I can't remember… The Internet is down.

From piqsels.com Used under Creative Commons Zero - CC0

Last week we were talking about "The New Elephant That Never Forgets ". The fact that when something is posted on the Internet, the chances are high that will become archived either in a personal collection or permanently publicly available so that even if one takes the original document down it is still there "out there". This idea has led to another thought:

Do we even think about the Internet anymore, or do we just use it as a means to an end? I think for most of us, regardless if we are technologically savvy or not, "we don't", it is simply to become something in the background which makes all this technological stuff work. Whether that device be your TV, thermostat, light bulbs, or smart coffee maker. But the Internet is different, in that information is being stored and this is something I think we must be aware of even though it seems harmless. Security issues aside, we are relying on mechanisms and devices outside of our own control to do a lot of the remembering for us. When the Internet connection goes down you are instantly cut off from a large amount of information and material which, 30 years ago would have been written down for safekeeping. Nowadays one literally has to wait for your information come back online. Many of us have entire working days stored in Google Docs.

I think with this reliance on the Internet to do all our "remembering and storing" we have lost something… The ability to remember. From my perspective a good functioning mental memory ability is essential. It not only means were self-contained and don't have to log on to remember that phone number is means you are more aware of yourself and perhaps less absorbed by yourself. This is something we must get back to. Like any other activity there are benefits beyond the activity itself and I think the act of remembering is the cornerstone of a healthy personal psychology.

Feel free to comment below, as always. If you like this short post, you may be interested in another one which is related: The "Internet of things lifespan"

The Internet: The New Elephant That Never Forgets.

Banner from one of my first webpages. Click to see an archived copy.

Way back, in the early 2000s, I had my first webpage on CompuServe. It started out as a compendium of links to services I used frequently. It was never my intention to let it grow or become as popular as it did. At one point in early 2002 it actually won a minor award. Feeling a little nostalgic, I thought "Why not put up a blog post listing my favourite services on the Internet today and soliciting feedback from visitors about their's."

I have long used the Internet Archive's Way back machine for tracking down various documents and website which are now officially off-line. The above "Patrick Homepage" banner will take you to an archived version of my old CompuServe website, complete with the old URL displayed in your browser.

Once I had the old address I couldn't resist entering it into Google and my God did it ever pull up all lot of material:

• Discussion groups. Many of which are still functional.
• Articles, graphics, comments and thoughts.
• Links and software I used to use…

Fascinating stuff. At least from my perspective. But it really does provide a cautionary warning. What ever you put on the Internet, stays on  the Internet, but it won't always stay private or cloistered. At some point, a server will change hands, as in the case of CompuServe, or some program will ferret out the material and make it public.

Versions of my original site are archived throughout the various years it was functioning. Not all snapshots
are complete but there is more than enough to go down memory lane. In the case of my dear friend Joanne her entire cooking site (here it is) which was the subsite of mine seems to be pretty much intact.

Over the next weekend I will explore just what can be dug up on the Internet and posted here if it is informative or entertaining.

Until next week then… We will see what we can dig up for you :-)
Patrick

Difficulty Has Its Advantages.

It is through the surmounting of problems that we often gain insights which, we weren't expecting, that gives us the additional outcome of not only solving the original issue but often new ways of looking at old situations.  It has to be challenging enough to make one push their abilities either mentally or physically while being partially, at least at the onset of challenging the issue, attainable.-One needs to be able to see the light at the end of the tunnel. There is nothing more satisfying than overcoming an obstacle, or having that "Eureka!" moment.

Why is it then that some people when faced with a new challenge, look for others to solve whatever the issue is rather than seeing the situation as an opportunity to grow and explore? They seem to have no interest in attaining that marvellous Eureka moment. Initially I found this very confusing and then it dawned on me that surmounting challenges is a skill which must be taught. We may all be born explores, but when it comes to going outside of the comfort zone, that takes learning new skills so we can benefit from the experience. If a person does not have thse skills they panic This behaviour works for them because, others around them will often rush in to fix the situation, and thus the panic behaviour is reinforced. The next time something happens, the cycle repeats and the behaviour becomes entrenched, if not subconscious. This leads to the following routine:

Person "A" perceives the difficulty and immediately asks for assistance from person "B". Very quickly it becomes obvious to person B that the request for assistance really meant "You Resolved This for Me." If person B acquiesces, then person A learns that abdicating their responsibility works in the short term. But if the request for assistance is rejected, then something strange seems to happen in the situation. Person A does not attempt at all to solve whatever the issue is, an apathy occurs and the situation gets worse. This can happen to both people who are involved in the event.

The other thing that happens is person A develops a very short term outlook, never really considering future consequences, because doing so instigates a panic which starts the original behaviour all over again. Ultimately they missed the opportunity to grow by taking on new challenges etc. and people doing all the helping become embittered. Often this happens quite slowly, with a lot of defensive rationalizations built up by both people over time.

So how then do we encourage a person to learn the skills which are so vital to overcoming difficulty and break this routine? I have found that often person "A" appears to have no interest in learning anything new so making suggestions falls on deaf ears.

How then do we light the fire of learning?

This can be a difficult question-and-answer, particularly when, Person "A" is very intelligent, because they've seen and blocked all previous attempts to change. It is one of those situations where the smarter an individual is the more difficult it is for them to learn new material. (We have all been there, unable to accept something new, because we "know" something else to be true which is in conflict with whatever we are trying to learn, stubbornly hanging on to the old stuff.)

The first step then be to deconstruct what we or the other person already knows, to look at what they believe to be true and in the process we, the instructor, end up learning as well. So in the above scenario both person A and B have to look at their behaviours and beliefs. Learning does not occur in a vacuum.

I consider myself very lucky, because I love to learn and explore. The challenges in my life have expanded my boundaries and horizons and continue to do so. It is my belief that I inherited this from my parents behaviour and why I continue to believe that the very idea of being "Normal and adhering to the idea of anything universal-be it physical or ideological." Is not a good way to go for anyone because it ultimately will limit the person.

The mythical idea of a level playing field is probably to be avoided at all costs as far as the larger society is concerned, we don't want to make things too easy because that ultimately will stifle creativity. Perhaps then it is a good in the long run that solving the question of "lighting the fire of learning "is in itself difficult because the answer continues to evolve as to the outcomes. What is most important ultimately is that we all sincerely in our own ways keep endeavouring to improve our lives.

Never stop exploring on what ever level you can. :-).  May your difficulties  ultimately have advantages, and may that open new understandings for us all.

Patrick Clark

Patrick Clark's Success Story at Freedom Place

Postscript: I wrote this article last night as part of a submission to the Youth and Philanthropy Initiative Canada (YPI) program, so that the nonprofit organization that maintains my building Strive Living Society could be considered for a $5000 grant. I consider my life an ongoing success story. Schools and students involved in the YPI program are looking for stories to help combat negative stereotypes.I have decided to share this writing here as well in the hopes it inspires all who read it and please do feel free to comment.- Patrick


(All links open in a new window.)

Photo of myself, January 8, 2020.

I have spastic Cerebral Palsy, am 60 years old, use an electric wheelchair to get around and I let nothing stop me :-). A geek and a nerd. Most definitely, curious by design.

Here's my success story, and why success keeps on coming at Freedom Place. It is my sincerest wish that it inspires people and perhaps allows them to see success where they have not seen it before.

My life is an ongoing success, because I do not define accomplishments in narrow terms, and thus I'm able to gather up all of the small successes in daily life into an ongoing positive achievement. Do not misunderstand me, this is not some new age flowery sugarcoated outlook. Challenges exist, and indeed they are necessary. Without them people would not discover truly new avenues and ways of doing things. I understand this and it is a big part of my success.

When I first arrived at Freedom Place, after having some time to look around and absorb the environment, I was personally a little terrified because I understood that it would be very easy to slip into a routine where pretty much everything was comfortable and taken care of. To me that meant stagnation. So I reconnected with a volunteer group, The Vancouver Community Network (VCN) on Hastings in Vancouver and arranged to travel twice a week to the office to do some volunteering. I am a computer and electronics geek and VCN deals with refurbishing computers and assisting low income and destitute people to have access to the Internet.

• VCN does many other socially responsible things in addition to those mentioned. All to empower people via the use of technology in innovative ways. It is my honour to be involved with such a great group of people and the organization as a whole.

Some see me as a little extreme because I don't use handy dart unless absolutely necessary, I prefer to use my wheelchair to travel down to the Skytrain in to Vancouver and then to the office. It reminds me that it is important to be independent and stay connected with community as a whole.

Therefore, the secret to my success, is seeing the opportunities which exist for everyone rather than trying to package success into a predetermined shape. The tenants and staff at my home Freedom Place are Groovy and eccentric in their own ways, they help me and I help them. I have learned a lot in the past 18 months or so and that adds to success.

I am very thankful that I am not "normal" because that would've limited the opportunities to look at things differently. If you see someone, who appears to be different, introduce yourself to them, even if it feels a little funny. New ideas may be waiting right around the corner for you, and ideas can lead to success.

This is my ongoing success story.

Sincerely Patrick Clark, tenant at Freedom Place.

Honey, the cell phone provider shrunk the kid's (photos)!

My family at Christmas 2019.

Over the Christmas holidays many people send photos to and from each other via text messages.

While this seems like a great idea, especially considering the resolution most modern phones have in their cameras, what is not so widely known is that most carriers (cell phone providers) have very restrictive limits on the size of picture they actually send.They will not stop you from sending the photos, but will greatly reduce them in size on the other end. What looks to you as a beautiful, priceless snapshot, can get reduced to something resembling an old time television picture.

I saw this last week when a relative of mine sent six pictures in one text, the cell phone company reduced them in size to such an extent that they were a blurry mess. Even if one changes the settings in their camera there is no guarantee the picture will not be heavily shrunk. Making it impossible to ever get a nice printout. This photo started out as a 4 megapixel image. When I received it on my phone it was 33K. That's reduction of 51 times  (approximately). This is the untouched photoas it was received on my phone

Two rules of thumb to follow:

1. If you are sending pictures via text, send only one per text. The more you send in a single text the more they become compressed.

2. If you really want to make sure that your photo stays intact, use one of the many online storage options and upload your photos to the cloud and then distribute a link to them in your text.

A cautionary note. If you are using one of these cloud-based download services to store and retrieve your photos frequently. It is best to do it while the phone is hooked up to your Wi-Fi at home to avoid exceeding your cell phone plan "data" limit.

Patrick

Internet of Things lifespan

Image by Tumisu.
Used in accordance with the Pixabay license.

It is the first day of 2020, and I find myself thinking of all the "Internet of Things" (IoT) devices I have. In my single bedroom apartment there are 17 smart lights by LIFX (company info-opens new window), a smart television, a Google Home, a Google Nest Mini and if I can ever find them at some point there will be smart curtains as well. All of these devices have one thing in common, they all rely on the respective companies to stay in business in order to function.

Each time I ask Google to adjust the smart lights, a message goes out across the Internet to the LIFX company who in turn send the signal back to the appropriate light. My Sony TV functions in a very similar way. Gone are the days of having local control over anything. Even if I use my phone to control the lights, the signals still travel to and from the company servers. This can have interesting effects when things get busy for LIFX, the lights may go on or off in stages, instead of all at once. There may be only a second or two of the delay, but it seems to me a very complicated way to achieve the simple goal. If the Internet connection goes down then everything simply stops, stuck in whatever state it was last in.

Don't get me wrong, I love all these lights and the potential of the evolving technology is tremendous. But why are we building in such an Achilles' heel with all the new products? It is taking built-in obsolescence to a whole new level. While it is likely that Google and Amazon for the foreseeable future what happens to the plethora of smaller companies and their associated smart gizmos. Last year, as a Christmas gift, the organization I volunteer at gave me a smart plug which was supported by Google home at the time. The company however ran into some issues with their online security and as such they were instantly not supported by Google anymore. The problems have been rectified with the company as far as I know but I still cannot control that particular smart plug via the Google assistant. The smart plug still works fine with my phone but it shows how at the mercy we are when it comes to the winds of change and the future of companies.

So for me for example if LIFX ever closes down that means that my investment of 17 smart light bulbs at an average cost of $50 each, $850 total, will be a bitter pill indeed. They will still work as ordinary lights, and thank God they are energy efficient.

Anyway this is been a spontaneous ponder or rant depending on how you look at it.