Author: Roo

30 Years

I’ve passed 20, then 25-year milestones and while it was very nice to hear from co-workers and friends on those dates it wasn’t significant. Hitting 30 years is surprisingly different for me, it is unbelievable to hit this milestone. I’m fortunate to have more than a handful of co-workers who have longer tenure than I do, some more than a decade ahead of me. It is these people that are showing me the way forward from here.

I’m proud to be a technical leader in my area. Recognized as a “Master Inventor“. Called upon to mentor and coach people both in my group and outside. I regularly work with customers, consultants, and other companies. Sometimes I even get my hands dirty with code and the work of keeping some of our cloud services going. 30 years in, and there is still plenty to keep me actively engaged and looking for the next hill to climb.

Now, 30 years counts all my full-time work. The company I started at: Object Technology International, was purchased by IBM and we were granted our tenure at that company as IBM tenure. I have many great memories of the work we did at OTI. Inside IBM we continued to make our mark in the Java space. I did a stint in Corporate helping communicate technical strategy. My most recent chapter is about building IBM Cloud. While this has all been within “one company” I’ve had a lot of different jobs over the years.

One of the things that I find attractive about computers is what they enable a single individual to accomplish. That is still true, but I’ve learned that the real magic is when you get a team of people working together to solve a problem that a has real impact. It is all my team members, past and present that I’m thankful for.

IBM continues to be a great place for me. I hope to continue to grow and learn. I’ve certainly become a better person over time, and I hope that I’ve helped others build their skills too.

None of my accomplishments would have been possible without the support of my wife and kids, to them I am forever grateful.

Goodreads – 2023

It seems I remember to post about my reading every second year. I’ve been using 35 books as my goal for a while now, usually I’m able to read more but I have the occasional miss – 2023 being one of those years where I only completed 30 books. In 2022 I managed 36 of 35.

I almost exclusively read eBooks checked out of my local library using Libby. This is convenient and free. I’m not a very picky reader, so I’ll sort randomly in the Science Fiction category and pick something I haven’t read. From time to time I’ll pick an author I’ve previously read or one that I’ve had recommended.

In the past my default rating was 3 of 5 stars, almost everything was a 3. I’ve become more critical and have started to hand out more 2 star reviews, as well as been more liberal with 4 stars.

My 2023 books

  • 9 books 2 star
  • 17 books 3 star
  • 4 books 4 star

What stands out is some of the best and worst reading experiences. A bad rating from me is subjective, the book might be good but it didn’t suck me into the story like a great book does. The 4 star reviews are books I’d recommend to others.

The Bone Clocks had been on my wish list for a while, I’m not sure where I got the recommendation but it has a 3.84 star average rating. Unfortunately this is one of my 2 stars this year, it took me nearly 40 days to slog my way through the 624 pages. There were certainly interesting parts in the story, but I never found myself wanting to just keep reading.

Looking over my list of 2 star ratings, a good number of them were given to the last book in a series – either a series I read this year, or a sequel to a book (or books) I’d read previously.

My first 4 star was The Design of Everyday Things. It was actually the hackaday podcast that turned me onto this (again), but that was the nudge that got me to read it. While it is one of the rare non-fiction books in my reading, it was well worth the time. I enjoyed that it gave me new insights into how things work.

Hard Wired was another 4 star. I will admit it was a bit formula, but for me it was a page turner taking me less than 5 days to make it through it.

Next up is Otaku with 4 stars, this was a surprise for me. I certainly didn’t expect this type of book from a former NFL player’s debut novel. It felt like it was set in a Blade Runner like future, or maybe Neuromancer is a better comparison.

My last 4 star book Autonomous had been on my wish list for a bit (since 2020). In this case it was a great recommendation and I’m glad I had it on my list. It’s got a lot to give: pirates, reverse engineering, dystopian future and cyberpunk. How could I not love a book like this?

 

Epson 1080UB: Lamp swap

Way, way back in 2008 I purchased the Epson 1080UB. While I wasn’t new to having a home theater setup, this was my first step into digital projectors. I run the projector in ‘low brightness mode’ as I’ve got a dedicated room that has complete light control. This lets me extend the lifetime of the lamp, as per the manual you should get 3000 hours.

Lamp life: 2500 hours (in high brightness mode, for select color modes) to 3000 hours (in low brightness mode, for select color modes), depending on usage

Around the 3000 hour mark, the 1080UB will start to show you a warning on screen shortly after you power it on. This warning thankfully goes away after a short time, but it returns every power on.

I’ve been living with the warning for some time (apparently years). As I understand it, the light output will drop over time. While human vision is quite adaptable, eventually you’ll get to a point where it’s obviously too dim. Honestly, this didn’t happen for me – my original bulb was still going strong. Still, this same one had been running since 2008, more than 15 years. It had also seriously exceeded the expected lifetime.

During the Black Friday sales, I grabbed a deal on a new lamp. The Araca lamp for the Epson 1080UB wasn’t the cheapest option, but it had good reviews and it was one of the options I’d been watching for a while.

6036 hours over 15 years is 251 days of display time. That’s an average of 16 days of viewing time every year. If I had exclusively watched movies that would be more than 2400. It is an impressive number no matter how you slice it up. While I’ve occasionally had the upgrade bug, there hasn’t been a good reason to retire the Epson 1080UB.

The new lamp arrived well boxed. It included a white cotton glove for handling it to help avoid transferring any oils from your skin to the lamp – any contaminants can cause early failure. The Epson 1080UB manual cover the replacement process (page 50). There was also a disposable Phillips screwdriver included, but I didn’t use it as it was terrible.

I took my projector down from the ceiling mount. Did a careful dusting, and cleaned out the filter. I then put on some nitrile gloves, then put on the (one) cotton glove on my dominant hand to handle the lamp.

Removing the lamp is straight-forward but after loosening the two screws I found the lamp was still fairly tightly connected to the projector. After a little fiddling around I discovered that it does take a pretty firm tug to lift the lamp out as it is seated in a power socket under the lamp.

I’ve indicated the approximate location circled in red. Make sure the screws are fully loosened, then it should come out with a firm pull straight up. It did take a few tries, and more force than I anticipated. Once it unseats from the connector, it will lift out easily.

There was a tiny bit of dust in the lamp compartment that I wiped out with a dry dusting cloth. Installing the new lamp was uneventful. It required a firm push to fully seat. The new lamp fit perfectly.

After re-installing the projector, the new lamp started up without any drama. This new lamp may take a slightly bit longer to warm up than the original. The first thing I did was to reset the hour counter on the 1080UB as per the manual.

For the first hour or two there was a strong ‘new electronics’ smell, I left it running to let that clear out and to ‘burn’ the new lamp in. During this time I made sure the projector was well aligned, and focused on my screen. I left it running while we had dinner to let the smell work itself out. After dinner I turned it off and let it cool down for an hour or so.

Later, we all sat down to watch a movie. Again the power on warm up phase feels a bit slower to me than the original. I do think the overall light output is a bit brighter once it has reached operating temperature, but it is hard to say. The viewing experience isn’t that different. The smell is either very faint, or gone completely at this point. I’ve kept the original as a backup in case this one fails.