Archive - Jun 2013
June 29th
Joe Dey's Missed Opportunity
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sat, 06/29/2013 - 12:58Friday afternoon around 150 people gathered in the Center Gym at Woodbridge to celebrate the swearing in of newly elected and appointed members of various boards and commissions in town. These are people who give of their time to work together with their friends and neighbors in Woodbridge to help make our town a better place.
Just a few days earlier, the incoming Board of Selectmen gathered to vote on appointments to there boards and commissions. Due to family logistics, I watched the proceedings from home on Channel 79. As a member of the Government Access Television Commission, I was disappointed with the sound quality of the broadcast, but I could hear enough to make the following observation.
Selectman Joseph Dey expressed concerns about how the process was being handled. He talked about how he wanted more information about the people he would be voting on. It is a laudable request that he failed move forward with.
I am fairly involved in town politics, but I suspect that I know less than half the appointees and I would have loved to hear more information about these people who volunteer to serve our town. If Selectman Dey had been truly concerned about who was being appointed to the various boards and commissions, before each vote, when First Selectman Ellen Scalettar asked if there was any discussion, Selectman Dey could have said something like, "I don't believe I know Neelam Gupta. Why do you think Neelam would be a good member of the Economic Development Commission?"
I must admit, I'm not sure if I know who Neelam is and would have appreciated hearing the answer. I'm sure it would have been informative, and I suspect I would have ended up thinking Neelam would be a good commissioner.
Instead, Selectman Dey abstained on just about every vote, winning him the nickname among some local political pundits of Joey the Abstainer. One person commented on Facebook that they were "surprised that he was unaware of some of the bigger names at the Town Hall. For example, Terry Gilbertson is a fixture and was an easy vote to NOT abstain from." The response was, "perhaps Selectman Dey represents those in town who chose not to know who their neighbors are or what is going on in town".
Instead, Selectman Dey may have been trying to make a point about his inability to work constructively with other elected officials. He may have been seeking to place the blame on the other elected officials, but in the end, it appeared that he was the problem. I hope, for the sake of the town, he learns how to work better with others as his term progresses.
Now some of you may raise the concern that asking questions about the nominees would have made the meeting much longer. That too, is a valid concern, but personally, I would have liked a longer meeting hearing great things about my friends and neighbors that volunteer to help in our community. Hopefully, we will get other chances for this.
June 28th
First Steps...
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Fri, 06/28/2013 - 23:36At the end of the commencement ceremony for the 2013 CT Health Leaders Fellowship, we were all invited to stand and take one step forward, symbolizing the first step of a thousand mile journey. It is a journey of eliminating health disparities. I had spoken earlier about being an equal opportunity activist, and that this journey was but one of many journeys I am on.
All of this came back to me in many ways this past week. Thursday night was the annual Nurse's dinner at the Community Health Center. One of the stories was of a 450 pound diabetic man who had fallen through the cracks of the American health care system. A care-coordination nurse tracked down his story and followed through to help him get bariatric surgery. He has already lost thirty pounds and with therapy, is starting to walk again after having been bedridden for over a year.
Later, we heard a little bit of her story, an immigrant from a war torn country, who struggled with diabetes and depression through school, but eventually became a nurse at CHC. The patient is on his journey of recovery, aided by a nurse who has taken difficult first steps in her journey to this country and her journey to becoming a nurse.
The story stayed in my mind Friday morning as I went to the funeral of a former classmate and co-worker of my wife. Emily was taken from us way to early, by complications from diabetes.
This week also saw important other steps in our life together as a country. The Supreme Court dismantled key parts of the Voting Rights Act, but it took away some restrictions on gay marriage. I watched the wedding ceremony streaming across the Internet where plaintiffs in the challenge to Prop 8, Kris Perry and Sandy Stier were married.
I read stories about Paula Dean and Rachel Jeantel and I thought about how much work still needs to be done before all people truly are treated equally in all states, no matter what their race or sexual orientation is.
I imagine that the 450 pound patient celebrated the first steps in his recovery as he sat back down and rested after the strain of those steps. Tonight, I go to bed emotionally weary, celebrating first steps, lamenting steps backwards, and mourning the death of a friend.
June 26th
Glass Log - Day Thirteen
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Wed, 06/26/2013 - 21:12On Friday, June 14th, I went into New York City and to pick up Google Glass. It was a quick, uneventful trip. The Glass office on the eighth floor of Chelsea Markets had all the feel of a trendy New York City creative space sparsely decorated with tall ceilings a large windows looking out over the meat packing district.
After picking up Google Glass, I stopped by at the Apple Store next door. One of the sales people asked a bit about glass and we talked about the prospects for it. I then head dinner with two of my co-workers as we discussed how we hope to use Glass at work.
My initial reactions is that it reminded me of when I picked up an Apple Newton twenty years ago. For those who don't remember the Apple Newton, it was a handheld device, the precursor to the personal digital assistant and ultimately the smartphone. It is probably only a small number of older early adopting geeks that remember the Apple Newton, and I wouldn't be surprised that Glass will be remembered in the same way two decades hence.
Most people I've met have been fascinated by Glass, though some express concern about privacy. One person tweeted, "If you're wearing Glass, you've turned yourself into a sense organ for a corporate being. Not even a metaphor, that's the real situation."
I responded, "I, for one, welcome our new #glass providing overlords." I'll the discussions of the new form of the social contract in the digital world for a later time. I believe there is value to Glass if you use it with your eyes wide open.
Over on Facebook and Google+ there has been more of the discussion about facial recognition. Personally, I would be a big fan of facial recognition on Glass, even if it were only opt-in. If I see one of my thousands of friends, followers, or connections from Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn or Twitter, I'd love to be reminded of who they are and how I know them.
The facial recognition would also be great for a politicians. Imagine working a crowd and being able to tell if the person you are speaking with has written to your office about an issue, has donated or volunteered for your campaign, or other information like that.
By the time I got on the train home, that first day, the battery had died. After trying to recharge it, I found Glass would not start back up. I spent much of Saturday talking on the phone with folks at Google, trying to find ways to restart Glass. By Monday, the decision was to RMA it. Now came the issue of how to do this. Normally, they ask people to return to where they got Google Glass and swap it. It is about a two and a half hour trip if I drive into the city, longer, but more comfortable, if I take the train. So, we explored other ways to do the exchange.
For people that live a long distance from a Google Glass store, they can get a new pair shipped, and then return their broken pair. All they need to do is allow Google to put a hold for $1,500 on their personal credit card. I don't have that sort of money to spare, and they wouldn't take a hold on a corporate card, so on Tuesday, I headed back into New York to get a new pair.
This pair has worked much better. I've taken pictures and videos, I've gotten information via Google Now, the New York Times, CNN, Twitter, and email. I've started to explore the development environment.
I recently received a survey from Google about how I use and like glass. As a wearable communications device, I really like it. The sound quality is not all that good for doing phone calls, or listening to information, but it is good enough to get alerts. The screen is okay, but I worry that if I used it a lot, I might get eye strain.
That said, when someone else isn't borrowing Google Glass, which happens a lot, I wear it almost all the time.
What will the replacement for Google Glass look like? Will it include other health monitoring tools like pulse, blood pressure, blood oxygen levels, etc, combining the best aspects of other wearable input devices, like Fitbit? Will it become smaller and even less noticeable?
I'll keep experimenting with Google Glass and talking with others doing the same. What do you think?
June 23rd
The Supermoon cannot be stolen
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sun, 06/23/2013 - 20:17I continue to be overly busy so I am not getting as much writing done as I would like, but I've got a few moments, so I thought I'd reflect on the 'supermoon'.
What does it mean when the moon reaches perigee in Capricorn, the tenth house of the Zodiac, shortly after the summer solstice? There are many different ways to look at this, so I'll try a few different angles.
Larry Sessions, a writer for EarthSky, asks the question, Does a supermoon have a super effect on us?
He finds:
A supermoon’s effects are imperceptible, far smaller than those encountered in other everyday situations, such as being near a mountain or even a large building.
He talks about this in terms of gravitational force, and finds the effect to be "about 110 milligrams, roughly equivalent to about 1/9th the mass of a paperclip." That's not much of an effect.
He did acknowledge that "the full moon can appear as much as 14% larger in the sky and 30% brighter to our eyes than at minimum size and brightness." This change of brightness to the moon is likely to be unnoticeable from one night to the next, but when someone mentions it, it can lead to observational bias. Mention to people things that happen during full moons, especially during supermoons, and people will look for the occurrence and when they observe it, generalize about it.
If enough people mention something, it can start trending on social media. It can become a fad, a meme, or a topic of the day. Enough people are talking about the 'supermoon' that it has become a top news story showing up in my Google Feed, including a link to Larry Sessions' article.
So, while the effect of a full moon at perigee may be minimal gravitationally, it can be profound psychologically. Some may think about this in terms of vampires, werewolves, and the zodiac. Yet I'm interested in other aspects. I find the moon beautiful. Anything that gets people to stop and think about beauty, to gaze on something beautiful, is, in my book, a good thing.
Tying this to science, anything that gets people to stop and consider the motions of the earth, the moon, planets, and stars, perhaps even ideas like gravity and inertia, is also a good thing.
What would it be like if everyone took a moment every day to reflect on something beautiful and to share it? What would it be like if everyone took a moment every day to think about the wonders of how the universe is created and how humans have used science to broaden their understanding of the universe?
Unfortunately, too many people have too much on their minds in terms of making money and gaining power. Perhaps, instead of focusing on the fabulous creatures, the zodiac, or even beauty and science, another reflection is called for.
There is an old Zen story entitled, The Moon Cannot Be Stolen
A Zen Master lived the simplest kind of life in a little hut at the foot of a mountain. One evening, while he was away, a thief sneaked into the hut only to find there was nothing in it to steal. The Zen Master returned and found him. "You have come a long way to visit me," he told the prowler, "and you should not return empty handed. Please take my clothes as a gift." The thief was bewildered, but he took the clothes and ran away. The Master sat naked, watching the moon. "Poor fellow," he mused, " I wish I could give him this beautiful moon."
So, I give to you this different way of thinking about the supermoon. It cannot be stolen.
June 15th
Ok, Glass… Hack Portal … Geek Cred Restored, Good Work
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sat, 06/15/2013 - 13:17Ok, Glass…
This box is 100% paper. So use it to write a letter to your Grandma. Or at least, please, recycle it. All of it.
That's what it says on the side of the box my Google Glass came in. Perhaps it says something about the demographic Google is targeting for their Explorer program.
Google Glass is a pair of glasses you can wear with a little screen above your line of site you can use to communicate online. It connects with your cellphone, with BlueTooth and Wifi. It has a camera you can take pictures with and a speaker you can listen to things with. It takes voice commands and you can send additional commands by touching the side of the Google Glass.
The Explorer program is for about 8,000 people that responded on social media; Twitter or Google+ about what they would do with Google Glass. Back in February, I tweeted,
#ifihadglass I'd look to improve #healthequity using augmented reality for Public Health and #fqhc
They liked the quote and invited me to join the Glass Explorer program. I told people at work and they were very excited. They kept asking me when I would get Google Glass. I waited and waited. Finally, on June 5th, I got a message from Google:
Your Glass is now ready! Please purchase within 14 days. Follow this link to pay and schedule your pickup:
Yesterday, I joined two of my coworkers in New York to pick up Google Glass.
Hack Portal
I caught the train from Milford, CT. Before I got on the train, I stopped to capture some enemy portals in the game, Ingress. Ingress is an augmented reality game for cellphones developed by a NianticLabs at Google. As you walk around an area, you see an overlay of game pieces on you cellphone. There are portals which are controlled by two different teams, the resistance, sometimes called Smurfs, since their color is blue, and the enlightened, sometimes called frogs since their color is green. If you destroy an enemy portal and capture it for your team, you gain points. Your level in the game is based on the number of points you've accumulated. I was about 90,000 points away from reaching Level 8, the highest level currently possible in the game. I gained about 30,000 points in Milford waiting for the train.
There are many Ingress portals in New York City, and everyone said I should easily be able to gain the remaining 60,000 points there. Yet I didn't have a lot of time. Along the way, I captured a few portals and then visited my brother, who was already Level 8. He gave me some items for the game that would help me reach Level 8.
I met with my co-workers and we discussed how we would use Google Glass in health care. This is a discussion just getting going. We sat down for my Google Glass fitting. My account was set up for Google Glass, connecting it with features on my cellphone. We tested out various features and details about Glass were explained. It was all very exciting.
To activate Google glass, you tap the side of the glass, or glance upwards. Then, to send a command, you start with, "Ok, Glass…" You then tell Glass the command you want. Take a picture. Record a video. You can also send messages, call people, look things up in Google, get directions, and join a Google Hangout. There was not an option to "Hack Portal".
On my way to the train station, I captured a few more portals. Down to 30,000 points needed to achieve Level 8. I could have easily reached level 8 if my battery hadn't died on my cellphone. It appears as if the battery also died on my Google Glass. On the train, I plugged both of the devices in to recharge and had a good discussion with people sitting next to me on the train about Google Glass.
With Glass partly charged, I tried to power it up, but I get a blank screen. I'll get back to that later.
I arrived in Milford and found that all the portals I had captured in the morning had been recaptured by the opposing team during the day. This was actually fortunate for me. My phone was now about half recharged, and there were plenty of portals to try and recapture. Using some of the items my brother gave me, I quickly gained the remaining 30,000 points and reached Level 8, even though members of the opposing team appears to be actively trying to stop me from capturing their portals.
Geek Cred Restored
The past year has been a challenge for me. I ran for State Representative. I often tell people that I didn't get elected, but I won. I won by talking with people about issues like education and health care, about the failures of test based education and about the inequities in our health care system. I did my fellowship in the Connecticut Health Foundation's Health Leadership Fellows Program. I mourned the death of my mother, and through all of it tried go be a good husband, father, and employee.
At the same time, I have been trying to spend more time writing, improving my craft. Yet with all of this, I've spent less time on more geeky pursuits. My old linux based Nokia N900 cellphone is on its last legs. I played a little bit with Raspberry Pi, but not a lot more.
When you capture a portal in Ingress, the game voice says, "Portal Captured, Good Work". Even though can't hack a portal with Glass, the combination of getting Google Glass and reaching Level 8 in Ingress, perhaps, restores a little geek cred.
"Good Work."
My mother was born in 1931. The youngest of seven children. Her mother was born in 1897, 116 years ago. I was the next to the youngest of my siblings, so my grandmother was 62 when I was born. My father's mother had died of cancer before I was born, so I never got to meet her.
My earliest memories of my grandmother are from when she and her husband lived in a small house in central Massachusetts. She would have been in her late sixties or early seventies. My grandfather would have been in the living room, watching a ball game on a small old black and white TV. He would offer us candies. My grandmother would be in the kitchen with her daughters, preparing the food for the family gathering. I would be running around with my siblings and cousins. With the exception of my younger sister, everyone would be older, perhaps much older.
My mother's mother died on flag day, June 14th, 1977. Yesterday was flag day, the thirty sixth anniversary of my grandmother's death. She died before cellphones, the internet or digital photography became ubiquitous. So, I won't be writing a letter to her on the box that my Google Glass came in. All of this is from a much different world. Yet what remains the same is the importance of being connected with one another, through pictures and videos shared via Google Glass, through getting together with people who have a shared interest in a game, whether it be golf, tennis, or Ingress.
