Mindset Monday: Always be looking.

There’s nothing I do which is new in the history of the world. There’s a lot I do which is new to me. (Or it was new to me at one time.)

There’s always new ideas on how I can do things. Sometimes I find new ideas in unexpected places. Sometimes the new idea is something I was pretty sure I knew and then I find out a much simpler easier way.

The task might be new to me, but there’s someone out who’s done this for years and has tons of experience. I should go find that person, or find something they wrote, and try to learn all I can.

Another way to put this: “I’m completely self-taught!” is often not the bragging point some people think it is.

Technician Tuesday: Finding a way to regularly backup my files.

For many years I backed up my files by creating copies on other disks or other drives. I only did this when I remembered.

This is still the method many people use.

Over ten years ago I went to a presentation by a woman who was speaking about data, electronic files, backups, and so on. She said that she had talked to multiple parents and grandparents who had lost many early pictures of their children because the pictures were on a cell phone, and nowhere else. The cell phone died, and so did the pictures.

I broke out of my own bad habits after reading comments about businesses destroyed by computer crashes. That finally made me appreciate the difference between time and money. The money to buy a replacement computer probably can be found. The time to recreate all the lost files probably cannot be found.

I did install a program which regularly backs up my computer files, some time last year.

There are multiple ways of creating file backups. Currently I’m using Macrium Reflect which creates a disk image. I can also use a program which will only back up certain files and directories I choose. Maximum PC magazine had a recent article listing various useful programs for Windows, including a backup program. I will start going through that list and seeing what I like and what I don’t.

(That decade-ago lecturer also said if you really want to save photos for posterity, print them out. Nothing digital will be as reliable. I believe that, yet that is something I haven’t yet done myself. That will be a project for late this year or early next year, to start picking which photos I want printed and looking into how to get them printed.)

Mindset Monday: Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

I subscribed two years ago to a service which requests my name and address be removed from people finder and data broker sites.

I’ve received unsolicited advertisements for two similar services within the last few months. The new services are from different sources, one is a VPN company and the other is a credit card company.

Clearly, after the initial proof-of-business-model time, other companies decided this is a viable business. And they created their own versions.

I’ve seen many articles and guides discussing whether a person should be on the bleeding edge of technology, a first adopter, or something else. Usually, it comes down to your personality type. The earlier I adopt new technologies, the greater the chance I’ll find something useful. And the greater the risk I’ll find something which isn’t viable. The service I used had been around for a while before I signed up. At the same time, I’m the only person I know who uses that type of service.

It’s a nice service and I’m glad it’s available. That it’s now being copied reassures me that it will be available for a while.

I looked for something to reference if anyone reading this wanted to know more about adopter types. The best I found is “Diffusion of Innovations Theory” from November 2021 on Investopedia. It has the longest list of creator credits I’ve yet seen: author, reviewer, and fact checker are Clay Halton, Robert C. Kelly, and Yarilet Perez respectively. The theory of diffusion of innovations was created in the 1960s.

Technician Tuesday (a day late): Check every single menu on every single page.

A month ago I wrote a post about adding HTTPS and SSL to this blog. At the time, I had not yet figured out how to do that.

The option was on a page I hadn’t seen at that time. I found the page where I could activate it, slid the slider to “On” and now this blog has HTTPS in the header.

I forgot one of my own habits that has served me well in the past:

When I start using a piece of technology with menus or pages, check every single page and every single menu to see what options are there.

Mindset Monday: Technology will change. Human nature does not.

Each major change in technology brings about claims that it is a new day for civilization and mankind. “It is different this time.” Both you and I have seen those claims about smartphones and the internet today. The same things were said about the industrial revolution and about the rise in literacy after printing press became more common in Europe. I can probably find similar statements written about every single technological advancement in every single field and industry that exists.

All of those statements were wrong. Human nature did not change. Technology changed, and it changed some parts of the world. Technology did not change human nature.

Things which haven’t changed.

We all have limited amounts of time, energy, and attention. We are all unable to trade those things with each other.

  • I cannot buy an hour of your day so you have 23 hours and I have 25 hours in my day.
  • I cannot sell you my ability focus so today you can focus for 12 hours instead of 3 and I can’t focus at all for the rest of this week.
  • There is no millionaire or billionaire who can say “I really ran myself down last week, can someone sell me some of their energy so I keep working on my product launch this week?”

Technology is still created by humans who are very human.

  • Some inventors and creators will create something because they love it and they are creating it for other people who love it.
  • Then there will be inventors and creators who love getting paid above all.
  • And there will be inventors and creators in between those extremes.

How I choose what I use

How much time, energy and attention do I want to spend on this?

Which options are made for my level of expertise?

What is my goal for using this?

Technician Tuesday: Some interesting information about LibreOffice

I just finished reading the 2022 edition of LibreOffice Expert. In yesterday’s post I wrote that “Everything comes somewhere.“

This is definitely true of LibreOffice. It was designed as an alternative to Microsoft Office and it’s gone through multiple incarnations over the years: StarOffice, then OpenOffice, and now LibreOffice.

Because of that, it will in many ways resemble Microsoft Office, with occasional differences. In places the Microsoft Office had definite flaws, LibreOffice has been explicitly written to avoid those flaws. One of those flaws was the ability to apply multiple templates to MS Word documents, which often resulted in file corruption. To avoid that, LibreOffice Write does not allow the user to apply multiple templates to a file.

Overall, LibreOffice Expert is a very good magazine. I learned a lot about how to use LibreOffice. And I learned a lot about why LibreOffice is designed the way it is.

Mindset Monday: Everything comes from somewhere.

Whenever I use a piece of technology, I try to keep in mind that it came from somewhere. Someone created it. Whoever created it had an idea or an ideal in mind when they created it.

So, if I want to use to use a piece of technology, I figure out what my goal is for using it. And then I figure out if the piece of technology was actually made for that use. If I want to record music, I need to use an audio recorder that is made for music recording. Voice recording has different microphones and is designed with different concerns.

Even different devices from the same manufacturer, sold at the same time, can be designed with different purposes.

Technician Tuesday: Aiming for incremental improvement

“Form follows function” is a catchy phrase and a seductive idea. It implies a lot of things which most of us would like to believe of ourselves. We’d like to believe we understand the function of what we are creating so well we can visualize exactly the form it needs to be. That in turn implies we won’t have to go back and redo any of our work. It also implies we can expect approval from whomever evaluates what we created, whether that’s a supervisor or a customer.

Unfortunately, all of those flattering possibilities are probably not going to happen. It’s likely that whatever is created — by me, by you, by us, by whomever — will not be at its best form on the first iteration. Whatever gets created, it will probably have to be revisited and revised multiple times before it’s usable.

The book The Evolution of Useful Things by Henry Petroski covers this in detail if you are interested. I’ve read “form follows function” as an ideal at which to aim, for most of my life. The Evolution of Useful Things finally cured me of following that dead end. Continuous improvement is the goal.

(I linked to the Computer Gear catalog because that is where I purchased the book. I am not in any way compensated by them for that link.)

Mindset Monday: Who takes the risk when someone says “I’m sure it will be fine”?

Success breeds a lot of things. There’s the saying that “success breeds success” which is often true. Success also breeds envy.

I’ve found envy easiest to spot and deal with when it has anger combined with it. The peevish tones of voice are the flag that there is something personal going on here. “Why is this person so irritated that I did well? Why are they so angry about how I did this? . . . Ohhh, they’re envious. *sigh*”

What has been harder for me to learn how to spot is the envy which hides behind very insistent and assertive helpfulness. I’ve done well on a project and now someone else very helpfully is trying to suggest other ways I should be doing this project, the next project I should taking on, and who I should be talking to or asking for help.

Amidst all these helpful suggestions, what happens if the helpful suggestions sound like they are not a good idea? I’ll often get the response “Oh, I’m sure it will be fine.”

Regardless of the purity of motive of the person being helpful, who ultimately bears the risks? Is it me? Is it someone else? Asking this question helps clear out a lot of the verbal and mental clutter that can accompany too many helpful suggestions.

Technician Tuesday: Finding simpler tools. Word processors and photo editing as examples. (2022 Aug 23)

On Monday, I wrote about viewing my time and effort as limited resources. When a piece of technology, hardware or software, starts taking too long to use, I look for alternatives.

The time to learn and use a simple alternative for one task is often shorter than making a more complicated program do that task.

(AutoCAD was infamous for this in the 1990s and 2000s, it could do almost anything if you took the time to figure out how. I’ve never set up ERP systems, or even simpler inventory systems, but I’ve talked many people who spent far more time managing their ERP / inventory / POS systems than they ever spent managing paper records. And Microsoft Excel has its own eSports World Excel Championships, which was broadcast on ESPN2.)

First example: word processors and spreadsheets.

I didn’t use Microsoft Office for several months, a few years back. I logged in to Microsoft Windows with a different email than I’d used to purchase a Microsoft Office subscription. Microsoft was very concerned. I was constantly asked by Microsoft Office if I wanted to change my account. (No, I did not.) I got “Microsoft account problem” warnings from Microsoft Windows. Then I got stuck in the maelstrom of Windows wants Windows Hello, Windows Hello wants facial recognition or a fingerprint sensor, and said the heck with this.

There are a ton of things Microsoft Office can do. I wanted a simpler word processor. So, I downloaded LibreOffice. It installs fast. I don’t get any Microsoft account errors. The program does occasionally crash, so I save often. That’s the only drawback I’ve found. Now, I only buy a Microsoft Office subscription when I need to use a Microsoft Office document or spreadsheet with features only Microsoft Office supports.

Second example: photo resizing and watermarking.

I use a digital camera which creates large files. I’m not going to ask my friends to download huge photo files when they want to look at my pictures. I could use a photo editing program like Photoshop or GIMP to edit each photo, decreasing the file size and adding a watermark with my name and the year. I could learn how to create macros in a photo editing program.

I downloaded AVS4You instead. There are lots of other alternatives, I use AVS4You, use whatever you want. The photo resizing program (technically the image converter) from AVS4You is free to download. I load the photos, set file name modifications, file size modifications, watermark, and which directory for the new files.

No, I don’t get any compensation from any program or company I mention using. You can use whatever you want, I’m using examples of what works for me.