesis, I have to actually posit a real hypothesis – and then rigorously test it.
Since I don’t have time to do that, I’ll just make wild speculations from incomplete studies. That means I’m either a journalist, a politician or a weird hybrid being from both strains of homo americanus.
So here is the provable claim: I am excited that I have cataloged so many access points. Have I bested Mr. Dunker yet? No, I have not. At least, I haven’t YET. But I need to approach his numbers slowly – lest he react and overwhelm my meager findings with his larger antenna rig.
So yes, it is about size and it is about numbers!
-Roo

The intersection of vision and action

Author: Lorin Olsen

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