Grand Canyon
Sep.02.2010
Awesome experience. Perfect weather. Hugging my son in front of the Grand Canyon: priceless.
Behind Bars
Aug.31.2010
Note to self. Being a Canadian and dressing like a Mexican does not go down so well in Arizona. Particularly if the passport is back at the hotel.
Netbooks Cannot Fly
Aug.31.2010
A quick post from the great southwest. We are having simply a ton of fun down in the desert. Weather is perfect. Swimming, golfing, working out, seeing the sites, doing some photography. All in all, life does not get much better than this.
Except for Windows 7 Starter Edition.
I had packed my little Acer netbook — which runs Ubuntu — into checked luggage. I thought it would be okay. But netbooks cannot fly. At least not this one. When I took it out of the protective case, it had died. A paperweight.
Unfortunately, with all of the photography work, I have to store the images somewhere. And I can use really, really expensive portable storage devices for photography or I can use a cheap netbook with a portable hard disk.
I picked up a nifty little netbook from a Best Buy here in Arizona. A Toshiba NB255 netbook.
Sadly, it runs Windows 7 Starter Edition. What a mess. Aside from being crippled — unable to even change the wallpaper on the desktop — it dies on anything other than basic web browsing. I know. It is a netbook. It is not supposed to be a performance machine.
To load and preview a 25MB RAW image takes well over a minute under Windows 7 Starter Edition. To do the same task on the old machine — which was a lower performing machine — took less than a few seconds under Ubuntu.
I do not have time to put down Ubuntu on this box until I get back home. Although I have learned two things: do not pack netbooks and do not run Windows 7 Starter Edition on a netbook.
En Route
Aug.28.2010
We are in the Red Carpet Lounge in Denver, Colorado waiting for our connecting flight to Phoenix.
Lorraine scored a first class seat on the Toronto-Denver leg. We had used our points to fly front of the bus but the first leg did not have 3 open seats. At check-in, the gate attendant was kind enough to offer the one remaining open first-class seat. Maybe United is not such a bad airline after all.
Our arrival time is around 12:30pm — west coast. All in, about 11 hours of travel time. Long day. After we check-in to the resort, I suspect we will crash poolside for the balance of the day.
Oh, and wake up at 3am tomorrow morning. It will take a few days to adjust to the time zone change.
Back In School
Aug.25.2010
I was back in school yesterday. Presenting to an MBA class at Queen’s University in Kingston. The presentation itself was timed for about an hour and then I left it open for questions.
Lots of questions.
I was on my feet for another 90 minutes or so responding to a battery of questions from the class.
The whole experience brought back memories of the years I spent teaching. I so enjoyed the dynamics of an actively engaged class. It has been over 25 years since I left the classroom. I’ve had a number of opportunities to act as a guest lecturer over the past 25 years and I always thoroughly enjoy the experience. That said, I do not recall a class quite so attentive and focused as this one. Very active in the Q&A session. And some great questions.
Westward Ho
Aug.23.2010
In a few days we will be heading south to Arizona for a vacation break. First stop Toronto. Then flights from Toronto to Denver and Denver to Phoenix.
The weather will be hot in Arizona. During the hottest part of the day, we will stay close to the resort pool. Or inside an air conditioned building.
Fortunately for me, landscape photography is best performed very early in the morning or very late in the day. Less heat. The desert sky will also be more varied this time of year with cloud cover dropping in from time to time. I hope to see some new locations on this trip and I hope to capture some great images along the way.
We have been busily planning the trip and getting ourselves organized. Packing lists, budgets.
However, as much as I try to pack lightly, I fail miserably. Photography requires camera bodies, lenses, tripods, batteries, storage cards, laptop. To maintain electronic communication and to take advantage of digital media, the iPad and iPhone. Wandering and driving around requires a GPS. I have to take along cases, cables and chargers. Clothes and shoes for hiking, biking, exercising, swimming and walking. Reading glasses, sun glasses. And more. Hard to keep the luggage below 50 pounds.
But the memories will last a lifetime. We will be doing a few special things over the course of the week and a surprise just for my youngest son.
Really looking forward to the trip.
TWX-35
Aug.19.2010
Looking back on the slide rule from this post, I also remembered that I did use a computer in high school. In Grade 9. Our school had an agreement with the Illinois Institute of Technology for timesharing services. I learned my first computer language that year. IITRAN. The only access to the Illinois timesharing computer was through a single Bell teletype machine in one of the classrooms, a TWX-35. Also known as an ASR 35 Teletype. Similar to the one pictured below although we had a built-in rotary dial telephone on the right side.
I created software programs on long lengths of yellow paper tape with punched holes. After login, I would bring up the compiler, stream the paper tape, and wait for the output to be printed on the teletype. And, whenever I could grab time on the TWX-35, I would play a game. The very first computer game I ever played. A moon landing simulation. Captured and presented on a typewriter style printhead no less.
Ah, yes. Those were the days.
Slow Recovery
Aug.18.2010
Either a slow recovery or perhaps a chronic condition. I am hoping it is the former and not the latter.
The onset of a different kind of back pain emerged late June, roughly eight weeks ago.
Having had a history of back pain, it is almost impossible for me to point to a specific cause. Too much sitting? Too much cycling? Too much lifting? Not enough core conditioning? I think it may have been a combination of bad posture at work and a bad fit on the bike. But I really do not know.
The trainer that I have been working with is without mercy. He pounds and batters this old frame of mine with all of these new exercises. I am getting increasingly uber-fit because he is an awesome trainer. But, is the training making a difference to the back?
For the most part I can sleep through the night without distraction. Mornings are still difficult. Overall I feel “stiff” in the mornings and my back in particular feels that way. That could be due to all the new exercises and stretching actions. The sciatic pain is, for the most part, gone although I do sense it lingering in the background when I move a certain way. Not the same stabbing pain that traveled down my right leg, mind you. Just lurking, underneath the surface, waiting to send a reminder that something, somewhere is not quite right. Of course, much of it is likely in my head.
The lower right part of the back is still “tender”. Certain movements will trigger pain but I can ride the bike, hard. I can do a challenging core conditioning exercise session with my trainer, hard. And I have no issues with back pain.
Where the back pain becomes very bothersome is in a car. 15 to 20 minutes and I begin to experience discomfort.
We have a lot of travel ahead of us next week. Hours in cars, hours in planes, hours in trains. I hope the back can withstand the demands of travel.
New Laptop
Aug.17.2010
My youngest son will soon be back to school. He is required to have a laptop for his studies and although we are a Mac household, I was a bit concerned about spending a lot of money on a machine for school, particularly for a thirteen year old boy.
So he is now the proud owner of a 15-inch Dell Inspiron running Windows 7 Home Premium edition. The machine seems to be well made and I’m sure that it will serve him well.
However, it did make me think about how much life has changed. When I went into Grade 8, I needed to bring a slide ruler, not a laptop. As my son may never have seen one, this is what it looks like:
I have collected pictures of some of the most stunning recording studios in the world and you can travel through the set by clicking 
