Erich Stauffer

Author: Erich Stauffer

  • How Will Tablets Affect My Kids?

    How Will Tablets Affect My Kids?

    I wondered if I was making the right decision. I didn’t know. Amazon was having a Prime Day. There were going to be sales. My wife said she wanted tablets for the kids. I bought 3.

    What effect would it have on the family? Would they ever talk to me again? How would we keep them from breaking them? How would we keep them safe online? I didn’t know.

    I’m an IT guy, but I wasn’t looking forward to setting up 3 tablets at once (one Mini iPad and 2 Kindle Fire HDs for Kids). I didn’t setup any of them. My wife did it. That was nice.

    What’s changed? My oldest daughter now texts me throughout the day. She asks me weird questions like, “How we will survive when the inventors starve us?” and “How was your day?”

    My second oldest daughter Skypes with her friend in Chicago and sets the tablet next to the computer while she’s playing Minecraft. She already has a webcam. I’m not sure why she does this.

    Kindle Fire HD Kids ReviewMy oldest son likes downloading books and games to read. Books, movies, and TV shows are included in Amazon Prime on the Kindle Fire HD for Kids and parental controls are great.

    Longer movies can be downloaded to view offline while in the car, but we limit their time on the tablets and have them locked via a pin code. We can also set it to turn off at a certain time of night.

    When I came home from work today, the kids were sitting around the dinner table eating pizza and my oldest son showed me his favorite game: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Nice.

    I have no delusions about them somehow becoming smarter or more tech savvy from having the devices, but I have noticed it’s dramatically changed how they interact with the world.

    My son takes pictures with his Fire and shows me a slideshow. I get to see the world from his point of view and see the pride he has in presenting me his work. “That’s the best one!” he says.

    They still greet me when I come home and hug me before they go to bed, but they also come over just to ask me to unlock their tablet (versus asking me for my phone when I get home).

    When I was growing up we had Nintendo and VHS tapes. This is the same thing, replaced instead by apps and instant video streamed over the Internet. Ok, it’s actually quite different.

    Discuss on Hacker News.

  • How to Send and Receive Other Email in Gmail

    The easiest way to use Gmail with your organization is to buy Google Apps, but sometimes that’s not possible. However, there is still a way to use Gmail with your company email address.

    How do I get my email in my Gmail account?

    There are a couple of ways to do this. Your web host may have the option to forward your email to your Gmail address. Check with your company’s IT department to see if this is possible. If that is not possible, the next best option is to have Gmail check the email the way Outlook does using “POP”.

    Gmail SettingsHow do I add a POP email account in Gmail?

    In Gmail, click on the gear ‘settings’ icon and click on “Settings”. Click the tab “Accounts”. Click “Add another email address you own”. A pop up will appear, enter your email address “youremail@yourdomain.com” and click on Next Step. The way this is done varies by web host.

    In the following example, I will be using specific instructions for 1and1 webmail.

    Accounts and Import

    Under Username enter your email address “youremail@yourdomain.com”, enter the password you usually use for your email address. For 1and1 email use POP Server: pop.1and1.com and Port: 995, check the box “always use SSL” and check the “Label Incoming messages”, (Note: if you would like to keep a copy of your emails on your 1and1 server, check the box “Leave a copy of retrieved message on the server.”) and finally click on Add Account.

    Click finish, go back to your inbox, and wait for the confirmation code to be emailed to you. Since it is forwarded to your email, it will come to you. Copy the code and go back into your settings > accounts and add in the confirmation code. You will now also be able to “Send as” this new email. It will be an option in a drop-down menu when composing new emails.

    How would I put this on my cell phone?

    The simplest way is to check it via the Gmail app in your phone after you add it to your Gmail.

    How do we create a signature for it?

    For signatures, you have to setup the signatures in Gmail. In the General tab you can setup a different signature for each email account listed in Settings > Accounts.

    While the Gmail app on your phone won’t show the signature on the screen, it will attach the signature on send. When you go to send an email from your Gmail app in your phone, click your email address. A drop-down list will appear. Choose the email you want to send from and it will use that signature.

  • What is a Full-Stack Marketer?

    View at Medium.com

    I would consider us nearer to full-stack marketers than any one thing, but wonder if this article is just a result of the difference in cultures between SF and the Midwest. Although I can think of exceptions, most non-employee consultants claim to be ‘full stack’ around here even though few are. Whereas most employees are more pigeon-holed and do more or less only a few things – such as sales or product management. I’m not sure either one is better or worse than the other. They each have their place: smaller teams need a more rounded guy, but larger teams can afford less rounded specialists.

    From Justin, “I think the SF/Valley/Startup culture difference shifts the relevance of this article significantly for us.

    I think on a strict application level, we are neither a building founder or a selling founder. This article very narrowly targets the discussion on a startup that develops “Valley” tech. We serve (varying, and at different individual mixes for each) marketing functions for our customers – but here’s the rub: it is usually for a product and company that already exists.

    Now, in a sense, we are the product. For me, my product (design services, my reputation, a valuable solution pitch) is really just me. And while I will call that product the same thing, the actual product has great variability with each customer (or with each job of the same customer). I’m really just building a business on a talent, but I don’t have a building founder (because there is no focused product that the company markets).

    Additionally, in a loose application, I don’t feel adequately talented (nor interested) in the full-stack of marketing duties. That is why I would love to have two roles on a full-stack marketing company: creative direction and visual design (creating things by pushing pixels, vectors, typography, and layout).

    That said, I can take away a good point from this article, my business can neglect neither the product (sharpening my axe, identifying services [and means of delivery for those services] that I should pick up to serve my market better) nor the selling (pitching, building rep, demonstrating work I have done).

    With that said, the next six months are critical to me: in that time I will decide to try to continue independently, join a small company or cooperative, abandon design and focus entirely on writing, or (dark horse) go to seminary.”

  • Subway vs. Jimmy John’s Sub Sandwich Challenge

    In this video, we compare the value of a Subway sandwich to a Jimmy John’s sub.

  • Mindset

    One of the words I kept hearing over and over in 2013 was “mindset”. Mindset is kind of the new hip way to describe what our elders used to call “attitude“.

    A mindset can be positive or negative, just like an attitude. A positive mindset is about overcoming limiting thoughts and having an abundance mentality.

    When you start to reprogram your mindset to a more abundant mentality, you stop seeing problems and start to see how your limiting beliefs that are getting in the way.

    “What stops people are their limiting beliefs about themselves, their self worth, what they don’t actually have. What I’ve found is that people are not actually afraid of failure, they’re very afraid of success,” said Dane Maxwell, founder of The Foundation, an organization that helps people start software businesses by overcoming their limiting beliefs.

    Pat Flynn, a leading business leader said, “One of [the common themes that millionaires have] is that they don’t have that fear. They train themselves to be excellent ‘receivers,’ to be open and willing to receive massive amounts of money, which for some reason a lot of people are scared of. I know I kind of went through the same thing. I could feel myself sabotaging myself…not taking it to the next level when I totally knew that I could have. I think the whole mindset thing is so important.”

    Dane Maxwell continues, “There are a lot of things that you can logically explain, but for whatever reason you can’t seem to make it happen. You’ve got a limiting belief, you’ve got something you’re stuck with, you’ve got a road block and you’re not going to be successful until you get that thing reversed. And unless you have a kind enough, compassionate enough, gentle enough teacher that without judgment will help you reverse that, you’re not going to move forward.”

    You have a finite amount of mental energy so what you choose to spend it on matters. In business you might call this an opportunity cost because thought spent in one direction could prevent you from spending thought in another direction. What you think about is incredibly important because it influences everything else in your life.

    There is a war going on in your mind. What are you doing to win? Are you moving towards success or are you self-sabotaging? “The Power of 1%” says that, “Just 1% [improvement] per day…has a dramatic effect and will make us 37x better, not 365% (3.65x) better at the end of the year.”

    If you improve 1% a day you will improve 3800% in a year.” –James Altucher

    I started writing this post on September 6, 2013. Almost 2 years later I’m just now completing it. What stories have you started that need completing? Let’s complete more stuff, 1 day at a time. A year from now we’ll be 37x to 3800% better. 🙂

  • Between a Rock and a Hard Place

    If you’ve ever found yourself in a sticky situation where both choices are hard, I can relate.

    This can happen both with emotional choices, financial choices, but also with physical objects.

    I once worked for a furniture store. One day while delivering a couch I found my head stuck between the bottom of the couch and the top of a stair. I thought, “This would make a good story someday.”

    Once when I was working as a maintenance man at a summer camp I found myself with my head between the toilet and the floor. I thought to myself, “I’ve got to tell my friends about this when I get back.”

    I have lots of stories to tell because I’ve been in a lot of weird places and had to make a lot of hard choices.

    Do I wish I could have an easy life? Yes. Does an easy life help you grow? Maybe not.

    I recently read Malcolm Gladwell’s David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants, which tells stories about people who have grown up or encountered hard conditions that have helped them in life.

    One question Gladwell asks is, ‘Would you want your child to grow up with this hardship if you knew it makes them better off?’ He knows the answer is “no”, but the book is about how good can come from bad.

    I have seen this in my own life, which hasn’t been all that hard, but I have had some hard times. It is through difficulty that we learn and grow and change. And it makes the good times all the sweeter.

  • Information Systems

    A lot of organizations don’t realize how critical how information is stored, retrieved, and utilized.

    Information systems (IS) is the study of complementary networks of hardware and software that people and organizations use to collect, filter, process, create, and distribute data.

    The study, like Erich Stauffer, bridges business and computer science using the theoretical foundations of information and computation to study various business models and related algorithmic processes within a computer science discipline.

    Information systems are focused upon processing information within organizations, especially within business enterprises, and sharing the benefits with modern society.

    Computer Information Systems

    Computer Information Systems (CIS) – (also known as Management Information System) is a field studying computers and algorithmic processes, including their principles, their software and hardware designs, their applications, and their impact on society while IS emphasizes functionality over design.

    The history of information systems coincides with the history of computer science that began long before the modern discipline of computer science emerged in the twentieth century. Regarding the circulation of information and ideas, numerous legacy information systems still exist today that are continuously updated to promote ethnographic approaches, to ensure data integrity, and to improve the social effectiveness & efficiency of the whole process.

    There are various types of information systems, for example: transaction processing systems, office systems, decision support systems, knowledge management systems, database management systems, and office information systems. Critical to most information systems are information technologies, which are typically designed to enable humans to perform tasks for which the human brain is not well suited, such as: handling large amounts of information, performing complex calculations, and controlling many simultaneous processes.

    Management Information Systems

    A management information system (MIS) – (also known as Computer Information System) provides information that organizations need to manage themselves efficiently and effectively. Management information systems are not only computer systems as these systems encompass three primary components: technology, people (individuals, groups, or organizations), and data (information for decision making).

    Management information systems are distinct from other information systems, in that they are used to analyze and facilitate strategic and operational activities. Academically, the term is commonly used to refer to the study of how individuals, groups, and organizations evaluate, design, implement, manage, and utilize systems to generate information to improve efficiency and effectiveness of decision making, including systems termed decision support systems, expert systems, and executive information systems.

    A management information system gives the business managers the information that they need to make decisions. Early business computers were used for simple operations such as tracking inventory, billing, sales, or payroll data, with little detail or structure. Over time, these computer applications became more complex, hardware storage capacities grew, and technologies improved for connecting previously isolated applications. As more data was stored and linked, managers sought greater abstraction as well as greater detail with the aim of creating significant management reports from the raw, stored data.

    Originally, the term “MIS” described applications providing managers with information about sales, inventories, and other data that would help in managing the enterprise. Over time, the term broadened to include: decision support systems, resource management and human resource management, enterprise resource planning (ERP), enterprise performance management (EPM), supply chain management (SCM), customer relationship management (CRM), project management and database retrieval applications.

    An MIS supports a business’ long range plans, providing reports based upon performance analysis in areas critical to those plans, with feedback loops that improve guidance for every aspect of the enterprise, including recruitment and training. MIS not only indicates how various aspects of a business are performing, but also why and where. MIS reports include near-real-time performance of cost centers and projects with detail sufficient for individual accountability.

  • Joe O’Banion

    Joe O'Banion Obituary

    Excerpt from Transcript http://lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/vhp/story/loc.natlib.afc2001001.10417/transcript?ID=sr0001

    If two fellows get in kind of a fight and they’re face-to-face and they think they’re going to punch one another out, if any one of them says, hey, I must take a lesson, let’s cut this out, most likely, they’ll back off and there’s no fight. And that was the way for a long, long time. However, when it came to fighting and you had weapons that were three- and four-foot long and staffs and so forth, why, you know, you better take down your opponent.

    If there was any occasion that the fellow says, “Hey, I give up,” things stopped. When they developed a long bow, they weren’t face-to-face. And the long bow was able to reach out, and so you couldn’t see the face of your opponent, and if he wanted to give up, how could you tell. So, I mean that’s one result, a lot of people were killed. And during the wars, as things developed, the (?bow rifle?), American Revolution, Civil War, you couldn’t see the face of your opponent.

    And hundreds and hundreds were slain, because whoever had the power couldn’t see the face of their opponent and they just slaughtered them. And as weaponry developed, more and more people can be and have been killed because of that one factor. And if you’re in an airplane several thousand feet up in the air, and you drop a bomb, you can’t see who in the heck you’re wiping away.

    Every Vote Counts

    Soap Sally

    Smarty Cat

    Worlds Greatest Popcorn Salesman

    Rules to Live By

    Hard Times at the Claypool Courts

    “Papa Plays Piano” video on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Cq8Py3dEi78
    “Two Little Blackbirds” video on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1-7VIUF_8c

    Files I uploaded to Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/97230228@N06/

  • How Distributed Power Production and Storage Is Changing

    We are witnessing a new paradigm in energy production and usage akin to the transition from gas lamps and candles to electric lightbulbs and public utilities. In the late 1800’s building owners installed coal-powered dynamos in basements to provide electricity to the tenants above. Tomorrow, solar power panels on rooftops will provide power for the people below. Two technologies are coalescing to lead to this outcome: advanced battery storage and solar power production. “A distributed energy future is coming.”

    Ramez Naam, computer scientist, futurist, and award-winning author, wrote in April, 2015, “Storage of electricity in large quantities is reaching an inflection point, poised to give a big boost to renewables, to disrupt business models across the electrical industry, and to tap into a market that will eventually top many of tens of billions of dollars per year, and trillions of dollars cumulatively over the coming decades…going from being a novelty, to being suddenly economically extremely sensible. That, in turn, is kicking off a virtuous cycle of new markets opening, new scale, further declining costs, and additional markets opening.”

    Batteries

    “Batteries serve as the connecting piece between multiple energy generation sources…Home batteries can recharge nightly during the lowest-demand, lowest-price periods. Then, during the day, a home might run solely from battery power and rooftop solar. If there is an excess of energy available on the battery, the homeowner might even sell some energy back to the grid. The homeowner’s electric vehicle (battery on wheels) also charges overnight, and could sell some excess energy back onto the grid during peak energy usage periods while plugged in at the office,” said Jeremy Welch, cofounder @WeChrg.

    In February of 2015, Bloomberg reported on Tesla’s plans for home batteries, stating, “Combining solar panels with large, efficient batteries could allow some homeowners to avoid buying electricity from utilities.” That doesn’t necessarily mean being “off the grid”. There are currently advantages and disadvantages to being on and off the grid.

    If your home is still connected to utilities, you are eligible for payment for any energy your home provides back to the grid, but when there is a power outage, your solar panels no longer feed your house. This is to protect line workers who may get shocked from your solar panels backflowing into the lines. However, if you have home batteries those will still work.

    Overall I see the trend going toward more solar and less fossil-fuels. The problem with big power plants is that a third of the energy is lost in transmission, but part of the reason we need transmission is because we don’t have good capacitors/batteries. By creating storage capacity at home, we can get power from a variety of sources and be less dependent on just one.

    This is one possible scenario: each home/business/car becomes a node like a host on a network. Power can be created and shared between nodes at a metered rate. Cars with solar panels might bring home power to add to their home when they get home. Houses soaking up solar all day might feed their car when they get home. Those still connected to a power company can share out unused power.

    “Battery storage and next-generation compressed air are right on the edge of the prices where it becomes profitable to arbitrage shifting electricity prices – filling up batteries with cheap power (from night time sources, abundant wind or solar, or other), and using that stored energy rather than peak priced electricity from natural gas peakers.This arbitrage can happen at either the grid edge (the home or business) or as part of the grid itself. Either way, it taps into a market of potentially 100s of thousands of MWh in the US alone,” said Ramez Naam.

    But how expensive will home batteries be? “A widely reported study at Nature Climate Change finds that, since 2005, electric vehicle battery costs have plunged faster than almost anyone projected, and are now below most forecasts for the year 2020…It’s now in the realm of possibility that we’ll see $100 / kwh lithium-ion batteries in electric vehicles by 2020, with some speculating that Tesla’s ‘gigafactory’ will push into sufficient scale to achieve that.”

    Solar Power

    In Western Australia there are a lot of sunny days, so domestic rooftop solar systems are very commonplace now. In California, companies like SolarCity are installing solar panels and guaranteeing you’ll pay less to them than to your electricity provider.

    What utility companies fear is that there will be a tipping point where they the amount of people using solar panels during peak periods will begin to seriously impact their ability to be profitable. As more people go solar, the cost of non-solar is spread amongst the remaining non-solar users and therefore the price goes up. This will only accelerate the move to solar and exacerbate the problem.

    It’s likely power utilities will get in the solar installation business, mimicking SolarCity’s model, and figure out the protocols for how cellular power networks are going to work in the future. That’s likely why they have invested (or attempted to invest) in ‘smart meters’ that can send power back and forth, turn appliances off/on, and monitor electricity usage inside the home/business better. This will enable the sharing of electricity between units in a power network more efficiently.

    However, solar has it’s drawbacks in extreme situations such as during a fire. Solar panels can be a hazard to firefighting operations because the sun doesn’t have a ‘disconnect’. A collapsed roof may bring a tangle of live electrical parts down into the building and create a hazard that persists long after the fire has been suppressed. For example, when disconnected solar panels are ‘open circuit’ the voltages will rise very rapidly. You can actually arc-weld with two fully illuminated 48V panels in parallel.