Smart phones may require smart people

So this is my current contention. Case in point, my buddy Mike. He got his first smart phone yesterday - a Motorola Droid 2. His last phone was a typical clamshell style of the non-smart type. He was an early adopter of Google products and already uses gMail. While you could consider him an advanced user of gMail, he hasn't needed a unified contact manager so far.

Prior to yesterday, he had phone contacts in his mobile, email contacts in gMail, and business contacts (email+phone) in his work Outloook. One of the features and requirements of an Android device is its connection to a Google account. This allows the user to synchronize their selected gMail contacts with their phone. Handy, since this will be the primary tool to manage said contacts.

However, for my friend, this proves to be an issue. You see, he uses Verizon Wireless which gives their users access to an over-the-air backup utility which backups all the phone contacts to Verizon's server. Quite handy with a non-smart phone. Mike made use of this and had all 200+ contacts stored on the server. So naturally, when you start-up your new Droid 2, you expect to connect to the backup server and magically get your 200+ contacts back. Sadly, this didn't happen. The Droid-Verizon connection was able to push only 122 out of 209 records to the phone. Ones that were missed - his sister, his parents. If the service knew any better, these would be deemed of higher importance.

Scouring the web for the answer proved fruitless. Yes, you can connect to Google but it would be first nice to get back the old ones you had. Finally a call to Verizon solved the mystery - Backup Assistant was broken. Broken for the past several days and no expected fix date. Their suggestion, use Google contacts.

Now fortunately, you can export the contacts from Verizon into a CSV (comma-separated variable) format. But then you need to merge that with your Google contacts. I'll spare you the blow by blow. This is not a trivial process especially if you use the time to cull your old phone contacts and current gMail contacts. Using advanced Excel functions like VLookup, Mike was able to create a merged import file of all his contacts. A mass delete of the current contacts and an import using the file finally got him to state he wanted - all old phone contacts are stored in gContacts. Time to finally sync the phone to Google. And voila!

Whew! You might wonder how it seems I have intimate knowledge of all the steps taken. I was there. Four hours of watching, helping, waiting, and not lunching. But it is done. Yay. How do the 'normal' people do this? Maybe they just abandon the tricky methods and go for straight re-entry. Who can say. I hope your Saturday morning was just as fun.

Thanks for reading,
J^3

More bike riding!

Hello all to a sunny, cool fall Saturday. What a great day to break out the bike and ride. So I did. I packed a lunch, grabbed some water, my camera, and decided to check out a new place: Lake Montebello.

The ride there was great. From my apartment, I head out towards Johns Hopkins and the Waverly Farmer's Market. Another mile or so past is the man-made lake. It is a beautiful setting, much like Druid Lake. There is a nice track around for bikers, walkers, runners, dogs, and whatever else. It's apparently 1.35 miles around the lake.

What was cool was after I arrived and took a spin around, I found a nice shady area to have my lunch. Thanks to Mom for the idea! Lunch was a nice tuna-fish sandwich, some coffee cakes, and an XS Classic. Post lunch, I took another ride around the lake and headed back.

It's funny how you see things more when traveling via bike or walking versus driving. I stumbled upon a labyrinth right off 33rd. It is the Stadium Place-Thanksgiving Place Labyrinth. I was re-introduced to labyrinths only recently. There is one at the Delaware Art Museum in Wilmington, DE. This one is very pretty and complemented with a bell tower. I stopped for a little while and walked the path and reflected. Very cool.

One of the fun places in Waverly to check out is The Book Thing. Since I hadn't been in a while, I stopped by. You really can't go without picking up some books. I came away with four. One or two will probably end up as gifts.

The ride back was nice. The hills was a bit challenging as I working on building strength in my legs. But, I got through it. Each time it will be better, no doubt.

Oh, I tracked my progress with GPSed again. You can check out the route and some pictures I took along the way: http://www.gpsed.com/track/395697906001622736.

Thanks for reading. Have an awesome weekend!
~J^3

We're number one?

We all like the idea of winning. And we should. However, I believe that it should be less of 'being the best' and more of 'doing our best'. Small distinction. Being the best basically is doing more or better than others. Depending on the situation, we might not have to do much. However, doing our best requires a whole lot more. It requires us to push our boundaries of what our potential is.

I came across an op-ed in the New York Times today. I encourage you to read it here. Tom Friedman explains what he feels are some of our country's underlying reasons for falling behind. In general, as Americans, we can't imagine a world where America is not the leader. And I believe that many nations around the world hope/expect that the US remains the leader. Unfortunately, we (the country) don't exude the qualities of a leader.

I think that it is great that many more people today feel they have the opportunity to be on TV, be a celebrity, be a star. However, there is sacrifice and hard work which comes with that. Dedication and focus towards a goal is what keeps this nation strong. And, there is a lot of that around. But they are not whom we hear about everyday. Columns like Tom Friedman's shed light on the problems. What we need to do is start focusing on the solutions.

Don't misunderstand, I believe in 'play hard'. But the first part of that phrase is 'work hard'. Only I can evaluate whether I 'worked hard' and deserve to 'play hard'. I encourage you to look around and learn what sacrifices your friends/relatives are making. Don't judge - just listen. And if you don't have a passion or drive for something right now, maybe you'll find something along the way. Until then, as the Boy Scouts say, 'do your best' ... in everything you do.

Thanks for reading,
J^3

Stuffed animals

Remember back to your childhood? Remember when you had a few choice stuffed animals to keep you safe at night? Or maybe you had a favorite which had to come EVERYWHERE. We will had a few growing up. My brother and I both had our favorites - a bear, a lion, a bunny, a seal. But the collection grew well beyond just those. As you can see in the picture, we had a menagerie. This came to being because we were not alone in our appreciation of the stuffed animals. Our mother essentially collected them.

Sadly, it has been a long while since these guys were played with. The reason they were reunited was to take stock before we donate the lot. A few were saved and hopefully cleaned. The rest will hopefully bring joy to another child or neighborhood of children.

How would you redesign it?

A few weeks back, a friend posted a link to a blog article which I found interesting. The author, Erica Goldson, displays her valedictorian speech given earlier this year (one assumes). In her speech, Erica questions the method in which our current education system evaluates whether students have learned enough to move on. I encourage you to read her speech first:

http://americaviaerica.blogspot.com/

“But now I have successfully shown that I was the best slave.” What a line. I agree with the sentiment of the speech. We should be taught and encouraged to think beyond the facts and rote memorization. One of my friends once told me that educational systems are mostly an experiment. There is little science or testing which shows that one way of teaching is better than another. Mostly this is because you can't truly tell until at least ten years later.

I believe that we as a society need to encourage life-long learning. No matter our degree or profession, we are all capable of learning new things. We should strive to build that desire within ourselves and the youth. In today’s economic climate, this idea is more than just a suggestion, it is required. Many people are finding that they are faced with learning new skills, techniques, and entire vocations in order to survive.

Coming back to schools and education – Erica suggests for students go beyond what is required for testing and not worry about grades. How does that work? I agree - metrics stink. But how do we, as a society, evaluate which schools need support, which are 'succeeding'?

Malcolm Gladwell, in his book ‘Outliers’, examines commonly used stats showing reading comprehension between students of different socio-economic status across several years in school. Looking at the numbers, it appears that the schools are failing at helping the students from low income backgrounds keep up with their middle and high income classmates. But then Gladwell has the reader look closer. The low-income are not falling behind in school. They are falling behind during summer. It comes back to a difference in what happens at home. When a family is struggling to make ends meet, there is less time to encourage summer learning. On the flip-side, the middle and high income families create more incentives for summer education. It comes through required reading, trips, summer camps, and similar activities.

I believe that our attitudes towards education are impacted by the school, the teachers, and our classmates. But they are so much more affected by our family, relatives, and friends. In essences, it comes back to association. Be careful who you spend time with.

In Erica’s final sentences, she directs her thoughts to her classmates and instructors. She challenges them to change, to grow, to learn. We all should listen and try to learn, grow, and change.

Thanks for reading!
~J^3