Busy Week!

So General Conference was this last weekend.  But I didn’t get to see much of it; both of the guys I’m working with on our Point-of-Sale application were tied up with other things, so all customer questions and problems fell on my shoulders.  So I pretty much missed most of Conference.  The part of the Saturday morning session when I could have watched because I wasn’t on a support call was missed because I only got four hours of sleep so I pretty much dozed off right after getting off the phone.  Fortunately I did record it, so I can watch it over the coming weeks.

Saturday night after conference Brad and I headed up to Riverton to visit some old friends.  Our friend Jessica had flown into town from Dallas, and wanted to meet a bunch of friends at Lalis’s apartment that night.  Jenn and Ariel were also there as well as some other people I didn’t know.  It was fun to see everyone.  Lots of good memories.

Since we hadn’t seen Jess since before her mission, Brad and I went to lunch with her yesterday.  Brad had to leave to get back to his studies, but I brought Jess back to my place and we watched August Rush and played some Guitar Hero for a bit.   (Don’t worry, Jared, I had my laptop and cell phone nearby during the movie, and took care of the issues that came up during that two hour window.  I’m not a slacker.)

In a few days I’m flying back to Spokane to help install our software in another Little Caesar’s up there, and to have a multi-day powwow with the rest of the Custom Register Solutions party patrol personnel.    Have you ever noticed that the word powwow is half Ws?

While I’m gone my living room is going to be painted (hooray!!! no more 1980s sleeping bag wallpaper!).  So between now and then I have to move everything away from the walls.  It’s going to be especially fun moving a 300-pound desk that has been sitting in the same place for ten years.  And the bookshelves which have been there for eleven.  I can’t wait to see who what is behind those.  I spent a few hours tonight moving my TV and audio equipment away from one wall so the wallpaper can be removed from behind it tomorrow.  (I’ll have to remember to take a picture of the wiring involved in a fully equipped home theater setup while it’s visible… it’s impressive.)  I’ll need to finish moving everything before Saturday morning when they want to remove the rest of the wallpaper.  I’ll also need to do a bunch of rewiring between now and then to “neaten up” the room.  No more visible wires dangling from the ceiling or clinging on the base of the wall around the corner into the next room… at least as much as I can get away with it, anyway.

As part of the living room makeover I plan to remove the computer and desk behind the couch to add a second row of stadium seating, and to build a new professional rack for all of the A/V equipment.  I was also going to mount my new TV on the wall, but the more I think about that the more I think that isn’t such a great idea; it wouldn’t be visible at all from the kitchen or one of the couches if it were on the wall.  So I’ll have to build a nice (and simple) stand for it at some point.  Things to ponder.

My friend Dave is also getting close to needing my help wiring his studio.  He’s has built a video editing / audio recording studio in his dad’s back yard and it’s now time to run the wires before putting up the drywall.  We went over the last little details before purchasing the wires last night.  But I still need to figure out how to terminate the wiring.  We’re going to be installing about 2 miles of wiring in a couple hundred cables, and I’ll have to add ends to the vast majority of them unless I can teach him how to do it.  Fun.

The POS stuff is going well.  We’ve had about twenty sales in the last two weeks.  And we’re getting more referrals all of the time.  Nearly everybody we show the software to is buying it.  I also just found out that we are trying to get into a tradeshow/convention thing in early November.  Which means I’ll have some big changes, as well as a demonstration video, to make between now and then.

If only I had something to do with my time.

NTOTW #1

I can't believe I haven't done a personal post since I started the Tips of the Week, so here's my first Non Tip of the Week.

The stake photo directory project is still going on.  Today was the last day we decided to do scheduled photos, and we didn't have very many people show up.  Apparently the people on vacation three weeks ago are still gone?  Sounds fishy to me.  (BTW, for those who know him, I'm working on this project with Bruce Tregaskis.)  But we only have about 10 out of 300 people we've missed, so we actually did really well.  Now I get to compile it all together.  Fun.

Brad and I doubled on a blind date this last Wednesday afternoon.  This was the first blind date I've had in a while now.  I'm normally averse to them because most of the time I get setup with girls just because of their height, or just because they are near my age and single, and we end up having absolutely nothing in common.  I recall more than a few blind dates where both of us were anxious to get home.  But this time I don't think either my age or height even factored into the decision.  And I had a nice time.  Props to Mary for finding someone I could have a pleasant afternoon with.

I don't think I've ever mentioned anything about dating on this blog, probably mostly because it doesn't happen much any more.  Ever since I was excused from singles wards I haven't had many opportunity to meet women.  As an active LDS person it isn't like I can just hop down to the local bar on a Friday night, and working by myself at home doesn't help any either.  I haven't given up, but the opportunities to meet fellow singles (both male and female actually) do seem to be diminishing considerably.  I really hope that doesn't come out as being bitter by any stretch of the imagination, because in reality I love my life, and I don't think I've ever been happier.  Sure there have definitely been times when I've been more social, but I don't feel like my happiness has any connection to the status of my social connections.  Maybe that's just part of growing up; when I was younger having friends, especially girls, around was important to me.  But as things are now, I actually enjoy being home by myself quite a bit more than I ever thought I might.  If that is one of the characteristics of being an adult, maybe I do feel a bit more like one now than I did even a couple years ago.

In other news it looks like I'll be heading back to Washington in a few weeks for some more point-of-sale related stuff.  We're kind of at a point in the project where the stuff left to do is less flashy, and we are getting diminishing returns for the amount of time being put into it.  During this next trip my task is to make the registers talk to the video surveillance system.  Exciting, huh!

Feeling A Little Overwhelmed Today

I'm kind of feeling a little bit overwhelmed with everything I have to get done in the next little while. Here's just a sampling:

• Edit the video I shot at a college graduation a few weeks ago, make several copies of the DVD, and send them off.
• Edit the video I shot for my friend Amber's wedding and make a DVD, and send it off.
• Edit the video I shot of my sister Christine performing at Velour, and post it for my family.
• Copy and send out the recording of Christine playing at Ozz, and send it to my family.
• Edit pictures I shot for Michael & Kiley's wedding, and order prints.
• Edit and mix down recordings I made of Richard and Gabe forever ago.
• Edit family pictures taken at Christmas, make DVDs of the video I shot at Christmas the last three years, and get those sent out.
• Make several significant changes to a tuxedo rental system I just created, and install and train the store owner and employees on how to use it.
• Extract the audio for a golf seminar from a hard drive recorder, burn DVDs, and send them off.
• Order more equipment and install another two antennas in my stake center for an upcoming stake conference.
• Make changes in FileBack PC (my backup software) to make it work better on Windows Vista, and fix a bug preventing encrypted backups from being restored. (Most of those parts are done.) After making changes, build a new release package, a new update package, upload both, notify the sites hosting the program that a new version is available, then send out announcements to my customers of the changes and that a new version is available.
• Move my company web site to a new server.
• Start cleaning the house in preparation for my parents visiting next week, and sister Cheryl and her family the following week.
• Arrange and build a float for the Freedom Festival 4th of July parade.
• Write a synthesizer engine for my GuitarToy software, finish debugging, create a web site and press releases, and post it.
• Do final cleanup on my ActiveClip utility, build a web site for it, and release it.
• Update my stake web site's calendar. I think I'm only 3 months behind right now.
• Build an inventory manager for the point-of-sale software I'm working on. And build the employee scheduling module. Plus a ton of other changes.
• One of these days, shoot and edit a training video for the point-of-sale system.

That's just what comes to mind immediately. Mostly this is my own checklist of things to work on. But it's depressing because I think I'm getting farther and farther behind rather than getting caught up. Anybody know where I can have a clone made?

Would you share your fingerprint? (poll)

As part of the POS system I'm working on, we're adding a feature to allow customers to be identified by their fingerprint instead of having to carry a loyalty card with them when they visit one of the stores using our system. It is completely optional... customers don't have to use their fingerprint to participate in a loyalty program, as we know that some people aren't comfortable sharing personally identifyable biometric information. We're just trying to come up with something more convenient than those little cards you have to carry on your keychain.

So this begs a few questions... And I'd love to hear from anyone reading this blog.

1. If you had the option, would you be comfortable using your fingerprint to identify you at a retail establishment instead of a keyring or wallet loyalty card?
2. Does the type of the establishment or size of the chain matter?
3. If not comfortable, and it was explained to you that the image of your fingerprint wasn't being stored, but rather an irreversible number that is calculated from your fingerprint, would that change your mind?
4. Would you be comfortable using your fingerprint to pay for your purchases?
5. Would you change your mind to any of the above if it meant that you could receive a discount on future purchases?

Just curious. (Extremely informal market research.) Thanks in advance!

(And just for the curious among you, knowing what I do about my system, I would be totally comfortable with all of the above with no hesitation. But I might be a little hesitant if it were someone else's.)

Future Outlook & Tulsa Trip

I use Microsoft Outlook for my email. And today I discovered that it can see into the future. Perhaps that means that it is living up to its name?

Anyway, in addition to email, I also have Outlook setup to monitor my web site's forums for changes so I know when one of my customers asks me a question. Today I posted a response to one of my customer's questions, and as soon as I clicked the link to post, the new post showed up in Outlook, before I even got confirmation on the web site that the message was received and posted. Outlook had seen into the future; it apparently knew what I was going to say.

On a side note, if you couldn't tell by my last post, I'm back in Utah. Who knows for how long, but I'm sure there will be some sort of trip coming up sometime soon.

So here's a little info about the trip:

• I went out to Tulsa to install our Point-of-Sale system in a Little Caesars opening there. They weren't ready for me. My dad helped me with the installation, and we had a bunch of extra stuff to do in order to get everything ready for the store's opening yesterday. What should have been a 5-6 hour installation in one visit turned into about 12 hours in three visits. The last of which had to be done by my dad, because it was actually after I left.
• A word of advice: when booking a flight on Southwest, pay close attention to the travel time. My itinerary showed one flight from Tulsa to Salt Lake. What it didn't show was that there were three stops in between, making what should be about a 2.5 to 3 hour flight actually take about 8 hours. And I was on the same plane the whole time, so I couldn't get off to eat anything. Fortunately, a very cute girl named Sandra sat next to me on the first leg of the trip, and we had a nice conversation. In the course of the near 200 flights I've taken, this was only the second time that had ever happened to me.
• My parents and I went to the Oklahoma Aquarium on Friday. It was pretty cool. They have a pretty cool shark tank where you walk underneath the water in a clear plexiglass tunnel. It wasn't the first time I'd been in one of those, but it was still pretty cool, having sharks swimming all around me.
• It was really cool just hanging out with my parents for 10 days. We didn't get out and do a whole lot, but just being there was relaxing. I'm looking forward to the day when we can live in the same place and see each other more often than we do now.

Off to Tulsa

I'm off to Tulsa on Friday for 10 days. Another business/pleasure trip. I'm installing our PPOS system in a new Little Caesars opening there, but since that's where my parents live, I'm gonna hang out with them. The installation should only take a day or so, so I'll have plenty of time to spend with the folks.

One of the best parts is that I'll be there for Mother's Day. I haven't seen my mom on Mother's Day since I was in high school, back in the dark ages.