Technology, Theology, and Anything In Between

I was reading the following article in Engineering Times: Engineering is not boring

The author of this article, Dylan McGrath, mentions a speech given by John Cohn, and IBM Fellow, on what we can do to get more people interested in the profession. Mr. McGrath also indicates that the secondary topic in the speech was "Engineering is not boring". During the speech, Mr. Cohn said that he would do engineering work even without pay. That sentiment is also mine. I decided to do engineering work because I like doing it, not because of the earnings potential (though that reason has also come true over time).

While I certainly do not have the experience nor the credentials of Mr. Cohn, I would like to add some thoughts to the discussion. Having worked in engineering for about 9-10 years now, I have some ideas on getting others interested in engineering. This is an important topic, as some economists say the problems we are facing in our economy now are related to a lack of production in America. We need new products, and who could better design them than engineers?

The first problem mentioned in the article is that people do not associate engineering with saving lives and "social values". One of my children is interested in recycling. I plan on helping him build some projects around the house to help with recycling and reusing things. Someday, maybe my son might think about a career in environmental engineering. Regardless of the thinking on climate change, there will be plenty do to in figuring out how to manufacture products that don’t pollute. Also, another thing to pursue are ways to reuse scrap material in the manufacturing process.

Another item mentioned in the article is outsourcing. This has always been a sore spot for many in the United States. I don’t blame teenagers looking at career choices other than engineering when they see how some industries can be very volatile to engineers. I’ve heard that many going to college decided against engineering and went into investment banking. Since our economy has shifted, engineering might be considered again. Choosing a career that will provide for your family is important.

One thing that was not discussed in the article, but I think a big reason for engineering decline, is that there is pressure to go into management and abandon design and test functions. The career ladder in several companies I’ve worked in can only get you so far as an engineer, but to make top dollar and get bonuses, etc., you have to switch to the management ladder. Many people get an MBA after obtaining an engineering degree. I was reading a statistic the other day mentioning a 70,000 engineer shortage by 2010. Some of this may be due to more senior engineers moving into management. The good news is that companies are developing "fellows" programs to honor engineers and encourage them to stay in design functions.

In any case, I like the way Mr. McGrath ends the article, by saying we need more engineers to "celebrate engineering". In our conversations with people, or even in our private moments of reflection, we need to remember the things that caused us to get into this profession in the first place. For me, it was an unquenchable curiosity of electronics and programming computers. I still haven’t lost the curiosity, and plan on trying to help my children understand the importance of engineering and the value that engineers add to society.

I decided I would write a review of AT&T; U-verse service after having it for a year. We still have the same service that we signed up for last January. We have the U200 package, and have the 6mbps download speed.

I’m still very happy with the service. The picture on my standard definition TVs is great. I don’t have any HDTVs, so I can’t comment on that part. The DVR I think is the best part of the whole setup. About mid-year, they updated the software in the boxes so that the DVR can be viewed from any TV in the home. It works like a client-server model. So I can watch my recorded programs from any TV that has one of the U-Verse boxes.

Also, I like the multiple audio and video outputs. The fiber optic TOSLink connection on the back works great with my receiver, and I’m using S-Video. I could go with component video, but it becomes and issue because not all my equipment has that, and I don’t want to switch TV inputs all the time. Having the digital audio all the time is great — when I tried digital cable a few years ago, only certain channels were digital, and I found switching audio inputs on the receiver cumbersome. Everything is well integrated with U-Verse.

I tried the picture feature, which allows you to upload pictures on the internet, and then display them on the TV. I got it to work, but didn’t find it very useful. Maybe if I had parties and invited people over quite a bit, it might be nice to have a collage going. In any case, the feature works, but I don’t use it.

I still have traditional landline service, not U-Verse voice. I’m still very concerned about reliability issues. I don’t want a disruption in the VDSL connection to bump us off the phone. We have had a few outages, but usually at night, around midnight/1am. Its possible updates were being done at the VRAD or something like that I suppose. The service was always working when we woke up the next day, so I can’t complain too much.

The only issue I still have with U-verse is Amateur Radio. I find that my VHF/UHF setup does not interfere, but my HF (shortwave) does knock the U-Verse RG (Residential Gateway) off the internet, if I run full power on certain frequencies. To get around this, I’ve tried running the HF coaxial cable in runs that are perpendicular, not parallel, with the U-Verse cable. This has helped somewhat, but the problems still happen from time to time. Since there is this issue, I still want the traditional landline so that the worst case is the Internet and TV are disrupted. Most people won’t have this issue with Amateur radio. Maybe there is a bad ground somewhere, and the signal is leaking in. I can’t say for sure, but I’m not sure I want to spend the time to find it.

So to summarize, I’d recommend U-Verse. It is a nice alternative to cable, and has features that integrate well with other AT&T; products. It would be nice to do the phone and wireless together, to get the ability to check voicemails and such, but I just can’t see moving the voice part of the service over to U-Verse. When I had inquired about it, AT&T; wanted to charge an installation fee to come out and switch the phone over. For me, it wasn’t worth it. I’m hoping that more features and uses for U-Verse will come out over time.

2008 was a difficult year for my company. A single project consumed all my time, and I left marketing and sales by the wayside. Sales were very minimal.

Towards the end of 2008, I committed more capital to position myself to better serve clients, and handle larger projects. The company website and client websites are now hosted on a very fast, dedicated server, close in proximity to where my clients and I are located. The server is a rental from ServerBeach.com. I came back as a result of their old customer promotion to waive the first month’s charges. I tried them out again, and decided that was the best solution for me. It is more expensive, but gives me room to grow. My server is still very underutilized, so if you are interested in web hosting, please call (800) 380-4093 and we can work out an affordable monthly fee for hosting services. I do monitor the server to make sure the speed of the network is living up to the quality I would expect. One thing I want my customers to have is a web site with fast load times.

I’m poised to take on some software projects next year, both application development and backend coding for the web. For some reason I can’t explain, I always do better on odd years. Even numbered years tend to be very slow.

Even though the economy is not doing well, I expect to be able to find customers. Our society is increasingly dependent on software, IT services, web sites and hosting to fulfill their business needs. I hope to do more article writing for rtcubed.com, and more theology reviews next year on this website.

Thanks to all my customers for your support this year!

I normally don’t write these kinds of posts, but I just got a phone call that could have really done some harm. I received a phone call from “Card Services”, saying that they could lower the interest rate on all my credit cards down to 6.9%. I pressed the button to speak with a representative, and the conversation went something like this:

Them: “We can lower your interest rates on all your cards”

Me: “Ok”

Them: “What is your average interest rate on all your cards”

Me: “I don’t know, probably around 8-9%”

Them: “What is the largest interest rate you are paying?”

Me: “About 16%”

Them: “Ok, well, what is the customer service phone number on the back of the card”

Me: “I don’t want to change the terms on the account”

Them: “We don’t change the terms on the account, only the interest rate”

Me: “Changing the interest rate IS changing the terms on the account. I’m planning on paying it off soon anyway.”

Them: “Enjoy your interest rates” (click)

The caller ID from these people is (407) 000-7777. Obviously, it is a faked caller ID. Please be careful and don’t give them any information. This sounds exactly like the scam mentioned here.

I suppose had I stayed on the phone, they would have asked for an account number and expiration date. Be very careful with people trying to change terms on an account over the phone. If you really want to lower your rates, call your credit card company directly and try to negotiate with their customer service dept.

This has been an incredibly hard year for our family. We have had many things that have happened, that have caused us much stress and financial difficulty. My roof needed to be replaced, both cars broke down, and all kinds of medical problems and expenses. We have also had many blessings along the way. Our first child has had a great start in school. Our second child is doing well in Pre-K, and our third is doing great learning words.

My “day job” when I’m not doing side consulting work has been stressful. It’s not easy being an integration test engineer with multiple electromechanical and pneumatic systems that all have embedded software and talk to each other over a data bus. Even with that, I feel like my day job has been the opportunity of a lifetime, and I find time to reflect at the great amount of responsibility I’ve been given.

In all these difficult times for our family, one thing that I find to be comforting as a Christian is the verse below:

Luke 10:19 Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you. 20 Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” (ESV)

I remember first hearing this verse at a midnight devotional time in Bible college. For those who don’t know, independent Baptist colleges like to get you up very early, and make you stay up at 10pm for learning something from the Bible. I think the idea is to “build character”. Anyways, one evening we had a special guest that spoke to us, and he read these verses. The interesting thing about this passage of Scripture is that the disciples were so amazed at all the things that they could “do”, but Jesus reminded them that the most important thing is that their names were written in Heaven (in other words, celebrate the fact that God forgave them and they were recipients of God’s grace).

I find sometimes I need this reality check. In the middle of all the information overload, work schedules, side business, church, household, children, etc., it is important to remember what really matters. It is important to be thankful for all the blessings of life, and even more so during difficult times.