Thursday, August 1, 2013

So what about tablets and smart phones?

The time has come to open this can of jelly-belly worms.  I have avoided “going there” before now because I was not really in a true traveling full time lifestyle. Full time, yes but just not traveling much so the PC was a lot more instantly available.

I use a lot of tools to get through the day. Sure, planning tools, like mapping programs, RV Forums and Campground review sites take a lot of the uncertainty out of the process but how about while on the road?

First, a tablet or a SmartPhone (no matter whose) is not a full replacement for a PC.  it is an extension of the PC concept into a more convenient form factor. Here is where one’s own subjective attitudes starts to muddy the waters because no two people will use their devices in the same ways at the same times. This is a really important point to understand because so many people’s view of technology is based purely in what they already know and that is a huge variable in trying to sensibly compare their comments.

For instance, what does “good Wifi” or “broadband speeds” actually mean?  These are not measured comparisons based in technology but each person’s understanding of how well these fit their own experiences and understandings.  Good Wifi may really suck to many others for a variety of reasons such as the difference in the operating system, its default maintenance profiles and how much actual personal multitasking that person actually does on a device.  There is a huge difference in the concept of a good connection between an accomplished Windows 8 user that spends a lot of online time researching and planning versus a pocket mail only user that does everything in hardcopy.

Online RV research resources contain a lot of active advertising, pictures (like in blogs) and videos (Youtube and Vimeo) and those all require good consistent BI-DIRECTIONAL bandwidth. YourTube and Vimeo contain huge amounts of instructional videos for RVers and the Wifi systems in most campgrounds and hotspots just cannot handle their content delivery.

A person that has not learned the value of these resources cannot have any reliable perspective on what is “good Wifi” or “Good Bandwidth”. They know the terms but not the implications.

Since tablets and SmartPhones are almost totally dependent on wireless connectivity, their usefulness can be really stymied when they cannot communicate at the rate and with the consistency necessary to adequately support the user.  This brings about a growing hesitancy by many to becoming too dependent on the hand held technologies. They just don’t want to become enslaved to failing bandwidth and connectivity issues as they move around.

For simplicity, let’s just call all handheld devices, tablets to help paint some relatable perspective for non-users. 

In the RVing world there is a lot of planning that can be done. Some do it overtly using any tool that helps them form a better perspective about what they want to happen.  Others claim a more whimsically serendipitous approach and let nature take its course.  Internally, they still do a lot of planning based in their experiences even if it is not overtly.

This is fine for those that already have the experiences but newbies lack the perspectives necessary to make reliable assumptions and worse, often have no clue that they are so uninformed. They usually figure that it is a hands on workshop with no instruction and they just have to wing-it!

As mentioned, there is a huge and growing amount of content on YouTube and Vimeo that really helps flesh-out perspectives and teach RVers how to do common things from backing up to replacing a rubber roof or hooking up a satellite dish.  Access to these resources is traditionally through a PC or laptop. If those are not handy at a moment, one may struggle unnecessarily to figure out a problem or decide where to go.  The tablet form factor makes it more likely that access to these resources will already be at hand. Even more likely if the RVer in need has a smartphone.

The critical factor is whether that RVer thinks to use their tablet to assist in their situation and whether it has any connectivity available. Chances are that if they have already become familiar with accessing RV resources online their tablet will already have the necessary apps on it.

Finding just what is needed is usually a matter of starting with a search. Just describe your problem or question in Google or Bing in exactly the same words as you would if you were talking to “an expert”. You will get applicable answers to what you need to know.  Most of the time, this process of working through these search hits will develop a broadening perspective about the subject and that is what eventually becomes one’s “experience”. 

The more that one does this research technique the faster they  will become able to manage it all. The more available the access is to these tools the more that they will be used and that is where the tablets and smart phones blossom. They help each user grow their knowledge base and experience far faster than any other method of problem solving.  The tablet technology puts that vital information at their finger tips and the more that one uses that tool the faster and more accurate they will become in solving their situations.

A simple analogy is a flat tire on a highway in the mountains of Tennessee. If one has no cell phone and needs help just consider how long it will likely take to get in touch with a serviceman and get it fixed if one has no wireless connectivity.  Now consider you have connectivity with a tablet / smartphone.  An App takes you directly to the Emergency Road Service or a phone number that gets the necessary service out to you as soon as practical.  No one plans to have a flat but it is not rocket science to see that having good connectivity is better than not having it.

Good connectivity tools are a great hedge against the unplanned and spontaneous changes of life as it unfolds before us.  Like the good witch of Sleeping Beauty fame, one cannot necessarily prevent the bad from happening but having and using the right tools can change the devastating into something more acceptable and manageable. Mountains can be turned into mole hills.. with the right tools, attitude and competency.  Smartphones and Tablets are a very good start.

ttfn

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Antivirus and MalWare - 2013

PCMag just did a review of the major A/V and Malware protections: http://www.pcmag.com...,2388652,00.asp

In general, I agree... except for Norton, McAfee and Kaspersky.... I just don't go there anymore.

Remember, what is great today may not be so great next month/year... (eg.  Norton's and McAfee).  I used to use AVG but as a PC wrench, I always needed to stay up to date on such things and in the process of "fixing" a lot of other people's machines that became contaminated I became more concerned about the collateral damages that many of these "fixers" caused the hosting machines.

In the end, I settled down to Avast and AVG. They go on easy, don't consume a lot of system resources to do what they do and can be successfully removed without having to resort to the ultimate removal tool.... FDISK / Format.

Microsoft Essentials has seemed to catch all the stuff that may rarely get to my system but I have seen many times that system performance has been hurt by 50% or more due to MSE operations (according to the Task Manager performance tool).

If an infection does occur and whatever I have running does not kill it AND successfully remove it, I immediately go to MalwareBytes for the best removal with the least risk and trouble.  In some cases, detecting an invasion does not automatically mean that it has been killed or removed, too and in a few cases, it took 2 or more runs of the removal processes to actually get rid of the infection.

There is no advantage to having a 100% protection rate if 100% of the time the protection software degrades your system's performance and interferes with the installation / removal of other software and drivers (i.e.. Norton's, McAfee, Kaspersky). 

My first choice on Windows 7 and 8 is to just let MSE do its thing. If you find that you are still picking up vermin, set up limited and strongly protected non-administratively enabled users for others that use your machine and for heaven's sake quit pulling executables from UseNet and stop visiting porn sites!

ttfn

Budd

Friday, October 14, 2011

Just put Android 2.3 (gingerbread) on my EPIC 4g

Ahhhhhhh! What a relief it is!

I now am running the Gingerbread 2.3 version of Android on my Samsung EPIC 4g! It took about 3 days of angst and eventual assistance by Randy to get it done but I am now running on THunderHawk V2.3.4 from RandomRomhttp://randomking.romgeeks.com/ and it is really great. I have not had the reboots some have experienced although, before I got it all done, I did have a few but I also had no data service and no bluetooth even though it appeared that I had it all installed correctly.

I finally dropped back to ground zero, started over from scratch following the instructions on RandomROM's site and now it works great! So far, no glitches and boy is it fast compared to Froyo!

A few notes I picked up about doing an upgrade.

  1. Be sure you pre download everything that MIGHT be needed BEFORE you start the process. Unfortunately, this does not mean that you will actually have everything. It just means that you should have everything, particularly the BIG files that you may need.
  2. No one thing puts on everything. There are parts and each part has to go on individually. Some packages may include several parts but usually, the related websites just point you to where other parts are.... and may be wrong.
  3. Just because a file has a specific name as a file on another site eg. MODEMEH17.bin, does not mean that they are exactly the same. I downloaded the same file from two different locations and the first one (of course) did not work but passed the hash check test so no clue it was not right. The second one was longer and actually worked when I finally got it and installed it.
  4. Try to get a clear sense of how it all goes together before you start picking up the pieces to fit them together. There are Kernels, modems, File systems (RFS and EXT4) that have to be converted, Uploaders to choose from (ODIN or HEIMDALL) and installation packages to choose from like oneclick. Each of these requires different things of you BEFORE you start to change anything.
  5. BACKUP! before you do anything AND BACKUP! at various stages along the way. After you have backed up to your SD card, then BACKUP! the Sd card to your PC in case it is formatted or otherwise changed. Titanium backup is excellent and will allow you to restore your "STUFF" as needed once the installation is finished.

After the installation is complete, putting your "STUFF" back on is a mixed bag of choices: APPS sources, like Android market and AMAZON APPS, will remember what you have previously installed once you have your setup and sync info finished in the EPIC. You can just pick the ones you want from your MY APPS list within the market.

Was it worth the effort? I can now say it was but until it was all settled out, I was constantly thinking "I wish I had understood this process better before I started pushing buttons." The one thing that I did not know going in was exactly how to restore back to what I had before I started to change the system. That is something that should be crystal clear to you before you start.

Saturday, August 13, 2011

Gmail for mobile

Gmail for mobile

Ok, not everything from Google just comes automatically. There is a big conversion process underway that intends to eventually make for just one Google world. meanwhile, some parts are advancing in less overt ways and these are managed under the Google transition process.

Alerts for these newly available updates to various parts of Google "stuff" are available by subscription and can be had in emails or in your google reader subscriptions. Just ckout: http://feeds.feedburner.com/GoogleAppsUpdates

The particular update that I have just installed is under the GMail arena but you will find that it does a lot more than just simply a new gmail look and feel.
Enjoy


Sunday, July 31, 2011

40 Tips for Google+

For those that are investigating the new Google+ facility, there is a running technical blog for it with a lot of good information.

One of the most useful tips so far is actually a set of tips for making your Google+ a little friendlier and smoother. You can find those in this post:

Lots of good stuff in here for G+ users:http://googlepluses.blogspot.com/2011/07/google-tips-part-1-stream-1.html

Google plus Blog: 40 Google Plus Tips For Power Users

Unofficial news , tips and Extensions about Google plus, A blog that watches the Google services that help you to become more social

ttfn

Budd