Erik Boisen

I finished Brave New World!  It was a pretty quick and easy read compared to Cryptonomicon.  The first couple of chapters are amazing.  They paint a bizarre picture of a future where people are “manufactured” in a hatchery in large groups of identical people.  These groups are manufactured to meet society’s needs.

The groups – Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, and Epsilon are “made” to be happy with their role in society.  Alphas are the “superior” caste that have the highest intelligence and are selected to lead the others.  Epsilons have limited intelligence and are bred to be happy doing menial tasks.  The Betas, Gammas, and Deltas span the gap between the Alphas and Epsilons.  People are to operate socially within their respective castes.  Sex exists, but no one is to be exclusive with another and reproduction is not supposed to happen outside of the manufacturing process.  There are no close personal relationships as they exist in reality.  People are created on a production line, so there are no mothers or fathers.  Children are raised as groups and programmed according to their designated caste.  No one grows old.  They suffer a quick demise at 60 years.

The author, Aldous Huxley, gives many ruminations on sex, society, and religion.  This book was published in 1932, so it had to be done very creatively.  I am sure it was pushing censorship boundaries for its time.  Its imagery is very tame by today’s standards, but the philosophies being discussed are still very relevant.  Many have compared this book to Orwell’s 1984.  Both books present a sort of future dystopia , but do so in very different manner.   I think this book would make a great movie.  I can’t believe it has not happened yet (apart from made-for-tv movies).  Hollywood keeps recycling stories, some of which weren’t worthy of an initial telling.  They ought to do this one.  The CGI needed to create  the “duplicate” people required for this movie is available now.  This might have been something that prevented this movie from being made 20 years ago.  I definitely recommend this book.

I am planning to start on Isaac Asimov’s Foundation next.

Apparently it is trivial to make posts private in WordPress.  I am now using this feature to log work done during the day.  A great way to document things.  Just add a post per usual, but check this box before publishing:

Thank you WordPress!

 

I finally finished reading Neal Stephenson’s Cryptonomicon.  I started it in October.  It was a really well-written book that had two story lines that didn’t converge until the book is nearly over.  One is set during WWII and the other in about 1997.  It involves the Allied struggle to break the axis’ encrypted communication and win the war.  It also has a treasure hunt element to it in that it also entails a search for a huge hoard of axis’ plundered gold.  Some of the details of the story are so intricate that I cannot help to think that it is a non-fiction account of an untold portion of history.  At nearly 1000 pages, this is a long book.  It is easily good enough to be made into a hit movie, but I think it would have to be greatly condensed to fit into 2 1/2 hours.  I chose this book because I previously read Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash in college and really enjoyed it.  I have ordered a used copy of Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World for my next read.  A Brave New World was recommended to me by a former co-worker who suggested that I watch Breaking Bad years ago.  I loved that show, so hopefully her recommendation of books is on par.

I have not posted in quite a while.  I am about to wrap up a project that uses remote, wireless-communicating control panels to control the levels of six retention ponds in a municipality in Kentucky.  I am in the process of testing and putting the finishing touches on the HMI.  Here’s a screenshot of the overview screen:

This project was a challenge because I have not used Modbus in the last decade and I have not used AutoCAD to design a control panel in almost as long.  Everything came together pretty well, except for the Scope Creep part.  I have had long delays throughout the project getting information from the rep.  Now that everything is done, the rate of communication has suddenly hastened and I have been given requests for new “features”.  I have added the ability to enter a percentage limit for the gate valves, but features that require additional wiring have to be declined.  I hope to have the six panels shipped on Friday.

In my last post I talked about my morning consumption of hemp seeds and how that may affect a drug test.  Apparently the internet is correct.  I consumed hemp seeds most mornings – five or six days a week up to, but not including the day of the test.  I did not test positive for anything.  I don’t understand why the military prohibits service members from consuming hemp products.  Perhaps their tests are more stringent?

I had to take a drug test today.  I hate the idea of being forced to urinate in a bottle while some stranger monitors me.  Somehow in the last few decades the powers that be made it seem acceptable to impose this on people.  The night before the test, I Googled all my supplements and made sure they won’t cause false positives.  Apparently Onnit supplements, which I use, are all checked by a third party laboratory to ensure that they will not result in a positive drug test.  Their testing even meets USADA standards.  I figure great, I should be OK.  First thing in the morning I have my usual breakfast of Muesli and blue berries with hemp seeds.  As I add the hemp seeds, I think oh, crap.  Forgot about these.  I skipped the muesli and hemp this morning and instead made a spinach and feta omelet.  I read that I should not have an issue with the hemp seeds, but I skipped them this morning anyway.  Apparently you aren’t allowed to eat hemp products if you are in the military.  This gave me some concern, but not much I can do about it.  I eat it almost every day.  I have to take the damn test.

I leave my home earlier than usual so that I can take the stupid test and still get to work on time.  I arrive at the testing center at 7:45AM.  I check in behind a guy with all kinds of skulls, snakes, and spiders tattooed on the back of his head and fill out several forms and find a seat in the waiting room.   Every other time I have taken one of these idiotic tests I have done it at a lab that just runs tests.  This test was to be conducted at an urgent care facility.  Apparently the flu epidemic is pretty bad this year.  I am in a room full of people coughing, moaning, and wheezing.  Several are wearing surgical masks.  I flipped through some magazines and played with my phone for a little while and noticed it is 8:45.  I was supposed to have a meeting at 9:00, so I emailed some co-workers telling them that I will be a little late.  Then 9:00 rolls around.  I am still not being seen.  I inquire at the front desk and the lady looks for my information in her computer.  It doesn’t seem to be there.  She re-enters some things and tells me she will try to get me seen.  I decide to stand, because I am starting to feel bad because I have already switched seats a few times to avoid the coughing and sneezing of some of the sicker patients.  9:30 rolls around.  I still haven’t been seen.  Many more flu victims have made their way into the almost full room.  I make eye contact with the lady at the front.  She pages someone to give a status on my test and assures me it will be soon.  When I arrived some 100 minutes ago, I already had to go to the bathroom.   I chugged most of my 750ml camelback bottle on the way in.  Now I really have to go.  Finally, 10:15 rolls around and I get to go back.  I easily fill the cup.  I think I could have filled half a dozen of them.  I sign the seals and the lady conducting the test starts having trouble with her computer.  She isn’t able to enter the testing information.  What time sucking abyss have I wandered into?  At about 10:30 the system finally begins working.  Two hours and forty-five minutes of my life that I can’t have back and I will be lucky if I don’t have the flu.  I hate these tests.  They are so demeaning.  I envy the generations before me that never had to deal with this crap.  Wait in this room full of sick people and give me your body fluids when instructed.  We don’t care about you, your dignity, or your health.  Whatever happened to, “innocent until proven guilty?”  At what level in someone’s career does this finally end?

I had a couple of pictures up on my web page that were “cartoonized”.  I liked the look, but thought that someone ought to also be able to see what I actually look like.  My solution was to have the original picture of me appear when a person moves his/her mouse over the “cartoon” image of me.  I am not sure if mixing Javascript with HTML will give all coders a warm and fuzzy feeling, but it works.

<img src='Cartoon.jpg' onmouseover="this.src='NoCartoon.jpg';" onmouseout="this.src='Cartoon.jpg';" />


I changed my main page:

http://www.erikboisen.net

and my contact page:

http://www.erikboisen.net/contact.html

In my last post I talked about the issues I have had with Project Fi.  At the time I joined there were only two options for phones – the Nexus 5X and the Nexus 6P.  I opted for the 5X because it could fit in my pocket.  On Sunday I called my parents and the phone and the service worked well.  I finished the call, connected the phone to the charger and did other things.  At bedtime, I went to retrieve my phone and noticed it was off.  I tried turning it on, but it did nothing.  I had to drive somewhere unfamiliar in the morning, so not having a GPS or phone was not a pleasant thought.  I did a Google search to see about resetting the phone and did get the phone to almost go into a reset mode before once again going black.  I printed maps to follow to get to my unfamiliar destination.  I also contacted Project Fi for help.  The tech person had me try everything I already tried then talked about a current $100 rebate special on new phones.  My phone was 15 months old and looked just like the day I received it.  I was determined to not give this company any more of my money.  My experience with their service was really poor and given that they also sold me a really lousy phone, I decided to leave.  I went to Verizon late in the day and unbeknownst to me, just in time for their “Black Monday” sale.  I got a good deal on a 128GB Pixel phone.  It is made by HTC, but has the Google brand on it.  Project Fi is run by Google.  I guess Google gets some of my money anyway, but at least I will not use their crappy cell network.

I just enjoyed a full week off for the first time in over 2 years.  I really enjoyed not looking at anything electronic for that week.  I swam, ate, and enjoyed the sun of the Caribbean with my baby!  I even inadvertently scheduled my vacation to include the fall-back time change, so I milked an extra hour!   I am back to reality, but with a better-adjusted outlook.  I should not go that long without a nice vacation!

Google has had a cell phone company for about two and a half years.  It is fairly inexpensive and offers a nice web interface to track usage.  I have had their service for about 14 months.  I previously had Verizon for many years and was happy with their service, but the bills were a little too high for my liking.  Project Fi is limited in their phone choices, but I am not too picky.  I had only two phones to pick from at the time I switched.  I am happy with the features of the Nexus 5x that I have been using.  The Project Fi service, however, is another matter.  For the past four months, I have rarely been able to place or receive a call on most occasions.  I am beginning to wonder what I am paying for.  I contacted Project Fi via email, and they were very quick to respond.  They sent me some obvious suggestions like restarting and updating my phone.  They also gave instructions on forcing a switching of providers.  Project Fi uses T-Mobile, Sprint, and US Cellular networks.  I have implemented their suggestions without any improvements.  Project Fi looked like a great idea, but I believe my little cell phone experiment is soon to be over.  I will be switching back to Verizon.