Month: May 2016

Thinking About the Cost of Freedom (Updated)

A number of people contacted me about this post and wondered whether I still feel the same way about Memorial Day. The fact of the matter is that I feel even more strongly that the need to recognize the ultimate sacrifice made by fellow Americans to assure our freedom should take precedence on this day. As I read about the overwhelming odds faced by veterans in the newspaper, magazines, online, and in various veteran’s sources, I become even more aware of the lifelong commitment that anyone who has spent time in the military makes. Some things simply can’t be fixed—the commitment, the sacrifice, and the awful truth of the outcome of decisions made to help our country are permanent. Those who made the ultimate sacrifice paid the highest price of all to ensure that everyone else can enjoy the freedom this country has to offer.

For many people, Memorial Day, which is also known as Decoration Day, is simply another day to spend time with friends and family. Of course, every veteran would agree that the reason for the sacrifice is so that people could spend time with friends and family. Everyone loves a good picnic or barbecue and being free to gather as we wish is important. The freedom to do what you want, when you want to do it, is an important right. Memorial Day is all about remembering, at least for a moment, the cost of that freedom.

I’m writing this post on Friday. Like many people, I won’t be in my office today. In fact, I’m making it a true day off—I’m not even bringing my computers up. About now, I’ve spent some time thinking about the guys I served with in the Navy and said a prayer for their well being. I’ve also thought about all those people who came before me and have served since my time—people who gave of themselves. However, I have to wonder just how many people have thought of those who died (or even the veterans who managed to live through it all).

In preparing for the post today, I wanted to find something interesting—something I haven’t discussed in years past. It was a bit surprising that Google returned all sorts of unexpected results. The first entry was from Wikipedia, which is quite nice, but hardly noteworthy. However, the next several entries were about the things that could (and should) surround Memorial Day, but didn’t discuss the main event at all. There were entries about the weather, finding the food you need for your picnic, the potential for wet conditions ruining the Memorial Day celebration, and an ad for Travelocity. At least I didn’t go ten straight entries without finding something worthwhile. The next entry was a CNN presentation of the difference between Memorial Day and Veteran’s Day. I then went another 14 entries before I found something that was actually related to Memorial Day. So, out of the top 20 hits on Google, 18 of them talked about the weather, picnics, travel, television shows, and all sorts of things that really don’t have anything to do with Memorial Day.

Fortunately, you don’t have to follow the crowd. You can choose to celebrate the true meaning of Memorial Day, which is to remember those who have made the ultimate sacrifice to ensure you have the freedom to live as you wish to live. Take time this Memorial Day to provide a moment of silence at your picnic or other festivity. No one is asking you to be somber for the rest of the day, just to take a quick time out in remembrance. After all, all those fellows in Arlington (and other cemeteries worldwide) thought your freedom was worth far more than a moment of silence, they gave their lives to attain it.

 

Writing Involves Reading

A lot of people think that ideas simply come into my head from nowhere and then I write them down. At some point, usually after three or four hours with several coffee breaks thrown in, I go fishing or do something else with my life. Somehow, the books just magically appear on sites such as Amazon and in the bookstores.

Unfortunately, writing isn’t quite that simple. During any given week I probably spend a minimum of 14 hours reading, often times more. I don’t just read computer science books either. In fact, many of my best ideas come from non-computer sources. It’s hard to say what will make a good source for ideas for my particular kind and style of writing. I’ve actually had poems influence me and more than a few fiction books. I once created a section of a chapter based on an idea I got from a Tom Clancy novel. The point is that writers are engaged in two-way communication. We get input from all sorts of sources, use that input to create new ideas and concepts, and then write those new bits of information down for others to read.

Reading differs from research. When an author researches something, the focus is direct and narrow. The goal is to obtain specific information. Reading is far more general. There really isn’t a focus, just communication. In reading a book or magazine, I might find a new technique for presenting information or a perspective I hadn’t considered before. The goal is to obtain experiences; to explore the world of print in an unfettered manner. The result is often enhanced creativity.

Of course, just as no one is able to get up in the morning and say, “Today I will be brilliant!” with any level of serious intent, reading may not produce any lasting effect at all. The communication may be an ephemeral experience of pleasure, joy, or some other emotion. Even in this case, letting the subconscious mind work while keeping the conscious mind entertained is a good idea. Sometimes a reading session, followed by a walk or some other activity, yields a solution to a writing problem that has nothing to do with the reading or the walking, but simply the allocation of time to the needs of the subconscious mind.

The bottom line is that if you want to become a writer, then you really must engage in writing activities because writing is as much about practice as it is talent. However, you must engage in other forms of communication as well or your skills will top out at some level and you’ll never fully realize your potential. Reading is truly a fundamental part of writing. Let me know your thoughts on reading as part of building skills in writing at [email protected].

 

Early Season Canning

I’ve already been canning this season. A lot of people hear this claim and wonder just what it is that I’m canning. The first food I started canning is soup. I get the ingredients from my freezers. Anything that’s starting to get a bit old is fair game. I also save the larger bones from various meats, especially when I have the meat processed by someone else. The meat and vegetables made into soup can quite well and last a lot longer than they would in the freezer. Nothing is quite so nice on a cold winter’s day than hot soup. I usually get two or three servings out of each quart that I can (sometimes four if I add enough additional items). Given the cold winters here in Wisconsin, I can go through a lot of soup.

Once I can the soup, the freezers are less full, so it’s time to defrost them. It’s essential to defrost, clean, and reorganize your freezers every year. Doing so lets you create an inventory of what you have in stock so that you have a better idea of what you need to grow. In addition, you don’t want to keep items so long that they become unpalatable and visually unappealing. Freezer burned food is completely safe to eat, but you may not want to eat it. Some of the ways in which you can prevent freezer burn is to vacuum pack your food and to ensure you rotate it out before it sits in the freezer too long. In some cases, when food is mildly freezer burned, I’ll make it up into pet food (my animals don’t seem to mind as long as the food is prepared to their liking). However, it’s better to use the food up before anything actually does happen to it.

So far I’ve made 14 quarts of chicken soup and another 14 quarts of venison stew. Canning soup means using a pressure canner. Make sure you follow the instructions in a resource such as the Ball Blue Book and the book that comes with your pressure canner. Read Considering the Dangers of Outdated Canning Information for details on keeping yourself safe when using the Ball Blue Book.

It’s also time to can early garden items. For example, when canned properly, rhubarb makes a highly nutritious fruit dish that I eat directly from the jar. You can also make it into pie filling. So far, I’ve made up 7 quarts of plain rhubarb and 7 quarts of spiced rhubarb, both of which will be quite tasty this upcoming winter. Fortunately, you can use hot water bath canning techniques with rhubarb and other high acid foods.

In some cases, you need to mix and match items. The frozen green and wax beans in my freezer weren’t getting any younger, so I used them to make up four bean salad. Actually, it’s supposed to be three bean salad, but some of my recipes called for Lima beans, while others called for kidney beans. I decided to use both, hence four bean soup. I used up all the remaining beans and garnered 16 pints of four bean salad on my larger shelf. Doing so also used up the cans of kidney and Lima beans in my cabinets.

Finally, pickled asparagus can be quite a treat in the middle of winter. So far, I’ve only made up 8 pints of pickled asparagus, but I’ll make up more. I’ll also be freezing some asparagus for fresh use later in the year. In short, canning season has started—time to get going! Let me know about your current canning project at [email protected].

 

Getting a Good Anaconda Install

Some people may have misinterpreted the content at the beginning of Chapter 3 in Python for Data Science for Dummies. It isn’t necessary to install the products listed in the Considering the Off-the-Shelf Cross-Platform Scientific Distributions section starting on Page 39. These products are for those of you who would like to try a development environment other than the one used in the book, which is Anaconda 2.1.0. However, unless you’re an advanced user, it’s far better to install Anaconda 2.1.0 so that you can follow the exercises in the book without problem. Installing all of the products listed in Chapter 3 will result in a setup that won’t work at all because the various products will conflict with each other.

Because Continuum has upgraded Anaconda, you need to download the 2.1.0 version from the archive at https://repo.continuum.io/archive/.There are separate downloads for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux.  The chapter tells you precisely which file to download.  For example, for Windows you’d download Anaconda-2.1.0-Windows-x86_64.exe. The point is to use the same version of Anaconda as you find in the book. You can find the installation instructions on Page 41 if you have a Windows system, Page 45 if you have a Linux system, or Page 46 if you have a Mac OS X system.  Make sure you download the databases for the book by using the procedures that start on page 47.

Following this process is the best way to ensure you get a good installation for Python for Data Science for Dummies. Luca and I want to make certain that you can use the book to discover the wonders of data science without having to jump through a lot of hoops to do it. Please feel free to contact me at [email protected] if you have any questions about the installation process.

 

Enjoying the Apple Blossoms

Depending on when the trees bloom, the results can be modest, abysmal, frosted, or luxurious. This year, the apple trees have really outdone themselves. The blooms are absolutely amazing because the weather was perfect for the trees this year. Just looking at the trees from a distance, you can see that they’re decked out in spring color that’s certain to please.

The apple trees are truly luxuriant with blossoms this year.
Apple Trees Decked Out with Flowers

It’s a warm spring day with just a slight breeze, so getting into the orchard is quite an experience. The flowers are quite pungent and walking around is delightful. Unlike many other years, there hasn’t been any hint of frost or strong winds to damage the flowers, so the clusters are nearly perfect.

The white blossoms are incredible and the odor is quite strong.
The Blossom Clusters are Beautiful

The bees and other pollinators were quite busy on this particular day. A count showed that there were at least fifteen different kinds of insects busy at their job of pollinating the flowers. They didn’t pay any attention to me, of course, and I paid little attention to them. I was simply taken by the absolute beauty of the flowers and wanted to share them with you. Let me know about your favorite sights, sounds, and smells of spring at [email protected].

 

Beta Readers Needed for Amazon Web Services for Admins for Dummies

I still remember Amazon Web Services (AWS) when it was simply a method for getting information about Amazon products, making sales, and getting product status. The original web service didn’t do much, but people absolutely loved it, so it continued to evolve. Amazon has put a lot of work into AWS since that humble beginning and now you can perform all sorts of tasks that have nothing to do with buying or selling anything. You can create an entire IT structure for your organization that doesn’t involve any of the micromanagement, hardware purchases, software purchases, and other issues that kept IT from doing what it was supposed to do in the past-serving user needs in the most efficient manner possible.

There are a number of AWS books either published or currently in the process of being published, but these books don’t really answer the one question that everyone appears to be asking in the forums online, “How do I get started?” However, in recent years this has changed with more blogs talking about the subject. You can even check out this great AWS blog for more information. As for books, most of the titles out there right now answer questions for a specific group after that group has installed the product and gotten started with it. AWS is immense and is naturally intimidating. Unfortunately, the getting started documentation from Amazon is incomplete, outdated, and hard to understand. Amazon Web Services for Admins for Dummies helps administrators (the focus group) and others (such as DevOps and developers) get started so that they can actually make use of that next level up book. Here are the sorts of things you see covered in the book:

  • Part I: Uncovering the AWS Landscape
    • Chapter 1: Starting Your AWS Adventure
    • Chapter 2: Obtaining Free Amazon Services
    • Chapter 3: Determining Which Services to Use
  • Part II: Configuring a Virtual Server
    • Chapter 4: Creating a Virtual Server Using EC2
    • Chapter 5: Managing Web Apps Using Elastic Beanstalk
    • Chapter 6: Responding to Events with Lambda
  • Part III: Working with Storage
    • Chapter 7: Working with Cloud Storage Using S3
    • Chapter 8: Managing Files Using Elastic File System
    • Chapter 9: Archiving Data Using Glacier
  • Part IV: Performing Basic Database Management
    • Chapter 10: Getting Basic DBMS Using RDS
    • Chapter 11: Moving Data Using Database Migration Service
    • Chapter 12: Gaining NoSQL Access Using DynamoDB
  • Part V: Interacting with Networks
    • Chapter 13: Isolating Cloud Resources Using Virtual Private Cloud
    • Chapter 14: Connecting Directly to AWS with Direct Connect
  • Part VI: Getting Free Software
    • Chapter 15: Using the Infrastructure Software
    • Chapter 16: Supporting Users with Business Software
  • Part VII: The Part of Tens
    • Chapter 17: Ten Ways to Deploy AWS Quickly
    • Chapter 18: Ten Must Have AWS Software Packages

As you can see, this book is going to give you a good start in working with AWS by helping you with the basics. Because of the subject matter, I really want to avoid making any errors in this book, which is where you come into play. I’m looking for beta readers who want to use AWS to perform basic administration tasks, even when those tasks are related to a home office. In fact, I have a strong interest in trying to meet the needs of the small-to-medium sized business (SMB) because many of the other books out there cover the enterprise to the exclusion of these smaller entities. As a beta reader, you get to see the material as I write it. Your comments will help me improve the text and make it easier to use.

As you can see from the outline, Amazon Web Services (AWS) is actually a huge array of services that can affect consumers, Small to Medium Sized Business (SMB), and enterprises. Using AWS, you can do everything from back up your personal hard drive to creating a full-fledged IT department in the cloud. The installed base is immense. You can find case studies of companies like Adobe and Netflix that use AWS at https://aws.amazon.com/solutions/case-studies/. AWS use isn’t just for private companies either-even the government is involved. That’s why Amazon Web Services for Admins for Dummies has a somewhat narrowly focused audience and emphasizes a specific set of tasks that it will help you perform. Otherwise, a single book couldn’t even begin to cover the topic.

In consideration of your time and effort, your name will appear in the Acknowledgements (unless you specifically request that we not provide it). You also get to read the book free of charge. Being a beta reader is both fun and educational. If you have any interest in reviewing this book, please contact me at [email protected] and will fill in all the details for you.

 

A Hurt Chicken Update

A number of people wrote to ask about my hurt hen after reading Dealing with Hurt Chickens. You’ll be happy to know that my hen is fully healed at this point and the infection is completely gone (without leaving any signs). Over the years I’ve found that hens are quite resilient as long as you get to the source of a problem quickly and provide at least a modicum of care. Getting the hen out of the coop when her mates can’t help her is the prime concern. Otherwise, the other hens will proceed to peck her to death.

Chickens aren’t particularly known for their long term memory. After almost a month, the other members of the coop had quite forgotten about the hurt hen, so I couldn’t just put her back into the coop and expect everything to work right away. The process involves putting the hen, cage and all, into the coop for a few days. Unfortunately, the addition of a relatively large cage made the coop seem amazingly small as I tried to get to the eggs. The hens took great delight in sitting on my shoulders and head while I tried to get past the cage. They also mumbled strange, dark chicken thoughts about how I’d be so much better off if I simply removed the stranger from their midst. I’m used to this little inconvenience because it happens every time I introduce new chicks to the coop.

What I hadn’t quite expected is the hen’s reaction to their new coop mate. Normally, the hens spend a good deal of time running around the cage, sitting on top of it, and attempting to peck the chicks. In other words, they’re active in their desire to be rid of the strangers at any cost. Not so this time! The hens took up a line around the cage and stared. Some sat, some stood, but all mumbled, and then mumbled some more. I’m not sure why a single adult hen should be different from five or six juveniles, but there is some point of chicken etiquette of which I’m most definitely not aware. After a while though, the hens simply started ignoring the cage and went about their business.

Because of the absurd initial reaction, I decided to leave the hen in her cage for an extra day, so the inconvenience of trying to get to the eggs lasted longer than I would have liked, which is where the trip comes into play. Imagine trying to get around in a coop that one wouldn’t normally consider spacious with a bunch of hens and a relatively large cage in your way. One day I went in and, as usual, put the eggs into my jacket pocket as I collected them. My sweatshirt jacket makes a fine place to put eggs most of the time, but not this time. Yes, I fell and did the Lucy act (see Lucy Does the Tango). Well, my jacket really did need to be washed anyway and a shower is always nice after working in the coop.

At this point, my hurt hen is no longer hurt. She’s running around with the other chickens, who have somehow suddenly remembered where she was at in the pecking order. Normally, when I introduce juvenile chicks, there is a lot of fighting until the new pecking order is established, but that didn’t happen in this case except for a little while on the first day. Otherwise, the coop has been quite happy. Let me know your thoughts on reintroducing chickens after they heal to the coop at [email protected].

 

Review of Dodging Satan

Often, the best humor is found in tales with a real world basis, which is what you find in Dodging Satan by Kathleen Zamboni McCormick. Even though I’m not Catholic, I did attend a Lutheran school for much of my childhood and some of the events in the school scenes in the book rang all too true. (The scene where Bridget is given a guilt complex over eating too slow really did ring a bell.) Of course, school isn’t the focus of the book, Bridget is. Dodging Satan is a fictionalized autobiography that follows Bridget from about age 5 to about age 14. The book doesn’t follow a strict chronological flow, but uses short stories to tell Bridget’s tale (a format I really liked). Many of the stories started in the real world, but the author has changed names, embroidered the information a bit, and added the pizzazz that makes this book such a good read. Some things, like a time traveling St. Mary, really were part of the author’s life, but she tells the tale with humor, slightly askew of the real world events.

I’ve read many treatise on what makes for a good childhood—everything from upbringing to environment to recognizing a child’s gifts. However, Dodging Satan possibly brings up the most important element of all—a child’s imagination (although I doubt that it’s the author’s main goal to create a tale of child raising either). The book is funny because Bridget sees the world from a perspective that only a child who is trying to make sense of all of the conflicting inputs she’s receiving could possibly have. Trying to figure out how riding a bicycle can make one pregnant is just one of many conundrums that Bridget faces. There were times when I had tears rolling down my cheeks, such as when Bridget discovers the holy in the holy water. As you read the book, you see Bridget pondering various elements of Catholicism and I felt for her because I pondered at least a few of those same things as a Lutheran. (A fear that Satan was going to reach out and grab me was just one commonality.) It’s interesting to find that children commonly use all sorts of sources (religion in this case), often distorted, to explain the unexplained events in their lives.

The book does touch on a number of issues that were most definitely not talked about during my childhood, including abuse of various sorts and sexuality that we’re only now coming to grips with (for one thing, two of the aunts turned out to be lesbians). Some of these sections will most definitely make people uncomfortable, despite being told a bit tongue-in-cheek and with an eye toward a skewed version of the truth. It won’t surprise many people who grew up in poorer neighborhoods that abuse was, and still is, rampant. Bridget ends up coming to terms with these negatives in her life by inventing views that make them all seem plausible, if not entirely appropriate. The child view of these things is expertly written—in fact, this bit of writing is possibly the most fascinating part of the book because it really does present a significantly different perspective of events that shapes individuals and our country as a whole during the 60s and 70s (the book does avoid the use of dates because many of these issues are still taking place now). Bridget shows herself to be an amazing young lady because she does accept her lesbian aunts and comes to realize that they have a significant role to play in helping her come to terms with her own blossoming sexuality (not that Bridget becomes a lesbian, but I don’t want to give away the plot of the book either).

Is this a good book? Yes, I’m really glad I read it, but unlike many book covers, this one undersells the content. You will laugh, but you’ll also cry with Bridget a little and you’ll find yourself thinking about the odd events in your own childhood. In order to really get anything out of this book, you must be willing to step back and think about Bridget’s musings from an adult perspective. You see yourself when you were young from the perspective of having learned that the world really doesn’t involve things like time travel and no amount of imagination will make some things right. In short, if you’re looking for a good laugh and nothing else, then you probably won’t enjoy this book, but if you’re willing to give things a bit of thought, you’ll probably end up with more than you expected. Dodging Satan promises to be one of those books that will change you in ways you’ll never forget.