Beware of snow on roads

 TL;DR: when in doubt, dont ride the motorcycle.

Warning: Don't do this yourself (unless you are from Poland and own a KTM, YKWYA).

Sometimes I gamble. 

And today I rode head-on into a (narrow) snowfront. I was Lucky, it worked out OK. But it was Scary as Hell. 

The Morning-View: (I forgot to screen-shot the weather-radar..)

Due to a lot of accumulated fatigue, I had a Really Good Night Sleep. But wake-up was a bit of a cruel surprise. After checking the parking (view of the moto) and the weather-forecast and weather-radar, I had to make decision. Visiting the eldest daughter would bring me straight into the higher part of the Belgian Ardennes, with big risk of snow and mostly un-cleared roads.  I decided to sprint N-E first, where the snowfront looked narrower on the radar, and I would be on Autobahn or other good, hopefully clean-slushed roads.

Also, this early in season, the frost is not yet "in the ground", and as proof there were still puddles of water on the parking so most of the falling snow would melt on hitting the road. And given sufficiently busy roads (and not too much snow) any falling snow would get "slushed away" quickly. Ambient temperature had just risen from -0.5C to +1.5C, which I considered a good sign. If I choose my route carefully, N-Easterly, I could probably pop through that oncoming snowfront. (I have done similar things before, but not in the Eiffel area of Germany)

Screenshot of the actual route:

The funny sling to NE you see in the route is me trying to find the narrowest part of the snowfront.

I was "lucky".. As soon as I hit the Autobahn North, snow started seriously dribbling down: I was hitting that "front", and expecting (hoping) it would be narrow and not too intense.

The first snow was ok-ish, it wasnt too thick and it melted on touchdown. Temperature quickly dropped from +2.0C to 0C.

But soon the snow turned out to be composed of rather Thick, Fluffy, Sticky and Abundant. And it stuck on the areas where there was little or no traffic. This being Germany, a lot of the cars took the all-snow left-lane, to overtake the slow trucks (and the idiot-motorcyle). Cars have 4 wheels and boast about winter-tyres and driving skills... But on Two Wheels, I have to be a little more careful. 

In very little time, I was confined to what remained of the "black asphalt", cleaned up by the fairly busy traffic in the right-lane. Getting off onto a P(arking) or an Autohof (service-area) was not an attractive option: all exit-ramps were covered in white... Temperature had dropped to -0.5C. I was trying to calmly stay in the right-lane, traffic doing 60km/h, which is unusually slow for a level Autobahn, but felt a lot safer compared to the faster-going, white lane on the left.

So for about 30min I followed trucks + slowfolks. Feeling more+more "slush" remaining in my lane, and trying to apply the "ride loose, trust the moto" theory. Hoping this snow-front would be as narrow as I had ... gambled. 

Alas, no pictures because stopping wasn't an option...

I started slowly to Despair when my lane-options became reduced to two rather narrow "truck ruts" (effectively one rut, bcse I was not going to risk to "change-lanes"). Trying not to panic. That snowfront had seemed so narrow and innocent on the weather-map... 

Again, I was Lucky. 

Temp was going up to 1.5C... The snowflakes became smaller, and more wet. And quite suddenly the snow turned into rain, and the road got back to a reassuringly wet, black asphalt.

For the rest of the ride, I had the luxury of feeling Cold and I was slowly getting wet from repeated fairly heavy (rain)showers (water always enters somewhere...). In the clear-sky moments between the showers, I saw several rainbows (should have taken more pictures).

For tonight, I'm staying with family in NL, and tomorrow "normal service will resume" from The Hague.

Moral of the Story, like an ambitious young manger once said in a meeting:

Hope is Not a Strategy.

(dont ever use the word "hope" when talking to (aspiring)managers, you'll get cut-off at ankles with that quip ...)

Sleeping (or not) in Hotels

TL;DR: Proud Saboteur of Hotel Appliances here. I want some advice searching through photos.

Trigger for this post was a critical tweet from Connor McDonnald about the challenge of sleeping in hotel rooms. 

Luxury and other hotels have tendency to put lots of gadgets, electronics and appliances in the room with (bleeping) lights and (whirring) motors and (clicking) relays, all of which can keep you awake.

In the late 90s and in the 00s I've spent a lot of time on/near airports with regular jetlag on top of all the inconveniences. Never a bad sleeper, I seem to be ok with outside noises or lights. But what Really Gets me is the little Internal noises of aircos and minibar. 

If I need to I will pull the plug from the wall, and I tend to proudly tweet it out like:

Number of Days Since Last Sabotage of Noisy Fridge: 0

Accompanied by a picture of the wall-plug in question, laying idle. I have a good number of those pictures by now and like certain other photo-subjects, I would like to make a collage of them, just for fun. 

Another subject would be: hotel-TV's used as computer-monitor. 

Or hotel-desks of dubieus usage (like super-uncomfortable chairs... ). Lots of trivial but kinda-funny topics you encounter and photograph while travelling.

Here arises the problem: my photos are stored in subdirs per month, and to find all photos of a certain topic, I have to use my own "Eyeball-Mark-I" to sift through those galleries, which is time consuming. And... I tend to abandon those ideas...

Hence my Question:

Does there exist software that can inspect and label my photos with keywords, or that I can request to search my galleries for certain topics ? 

In the example of unplugged fridges: Find me all photos with a loose powerplug... (or with a fridge).

Note that I would prefer not to upload my pic to some cloud-tool, but keep them on my own harddisk. 

Suggestions Anyone ? 

And if not exist yet: who would be interested in building such a tool ? 

Working from hotel or hospital

TL;DR: Hotel desks are not always ideal. Hospital beds with adjustable positioning are surprisingly good for working while half-lying down.

Due to a health-problem, I recently spent a lot of time in hospitals, and probably will spend some more time either in hospital-beds or at least (half-)lying-down. I am currently unable to sit-up in a desk-chair for longer than a few minutes, and this may last for quite some time…

Now, as I was already a bit of a “hotel animal”, the hospital-experience is not that strange to me: You need a laptop, power-sockets, good wifi, and some convenient space nearby to put a few things in arm’s reach and you are Good. (ok, having a intravenous drip-line is not comfortable… but  at least I can use a keyboard, and all the drugs seem to have a beneficial effect on my writing productivity… )

As hospital beds go, nowadays those beds are quite high-tech. Mine has control-panels in 3 locations, and a (wired) remote-control. As toys go, you can spend quite some time trying out various functions. And by trial+error, I have discovered a few positions that I can use to get comfortable with the laptop, without inflicting pain on my currently-sensitive parts. It “works” surprisingly well. And the kid in me thinks it is a Great Toy to discover as well…

But this also made me think: why don't more luxurious hotels have electrically adjustable beds?

Hotel desks are often small and a bit low, the chairs are often “fixed”, with no wheels and nothing adjustable. They “work”, but not very comfortable. Hence I often have worked while sitting-on-bed, with a laptop on my lap. If you sit like that for too long, at the 90-degree angle, propped up by pillows, your butt and back will hurt. An adjustable bed that can turn into a sit-up workplace would be a godsend…

Alternatively, some hotels have great relax-seats to work with a laptop al well. We have one at home, and it was already a favourite before I got my little health-problem. But a good fauteuil [+ footrest] will take up valuable space and budget. The keys to a good, comfortable seat are, for me: armrests that don't hinder your elbows when using laptop, a footrest to stretch legs in front of you, and a small table, or two, nearby at the correct height. Attaching the table or plateau to the seat is a bad idea, as you will shake your coffee-cup when you get in/out of the seat too brusquely.

To summarise: Hotel beds could learn from hospital-equipment to facilitate sit-up working.

OK-Boomer, I’m probably getting older, but I'm trying to avoid folding myself to a low+small desk.

Nervous Presenters

Are you ?

I know the folks over at the MASH program can help, you may want to check them out.

And here is a dutch article on how to make a nervous presenter even more nervous…

https://speld.nl/2019/09/28/7-tips-om-iemand-die-zenuwachtig-is-voor-zn-presentatie-nog-zenuwachtiger-te-maken/

I thought it was Very Funny, and right on the mark with some examples. Kick it into a translator, if you are curious…

Note: the article in dutch is 100% joke, but I still want to point out some items…

So why would you be nervous ? 

Firstly, Your boss and the organizers will tell you how much depends on Your Presentation.  Your job, your reputation, and your career are not the only things at stake. You are also playing with the future prosperity of your boss, your clients, and the organizers of the events: You Better Not Blunder Now!

Moreover, you are up against some Serious Competition: The Previous speakers were all Major Rock Star people, with über-trendy hairstyles, and Supercool Slides. You didn't bring your own hairdresser?, no personal stylist and make-up artist ? Tell me you at least brought your private Yoga-coach ? 

You better not Blunder Now! 

We all so admire your Courage: going in front of an audience with your visible armpit-sweath takes a lot of nerve. Just don't forget to change shirts afterwards bcse last time we could smell you from a mile away. Please don't Blunder Now!

And could you please say Bienvenue, Benvenuta, Zdravo, Ласкаво просимо and Willkommen to the international guests on the front-row? They paid for the VIP package and if you don't impress them, they will want their money back (we are not hinting at deducting your paycheck, yet…). You Better not Blunder Now.

Oh, and by the way, there are two renowned experts in the room: they will want to correct your mistakes just to show They Know it All, and you didnt understand the manual. And they might do some sales-pitch, because you clearly didnt use the product correctly. Don't Blunder with them.

The staf just informed us the HDMI cable is damaged. You will have to connect to the display using VGA. Bring your adaptor. Please don't Blunder there.

Oh, and make sure your liability-insurance will cover any medical- or mental-emergencies that you might cause to the audience. We had two epilepsy-attacks and one fatal cardiac-incident last week. Do you know CPR? You didn't blunder there, did you ? 

Stil want to speak at conferences: Here are my tips. (and yes it can be Fun)

Still a bit nervous after reading this... check the MASH program again.

Now you are All Set.

Good Luck with your presentation.

No worries, in 1 hr from now it will all be over, one way or another. Just don't Blunder, OK?

(blondie, because of the uplifting music...)

screens while working remote

TL;DR: Reward hotels and apartment that provide usable monitors and desks. 

Here is a picture of a near-Ideal Hotel Room: Space, Good Chair, desk, and large monitor with easy-access to the ports behind:

Ideally, you are always able to work with just your laptop. That way you can sit down anywhere, and get the job done (link to earlier post)

However, I also like a large screen, or 2, or 3. Larger screens provide overview, and enhanced info for complex tasks or multi-tasking.

I know some "digital nomads" and sales-demo representatives travel with portable screens, and they are very happy with those screens (including the huge Wow-factor for some of those contraptions. 

But, because I am "the Simple DBA", and because I prefer to travel by motorcycle, I don't like to carry extra things, period. Hence I only carry an HDMI cable (and the macbook-adaptor, of course, thx apple, for only providing USB-C).

Thus I will generally try to use the TV from the hotel or apartment.

And I will also give hotels with Easy-to-use monitors some extra points in the evaluation.

One Good Example was the room in the picture above... Good Chair, Good Desk, Good Monitor, easy to connect...  The result (apart from 2 very good ppts that I created there) looks like this:

The Challenges of using hotel-TVs, of course, are multiple...

Some TVs are mounted high up in the corner of the room (Ibis?) and not easy to connect or view from the desk. If I can connect to those, they are mainly good for watching a movie via the laptop.

Some TVs are too old, and only have RGB or SCART ports. That wont work in my case (not enough adaptors in my backpack)

Some TVs are too low-res and only get you a grainy image. Those are mainly usable for casual-monitoring (e.g. run the cloudwatch dashboard with a collection of graphs).

Some TVs are mounted, positioned, or even secured so that it is difficult to connect other cables. Tip: use your phone to take an inspection-picture between monitor and wall to see where the ports are.

In some cases, Chromecast can help, but I find it a hassle to set it up, and it is limited in usage. Other similar wireless devices may be better suited, but I havnt searched for those yet.

And so, over the years, I have collected pictures of "how I use hotel-monitors"...

Warsaw, hotel Lord, 2016:

Roma and Merano, 2016:

Several places, 2019:

This one, in Varna, 2021 was probably the biggest-ever monitor I connected to. It was a Very Nice hotel and a Large and Comfortable Room. The monitor fitted nicely. But compared to my MB-Air it was a monster.

This one was in Romania, 2021. Also quite large:

Zagreb, 2022. Note the monitor above the table. Ideal for watching movies from the sofa, but not practical for work:

Romania, Baia Mare, 2022. Monitor was OK, desk was acceptable, but no good chair to sit on.

And in a number of cases, you have to put your phone behind the monitor to find out what connections are available, resulting in this sort of pictures...

So far for the good memories.

The Main Message of this post remains :

Reward hotels and apartments with Easy to use Monitors (and good wifi, and good desks, and good Coffee, always appreciated).

Maybe we should start a list of suitable hotels, the remote-work-monitor-ranking....

Maybe also ask sites like booking dot com to get a tick-box "desk suitable for work" and "desk with HDMI monitor suitable for work" .. ? 

Laptops and Screens

 Still on the discussion of screens... 

TL;DR: Make sure you can do your Work with just the one laptop screen. 

OK, Jess Parker in Primeval gets an exception granted, because, well, it is Her, and because the makers of the series gave her The Coolest Console. Check the series...

But serious: you will at some point end up in a situation (callout, pager, disaster...) where all you have is the laptop, and no time to go search a hotel with TV-converted-to-monitor.

Of course I do appreciate a good acre of screen real-estate. Any customer that has workplaces with ready-to-plug, good quality screens gets kuddos.

But if you are a multi-customer, travelling, troubleshooting consultant, or a DevOps person for critical infrastructure you should always be prepared to work from "just the laptop".

Some ppl travel with a portable extra screen, but to me that seems Very Impractical, whether you travel by air or by motorcycle (by car/van/camper, you might...). 

In that respect I am fairly lucky: my job is 80% or more still "terminal based". Opening 4 or so terminal windows and a few browser-tabs for messages, some grafana, some documentation, and ... Stack-Overflow (of course lol).

It is also one of the reasons why I will insist that databases (or app-components) stick with CLI (Command Line Interface) operations whenever possible. 

SQL and bash are my main "windows to the world", and "terminal" is the way to view that world.

(and any good container should have the possibility to run "exec -it /bin/sh" for diagnose and preliminary fixes - maybe Not Recommended Practice, but quite useful at times.. topic for a later blog).

Screens at presentations.

 Keyword: Simple, Please keep it Simple.

TLDR for organizers: 

please provide a dumb HDMI cable that I can use to clone my screen to your display(s).

audio is optional (in my cases).

but… 

Any Button, 

Any Setup, 

Any Thing I need to tweak...

is at best a distraction, a loss of time, but is often a Fail.

For Speakers/presenters: Expect nothing, and do prepare to tweak  around in screen-config from your platform (mac, windows, linux-desktop…).

End of summary.

This topic came up in a conversation among friends.. and my very old, boomer point of view is, I think, still valid.

We often struggle with connecting our laptop to the (fancy) local display setup.

When presenting at a conference or meeting, I want the venue to provide an “external screen” for audience to view. Preferably those viewer screen(s) act as a mirror-copy of my laptop screen in the simplest possible way. 

Others may prefer the “presenter-view" from MS-ppt, or may even bring their own presentation-app-setup (with fancy clicker-pointers!).

But what I expect form the venue is mainly Simplicity and an easy-setup.

Fancy little high-tech-touch-screen consoles where I need to “select my input” are a Big No.

Domotica that will detect my video and will also close the curtains and order coffee: NO!

Dongles laying about that promise the guest some wireless-access to the big screen: only work 30% of time. 

You probably end up competing with the signal from next door.

So NO!

Need to accept+install “the app” to enable projection at the local place??

A colleague once narrowly escaped the mandatory-encryption of her total harddisk, just to connect to the local display-screen…

No.

Please have your local system-person read+understand this.

Best joke is when you are presenting in 1 room, but but you get offered the slides + audio from the room next door.This happend twice in last 3 yrs, wont Shame the places, but they are probably reading …( Hi there, Zdravo, Witam)

Simplicity !

nb: yes, yes, yes I know blogposts should be Positive (yes!) to work best…

hence this super positive filler text to enhance and improve the exceptionally good vibe of this post, and to call on all you super-kind marvellous readers to hit like and subscribe….

Thank you, Thank you, you are all Wonderful.

(closing tag, Romeo Alpha November Tango - over)