xbox update

So, the short version of the story is that I've given up on a fix, and I'm putting the broken boxes on ebay. We bought a refurb at Best Buy for $199 with a two year warranty.

here's the listings

I'm also selling a few other things, take a look!

Maybe we can get one of these later this year...

2011 in review- 4 jobs in 12 months

2011 has been a weird year for me in terms of my career. I started out the year working for some friends of mine, and one day in early February they decided to close up shop. Luckily a friend of mine had been talking about coming to work with their company, so I had a place to go.

This next company was an 8A contractor, and although I am honestly grateful for the job, I spent several months doing some VERY manual labor, and I came to realize that I'm not the young man I once was. I don't mind a little hard work, but hard work every day is a different story. I enjoyed the work I was doing, and I liked most of the people with whom I was working, I just found that the type of work I was doing was very grueling, and that I really wasn't doing what they originally hired me to do. The thing that really killed it for me was that they didn't offer company benefits, and I really needed to get some kind of health insurance.
Another opportunity came along with a mechanical contractor out of Glen Burnie, MD, and I took a management position with their company. I soon found that I was going to be spending quite a bit of time fixing a bunch of jobs and projects that had been completely mis-managed.

I talked my dad into coming on board with me, and we found ourselves up to our eyeballs in screw-ups. I finally got fed up, and sent a candid, honest email to the owner in which I outlined several things that I saw as problems in management, and he decided the next day to shut down the department and send us all packing. Maybe I should have kept my mouth shut and let the mismanagement continue until a time of my choosing. I'm not sure, but whatever the reason, it was a strange run that ended abruptly.

I finally landed with the company where I work now, and it has been like a breath of fresh-air. They are a big enough company where they can offer benefits, and they are in a well-defined market where I have been able to thrive and work on my skills in troubleshooting and service.

The other good news is that they have decided to promote me to account rep after the first of the year, so I'll soon be back to a desk jockey job after rockin' a field position for the last two years.

Lessons learned: 1. I need enough humility in my life to realize that I shouldn't think of trying to run my own company for quite a few years, but 2. despite my miserable failures, there are people out there who have managed to be dumber than I am.

I'm really hoping that this will be my job for the long haul, and that now I can get back to focusing on family, life, and some of the other things I have been wanting to do for some time. I spent so much time this year pre-occupied with career and work, and I'm really hoping that in the coming year I can get back to a more balanced life.

xbox360 woes

about a month ago, the xbox360 at my house started acting up. It will only read one disk (Halo Reach.) Right around the same time, my son's xbox360 also took a crap, and it is having some kind of trouble with the video card. It doesn't RROD, but during game play, the screen just goes all screwy.

Without really doing any research online, I figured that since the video card in one xbox was going bad, and the disk drive in the other was going bad, I could just swap out the components from one to the other and we could have at least one working box.

Sounds simple enough, right?

WRONG! apparently the video is built into the board on the xbox, and worse, the disk drive have a serial number that is written into the bios of the device preventing people from changing their own drives!!!! So, in short, I was stuck with two broken xboxes.

My next move was to grab a couple other broken boxes off of ebay and do a little research online in the interim. This has been quite the learning experience to say the least. First, there is a wiki dedicated solely to problems with the xbox360 Second, these things are a PAIN to take apart and third, replacing the drive is fairly common, but it involves flashing the BIOS in the xbox, and I really don't feel like doing that.

I feel like I'm being slightly ungrateful, since I won my xbox through an online contest from Microsoft in 2008, but the thing that really bothers me is that we have two ORIGINAL xboxes- and my son plays games on one regularly at his house, and I just gave the other one two a friend of mine.

Anyway, I'm going to probably buy at least one new one, and maybe send the other one off to microsoft for repair. As for the other two- I know that soneone will buy them on ebay- it seems like the market for broken xboxes on ebay is still pretty hot. I'll let you know how it goes.

Enercient...um, yeah- about that

I guess its probably past time to kill enercient. I think the biggest problem was that people just didn't get it. I just wanted to take wireless sensors, put them in a few buildings, monitor equipment data, and eventually manage energy use.
I didn't really think it was that complicated. The problem was that at the end of the day people just wanted us to just do heating and air conditioning work.
The economy didn't help much either. We couldn't get investors and we couldn't get anyone who would let us beta test at their site.
I think the thing that really killed it for me, is the realization that 3 years ago this was all new and exciting, whereas now there are companied rolling out a new product like this everyday.

I'm not giving up on building technologies, and I still know that wireless tech is still going to be a big growth segment of commercial and industrial controls- i'm just giving up on enercient as a company. We tried, we learned a lot about how this industry works, got to do some amazing things and meet some amazing people, but at the end of the day, we just don't have the funding to run with the pack- let alone try to stay on the bleeding edge. Let's just hope that I can take what i've learned and carve out a niche as an expert over the next 20 years until I retire...

Raise Cash, America!

I was thinking that it isn't entirely fair that we as Americans are laying the blame for our economic woes at the feet of our President and our Congress, so I thought I would mention that we could fix all of this if we would do our job and start making more money, increase our GDP and start paying more taxes like good little Americans. Here's a few ideas:

1. Create an open market on human organs. Yes, that's right, we need to create a market that trades in human organs. Think about it, primary markets, secondary markets, futures, over/ unders speculation funds, bonds, equities... I could hear the brokers now- raking in the cashola as they sell their latest product. "Sir, we feel your portfilio is weak on HO (human organ) funds... everyone's doing it rght now, c'mon, have some guts here. This is a great opportunity, I'd bet my eyes on it, and with our low introductory rates, it won't cost you an arm and a leg"

2. Create a market on stuff we already use, but aren't charging for it. Stuff like atmospheric oxygen and nitrogen- I mean, people are using it every day, and we're just giving the stuff away! 

3. Start selling stuff that we produce and aren't using. I mean, what are we doing with all the dead skin cells we slough off every day? When's the last time you sold your unused toe nail clippings or belly button lint? I mean, come on! People pay money for hair clippings- why not eyelashes or toe fuzz?

4. Legalize and tax something that is currently illegal. Wikipedia has international drug trade at 1% of the total global GDP... We wouldn't have to legalize all of them at once, just a couple at a time over a 10-20 year span would open up millions in taxable revenue. I mean with tobacco sales declining every year, we gotta replace that addictive substance with something else...

I guess the last option would be that a few of us could turn off our computers for a little while and start reviving good old- fashioned American hard work and ingenuity- but that would mean opening a few steel mills, fabrication shops, factories and production plants... but then again, someone might get carpal tunnel or some other repetitive stress injury, we might create more pollution, or someone might have to make less than $35/ hour, we might have to re-think the way we do collective bargaining... naah- anyone wanna buy HO kidney futures for next season's harvest?

Zigbee update

As you may (or may not) know, we've been working on a wireless monitoring system using zigbee radios from Digi. Sean and Charlie have been working diligently on the commercial setup; Sean on programming and Charlie on the routers and networking- and I have been feeling a bit like a fifth wheel for a while.
So, rather than keep meddling with the stuff they have (about $20K worth of stuff) I decided to get a tweet-a-watt kit from adafruit industries I blogged a few weeks ago when I built it.
After I built the stuff, I hit a brick wall trying to run the python software that you can download from the site. Somewhere along the line, I just couldn't get it to work. I made an appointment with Sean and Charlie hoping they could help me out, but yesterday I finally just hunkered down, set everything up, and pushed myself to get it working.
The problem was that I missed the step of unpackaging and storing simplejson in the same folder as the python scripts downloaded from the site. so after I got over that hurdle, we plugged the halogen lamp into the modded kill-a-watt- and for the first time (for me) I got data logging across a zigbee radio.

This whole exercize has taught me quite a bit about the hardware and the software behind all this zigbee stuff. I know how the radios pin out, and I understand quite a bit more about what it takes to get the software to interface with an actual computer.
Also, since I got a rig for carrying my stuff around, I should be able to make better progress moving forward.

I took a picture of my stuff

I just kinda liked the way my stuff looked when I was putting it away so I snapped a quick pic

More zigbee

I got a zigbee kit from adafruit and soldered everything up this morning. Im definitely a little rusty on the soldering. The interface board comes as a tiny board and you have to solder all the components on.
Once everything on the adapter is soldered up, its on to the radio that goes in the kill-a-watt. I drilled a hole in the case and mounted all the stuff, and plugged it in the wall (nothing popped or exploded)
I plugged the adapter into the usb cable and x-ctu can't see the radio.
We've been playing with these Digi radios for 2 years now, and I can tell that the radio in the kill-a-watt is blinking like it is waiting for a connection, and the adapter radio is constantly blinking (trouble?)
We're headed out for drinks tonight so im gonna take my meter with me and test continuity between all the traces and connections on the board.

SHUT DOWN COUNTDOWN

I don't really know how most of you feel about partisan issues on the Hill, and in our government. I mean, it stands to reason that if you believe in something, and you live in this country, you can likely find someone who believes the exact opposite.

If I were a Tea Partier, I'm thinking I would be Mrs Nesbit.


I just happen to think that this whole thing is getting to be a little too ridiculous.

In days past, I'd be down at the Dubliner with $100 bill laying on the bar challenging my fellow patrons to pitch in and buy a round for the whole bunch if they get a budget passed by midnight. Apparently the Dubliner doesn't participate but you might be able to do it online. Just go here and find your Congressperson, and send them a beer.

As a matter of fact, maybe we should start a "Beer Party" and tell these idiots on the hill that all we want is some good old fashioned common sense. I mean, are we as Americans really THAT shallow? Are all republicans cold-hearted rich people who want poor women to go without health care? Are all Democrats the recipients of some government program and only vote with their pockets? I think that most of us understand the government can't afford to keep spending at the current rate, and that some programs need to be cut. Come on, douchebags- pass a budget.
Congressional Budget Office

Bravado, testosterone, and all that

Men have a way of being very competitive with each other. Sometimes I wonder if i'm on some survivor/ apprentice show, the way these guys act. Granted, i'm the FNG on this job, but I am starting to get the feeling that these guys do this to each other all the time- like its not going to stop after they get to know me.
No matter the task, everyone claims to know more about it than you. They've done it more times. They've been to the class. They used to work with a guy...
I'm tired of it. I don't want to compete any more with my co-workers. I don't care if you have more experience with the model jk- idgaf- whateveritis thingamajig. Can we just do our job and get out of here with our lives, sanity, and paychecks?
I'm reminded of "real" leaders that I've met. People with doctorates, degrees, positions, rank, etc. You've met them- you stick out a hand and use their title, and they reply "call me Jim, Bob, Sally, etc."
They have a "quiet confidence" that shows they are confident enough in their abilities and title that they don't need to flaunt it. They don't need to end their emails with an alphabet of letters after their name. They know their job and aren't afraid to tell you that they don't know something, or that they are trying to figure something out.
That's what I want. Quiet Confidence- and I really don't care to play your games.