My experience with living on a ‘News Fast’

Motivation: As the tragic events unfolded on Friday night in Paris, I was caught up in staying abreast of what was happening there. I spent many hours following live news feed (with endless looping grim footage) on cable TV and then clicking on links on Facebook and NY Times and following WSJ updates. By Sunday night I realized that the news/real time FB feeds were driving my life. Over the past few months I would get the same stories from NPR/WSJ/NY Times and then 2-3 months later I would read detailed account of them in the New Yorker or the Atlantic. Bottom line is I was using up all these brain cycles rehashing what I already knew, from multiple sources. So on Sunday night I decided I was no longer going to be hostage to the News and create some mindspace.

Day1: I was able to turn off NPR and switch to XM Music Channel on my way to work (about 30 minutes). At work I had to actively resist looking at myYahoo page with its news feeds. Fortunately, I was driving to visit a customer in my colleague’s car 3 hours away so I didn’t have much of a chance to be checking news. I did resist checking FB updated on my smartphone.  Couple of times I sub-consciously clicked on the NYTimes icon, realizing what I had done, and hastily closed the app. On the way home I listened to a Podcast by Tim Ferris on “How Philsophy can change your lfie”  - conversation with Alain de Bottom – very deep and interesting. Evening meditation was a lot easier with less mind traffic.

Day 2: Started the day with a meditation (didn’t check my phone for email or news as I used to). I was at the gym at 6:00 AM again resisting watching CNBC on the cross trainer, but instead listening to another podcast with Tim Ferris and Kevin Costner. Had a pretty busy day at work so didn’t feel compelled to check the news. I did accidentally clicked the commodities (pricing) page on Bloomberg Business Week. I also deposited all my issues of WSJ to the recycle bin, without glancing at the headlines. At night I had extra time so I volunteered to do the dishes (to my wife’s delight) and saw an episode of Heidi on Netflix with my daughter. Something we had not done in months.  Another day passed and today I didn’t reflexively click on the NYTImes icon on my smartphone.  Maybe there is hope after all.

Day 3: It was raining heavily and very windy. Morning meditation wasn’t the best due to the racket outside. I listened to XM radio music on the way to work and studiously avoided NPR/CNBC. The day was a whir of activity dealing with emergencies related to the storm (it took out a sliver of our roof over the furnace and a couple of offices were flooded). During lunch I had to resist opening up my NYTimes app and instead read a Chapter of the latest Freakonomics book. Mike from Habitat Humanity board showed up at Quizinos, so we had a pleasant conversation that distracted me from worrying about the news. The rest of the day was busy with new product launch reviews and a board call in the evening. On the way home I listened to Tim Ferris show podcast. Though I did miss "Marketplace" as I was pulling off the interstate in my final stretch home.  Given the free time I had in the evening, I practiced soldering connector pins to Arduino boards - small computers used in creating Internet of Things (IoT)devices.  A very productive 2-3 hours without worrying about the world coming to an end. Another news free day! I am actually enjoying it.

Day 4: Morning routine was almost effortless this time around – did not have to resist checking the NYTimes or WSJ apps. Never even tried once. Keeping myself on to music on XM Radio was also easy as my daughter was riding with me to school and she likes music over NPR. Told my Vistage CEO group about my news fast and it was received with equal parts derision and admiration. Some of them mistook a newsfast as being away from a connected device – that is not the point. I am still plugged into emails, just not visiting news web site or reading papers. Stopped by at the temple on the way home to get some extra moments of peace. I do miss logging into Facebook and getting updates form friends. It will be interesting to see if the feeling lingers after day 7.

Day 5: After joining my daughter for an early morning pancake breakfast at her school I had a 45 min drive to work today. Again an interview of Tim Ferris with Lisa Randall (famous Harvard Particle Physicist) on dark matter and the nature of physics, saved the morning. During lunch I shared my ‘news fast’ experiment with work colleagues. They all agreed that the events of Paris were depressing and one of them talked about getting nightmares. I almost had an allergic reaction when a colleague started talking about the day’s news – as if someone had lit up a cigarette next to me and as if I had just quit a month ago. I was surprised by the sudden reaction. The evening I continued to listen to Prof. Randall.  My daughter and I spent the evening watching old episode of Start Trek Next Generation – a welcome change from scouring for Facebook updates. All in all, the ‘news fast’ has become somewhat routine. I am not contemplating in what measure would I let the news back in my life after the fast is over. Somewhat similar to have you slowly start cutting back on running after finishing a half marathon.

Day 6: Day started without me listening to NPR’s Scott Simon, while I made breakfast for my daughter. I had a long meaningful conversation with my brother about IoT and the Arduino platform and its variations. Later we enjoyed an outing to the science center and a visit to the Farmer’s market food court, Greek take out and Jeni’s ice cream. I did pick up the WSJ weekend edition and tossed the first two sections and enjoyed reading the book reviews. Had extra time this evening so cooked a nice meal for the family followed by another long chat with my best friend on marathon running, philosophy, product innovation, IoT and flying cars. As I am looking back, I see much more meaningful conversations, activity with the family, and general reduction of aloneness one can feel, even while living in the midst of family members.

Day 7: I decided to leave the Sunday newspaper by the curb. No overnight news and checking of emails meant that I had a very nice 15 minute morning meditation and really good preparation for teaching classes at the temple. Interestingly enough I had my first ‘forced fed’ encounter with the local TV news. At some of the local gas stations, as you pull in, the TVs come on as you start pumping gas. You are forced to listen to news about shootings overnight and wrongful convictions. I dutifully put the nozzle on auto fill and pulled myself inside the relative safety of my car. WSJ text updates continued to scroll across my iPhone which I continued to try to ignore. These accidental encounters with ‘news’ were not at all disturbing or anxiety creating. They felt more like annoyances, like you would shoo away a fly. I think I have reached a state of “News Independence.” The rest of the day was news free, limited dosage of NFL not withstanding. After my afternoon run, at the Starbucks I sat down and drank my latte, sitting and enjoying the coffee experience, while, people around me sat in pairs scrolling through their smartphones or checking on their smartphones while they waited for the orders. Suddenly, being at a Starbucks without a digital device, I felt like an interloper or an alien. It is amazing how ubiquitous smartphones have become as a coffee companion.

So to summarize key points from this experience.

• Source of news is ubiquitous – text alerts on your smartphone, TV monitors at workout places, airports, push TV on gas stations, monitors on workout machines just to name a few. So it is really hard to avoid news.
• It takes a couple of days to get over trigger finger to click on the icons on your mobile phone for news. In my case New York Times (NYT) and Wall Street Journal (WSJ).
•  If you have a long commute, switch to a commercial free music radio station such as on XM radio or find a source of ‘off line’ high quality content such as an audio book or a podcast. In my case Tim Ferris was an excellent resource and I caught up on some interviews on philosophy, high energy physics and art.
• The extra 1-2 hours per evening allowed me a lot of extra activities both personal and for the greater good. I was able to help out with more home chores, cook, spent time with my daughter and bone up on IoT projects.
•  In the absence of constant interruptions the interactions with your loved ones and friends are much richer and meaningful.
• The meditation sessions became more successful as there was less mind traffic.
• I finally achieved ‘News Independence’ – by day 6 I didn’t care if I got news or not.

8.     The big question is what level of ‘news diet’ can I sustain without being negatively impacted by it.

My adventures in Implementing IoT - Part I Setting up the hardware and data collection

Hardly a day goes by when you don't hear about IoT and how it will change the world. The CISCOs and the McKinseys of the world have impressive stats about the proliferation of IoT and how it would create Trillions (with a T) of dollars of value in all sectors of the economy..reminded me a lot of 1999 and how everyone used to intone:  'Internet would change the world.' Well it did! It took almost a decade. Is IoT all hype? Will it change the world, and would it have a faster or slower gestation period than the Internet of people? I realized IoT had become business mainstream when Harvard Business Review last fall had it as a cover article on it by the strategy guru Michael Porter. But it was all very theoretical and I was dying to figure out how to do something practical to feel it and see it work for myself. I had learned that connected devices provide value in stages:

a) As a monitoring device
b) As a controlling device
c) To optimize
d) To Automate

I needed to experience IoT firsthand. I would be very happy if I just built a monitoring device that could send data that I could monitor anywhere in the internet. I felt, over time I would collect data, filter the data, build some heuristics and develop a control strategy to improve process performance, leading to better results. There were a lot of books on IoT with value propositions, data architectures etc. but nothing practical/easy to do for someone who is not an embedded systems developer.

 The PiOT workshop

Seek and you shall find! In March I came across a mailing for a workshop on 'IoT-101' organized by Initial State a data services startup here in Nashville. I quickly signed up for the next available slot. Run by David, Rachel and Raymond, the workshop managed to get a whole lot done in a very short time. In a 2 hour period we learned about Raspberry PI a favorite platform for building IoT devices. We learned about using Python. I have written 10's of thousands of lines of code in Fortran and Visual Basic, so programming concepts were not new to me. What I was struck with was, the ease of use of Python to interact with the hardware system components to collect data, as well send control signals. I was hooked - or shall we say connected. During the workshop we had used a breadboard and hooked up switches and sensors to:

a) Connect a temperature probe and live streamed the readings to the Initial State web site
b) Turning on and off LEDs
c) Detecting whether a door was shut or open using a magnetic switch

I was excited! On the spot I bought an 'advanced' Raspberry Pi kit with a LCD display, temperature probe, breadboard and a bunch of LEDs and resistors and took it home to begin my adventures in IoTland.

Adventures at Home

I was able to follow the instructions and turn on and bootup my Raspberry Pi. I then realized that the neat connector setup that Initial State guys used with the probe during the workshop was not in my kit. A trip to their office yielded free connectors. Also after reading their online blogs I was able to figure out how to connect my Raspberry PI to a HDTV so that I didn't have to squint at a 3"x2" LCD display. That made my life a lot easier. By day three, I was able to replicate all exercises in IoT workbook.  Along the way Rachel from Initial State was hugely helpful, responding to my queries all hours of the day including 10 pm on a Sunday night!

Raspberry Pi connected to a temperature probe (inserted in the ice bath)

Time to take it to the plant

During the day I am the President/CEO of Porcelain Industries. We are the largest independent enameling facility in the US and have a large number of spray lines, dryers, washers and furnaces. I invited Jamie Bailey (CEO) and Raymond Jacobs (VP Bus. Dev.) from Initial State to our manufacturing plant.  Jamie and Raymond met with myself and Jim Hutzel our VP for Operations. We saw a lot of potential in embedding sensors in the plant to measure everything from furnace temperature profiles to whether (and at what rate) the lines were running and what was the pH and temperature of the washer. As a pilot, to keep things simple we agreed that it would be good to measure the humidity and temperature in the plant and make sure that the rheology/density of our enamel dispersion was optimum for those conditions. So our initial goal was to collect temperature/humidity and enamel properties and send them to a data depository.

Beside the real time temperature and humidity measurement and recording, our plan was to create an iPhone app so that the data could be entered by the operator (after he/she measures it on an analog instrument) every 30 minutes to an hour. Turns out it is really expensive to get a simple data entry app made (like $10-15 K). Since we were on a shoestring budget we decided lets just collect temperature / humidity data and manually enter the enamel property data so that we can at least build a model to see if there is a correlation before we invest $15 K in a seldom used iPhone app.

We needed a robust hardware set up which was better than a temperature probe connected to the Raspberry Pi through a breadboard. Jamie came up with a a suggestion - use a sensor kit from Dexter Industries called 'GrovePi' which came with a modular attachment to the Raspberry Pi. One could plug and play a variety of sensors for measuring or detecting  temperature/humidity, sound and light. It also came with a Python library of functions to allow one to interact with these devices in Python.After some trial and error I got the GrovePI to work with my Rasberry Pi, and soon I was able to stream temperature and humidity data from my office to the internet on the Initial State website.

The next challenge was to make this operational in the plant. We decided that WiFi is too noisy and we really should use a wired Ethernet drop to ensure good reliable network connectivity. One afternoon after the operating shift had gone home I connected the Raspberry Pi to the Ethernet drop and lo and behold I was transmitting plant data to the internet. Big milestone!

Streaming Temperature (Orange) and Humidity (Purple) Screen on Initial State Web Site
showing Raspberry Pi output from a 48 hour period

Software Victories

Now that I had a prototype version working and verified that it sends data measured in the plant  I had to operationalize the set up so that it functions on its own. So I decided that I was going to take a morning off my CEO job and actually code/hack to figure out how to make this work. First thing I needed was to get remote access to my Raspberry Pi so that I didn't need to carry a keyboard and monitor to the dusty plant environs. I was able to download and install PUTTY and PSFTP programs from the internet, they act as remote terminals for the Raspberry Pi. After some search through google I was able to fix the network setup on my Raspberry Pi so that it had a fixed IP address. Finally, the big victory of the day was installation of SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) and figuring out how to send text messages to my Verizon phone when certain events occur on my sensor (for e.g. humidity exceeds 30%) from Python code. It all worked!! - my iPhone beeped and I received a message that the humidity had exceeded 30 %. By the end of the day I was bleary eyed but felt 20 years younger knowing I could still hack it like when I was in my 20s.

Messages on my iPhone from my Raspberry Pi

Finding a Home

I wanted to put the sensor in a location in the plant by a spray line but still keep it out of reach, have a case that will allow air flow and protect from dust/spray of enamel. Jim Hutzel suggested a bird house. So during lunch I went to Lowe's and bought a cedar bird house and unscrewed the bottom and put the Raspberry Pi inside. The small opening for blue birds in the front was just enough to provide an opening for the sensor, network and power wires. So far it has been in place for over a week and I am collecting valuable data of temperature and humidity over time.

Raspberry Pi and GrovePi inside the 'bird house'

The bird house assembled - the humidity/temperature sensor is in blue/white

Next Steps

I feel that I have come a long way. At least now I know how the connected hardware and data collection works. Now it is time to learn from the data, create heuristics and device a control algorithm in changing our operating variables so that they are more in line with the humidity/temperature conditions in the plant. We also have created a test bed to test the robustness of the hardware setup and its ability to stay up for extended periods of time in the harsh plant environment where it can approach 100 F during summer on the floor.

Key Takeaways

Here are some key takeaways.

1. Kudos to Initial State for organizing PiOT-101 workshops to create awareness and increase actual implementation of IoT.
2. The hardware for IoT is increasingly cheap and affordable. Our entire setup including sensors, GrovePI and Raspberry Pi was under $300 dollars (what you would pay for a spare part in a plant).
3. There are increasingly sophisticated online tools/APis available such as that from Initial State that will allow us to store and manipulate data at a very large scale - somewhat similar to what AWS has done for distributed computing.
4. There is a huge amount of know-how on Github and internet on Python programming and the Raspbian (Unix) on the internet.
5. You have to have the mindset of a 10 year old to succeed. Lots of time I tried things that lead to Epic Fails! but every time I learned something from them and the satisfaction to get it right is huge!
6. Collecting data is just the first step, turning it into knowledge and eventually wisdom is where the real value is created.

I will continue to post more blogs as we make progress.


Stay Tuned!
hemant