Nels Lindahl — Functional Journal

A weblog created by Dr. Nels Lindahl featuring writings and thoughts…

Month: July 2018

  • Day 210 the one with some keyboard testing

    2018: Day 210 the one with some keyboard testing

    Dear Reader,

    Right now I’m trying to write using my new bluetooth keyboard and a vertical Pixel 2 XL smartphone. You may have guessed that both my Nexus 9 tablet and my ASUS Flip C101P are completely out of battery. This Logitech keyboard is pretty easy to use and it can be paired to 3 devices. I totally thought that the ASUS Flip was charged. It was on the counter right next to the charging cable, but for some reason I had forgotten to get it plugged in to the device. That was a pure oversight on my part. Today I almost started writing directly into WordPress, but that never feels right. Recently, I have been using Google Docs instead of writing in Microsoft Word. For the most part I prefer to use Microsoft Word on a full size computer and Google docs on anything Chromebook, mobile, or otherwise small screened device.

    It is a little bit awkward to be typing on this keyboard that is about 5x wider than the vertical width of the Pixel 2 XL. This is pretty much the way I was planning to type when this keyboard was purchased. Maybe I’ll get a photo of this setup to help pain the picture. Both of the home keys have a slight raised bar to help me stay grounded while typing. That is enough to keep my typing on the right track. Today was one of those mornings where I thought about writing a novel, but could not get ready to get going. With my devices out of charge it almost seemed like a good idea to go old school and write using my fountain pen. That might just be what happens.

    The timeout for the screen is a little bit of a problem so far. I seem to be pausing just long enough for the screen to go dark. I’m still watching disc 3 of the third season of Northern Exposure on the TV and that is enough to distract me. The fingerprint unlock makes it easy enough to unlock the phone and get back to typing.

    Dr. Nels Lindahl
    Broomfield, Colorado

  • Day 205 the one with a new Pixel 2 XL phone case

    2018: Day 205 the one with a new Pixel 2 XL phone case

    Dear Reader,

    Today was going to be a day when I wrote something interesting. Not the day I wrote something interesting. Just a day of writing something interesting. Sure enough that did not really happen. In fact it appears that I leaned into the opposite of interesting and wrote a post about smartphone cases. If you enjoy that type of musing, then this blog post is really tailored to provide you a certain degree of enjoyment.

    Back on October 5, 2017 I ordered a Pixel 2 XL smartphone. Today a new case for that phone arrived. This time around it was a Spigen Neo Hybrid Herringbone Google Pixel 2 XL case. Clearly listed in the features were flexible inner protection and some reinforced hard bumper frames. It seems like a pretty sturdy, decent, and reasonably secure case. I elected to get the kinda blue colored case. This new case is replacing my Caseology Parallax Series Slim Protective Dual Layer Cover Geometric Design case in navy blue. Sure that is a lot of detail to say that I now have a brand new case for my phone that is less than a year old.

    Overall I have been very happy with our Pixel phone cases from Caseology. This new herringbone case just seemed to be aesthetically pleasing. The reviews had said that the new Spigen case would be hard to put on the phone and difficult to remove. Those reviews were true and observations were true. The case fits very tightly and is difficult to remove. That is not really a big problem. I do not take the case off my phone very often. Really the only time that that the case ever gets removed is if the phone is overheating from being outdoors.

    Throughout the week I have been increasingly interested in reading about the pending Pixel 3 XL release. Getting a new phone is pretty exciting. One of my real weaknesses is always wanting the newest smartphone when it comes out. Over the years I have always wanted to have the best possible phone on the market. Having three different generations of Pixel phones is something that will probably be pretty exciting. Google appears to be releasing a phone every year vs. every two years. That pace will probably cause my smartphone collection to grow pretty rapidly.

    Dr. Nels Lindahl
    Broomfield, Colorado

  • Day 204 the one where I got a Gaiam ball chair

    2018: Day 204 the one where I got a Gaiam ball chair

    Dear Reader,

    Sure a lot of options exist for office chairs. Getting a new Gaiam ball chair directly from Gaiam online seemed like a good idea. Certainly the first few minutes were exciting. About 10 minutes into using the new chair I remember just how out of shape my core muscles must be. Given my attempts to avoid using the Amazon marketplace for goods it seemed like a good idea to just go out to the Gaiam website directly and buy a ball chair. Thanks in part to a coupon at the top of the page it seemed liked like a good idea to buy one of the classic balance ball chairs. Seven color choices existed. At the time getting the blue one seemed like a good idea. Strangely enough the new chair arrived in the original box with a shipping label stuck on it.

    Setting up the chair took a few minutes. Probably the hardest part of the entire process was trying to inflate the ball to the right level of fullness. It took two separate attempts to get the ball inflated to the right level. After completing the assembly and setup process I started using the chair. Today my total usage equaled about an hour of time and it was enough to begin to test my stamina and balance. We will see how I end up feeling about the chair tomorrow morning. For the rest of the month I plan on using the chair for two to three hours per week. It might be easier to just walk downstairs and walk on the treadmill. Either path is better than sitting in the same place all day. That pattern is not good for a lot of reasons.

    Really my only reservations about the new chair are related to a general fear of falling. At some point either in the distant future or potentially sooner the ball is probably going to fail and the distance between sitting and the floor will quickly vanish. That fear might be a little bit exaggerated, but at the same time it is entirely possible.

    Dr. Nels Lindahl
    Broomfield, Colorado

  • Day 191 the one with more thoughts on repeaters

    2018: Day 191 the one with more thoughts on repeaters

    Dear Reader,

    A lot of time and energy are spent trying to capture attention. Capturing even a small percent of the public mind at any time is a Herculean feat. Truly it is one of those challenges that just keeps getting harder. Earlier today I spent some time working on a Coursera class titled, “Serverless Data Analysis with Google BigQuery and Cloud Dataflow.” Overall it was my 8th class from the Google Cloud team on Coursera. Each of them captures my attention in total for a few hours. Alright — maybe some of them captured most of my attention. Machine learning and artificial intelligence in general have been hot topics, but they have only captured a small percentage of the attention defined within the idea of the public mind. Figuring out what the attention of the people is focused on is a difficult thing to capture to begin with. Things bubble up and sometimes things capture the attention of a large population.

    Every day that I have been at home since 2006 has involved being able to enjoy the mountain views of the great State of Colorado. That realization was a pleasant moment of reflection and a reminder to appreciate the greatness of natural splendor. Like I said it has been a day of reflection. Maybe a combination of the lake views and a lot of computer labs was enough to make me ponder things. That is something that is great in spurts. Being a reflective practitioner is a great way to go about engaging in deep learning and an equivalent level of understanding. None of that helps me write better or more epic blog posts, but it does help me dig a little bit deeper into the world around me and that is an awfully good way to go about things.

    Within one of the slides today the instruction was talking about a new specialization for learning Tensorflow. Strangely enough I ended up getting a no results found for my search on, “advanced machine learning with tensorflow on GCP”. The slide from today noted that was the next specialization that I should consider for learning about machine learning with Tensorflow at a deeper level. Obviously, that seemed like a brilliant idea at the time, but it does not appear like that next set of courses is out in the wild yet. I’m sure it will be out in the wild soon enough and I will be able to enjoy that next batch of 5 courses on Coursera.

    Dr. Nels Lindahl
    Broomfield, Colorado

  • Day 190 the one with builders not repeaters

    2018: Day 190 the one with builders not repeaters

    Dear Reader,

    Earlier today I was thinking about potentially starting up a YouTube show that just involves me telling a series of short stories. Yeah — that sounds like an epic idea. It would go beyond a spoken word performance series (not a vlog) and really delivery some non-fiction based short stories. That thought lingered for a few minutes or maybe like an hour or so earlier today. Maybe it is one of those things that could end up coming back. Some thoughts are like ideological boomerangs that end up showing back up to shape the future.

    Outside of that I started to think about the nature of how we respect builders not repeaters. That argument is related to creativity not the actual act of physically constructing things. Building toward a new stronger future involves creating. It pretty much involves creating within the moment in new ways all the time. Constantly producing and building new things is much harder than simply repeating the same thing over and over again. Stump speeches are one of the things things that made me think about that. Imagine for a moment the modern chautauqua running daily where the speaker tries to educate people via the same story day in and day out. It would be much harder to continue to evolve and build on the same talk every day. Things change for lectures in the world of higher education, but they do not really change day to day. Professors for the most part deliver relatively stable content year over year in most academic disciplines. Sure some outliers exist where rapid change is ongoing and will continue.

    The mundane nature of being a pure repeater is harder than you might expect. Entire novels have questioned the nature of being content without any attempt to striving forward. Maybe it would be easier to become a Luddite and work toward a minimalist existence. Rejecting anything new and simply repeating the same pattern go forward sounds like an awful plan to me. Waking up and following the exact same routine every day might make you feel like you an know what will happen in the future, but the pattern is not really evolving. It is not really changing. For me something would have to give. Something new would have to be interjected into the routine to create a certain degree of chaos to the routine.

    You can imagine that based on the title for this blog post that I wanted to write something insightful. It had to be good. It had to be really good. The title alone was enough to pretty much require that level of commitment. Sure it probably fell short of my expectations, but maybe over time the post will grow on me upon further review. Today was one of those days that made me really question things. Outside the weather was very hot. A certain kind of heat that was muggy and oppressive towards the middle of the day. For better or worst that type of heat wore me down enough that I really started to think about the nature of being creative and the nature of giving up any effort to create and just repeating a routine.

    Dr. Nels Lindahl
    Broomfield, Colorado

  • Day 185 the one with the 4th of July and a trip to the Zoo

    2018: Day 185 the one with the 4th of July and a trip to the Zoo

    Dear Reader,

    My writing has become somewhat conflicted. Throughout the year I have wanted to engage in huge writing projects. You could describe it as the epic creation of weighty tomes. My level of focus and dedication to the craft of writing on a daily basis did not support that type of production. Part of the conflict was based around what to produce and how to produce it. Throughout the course of this year. This year is over half way done and I’m really getting bogged down with a series of technology related rabbit holes.

    For example:

    Both of my desktop computers sport the 4000 model of the Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard. Microsoft has released a newer version of it that is wireless and had a better more awesome design aesthetic. You are probably right about the relative necessity of buying a Microsoft Sculpt Ergonomic Wireless Desktop Keyboard to replace my current one. I’m guessing that my current keyboard will last for several more years. It is entirely possible it might last for a decade. It is wired and the keys are in pretty good shape. Nobody outside of this office has ever used either of those keyboards. Sure that probably means that they are in prime operating condition for years of typing. In some ways that is enough of a reason to not need to purchase the Sculpt edition of the keyboard.

    That example was probably enough of an example to set the stage as to what exactly keeps pulling me down technology created rabbit holes. Some type of technology will catch my eye. Over the course of a few minutes or a few hours I’ll start to learn about it, to research it, or maybe to even watch pointless videos related to it on YouTube.

    We are about to head out to the zoo. Today was one of those days where the zoo was very empty. Only a few folks elected to celebrate independence day at the zoo. We were listening to the radio and somebody was talking about being a champion of things. It was on of those moments where i wondered about being a better champion of things. I’m a champion for a stronger civil society. I believe the fabric that holds us together creating a degree of civility works. That fabric at the moment is strained in parts and might have a few tears. Maybe I need to return to my roots and spend some time every day writing about civility and civil society.

    Dr. Nels Lindahl
    Broomfield, Colorado

  • Day 184 the one where I wrote this post before breakfast

    2018: Day 184 the one where I wrote this post before breakfast

    Dear Reader,

    Right now I’m testing my new keyboard. It is a Logitech K780 wireless keyboard. You may have guessed that from the photograph attached to this blog post. It has a pretty good amount of travel and feels ok so far. Strangely it feels a little bit heavier and a little bit more like a real keyboard than any of my other bluetooth devices. My Nexus 9 has a very quick screen timeout. It appears that in the morning before breakfast my rate of typing is a little bit slower. Some pauses seem to be happening. They are little gaps in my focus that tear me away from the moment. My big plan for the day was to write for an hour and produce 2,000 words. For some reason that did not happen. I’m starting to get used to typing on this keyboard. My other keyboards in my office are natural ergonomic style keyboards.

    Dr. Nels Lindahl
    Broomfield, Colorado

    Logitech K780 Keyboard
    Logitech K780 Keyboard

  • Day 183 the one with a better title about the end of compact discs

    2018: Day 183 the one with a better title about the end of compact discs

    Dear Reader,

    Oh eBay. I’m searching for Nirvana DVDs right now. Reading articles about the end of compact disc (CD) sales earlier today really made me think. Part of that thinking was about maybe buying some Nirvana DVDs and CDs. some time ago I bought a deluxe edition of the Nirvana album Bleach on vinyl. Before my purchase of a record player getting compact discs was really a major part of my technology driven journey. Both buying music on CD and burning discs was exciting. Digital music was so much better than the tapes I had been putting in my Sony Walkman. I had one of those yellow ones that was water resistent or something to that effect. Being able to store data on a disc was super exciting. It changed the game. It democratized data storage in a way that until the cloud was inconceivable.

    I cannot really overstate how exciting that technology was at the time. It was a sea change in storage technology. Even backing up music discs was exciting. It fundamentally changed the entire music industry in some unexpected ways. Corporate executives from Best Buy elected to stop selling compact discs this week. I did not expect to have any emotional reaction to that news. Strangely enough it did make me think back about CD of the month clubs and the joy of going to Best Buy to purchase new albums when they came out. Some album releases were a really big deal. They were talked about on the radio for weeks before the day when a new album could be purchased.

    Right now I should be finishing up a class on Coursera. It turns out that a few labs for the, “Leveraging Unstructured Data with Cloud Dataproc on Google Cloud Platform,” course are taking me a little bit longer than usual. That was bound to happen at some point. Some labs are more interesting than other and the ones that hold my attention tend to go by much quicker. Maybe in a few minutes I’ll jump back into the course on this Chromebook and knock out a lab or two tonight before going to bed. Part of what it takes to knock out courses is the will to complete an hour or two of learning every night.

    Dr. Nels Lindahl
    Broomfield, Colorado

  • Day 182 the one without a title

    2018: Day 182 the one without a title

    Dear Reader,

    This weekend I spent a fair amount of time reading about microblogging. Perhaps the greatest appeal of that style of writing happens to be the implicit disregard for titles. Every day this year writing and coming up with a blog post title has been interesting. Perhaps the great joy of microblogging is not having to come up with a title. To that end the blog post for today will not have a title. It will be a post without a title and that is something that I’m completing ok with at the moment. Maybe tomorrow that will be something that displeases me. Right now I am watching the second disc of the 3rd season of Northern Exposure on DVD. For the most part the series really holds up pretty well.

    I spent some time looking at reviews of the Logitech K780 wireless keyboard. They have it at the Best Buy not to far from the house. Tomorrow might just be the day that I go and pick up that keyboard. It easily can switch between my Google Pixel 2 XL smartphone and my Nexus 9 tablet. The keyboard seems to have a solid design that would support a little bit of mobile writing. Sure you might be wondering why with this uber sweet ASUS Chromebook Flip C101P up and operationally why I would need any more bluetooth keyboards. The answer to that question is rather simple. I do not need any more wireless keyboards. Right now my office has at least three wireless keyboards. The Nexus 9 keyboard, an Amazon Basics bluetooth, and a Microsoft universal mobile bluetooth keyboard.

    Dr. Nels Lindahl
    Broomfield, Colorado