Random Thoughts

Over the years, I have converted almost my entire music library to digital (from LPs, 45RPMs, CDs, cassette tapes, and even a few Reel-to-Reel tapes). I have also taken my entire DVD and Blu-ray library and created local backup copies to make it easier to binge watch some of my favorite old movies and TV shows.

The tools for these efforts are simple and inexpensive. I use VinylStudio for Audio, and a combination of HandBrake, MakeMKV, and iFlicks 3 for Video.

For work; however, I am trying to convert a bunch of older educational videos and demos to make them consumable for team member. Converting WMV to MP4 is easy with tools like MacX Video Converter Pro, but I can’t seem to get an easy way to convert .arf files (from Webex) to MP4 files. Evidently the enterprise Webex account I have, won’t let me log into WebEx’s servers to use their conversion tool.

I keep looking on-line for tools, but can’t find any. Any ideas?

I rarely write posts about my day job on this blog, the focus of this blog is to address my hobbies and passions.  When those intersect with my day job I will try and post a few thoughts.  Having said that, I recently took a new job focusing on improving the API strategy of IBM’s Engineering Lifecycle Management offering (ELM).  

IBM ELM is a tool suite utilized by the world’s most successful companies which design, develop and deliver vehicles of all kinds (Planes, Trains, and Automobiles – and more)!  The suite of capabilities  was built on the idea of open development.  The team has been developing this publicly for well over a decade, and has built an incredible community at jazz.net. 

The basic, underlying APIs have been exposed via a standard called OSLC (Open Services for Lifecycle Collaboration).  This OSLC standard is is being maintained and enhanced via Open Oasis. 

One of the coolest things about OSLC based APIs is that they are highly discoverable at runtime when working on building integration between systems.  In ELM, we expose many services via a “RootServices” document on each server.   By parsing this document, APIs (or services) are exposed, and their definitions are exposed.  

I’ve been working on a example of how to parse this via a set of Postman examples to help new developers understand this technology.  This example will show, how to parse a RootServices document, perform a simple OAuth1.0a authentication, and then expose the definition of a specific API and the data that must be provided to create a system artifact.  Right now my example shows how to create a Automated Test Adapter.

I hope to do some cleanup of my example over the next few weeks and will post it here; however, I would like to understand what other types of open API documentation people would like to see.

I try to upgrade my iPhone, Apple Watch, and iPads every other year (it get’s really expensive otherwise). This year is an off year, as I picked up the iPhone 12 Pro Max last year. I am not going to second guess people who upgrade every year. I think if you can afford it and it brings you joy, then you should go ahead and do it. However, I do follow the blogs, podcasts, and social feeds of many Apple fans to see the reaction each year to see if I should break my pattern.

I have only ever broken the pattern once once on the iPad (From the original to the 2nd gen) and once on the Apple Watch (From the series 1 to the series 2). As for the iPhone, I have broken it twice from the the original iPhone to the iPhone 3g, and from the iPhone 6 to the 6Plus.

What made me do it, looking back I can’t remember, but at the time the reasons were crystal clear. There was some compelling new sensor, or camera feature, that made it critical that I get that new toy!

This year, the only feature that would be compelling for the iPhone 12 Pro Max would be the battery improvement. 2.5 hours more battery is amazing! Of course, not having traveled in 18 months, it is not a feature I need. I end the day right now with between 60-70% of battery on my iPhone. I am just not using it as much as I used to. I think I have reached peek Apple toys in my life.

What would have made me open my wallet this year would have been a AR glasses developer kit. I would have dropped serious money to receive that, but at last it was not to be. Perhaps 2022 will be the year of Apple glasses!

Before I get start talking about my new iPhone 12 Pro Max, I wanted to show you the podcast that I do:

Apple’s podcast system now allows me to create an embedded for this website. Let me know what you think of the episode.

Now we can start talking about the iPhone 12 Pro Max.

I’ve been working at IBM for almost 25 years now! During that time I have spent my career going back and forth between the technical and business paths. I’ve done that because I really don’t know what I want to be when I grow up. I love learning and at various times technology had more things to learn, and at others there was more to learn in area like business models, markets, business processes, etc.

I was lucky enough to work for an internal startup back in 2007/8, and during that work I was able to get my promotion to Program Director, the highest non-executive, business level at IBM. I had helped drive significant revenue and partnerships for the startup. I took that role and when it was clear that we were not going to build a new business from the startup, I moved into business unit strategy within one of IBM’s software brands. It was an exciting time, as we acquired multiple companies and set a direction to help transform the brand. During this time, I learned a lot of business and technical skills, and began working more closely with IBM’s research teams. This lead me to the opportunity to ultimately work in research helping bring technologies to market. Again bringing together my love of technology and business. I worked with research scientists, and companies, to figure out how get real value from research.

About two and half years ago, my efforts allowed me to move back to a “brand” to help drive more adoption of technology. This effort was once again in Strategy, but my focus became more and more technical. I decided at that time, that if I was ever going to try and get my executive level at IBM, I wanted to do it as a technical person. For the last few years, I refocused back to more and more technical activities, including building technical demos with partners.

By refocusing my activities to technical work, that had a direct impact on the business side, I have expanded my impact at IBM. I also took a much more active role in mentoring new employees, coops, interns, and college students. Helping these individuals reach their technical goals, while also infusing the value off having a business mind set.

This impact and focus, lead me to successfully receive the highest non-executive technical position at IBM – the Senior Technical Staff Member, in early 2020. The next step is Distinguished Engineer!

I’ve finally gotten back to Wasted Time app for the Mac. Having figured out much of the issues with packaging for including the Mac version as part of a bundle. Now if you’ve paid the $0.00 for your copy of Wasted Time on iOS or tvOS, you will have a copy of Wasted Time for macOS for the low-low price of $0.00.

Save some money and stop wasting time!

I never learn. Each year I love the start of WWDC: The excitement of what is new, the demos of how Apple sees features working, and the inevitable download of new tools, apps, and operating systems. And this year, like WWDC19, something goes wrong.

I picked up the new iPad Pro 11inch (with the M1), and have made sure that I don’t have any work related content. It is my test device. I expect to lose data… And like two years ago, when macOS bricked my MacBook Pro, this year my brand new iPad Pro went into a reboot loop on install.

I am hoping that the iPad Recovery mode, will allow me install the restore image, if not, I will back level to iOS 14. And try again. So far, I am not frustrated, more disappointed. I have raised a feedback, but I don’t think I should wait for them to come back (usually after the next beta). More to come.

However, I think WWDC has already announced a few key things that I am very excited about, let me count the ways.

1. TestFlight for the Mac. Finally able to distribute my beta app to testers, who want to play with the Mac version. (I know I could distribute it normally, but it is much easier to distribute via TestFlight on iOS, WatchOS, iPadOS and tvOS – so this is good news).
2. App Development on the iPad. This is THE reason I brought the new iPad Pro. Apple announced that they will be releasing a new version of Swift Playgrounds which will allow you to develop iOS and iPadOS apps on your iPad and submit them to the App Store. The App is not there yet, but I can’t wait.
3. SharePlay – for years, many different tools and platforms have tried create shared viewing for TV and Movies. I think that Apple has figured it out. And now that FaceTime is allowing screen share, I may be able to switch to FaceTime to do my remote support of my parents and mother-in-law’s computer issues. We shall see.

This week will be very interesting to review all the details over the next 200 videos.