Happy 2015!

Dawn.
End of darkness.
Creative thoughts start here.
Creative thoughts percolating in my brain over night like an unwatched pot on the stove boiling over finally emerge here -  at dawn.

It is New Years Eve,  December 31st 2014.  I look back over the past 364 days and try to compose a picture in my mind of what I have accomplished.  Who have I helped? What have I changed? Is the world a better place because of something I did? Is it? I hope so.  I hope that I have taken enough time out of my day to help others with their problems, to help someone get a better view of reality, or to make someone else's life more livable.

This past year I logged over 50,000 miles (80,500 Km) of air travel and transited through 65 airport stops.  In those travels I have to wonder if I made anyone's day a little better with a smile, or just by having a little more patience with gate staff.  I am sure I did in at least a few cases.  With that much travel you tend to see the same flight crews and gate attendants several times a year.  I often see the same same captain making sure she gets her box of TimBits for the crew before she boards her RJ700 for the leg to Denver at 7AM.  Those american pilots love their Canadian donuts :)

We all come in contact directly or indirectly with dozens of people every day and making just one extraordinary gesture can have a cascading effect.  Pay it forward.  Do something for someone else just to make their day better.  Be awesome just because the world needs more awesome.

I won't make any new year resolutions, they are fleeting and easy to dismiss.  We all need to work daily on self improvement, being better to the planet we live on, and being better neighbours to each other.  The day on the calendar should not make a difference.



Be Awesome. Change the world.

Christmas thoughts

I smell mincemeat tarts being made in the kitchen.  My teeth sink into a delicious home made
Nanaimo Bar. The smell of Douglas Fir sap permeates the living room air.  These are my childhood Christmas memories.  When I close my eyes and drift back, these are the things that fill my mind.

I worry that we as a society have been conditioned to think that Christmas is a retail sales season, that the biggest present wins, that the highest seasonal margin gets all the news.  I find that sad and find myself hoping that I have taught my children that this is a season of giving, sharing, and being together.  After all, the first gifts were not purchased, they were given from the personal treasures of the givers.  They were important and valuable personal sacrifices to show how much the recipient was valued to them.  Simply going to a store and buying something to give away seems far less personally invested to me.

When I think back to past Christmas days, I actually find it hard to remember *things* that I received as gifts, and while they were surely nice presents, the gifts I remember most are the intangibles.

The uncontrollable and wondrous laughter of a 3 year old child on Christmas morning.
Sniffing and grunting noises from a puppy who just dug through loose wrapping to find delicious bone treats.
Digging walnuts from the bottom of a Christmas stocking, that you know had grown in the back yard the summer before.
Mincemeat and Butter Tarts, Nanaimo Bar and Sugar Cookies, Gingerbread and Shortbread, a fat turkey broiling in the oven.

I have a vivid memory that comes to me every year around this time, of my eldest sister and I sitting under the Christmas tree on our living room floor.  I must have been 8 or 9 years of age.  The tree was covered in gold and red and it smelled as if it had been cut the day before.  She had just opened her present from my parents, a 35mm camera that I am sure she was not expecting.  What I remember the most though was the joy in her eyes, the immediate understanding of what it represented in freedom, creative expression, power for self expansion. This was a gift of understanding, of future growth, of belief in potential.  This is when I learned that value and price are two very different things.

In those days Christmas day was a large family event.  After opening our own stockings at home, we would pile into the ugly 1972 station wagon and drive to my grandparents house about an hour away.  My cousins had done the same and by early afternoon there were at least twenty of us kids, aunts, uncles, friends all gathered throughout the house, by the tree and huddled around the fire. Some in the living room, some in the kitchen, others in the huge dining room that now had a table with seating for a small hungry army.  A feast was baking and brewing and broiling in the kitchen there under the masterful guidance of my Grandmother.  For those who were lucky enough to sleep over night, Boxing Day started with Grandpa's silver dollar pancakes - a rare treat.  I don't have to close my eyes very tightly to see them still in my minds eye, smell and hear and feel the joys of Christmas with extended family.  That was long ago and far away.

Today my family has both shrunk and expanded.  Like many people, there are new traditions and new memories to be made.  Still, the best recent memories of past Christmases are not about things, but events, smells, tastes - pictures frozen in my mind.
 - Children decorating sugar cookies, icing and sprinkles covering the kitchen.
 - Hanging decades worth of collected personalized ornaments.
 - Placing that hand made reindeer on it's special spot on the wall.

These are the things I hope that my children will remember and understand about Christmas.  The most valuable gift you can give cannot be bought at any store.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Fixing my front load dryer

I have taken my Sears/Kenmore/Frigidaire/Electrolux front load dryer apart a few times to fix it and thought that since so many people enjoyed my post on fixing my Keurig coffee maker (about 33000 page views so far), I would do the same with this project.

Like my B60 Keurig coffee maker, I have a love-hate relationship with this dryer... okay, lately it is more hate, but whatever.  This model, 970-C87192-10 has a specific flaw that I have found annoying in the extreme, but from what I can tell in a few web searches, this may be a common problem and so is the fix.  In this model, there is a small space at the bottom of the drum where it meets the door and often, zippers, buttons and clasps will slip in there and wedge between the door and the drum, eventually twisting off completely and usually this results in destroyed clothing.  R.I.P. favourite Disney hoodie :(

The following describes the process of replacing the drum guide and felt seal in this particular dryer model, but other front load dryers share a similar problem.  Over time, the plastic drum guide and the felt it rides on both wear, which makes the gap larger and more susceptible to this problem, so even once this is fixed, it should probably be replaced every couple of years as preventative maintenance.

Dryer Model: 970-C87192-10

Tools Needed:
  #2 Robertson or #3 Phillips Screwdriver   (they both fit these combo-screws)
  Thin blade (#2) standard screwdriver
  Vacuum

Parts Needed:

   131963900  Glide, drum (x2)           ~= $13

   134440200  Seal, felt, upper            ~= $9

   5308027429  Adhesive, high temp  ~= $28

   134134700  Seal, felt, lower            ~= $33

Note that usually the adhesive is included with the lower felt, so check first to avoiding buying it twice.

I am going to throw in a plug for the awesome folks at Reliable Parts in Phillips park: (6120 2nd St SE, Calgary, AB), and "Daryl" in particular for his awesome service.  While I was able to look up all the parts in this manual, the Sears Canada approved service depo wanted to ship the parts from Ontario (5 days away) and I wanted to fix it today.  In hindsight, I should have just called Reliable first.  Anyway - Daryl was awesome and got me set up with the parts I needed for about $73 total.

This should take about an hour, but take your time because the inside edges of the metal are SHARP and I manage to cut myself every time I open this thing up.  Every... single... time.

Before you start dismantling things, unplug the power.  220 Volts at 30 Amps can be nasty on your body so pay attention to safety first and unplug that sucker.

First, if the dryer is stacked on top of the washer, remove the securing screws and lift it slightly off the mounts so you can get to the lower set of screws.

Next, remove the screws of the lower panel and the panel should basically just drop off.  Try to do that gently.  There are two more screws under that panel that hold on the door panel assembly so remove those as well.

Now you need to move to the top-back of the unit and remove the two screws holding in that top panel.  These are on the top edge, not the lower, recessed ones.  With the screw removed, push back the top panel and remove it.  Again be careful of sharp edges or it will soon look like a crime scene.

With the top removed, you can get to the wiring harness and four mounting screws holding on the front panel. Disconnect the wiring harness at the two cable connectors before you do anything else.  Then remove the four top screws to release the door panel.  Using a flat blade standard screwdriver, separate the door panel from the main body with a lever motion.  The door should now hang from the top panel hooks.

Gently lift up and pull the door panel away from the main body and set it on the floor.  That will reveal the open dryer, drum and motor as well as a whole bunch of lint because this dryer is really horrible at containing the lint in the exhaust path.  Vacuum out the whole body and the inside of the door.  This is important for fire hazard reasons anyway, but you will also want to have a nice clean area to work with for the next part of this adventure.

Inside the rim of the dryer drum, you will see a plastic white strip that is probably in really rough shape.

Mine was in pieces with holes and fractures everywhere as well as having a deep wear band in the center - the primary cause of ruined clothes in my life.  This can be removed and discarded.  Replace that with the two "drum glides" using one of the double-hole sets (see picture).  Press these in until they click. 

On the door, you will see the felt seal is in two parts - don't mix these up.  Remove the top section and clean the area of any debris.  Apply a film of the high temperature glue to the replacement top felt piece and wait one minute (60 seconds) for the glue to become tacky, then apply and press it into the same location as the original.  Repeat that process for the lower seal and wait at least 5 minutes before attempting to reassemble.

Reassemble in the reverse order taking care to lift the drum slightly as you push the door assembly into place.

 - hang the door assembly (lift the drum slightly while doing this)

 - press it into place on the body

 - screw in the top of the door

 - reconnect the wiring harness

 - replace the top plate and replace the screws

 - replace the screws at the bottom of the door

 - reattach the bottom plate

 - re-align and attach the bottom plate to the washer, if it is a stacked unit

 - plug the dryer back in

 - turn it on to test

If there is no smoke, or strange noise, you have succeeded,  otherwise call for a professional repair.  Hopefully this helps you save the $600 replacement or $200 service fee and you can get a few more years out of your dryer.

Disclaimer:  This was done for my own purposes and I am sharing for the sake of sharing.  If you chose to use this information you do so at your own risk.

A Canadian CASL

On July 1st the Canadian Anti Spam Legislation act (CASL) will come into full effect and you are probably not aware it even exists.
How appropriate that the world's toughest legislation against unsolicited email would come into force on Canada Day.

If you are not aware of the CASL project, here is a little light reading for you.
 - The gov.ca website dedicated to CASL: http://fightspam.gc.ca/eic/site/030.nsf/eng/home
 - The specific regulations governing CASL: http://fightspam.gc.ca/eic/site/030.nsf/eng/00273.html
 - The actual full text of the law: http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/E-1.6/index.html
 - A great report from Deloitte on the impact of CASL: http://www.deloitte.com/...

There is a great deal more to tell, but first you may be asking why you might care.  Well, you know those annoying SPAM messages you keep getting in your email, even though you have clicked "unsubscribe" 20 times?  Now you can take strong legal action against any one of the people or companies that send those to you.  This is real and the Canadian government is very serious about protecting Canadian mail boxes.

Even better, this does not just affect people *IN* Canada, it applies to all Canadian citizens regardless of where their email inbox lives.  That means that if you live in Toronto and you use a Hotmail inbox in Seattle, you are still protected.  If you live in Vancouver and your mailbox is in Florida, this law still applies to you.

This is the scariest thing to happen to spammers in 40+ years of email history.  It may also be the most progressive thing to happen to netizen rights in the history of the Internet.  You may have noticed that in the last week or so, many of the mailing lists you subscribe to have been sending you a small reminder to confirm your request for their mail.  Any responsible sender who knows you are Canadian, has been reaching out to make sure you are ok with their newsletters and marketing messages.  No one wants to get caught on the wrong end of this big stick.

This is great news for Canadian citizens.  This is the first time in history that Canadian citizens have the power to directly and financially impact an offending SPAM sender in an impactful way.  If you skipped over that link above to the CASL website, you may want to go back and take a look as there are good resources for individuals to help identify spam as well as how to enforce the act.

The history behind CASL goes back several years and really owes some lineage to the CANSPAM project [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAN-SPAM_Act_of_2003 ] enacted in the US in 2003. While the rules have good intention, and all responsible senders do their best to follow them, active spam senders are aware of how difficult it is to actually enforce them and penalize the offenders.  By the time CANSPAM was put into place, it had become a list of standards of good practice as opposed to an enforceable law. The good news is that the responsible senders who follow CANSPAM make it very easy to join and remove yourself from a mailing list.  CANSPAM was the first kick at controlling SPAM and has been effective with legitimate senders, but has been relatively "toothless" on actual illegal senders.  Relatively few (less than 20?)  known "spammers" have be affected by any real penalties or jail time.

CASL is an actual law that is enforceable, and that should have known spammers thinking twice about sending Canadians any unsolicited mail.  The people and companies named on the Registry Of Known Spam Operations list (ROKSO) should be especially worried.  CASL has real penalties that hurt where it counts.

"The maximum amount of [cash penalty], per violation, for an individual is $1 million, and for a business, it is $10 million."
- CASL FAQ 

This means that if a spammer refuses to take you off their list 5 times, they can be fined up to $50 Million CAD.  Don't be that guy.

Time will tell if CASL has more threatening teeth than CANSPAM.  It will be interesting to watch this play out.


Oh.. Happy Canada Day :)

My son is not a statistic.

There is a notice on my fridge.  It is pinned there with a magnet right under the words "PARTS ARE NOT CURRENTLY AVAILABLE".  It has been there for over a month and every day there is growing fear that my son's 2007 Pontiac G5 could become a death sentence.

The letter (posted in full below) starts by essentially saying 'The government says we have to tell you about this' and then follows by minimizing the potential risks down to "... a partial loss of electrical power and turning off the engine".   There is also the very real risk of this fault also disabling power brakes, power steering, airbags, and this has been public knowledge for over a year.  Even worse, the fault was known to General Motors as early as 2005.  This particular defect is found in 2.6 Million vehicles in North America and has been linked to 13 known traffic fatalities.

The really tragic part of this whole thing is that those lives may have been saved if GM line management had listened to their own engineers who identified a simple fix for under a dollar a piece. As far back as 2005,  company engineers proposed solutions for the switch problem, but GM had concluded that none of those fixes represented "an acceptable business case."  The parts to fix the problem could have amounted to as little as $0.57 not including labour.

GM has obviously known about this problem for some time and they do have replacement parts that are available for only $30US, yet based on the recall notice tied to my son's car, "PARTS ARE CURRENTLY NOT AVAILABLE".  Yeah...

I would prefer that my son not become a statistic in a class action lawsuit.  It should never have come to this.  There are too many stories like this one and a common buyer for these vehicles are young adults.  General Motors knew about the problem and they ignored it, even after traffic deaths had been linked to the defect.  Parts are available, yet for some reason, they have not taken the time to ramp up production to fill these orders adequately, even though they have known about this problem for almost a decade.

Large companies like this have an even more important responsibility to their customer's safety and when they make a mistake, they should fix it.  When they knowingly ignore a potentially deadly defect, they should be punished appropriately.  The $1.3 Billion charge for recalls is a pin prick in their $37.4 Billion Q1 revenue.  As large as that number sounds, it is hardly punitive for a massive company like General Motors.  This is a $500 Billion Company so it is hard to imagine how any actual dollar amount could have any real impact.  More to the point, no dollar amount will ever make me trust them again or bring back the 13 lives that were lost to this incident.  This is one of those times when a corporation should not be able to shield it senior executives from the harm their decisions can result in.

Please help raise awareness and make GM get serious about actually resolving the problem they caused.

Heartbleed (yes, again)

I usually refrain from jumping on the common news bandwagon and just reposting already circulating
ideas, but I think the "heartbleed" security flaw is an important enough exception.  It is really (really, really) important that people know what this is and how to protect themselves, so I may be repeating information you already knew here.

Heartbleed [http://heartbleed.com/] is a compromise of the Secure Socket Layer (SSL) that drives secure communications on the internet.  Essentially, any web site where you may see HTTPS:// as opposed to HTTP:// could potentially be at risk.  Any secure communications using SSL based on OpenSSL will be affected.  It is a pretty big deal.  This xkcd comic does a great job explaining how the exploit works [http://xkcd.com/1354/]

Many companies use SSL to protect and secure their email, IM, and other private data when sending between servers and every one of those secure certificates will need to be discarded and rebuilt.  That causes down time and unique maintenance headaches for every server administrator.

Even if companies don't transport information using SSL, their web hosts (all of them) will need new security keys and that involves not only the generation of the cert, but stopping and restarting web services and everything that goes along with that.  It is a LOT of work.  Elastica Inc has a pretty decent Video here if you want a longer explanation.

BTW… you should change all your passwords.... NOW.  Even though you probably do not have any SSL protected data of your own, the servers you connect to *do*.  Lets say you use the same password  and username for several services - admit it - you do so do that.  If some "bad" person used this exploit to get your username and password from a server, they can then use that information in any number of other sites you also use that information on.

This is not just a password hack though.  This bug allows the adjacent data from memory (up to 64kb blocks) to be returned from the server unencrypted and untraceable. That means that any other data in the server may be returned to someone exploiting the bug.  Scary stuff.

This is being taken very seriously by everyone in the IT world and in some cases, it was easier just to shut down access to all servers while the software was being patched.

If you have any doubt about any service you use, there is a tool here you can use to check if a site has been patched. [http://filippo.io/Heartbleed/]

UPDATE:
I know there are many sites and blogs out there that are saying you don't need to change all your passwords, but I will disagree.  If you use a unique password everywhere then sure, you are fine, but if you are one of the millions of people who reuse passwords because it is too hard to remember them all ( admit it, that is you) then you need to change them all.  If you happened to reuse a password from your secure and unaffected bank login on a site that is affected, then there is potential for your credentials to have been compromised.

Random thoughts and learning

Over the past year I have learned many important things I think are worth sharing.  Hopefully these tidbits will be worth something to others as well.

It takes exactly eight minutes to warm a bottle of homo (3.5%) milk.  Young parents have a whole new set of stresses to deal with but also a whole range of new assisting technology available too.  Automatic bottle warmers, network enabled video monitoring, and Internet help forums are only a few of the things I had wish I had twenty years ago. On the other hand, Internet bullies, social network predators, and infinite access to global information make guidance and parenting much more difficult.

School is overrated. When I entered my first round of post-secondary education nearly thirty years ago (*cringe*) the accepted and proven way to get ahead was to 1) get a degree, 2) get a good job with it and then 3) earn your way to the top through promotions in the classic way.  Boomers institutionalized that process, gen x accepted it, gen y rebelled against it and Millennials just bulldoze past it.  Today, the Internet and all its connected facilities make it possible for bright young entrepreneurs to bypass that old process.  They get an idea, then learn it, master it, and build a business out of it… often while they are still in high school.  The number of C-level executives in their twenties is impressive.  Note to Boomers and Gen X… the rules have changed.

It’s always a good day for a tutu. Seriously, life is too short to fill it with unfulfilling activities and stress.  Play.  Enjoy. Revel in life. Work does not have to be boring and oppressive. The most productive and successful people I know do not see their work as ‘work' at all.  When making a living is consuming your entire life, it is time for a change.

Power is shifting.  There is a global revolution going on through several fronts. The planet’s youth are all connected in spite of the establishment efforts to control communications.  The Internet cannot be contained – that ship has sailed, genie is out of the bottle.  Citizens in Beijing and London and Toronto and Kiev and Cape Town can share ideas, form alliances, and rebel in amazingly coordinated ways.  When companies do bad things they are no longer buried by corrupt media and governments.  The information is in the blogosphere within seconds and replicated instantly.  World governments, you no longer control the masses.   Individuals now have all the information, and information is power.

I’m only dancing.  Entire concepts of relationships have been shattered and re-imagined. You could put all kinds of labels on it but the fact is that labels are irrelevant to most of the twenty-something people I know.  They are much more focused on the concept of loving who you love and ignoring what the rest of the world wants to call it.  That level of free and open respect may take a while to catch on, but it is here and it is real.

The world is tiny and your friends are only a click away.  I thought I was progressive when I knew I had several on-line friends in other countries.  That is now old news.  Your teen aged children and a whole generation of ‘Millennials’ have friends all over the globe and don’t even know where they actually live.  Country borders are irrelevant and there is no real difference between on-line and off-line friends. 

Those are the highlights as I ramble out a stream of consciousness.  They may seem like random and disjointed thoughts but that is the other thing I have discovered… information happens in blobs, not streams.

Situational Awareness

The furnace guy was here yesterday.  Nice guy.  
Fixed up a few things and did a tune up.  No worries.  
Handed me a bill for $100 or so and all is good.

Then he says "Your ohms are a little high.  I read 4.3 and we normally like to see that under 4"

"... Um... ok... what does that mean to me?" I asked.  "Is that a bad thing?"

He looked at me like I was asking him to explain quantum mechanics.  Clearly we were already having a communication issue.  He seemed to be gathering up some patience to explain to me in simple words what that really meant and then said  "The resistance in the thermocouple in the furnace, it is a bit high so you should consider replacing it."

"Okay, thanks" I said " I still have no idea what that means.  Should I get you guys to replace it at the next service then?"

He smiled a bit, obviously happy he had gotten that through my thick skull.  "Yes, that would be good"

"Ah, okay then."  It seemed we were communicating in english again.

He finished up the credit card paperwork and as he was heading for the door he said "Oh, and the AFUE was at around .9 and I was able to get it up to .95 so that should help out a bit"

His proud smile did not change the fact that I had no clue what that meant.

"Great, I think.  What exactly does that mean?"  I was trying not to sound completely ignorant, but it was clear now that I was completely incompetent in the realm of the furnace repair gods.

"You should save about $20 a month in gas" he said, having finally stooped to my level, needing to reply in tiny words I could relate to.

"Oh, thanks, I appreciate it"



The lesson here is that people who work in a technical field tend to assume everyone knows their terminology and what it all means.  I have been working in the computer/software/electronics industry for a very long time and have seen this over and over and over everywhere I go.  One of the hardest things for a technically oriented person to do is translate complex concepts into terms that are consumable by people who are not so deeply involved in technical details.  This is what makes a good Sales Engineer very valuable to a sales organization. 

Translating complex technical concepts into business needs and strategic goals is a difficult skill to hone, but Project Managers, Implementation Engineers and Sales Engineers need to be very good at that in order to make sure the client has a clear understanding of what the technology will do for them as opposed to how it works under the hood.

In a former life, I made it a periodic exercise to have my engineering team watch out for this kind of thing in their daily personal interactions and it is amazing how much it happens.  The roofing guy assumes you know everything about the benefits of asphalt shingles over clay.  The car mechanic assumes you know the difference between "Dot-3" and "Dot-5".  The mortgage person assumes you know why GDS and TDS are different and how to calculate both.

When talking to your own customers it is no different.  The fact that a customer has been successful in business does not immediately imply that they have any clue *why*.  I have personally spoken with customers who have surprised me by not knowing some important technical details of how their business runs, but that is okay if they understand the business value it can bring them.  Trying to inject technical jargon into a conversation about business goals can be dangerous and inappropriate so it is important to always gauge the situation and the audience.

I have no idea how my furnace works, but "the furnace guy" did *something* to save me $20 a month and I am warm so I am also happy.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

HAPPY NEW YEAR !!!

Ok, enough of that.  Lets get down to business.

I am going to agree wholeheartedly with a number of my friends in asserting the sentiment "don't just wish for a happy new year, make it happen".  Be the change you want to see, proactively engage, change the universe from your small corner of it.  Forward!

I'll start with this blog and focus more on the type of content I put in it as well as the audience it serves.  For the past several years, I have used this as a random outlet, but clearly readers are interested in helpful tidbits like Fixing my Keurig B60 coffee maker (22,800 hits) and  Nerf Gun Meeting Control (50,100 hits) so I will be posting much more of that type of content here.  If I can help people be more effective and self sufficient, I'll call that a win.

Next on this list is just to "live".  Going through the motions, earning a living, paying the mortgage is not enough.  Not for me, not for anyone.  I envy so many of the young people in my life who were raised in a time that was not entirely focused on "grow up, get a job, work hard, then die".  We all must play more.  Focus this year is on improving my golf game.

Another big focus this year will be to continue work supporting social change and the efforts of people in developing countries.  North Americans spend far too much time whining about first world problems when there are entire populations who need clean drinking water.  Forget the 1%... What can the 99% do to help each other?

I am planting a stake in the ground and marking this as a year of revolutionary change.  I see that on business, personal and social levels.  I will be a catalyst for change and societal norms will not get in my way.

As we say in Calgary, its time to Cowboy Up.  Hope you all come along for the ride.