Month: June 2023

Electric Motors: Power at Low Speeds

I’m currently reading through one of Bernie Tobisch’s books on sewing machines.

He mentions that older sewing machines have AC (alternating current) motors. These are simpler to build, but have low power at low speeds. He said this is why sometimes when first starting a seam, the sewist (which is a nice term, once I haven’t heard often) might have to turn the handwheel by hand to get the motor started.

He writes that newer machines have DC (direct current) motors. These have better power at low speeds. But they are also more complicated to build. Most houses aren’t wired for DC voltage. (I’m saying most because I’m sure somewhere there was someone who ran some DC power lines through their house.) Most houses in the U.S., 120 Vac RMS is what comes out of the wall. That will fry almost any DC motor. So, DC motors get used, but there’s more circuitry involved to make them work.

Somewhere I have a book about using small electric motors. I wanted to look at it the other day, so maybe I’ll spend some time this weekend finding it.

Identify the Problem, Part 4: ADP Destroys Its Own Numbers.

My Irritation

Yes, I’ve been ranting for a while now about the need to identify the problem before going hell bent after a “solution”.

The examples keep showing up. Here is another example:

“ADP, for example, changed their methodology to try to produce a job number that would be more predictive of the NFP data. Why they would take their own unique payroll data (and manipulate it) to try to estimate the official government data is beyond me, but they did it. So, ADP isn’t really trying to analyze how many jobs were created, it is trying to produce data that helps people predict NFP (at least the Establishment Survey).”

Peter Tchir, “Sherlock Holmes on the Jobs Report“, Zerohedge, dated June 11 2023, last accessed June 29 2023. Emphasis in original.

ADP is a payroll company. Producing jobs numbers is not their main job. But their jobs report is often looked at as another indicator of employment trends in the U.S. economy.

Tchir’s whole article, “Sherlock Holmes on the Job Report” in Zerohedge, dated June 11 2023, was about trying to make sense out of numbers that didn’t always have as much sense as a person would hope for. The paragraph about ADP changing its own numbers was one of many.

But in a sea of weirdness, it stuck out to me as being particularly weird. What problem was ADP trying to solve?

  • If the attention to their payroll report was interfering with their business of providing payroll services for companies, why not say that and stop with the report entirely?
  • If they were doubting their own internal numbers . . . I can’t think of any reason why they’d doubt their own internal numbers. But if there was some reason for that, I’d expect them to put the report and almost everything else non-essential on hold until that doubt got resolved. If I doubted the numbers for a core part of my business, resolving that would be top priority.
  • So, what “problem” does that leave, that this would be a valid solution? They wanted to stop using their own numbers, while not making it obvious they were no longer using their own numbers?

How is this related to technology?

One of the primary uses of technology, of all types, is manipulating information. Gathering it, tracking it, saving it, collating it, sorting it, looking for patterns in it.

Computer software in particular is really good at manipulating information. In a way, that’s a definition of what computer software is and does: it manipulates information. It manipulates it far faster than humans can.

There’s the perennial problem of GIGO – Garbage In Garbage Out. If the software starts with data that is bad or wrong, it’s output will almost certainly be bad or wrong.

But there’s a less recognized problem: solving the wrong problem.

Learning From Mistakes: Audi Jacks, TS, TRS, and TRRS.

I messed up the headphone audio jack on my laptop. It still functions, but one headphone is about half the volume of the other headphone.

That’s not ideal.

So, I looked for USB-to-audio-jack adapters, and along the way I’m getting an education in types of audio jacks. I want to be able to use a pair of headphones which also have a microphone. That means I’m looking for a TRRS — Tip, Ring, Ring, Sleeve — adapter. Other audio jack types include TS (Tip, Sleeve) and TRS (Tip, Ring, Sleeve).

It gets more complicated from there.

After a quick web search, here are two articles I’ve found so far which have been very helpful:

I’m sure there’s more out there and there’s lots more for me to learn.

I talked to someone who was running an engineering class for kids, where they worked on solving problems with small pulleys, wheels, axles, motors, and so on. The person running the class said they found 90% of engineering is troubleshooting. I agreed; that’s true of any technology. I’m going down this rabbit hole because I messed up a piece of equipment and now I’m finding ways to work around my screwup, and it’s still 90% troubleshooting.

Identify the Problem, Part 3. Eagle PCB is no more.

Impulse Buys: Can a Company Make This Mistake?

Is it possible for entire companies to make impulse buys? To buy something, like an entire other company, because “it looks cool” and “it’s a good price!” while having no idea what they actually plan to do with it? I think it is possible. I think it does happen.

But when I buy something which “looks cool” and “it’s a good price!” while having no actual idea what I plan to do with it, that’s just me. That piece of gear can sit on my shelf for years with no harm or inconvenience to anyone else. I can eventually decide to throw it away. And there will be no harm to or inconvenience to anyone else.

When a company is bought, left to molder for years, and is eventually thrown away, there’s a whole user base which is affected.

Customer Relations: Did Something Change?

It used to be a trope about customer relations and marketing that it was far easier to retain happy customers than to get new ones. And that an angry customer will tell far more people about their complaints than a satisfied customer will tell about their happinesses. What happened to these tropes? Have they been repudiated? Have they been disproven? I don’t know.

I do know customers of a company get very angry when that company is killed off by a parent organization for no good reason. And those customers generally do not see “we wanted to launch our own homegrown version” as a good reason to kill of an existing company and product which worked just fine.

So, what question was the parent company trying to answer when it originally bought the company it later killed? I don’t know, but I’m not sure the people who advocated and approved the acquisitions know either.

Maybe Caution Will Return

Way down on my list of books to read is Tepper’s The Myth of Capitalism (I might have the title wrong, I’m not going to check it right now). It’s about how many industries have become monopolies, monopsonies, or oligopolies. Meaning, how many industries have become dominate by six or four or fewer large companies who own the majority of other companies in the industry. I’ve listened to a few podcasts about the book, and one question was “what causes this?” The answer was “we’re not sure, but it seems to happen more when interest rates are low for a long time.”

And interest rates were low, for almost 15 years. They are now rising. Will we see more entrants and startups in industries dominated by a few players? I certainly hope so. Maybe the trend of buying up companies on impulse, to kill them a few years later, will cease. I certainly hope that happens too.

What generated this whole rant was the article “They Used to Be a Big Shot, Now Eagle PCB Is No More” by Jenny List, dated June 9 2023, in Hackaday. The article is informative (as List’s articles always are; I enjoy reading her work). The comments are worth reading too.

How To Make Your Technology Work For You? Don’t Trust Home Automation, Don’t Trust Tech Companies.

Out of all this, I’d recommend Brandon Jackson’s YouTube video (15 minutes 30 seconds long) at “The Customer’s Perspective in the Amazon Account Lock out” and his Medium post at “A Tale of Unwanted Disruption: My Week Without Amazon“. His video is dated June 14 2023 and his post is dated June 4 2023. (Both were last accessed on June 16 2023.)

Also, here’s an article by Thomas Claburn in The Register, dated June 15 2023: “Amazon confirms it locked Microsoft engineer out of his Echo gear over false claim“.

In case none of those links work at some unknown point in the future, here’s a summary: Amazon customer (Jackson) notices his Amazon Echo device is not responding. He contacts Amazon and is told an Amazon delivery driver heard someone in his house make a racist remark at the driver who was delivering a package. Jackson checks the date and time of delivery on footage from multiple cameras on his property. He has footage of the driver delivering the package, footage includes audio. There is no racist remark on the audio. He sends the footage to Amazon, it takes Amazon a full week to reinstate his account. During that time, multiple home automation devices which could be accessed by Amazon’s Echo and Alexa now cannot be accessed because he’s frozen out of his account.

In his post and video, Jackson goes into a bit of detail about his home setup. He wasn’t completely locked out of his home automation. He was only locked out of being able to access them with Amazon’s services. But as he points out, the average user would likely not have the skills and knowledge to set up multiple access systems the way he did. So the average user would have been stuck.

I am a bit more skeptical of home automation than Jackson. There is a whole ecosystem of certifications, codes, standards, statutory law, case law, and other requirements for home appliances. The same is true of the electrical distribution system to the home and inside the home. Those ecosystems arelargely unknown to the public because they generally works.

The software controlling those home appliances is still new enough it does not have that same regulatory and legal ecosystem. So it currently relies on consumers deciding where they will spend their money.

But as Jackson points out, most of these home automation systems are concentrated in two or three large companies. And those companies cover so many fields that a customer may have an expectation based on their experience in one area, which can be unrelated to what they’ll experience with the same company in another area.

So, while I am still skeptical of home automation in general, I agree with Jackson that if home automation is used, try to have it running locally.

And in general, don’t rely on big tech companies.

Identify the Problem Part 2

Here are the two articles I mentioned previously:

A quote from the second article, originally published in 2017:

In surveys of 106 C-suite executives who represented 91 private and public-sector companies in 17 countries, I found that a full 85% strongly agreed or agreed that their organizations were bad at problem diagnosis, and 87% strongly agreed or agreed that this flaw carried significant costs.

“Are You Solving the Right Problems” by Wedell-Wedellsborg, Thomas, in Harvard Business Review, from the January-February 2017 issue (site last visited June 15 2023)

I’m slowly sidling up to expressing my own views on this topic, I know. My initial reactions are very vocal and filled with disbelief and profanity.

I’ll try to calm down a bit and be more methodical in my critiques. What are managers, whether low level, mid level, or C-suite, paid for in these companies? What are the discussions when they are promoted?

This would be like a national non-profit, closing down multiple chapters per year, with an acknowledged problem in getting members to sign up for leadership positions in chapters which are still active. And the national officers of that non-profit being most concerned with getting enough personal information from members that they can better qualify for government grants.

The bigger the problem is, the more chance there’s something about it people don’t want to acknowledge. The longer the problem exists, the more chance it spawns its own side-effect problems which will have to be dealt with, before the underlying problem can be addressed.

Bureaucrats of all types are very adept at finding what will get them promoted, what will keep their job safe, and what will threaten their job. Not what should get them promoted, keep them safe, or threaten their job. What will.

If an organization promotes people on how eagerly they follow orders, and not whether they understand the orders they give and are given, the intent, the immediate effects, and the long term effects of those orders, then the more likely this will be the result. Organizations which are much better at solving problems than identifying problems.

Life changes. These organizations will not be able to handle the change, and will die.

Another Look at Business Band Radios

Yes, I know I said I’d start working on learning websites.

The best laid plans of mice and men and all that.

I’m back to looking at business band radios. I’m noticing odd stuff about the market.

There doesn’t seem to be nearly as many companies making business band radios as companies making amateur / ham radios. That surprised me.

The ham radios often have a description of their power output. I’m not seeing that as often on business band radios. I’m not sure if that’s because there’s a set maximum output for business band, or if it’s because hams will look for output power specifications and business band radio customers don’t.

I am also wondering if GMRS has consumed most of the business band market. Doing a bit of reading, it sounds like GMRS is a far easier license to get. That also means GMRS can be crowded in some areas and the main benefit of business band is less competition for airtime.

Identify the Problem Part 1

This is a part I because I have some more reading to do.

In the last three days, I’ve seen three different articles and posts about the importance of identifying problems. One post was on an email list I’m on, the two articles are in the Harvard Business Review.

I’ll write more about the Harvard Business Review articles in my next post. The figure that really surprised me was a survey of over 100 C-suite business executives where 85% say their companies struggle with problem diagnosis.

The email list post was about copywriting, and it wasn’t a survey of how many people think other people can’t identify problems. It was a statement that an important part of sales and marketing is identifying what customer problem your product solves.

Viewing Formatting Marks, MS Word and LibreOffice Writer

This is a quick tip I’d wish I’d known earlier.

If I want to view the paragraph breaks, spaces, hard spaces, and so on in a word processor document, “Formatting Marks” is the setting.

In Microsoft Word, it’s Ctrl + *, or Ctrl + Shift + 8. In LibreOffice Writer it’s Ctrl + F10.

Years ago, I used to use Scrivener. I have no idea what key combination that program uses Formatting Marks.

Cattle or Pets? Hardware Maybe, Social Media Probably.

I sometimes see references to the question of “Cattle or Pets” when it comes to computer hardware. I first saw this in discussions about how server farms were administrated.

Hardware

“Pets” was the older practice: each server had its own purpose, some were unique, administrators often gave the servers names. They were cared for like pets, meaning they were treated with care and allowed to die of old age. So, there might be several different types and vintages of servers in the same location.

“Cattle” was the new hot idea. Cows don’t get named, their own personal quirks aren’t catered to. Cows don’t get babied, especially when a cow has clearly gone lame or outlived its purpose. It gets sold or put down and a new cow is brought in.* There’s a schedule and it’s better to clean out everything old and replace with new, on a schedule.

The Cattle mentality depends on a lot of assumptions. One of those assumptions is that whatever is brought in on the schedule will be at least as capable and reliable as the thing it replaces. Another assumption is computer hardware will be relatively cheap compared to the labor to administer that hardware. If labor is cheap than hardware, then it makes sense to keep whatever is still working and train people on how to work with different systems of different types.

I am not certain the “Cattle” viewpoint is as effiicient as it was portrayed. At least, it’s not as efficient when it comes to hardware and software that a business or household might depend on. “If it’s not broke, don’t fix it” is a rule most large software companies no longer follow, and some hardware manufacturers ignore it too.

Social Media

I think social media is in a mirror position. The social media companies want their users to see them as “Pets”: very individual, irreplaceable, dearly loved Pets.

Yet, the arc of most social media platforms seems to be the same. There’s an initial growth phase where the social media company is trying to find something which differentiates it. Growing users is more important than how the users are grown. There’s an intermediate phase, where the social media company starts trying to make some money off of their platform. If they don’t charge users a subscription fee, then it becomes trickier. Usually ads and the information harvesting for targeted ads are somewhere in the mix.

It’s also during this intermediate phase, if the social media company gets there, that “regular” users start showing up. After that there’s a long slow managed decline. Enough “regular” users are showing up that some of the quirkier things get a lot more scrutiny. Maybe the quirkier things get some legal and regulatory scrutiny too. Meanwhile, advertisers are paying more, but also expecting more responsiveness to their complaints. And the social media company will start copying rivals’ ideas.

At which point, a new social media company or two will show up with their own quirky thing which differentiates them. The die hard fans of the old social media company aren’t as loyal. Why be loyal when the old platform is no longer what it once was? The newer members of the old social media company are there because it’s useful. They will leave when it’s not; the large established social media companies all have similar features.

Conclusion: It’s All Backwards

So, social media companies are the “Cattle,” even though they are trying desperately not to be. And the hardware and programs which work and work well are the “Pets,” even though hardware and software companies desperately want them to be seen as Cattle which get replaced regularly and provide a revenue stream regularly.

The world runs on irony.

*Never mind that in the age-old tradition of the world running on irony, most of the people applying “Cattle” to various server management practices had never been on commercial ranches themselves. There are ways in which cattle are all treated the same, but there are also ways in which cattle have their own definite personalities. I’ve yet to meet a person who works with cows professionally who doesn’t acknowledge this, but I don’t think the computer programmers thought to ask.