Me

TomTom

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

I’m embarassed to admit it, but I’ve had a TomTom ONE 130 for a while and haven’t used it. My older sister and brother-in-law gave it to me as a Christmas present, and it’s been sitting unopened in my office for ages.

Why?

Because I just haven’t had a calling for it. I like using maps. Maybe it’s the Boy Scout in me, but I’m cool with just using maps. Plus I enjoy having my own sense of direction. If I get lost, I’m usually able to navigate my way out just using some reasoning and sense of direction. I prefer to rely upon my wits instead of some device, because speaking as a software engineer well… let’s just say I know what bugs are. 😉  Wife and I have gotten along this far in life without a GPS. We ask directions, we use maps, we know how to navigate the land, and frankly if we do get lost we don’t mind driving around a bit more because hey… it’s just all part of life’s adventure. It’s fun!

I also think it’s because most of my driving is done locally, and I’m pretty familiar with Austin’s roads. I really don’t need some device to get me around. I think once or twice I’ve thought “gosh, if I had a GPS it would have been easier to find this, but I found it without the GPS so… eh.”

I do think GPS technology is really cool. When I think about taking long trips into unknown areas, I think a GPS could be useful. Since they have functions like finding landmarks, hotels, gas stations, ATM’s, and those sorts of things, that’s a great deal of usefulness, especially if you’re in unfamiliar waters. One reason I want an iPhone is just for this sort of thing. Heck, TomTom is supposedly bringing their software to the new iPhone. Being able to fully get around, maybe find a hotel from the road, call it to see if they still have rooms and at what price, and so on. All useful things.

So anyway, since we have a funeral to attend and it’s in some middle-of-nowhere town Texas, I figured this would be a useful time to pull out the TomTom and see what it could do. I’m currently getting it configured, updated with all the maps and such (man, that’s expensive), and getting it ready to go. Since I’m a software developer, I can’t help but look at it from a programmer’s perspective, and they did a lot of nice things. I do think the Mac desktop client app, TomTom HOME, is a bit clunky because they didn’t write it as a Mac-native app (is this Java?). Little things like that which look like popup buttons have behaviors like combo boxes. Little things like that. Oh, and crashing too.

We’ll see what comes of it. So far it seems pretty neat.

Updated: Well, that didn’t last long. I’ve been running the updaters on it, going through the forced upgrades and such. I think everything is good, but then I remove the device and get a flashing red X. Look it up on their website, I need to disable Spotlight on the device. OK, that was dealt with. I try again, still flashing red X. So I use their instructions to uninstall then reinstall. Do this a few times. Still nothing but a flashing red X. In fact, the downloads vary. One time I got all of the applications and voices and other files, but now all I get is the application. I wonder if the fact the HOME application crashed one time while updating things somehow hoarked stuff.

I don’t know… I’m fed up. I’ll try calling their tech support in the morning.

Updated 2: Got on with their tech support, and spoke with “Gary” who was friendly and helpful. Gave him my information, explained the problem. He said since I had tried all the usual things without much luck, that the next step was to reformat. So I did that. Went into Disk Utility.app and did a nuke and pave… reformatting the TomTom’s internal drive. Then hooked it back up to the HOME desktop software, it recognized things were empty, it downloaded and reinstalled the main application and USA/Canada map (which takes a long time over that USB cable; I wonder if it’s USB 1 because it’s mighty slow). After that, it ran a few more updates to get all the updates. I also had to manually reinstall the voices. But after that, all seemed better. In fact, it seemed better than it was originally as a lot of other options in the HOME software became available.

So, while I got off to an inauspicious start with the device, in the end it seems to be working well. Nuke and pave, is there anything it can’t cure? 🙂

Oh, I’ll make one suggestion for Mac users. As soon as I reformatted the TomTom’s drive, the first thing I did was disable Spotlight from searching on it by going to System Preferences, Spotlight, Privacy, and adding the “INTERNAL” drive to the list. But I also did a secret little thing. Launch the terminal and:

$ cd /Volumes/INTERNAL
$ touch .metadata_never_index

And that’s all. What this does is creates an invisible “secret” file named “.metadata_never_index” that the Spotlight mechanisms will look for as a hint to never index this volume. I opted to do this because for some reason at time I’ve noticed the Spotlight Privacy panel will forget volumes listed on it, so adding this secret file ought to be good insurance to keep Spotlight from ever touching the volume. Here’s hoping.

Then once all the Spotlight stuff was disabled, THEN I did all the updating and so on.

Now if I can put my geek/programmer hat on….

I must admit, I think the way the TomTom folks designed things is pretty slick. They let you drive everything from the desktop software and manage it all from there. While I think the GUI is very non-standard, it’s simple enough to understand and get by, and that’s what’s really important. I do think sometimes it could be better about flow; this goes for both the desktop software and the TomTom’s device software too. That is, sometimes you do something on a screen and want to keep working on that screen, but instead it exits you out to some earlier point in the process and you have to click click click click click to get back to where you were. For instance, in the HOME desktop software, there’s no way to just load up all my computer voices at once… I have to load one voice, then it exits me back to the main voices panel, click click, load next voice, etc..  Or on the device, I might want to change the alarm status for points of interest; it’s naturally a list, let me check and uncheck things as I want to then “Done” to accept the changes and exit or “Cancel” to discard all changes and go back to the original setup… but instead once you click something to (un)check it it takes you all the way back out to the main nav screen and you’ve got to click around to get back to the list. Fine if you’re working with one item, annoying if you want to work with more than one.

But I do appreciate how they did things as a device. It’s just hardware with a drive. That you can totally nuke the drive and the desktop software knows how to download and install and get it all going again, that’s great for disaster recovery and simplifying many processes. I like how they did that.

Really, from a geek perspective I like how they put it all together. We’ll see how my actual experiences go once I start actually navigating somewhere with it.

4.5 out of 5 stars

/ hsoi

I write Mac utility software for a living. A software bundle the company creates, CheckIt 2 Performance Suite, was just reviewed and received 4.5 out of 5 stars. The particular product I work on, Spring Cleaning, is the flagship software in that bundle.

What stood out to me in this review versus other reviews of the product is the reviewer seemed to look at the entire product and didn’t overlook key features. Many reviewers seem to only focus on the “pretty icons” and the basic tools, as if they just gave the product a 5 minute look over and then wrote a review. This reviewer appeared to fully examine the product and review based upon that:

Spring Cleaning comes with other features that are used to modify and limit how the other features work, allowing you to choose areas or files that you don’t want it to include. Finally, and very importantly, is the ability to schedule any or all of these functions to be performed automatically. For instance, it is probably a good idea to repair disk permissions once a month, and it is a good idea to allow the Unix maintenance routines to run. Using Spring Cleaning, you can easily set these up to automatically run when it works for your schedule.

Talked about things like Exclusions, and most importantly, the Scheduler. That’s one of the biggest strengths of Spring Cleaning, that you can easily set up automated schedules to keep your Mac running in top shape. As Ron Popeil was fond of saying, “Just set it and forget it!”

We understand a lot of functionality here is something an ĂŒber-geek could do on their own, but not everyone is an ĂŒber-geek. We strive to bring a lot of power and functionality “for the rest of us” so that anyone can keep their Mac running well.

I was just happy at the excellent review. Now go buy a copy and keep me in a job. 😉

Just because

/ hsoi

Sometimes it’s fun to do little meme things so folks can get to know you better.

So with that….

  1. What time did you get up this morning? Don’t remember, but I’m generally an early riser.
  2. How do you like your steak? Medium
  3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema? Pixar’s “Up”
  4. What is your favorite TV show? Cartoons, Discovery Channel stuff, Outdoor Channel
  5. If you could live anywhere i the world where would it be? Texas is great, I’d like to stay here, but getting maybe 50-100 acres of land to settle down on would be awesome.
  6. What did you have for breakfast? This morning, nothing. Bad John.
  7. What’s yoru favorite cuisine? Whatever Wife cooks. Asian foods like Korean, Thai, Vietnamese is good too. And Texas BBQ.
  8. What foods do you dislike? Anything that stares back at me. Things that aren’t food but pretend to be.
  9. Favorite place to eat? Home, because Wife is an awesome cook.
  10. Favorite dressing? I make a thing with a little vinegar, soy sauce, and sesame oil, then cracked black pepper. Mmm.
  11. What kind of vehicle do you drive? One that’s paid for, old, but still gets me around. I’d like a 4×4 pickup… Toyota Tacoma maybe.
  12. What are your favorite clothes? T-shirts with the sleeves cut off, shorts or jeans. Just being comfortable.
  13. Where would you visit if you had the chance? New Zealand, Alaska.
  14. Cup 1/2 empty or 1/2 full? The cup is.
  15. Where would you want to retire? See #5
  16. Favorite time of day? No, not really. Every moment has its place.
  17. Where were you born? In a hospital.
  18. What is your favorite sport to watch? UFC and other such mixed martial arts.
  19. Are you a morning person or a night person? Morning
  20. Do you have any pets? Yes.
  21. Any new and exciting news you’d like to share? If I have it, I tend to blog about it, so just keep reading.
  22. What did you want to be when you were little? A math teacher.
  23. What is your best childhood memory? Only one? Too many to list. But one that just came to mind was me with my paternal grandfather. He was a crotchety old fucker, but I remember one morning while staying at his house he made me breakfast and showed me the right way to make homefries. Plus explaning to me the right way to make fried green tomatoes (you have to slice the thickness just right). I don’t have a lot of memories of my grandfather, but those that I do are neat.
  24. Are you a cat or a dog person? Cat
  25. Are you married? I think so.
  26. Always wear your seat belt? Only when I’m in my car.
  27. Been in a car accident? Yes
  28. Any pet peeves? Yes
  29. Favorite pizza topping? That there are toppings. No cheese pizza! And meat must be included.
  30. Favorite flower? My daughter.
  31. Favorite ice cream? That which I’m eating. Tho H-E-B makes a Creamy Creations flavor called White Chocolate Raspberry Truffle. mmmmmmmmmmmmm.
  32. Favorite fast food restaurant? Sonic, Burger King, Subway, Thundercloud Subs. Mostly anything but McDonald’s.
  33. How many times did you fail your drivers test? None
  34. From whom did you get your last email? Probably some spammer
  35. Which store would you choose to max out your credit card? Right now? Cabela’s.
  36. Do anything spontaneous lately? Sign on for a deer lease, and bought a snub nose revolver
  37. Like your job? Yes
  38. What was your favorite vacation? 16 years old, family went on a 3-week bus tour of Europe. Running around London on my 16th birthday was cool. Seeing Europe was awesome.
  39. Last person you went out to dinner with? I guess the guys I got the deer lease with, having BBQ out in the nearby town and discussing if we wanted to sign or not (obviously we did).
  40. What are you listening to right now? The sounds of Wife and Kids putting dinner on the table.
  41. What is your favorite color? What is the average airspeed velocity of an unlaiden swallow? Blue.
  42. How many tattoos do you have?  One
  43. Coffee drinker? No.

that’s about the size of it….

And now you know a little more randomness about me.

The Kid

/ hsoi / 4 Comments

Ever notice how no one expects to have to defend themselves?

There’s that old saying: Shit happens.

Well, during the latter part of my night hunt experience, there was potential for shit to happen. If you care about self-defense, read on.

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Night hunt

/ hsoi / 8 Comments

This past Friday night, my buddy Charles and I went on a night hunt for feral hogs. Charles booked it probably a month ago with a group called “Night Hogs” out of Seguin, Texas run by 2 guys, Randy and Gerald.

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Got my snub

/ hsoi / 14 Comments

I finally got my snub.

It’s a Smith & Wesson 442, with no internal lock.

Simple specs: J-frame revolver, Airweight series (aluminum alloy frame, carbon steel cylinder), “Centennial” frame (fully enclosed hammer), 5 rounds of .38 Special +P, double-action-only, 1 7/8″ barrel, integral front sight and fixed rear, 6 5/16″ overall length, 15 oz. empty weight, matte black finish. The finish is the only difference between this and the 642. And hey, black is cool. 🙂

Updated correction: There are actually two differences between the 642 and the 442. The most obvious is the finish, with the 642 being a matte stainless finish and the 442’s a blue/black. I’m not 100% on the details, but some Googling turns up that at least some older 642’s had a clearcoat finish that could come off over time and cleanings. I believe the 442’s frame finish is anodized. If you use either gun, both will eventually show wear; just care for them. The difference other is on the 642 the cylinder (and supposedly barrel) are stainless steel, whereas on the 442 the cylinder (and supposedly barrel) are carbon steel. I haven’t been able to find any information on if the materials difference makes any difference, and I’m not a metallurgist so while I know carbon steel is “softer” than stainless steel (given use in knife blades) I’m not sure if it equates to any real difference in a revolver cylinder. Tho I am curious as to why S&W chose to use carbon steel in the 442; maybe it accepts the finish/cosmetics better? Anyway, it seems the choice between 442 and 642 really comes down to cosmetics as the guns are, for all intents and purposes, the same. In my case, I really didn’t care. When I phoned the gun store to see what they had in stock, I asked for a lockless 642 (as I know those are most common in the stores) and the guy replied they had a lockless 442; thus why I got the 442. But hey, black is cool.

Updated correction 2: Direct info from S&W themselves.

As you can see, it pretty much fit the bill for what I wanted in a snub. The key factor was wanting the snub now. As I’ve had snub on the brain, I’ve found more and more times when carrying a snub would be more appropriate or more convenient. So, I felt that I had enough justification to get one now instead of waiting who knows how long before the perfect all-steel model would come along (if ever). While I’m not 100% thrilled with the lightweight, I’ll live for now. I will keep my eyes open for a steel model.

I do need to get some better grips for it. The research starts for that (tho I think Hogue makes a good set).

Damn that trigger is long and heavy.

And of course, I think about ammo.

There’s the famous Chuck Hawks article. I keep reading about this Federal Nyclad. I mean, out of a snub, all ammo isn’t created equal and you really need to get something that’s appropriate for it: not just any .38 ammo will do. So on the Nyclad I find this article. It tells of the “one shot stop” statistics, and links to some actual ballistics data of this load. Here’s some more ballistics data for other loads out of a snub. Handguns Magazine did some investigation into different loads.

Much researching to do. Meantime…. well, I’ve been sitting here doing a bunch of dry fire just to work the trigger. The gun locked up on me a couple times. Hrm. Well, I knew I’d be taking it to a gunsmith to polish her out. Gotta deal with that plus break it in (shoot maybe 200 rounds flawlessly) before I trust it to carry.

Anyway, here we go. We’ll see where this winds up. 🙂

Satisfying ego or satisfying results?

/ hsoi / 1 Comment

I just finished reading this letter over at Tony Blauer’s website. To be fair, the letter reads like a mix of a testimonial and an ad/promotion for Blauer’s approach. That said, the article still brings up an important point.

The letter recounts Tom Arcuri’s journey in studying and ultimately teaching martial arts. As Mr. Arcuri developed his own style, he recognized why students come to him: not necessarily to learn some style of art, but to learn how to fight or defend themselves. Recognizing a need to satisfy this goal, he set out to meet it. Unfortunately and admittedly he chose the wrong measuring stick for progress: variety. In class situations he could see all sorts of variety and teach it, but once the students got into pressure situations, the variety went out the door. Why?

The answer came to Mr. Arcuri one summer. He came to learn that when one gets into pressure situations, one reverts to gross concepts and skills. Thus variety for the sake of variety goes out the door. Consequently, he changed how he evaluates from “variety” to “results”. I think that’s a good change. Does it necessarily matter how you defend yourself so long as you defend yourself successfully?

Mr. Arcuri writes:

As a group we tend to be control freaks, ego centric, and a bit insecure regarding our skills. This is ironic since we emphasize self-confidence and constant devotion to self-improvement to our students. We spend an inordinate amount of time arguing to be right even in the face of evidence to the contrary. Knowing forty or four hundred techniques gives us control and feeds our egos, but does it enhance our student’s survivability in a “real street fight”? Remember, it’s women and children that are more likely to have to defend themselves in our society.

I touched on this recently. Some arts make a big deal out of how much they have in their curriculum and how much they can teach you. The reality? Not so much. Kuk Sool may tout 3608 techniques, but I’ve long wondered just how they arrive at that total. If you look at what Kuk Sool terms “techniques” (the joint locks, throws, sweeps, etc… Ki Bohn Soo, Sohn Mohk Soo, etc.), then to earn 1st degree black belt you must learn 226 techniques; to earn 2nd degree, 143 techniques (369 total); to earn 3rd degree, 40 techniques (409 total); to earn 4th, 25 techniques (434 total); to earn 5th, 30 techniques (464 total). Now this isn’t to say the official Kuk Sool curriculum doesn’t have other things involved, but the point is that by the time you become a “Master rank” in Kuk Sool, you’ve been taught 464 techniques: only about 13% of the claimed knowledge in the system. Wow. So where are all those other techniques? Super-secret for only the blessed and privileged to know, I guess. Or maybe creative counting; I’ve wondered if by 3608 techniques they mean just the strictly defined techniques or if they also count kicks (front kick, 1; low front kick, 2; middle front kick, 3; high front kick, 4; etc.), punches, and every other little thing, since I know in other arts they will label that sort of stuff “techniques”. But however things are labeled and counted, the point still remains the same: aiming to collect a big number of stuff.

Aside: after a while you’ll find the techniques you’re learning are the same or almost the same. The body only bends so many ways, so if you claim thousands of ways to bend the body, eventually you’re going to repeat yourself in some fashion. Certainly I saw a lot of such repetition in the Kuk Sool curriculum. That’s not all bad because it helps to demonstrate different entries and approaches. But make sure you take those numbers for what they are.

So what’s the point of all of this? IMHO, ego satisfaction. You can strut around qualitatively stating “look at all that I know.” Then it’s easy to get into dick-measuring contests (e.g. Hwa Rang Do, a Kuk Sool contemporary, one-ups with their 4000+ techniques; see my previous article). But will a big ego keep you from getting your ass kicked? Maybe, but I doubt it.

As I’ve often said, what ultimately matters are the personal goals that you have for yourself. If your personal goal is to just acquire a large library of knowledge, then that’s fine. If your personal goal is to inflate your ego, that’s fine too. I know it sounds like I’m down on that, and I personally am because it’s not my goal and I don’t see much true point in that goal. But truly if that’s what you want and you feel it makes your life better, who am I to tell you no? I do hope you have perspective on that goal, but otherwise go for it. Me, my goal these days is combat effectiveness. I’d rather have one technique that I could execute solidly and well and that could truly save my life, than a thousand techniques that I half-assed know and don’t practically do much for me. This is why Filipino martial arts hold so much appeal for me.

As an engineer (with an engineer’s mindset) and given how much Taoism resonates with me, that’s likely why Bruce Lee’s philosophies resonate with me. He speaks of emptying your cup so it can be filled, of keeping what is useful and discarding the rest, of achieving a true simplicity in combat. Note that for these things to happen, first you must acquire. While learning nothing vs. learning something then discarding it, might appear in the end to achieve the same results, they really don’t. Antoine de Saint ExupĂ©ry wrote:

Il semble que la perfection soit atteinte non quand il n’y a plus rien Ă  ajouter, mais quand il n’y a plus rien Ă  retrancher.

(It would seem that perfection is attained not when no more can be added, but when no more can be removed.)

To strive for perfection, strive for simplicity. If it is not useful, discard it; but that does imply you must first have acquired it so you could determine if it was useful or not. How to determine if it’s useful? Does it help you satisfy your goals? If your goal is to satisfy your ego, then fine. If your goal is to get satisfying results, well… to me, satisfying results satisfies ego. 🙂