Jay Shirley's blog

Vox Closing

Now I'm over at TypePad, but really I haven't been doing much personal blogging anyway. My home over at Cold Hard Code is also stagnant, because there is just lacking motivation to continue to blog I suppose.  I write plenty, but not things I expect to post online. Vox permissions helped with that.

Unfortunately the rest of Vox hurt it. Vox never had a community feel to it, and it was always filled with spam. The privacy controls were great, though. I'll miss Vox, and I think it was a really good product that was left to die too early and was never properly marketed or nurtured.

I think if there were easy "Block & Report for Spam" links it would make the whole experience a lot better. Oh well, TypePad it is!

Don't bother with FoxSoccer.TV

FoxSoccer.TV used to use Vividas as the platform, and while it wasn't spectacular it worked.  It didn't work well, but it worked.

Then, come August they shut off the service and replace it with a countdown to August 15th.  All new things, and now it is hosted by RayV.com.  I was very hopeful that this would yield a better user experience, and bring in many improvements.

I wouldn't really know, because they completely removed my access.  After complaining, many times, they gave me a 2 week account and assured me that I would get my original access restored before the 2 weeks was up.  This was at the end of August.

I still don't have access.  Their support is absolutely terrible.  Every email about my account yields, "We'll restore your access in a few days".  This has been going on since September 7th.  A full month of "in a few days" and I still have no access.

The part that is chafing is that for the 2 weeks that I had access, there were no really decent games going on anyway (I missed the FA Community Shield, and it was in the season opener of the EPL).  The games that I did catch were of fairly low quality, anyway.

Vividas and RayV video streaming was pretty similar.  The user experience for finding a game was the same, but the new design is quite ugly.

All in all, you're paying for a service that will give you the worst support I've ever experienced and it is significantly reduced from Setanta-i.  Setanta-i is $14.99 a month, FoxSoccer.TV is $14.95.  The other thing is that the "Season Pack" expires May 31st, and it isn't prorated if you subscribe now.  This makes very little sense.

Apparently that extra 5¢ goes towards crafting a user experience that isn't absolute garbage.

So, if you're looking for a TV over IP provider for watching soccer, pick Setanta-i or just grab torrents.

To content producers, really think about using RayV's services.  Their claims of 24/7 support are greatly exaggerated, as all my emails require at least 24 (usually 48+) hours to be answered.  The answers are also out of context most of the time (asking me for the same information, etc.)  I will certainly never subscribe to any RayV service again, just because the terrible support.

Smiling on the Job

The Telegraph has a story about a smile-meter being deployed in Japan (for railway workers on the Keihin electric express).  It's interesting to see the discussion on the internet and the immediate reactions.  I think a lot of people who react negatively aren't familiar with Japanese culture (or, rather, in particular only familiar with Western culture).

Most reactions I see tend to be along the lines of opposition, labeling the company as oppressive or draconian.  Remarks along those lines are often times added with, "give them a raise, and they'll actually be happy."

There are, however, some other points of view.  Southwest trains their employees to smile and appear happy.  This affects the bottom-line numbers, as well fewer complaints and incidences.

My view is somewhat more meta on this.

You are paid to do a job and to do it satisfactorily.  A definitive metric of any customer-facing job is how your customers feel when they leave.  In general, these positions are temporal.  An employee shows up at a designated time, and leaves at the designated time.  These points are not foreign concepts in any developed nation, regardless of culture.

In this scenario, the requirements of the job are adjusted.  To do the job satisfactorily, you are expected to present a happy face to the customers.  In my view, this is no different than a tidy uniform, honorific greetings and scripted speeches.  All of those are customary, but adding in a smile somehow invites spirited debate.

If an individual is expected to do a job for an 8 hour shift, and that is customer facing, listing a smile as a requirement is reasonable.  It doesn't cost any money, cause any harm or have any negative affects.  People commenting they should get a raise may end up getting that, if they smile first.  More profit for the business can trickle down to the employees, and the smile may boost profits by one or two percent.  Simple change for huge gains.

So why the debate?

Because Western cultures are sarcastic bastards that love frowns and terrible customer service, that's why.

(I'm kidding.  Mostly)

Learning to windsurf, part I

I suppose it could be my age, or maybe having kids.  Whatever the cause, I'm finding myself eager to try all the things I told myself I would try as I grew up.  One of those ambitious goals was set probably 15 years ago when I first went camping in the Columbia Gorge.  I'm not even sure if I was in my teenage years yet, but I remember seeing the windsurfers around Hood River and being mesmerized.  It was my first time seeing something like that, and it quite clearly showed a version of sailing that didn't strike me as so boring.

At the time then, and all subsequent trips, it just wasn't an option to learn to windsurf.  I promptly forgot about my desire to learn how.

Last week, there was a ridiculously overpriced "Spend the Day with Thomas" event at Hood River.  It was, as I mentioned, ridiculously overpriced.  The benefit of going, aside from my son having a great time outside the expensive train, were two fold.  First we consumed delicious ice cream products from Mike's Ice Cream.  I also saw a huge group of people windsurfing and kite boarding.

My interest was immediately renewed and I immediately exclaimed my desire to learn how to windsurf.  After a brief discussion with my wife, it was agreed upon.  I shall learn.

After a google hunt, I have lessons scheduled for the Fourth of July weekend.

My first lesson was on the 4th, starting at 10am.  The flags around the learning area clearly showed learning to harness the indefatigable power of the wind would be difficult, considering there was no wind.  The dry land simulation worked as well as it could, without any wind a lot of it was made more difficult.

Entering the water I quickly found out how wobbly things are.  My experience with snowboarding and slacklining was helpful, but the slipperiness of the board and shape made it difficult to find sure footing.  As such, I fell rather frequently in the beginning.

The actual sailing aspect of it was very simple.  You either turn upwind or downwind.  You sail in a zig-zag line.  I could tack effectively, and had at least one successful jibe.

All in all, I feel almost disappointed at how easy it is to understand the mechanics of sailing.  It was much easier than expected.  I'm at a point where I can understand the technique and what is supposed to be done, and just have to convince my bodily mechanics to make it happen.  In other words, it's time for more practice.

So, off I go for day 2.  Where I will be practicing jibing and have much stronger winds.

(Of note, I did have one rather "good fall" as the instructor put it.  I stepped back and misjudged where my foot was and completely missed the board.  The second amusing fall was when I was attempting a jibe, tripped over the mast and caught my foot between the sail and the board as I fell off.  Good times)

My desire for "sharecropping"

I'm not a green advocate, and I'm certainly no environmentalist.  My car gets an average of 17mpg in the city (though I have hyper-miled it to 28mpg over a 3 hour drive just for experimentation) -- and I'd happily sacrifice fuel economy for performance.

However, I am environmentally conscious.  I think more people need to think in these terms, and make smart choices that are individually responsible.  A part of this is that with every environmentalist action, such as driving a Hybrid, there is a counter side.  The hidden cost of being green, such as the heavy material manufacture of batteries, that often times can be more damaging than the burning of fossil fuels.

As part of this idea of responsible and eyes-wide-open environmental awareness, I have noticed that a lot of new developments take an approach of bulldozing the entire building area; often times disrupting the soil in negative ways.  Then, after the buildings are all done, trees and greenery are planted to replace what was destroyed.  I'm not a civil engineer, but it seems goofy to me.  I know it is harder to build around the trees, but it certainly isn't impossible.  If you only cleared away the land that you needed, the ecosystem remains better in tact and thus healthier.  Maybe it's a 50% increase in cost, maybe not.  I couldn't find any real numbers on it, but it seems tragic that it happens.

After this thought, and reading some article that I cannot find about "sharecropping" in San Francisco, I think this is the way to go.

Let me pontificate:

I live on a not-quite 7000 square foot parcel of land.  Of that 7000 square feet, the buildings are approximately 2000 square feet of it.  Then the cement for the driveway and patios, I have probably close to 2000 square feet available.  I don't like lawns, and I certainly don't like maintenance.  I have severe hayfever and it is really prohibitive.  Even without the hayfever, I wouldn't enjoy the maintenance of landscaping.

Having a decent front lawn is all that is required, both in terms of my own goals and those of the HOA.  This leaves a fairly significant portion of the backyard available for "Other" usages.

It seems an admirable goal to have a community based garden and farming service that distributes the land requirements for farming.  I would pay for this service, and expect to have "credits" for the land available, and a portion of the produce from all the farms.  I don't, however, want to participate in the "hands on" -- as I would suspect many of my neighbors don't either.

My land could grow plenty more vegetables than my family could consume.  If my entire neighborhood of several hundred homes, all with some levels (varying from just 200 square feet upwards to 1000+) participated, and a crew of experienced farmers just went from location to location, it seems we could have successful "suburban" farming.

I have some reservations about it, but it seems like a good idea that I would love to see take off.  My concerns that I can't answer yet are:

• Rain water management/Irrigation -- I wouldn't want to deprive larger farms of valuable water.
• Harvest costs -- it seems it would be difficult to do a full harvest, but if you spread out each plot of land over one day, a single person could cover 365 plots (reasonably).  This seems a suitable scaling, but I don't know much about farming.
• Surplus delivery/accounting -- auditing this system and verifying everybody gets their fare share, the people doing the work get paid, and nobody "steals" would be very difficult but easily doable.

Japanese Railway Operators are fallible, and don't commit suicide

As a cultural introduction, there are several sacred things in Japan.  One, of the most paramount importance, is the railway operators.  These are the descendants of the Gods that created Japan, and are infallible.  Rigorous training, punctuality to the second and clean white gloves are their attributes.

With these gloves, there is a verbose and ritualistic pointing routine.  I believe it is them summoning the spirit of their conductor ancestors to guide the train using divine wind, and always arrive at the next station on time.  I'd love to get a video of this ritual, but I am unable to find any so I'm forced to believe that you can't capture it on film.  Perhaps if you do, the Gods destroy your camera.  I have a new camera, so I don't want to test fate.

Now that you understand the secret society of train conductors, I can begin my story.

I was scheduled to arrive in Tokyo on Monday morning at some point, so on Sunday my mother-in-law accompanied me to the local station to buy tickets.  This would ensure I take the most efficient route and wait for the least amount of time.

The station attendant arranges schedule, and deftly delivers the tickets with instructions on when and where to board.  I am to take the 8:38 local express train to Kyoto Station, and arrive at 9:00am to transfer to the 9:16 Nozomi 4 N700 Shinkansen.

Fantastic.

Monday morning, over coffee, my mother in law informs me that it seems there is a local train that arrives at our station at 8:37 and I should be careful to not get on that one.  That would put me in Kyoto around 9:20, too late to get on the Shinkansen.

When arriving at our local station, I see on the arrivals board the local train at 8:37 and another local train at 8:57.  There is no express.

I wait to see if anybody on the platform is going to wait for the next non-existent express, which they don't.  I walk back up to the counter and fortunately see the same guy.  In my poor attempts at learning the Japanese language, I never once thought I'd have to explain that I wasn't able to board a non-existent train and I needed to realign my entire trip.

However, through gesticulation and kid-words (でんしゃ　ないね） I got the message across.  I explained to him that the 8:38 train is only for the weekend, and when he planned my trip he was looking at the weekend local train schedule and weekday Shinkansen schedule.

The reeling back and flushed face was enough to tell me that he understood the message, and his error.

While he apologized profusely, he didn't commit seppuku. 

I feel I was misled, but I got my tickets and made it to Tokyo very quickly and efficiently.

Where has customer service gone? Not to United!

For those in the know, you may know I'm in Japan.  For those not in that category, now you know.  Now that we've got that out of the way, I'd like to write about my trip here.

To begin, a context enlightening preamble.  My mother-in-law, who is awesome, stays with us for extended periods of time (months in a row) and it is a huge help.  She's fantastic to have around the house, and the kids love her.  Our trip to Japan coincides with a return visit for her, so we'll all be catching the same flight back to the US.  That will make the 15 hours of travel easier. Having another adult to man the kids is very good thing.

She asks me to book her flight, and I happily oblige.  I create the itinerary on United.com and get the thumbs up, and then attempt to buy it.  This works fine, up to the payment page when it doesn't allow me to enter a Japanese billing address.  There isn't clear messaging on this site, but after a couple clicks I figure out that I have to go to United Japan's website.

Excellent, I think, as I login and pull up her saved itinerary.  I click through to purchase it, and it simply errors out with some helpful messaging you might find on a 404 Not Found page (such as updating bookmarks).  I'm assuming this is because their programmers just don't care about their job, because handling errors is generally simple.

I recreate the itinerary, or so I thought.  I picked the wrong flight (fortunately for us, on her return to Japan) that had her out far too early to catch the SFO connection.

I figure that a quick call to United to explain the situation, and also to request the bassinet available to us, will get everything in order.

This is where United gets even worse.

First, the wretched and unhelpful woman on the phone apparently put the request for the bassinet in a drawer, then set the desk on fire.  Nobody had any idea what so ever about a bassinet request or anything else to assist us.  Fantastic.  Fortunately, the flight attendants (well, the Japanese) were very helpful in getting us situated.  On the flight, they bumped a woman at the bulkhead to business and setup my wife and baby there with the bassinet.  I'm very happy about this, which helped alleviate the frustration about the phone jockey.

The frustration which was hugely amplified by her unapologetic lack of care about the United.com dying on purchasing, and my subsequent struggles trying to change the flight to the intended purchase.  She simply informed me that it would be around $250 (I think $282, I wasn't really paying attention to the number) to change the ticket.  I told her that was ridiculous, as I could buy a round-trip ticket just for that leg for much cheaper (since I do the PDX-SFO flight on occasion, I know that I can buy it for $150 on sale and $200 regularly.)

Her response: If you do that, you cannot continue your trip unless you board the original flight.

Go United!  This is how you keep customers, fo' sure!  I think I'll be recommending the NWA direct PDX to NRT flight, since it is around the same price (for PDX to KIX).

This trip has also exposed me to the privilege of watching two other stewardflight attendants snap angrily at passengers.  One instance was because the woman put discarded chewing gum in the bottom of a plastic cup.  Seriously.

Airlines aren't losing money because of the economy, or security concerns.  They're losing money because they treat their passengers like cattle.  A smile and friendly service can make any seat feel like business class.

I don't think I'll be flying United anymore, perhaps a time or two more to use up my miles.

Tony Shirley-Tecumseh, Rest in Peace.

Today I am writing a message I never thought I would write, and wish I never had to.  I'm writing it for myself, and for anybody who reads it; perhaps so they converse with their family and re-prioritize their lives and habits.

A week ago, on February 18th, 2009 I lost my nephew, Tony Shirley-Tecumseh.  He was 2 years and 10 months old.  His death was sudden and tragic. Witnessed by his entire family, including his sister who is not quite 7 years old.  I keep trying to tell myself that the colors of the world are brighter after traversing the darkest valleys, but I never knew the depth of darkness that people must endure. 

I can only hope that this story can inspire and remind the parents of the world that they have the most precious gifts around.  For now, I've witnessed and experienced the worst days imaginable, and I now patiently wait for time to heal the broken hearts.

Tony

Tony choked, and there isn't anything profound to add.  More than 2,800 people die from choking every year, the vast majority of them children under 3 years old.  If you have kids, please be safe and reduce the chances of choking.  While in Tony's case, even having the most advanced first aid care would not have made any difference, please go and take first aid and CPR courses -- other cases will be different, and you may be able to save a life.  This is especially important if you're around children.  Being prepared is the first step to preventing tragedy. 

The day before Tony died, I started the first day of a first aid course for adults, children and infants.  I'm now shocked and ashamed it took me until my own son was 2 and a half years old to enroll.  Unfortunately, I had to cancel my course to attend to my family.  I don't know how I will muster the strength to continue and re-enroll, but I will do it.

The most important message of all is to just experience life.  Please, I beg of you all, even more so if you are a parent, partake in lives of the children around you.  Partake in their favorite activities.  Play catch, draw a picture, go ride a bike.  If you can, video tape it.  My brother fortunately had a lot of video footage of his family, and it was a splendid but difficult reminder of the fantastic little boy we lost.  I didn't get to know Tony as well as I wanted, and the videos help to keep his memories fresh, and enhance the knowledge I have of the little guy.

To bring about any positives from this situation is, at the moment, the only solace I can take.  While nothing will change the situation, I do take a significant amount of comfort in knowing that some parents will be forever altered after hearing this story, and their depth and understanding of love is increased, and their responsibilities as parents are bettered.

Please cherish the time you have with your children.

We all die someday.  The greatest tragedy in life is a parent burying a child. The innocence and blissful naivety is never tainted, but the bright flame of their life does not fully develop and mature, affecting everyone they encounter along life's journey.  Tony was a beautiful child, with such a tender and giving heart and blissful spirit.  The world would have been better for knowing him.

In the wake of any tragedy, I think it is important to try to learn lessons and turn the grief and anguish into actionable motivation.

My motivation is to encourage anybody that is moved by this story, in any way, to make a monetary donation to the Child's Play Charity.  Please help the kids who are holding on to life, or fighting for it, or simply waiting out the rest of their days.  Do it for me, do it for my little adorable nephew, do it for my brother.  Do it for the kids around you.  This charity deserves it.

Child's Play

The reasons for this specific charity are two fold. First, because I believe it to be a good charity with a worthy cause.  I've met the people behind it, and believe them to be of the same tender and warm spirit that Tony possessed. They demonstrate the rare trait of true and selfless generosity.

Their goal is worthy; children in the hospitals need distractions and something to bring joy.

The second reason is simple and personal.  My brother enjoys video games.  My little nephew would struggle to keep up with his sister on Wii Fit and loved to watch them play.

Rest in peace, Tony.  We will all miss you.

PSA: Tires and Snow, they matter!

This winter has dropped record snowfall for December in our area, and while the amount of snowfall isn't exactly impressive it is very refreshing.  I certainly miss the snow, and am enjoying the White Christmas.  However, in this area, snow is a much more dangerous prospect than in other places.  I figure it is the same in the coastal areas of California, where there is also little chance of accumulated snow.

The thing that amazes me is that the Pacific Northwest, and Portland in particular, are very green.  Lots of hippies, loving their biodiesel and hybrid vehicles.  What amuses me more so, is that in spite of attempts to be green, nearly everybody here drives everywhere, and I rarely come across people walking as a form of transportation (as an example of this, the local shopping center didn't even have a way to get from the street sidewalk to the store without walking on the drive way for about a year).  With the snowfall, I've seen people take up their cross country skiis and heartily approve.  However, these are the same people that in good weather I never see outside of a car.  Even if they're going less than a mile to the grocery store.

Now, combine that with the fact that it seems the green is only outwardly noticeable things.  Bumper stickers that say, "I run on veggies" and glistening "Hybrid" or "FlexFuel" badges.  Yet, keeping the tires aired up and in good condition seem to be too minor of a concern, and we get people who drive around on bald, underinflated tires.

To connect this with the snow, last night I dug out the 3rd stuck car in front of my house and after the first attempt at getting the woman going I noticed that her tires were leaving very little, if any, tread impressions on the snow.  I then looked at her tires, and they were very nearly bald.  It was very little surprise at that point why she was getting stuck every 5 feet.

After digging her out another 2 times, followed by watching her get stuck 3 feet up the road, my wife finally and helpfully tells the woman about my experience with this cold, white, slick stuff.  She says I can hop in and try my hand at getting her car out, and I have very little problem with getting it going.  Pure driver skill, but the car was more like a snowmobile at times than a car.  There was absolutely no traction on the front, and I was at the mercy of hitting the right ruts and keeping my momentum going.

So, please, be kind to your neighbors:

• Leave your chains on if you're going through snow and don't know how.
• Keep your tires in good condition.  This demands rotation schedules and proper checking.  I compared this woman's tires to the back, and the back had probably 50-60% tread and the fronts were gone.
• Check your air pressure!

Aside from the safety aspect, it really is more "green".  Keeping your tires properly inflated reduces drag and friction against the road, which increases fuel economy.  It also increases longevity of your tires.  The rotation is even more important, as it balances wear across all the tires and keeps everything uniform.

A car with 50,000 miles should not have bald front tires.  Do everybody a favor, and go look at your tires.  You don't want to get stuck and inconvenience a good samaritan with something so easy to avoid.

Tom & Jerry: Snowpocalypse Deux

As I sit here enjoying the snow (far more than I should) and seriously contemplating a move to lands that get covered in snow and have more desirable summer months, my thoughts inevitably drift off to sitting in front of a window while I watch the snow come down and drinking a Tom & Jerry.  It amazes me how few people (especially around here) know this fantastic drink, and I am almost starting to view it as a public service to introduce people to it.

Fortunately I tend to hang out with AARP members, so I don't have to worry about the legalities of it.

Two years ago, right after my son was born, we were pretty much holed up in the house through the winter months.  As such, I got very well skilled at making Tom & Jerry batter.  I felt it prudent to blog about this, and was just googling to see if I can find the old recipe I used when lo and behold, my long-forgotten post that I wrote is on the first page when you search for "tom and jerry batter".

Now I have my recipe, got a good chuckle out of the blog entry (Mark Foley references always make me laugh) and have more reason to trudge my way down to the store to pick up some eggs so I can make my batter and feed the family breakfast tomorrow.

(Now, more embarrassing was that title "A drink for the dreary season" inspired me to click on it, thinking "This recipe will be awesome!" without realizing I was going to my own Vox posting)