UPDATE: I ran the update again on my new AppleTV second gen and it did not flake. I'm not sure what the original problem was? The only thing I can say I did before I ran the update for the first time when it broke was purchase a movie and not watch it. I wish I knew why this problem happened on my original but Apple has that TV locked up tight.


Problem:
I did the latest Apple TV update and my Apple TV flaked, per the iTunes logo and USB cable that displayed on the TV (Apple speak for restore) I did a restore (connect Apple TV up to computer using micro USB and initiate a restore through iTunes) on my Apple TV 2nd generation and I get this error: The Apple TV "Apple TV" could not be restored. An unknown error occurred (1602).

Solution:
I read quite a few posts. None gave a solution. I tinkered for a few hours and came up with nothing (there just isn't that many things you can do with an Apple TV in terms of tinkering) I think this is too knew of an issue with Apple. I took my Apple TV back to the Apple store and they gave me a new one. I think I'm going to hold off on the update for a while until Apple gets this resolved.

Other suggested solutions that did not work for me.
1. Clean restore using iTunes, using a micro USB cable making sure the power cord is plugged into the Apple TV.
2. Use your xCode to restore the code to the Apple TV. Still no love for me.


Explanation:
Apple doesn't let too many bugs go out on this scale with this kind of impact. It's rare, but they respected the issue with me by simply giving me a new Apple TV after I set up an appointment online for the Genius Bar.

At 7 years old, many questions are offered to be answered by adults who have more “wisdom.” One of their favorites is, “What do you want to be when you grow up.” Arguably, at this point in your life is when you offer up the job you think will give you the purest form of happiness.

As we get older things get a bit more convoluted. We have dreams of what we want to be, how much we want to have, and often through the wear down of life, we adjust and know life will go on for us whether we achieve them or not. The primary question is will the things we want and pursue bring us happiness if they are achieved. Additionaly, in the pursuit of them will we lose out on some good life. We all know the line “the only thing in life you can’t get back is time.” Money, status, carrier, relationships come and go, you can lose them and gain them back, time however, not even God’s or God offers to give that back...if you’re into that.

This being said, time is the only constraint to happiness. Now finding it? Tony Hsieh’s book “Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose,” does a wonderful job at explaining on how, even after he had achieved “enough” at 24, enough is not what brought him happiness.* He does a great job at exploring his journey to the CEO of a prosperous Zappos. Tony later dicloses of investing all his money into Zappos; what he learned along the way and what really brought him happiness, hoping that what he learned will benefit you.

This asian persuasion business man gone New York Times Best Seller does a wonderful job at giving you the tools to help you exactly pinpoint what makes you happy. For the nerds out there Tony gives you charts and graphs to use in your pursuit of happiness. For the more socially inclined Tony describes the path to happiness through personal stories, and what to look for in yourself.

The book at times is a bit cheesy and over the top, but Tony is unquestionably on to something. My words of wisdom I generated from this book: The only definitive proof we have in this life is you get one of them. With this knowledge a successful life should be defined in spending more than half of it happy, because when it’s over there’s no getting the time back!

*Tony was promised 40 million, when he sold his company LinkExchange. 20 million was paid up front and the other 20 million was paid to him if he stayed one more year. Tony left 20 million on the table in that last year because he was not happy.

Manipulating people, if you want to get anything in life it requires more than for them to see your point of view, it requires them to believe in it enough to act upon it. In Neil Strauss's book, The Game, he talks about the society of pick-up artists. Sound ridiculous? It kind of is, that is, until you see it work, then it becomes very real.

This book is more a study of human behavior. In the end Niel states he comes to the conclusion that real long term relationships are not built off a 15 minute routine you use to gain someone's attention relationships are built over a real connection, learning more about each other, and sharing time with each other. This book is a fun read, but written for male readers.

What was my interest in the book, I'm married, how could this be practical to me? If you look one step further than the guise the book uses to deliver the message, Neil is teaching, through personal stories, how to understand human behavior. My goal was to look past the pick up artist study and try and understand how I can apply his social interaction to a work environment in order to achieve my project's goals in a larger company where you need other teams help, but they don't necessary have to help you. Here is where I am torn, if I simply tell you the great things I have gained from this book, then my coworkers see what I'm trying to accomplish which in turn means I have to change my plan altogether (Assuming they read this, this is a big assumption).

After writing the rest of my blog entry I erased it and decided it would be in my best interest in every way to simply encourage you to read the book and gain your own insight.

Phone rings, looking down I see it’s a number I don’t recognize. What the hell, I pick it up. “Ben, it’s Becky,” says a raspy voice on the other end of the line followed by a quick low smoker’s chuckle. A smile hits my face so fast, it’s as if someone slapped it on me. “I wrote a book, it’s called Road Schooled…”

I’ve been told in order to truly appreciate someone’s writing you have to know who they are as a person. I’ll do my best to put Becky into words. Imagine Janis Joplin’s voice and charm, Hell’s Angels attire (when she is on the road), and a drip of compassion that surely came from motherhood. Put them all together, blend and poor over a bike big enough to make your dad’s bike look like a moped, bam, you have Becky.

When first reading Becky’s book you will realize she’s a people’s writer. She’s writing this book for her, others like her, and to hell with everyone else. You could almost say she is writing a guide, maybe a bible, for all independent female souls. Women not afraid to live on their terms, women who might share a few moments in their lives with you, but deep down you know you are more or less the ketchup on the hamburger, understanding she will be doing what she does with or without you. As you get further into the book the better the picture is painted; you can almost hear Bob Seger’s Turn The Page playing against the imagery of the movie Easy Riders. You don’t hear the words on the pages, you hear the feelings and the moments she is sharing, making it easy to visualize a lone women rider on a dusty desert road, hair feverishly blowing backwards; internally speaking her thoughts to one person, herself….and now you.

The book Road Schooled, is a quick enjoyable read. I recommend getting a cold beer, sitting down and letting Becky share her words with you on a sunny Sunday afternoon. With this said I’m going to put an excerpt of one of my favorite scenes.

“We wandered through the parking lot for one more look at the bikes before we headed to bed. I was admiring one bike, obviously well loved and well ridden. It had a leather bound rod about 18 inches long, hanging from the throttle. I wondered what it was for, and thought it may be some kind of cool tool that I should have. The owner of the bike had ambled over, he was a grizzled, scary looking guy, but I have learned a long time ago that looks can be deceiving, so instead of being intimidated by him, I asked him what the cool leather thing was. He told me it was for smashing windshields when someone on the road pissed him off. I learned two things; sometimes looks are not deceiving; and I had no use for the cool tool. Someday, I’m going to have a patch embroidered and sewn to my riding jacket that reads 99 %er.”

I believe this could be the start of something good with her writing; I have high hopes she returns to put more of her life on paper for all of us to share.

I embarked on the journey of reading Andrew Carnegie’s (AC) autobiography. It was unquestionably one of the better I’ve read (Miles Davis, John Nash, Michael Milken, Jenna Jameson, Jack Welch). The first half of the book has him describing his life starting in Scotland, moving to America and his progression to wealth. You can see from the very beginning he was able to recognize a skill that would be marketable and not only master it, but let the opportunities this skill brought him be the segue into his next venture. The second half is him giving away his money and his interaction with American politics.

AC had no real skeletons in his closet, nothing entertaining from the perspective of drama, drugs or sex scandals. His biggest fault viewed by some may have been his labor practices to his employees. I view this as one sided. He was very generous for his time to his employees; he made more than 20 of them millionaires in the later 1800’s. Just to make this clear, these are people that had no financial risk in the company itself, but he valued their work so much he made them partners and gave them stock options in a time when doing that for employees was simply unheard of. He was one of the first to set up a grocery type store for his employees. He gave them the opportunity to run the store and set the prices ensuring the cheapest cost to the employee shoppers possible and he sold the store supplies at the same discounted prices he received for them when he bought them in bulk for his companies. An example of this was his ability to provide coal at a fraction of the rate the employees where paying outside of the company store. The coal was so cheap they could not only afford proper amounts now the employees were able to have it delivered to their homes. He was also one of the first to set up a type of credit union for his employees, in which he offered more secure backing of the money than the government at the time and he would loan out this money to employees so they could attain houses at interest rates they could afford.

When AC had reached a point he felt he had amassed enough wealth, roughly around 300 billion in today’s dollars he started on his journey of giving away around 95% of it. To put this in perspective, if Bill Gates and Warren Buffet gave away every last dollar they earned it still would not amount to half of what AC gave away.

One of my favorite points about this autobiography was how many iconic people he was casually friends with: Mr. Twain, Mr. Morgan (as in JP), Mr. Roosevelt among many others.

I was disappointed to finish the book. I had become accustom to hearing the nightly stories AC was offering. It felt as if he came back for a short bit to speak with me and upon finishing the book it was his time to leave again. Cheesy I know, but it really is how I felt.

On to my next book, it was going to be the Zappos guy’s book, but a good friend of mine Becky Collins wrote a book of her own, Road Schooled. It’s about her journeys of traveling around on a big fat honk’n Harley Davidson. I can’t wait. She’s got character and personality that is unique and fun, I’m confident she can let it shine through in her words.