I just realised that it’s now Tuesday 17:31 and I’ve still got to write another 200 words, arranged in a fashion that makes clear and concise logical sense and has something tech-related. So, this weeks article is about problems. When faced with a problem you usually have two options; ignore the problem and use enough resources to live around it, or face the problem and use enough resources to solve it. I realise my insight is a tad generalised (and the phrasing probably has something to do with the fact that I’ve been playing a lot of Age of Empires lately), but has held true for just about every case I’ve thrown at it. ^[1]

Unsurprisingly, you’ve probably come to the same conclusion at some point in your life as well (although you probably didn’t word it as eloquently as I did). And yet, many people don’t accept it, not foreseeing the cost of resources to live around an issue. I could list examples such as doing homework before the due date as opposed to right before the due date, but instead I’m going to dive right for the more technological issue; data backups. Drives are cheap and getting cheaper. And yet I look at how many people take regular backups and am still amazed at how few take regular backups. Remember people; data is cheap, time is expensive.

Now, in life (of Comp. Sci.) we also have the problems of the more interesting kind. The Programming Competition kind. Congratulations are in order for the solo guy who just wanted a T-shirt (which he received), the DARTH VADER team (esp. Daniel for the pelvic thrust after solving a hard question), and to everyone else who competed and managed to beat agp (Almost Grey Power), who despite being senior programmers, were only able to solve the 3 easiest questions.

Finally, I’ve been alerted by my girlfriend that blue LEDs are pretty. Indeed they are. But that’s still no excuse for them glaring in my eyes when I’m trying to listen to music. I’ve also been told by randoms that I use a lot of brackets in my articles (mostly to extend a point while keeping within an acceptable sentence length). To this, I can say “kiss my ass”, as I like to use excessive punctuation where appropriate. It makes the English programming language a lot more fun, like php.

[1] Of course, some of the more insightful philosophers reading my column would be quick to point out “Hah! You forgot, you can throw resources at the problem before the problem occurs, adding a third option!” and would be right, except that you’d be ignoring that you’ve faced the problem, it’s just you faced it before the problem became a problem.

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Let’s start this week off with a little quiz. When buying an expensive piece of electronics with your freshly borrowed “course related costs”, do you expect to find;

1. An Apple-inspired design
2. Blatant branding to remind you it’s not made by Apple
3. Blue LEDs, which indicate that it’s obviously high-tech

If you answered C, you deserve a slap, as you’re the reason why myself and many others like me (i’ll explain) are either;

1. Voiding warranties by opening up things and replacing the LEDs with a more sensible colour
2. Putting electrical tape over all the blue LEDs

So, for those who don’t quite get my rampage, let me explain something. Blue light has a short wavelength, which makes it really hard for your eye to focus on. So, for an ambient light, like the type which alerts me to know my speakers are on, blue light is really bad in terms of overall interface design. It’s irritating to the eye. There’s a reason why you don’t normally see blue lights in car dashboards; it’s dangerous, especially for night driving. And yet, over the last few years, consumers have come to expect lots of blue LEDs in their products, because it looks cool.

If done correctly, there’s nothing wrong with using colour lights. But please, why do you think it’s necessary to shine blue light in my eyes when I’m just trying to listen to music? Not to mention, not only does it look “high-tech” to consumers, but marketers have also decided that it sounds high-tech as well. BlueTooth headset anyone? Maybe a Blu-Ray player? When will the madness end!

But, then again, most of the tech world is crap, and if it wasn’t for the sea of crap we wouldn’t have the shining stars. So really, what can one really expect from our generation?

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As those who know me know, I work for a large international communications company. Not only do I get to have a part-time job doing something that I enjoy, but I also love the side benefits; being able to roll into work whenever I want, or just working from home and proving the myth that pants are optional. But this week, I’m not just sitting at my desk, trying to draw inspiration while hard at work. This week it’s all around me. This week I’m in a communications room, in Tonga.

To cut a long story very short, a server that helps run one of the Tongan mobile networks died. It was supposed to be a simple job; fly in Wednesday, change the CPU, relax and fly out Saturday. In my urge to screw my carbon footprint this year and get another stamp for my passport, I didn’t stop to think I’d be pulling my hair out trying to fix hidden problems, but like all things, nothing is simple. My colleague and I are now waiting for assistance from our advanced technical support centre. As usual, Murphy’s law prevails.

(picture me with greasy hair putting my head in hands and rubbing eyes)

Since my first dial-up account for my 12th birthday, a decent internet connection has never been more than a short maneuver away. And suddenly I find myself in a place where, according to statistics, most people don’t use the internet regularly and many have only heard of it. I knew this was the case, but it’s a major shock to realise how lucky we are to have this resource, but how quickly we are to complain about it.

I’m also amazed with how loyal customers can be. Despite fierce advertising from the competition, the incumbent telco is keeping a strong hold on their market out of pure choice by the customers. According to locals, everyone knows the competition is cheaper and provides better mobile signal coverage, but the audio quality is poorer and it’s not Tongan owned, and so few people permanently switch.

It’s amazing what a short airplane ride can do to one’s perspective. So next time you’re ready to complain about how your is, or how it costs “too much”, just spare a moment to think about how lucky you are that you’ve come to expect the world. Read that last sentence a couple times.

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