Month: December 2020

by Matthew on Books

Books I Want to Read in 2021

Although I’m a strong believer in setting goals at any time of the year and not waiting till the year rolls over to the next, there’s something about the new year that brings a fresh start and a good time frame in which you can think of what you would like to accomplish and then plan the ways at how you might accomplish it.

One goal I want to set for 2021 is to read more. I typically read a few books a year, but I know I have time to read more.

Here are the books I would like to read or reread, in 2021. I have no idea if I will accomplish reading them all, but I do know I can make a time commitment each day and if I stick to it, I will have accomplished my goal of reading more:

Reading Now

Atomic Habits by James Clear: I started reading this book last week and so far I like what I have read. I think this book will fall into the category of being extremely helpful.

Want to Read

Essentialism by Greg McKeown: This book has some great reviews and I want to reread it this coming year.

Getting Things Done by David Allen: I like the whole GTD methodology, but feel I need to reread this book as it’s been several years since I last read it and I’m sure I’ll learn something new as I work through it again.

The Hidden Secrets of Money by Nathan Sloan: I purchased this book in November, although I don’t remember what triggered me to buy it. But, it’s certainly something I want to read this coming year.

Demand Side Sales 101 by Bob Moesta: I read about this book when Jason Fried of Basecamp wrote about it on SignalVNoise. I purchased it and it’s ready to be read.

Personality Isn’t Permanent by Benjamin Hardy, Ph.D.: This book was introduced to me by one of my software engineering instructors at BYUi when he spoke about it on his YouTube Chanel.

They Ask, You Answer by Marcus Sheridan: Another interesting book about answering the questions your customers have.

Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Angela Duckworth: I’m not sure what to expect with this, or in other words, I ordered it a while back and cannot remember why. I like the idea of passion and perseverance though and am sure it will learn a lot from it.

1984 by George Orwell: This is different from what I would normally read, but a good friend recommended it to me recently.

Change by Design by Tim Brown: I saw the term “Design Thinking” and wanted to read more about it, so I purchased the book.

The Four Dilemmas of the CEO by Tom Biesinger, Ross Wall, and Clifford Herbertson: I met Tom back in the late ’90s, and also know Clifford Herbertson and some of his family, so I purchased the book. I have no idea what to expect, but looking forward to reading the book.

Big Ideas… For Small Businesses by John Lamerton: I run a small business, so purchased this because of a review I read somewhere that recommended it.

Routine Machine by John Lamerton: As this book and the last are next to each other in my Kindle library, it seems I purchased them together. Another one I am looking forwards to reading.

ReWork by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson: I like the work that the people of Basecamp create. I use Basecamp for some of my own projects and like some of the thoughts that they share on SignalVNoise. I write software for work and think I will benefit from reading this book.

Remote by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson: Another book by the people of Basecamp, this time about working remotely (which I have been doing since about 2012). It will be good to read their ideas on working remotely.

4 Disciplines of Execution by Sean Covey, Chris McChesney, and Jim Huling: This was recommended to me at a place where I did some work earlier in 2020. I never completed the book but would like to do so in 2021.

Designed to Stick by Rick Jesse: I don’t know when I purchased this book, but because it’s about small business and starting up, it’s on my list.

It Doesn’t Have to Be Crazy at Work by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson: I really like the thoughts behind this book. Lots of startups seem to think that you need to put in double or triple hours each week to be successful, but Jason and David teach here that it doesn’t have to be this way. Or at least that is what I think it is about.

Six Memos for the Next Millennium by Italo Calvino: I have no idea what to expect with this one, but I’ll give it a try.

The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman: If I remember correctly, this book is meant to be read a little bit each day. I’ll begin on Friday 1st Jan 2021 and see how it goes.

How Will You Measure Your Life? By James Allworth, Karen Dilon, and Clayton Christensen: I think many people want to know how to lead a fulfilling life, which is what the description mentions at Amazon. I am familiar with some of Clayton’s books, so would like to read this one.

Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker: I don’t get enough sleep and would like to learn about what problems that can cause in my life. I hope this book answers those questions.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot: One of my instructors at BYUi recommended this book to students in the class, so I ordered it.

Man’s Search For Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl: A friend sent me this book as a gift when I left the hospital several weeks ago. I’m looking forwards to reading this one. It will probably be the second book I read this year.

I am about one-third of my way through the list of books and will add more over the coming days. Perhaps I am being optimistic about what I will read this coming year, but as mentioned earlier, I will measure my success by how much time I spend reading each day, and even more so by the way it may or may not change how I think and act.

 
by Matthew on Review

Amazon Eero Review

After spending a lot of 2020 on Zoom meetings with choppy audio and frequent freezes, I decided it was time to upgrade my home wireless network.

I began frequently using Zoom in December 2019 when doing some work for a company where all staff worked remotely (we were ahead of the curve). Noticing connection problems while in meetings I spoke to my ISP and managed to get a free upgrade to the Virgin SuperHub 3. Although this improved reliability a little, things were still rough. I would often spend a lot of the day at home with wireless disabled on my phone just because the wireless connection was so bad. Zoom meetings also carried on suffering, although a little less than before. Annoyingly, it was always when I needed to listen or speak the most.

Looking up the numbers it seems that the SuperHub 3 is capable of handling about 20 wireless devices at a time. Although that seems like a lot for a home, it really isn’t now that our home is filled with more people and devices. Just to give a brief summary of some of our home devices:

1 x Ring doorbell.
1 x Ring Floodlight cam.
2 x Apple MacBooks
1 x Apple iMac
3 x Amazon Alexa
2 x Amazon Fire TV
1 x Apple TV
2 x Apple iPad
2 x Apple Watch
1 x FitBit Versa 2
7 x Smartphones (Several in the home, some for testing iOS apps which I build)
1 x HP Wireless Printer
? x other devices that I can’t remember.

All of these are active, although not always in use. But, it’s enough wireless traffic to bring the SuperHub 3 to its knees. I don’t think the SuperHub 3 is designed for this many devices, particularly with all of the streaming from multiple devices as well as cameras that upload video on movement. To compare to Eero, these devices can handle up to 128 connection each.

After a bit of research I opted to try the Amazon Eero. I managed to get a deal on the week leading up to Black Friday although since then it has gone back up in price. I got the three Eero pack, but not the pro version as those are more than I’m willing to pay at the moment.

Setup

Setup was easy. I wont go in to all of the steps in the app, but we ran in to no problems with setting things up. Due to an injury and not being able to get around the house easily, two of my children plugged the Eero devices in, one on each of the three floors we live in, and then connected the downstairs one up to the Virgin router. I put the Virgin router in modem mode and when done, opened up the Eero app and added each Eero to the network. The only remaining task was to check for devices on my old 5G network and change the wireless settings for them to point them to the new SSID.

As I was unable to get around the house at that time, my son took my phone around the house and used the SpeedTest app to check what kind of speeds we were getting. On my old setup which used TP Powerline adapters I was reaching around 10 Mb down at the furthest point in the house. Using Eero I typically get up to the full 220+ Mb from anywhere in the house depending on the time of day. Virgin has typically been good at providing advertised speeds for me, so I am happy with the results. I just couldn’t use the wireless from their standard hub.

Eero Reliability

Reliability has been great. Eero was setup just over a month ago. The first outage took me by surprise as it had been reliable for a few days after installation, but then I read that Amazon AWS had a major outage knocking out a lot of the internet. This meant that Eero was actually not the problem itself and that the problem was external to my network.

The other two outages seemed related to Zoom and I never was able to get to the bottom of what happened because when in a middle of a meeting the aim is to get back in as quick as possible, unless it’s boring and you have a valid excuse for leaving. I was kicked out of two meetings briefly and had to disconnect and reconnect. Perhaps it was my wireless network or perhaps it was something external, but other than that, all has run exceptionally well since installing it.

Eero Review Summary

This post is just a summary of what Eero has worked like in my home; a kind of mini-review. I’m happy with Eero and the greater reliability it brings to my home. I haven’t got exact facts and numbers to share because they are not so important to me, but what I do know is that Zoom meetings are far more reliable and I rarely lose connection.

I also am able to use wireless on my phone and not have to disconnect and use 3G/4G in the home like previously.

Pros

  • Reliable and a steady and strong signal all around the home. I could probably get away with using two Eeros, but the pack of three was a good price.
  • The iOS app works great and lets you know what the best throughput you are getting, how much data you use each day, and lets you create guest networks, use experimental features, set custom DNS (which I really like) to name a few things.
  • The iOS app is updated regularly. There have been several updates since I downloaded the app.
  • The Eero devices themselves also get updates to improve service.

Cons

  • When my ISP went down recently I couldn’t connect to Eero through the app to troubleshoot. To restart Eero you need an active internet connection. Not knowing it was my ISP at the time I didn’t know if Eero was the one with the problem or not. It turns out it was the ISP which was fixed an hour later.

Pricing

  • At review time, the price is £249. – UK: Link US: Link (The US link is for the search page for Eero as the options are a little different).