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Bean Town or Bust: We are Moving!

BostonThings have been hectic around the Simpson household lately. As you may know, Kristin graduated in Fall 09, and she has been applying for jobs at Zoos across the nation. She got a job offer from the Capron Park Zoo (warning that their website isn’t real impressive) in the city of Attleboro, Massachusetts. We talked at length, and as hard as it will be for us to relocate, we have decided to accept the position. Now half our belongings are boxed away, in anticipation of me getting a job offer in the Attleboro area.

We feel that this is a really positive change that addresses a lot of our life problems right now. We are currently in a house we are renting which has some major problems. The house is also not in an area where we want to raise our kids. The house is located near the Westley Chapel exist on I-20, and I work and commute from here to Clayton county, which also has a notorious reputation. Kristin’s employment at Zoo Atlanta was on a contract which ended, and she was turned down for a full-time position several times. We also have student loans coming due, along with growing Credit Card balances. Living off one salary has always been rough, and this move gives us the chance to get out from under all of this financial stress.

Her new job makes an impressive salary that amounts to 30% more than Zoo Atlanta was offering, along with benefits, vacation time, etc. The area is also very near other major City Zoo’s including Providence, and Boston. There is plenty of IT work to be had in this area as well, both public and private sector. If I am employed at a major university in the area, I could get a Master’s Degree from MIT, Cambridge, or Harvard.

The hardest part of this move will be leaving my friends, and my family so far behind me. What is getting me through it all is knowing that many of you are on Facebook, Twitter, IM, and are just an email away. My parents are retired, and have an RV so I expect to see them more than I should :). I am really going to miss my brother, but we each have to go our own way in life. I’ll promise I will make many trips to see everyone as best I can over the years. Thanks to everyone who seen us off over the last few weeks - you will be missed.

I wanted to especially mention how much I will miss Clayton State University. It won’t be because of office politics, or programming, or Crystal Reports, and it sure as hell won’t be because I will miss the SWAN Portal. What has kept me at CSU for so long is the people there. I have worked several other jobs before and there are two distinct types of employers: those who want to maximize profit, and those who want you to maximize you. The HUB, and Administrative Systems are both the latter type, and has made me look forwarded to coming into work. I love my co-workers, and I enjoy our lunches, and our conversations that break up otherwise dull work. Looking at Facebook recently, I noticed that most of my current friends are all people that are connected to Clayton State, and most of them are through the HUB. CSU has truly been a wonderful playground at which to spend the last seven years of my life.

We will miss you all.

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By Ben Simpson – February 5, 2010

SuperFreakonomics: Rethinking the Car Seat

From Chapter 4, “The Fix is in - and it’s cheap and simple”:

Imagine you were charged with starting from scratch to ensure the safety of all children who travel in cars. Do you really think the best solution is to begin with a device optimized for adults and use it to strap down some second, child-sized contraption? Would you really stipulate that this contraption be made by dozens of different manufacturers, and yet had to work in all vehicles even though each vehicle’s seat has its own design?

So here’s a radical thought: considereing that half of all passengers who ride in the backseat of cars are children, what is seat belts were designed to fit them in the first place? Wouldn’t it make more sense to take a proven solution - one that happens to be cheap and simple - and adapt it, whether through adjustable belts or fold-down seat inserts (which do exist, though not widely)-rather than relying on a costly, combersome solution that doesn’t work very well?

But things seem to be moving in the opposite direction. Instead of pushing for a better solution to child auto safety, state governments across the United States have been raising the age when kids can graduate from car seats. The European Union has gone even further, requiring most children to stay in booster seats until they are twelve.

Alas, governments aren’t exactly famous for cheap or simple solutions, they tend to prefer the costly-and-cumbersome route…The government [didn't] put seat belts in cars. Robert McNamara thought they would give Ford a competitive advantage. He was dead wrong. Ford had a hard time marketing the seat belt, since it seemed to remind customers that driving was inherently unsafe. This led Henry Ford II to complain to a reporter: “McNamara is selling safety but Chevrolet is selling cars.”

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By Ben Simpson – January 5, 2010

Chrysler Sebring vs Sony MEX-BT2700

mexbt27001It is done. It seems like just yesterday when I installed a custom car stereo into my Chrysler Sebring. After many months of enjoyment, someone felt they were more entitled to my stereo than I was, and made off with it. Thanks buddy (burn in hell)! I have been riding around with my totally awesome factory stereo for too long now, and my wife got me the Sony MEX-BT2700 stereo. It has everything I wanted: HD Radio, MP3 players, Bluetooth calling and music streaming, an auxiliary in port in the front, and a remote control. What follows is my intriguing tale of its installation:

Chrysler’s cryptic wiring schematics look like a mentally retarded child with a 24-count box of Crayola crayons went to town on their blueprints for the Sebring. I decided to get a wiring harness to bypass all of that nonsense this time. I also decided that instead of making my arm bend in awkward positions, I would use a jack and remove the left front tire to get at the car battery. The “maintenance free” battery placement is the most aggregating part of working on my car. The consequences of Chrysler’s placement have ensured that any future car I own will have a battery that is easily accessible. I also ordered a universal mount for my stereo. With these choices, I figured this would be a walk in the park. I was almost right.

The wiring harness was a snap to connect - just connect the colors. The mount fit as advertised. With the wheel gone, it was much easier to get at the battery. I connected my car stereo, reconnected the battery, turned the keys in the ignition and did an inadequate test. I turned the radio to the tuner, and checked that all four speakers were producing sound. They were, and I wrapped everything up and called it a day too prematurely. My test drive was out to the store, and I discovered on the way that the CD player didn’t produce sound, though it looked like it should. I fiddled with all the options, and sure enough, it was spinning the disc, but not producing sound.

I got home, and looked at the manual, and discovered that the Bluetooth source, and the Auxiliary source had the same issue. My phone was connected both times, but sound failed to come out of the car speakers. I did some Googling with no result, and then did a live chat with Sony customer support. The support was slow, but surprisingly helpful - it put me on the right path to resolve my issue.

The next day I cut the wheel in the right, then left fashion needed to get at the battery without removing it (thanks again Chrysler), and disconnected the battery. I then pulled the stereo out, and messed with the wiring in a few combinations from what the support instructed me to do.  From their documentation:

If there is no sound or the amplifier turns off when playing a CD, but there is sound and the amplifier is on when playing the radio, then you may have the solid blue (antenna remote lead - ANT REM) and blue striped (amplifier remote lead - AMP REM) wires connected incorrectly. Try switching these wire connections. In vehicles designed to supply power to the amplifier through the antenna power supply, connect the solid blue antenna wire to the solid red ignition wire. In all other vehicles, connect the blue and white amplifier turn-on wire to the solid red ignition wire.

My first point of confusion is that I don’t have an amp in my car. Apparently this is still applicable. The second point of confusion is that the solid red wires should be connected to the power antenna wire along with the existing power antenna wire. This means that three wires are connected to the power antenna wire (the two red wires, plus the blue wire). In total, I believe this to be 24V of power (12V from red, 12V from blue). I was hesitant to do this for fear of damaging the unit. Apparently, this is by design, however and it will not work unless you do this step.  After this, I hesitantly reconnected the stereo, and voila - it works.

I wanted to throw this out there in case any else has run into a similar problem with their car, or with their stereo.

Posted in Hardware, Personal.

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By Ben Simpson – January 2, 2010

Windows 7 Upgrade Isn’t All Gravy

Windows 7 logoI decided to give the gift of Windows 7 for the holidays this year. My in-laws had the unfortunate luck of replacing their old desktop with Windows ME to a new computer from Dell with Windows Vista 32-bit Home Premium. It seems they have leapfrogged to the worst OS ever released from the previous worst OS ever released. The fact they kept Windows ME running for almost five years should deserve some kind of metal.

I am running the license-unencumbered Windows 7 beta on my wife’s machine, and I have been fairly pleased with the results. On this positive experience, I took the plunge, and bought the Windows 7 Professional 64-bit upgrade. Lets break this down for a moment. There are (at least) four editions of Windows 7:

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  • Home Basic
  • Home Premium
  • Professional
  • Enterprise (formerly Business?)
  • Ultimate

The good old comparison page over at Microsoft indicates that each “step up” in version encompasses all the functionalities of the lesser versions, plus some more stuff. This is a lie.

While this may be true for features, the upgrade paths seem to have been determined with a dart board (or more likely greed). Looking at upgrade paths for Windows Vista only, we can see the following:

From Windows Vista (SP1, SP2) Upgrade to Windows 7
Business Professional, Enterprise, Ultimate
Enterprise Enterprise
Home Basic Home Basic, Home Premium, Ultimate
Home Premium Home Premium, Ultimate
Ultimate Ultimate

If you were like me, you may have sprung for the extras in the “Professional” edition, but stopped short of “Ultimate” since the features it offers over Professional are pretty lame. My in-laws machine is currently running Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit edition, and you can see that by spending more on Professional then Home Premium, I have lost my ability to upgrade. Thats right, you pay more and get less.

This has led to some extravagant solutions. The easiest is to go buy the Windows 7 Ultimate Upgrade, but refunds on opened software are non-existent. Plus, I do not want to give any more money to a company that I feel has already cheated me. Another option is to use a utility to change which edition you have an upgrade disc for. Windows 7 ships with all editions on each disc, and this tool will let you change which one you have. Alternately, you can download a digital copy of a different edition for free.

This doesn’t affect the product key though. A Windows 7 Professional key will only activate the same edition.

To upgrade from Home Professional, I would have to acquire a Windows 7 Home Professional Upgrade disc using one of the methods above. I would then have to install Windows 7 Home Professional, and then use the the Windows Anytime Upgrade to do an in place upgrade from Windows 7 Home Professional to Windows 7 Professional. Then, I can use my Windows 7 Professional product key to activate my copy.

Navigate all that, and keep in mind to watch out for 32-bit and 64-bit since they are not cross-upgradeable, or interchangeable whatsoever. The RAM requirements are even different.

So much for Windows 7 being easy.

Posted in Hardware, Software, Thoughts, Windows.

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By Ben Simpson – December 31, 2009

Google Set for World Domination

googleI don’t know what has happened in the last six or so months, but my relationship with Google has drastically changed. It started out with their superior searching - it wasn’t quick for me to ditch everything else in favor of Google’s search engine. When Gmail came out, I remember laughing about how excited people were to get a coveted invitation. To me they were a search company who was using their name to advertise what should have been a sub-par email solution.  Now, I am a fan of Gmail.

Next, I remember using Google Maps, then Google Docs. Then came Google Picasa, and I was clued into Google Analytics.

Now is the point in my story where we arrive at Google Calendar. The interface was really good, and I noticed that whatever task I wanted to do always seemed to be right where I was looking for it - no doubt the product of heavy usability testing. When I compared it to Outlook webmail’s calendar interface, I remember laughing at how pathetic Microsoft’s offering was.

This is when I reached critical mass with Google’s products. Quickly following came Reader, the Chrome browser, my new Android phone (a Motorola Cliq), Listen, Wave, Checkout, iGoogle, and Products!

I think that Google is the only company that can provide a consistent, integrated, cohesive experience that rivals what Apple offers its users. I am at the point now where if Google moved to a subscription based model, I would almost undoubtedly pay whatever the monthly fee was.

Congrats Google on continuously creating, and updating solid, tested, quality products!

Posted in Computers, Hardware, Open-source, Personal, Software, Thoughts, Web.

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By Ben Simpson – December 11, 2009