Month: November 2024

Last year I took a class in Astrophysics, and it blew my mind. After that I decided to take a class in Astrophotography, it always fascinated me. As a child my dad also had a fondness of the stars, he purchased a telescope from Edmund scientific. It was not just a cheap one like the ones you see on sale for under a hundred dollars, but one with a motorized star tracker. He also purchased an adapter for the 35mm camera (Pentax Spotmatic) so we could take pictures, we already had a dark room in the basement to develop them. Without the necessary training, time commitment to work on it the interest slowly faded away.

After taking the class, I wandered into my local astronomy club a few Fridays and just listened to others who were deep into the hobby. One night a good friend came with me, and when we left be both felt we brought the average IQ in that room seriously down. What I learned was that astrophotography could be an expensive hobby, but you could start out a lot simpler. That the technology to create a stunning nebula photo like the ones seen on APOD was much more attainable than in the 1970s.  

I turned to the internet and started searching. From the years of photographing my daughters in their activities (hockey, lacrosse, figure skating and cheerleading) I had purchased a few Digital cameras (DSLR) and some lenses. I was wondering, based on what I learned, could I just start with equipment that I already had. My mistake was taking the class towards the end of the spring and into summer. In the northern hemisphere the amount of nighttime starts to shrink, and one needs to be up late to take pictures of the stars. My ADHD kicked in and the hobby again was put on the shelf.  

It is now November, and I had a few bad weeks mentally. I will not go into details; it could be that it is getting dark out at 4:30pm. I noticed sitting on a chair in my office was my photography bag, I thought dang it is getting dark out early now is the time to shoot. I had already saved a whole bunch of YouTube videos and articles, and I learned even since the spring other techniques improved so on Saturday night, I went to take some trial photos from my street. The first night shots were horrible, the second night was light years better. Last night was the third night and it was too cloudy to shoot.   

Last night though I had an epiphany. I was writing my yearly giving thanks post, and though it was littered with the usual b.s. that one spills it felt calculated and not real. In a conversation with someone I they said something that made me scrap it all and start over. One of the reasons for my languishing was that I was looking at what I did not have. I saw the glass was half empty.  But more important, the last few days my languishing had gone away as I was deep into my new hobby.   

The connection was made, I simply was enjoying what I had, I was not concerned about what I did not, and other people have. A camera, a tripod, a lens, and a lot of computer power allowed me to see stars that I could not see with the naked eye. The sheer amount of light pollution makes it hard to really shoot astrophotography. What I learned I actually get amazing shots with the cameras I already owned. I was very thankful at that moment. I was thankful for everything that led me to the moment I created my first decent stacked photo. From my parents nurturing my love of astronomy, to having a job that let me afford some good camera equipment, to my kids who without them I would not have bought said camera, to having a roof over my head, and to being alive to shoot photos. I am truly lucky and there are other people who do not have a place to live, do not have the choices we have for food and who are not in great health. A first world hobby taught me something about giving thanks in a way I did not expect.  

In a time where there are a lot of problems, I am thankful that I live in this country, have shelter, food I choose to eat, and the basics of life are not a struggle. I am thankful for family, friends, coworkers, people no longer with us, people who are just no longer in my life (some I wish still were) people I never met who had an impact on me and the way of life that we take for granted every day.   I am also thankful for people taking the time to read my blog, you do not have to, it is a choice. My wish is that everyone finds that something or someone that is already in their life and cherishes it just a little more today. 

This opinion is mine, and mine only, my current or former employers have nothing to do with it. I do not write for any financial gain; I do not take advertising and any product company listed was not done for payment. But if you do like what I write you can donate to the charity I support (with my wife who passed away in 2017) Morgan Stanley’s Children’s Hospital or donate to your favorite charity. The fundraising site had to be restarted and NYP Hospital made changes to their donation sites. I pay to host my site out of my own pocket, my intention is to keep it free.  You are welcome to comment, but note it is moderated and all spam will be removed.

This Blog is a labor of love and was originally going to be a book. With the advent of being able to publish yourself on the web I chose this path. I will write many of these and not worry too much about grammar or spelling (I will try to come back later and fix it) but focus on content. I apologize in advance for my ADD as often topics may flip. I hope one day to turn this into a book and or a podcast, but for now it will remain a blog.  AI is not used in this writing other than using the web to find information. Images without notes are created using an AI tool that allows me to reuse them. 

When I was younger my dad would tell me stories about cars. One story was how he drove on a racetrack. I guess it may be genetic that there was a fascination with cars when we were younger.  Growing up my parents did not drive race cars, or exotic sports cars. They owned things like an LTD Station Wagon, Volvo 240 sedan etc. At one point my dad had a Datsun (yes not Nissan yet) 260z. As a kid I was fascinated with more exotic cars, Porsche, Jaguar, Ferrari, and Shelby Cobras. My dad gave me some information about Jaguars as one of our family friends owned one, how you could drive them on weekends, but they needed to be tuned during the week. To own one, you would need to have a daily driver and drive the Jaguar on weekends. This seemed bizarre as well as added to their exoticness.  

Most people do not think about maintenance for their cars, as most modern cars can go a long time without it, but back in the 1970’s and 1980’s cars needed regular maintenance. The oil needed to be changed every three-thousand miles, spark plugs were changed multiple times a year, air filters when they got dirty, rotating tires and it was important to lubricate the chassis. There were many other parts that were serviceable including the PCV Valve, Distributors, Points, etc. My dad was not mechanically inclined, but we owned a Chilton’s and did some basic maintenance. Eventually my brother and I did some of the work ourselves.   Not sure people remember all the different tools that came out to gap spark plugs, we bought all different ones no idea why. For those confused there were no YouTube videos for guidance.  

Most people now do not maintain their own cars. Many cars can go one hundred thousand miles without the need for changing spark plugs, and for other maintenance there are quick oil change places that get you out quicker than can be done at home. Some cars even say that Oil changes can be done at fifteen thousand miles (with synthetic oil). Modern cars no longer have some parts like distributors, distributor caps, points and all other parts that were worn regularly.   That Parent to Child relationship of working on cars does not exist like it used to (Yes, I have gotten to that it was better back then). I do have one neighbor who does it, but it is far and few between.  

But as cars lost the need for maintenance I look back at the days when they needed it. Thinking about the story my dad said about Jaguars, it was not just about cars. That the man car relationship I had as a kid was an introduction to person-to-person relationships.  Each relationship needs constant maintenance and sometimes repair. Sometimes it is a call, a text, a thank you, a change or routine or a hug. Sometimes it is a slight tuning of what you do, and other times it is a bit of work.  

As a child I would read about how intricate the Jaguar engines were. They were so complex that there were special mechanics just for these exotic cars. Unlike the human mind, it is incredibly complex. What is crazy is that there are manuals for how to fix cars, so you have a relationship with cars, but I do not remember seeing a manual on friendship. The best mechanics can hear something about a car, whereas a friend can sense when something is wrong. But there is a manual on how to maintain a Jaguar to keep it running well so you can drive it, but no such luck with friendship. 

What are things that help friendship. I wish there were a simple list, or a magic list. I am sure that I made mistakes in some friendships in the past.  In a podcast I was listening to one thing was mentioned that responding to a friend with shortcuts like ‘HBU,’ ‘TY,’ or ‘YW’ instead of typing out the sentence is disrespectful. That you need to put more effort into conversations with your friends. But that to me is an old person speak. The same person complained about contractions. Noticing effort is different, whether someone uses shortcuts or not is not material. It really is between two people, if it bothered me, I would say something. This is the maintenance part, being able to tell a friend “Hey, I wish you would not do that.” Simply tuning it continues to grow. 

If you think you can get a relationship that needs no maintenance, you are wrong. The best relationships are when that maintenance work seems easy.  Just like working on cars with dad or friends. Funny I do not think my dad meant to teach me that lesson, not sure he ever wanted to work on his car. The lesson I got from it did not surface much later in life. It is too bad that cars these days do not need some care, so that kids could learn the lesson of putting in effort to keep something they love.   Yeah, and that is me pretending to look confused while trying to fix a gas line.

This opinion is mine, and mine only, my current or former employers have nothing to do with it. I do not write for any financial gain; I do not take advertising and any product company listed was not done for payment. But if you do like what I write you can donate to the charity I support (with my wife who passed away in 2017) Morgan Stanley’s Children’s Hospital or donate to your favorite charity. The fundraising site had to be restarted and NYP Hospital made changes to their donation sites. I pay to host my site out of my own pocket, my intention is to keep it free.  You are welcome to comment, but note it is moderated and all spam will be removed.

This Blog is a labor of love and was originally going to be a book. With the advent of being able to publish yourself on the web I chose this path. I will write many of these and not worry too much about grammar or spelling (I will try to come back later and fix it) but focus on content. I apologize in advance for my ADD as often topics may flip. I hope one day to turn this into a book and or a podcast, but for now it will remain a blog.  AI is not used in this writing other than using the web to find information. Images without notes are created using an AI tool that allows me to reuse them. 

Every so often I just need background noise while I am doing a task. Sometimes it is a playlist of songs I have heard thousands of times; other times it is a TV show or movie I know the whole thing. The key is something in the background for noise but not distracting. I put on a TV show from the 80’s, Miami vice, and just let it go. It is binge watching, but not paying attention. 

One Episode came on, that I heard a bit in the background. The title is “Lend me an ear.” The plot, and if you really care then go watch it, then come back and finish reading. The plot is about a surveillance expert who is selling bugs to the police and hired to sweep and find bugs by the bad guys. He is playing on both sides, making money from each. He has no problem taking money from either side. I will not tell you had it ends, because that is not why this relates to this blog. So there, I did not ruin it for you. 

That same day I was reading a blog post about how the internet is inundated with content that is being generated by GPT Tools. But that to me is a minor problem as I later saw a commercial for someone who was responding to an email using a GPT Tool.  They were bragging about how easy it was to send emails without doing anything. On a tech podcast I was listening to which talked about a company who had a resume filtering service also now had a resume authoring and job posting service. Lastly, in my news feed this week someone authored an article about how he tried out several GPT tools specifically designed for online dating. Not only would they chat with the person via the dating app but would also impersonate his voice for initial conversations.  

What if everyone employed those tools?  

• Emails would be going between two GPTs and no one is looking at it and getting anything done 

• Two people have their GPTs talk to one another, and when they finally meet realize neither of them have a clue about the other person or if they should even meet 

• GPT resume writers overwhelm job posting who are using AI to screen them and thus do they really find the best candidates to get to a person. 

Inside a company both people are using the same email tool, the two people using the dating app use the dating apps tool, and there is a company that sells both the resume writer and screener. Oh, wait it was the plot of Miami Vice almost forty years ago. Someone playing both sides of the game and making money off it. And in all three cases nothing is moving forward. Neither consumer is getting the service they want.  

If you are expecting me to produce some miracle cure to this situation, well I do not have one.  Cory Doctorow coined the phrase enshitification, but that was way before this dual enshitification started. I do not want to sound like a Luddite. I am just pointing out something that I see, that as much as this technology does excite, we, we should not lose ourselves in it and believe in a sales pitch that it will make our lives easier.  

All these things existed before the AI crashed the party recently, email tools suggest responses for emails, you can use a resume writer to help you craft a resume, there are resume screener software that exists, and many companies use it, it is now the scale and reduced cost that starts to make this a problem. Companies thinking about their bottom line do not think about broader impact of what might happen. Example, for a job search service, they know if they can get your resume in front of the write people, you can get a job. This means applying with a custom resume and cover letter for the job so that it can be noticed. If they have software that can do this at scale, their costs go down and in theory profits will go up. The same with dating etc.  But if everyone is doing it on both sides what is the impact?

Ok, so maybe I will propose a solution. We as people need to think, is this an effective way to move forward? Should that email be a quick call, do I need to cc everyone on that original email? In dating even people are starting to move off the dating apps, and trying to meet in real life again. I do not have a direct answer for job searches, but I do know the old school of knowing someone is still more important than resume blasting.  

I love technology, and I continue to work with LLMs both in my job and some personal projects. In coding it is indispensable as a pair programmer. We just need to think about when to use the tools and when to interact with someone in real life. I am going to turn on an episode of Miami Vice and spark another idea for a blog post. 

This opinion is mine, and mine only, my current or former employers have nothing to do with it. I do not write for any financial gain; I do not take advertising, and any product company listed was not done for payment. But if you do like what I write you can donate to the charity I support (with my wife who passed away in 2017) Morgan Stanley’s Children’s Hospital or donate to your favorite charity. The fundraising site had to be restarted, and NYP Hospital made changes to their donation sites. I pay to host my site out of my own pocket, my intention is to keep it free.  You are welcome to comment, but note it is moderated, and all spam will be removed. 

This Blog is a labor of love and was originally going to be a book. With the advent of being able to publish yourself on the web I chose this path. I will write many of these and not worry too much about grammar or spelling (I will try to come back later and fix it) but focus on content. I apologize in advance for my ADD as often topics may flip. I hope one day to turn this into a book and or a podcast, but for now it will remain a blog.  AI is not used in this writing other than using the web to find information. Images without notes are created using an AI tool that allows me to reuse them.