You know that question at a job interview: what are you really passionate about?? It’s actually a good question to consider any time of the day. If you realize, and apply that passion, you will be successful in life. For me it was difficult to figure out how exactly to define this passion, but when when I opened up the possibility to concepts other than tangible, and having some time to observe how I live my life in general, I realized what this passion is: To solve problems. If worth the end result, I exert incredible effort and think of creative ways to find a solution. I have three examples, where the solved problem gave me incredible satisfaction.
1. Wireless WAN connection on a laptop
My house-mate wanted to buy a computer. I would have thought, considering how thorough he is in researching everything (even the material the screws are made of I’m sure), about the product he buys, that he would have been able to find the solution to this particular problem I’m about to describe. While going through the customize-your-laptop process on Lenovo’s website, he came upon the option of Wide Area Network Access. To those less technically savvy, this means that he had multiple options when considering access to the internet through an external provider (like AT&T, Verizon, Orange, Vodafone, etc.). Usually this involves buying service from such a provider and inserting a sim card, like the European mobile phones work with a SIM card. New technology allows the possibility of doing this with a laptop now.
So, he wanted to be able to put in a SIM card into his computer once discussing with his local provider. Sounds simple, right? Well it took us 1 hour and 3 minutes on the phone (after being transferred three times) until almost 1 in the morning, followed by checking supplementary information online to figure out the meaning of the two options he had during the customization phase.
Option 1: Integrated Mobile Broadband upgradeable -> $0.00 extra, Option 2: Integrated Mobile Broadband (Gobi 2000 3G with GPS) -> $125 extra.
Since this technology is relatively new, even I (who follows the networking world pretty closely), really had no idea what this option meant, so we called the tech support on skype and asked if he buys this model, which option will allow him to insert a sim card into the computer, so that will work in Europe. After about ten minutes of the agent on the line telling us to try and find the exact model of the computer we would buy, and not just 201x: that’s a series name,(because she can’t tell us exactly without specific information) my housemate couldn’t stand it anymore. He couldn’t understand why she couldn’t just say “YES” it will work, or “NO”, it won’t… so in order to not embarrass ourselves by his impatient and kind of insulting comments, I grabbed the computer and went through what she was explaining to us, which allowed me in turn not only to answer the original question, but to learn a lot more about the computer customization process, and why she was so cautious to answer us directly.
So here is the solution: In order to connect to the internet through a service provider like Verizon, Orange, Vodafone, AT&T, etc, you need:
1. A plan that pays for the service (get this through local service provider)
2. Their sim card (from local service provider)
3. A computer that has wireless broadband capabilities (on the motherboard – should be in specs of computer you buy)
4. A SIM card slot (should be there if the computer has capabilities),
5. An internal antenna (also should be there if computer has capabilities, but double check),
6. A WWAN card that plugs into the laptop (the GOBI 2000 is one of many kinds) –>picture and explanation how to put into your laptop
And to solve any confusion with terminology: WWAN upgradeable, WWAN ready, and mobile broadband upgradeable all mean the same thing. also, WWAN stands for Wireless Wide Area Network.
2. Pile of dishes all the time
Problem: see title…
Circumstances: Collocation of 4 students.
Summary: People approaching the sink, will have two choices: Wash the dishes instantly, or put in sink to wash later. If the drying rack is full, the chance that they will wash the dishes instantly decreases dramatically. In other words: if the drying rack is empty (or has considerable space), a person will be more likely to wash their dirty dish. This is of course in a general case. There are variations depending on the size, the dirtiness of the dish to be washed, and also if the sponge is readily available, if there is enough dish-washing liquid. Consider the decision chart below:
Solution: Through observation and analysis of the sentiment after seeing the drying rack full, I noticed that there seems to be less dirty dishes if I put away the clean dishes from the drying rack.
3. Math Homework
This was supposed to take 2 hours, but because I really wanted to understand the concepts, and not just go through the motions, I spent 15 hours in the entirety of a weekend (and missed a day of hiking I signed up for), completing a homework sheet of algebra proofs and applications.
Some comments: I had to take breaks every 1.5 hours to keep up my concentration ability. Interestingly it also is shown by research that 1 hour after concentrating on one thing (especially while learning), it is much more efficient to take a 10 minute break than to try and go through hours and hours of working, because by the end you will make stupid mistakes and your thoughts won’t be coherent.
Update: Just to show how insane the math program is in France: I got a C+ which I don’t really know what it means here since they use a scale 1-20, on something I spent virtually a whole weekend on. Oh, and it doesn’t even count towards my final grade. At all.