Category: Opinion

December 19, 2024 – Things That Makes You Go, Huh

December 19, 2024 / / 0 Comments

I am kind of behind the eight ball here. It has been party after party, late night after late night and working like a banshee. Add to that some emotional struggles not just what I wrote yesterday but also some additional drama. So, a normal Christmas season. I need to get my Festivus podcast put together so I am putting out a cheap one here.

I had planned to review a book that I am reading. I thought that I had two weeks to go to finish it and I haven’t read a page since. That is getting pushed to next year since I am taking a break for Christmas. The other day, I checked the mailbox and it was crammed full of envelopes. It took me four handfuls to empty it.

This picture is 41 benefits statements from the insurance company. I couldn’t help but laugh and laugh as I was sorting through the pile. I surmised that the hospital finally got around to submitting to the insurance company for my wife’s treatment over the summer. I only read a couple to make sure they were for the same event. Sure enough, it was.

We are definitely not there yet, but I imagine that this is the kind of practice that is going disappear as Artificial Intelligence gets a real footing. The reason being is that this logic is pretty complicated. A thinking person would say, one claim and one document. Instead of generating a document for every line item, it would be one document with every transaction (think bank statement).

But, this gets into the complication of the logic. You can imagine that each vendor/provider/service ends up with a different task code or billing line. With that each of those equal a transaction. The logic then ties each transaction a letter. This way the system does not have to know if these transactions are related or not. It is the simplest way of laying things out. And simple is always the most robust.

If there is any doubt, this is what I do. Take a scenario, break it down into to the steps, that is critical to getting it right. A warning though, the output is always important. The reason it is critical is that the output changes all of the details within the steps. As an example, I have often had to deliver reports (letters in this case) with the project. And often those are an after thought, with the assumption that all of the data is captured. But when it is not, then sometimes you have to even re-program the steps and step logic to capture.

Because the software process is complicated and technical, what goes on behind the scenes is obscure. For that reason, the industry has become reliant on sloppy practices. Think about electric cars. I hear that a new model (like the Mustang Mach-E) consistently has improved over time. Without substantial infrastructure changes, a 2020 model is essentially the same as a 2024 model. This is because they are running the same operating system if you will.

Because nobody knows what is going on at the consumer level, the industry uses this as cover to release substandard code and iterate to a final or better state. Realize that some of this is a necessary evil, it is not just a conspiracy theory. The reality is that there are deadlines and that a manufacturer would not want to release a 2020 vehicle finally in 2024. That would also be bad for business.

The other day, I had a Windows 10 Blue Screen (of Death). This is the first time I have seen this in years. It used to be fairly common twenty years ago, in fact I didn’t even know that they still existed it has been so long. A Porche 911, is fifty years of evolution. Sure, if you compare today’s to an original, they are not the same car but the result is constant evolution. It didn’t make a leap from one generation to another. That is what software is.

I know that all of the contrarians like to highlight the simplicity of Linux and the advantages of crowd sourcing. I also agree that it is good and I appreciate the benefits. But what cannot be denied is that Microsoft has built a stable and widely accepted operating system. Good luck getting your very specialized TV tuner card to work in Linux unless you are going to program it yourself.

End Your Programming Routine: Choice is good. Sometimes what is seen as ludicrousness, waste or incompetence actually has a reason. Despite the $20 of postage to mail all of those statements out, they have to doing something to make billions in profits last year. Make no mistake, the only way insurance companies make money is by charging the patients so we paid for this but there is a method to the madness. In my book forty-one explanation of benefit statements in one day is mad.

November 5, 2024 – Happy Election Day, We Are Living 1984

November 5, 2024 /

I have been looking forward to this day for quite a while. I have been getting phone calls and text messages heavily since our primary in May. No matter what the results are, it will be over. That is something to celebrate.

I hope that you enjoyed yesterday’s podcast. I have linked to other podcasts before but this is the first time I have featured someone else’s work. This is a podcast that I subscribe to so the message was not new to me. In previous references, the host never referred to such specifics like the uniform, when and where to wear etc.

Read the story here.

Today we are going to go back to an old friend, George Orwell and 1984. If you remember, the main character Winston worked for the Records Department at the Ministry of Truth. His job primarily was to read through published work and look for words, slogans etc that do not conform with Newspeak. Newspeak was the official, approved language of the regime. Secondarily, if the work he was reviewing was somehow non-conforming in other ways, for instance economic news that was inaccurate, Winston was in charge of modification and document control.

This practice led Winston to change the copy and then go back into the archives and modify any existing documents. Anything that was now obsolete was thrown away in a device called the ‘Memory Hole’ which ostensibly was destroyed and gone forever.

What makes this tactic useful is not that it is accurate but that it frequently changes. This makes it impossible to actually know what the truth is. As you can imagine, it is not easy to recall all of the published newspapers so that one day it might state that we are at war with country A and another day, it might stat that we are allied with country A and at war with country B.

If this practice goes on long enough, it is like playing a shell game. If you didn’t come in from the start and pay attention all along, you will never know what is happening. Combine that with stiff penalties for descent or even questioning, there is no point in trying to guess the truth.

Circle back to today. Based on this story I have linked to, we are living 1984. Honestly, I don’t really care what Biden said. I do believe that he spoke his truth. What is more concerning is that fact that the record was changed. Not only that, the administration is in on the cabal. Karine Jean-Pierre is quoted as saying “… just to clarify, he was not calling Trump supporters garbage…” But in fact Biden did. If he really meant something different, then the proper action is an apology with clarification, not clarification with a changed record. Everybody know that is wrong.

This is dangerous precedent. They will get away with this and a few more times and this will become routine. It is convenient to rail against it when the situation is in favor but both sides now have a new technique to deal with uncomfortable situations.

Do you honestly not know why healthcare mandate was not repealed or government will never stop getting bigger? It will never have to as long as people are willing to accept lies. They don’t care. They don’t care about deficit spending, they don’t care about the environment, they don’t care about LGBTQ+ rights or voter fraud or unions or anything else because we are stuck in our positions and cannot see the forest from the trees.

End Your Programming Routine: You know what they say about sexual assault in therapy? Being angry continues to give the abuser the power. Do you not see the correlation here? Be as mad as you want about your pet issues but I am telling you now that this is a watershed moment. We just took another step toward totality of autocratic rule. Just change the record and deny it happened.

September 18, 2024 – My Love/Hate With Linux

September 18, 2024 /

The sun is on the horizon for Windows 10. The stated date support ends is October 14, 2025. I have stated that my strategy is to gain some familiarity with Linux. When that day comes, I will be making the switch, whether I like it or not. See my post yesterday on running machines without vendor support.

A lot of people would find Ubuntu relatively acceptable if they were willing to learn new programs like Thunderbird for email. Heck, it installs with Office Libre, a full office suite for free. I pay several hundred dollars a year to maintain Microsoft Office. Office Libre will read those files, again for free.

Unfortunately for me, I am not the standard user. I have to be interested in Software Defined Radio and TV tuner cards. This requires a lot more than the standard Facebook user. There are things that have to occur like blacklisting the Linux driver from the kernel using the ‘vi’ editor. Fortunately for me, this is the third time I have done this. It is starting to become familiar to me.

My third time started with me trying to figure out ‘Myth TV’. This is the Linux program used to watch and record programs with my latest TV tuner card I purchased this summer. Due to me struggling to get this card to work, I decided that I needed to test this card in an environment more familiar to me, Windows.

I rescued this computer from my wife’s mother’s estate. It had not been powered on for several years when I obtained it. I decided that I would install Ubuntu on a new SSD to allow me to access the old data if needed for estate purposes. But, it has been almost two years now and I have already searched for anything that I thought might be useful. I found nothing.

As a result, I thought that I would refresh Windows 10 for purposes of testing this tuner card. This is when I found out that yes, I have a knowledge gap with Linux, but the real problem with my dual operating system boot was the fault of UEFI. Unified Extensible Firmware Interface is what the acronym stands for. Because of how I partitioned the hard drive the last time I installed Ubuntu, I had to start of again.

UEFI is a BIOS replacement (don’t worry, I will explain). BIOS is the software that is embedded on a chip and loads up the basic required drivers like keyboard and hard disk. It was determined in the mid 2000s that BIOS had limitations for the new hardware coming online. Computers of my vintage have both a BIOS and UEFI making things even more confusing.

It is also true that UEFI is the reason I had to reload Ubuntu last time as well. I was trying to update the driver for UEFI when I bricked my first installation. I got into a spot where only Windows would load and I wanted to keep that data. If this were the old days of just BIOS, I would set my boot sequence once and that is the way the computer would load until I changed it.

It has taken me several weeks of fiddling around to really figure out how this works. When my computer reboots, I need to hit F12 until the UEFI menu comes up. From there, I pick how the computer is going to load. This means, that if I walk away on the reboot, it will load Windows, because this is how the BIOS is set to boot. So, if I actually want Ubuntu I need to hang around.

My silver lining is that my card works. You might recall that I had to fashion a mounting bracket. I also had to plunk down a license fee to Hauppauge for the Windows program but now I know that the tuner works. So, it is back to Ubuntu and MythTV. I have finally mastered the boot sequence so I can go back and forth if desired. I have my SDR installed again.

Things are looking up for me. I want to get this project finished so I can get back to radios. I still have only really turned on my scanner, I have some ideas about setting up a workstation for different radios in that space. There is always a million other things that I want to get to. The TV tuner is just the gateway to having the football game on while I reload or do something at my bench.

End Your Programming Routine: Let me state that I don’t hate Linux. I hate the fact that I am getting old and learning new technology is getting harder. Time is a more valuable commodity than aptitude. I don’t have days and days to fart around, I just want things to work. I find myself stumbling around until I get it, but it is hard to ‘learn’ in this fashion.

September 4, 2024 – Something About a Dog

September 4, 2024 /

We have been dog owners for most of our lives. We have had a number of breeds but I am particularly fond of the hunting breeds. I grew up with a Springer Spaniel and we have had a Dalmatian, Beagles, a Shiatzu and our two retrievers. That is a pretty good sampling of dogs. I also like the more docile nature of female dogs. Admittedly, I appreciate that they don’t stop and pee every thirty steps either.

Pictured below is our current dog, Raya. She is a descendant from our last dog Snowflake. Snow was a particularly loving dog that used to lay at the end of the driveway as the kids walked by on their way home from school. The kids would run up and pet her and she loved it. She would run off (not far) to get petted and attention from strangers. Multiple times we got calls from people that said they had Snow in there car to bring her home.

Unfortunately, Snow died of hyperthermia due to an unknown heart defect. We were tragically hurt by that so after a year of grieving we tried to fill the hole with another dog, Raya. Snow was a purebred English Retriever. Raya is a mix of Golden Retriever and Bernese Mountain Dog. Hence, she is all black rather than a typical color spectrum of Goldens. I would say that overall, she looks like a large Golden Retriever that is black with the long hair and everything.

It is really not fair to compare the two. Snow was pure love. She loved everybody and everybody loved her. Raya takes some getting used to. She can be very off putting and even come off as aggressive to strangers by growling and baring her teeth. The vet has a muzzle order on her even though she has mellowed out with age. They said it was because she was a Covid dog and was very isolated for the first year. I don’t know, she is very steady at the groomers and stands calmly on the table while they do their work.

The funny thing is that this behavior is not exhibited toward everyone. So, I don’t know if she knows something I don’t or what it is. When I am walking her, people sometimes ask if they can pet her and I decline because I don’t really know how she will react. But once Raya gets to know you, which doesn’t take long, she won’t leave you alone. She is constantly underfoot if possible. I feel like she is the exact mix of her two breeds. She has some of the exuberance of a Golden Retriever as well as the livestock guardian of the Bernese.

There was a night that I was staying in Portland and the kids were home alone. Our son called about two in the morning saying that the dog was barking and he saw a flash of light. You can see how often we actually get thunderstorms by that confusion. As much as I miss the lovey-dovey Snow, I feel confident that Raya really feels a duty to protect this house and this family.

At the beginning of the year, my wife was really sick. We cancelled Thanksgiving and my wife didn’t get out of bed in between Christmas and New Years. Raya knew that something was wrong and would get up on the bed and lay her head on my wife’s lap as she laid in bed all day. Some people say that some dogs can smell cancer (or at least sense something is majorly wrong). I suspect that this was a recognition that something had changed, but who knows.

Thankfully, Raya doesn’t do some things that Snow used to do. Raya doesn’t eat socks left out overnight. When my kids were younger, I had to go on sock patrol every night to make sure that we wouldn’t lose another one. Sometimes I forgot, sometimes I missed them and I would find it in the yard a few days later.

Snow used to run into the ocean and take big gulps of saltwater. In retrospect, I think this was a missed sign of her heart condition. Even when walking, she would just lay down in puddles sometimes. In about thirty minutes, explosive diarrhea. It could be in the car and often it was all over her coat. That made the trip home very challenging as well as knowing there was a nasty cleanup job ahead.

When my wife was in the hospital in 2010, several times volunteers came by with a therapy dog. No surprise, it was also a golden retriever albeit a much calmer and very nice temperament dog example of the breed. They offered in this in our recent stint in the summer, but I never saw a dog in the halls or heard that there was an opportunity. My point is that a good dog can even make us feel better.

End Your Programming Routine: So, Raya is not Snow, Raya is Raya. As much as she can be a pain in the butt, she brings some really nice qualities and leaves some that Snow had. When the going gets tough whether it is health or a shady situation, you want to be with the entity that has your back, always. For that reason, Raya is my ride or die.

August 29, 2024 – When You Get To My Age…

August 29, 2024 /

Last Monday, I did something that I have been waiting fourteen years to do. I put it off for three years and then I finally had it done. It was a colonoscopy. I am not unique nor do I think that I am going to provide a ton of new insight, but if you are dreading it like I was, maybe I can help you out a little bit.

When I was thirty-five, I was working with my dad. One day, he said “I had a colonoscopy the other day and they found some polyps. Because some of these problems can be hereditary, you should get checked too”. I told my doctor at the time and he said “You are a little young for that but we will keep it in the records for when it is time”.

My wife, the medical miracle has had several colonoscopies already. She started getting on me a few years ago to get one done. I got a referral in 2022 and meekly tried to schedule an appointment but post Covid, short staffing and other excuses got in the way. This appointment I originally scheduled in April for July but I moved it several times due to our other summer arrangements.

Everyone knows about the prep or at least I think they do. I am not going to get graphic about things. Even though I have been around it before there are still things I learned. This is what I learned.

My instructions said to take one dose of the prep liquid at 4 PM. I hung around pretty close all day not wanting to start anything I couldn’t finish. It was definitely nerves that was anxious with anticipation. It took an hour for the action to start. That is the first thing to know, it isn’t immediate. Then it was every twenty minutes for the next three hours.

My second does was at 11PM. Do the math, that means that I wasn’t able to relax until 3AM. Even then, I was worried that maybe the second dose would act differently than the first. My procedure was at 8M. This means that I got about 3 1/2 hours of sleep.

If I were to do things over again, I would not have followed the instructions to the letter. Since I had to eat a clear liquid diet all of Sunday, my preference would have been to start much earlier and then I could have ‘safely’ rested much earlier. As soon as they wheeled me into the procedure room, the next thing I got was a sedative and I was out like a light. The next thing I knew, they were waking me up in recovery.

I cant help but think of one thing that Kirstie Alley said. Her one regret is not getting a colonoscopy earlier before it was too late. Throughout my life, I have been as anti-putting anything up the butt as they come for any reason. I want to be completely honest, this process was not that bad. The prep was definitely the worst. And the worst part about it was starting it so late and having to stay up late. I was exhausted by the time it was over.

End Your Programming Routine: One last tidbit. I have personally observed chemotherapy causing the same side effects as the prep kit. And it lasted for days, not just 12 hours. So, if you are scared or don’t want to deal with the discomfort, consider the alternatives. I won’t be looking forward to the next one but this procedures are no big deal.

July 31, 2024 – I Am Starting To Get Angry

July 31, 2024 /

Something has definitely changed. It could be that this company stopped making batteries in the US in 2016. I suspect that the components to make them have gotten cheaper/flimsier/worse. This was a battery that I took out of my weather center next to one of my computers in the basement.

Maybe it just feels good to complain. But this really pisses me off when alkaline batteries do this. It also seems like it is more normal than less at this point. This is the reason I have started switching over to rechargeable batteries. My strategy has been to replace them as the alkalines die. Hopefully, it is not too late.

The failures seem to be more prevalent with batteries in use in the basement. All the remote controls, decorations and things that get cast off or forgotten seem to have a much higher degree of failure than upstairs. It still happens when the climate is more controlled but it also seems to be less frequent. This leads me to believe that the problem is with a seal that contracts too much due to temperature.

As you know, not all of my relationships with alkaline batteries is bad. As I wrote in 2021, I have a working set of batteries from 30 years ago. These batteries are in a bicycle head lamp. The have been in my garage since I moved 20 years ago. So they have been subject to near freezing temperature up to 120 degrees with no ill effect. In true transparency, I dont think that I have checked on them since that article. So, a follow-up is due.

Funny thing, I probably should start checking my topics before I start writing. As I was searching for the link to my 30 year batteries, I ran across something I previously wrote. Turns out, I also wrote about batteries failing in 2021. So, shame on me for not checking previously if you remember that one.

My experiment. With rechargeables has been less than stellar. They are advertised as as holding 90% charge after a year but I have ran into dead batteries in less than six months. The Panasonic Enloops I chose to go with take several hours to charge on my charger. The also don’t seem to last as long. I have gone through multiple sets this year in my remote hygrometer sensor. While less than perfect, I am anticipating that they are not going to ruin my devices.

End Your Programming Routine: No matter what, I am going forward with rechargeable batteries. I can no longer trust the major battery brands for alkaline batteries. Remember when they were $8 for 4 and now they are going for $20 for 48 at Costco. There is no way that cost savings is just in volume.

July 17, 2024 – Observing Problem Solving

July 17, 2024 /

I am a firm believer that the mind needs exercise. I think that as a lot of people age, they kind of give up and watching TV all day does nothing stimulating for the brain. I believe that watching a screen dulls the brain. This can be kind of good when you are sick, but too much of anything is not great. Heck, too much exercise is not good either.

While my wife and I were staying at family housing, she asked if I wanted to do a puzzle with her. I said sure, I like to do them and what else was I going to do anyway. This is something that I found very fascinating. It was how different we approached the activity.

I can’t say that what I am about to talk about is 100% accurate but it seems to fit. A few years ago I was having a conversation with a boss. He told me that there were two types of problem solvers and he used a football analogy. Some problem solvers use the long bomb method. Eventually enough attempts were going to score. When that happens, it seems like going from problem to solution without much work in between.

The other kind of problem solver is like the west coast offense. The goal for every play to get two to four yards. Enough of those plays and you will score every drive. You just continually moving the ball forward until the other team makes a mistake or you have run out of field.

Getting back to puzzles. My wife and I have two different tactics. I usually let her do the boarder while I sort the pieces into groups. The groups are by the different subject matters on the puzzle. She tends to pick the easiest stuff next whereas I tend to go toward the most difficult part of the puzzle. I usually do this to give us separation between what we are working on because it is hard. With two people trying to place pieces in the same place.

What really makes us different is how we go about the piece identification and placement. She picks up a piece and studies the picture deeply. She searches the picture until she finds where exactly the piece goes. If it is able to be placed, she will and if not she will put the piece in close proximity to where the finished location will be. It is the precision of a sniper.

I on the other hand group pieces by relative color. My technique is to look at the shape of the where the pieces go and match them to the possible options. I quickly sort through orientation and relative grouping until I find the fit. Often times, I place three to five pieces to her one. But sometimes I misinterpret where I am at with the picture and what pieces I have left causing handle pieces many ties more than necessary.

Both techniques work. Since we work on the same puzzle all the time it is hard to say what is more effective. In order to know, we would have to each do the same puzzle or time ourselves. I don’t think it really matters but I do find the subject matter interesting.

End Your Programming Routine: Honestly, if I had a choice to build a team I would like some of both types of problem solvers. My preference would be to have more of the west coast offense with a few long bombers. I think that is the best of both worlds. Each of us could learn to do both types problem solving if we want to. That is the great news of being aware of the different techniques.

July 10, 2024 – What A World We Live In

July 10, 2024 /

Maybe you are not like me. I like to think that while I didn’t share all the experiences of my generation, I grew up experiencing things that everyone did. I can remember getting a transistor radio for Christmas. As you probably know, radio has always been a part of my life. I would carry that radio around when I was doing stuff.

One time my brother and I were messing around. As we did, we were climbing a tree. I had the radio setup on a branch and it fell and snapped off 2/3 of the antenna. Maybe, I could have gotten a replacement through Radio Shack, that time has long passed. But the truth is, if we use our stuff at some time it is going to get damaged. Back in the 1980s, if it couldn’t be found in a store it didn’t exist.

A month or so ago, when I bought my scanner, it was missing an antenna. I purchased one that plugged into the BNC port in the back. After further inspection, I found that there was a second place for an antenna. One port is for the ‘factory’ antenna and the other is for expansion or a better antenna. I decided to order a second antenna for the factory replacement.

The first one I ordered was two for $8. What I didn’t realize was that the diameter of the antenna was 7mm and the hole was 5.5mm. I started my search again and found that most antennas do not list a diameter. This is likely because most devices don’t have a thickness restriction. In my case, the antenna is inset into the case. For a brief moment I thought about modifying the case just by drilling a larger hole but first I decided to find a better replacement.

I found an antenna that was listed for RC cars and toys that had a diameter of 4.5mm. Bingo, that works. I really wanted one antenna for $5 but I had to buy six for $8. Now, I have five spares. Not that I think I will be carrying my scanner around but I wouldn’t be surprised if I end up buying another used one at some point.

I have always taken care of my stuff. For instance, I still carry my pocketknife I purchased in high school. But stuff happened and my handheld radio fell because I was using it like it was intended. Too often, those events were the death knell without the ability to buy replacement parts. I was extremely sad when that happened and the radio got thrown in the junk pile.

Amazon in particular has become a boon for cheap and outdated accessories. As personal electronics have a lifecycle, you can’t just walk in and find a I-Pod Nano screen protector at a store. Especially not unless it is a specialty store. But, you can find that stuff on Amazon and cheap too.

I live relatively close to a mid-sized city. There is one electronics store that is pretty sparsely populated. It is kind of a mix of radio/antenna focused components and odds and ends. I would probably shop there more if they had what I wanted. The demise of Fry’s electronics took away the other semi-local options. So, really all I have is the internet.

End Your Programing Routine: If I had had the internet in the 1980s, it wouldn’t surprise me if I would be rocking that handheld radio today. That wasn’t the only device that was a victim of broken antennas either. As much as I would rather have a place to go to buy what I wanted, I am sure thankful there is a place to buy anything I can think of. It makes buying used viable.

July 9, 2024 – The Main Event

July 9, 2024 /

Tomorrow is Day 0. That is the day of the stem cell transplant and the beginning of the end. Hopefully, it is the lowest point in the entire process. I was thinking of writing about what the facilities look like when you have to move away from home but I think that is best for another day. Today is going to be more somber and vigilant.

In the family housing building, there is a tree with a bunch of blank tabs representing the leaves of the tree. The building shares facilities with the Ronald McDonald house. If you have been fortunate to not know much about Ronald McDonald, this is a place to stay when children are sick. I assume that the tree is for anyone to add a leaf to, but it looked to me that these were wished primarily to kids.

I took a random photo of a book that contained former hanging leaves. Talk about perspective… I don’t care what is going on in the world, some people have much bigger problems. While I consider what I do important and somewhat cathartic, there is nothing that compares innocence stolen by disease.

This tree is kind of my version of the Vietnam wall. While some of the leaves made it, some did not. It wasn’t for lack of trying. Whatever happens in my journey from this point on, we have had 26 years married, fought and loved, raised children to adults and made the world better together. While I hope for the best, I go into the process knowing that there are risks.

End Your Programming Routine: I want to keep it short and simple today. There are greater powers at work here. Because this was just a random picture, there were some leaves that were just heart breaking on that tree. It can almost always be worse. I am thankful that there is still a good chance to move beyond this.

July 2, 2024 – Wearables

July 2, 2024 /

I have had a GPS watch for a long time. My wife bought it for me when I was training for my half-marathon in 2015. I found that by using the GPS function, the watch would go from fully charged to dead before I finished my half marathon (13.1 miles/2 hours).

The watch was advertised as being able to last several day in GPS mode. Initially it lasted several hours or several runs worth which was a couple of days for me. But after a year, it became almost useless in the GPS mode. So it became a rechargeable, digital clock. I wore it as a watch only until the silicone band broke.

My wife has been hounding me to get a wearable. The real reason is that when I am working in the shop, I don’t hear or feel my phone ringing most of the time. It is more of a tracking mechanism than a productivity enhancement. I like having a watch and it certainly isn’t worth fighting the power.

I considered two options. One was the Apple Watch and the other was Garmin and their many models. I liked the native Apple integration and I believe that they make quality products but it was the battery life that sealed the deal for me. The Garmin Instinct 2x has built in solar charging. You can see from the picture that the watch claims to currently have 39 days of charge.

The first model I considered was the Garmin Fenix. I am not sure what the total capabilities were, but it had a full color GPS screen in the watch face. When I looked at the cost of around $1000, I took a step back. What am I really asking a watch to do?

The Apple Watch is really a scaled down phone. In many ways, that appealed to me because I don’t like having to carry the phone around. That being said, this comes with a service cost. This means the cost of ownership perpetually grows. From a preparedness standpoint, it does give you duplicate capability. That is a good thing.

I am a believer in single purpose devices or tools. It is better to have a tool do the one thing it is intended to do well rather than three things marginal. If you can get the one thing well and the others marginal, that is better. Make sure to have another tool do those marginal tasks as well. So, a color GPS watch is cool, but is it really practical? I guess if I had money to burn I might choose the top of the line and just never use the feature. That is not really a position that I am in.

I am going to give an unvarnished opinion. I think the Garmin has the best features for fitness oriented people. If you want to track miles, and heart rate, etc this watch is for you. The Apple/Samsung watch is for people addicted to their phones. If you don’t fall into either of the groups, like me then wearables are a solution looking for a problem.

Like I stated in the opening, my wife wanted me to have the watch for her reasons. The selection and features I made were oriented toward my PCT hike. Maybe I will use it and maybe I wont. I plan on practicing with an actual GPS. In fact, I am looking into a satellite communicator integrated into a GPS device not just for the hike. Why would I carry a watch, a phone, a GPS and a satellite device? It definitely seems like overkill.

End Your Programming Routine: I have been wearing the watch for a couple of weeks now. I am still learning how to use it and optimize it. For instance every time my ring camera senses motion, it buzzes my wrist. Talk about annoying, but that is a subject for another day. I like seeing the weather, sunrise/sunset times and things on my wrist. The model name says ‘Tactical’ in it. That is totally worth the money. But really, it is an expensive toy.