Glenn's Daily Script » Odds n Ends

Garage Door Opener

Glenn — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 02:35:22 +0000

I had to replace our Garage Door Opener today.

When we came home from dinner and piano practice last night, our garage door wouldn’t open.� After examining it, I could see that the gears were not engaging.� I adjusted the force controls on the existing opener but that didn’t engage the gears.� Without ripping the existing opener open, I can only make a guess that some gears were stripped or the clutch (assuming a clutch model) burned out.� Regardless, the unit was no longer functional.� The bummer was that this was not that old of a unit though it was certainly past warranty.� As I’ve now read about openers, they look like they last 10-15 years so my 2-4 years is not a good unit.� The brand was a LiftMaster.

I decided to go with Sears Craftsman.� I installed one of these units in our home in California and it worked great� and went up great.� The instructions were clear and since it was a replacement, the installation was pretty simple.� I took down the old unit (the first of two times I needed Kathy’s help – getting the unit down).� I assembled the new unit.� I installed the unit to the header (the last of two times I needed Kathy’s help – helping me angle the unit to get the pin in that holds the travel bar to the header).� I installed the unit to the ceiling and wired it up to the button controller and the safety monitors for the door.� I programmed the remotes for the cars (we have small key chain remotes coming by the end of the week in the mail!).� I adjusted for travel and force and viola!� It was done and working.� All told, it took a smidge over 4 hours with just me (and the two times I needed an extra pair of hands).

I did go with a slightly over powered unit.� The old unit was 1/2 HP and I upped it to a 3/4 HP for the new unit.� My reasoning was that while I didn’t think the door necessarily warranted it even though it was insulated (added a bit of weight though it was surely lighter that the door we replaced which was a solid wood door) but instead weather changes may cause the door and track and spring to play tough on how the movement acts so a little more umph! would help.� I hope that my logic pays off for the long haul.

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Garage Door Opener

It’s Talk Like a Pirate Day!

Glenn — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 09:21:55 +0000

Arrrgh! Matey! Swab the Deck befor’ I run ye thru!

Well, what would you like to know on Talk Like a Pirate Day? Well, your Pirate Name of Course!!!

Mine is Captain John Cash and Kathy’s is Dirty Mary Rackman.

What’s yours?

To Retrospect or Not?

Glenn — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 17:35:53 +0000

I was having a moment this morning while I was working out. All in all it was pretty wierd. I think it was because, having a moment to think while I’m focused on working out and while I have a movie blasting (which I always do) just seems unlikely. That is too many things that just require my attention. On the other-hand, maybe that’s the best moment to have some retrospection.

I was thinking back on my teenage years, more specifically my high school years. To me, these were some good years. For a long time I thought of these as some of the best of my life but then again, I’ve had some other good times too so maybe they weren’t the best but they were good. Maybe more accurately, they were the defining years of my life.

In high school, I was many things at least as I remember it.

I was a geek in an old school way because this was quite a bit before computers so being a geek meant that I was smart – among the top of my class in many subjects (not all cause there were subjects I didn’t find interesting but most). Being a geek also meant being into technology in general, even “nerdy” stuff.

One of the nerdy things I did was be a member of the audio visual club. This gave me access to technologies that were very new such as VCR’s which homes didn’t have yet and video cameras which normal people definitely didn’t have. We video taped sporting events for the sports teams. This also helped me know the sports teams.

Being smart meant taking AP courses and enrolling in college prep courses so I was around a lot of other smart people. One of the best times was in my Chemistry class where 3 other guys (2 were on the basketball team) and I were always lab partners and we just had fun doing all the labs and experiments. This class is what motivated me to go on to get a BS in Chemistry.

Via my friends in Chemistry and via my contacts through the AV club and also due to the fact that I had some surprising physical strength, I had a pretty friendly relationship with many football players and basketball players (these were our 2 major sports at the school).

I was also a member of our local Church teen choir and many of my friends from that were members of the various musical programs at school. I even was in one of the high school talent programs on year with one friend (it was very embarrassing).

I guess my retrospection was probably about what I was watching on TV. It was a teen angst movie which shows that all the different factions at high school are separate and very alienated. My high school life was very different than most of these movies show and in fact nearly polar opposite. It’s not to say there weren’t soap opera moments but it’s not the movies where jocks pound geeks.

Just some thoughts.

Apple’s new iLife ’08 Software

Glenn — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 10:26:36 +0000

As I’ve mentioned before, I’m a Mac switcher and have been using a Mac predominately for a couple of years. I have two Mac systems I use for two different purposes.

My main system is a big, beefy Mac Pro (quad-core system, lots of memory, lots of disc) and my secondary system is an older PowerBook (G4 laptop). I use the MacPro for everything including email, news reading, blog posting, web sight updates, some programing, and movie creation and various other things. My PowerBook is my travel machine but I also use it for some beginner music creation.

Regarding movie creation, I’ve been struggling with this. I’m not sure whether this is a motivational issue, a talent issue, or a software usability issue. Regardless, I’ve been playing around with Final Cut Express though I haven’t been inspired to get my increasing amount of tapes processed.

Now that Apple has released a new iMovie with a simple interface, I’m going to try that. I don’t ever expect to produce Hollywood style movies so it may work for me and it does seem easy given their demo’s that I’ve looked at. I’m kind of excited about it. Also it has some really simple interfaces on putting it on the web and iPod’s – very cool!

Regarding music creation, I’m still learning with this. The industry standard is ProTools and I have ProTools LE which came with some recording hardware I bought (Digi). Again, I’m not sure that I’m ever going to go much beyond a hobby-est here so Garageband sounds like it could fit. I’ve also tested and Garageband recognizes my Digi hardware so that is a good first thing. It allows me to burn raw, MP3, AAC – all very cool!

I look forward to testing these software products.

History versus Religion

Glenn — Sun, 08 Jul 2007 21:02:49 +0000

Ok, my family and I were in Church this morning and I couldn’t help but think of a series of podcasts that I have been listening to lately.

The podcasts are available from Stanford University (see iTunesU at the iTunes Store for free downloads) and are called the Historical Jesus by Professor Thomas Sheehan (he’s very interesting to listen to so I highly recommend this series of lectures). Over the last 15 years or so, I’ve actually followed a bunch of the research into the historical data over Jesus’s actions, stories, and words so me listening to this isn’t as out of the blue as it might seem.

In my wondering thoughts, it occurred to me that in the centuries that it’s taken the many different groups to create the widely inconsistent myth that has become Jesus, that the religious institutions have overlooked perhaps the biggest of his (Jesus’) teachings. As most of the historians who’ve covered this topic seem to agree, Jesus (or more accurately Yeshua) primarily taught inclusion. This meant inclusion of all including those who society would like to exclude; those who parts of society would like to exclude; those who groups in society would like to exclude.

Quick aside: it seems based on my listening to this podcast that one of his other main teaching themes was about the “Kingdom of God on Earth” which centered on living life as if we were with God now – “do unto others…”. A subtext to that also seemed to be that God did not need our attention but rather we needed his which was a big change from other deities of the time who required constant worship. Of course, we’ve totally ignored this last bit.

Instead, these religious institutions have locked onto parts of the myth that are not truly part of history (as generally agreed upon by historians) such as whether the end of the world is near and we need to prepare (apocalyptic teachings) or resurrection or whether Jesus is the son of God. Again, all of these were added later by people/groups who wanted to build up the mythos of Jesus rather than report accurately on the history of Jesus.

I’m not saying that running through these mythos elements are either good or bad. Mythos as separated from the actual history is fine. The mythos elements are fabulous teaching tools, in fact.

My big issue, point of this post, is that the Church’s and religious institutions have missed (or maybe more accurately, way under utilize) maybe the one key element that is from history and also fits wonderfully into the mythos. Include all. Don’t exclude anyone!

Silly but fun

Glenn — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 20:57:49 +0000

Here is a silly but fun web app. Give it a try.

Here is some output.

.ʇxǝʇ uʍop ǝpısdn pɐǝɹ uɐɔ noʎ ɟı ǝǝs puɐ 1ɯʇɥ.dı1ɟ/ɯoɔ.pɐɟʌǝɹ.ʍʍʍ//:dʇʇɥ ʇɐ ddɐ qǝʍ sıɥʇ ʇno ʞɔǝɥɔ .ǝʌıʇɐǝɹɔ sı ʇı ʇsɐǝ1 ʇɐ ʇnq ʎ11ıs ʇsnظ ɹo buıʇsǝɹǝʇuı sı sıɥʇ ɟı ǝɹns ʇou ɯ,ı .ʇı ɥʇıʍ sbuıɥʇ buıʇsǝɹǝʇuı ʎuɐɯ os op uɐɔ noʎ ǝsnɐɔǝq ʇɐǝɹb sı ʎbo1ouɥɔǝʇ

Could you read it. Pretty cool, huh?!?!

A Personality Quiz

Glenn — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 20:27:59 +0000

I took a personality quiz. Here are my results:

Your Personality is Very Rare (INTP)

Your personality type is goofy, imaginative, relaxed, and brilliant.

Only about 4% of all people have your personality, including 2% of all women and 6% of all men
You are Introverted, Intuitive, Thinking, and Perceiving.

How Rare Is Your Personality?

Go take your own test at Personality Test

Some Stats and Analysis

Glenn — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 17:47:10 +0000

I read a lot of blogs regularly. One of them is Freakonomics which is an interesting blog about economics and related geekery about statistics, economics, data and such. It’s written in an easy to understand style rather than a boring text book style.

I came across this post on Vanishing Mailboxes, Underperforming Schools, and Global Warming. It is actually written by a guest but it has some excellent points.

The discussion on mailboxes is almost funny. I found the points on Global Warming interesting. The real meat to me though was the section on Underperforming Schools.

Here is an excerpt:

But, by closing the school and moving them to a much larger school, these low performing kids continue to be low performers, they just do not pull down the average as much. Worse, these low performing kids often do worse (at least according to a recent study at Stanford) and/or drop out. Dropping out helps the averages, so you could argue it is a good policy (Texas allegedly uses that to improve their scores), but the consequences are likely dire for society (more crime or welfare or both). The problem is that the poor performing school may in fact have those particular kids doing much better than they would in another school (due to extra attention, etc), but decision makers are taught that ???statistics do not lie???.

The discussion around schools centered on the statistics fallacies used when deciding what schools to closed. It is interesting. While this guest blogger, Paul Kimmelman, isn’t a statistician, he’s got some great points.

Adding a another financial consultant

Glenn — Sat, 03 Mar 2007 05:34:25 +0000

We had some unexpected, meaning unplanned for, gains this year. Unexpected or unplanned for gains mean that you have no chance to act in advance to plan for the increased tax expense. For us, people who are living on our savings, this is a big issue.

Because of this, we decided to hire a tax person. We didn’t want an inexpensive tax guy (HR Block). We wanted someone who will certainly help us lower our taxes for this year, if possible. More importantly though, we wanted someone who will help us address our financial issues so that we can minimize these unexpected issues in the future.

We found someone through a friend and met with him. He has some very credible ideas. I find him a bit aggressive which in turn is hard to deal with but at the same time, it is good to have someone who is not afraid of bad news and will deliver that bad news with the necessary action recommendations.

We got some bad news today. We got some good plans. We got some preliminary ideas that we will vet further in the coming months. Overall, we began something that will probably make our overall savings and portfolio healthier in the long run though there might be some scary stuff going in it for the short term to get it cleaned up.

We’ll also have to see how we work these changes with our current Financial Advisor. It is likely changes are going to be made. I’m not sure how these changes might occur given that I’m not clarvoyant. It could be smooth and everything is great and our FA does everything smoothly and has some positive and cooperative things to add. It could be negative and we could choose to change FA’s. Likely it will be somewhere in the middle.

Stay tuned!

I can’t shut-up!

Glenn — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 05:13:00 +0000

When I was working, I always felt that I was a good inter-personal communicator. What I mean is that when it came to conversations, I was a good participator. It didn’t matter whether this was a one on one conversation or a group situation – I could hold my own.

Since I have stopped working, I have gotten sloppy when it comes to adult conversations. It’s not that I’m an idiot or anything but I can’t seem to shut-up. An important part of conversations is not only to know when to add valuable conversational information but also when to leave out unrelated or “random” elements. That is my problem.

In a way, I had been doing it with my posts for a bit. They were random and unfocused. A few weeks ago, I decided to work on my written form (the posts) and I believe that I have improved my focus and quality (you can be the judge).

Now I need to turn my attention to my conversational skills and improve my skills there. I can bring it back up to where I feel I should be rather than this “lazy” level I am right now.

Other House Stuff

Glenn — Sat, 30 Dec 2006 04:58:42 +0000

We were in the process of getting some new windows but the Wind Storm seems to have stopped that in it’s track.

I’m using a contractor that I’ve used a few other times but I haven’t heard from him.? I’ll give him a call next week.

The windows in the boys bedroom’s are just old and need replacing.

The windows in the gym are crank out windows which means they are useless when it rains.? I like to open windows when I work out and basically can’t in the winter.? We are swapping them out for sliders that look just like the windows that are there.

Jerry (Fine Home Remodeling), our contractor has found a decent window mfg so I’m pretty hopeful of the result.

Wind Storm, Power Outage – The Follow Up

Glenn — Sat, 30 Dec 2006 04:55:09 +0000

After a big discussion, Kathy and I have decided to look into getting a generator.? Our house was without power for 3 1/2 days (as compared to 4 1/2 in the last big storm).? The temp in the house got down to 40 degrees F – yes! that was the inside temp.

After some calls and a bit of research, I found that I need to find out from the gas company how much extra capacity on my gas meeter I have so that we can determine the possible size of generator we can have.

Unfortunately, the power folks have been slow to get their call centers back up after the wind storm so I haven’t been able to get that information.? I hope to get it next week and then we can make some decisions.

Let’s Catch Up

Glenn — Sat, 30 Dec 2006 04:41:47 +0000

Ok, I’m going to try something new.? I’m not sure I’ll get it all done right tonight but I’m going to catch my blog up since I’ve been a bit pre-occupied with normal life stuff.

I’ll do it in little small posts as an attempt to keep each post focused on a topic.? Let’s hope that it keeps it interesting and clear.

An experiment at Microsoft

Glenn — Mon, 17 Apr 2006 14:26:03 +0000

A past friend (I guess he’d be a current friend if I’d have kept in touch better) made a post regarding an experiment about Flexible Office Space at Microsoft. Adam Barr is a sharp guy and does a quick but nice analysis.

One thing I’ve always like about Microsoft is that it’s not afraid to try experiments like this. It does sound interesting and ‘high tech’ but at the same time it sounds very scary.

It compartmentalizes people by their tasks giving them limited office space based on what their jobs might be. Some people though like to break boundaries and do exceptional things so what about them. Of course there is the other side of that coin and there are people who break boundaries to be lazy or do bad things too.

Anyway, it will be interesting to see what the results turn out to be.

A sermon

Glenn — Mon, 20 Mar 2006 08:04:58 +0000

Today, I heard a sermon by our Pastor at Church. Our Pastor is not really a very effective sermon giver as he rambles and never gets to a coherent point. Today was no different.

But today, I did get one bit from his sermon. I’m sure it wasn’t exactly what he intended but I’d still like to see if I can relay it here.

Today’s Gospel was about when Jesus went to the Temple in Jerusalem and found that it had basically been turned into a market place. Jesus then proceeded to throw a fit and throw everyone out.

Well, the interesting point that I got from the sermon centered around how we could take the same message and apply it to our world. Our world is the new Temple that God built for his people to live in – to live in love and peace.

Yet, if we look at our world, it has been turned into a worldwide marketplace where greed is the first priority to many. I’ve talked about some examples in different contexts even recently. One example is that companies are trying to trade mark words in order to make more money or make it harder for companies/competitors to do business. Another examples is to eliminate fair use and make users pay for what fits under fair use (i.e. we pay for a CD, then we would pay again to copy it onto our iPod, and then we pay again to put it into our media player in our stereo system, etc…). Yes, these are competitive behaviors but in the extreme and truthfully they are just about greed. I would also say that companies that refuse to look at the world as a living and breathing place that needs to survive for us in the future are also companies that are putting greed before humanity and the world.

It’s time for us to push the market place out of the temple or at least put it in it’s place and make everyone remember that the reasons that we buy and sell things is not to accumulate more things but rather to live and spend time with our loved ones and give back to the world.