It’s Been a While

As is wont to happen in everyone’s life – life has happened. I have not updated this site for quite a while. I will keep it up to date and I will start to fill in the holes as time permits – which, unfortunately time will now permit.

I am committing to spending at least one day each week posting on here about something current as well as catching up with something form the past year and a half in what has been a spectacularly wild lifetime.

In the last year and a half our family has changed in what can only be described as exciting ways. Katie has been married. She is now married to Dustin Bakker and they live near us. Close enough to walk, in fact. It is not a close walk, but they have done it a couple of times. They are an amazing couple.

ON the older scene Karen’s Dad, David, left us in June of last year, which was a very hard loss for me. He was a good friend for me. In many ways we both had some semi-twisted thought processes that we helped keep each other sane. We both saw some strange quirks in this life that no one else appreciated. We shared many interests and shared a lot of strange humorous insights that no one else quite ‘got.’

On the younger side I see that we have gone form 3 to 5.99 grandkids. Travis Joseph Waller is now 14 months or so. He lives here with my wife and I and his parents and he is a wonderfully loving little boy. Lillian Danelle Dimick is about 6 months old and fits in with the rambunctious Dimick clan and loves her siblings! And Penny Smith is due and day now (actually September 21st) and I can’t wait to see the chaos she brings to her mothers carefully choreographed life.

Things to catch up on over the next few months:

Dale Murphy (cool stories!)

Jacob’s mission

B of A and Warren Buffett (Should be spelled buffoon)

ADD

Migraines

Arduino

Empire avenue

High Tech Assist

Joomla!

Amazing People

Wonderful Family

Motorcycle/Car Tires

Android phone, new users and rooting.

Last night I went to my daughters flute recital. It was a pleasure to hear. The students are almost all college age or older and they are all competent players. Their instructor is a professor at a state university and a member of the Seattle Philharmonic.

Between numbers I noticed man about my age (40-49), sitting next to my wife, pull out his Android cell phone. Finally an ally I can visit with face to face! I was anxious to compare notes with him about his experience.

It turns out that he has had his Droid for two weeks. He came from a Blackberry, which he, “Hated!”

I asked him for his impression of the Droid. He said that he was still not convinced it is the phone for him. I asked hm if he had ‘rooted‘ it yet. He replied that he had not. He had a couple of issues with his phone not offering some features that he really wanted. Speed dialing, etc.

We talked for a minute and I told him that my phone was even better after I rooted it. I have much more control and even more software available for it. I suggested that he try it. He seemed hesitant and the conversation ended.

Now, he is not what I would call a noob to the cell phone experience. But he is a noob to the Linux experience.

This got me to thinking about the phone, the buying public, and the phone experience.

I concluded that the Droid is NOT for everyone. It is for power users who do not mind tinkering with their phones. It is for people who do not accept that it must have limitations. Phones have limitations built into them based upon the service level the vendor is willing to offer. Blackberry is a fine phone for what it does. There is very little software available for it. There is a very small ‘underground’ of people who really want to explore it and push it to it’s limit’s.

The iPhone, in spite of it’s apparent myriad software packages, is severely limited because Apple has a VERY heavy hand in what is allowed to be done to it. Apple discourages innovation.

The Droid is more open so that there is more innovation being done. There is no fear that you are going to get a cease and desist letter from the maker. The development community has a much better understanding of the technology behind the phone. The community is much more self-supporting than any other cell phone market.
Was I happy with my phone out of the box? For the most part. I missed some features and I was satisfied that some talented developer would see the same needs and address them. For the most part they have. Did I feel the phone could be better? Absolutely! Like every other phone I have ever had (and I include PDAs) none have them have satisfied my criteria as the perfect device. Most make it about 80-90% of the way there. After exploring the world of Droid users I found some options that were being developed by the community, without the onerous oversight of Big Brother (Apple in this case) that allowed me to do things with my phone that moved it up to the 95% level.

It may be at the 100% level but I have not found the perfect app for my podcasts that I listen to, yet. Did you notice I said yet? I am confident that an application for my needs/wants will be delivered shortly. The same apps may never be delivered for the iPhone because of Apple’s heavy hand. However, the same options may not be available to non-rooted phones. Rooting simply allows you to have more flexibility, options and control. And control is what it is all about. You have control of your computer why not your cell phone?

Understand that you do not get complete access to everything. None of the rooting being done is for nefarious purposes. In fact, I am yet to find a single instance where piracy is being discussed or is an issue. Whicvh is a lot more than I can say about the iPhone. There have been estimates that as much as 80% of the software being used on iPhones is pirated. Why? Because people cannot afford to pay for all of the add-on software that is needed to bring the iPhone to the 100% level. It is true that the apps are inexpensive. But with the Droid Market having a 24 hour no questions asked policy I can try any software I want and return it if I don’t like it. If that option was available to the iPhone users they would not feel the need to pirate software to get the same try before you buy experience.

The Droid is not for everyone, but for those who are technically inclined it is a blast!

Response to Ebook vendors blame consumers for ‘unrealistic expectations’

Ebook Publishers defended their raised prices for ebooks today. Please read this article.

On my first read I accepted that they MIGHT have a legitimate complaint. Then I did the math. The publisher is getting the largest single share for the sale of the book. Higher than the author! If you accept that the books grosses $9.09 they still make AT LEAST $4.53 per book. That is a whopping 35% margin!

If the publisher sells the book direct, and some do, they make more than that. My wife has a book that she authored. I am fully aware of what the costs are associated with producing a book and the commissions involved. Her book does not have the $.78 of marketing overhead because the publisher is not offering any marketing. Yet, done correctly, the marketing money spent results in higher sales. Thus, more income. By the way, her cost to buy the book is much higher than the $.50 quoted. and we did all of the layout and artwork.

There is NO WAY that is costs less than $.50 to edit, print, and ship a paperback book. We already know that the cost to edit and layout the book is about $.50. So the bookseller automatically has lowered their costs on selling a book. Now, unless they are making money on Shipping and Handling (Which I am sure they are) they have no reason to compain. The price for an ebook should be much less because the cost is much less. If the seller does not want to pay Apple 30% then don’t sell it through them. Very simple. Set up your own sales portal.

My expectations for lower priced ebooks is not unrealistic. You will never convince me that a paperback book that sells for $5.95 costs less to produce than an ebook.

I will simply refuse to pay more than $9.99 for an ebook and I will NOT pay the same price as either a hardbound or paperback book.

One dirty little secret these publishers will not tell you is that they love to sell these books as ebooks because the profit IS higher (unless you deal with Apple) It is usually up to the author as to whether or not the books are made available as ebooks.

Open letter to the NHL, NFL, MLB and NBA

I have been a fan of the Dodgers, Lakers and even the Rams since 1966 when I first learned of them. I was not a resident of the LA area. But they were the dominant teams in my marketplace. I became a 49er fan in 1970 after watching them blast the Rams one too many times. My father used to take me to an Angles game every year on my birthday. I was thrilled to watch Amos Otis and the visiting Royals take on Nolan Ryan, Jim Fregosi, and Sandy Alomar (the non-spitting one). I can remember washing the dishes as a child listening to the Dodgers play the Braves, and I remember Vin Scully describing the jobs the players had in the off-season. I loved that the players were somewhat normal.

I remember meeting several players from the San Diego Chargers in training camp at UC Irvine. People like Deacon Jones, Dan Fouts, Johnny Unitas and even Mike Garrett (he was a lying jerk then too) For the most part these were genuinely nice people. They understood that fans were important to their livelihood. One of my greatest thrills was sneaking into the locker room and with 2 of my friends, meeting Johnny Unitas, shaking his hand, and talking to him. He listened as if what we had to say was important. I remember taking a transistor radio to eleementary school in 1969 and listening to the Mets and Orioles playing in the World Series at recess. We used to be able to cheer for a team because the players were loyal (sometimes forced by a lack of free agency) and the management looked beyond this season. The fans identified with the players and the team.

Now, because of the greed of the owners, the players, and everyone else in the sports industry, those memories will never become part of my children’s childhood. The World series is no longer played during the day because there is more money to be made with night games.

No doubt that some teams are losing money. But if they were truly losing money why won’t the owners sell? Because much of the loss is just a paper loss. Today they gloat about signing a player to a multi-million dollar contract. But what they do is put much of the money on the back end. They tie it in as an incentive such as, “If you’re on the team as of march 1, 2010 we’ll give you $5,000,000.” The team, and the player, both know that he will NEVER see that money. The team says, “We respect him enough to make him one of the top paid players at his position.” The player says, “I will be here through 2009” because he knows they won’t keep him. Every sport has expanded the number of teams playing as well as the number of teams making the playoffs. It used to be that almost half of the NBA made the playoffs. The MLB season runs so late that some games are canceled because of snow. all in the name of $$$.

Loyalty in sports is a three way triangle. At the corners you have the players, the teams and the fans. The teams obligation is to offer a good product to the fans, and to support the players for the long term. The players have an obligation to play their best, behave, and show some loyalty to the team that supports them when they have a bad season. The fans have an obligation to support the team and the players by attending, watching and supporting sponsors, and buying merchandise.

Teams have thrown away their loyalty to the fans and to the players. They are only after the $$$ They do this by raising ticket prices, (The Dodgers want $47 for a SPRING TRAINING GAME) changing their jersey frequently so the fans will have to spend more money to look current, adding new jersey combinations for the same reason, and by chasing free agents with no forethought to next year.

The players have abandoned the teams in pursuit of the almighty $$$ as well. For some strange reason they seem to have their best season during their last season before free agency. Makes me wonder if they weren’t playing like Randy Moss (half speed half the time.) They take performance enhancing drugs. Not once did I hear any of the accused or admitted cheaters claim they did it to help their team win. They did it in pursuit of fame and money (greed).

The fans have abandoned the teams and the players. It all began innocently enough, with Fantasy Baseball. At first it was a cute idea to satisfy the drive of a few fanatics to get deeper into the game. Now these rotoheads (I am one) are more interested in how one player does than in the outcome of a game for the team. The teams change their rosters so fast that we can’t keep track of who plays for who any more. We, the fans, are the ones who are forced to bear the burden of this greed.

As soon as the fans take a step back and realize that NOTHING that happens on a diamond, court, rink or arena has any bearing on their life, except as entertainment, the house of cards and excessive greed will fall. Until then we get what we are asking for – screwed by the teams and the players.

Open letter to Ereader, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Fictionwise, Mobi and other ebook vendors

Let me preface this by saying that I buy, and read, a LOT of ebooks. I have bought more than 600 ebooks in the past 11 years. The majority of these from Ereader.com. But well over 100 from Amazon. I suspect that this number places me in the top 25% (conservative guess) for ebook readers. I feel qualified, and even entitled, to have a very vocal opinion about the current state of ebooks. Some of the devices that I have read books on include Palm Pilots (when ereader.com was palmreader.com) (at least 5 of these devices) Windows Mobile devices (at least 3 of these) Blackberries, iPhones, PCs, a Kindle and now a Motorola Android. I am a tech toy lover. I like current technology.

In addition to me, two of my adult children read and purchase ebooks, my retired father does, as well as my brother. It is safe to assume that between me and my circle of “converts” we have easily purchased more than 1,000 books. If you do the math you see that this EASILY represents at least $20,000 – $25,000 of purchases.

During some recent conversations with my ‘circle’ it recently came to light that our purchases have tapered off. Upon further discussion the reasons we have tapered off our purchases have emerged. A major reason is that ereader.com has changed their pricing model to match that offered by fictionwise.com. (Both companies are owned by Barnes & Noble.) Their new model now offers a discount in the form on rebates that can be applied to future purchases. They say they did this in response to reader preferences. In conjunction to these rebates they offer a price that is somewhat discounted. Discounted from what? The MSRP of the printed book! The cost of an ebook is so much lower than the cost of a printed manual that I find it insulting to offer an ebook for sale at a comparable price to a paperback. And before the ebook cartel gets into an uproar they need to know that I have made several ebooks using ereader.com’s ebook creator. I am intimately familiar with the process to proof, format, include chapters, etc.

The pricing model of ereader and fictionwise does not seem to really offer a discount since it is applied against FUTURE purchases. So they kind of hook you in. Their discounts are not available across fictionwise/ereader sites.  Also, the books they offer on sale, as part of their weekly discount emails are invariably romance novels which we deem to be worth less than the paper they would be printed on.

The other problem is the different DRM models they employ. I understand that they do not feel they can offer the same DRM model. After all why would Amazon want to sell you a Kindle book you can read on the B&N Nook?

What we want is a simple way to buy and read ebooks from wherever we buy them. This could be accomplished by offering a reader for all available platforms. Or by offering a single, unified DRM method. I have no problem with the ereader/fictionwise method of using the purchasing credit card number for managing the DRM. If I choose to share a book with my family members then I have to share the credit card number as well. That is a risk I would not take with strangers. Thus, you still prevent the (no profit) problem of ebook piracy. But to tie the purchased ebook into a single device by use of the device ID is not the way I want to buy ebooks. I should have the ability to share an ebook with family the same way I can share a paperback. You charge me the same price and yet restrict my use? How wrong is that!?

Our current modus operandi (I learned that reading CSI ebooks) is to shop around for the best CURRENT price (forget this micro-rebate crap) and buy it. Then we remove the DRM. Why? BECAUSE YOU DO NOT OFFER A READER FOR THE ANDROID PLATFORM EVEN THOUGH YOUR OWN READERS (NOOK AND KINDLE) ARE LINUX BASED AND ANDROID BASED! We remove the DRM to convert them into a format we can use.

Now, before you get upset and start spouting off about limited market you had better be aware that there are currently 2,000,000,000 (Yes, with a B) Android based devices in the world and not one of you has released a real ebook reader. It is a large (7,000,000 Android phones sold since November) and growing market. There are projections that the Android phones will outsell iPhones by 2013. (I don’t believe it) Ereader.com has a beta version that they have released that is so weak and pathetic that I would be embarrassed to offer it at this point. Barnes & Noble, above all others should be embarrassed and even ashamed for not offering a Droid reader? Why? Because the Nook is a Droid device! The base programming has been done! As a direct extension of B&N Fictionwise and Ereader should be embarrassed about their lack of a decent viable offering. But I understand that the owners of these two operations have an incentive tied to performance in the next two years. So everything they do is short-sighted. That explains why their reader feels like it was cobbled together in someones den working on the weekends, and the micro-rebate idea. They need $$$ performance now – not in the long-term.

Whoever offers the first QUALITY Android ebook reader will get a strong foothold in the business by virtue of  2,000,000,000 users. If you realize the potential for this market (1% of 2,000,000,000 is 2,000,000 potential users) you might not be so flippant to ignore us. At $.9.95 per book that is a LOT of potential revenue. Until then we will continue to shop all vendors for the current lowest price, remove the DRM, and watch and stew in frustration as our band loyalty dissipates even further. The next step is up to you vendors, because we, the users, have already found a way around your poor performances.

Phone Adventures II

In November I decided that it was time to change from AT&T to Verizon. It was a more difficult choice than I thought it would be. I really like my iPhone but the poor service, poor coverage and expense were more than I could afford. When Verizon announced that their Early Termination Fee (ETF) would increase from $175 to $350 I was pushed to make a decision. I bought a Motorola Droid smartphone.

My brother has had an Android based phone for at least a year and he had lots of good things to say about it.

After having owned it for 2 months now I will offer my views.

Plus

Multitasking. It is SO nice to have programs that keep running in the background.

Open System. There is no need to ‘jailbreak’ the phone since most of the features are available and there is very little reason to dig that deeply.

Off of AT&T.

LED flash for the camera.

Much easier to develop for. Uses Java with free SDK.

Google Maps

Google App integration.

Removable/replaceable/upgradeable battery.

It is really a computer.

Over the air updates.

Minus

The graphics in the available software are not as polished.

There is no good ebook reader available. That should change as the market matures.

There is no integration with Podcasts and the desktop like there is with an iPhone and iTunes.

The lack of an Audible.com client for audiobooks. There are some pretty good audio players but it is necessary to remove the DRM from the audio files.

There are no good cases available because of the sliding keyboard. One thing I liked about my old Ipaq 4705 was the selection of nice leather cases.

The physical appearance is not as stylish.

Overall Impression:

I am very pleased with the Android. The keyboard is a flat keyboard that is difficult to use with my big fingers. I don’t miss iTunes Store as much as I thought I would. Don’t let the claim of 100,000 applications on the iTune store fool you. There is a lot of clutter, chaff and redundancy in the store. For example, at last count there are 156 flatulence programs available. The Android marketplace lacks a solid web interface to their market. There are several sites that act as front ends but none offer a good search capability.

One interesting feature of the Android is that when you find software that you want to download while browsing the web on your PC you can simply scan a barcode on the screen and the link for the download is fed to the phone. Very slick!

The maps and application integration are without peer. I have gone from being a heavy user of Outlook to an infrequent user.

You may see the AT&T commercial claiming that the Android does not allow you to surf the web and talk at the same time. This is sort of true. If you have a wifi connection you will still be able to surf the web while chatting. The reality is that I have only found one time when that was an issue. I was on hold with a call so I put it on speaker phone and opened up my IM program (did I mention that I love the multi-tasking?) I replied to a message but I could not send it without a wifi connection or when I hung up the call. So in 2.5 months of use I have had exactly one time that AT&T had the advantage.

The Over The Air (OTA) updates deserve special mention. When an update is available to the operating system you receive a notification and it is downloaded and installed. You do not need a PC to complete this. When there are updates to your applications the Market Application will check daily and inform you of their availability. again, without the need to have a connection to a PC.

The best analogy that I can offer about the iPhone versus the Android is that the iPhone is a TV dinner and the Android is a fully-stocked pantry. One is ready to go and is fine if you like the predetermined flavor. The other has unlimited possibilities. There is room for both in the world. I still keep my iPhone around for managing the podcasts that I listen to. But as soon as an application appears that integrates the Android with the desktop it will become available on eBay.

Overall grade: A-

A Horrifying Experience

Today was the ultimate emotional roller coaster.

I received a phone call from a friend at my former employer suggesting that I look at my stock options since they expire in 2 days. It turns out that that phone call will be worth $15-20K to us. Welcome money at this time. In the midst of this good news I got a phone call from my son at about 1:00 pm.

“Dad?”
“What’s up?”

“We have a problem over here.”

“Whats up?”

“Sam is missing”

“What do you mean he is missing? Did he come home from school?” I thought maybe he missed his bus home from school.

“He was here and now he is gone. We can’t find him.”

“I’ll be right there. Wait 5 minutes then call 911” I wanted to see what was going on to make sure Sam wasn’t just hiding.

I ran through the family room and told my son to get his keys and to go start looking. My son, daughter, son in law, and son’s friend all grabbed car keys and went looking for Sam.

Sam is 4 years old and has a learning disability.

I then told my son to call Ben back and call 911 immediately.

We all arrived and drove around the neighborhood asking people to call 911 if they saw a blond haired 4 year old roaming around. The mail man, UPS driver and crossing guards were all willing to help as well as many of the neighbors. One young lady and her friend even drove around for an hour looking for him.

We walked and drove all around the neighborhood. There were at least 5 police cars and a motorcycle involved. We checked the drainage ditch, backyards etc. He was not around. Because no one had seen him we were EXTREMELY concerned. He had simply vanished.

We knelt down and had a family prayer. That seemed to help calm things down. Melissa and I set off to help with Trent and Rosalynn. I took Rosalynn with me walking the neighborhood looking for Sam and she fell asleep.

About 2:30 the police announced that Sam was home. We all rushed outside to see what had happened.

It turns out that Sam came in the house and dropped off his back pack. He asked Ben where his mother was and Ben told Sam that Heidi was shopping and would be home in a few minutes. Because Ben did not come to meet the bus, and Sam walked back out front to wait for his mother, the bus driver thought that no parents were home. So she put Sam back on the bus and finished her route before bringing him home again. a little communication would have gone a long ways in preventing this situation but we are all happy that it turned out OK.

Please make sure that everyone who transports your children has more than one way to contact you or another guardian/adult. In this case, if the bus company had had my son’s cell phone number on file this could have been prevented.

 

AFTER NOTE: The police department also sent out an automated phone call to several hundred homes advising people of Sam’s disappearance.  They were prepared!

Health Update

last week I had an MRI on my neck. I got the results back today. Apparently I have a bulging disk and narrowing of the spinal canal. It is the C6 and C7. The result is numbness and tingling in my left ring finger and a loss of strength in my left shoulder and arm. So we will see what the doctor has to say tomorrow. From everything that I have read the options are as simple as anti-inflammatories, physical therapy to surgery. I doubt surgery is going to be needed since it is not a ruptured disk yet.

I actually view this as good news because now we have something we can work on. I am hoping that the pressure has been adding to the migraines and the pressure relief will include headache relief. I have had a headache every day this month.

Cell Phone Adventures

I have been searching for the perfect cell phone for many years. Several have come close but none of them are perfect. It seems that all phones, PDA or smartphones, come close 70-90% perfect but none of them are the EXACT thing I want in a cell phone.

I have tried several Microsoft phones, separate devices (phone and separate PDA) etc.

The Microsoft devices were nice in their own way. HTC seems to make the best devices. Their phones work well and have good support. But Microsoft has never made a good, stable operating system. The devices tend to get very slow.

My requirements for a cell phone are really requirements for a Smartphone. They are:

cell phone

wi-fi support

internet browser

LOTS of applications available (itunes.com, handango.com)

MP3 player

Video player

Ebook reader and support

Play Audible.com books

easy to type on

email

messaging

GPS

My favorite device so far is the iPhone. It’s not perfect but it is the closest I have found. Allow me to share with you how it meets my requirements.

The first place to begin is the itunes store. The iTunes store is easy to navigate and carries music, TV shows, movies, music and a few other things. I enjoy old time radio shows and they have LOTS of free podcasts that I can enjoy. The music/video player on the iPhone has some features that are subtle but very nice to have. By using the iTunes application my subscribed podcasts are updated automatically updated to my iPhone when they become available. In addition the podcasts that I have listened to are automatically removed from my iPhone so that the content stays fresh. The audio books also maintain their bookmarks between my PC and the iPhone so I can listen to the books at home, sync to the iPhone, and then continue listening in the same location that I left off from.

The downside is that the iPhone does not support direct purchase and download from the Audible.com website. Microsoft OS phones do.

One of the largest advantages of the iPhone is the variety of ebooks that can be purchased and read on it by virtue of the large number of readers available. ereader.com, fictionwise.com, Barnes and Noble and, of course, amazon.com all offer content for sale. ereader and fictionwise recently joined forces under one umbrella of ownership. Their pricing is much more similar and they both use the same rebate model to induce buyers. Amazon and Barnes and Noble, and to a lesser degree the other two players offer discounts on top selling books. It is convenient to be able to carry books on a cell phone for the times when I find 5-10 minutes of down time. There are other options available such as dedicate ebook readers (I own a Kindle) but they are not as portable. I have not even touched on the 100,000+ free ebooks available on the internet.

Finally the area that makes these devices truly useful are the applications that are supported. The iPhone has a LOT of applications available. However, Apple has allowed a lot of applications to be released on their store that are nothing more than fodder or garbage. They do have far more good apps than trash. One major strength of the iTunes store is that they have really forced prices down on the apps.

Allow me to expound on the Apple iTunes store and the applications they offer. Apple is not in the business of helping iPhone developers. They do not care if they succeed or not. Apple’s ONLY goal is to use the developers to drive demand to interest people in buying an iPhone. Apple wants to say, and they do in their ads, “we have an app for everything.” After all, as I point out here, it is the applications that make the phone useful and ubiquitous.

OK. I have detailed most of my likes. The biggest dislikes that I have with the iphone are: no tethering from AT&T (without jailbreaking.) The AT&T costs are exorbitent and the coverage is not as good as Verizon. Apple does not like people to play with the internal working of the OS.

iPhone does not offer a native phone to phone chat client like the Blackberry Messenger. They do offer applications that work a bit differently (AIM, Twitter, etc) but nothing is better than BBM that I have found.

The Enterprise integration with email is not as good.

Battery life is not good. (the power to use the multimedia options comes at a power cost)

very poor integration with other phones.

They do not support bluetooth voice dialing commands.

No development options unless you own an Apple computer.

I am very interested in the Google droid phones. I prefer Verizon to AT&T and I like the idea of an open system that many people can program for. But until they have an interface with audible.com and an amazon.com ebook reader application it will remain nothing more than a good idea to me. You can see how some phones get 90% of it right but no one has done it yet.

Apple is as close as I have found. If they added voice dialing through bluetooth and a client that integrated with BBM (not sure they can without violating copyrights or patents) then they would be close enough to 100% for me to keep me from watching every new phone with curiosity.

Initial post

Welcome to Meandering with a Purpose. On my blog I will be posting about different things that are important to me. They may, or may not, be important or interesting to you. To help you decide let me explain who I am.

I suppose that I am mid-aged. That does not bother me. I have been in the IT industry since 1982. I have done EVERYTHING in the IT field at one time or another. I love the industry. Initially it was quite easy to stray abreast of the current technology because there was not that much of it and the community was small. It has since grown into a world where specialization has taken over. It is no longer common to find a developer who can also repair operating systems or diagnose hardware failures or build cables.

I like most sports. I am no longer as fanatical as I once was. In the 80s and 90s I saw a decided change, that I did not like. The advent of free agency (which I support) brought about some basic changes to the game. In the past there was a loyalty (from the fans perspective) between the owner and the players and vice verse. Since then the players are less interested in reamining with a team long term and the teams are more interested in short term players. So I find it harder to care about a team.

I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day Saints. Why do I mention this? Because you need to understand who I am. My belief in Jesus Christ, and my relationship with him, drive my life and provide my overarching goals. I do not inten dot use this space to preach but you will occasionally see snippets because it is a major component in my life.

My wife and I have 5 children. 3 of them are married and we have 3 grandchildren. we love them and their spouses dearly. They are the joy of our lives.

I suffer from chronic migraines. And I do mean suffer. But, as bad as they are, my family suffers more. They miss mne when I am not all here. Although they seem to enjoy my antics while overly medicated for pain. I will post on these occasionally as well since they have been a part of my life since early teen-age.

I am on face book (Lynn Dimick) and on twitter (ldimick)