Daily Coping 27 Feb 2023

Posted on February 27, 2023 by way0utwest

Today’s coping tip is to tell a loved one about the strengths you see in them.

For one of my kids, I’m letting them know that I see:

  • responsibility for meeting their commitments
  • independence in making their own decisions
  • accountability for their decisions
  • strong willed to drive themselves to accomplish more than they have to
  • compassion for others

I’m proud of all my kids, and I took time to let one of them know.

I started to add a daily coping tip to the SQL Server Central newsletter and to the Community Circle, which is helping me deal with the issues in the world. I’m adding my responses for each day here. All my coping tips are under this tag.

Posted in Blog | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Daily Coping 27 Feb 2023

EV Myths

Posted on February 24, 2023 by way0utwest

I ran across an article on EV myths, this I thought was interesting. The myths are things that I see in comments on all sorts of articles or hear from people. They are:

  1. EVs take forever to recharge
  2. EVs can’t travel far
  3. EVs are slow
  4. EVs are unreliable
  5. EVs are super expensive

I haven’t experienced any of these, with my EV charging fairly quickly, I go up to ski in mine, it’s fast (perhaps too fast), it always works, and it’s in line with luxury cars.

The last one gave me pause, because my Model Y was the most expensive car I’ve every bought. It actually bothered me for months in the summer of 2021 until my wife got me to sit down and think rationally about it.

The car is a $55-60k car. That is pricey, and not for everyone, but it’s in line with a petrol car from BMW, Audi, Mercedes, etc. Most of the other EVs, Polestar, Ionic, etc. are similarly priced. The basic Model 3 is in the 40s.

Pricey, but not crazy.

The high end Teslas (X and S) are like a high end 911 or BMW.

I’ve had no maintenance in my model Y in 17 months. I’ve had it always charged when I start the day, so I almost never need to charge during the day. The times we’ve had to charge during the day (our summer trip in the mountains), the time was more than gas, but not much more than a pit stop for coffee and the bathroom.

There was another article from the Atlantic, which I’ve seen reposted a few times as they are supposedly a world class, trustworthy journalism site. I think they are, but they harp on costs, which are like other cars. They can get high quickly. I agree that starting the Ford F150 around $50k but quickly going to $80 isn’t great, but it does give options to others.

From what I’ve learned in a year and a half, the vast majority of the time, 95%+, I got less than 120 miles in a day. I could likely live with a 200-220mi range car. YMMV, but it really depends on you doing a little work to understand how you drive, how often, and how the car sits. There are days we go 250miles and need to charge, but that’s rare.

Honestly, the more I drive the car, the more it’s just a car. The exception is longer trips, in which case, then my driving becomes like a trip through Wyoming or Montana with a diesel vehicle. I do a little planning.

Posted in Blog | Tagged , | 4 Comments

The Top 5 Technologists

Posted on February 24, 2023 by way0utwest

There’s a common party question about which 5 people would you invite to a dinner party? Often this is amended to include living or dead people, and it’s often interesting to hear people tell you who they’d invite and why.

Since most of the people reading this work in technology in some way, I was wondering who you would invite to a party that’s related to technology. Living or dead, however tangential, is there a list you can come up with?

I’ll give you my list and then a few thoughts. For the list, I’ll say Steve Wozniak, Sal Khan, Reed Hastings, Gladys West, and Lawrence Lessig. Maybe not all technologists per se, but all had an influence on my life using technology.

Steve Wozniak because he was a geek hero and he seems like a fun person. Someone that enjoys technology. I had an Apple II early on and always wanted to meet him.

Salman Khan because I think his use of technology to teach others, for free, was incredible. Education is something that’s a big part of my life, and I appreciated his lessons helping my kids at times. I think someone that sees the world in this way would be a great conversationalist.

Reed Hastings has been an incredible businessman in the tech world. He founded Pure Software and Netflix, and has been on the boards of Microsoft and Facebook. He has had an influence on education efforts in California. I would love to listen to him talk about business and technology.

Gladys West is a mathematician who worked on a number of topics that built computer models for submarines and analyzing satellite data. She has had quite an influence on the GPS system many of us use every day in our phones. I’d love to know what it was like for someone like her to work and grow in our field.

Not least, just last. Lawrence Lessig is a professor of law, and someone that has worked hard to ensure our legal world better represents fairness and ethics in technology. I’ve read a number of his books and would be interested in talking about how we ought to view the digital world from a fair rights perspective.

That’s my list. What’s yours?

Steve Jones

Listen to the podcast at Libsyn, Stitcher, Spotify, or iTunes.

Posted in Editorial | Tagged | 1 Comment

Daily Coping 24 Feb 2023

Posted on February 24, 2023 by way0utwest

Today’s coping tip is to be gentle with someone you feel inclined to criticize.

It’s very easy, and maybe very human, to start to criticize others for doing something we wouldn’t do, or at least, something we don’t think we’d do. I sometimes wonder if we are much more likely to do this with people close to us than those we know less well.

My kids are adults now, and they are in charge of their own lives. They make mistakes, as I do, and there are times that I want to point out they could do better, or take other advice, or something else.

I am learning not to do that. One of my kids did something that cost them more money than they expected. They were upset, and it would have been easy for me to criticize the action. Instead, I have been working on being sympathetic, listening, and asking what they think or what they do. Let them work through it without me trying to solve the problem, take responsibility, or criticize.

I started to add a daily coping tip to the SQL Server Central newsletter and to the Community Circle, which is helping me deal with the issues in the world. I’m adding my responses for each day here. All my coping tips are under this tag.

Posted in Blog | Tagged , , | 1 Comment