Tuesday, October 4, 2016

Virtual Reality courses

I'm really excited about Udacity's upcoming nanodegree on VR.

https://www.udacity.com/

I've been interested in some of their other nanodegrees, but I really want this one.  I think VR is slow starting, but it's definitely the wave of the future. The technology is becoming inexpensive enough that it's within reach of the average person.

There have been some failures, such as the Google glasses, but I think they were just a little too far ahead of their time. Hopefully they'll break those out again in a couple of years.

Sony is coming out with a new Playstation VR.

Beyond these examples, I think a future will come that relies more heavily on VR.  I see roles in the workplace for training and visualization of circumstances that can't be viewed directly, such as microscopic objects or places where humans would perish.

VR could be amazing to train workers in the future.  Which would work better, to get training to set up servers from a book whose contents you try desperately to memorize, or to actually set up servers in a VR 'game'?

This could also be used in the education of those with learning disabilities.

Best of all: who wants a holodeck, like they had on Star Trek Next Gen?  I DO!


Housekeeping failures

I seriously fail to comprehend grown people who don't care how much filth they live in. Seriously.  And before anyone starts all their 'helpful suggestions', DON'T.  Because I've tried them.  Really. They're sweet people but....

I have a houseful of folks with no ambition to speak of.  Two of them lived together in a small apartment and adopted four cats. They got evicted for their filth.  We're talking every dish in the place is in the sink with rotten food and maggots.  Their cats got sick, probably from eating rotten food off the plates, and had diarrhea all over the house, and the solution to this was to put pieces of wrapping paper down over the diarrhea, which consequently spawned more maggots.  Piles of dirty clothes and garbage as high as the couch arms. I'm pretty sure the stench attracted attention and led to the eviction.

Another member of household just doesn't care.  I tell him not to shut his cat up in his room but he does anyway, so she shits and pisses all over his carpet and stuff.  I invade and clean every week or the house stinks. He's been awarded SSDI so when that starts he'll be moving out. Whether he wants to or not.

Unless I tell them, the trash does not get taken out to the curb for collection.  Dishes don't get washed - unless one of the household thinks I'm mad at them, then they can remember. The other day there was a bag of garbage in the living room.  Someone changed the kitchen trash, and laid it in the living room. Apparently it's too hard to go 40 steps to the garage to put it in the collection bin. They leave their crap everywhere, so I either throw it away or tell them pick it up.  If they ignore me, I throw it out anyway. They have to be told to sweep, or mop, or pick up their stuff, or vacuum.

And I think my major problem is that I just can't wrap my mind around what is going on in their heads.  How do you not just get up and make the filth go away?  Ten minutes for dishes in the dishwasher.  Seriously. Five minutes to put garbage to the curb.  I just don't understand how the filth doesn't make them crazy. I'd expect this from children, but not from a household whose members are over 21. Sometimes I think I would not get so angry if I could comprehend.

So...I've figured out my role in this house is the asskicker.  Yup.  I'm really busy, so I've got a reminder app on my phone to assign house chores daily, and to check in the afternoon to see if they're done.   Because I can't do it all, and I'm not living in filth.

And they can all do what I say, or I leave.  So far, they do it.