SmartHome (IoT) Capabilities

Rick LapennaInsights, My World Leave a Comment

Getting an Amazon Echo last Father's Day started a journey towards home automation which continues to amaze everyone in the house everyday. In many ways, this evolution has its foundation in Internet-of-Things (IoT) technology. The original use case for Echo (Alexa) was for the family, providing an ability to "Ask The Internet", similar to an interactive Google Voice Response capability ...

Saying Goodbye to a Best Friend

Rick LapennaMy World 2 Comments

Today we lost our family pet, Princess "Puppy". She was a 12 year old Harlequin Great Dane with the most amazing, gentle and fun-loving personality. You know, you never really know how much they are a part of your life until they are gone. Yesterday, she was playing in the yard like a puppy - it was nuts, then late ...

LinkedIn Top 10% – Really?

Rick LapennaMy World 5 Comments

I recently received an email from LinkedIn that my profile was in the top 10% most viewed for 2012. I thought to myself, nice – look at me and how special I am – (right?), but what does this really mean? Am I really that special? Seriously? Then that skeptical side of myself surfaced, thinking what are they after, is …

Missing RSS Feeds in OSX? What?

Rick LapennaMy World 2 Comments

One thing you won’t find in Mountain Lion’s Mail app—at least as it stands today—is the RSS feature. Whereas in Lion you can subscribe to an RSS feed in Mail in order to be alerted to, and to read, newly published articles from your favorite websites, that feature appears to be gone from Mail in Mountain Lion. Mail’s preferences window …

Perception Test

Rick LapennaMy World Leave a Comment

Our brains are amazing, often the mind has unique capabilities - subconsciously the manner in which our brain processes information can surprise you. Follow the instructions below to see how this works: Stare at the red dot on the centre of the woman's nose for 30 seconds... After 30 seconds, look up and blink your your eyes fast 10 times Watch what ...

How a Nerd Explains ReST to his Wife?

Rick LapennaMy World Leave a Comment

In an ideal world, all couples should have a dialog about things they work on. In this case, the question of Representational State Transfer (ReST) is a great example. To non-developer types, the concepts behind ReST seem very strange, since the application delivery style is so simple and yet so powerful – to wives – well, read for yourself:) NERD: …

Bureaucracy – You can’t escape it…

Rick LapennaMy World 2 Comments

As part of my relocation to the US, we found ourselves going through the usual steps; visa, housing, utilities, etc, etc. Large companies and governments all seem to struggle with the same issues – no body really talks to anyone else. I was instructed by my new employer to use my Canadian SIN as an SSN as a temporary measure. No …

Cydia or AppStore?

Rick LapennaMy World Leave a Comment

Cydia or AppStore? After JailBreaking my iPhone 4 I started playing with the new Cydia AppStore… very interesting. I have been using iPhone’s since the 2G, and have for years JailBroken them. This new adaptation of the “store” component is extremely innovative. Developers who for years have been hacking out apps and enhancements to the Apple BSD linux OS, now …