Security

There are two things I talk about all the time. One of them is security and how often people consider the impact of the internet on their safety. But the other theme I have conveyed for many years is backups. Backing up your pictures, documents, and other essential things (tax returns) is important. I thought I would talk about one quick security thing to consider and three ways to back up your information. The fastest and best security you can do on the internet is never shared your birthday and birth city online publicly. For example, I was born in Chicago. But, all of my records are focused on a specific part of Chicago. So, knowing the first thing doesn’t get you close to answering Chicago is huge.

Don’t overshare personal information is the key! The next theme today is the concept of backups. First, there are many kinds of backups. I am going to talk today about two distinct backup types. The first is to have two physical hard drives with two copies of your critical information. For example, I have more than two terabytes of pictures and family videos. I have two physical copies of those pictures. One is on a hard drive that I only turn on once every couple of weeks to copy the files; the other is on a hard drive I use every day. That way, the worst I am out of information is around two weeks. I use an application called Richcopy that lets me quickly copy files in the background.

The other backup solution I use is online. I have two different online backups today. First, all my pictures are backed up to Amazon Prime. They let you backup your photos for free as part of Prime membership. The other solution I use is a service called Carbonite. Not the Carbonite that Darth Vader used to freeze Ha Solo, Carbonite is an online backup service. They give you an agent on your computer, and it automatically backs your computer up for you when the computer is on. That is quite simply how to create two complete backups of your critical data without a lot of effort. I keep my extra drive off if I fall victim to a Ransom wear attack. If I do, I can blow my computer away and still have all my data!

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connection

This morning I turned on Holiday music on the Sonos Speakers. One of the features of Sonos is the ability to play the same music on every speaker in the house. Well, every connected Sonos speaker in the house. That is a fun thing you can do with connected speakers. The concept of connection is an interesting one; I have talked a lot about the idea of what 5g will do and the digital reality that your cell phone will probably be your primary device. But there is more to connection than just the device. The connection concept often starts with the link from where you are to the “ROW” or Rest of the World. The connection is normally from a router to the world.

The reality of that “router” connection to the internet is that it often isn’t dedicated. People often call me and say, “I can’t do zoom calls. Or WebEx, or Teams, or BlueJeans and on and one). You can’t do video calls for several reasons. The first is they don’t have enough capacity. This can be found out very quickly. Have your devices on, and check your connection speed. Speed tests check the capability of the network for the device you are on. That quickly tells you that if your “router” has enough bandwidth available for the call. It seems like a simple thing, but since March, the number of connected devices in many homes has increased a lot. Where once they might be one, now there are 3 or 4 at the same time.

The other thing that gets video conferences in trouble is the reality of the device you are using. I find that my iPad works well with Zoom and with Facetime calls. My cell phone (an iPhone) works well for Facetime. My work phone (and android device, yes, I have both with me most of the time). Each type of device does well with most conference types but not all of them. My desktop does well with all the video conferencing systems, but it has a better processor and more memory than the portable devices. That is very quickly why you will have issues with video conference calls. That doesn’t even dive into the case of the various software packages and what they need.

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my review of PrintCube

The label maker is an interesting technology backwater. Dymo makes computer connected labels makers. Standalone label printers have been around for most of the last 20 years. You type on the tiny keyboard and print a label for your Sugar, your flour, and of course, who doesn’t label their rice. The other things label printers are used for is at evens (Hi, I am John Smith, a sales rep from Albuquerque New Mexico). Label except and sometimes include computer information, either a QR Code or a bar code. Those two include computer or machine-readable information. The other type of titles have human-readable information, so I guess they are useful overall.

But, that is before the PrintCube shipped. A cube. You can see it in the pictures below.

Things I like:
1. The system prints in color!
2. It is very easy to set up and operate.
3. They have ink that allows you to create a custom tattoo and use the temporary ink print on the skin.
4. They even have an invisible ink cartridge to leave secret messages.
5. The printer is small and easily handheld.

What I don’t like
1. The rollers to move the printer are very small, requiring a pretty flat surface
2. The only connection is via wifi – Bluetooth would have been nice!

Print Cube lets you create printed labels anywhere (as mentioned in secret messages and on human skin). It is easily set up, and you can quickly be printing labels on surfaces. The more permanent ink should not be used on human skin as it doesn’t wash off with soap and water. Overall I don’t see a huge market for these types of printers. They are fun additions for parents, teachers, and others that interact with kids. They are useful for printing fast labels on things as well.
My overall rating of the PrintCube is 8 out of 10!

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on charging…

I have several projects going on over the holidays. I am setting up and doing some initial printing with the 3d printer. In particular, I am printing some stocking stuffers! I know, who makes Christmas gifts anymore? I do! Well, I had the idea, my printer makes the stuff. The other projects are cleaning things up and organizing my office. I have so much stuff in my office overall, and honestly, I do not always do a good job of getting rid of stuff. In particular, I keep the cables. I have gotten rid of a lot of the wires over the last couple of years. But I still have 4 or 5 of many cable types. I switched my charging system a few years ago so that I could reduce my cables overall.

One of the great additions to the world of change is the ability to use wireless charging. That helps in cars. I have had and used wireless charging pads in my office, but I found that the simple Anker charging hub is easier. Anker is a company that makes six and ten port USB charging station. I leave one or two of each type of USB connector (C, Mini, Micro). The Anker device delivers 1.5 amps to each of the USB ports (most devices require that or better). Plug the device in, and it starts charging. If I run into four or five devices with the same plug that needs to be charged, I can quickly unplug the USB cables I am not using and replace them with those I need.

I understand charging 3 or 4 devices at the same time is my problem. Few people have to do that, although, in the old days (pre-Covid), you would have guests or visitors in your home. SO you may have had two or three visitors say can I charge my device? There are also many other ways to set your device; many cars now come equipped with a built-in USB port. Many people use their phones as both entertainment but also informational devices. Cars offer that connection (via USB) to the phone to play their music in the car. Or, if you have SiriusXM at home, you can use the phone application to have Sirius in the car. Or, you can add satellite radio to your vehicle as well. But many now use their phone for everything.

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holograms!

Every year at Christmas, I take a few days off, and I promise myself I will make headway in getting rid of the clutter in my office. Every year I start with the best intentions; every year, I fail. This year instead of failing, I decided not to promise myself. I’m getting rid of a few things, but that’s it. You have to find a place where you are happy with what you can do. But it will get rid of a few things this year.

One of the interesting technology coming out this year is more and more support for holograms. I have talked many times about artificial reality, augmented reality, and virtual reality. The other side of that is the concept of a hologram. A hologram is a 3D representation of an image. So, where a picture is a two-dimensional hologram is the same image but in all three dimensions. There is an interesting company called looking glass that makes hologram monitors for your computer. Recently they launched a new kick starter campaign for the hologram creation system. That system will allow you to create your hologram.

AR, VR, and holograms are interested because they allow us to bring the three-dimensional world into a computer. In part because they enable people to explore all three dimensions on their computer. It also opens up a whole new world of content creation. I’m sure most of you have seen 3D or holographic cards. A small mirrored square is part of the card that you see an image when you turn it. As a hologram but it is the lowest form of Holograms.

The reason I want to make my Holograms? Princess Leia projected from R2D2 in the original Star Wars (Help Obi-Wan, Help me). That was the coolest scene. I would love and have looked at several Robots on the market today. None of them are as cool as R2D2 was. But, I am sure that will happen soon enough. The holograms are less than a year away (March 2021).

As is the case with AR and VR today, I suspect you’ll see holograms appear first in video games, but eventually, they will be used in many different things. Another exciting tech future item!

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Adoption curves

One of the interesting things I watch in the technology world is what is called the adoption curve. It is measured in early adopters, sometimes called cutting or bleeding-edge users. But the interesting thing is when it reaches what is called the mass market. When the adoption curve comes at that point, the product is fully in the market. There is an equation here called the total addressable market. Sometimes it is called TAM. TAM is defined as the percentage of the existing market that you can with your new company capture. It is something that people often misuse when trying to get funding for their idea. The reality is your TAM is one point below what the legally mandated limit for a monopoly is.

Both the US and the EU and many nations in Asia watch and regulate that number. But it is getting to that market rush that is the thing to care for. Seventeen years ago, HD TV’s were expensive. They were boxy (huge) and very expensive. They were in the early adopter market. When they moved to the mas for the consumer market, the price dropped a lot. That is called the economy of scale. It is cheaper to produce 10,000 50 inch TV’s than it is to produce 100. That means that while early adopters (sometimes we call it to keep up with the Jones, the early adopters are the Joneses) are willing to pay more. They get the value of the solution earlier—That is why they are early adopters.

In the old days (let’s say the 1980s), innovations that drove markets came from the R&D departments of large companies. Just ask Tesla, well, he is dead, but he worked for Edison for a long time. Ideas that weren’t understood or liked went into a drawer. Sometimes, those “failures” would emerge and change the market forever (never use a post-it note? It was an epic failure that became a huge market driver). Now, however, that has changed and changed forever. What was once the province of big companies has moved to the world of crowdfunding. Big companies have drawers full of failed ideas. Sadly in the crowdfunding world, the backers have crawlers with failed ideas. That, unfortunately, you paid for.

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YouTube and podcast

I have been doing a podcast and a YouTube channel for many years now.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCS8da6xtVLywH82HS5KY2Wg?view_as=subscriber My YouTube Channel

https://docandersen.podbean.com/ my podbean podcast.

Over the years, the creative expression world has changed a lot. Now there are so many more platforms for creativity. Are available now. TikTok is the new craze. It is focused n short videos. Snapchat is focused on connecting and talking to people (as are Skype, Whatsapp, Facebook Messaging, Google Hangouts). All of these services (and there are more) are designed for connection. But blogging hasn’t taken that next step yet. I suspect that is coming eventually. For me, the difficulty is the initial and then any other platform for the things I create. I separated my blog into two distinct blogs about ten years ago. These posts are focused on technology. My other was focused on family, thoughts, and ramblings, but after my father died, it became focused on the family wander project’s reality.

You will notice that my youtube focuses on Yesterday’s weather, although I post other things from time to time. My podcast varies the most. Sometimes focusing on something I am writing about. Sometimes focusing on longer discussions from blog concepts and sometimes on the creative side isn’t shown, the songs I write. I have written songs for many years, and I’ve shared a couple on my podcast. The other thing I often write is Poetry. And the point of this technology talk today is I am considering where does my poetry land. I used to publish poetry on Virily, but it isn’t well alive anymore. I tried a couple of Bluefire, but it isn’t the right place. So, where do I put my poetry? That is a question that I have been searching for the last couple of months.
Hopefully, I will find a place.

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what’s tech hot in 2021

This time of year, I usually do what’s hot in tech posts. If you haven’t gotten the techie a gift in your life, consider this a really quick and easy solution. Many tech companies haven’t been impacted as much by the pandemic except in one way. If they are a startup, then the only way they normally can mass produce things is to have a Chinese company build it. That isn’t easy now as the teams have to do the remote. That has delayed some tech this year. Shockingly the other issue right now is package delivery. As in, the services are overwhelmed and have been since the early November period. That is also making it hard for companies to get their things to market quickly.

1. Remarkable – Remarkable is an inky platform that allows you to edit documents and take notes. It feels more like paper and is dedicated; it only does that one thing (provide a paper-like interface).
2. The iPhone 12, it has 5g, needs I say more.
3. The new Samsung s20 phones 5g also
4. Timekettle M2 voice translation earbuds that also let you talk on the phone and listen to music!
5. Ambassador voice translation earbuds, same as the Timeettle M2. Great way to understand the world around you.
6. Jabra 75t earbuds (came out earlier this year) great for conference calls and listening to your phone!
7. Anything from Astro Reality (they are an AR company – awesome stuff)
8. Oculus Rift – great VR headset!
9. Xbox X newest release of the Microsoft console
10. Nintendo Switch (last years model but still good)
11. PlayStation 5 (newest of the sony releases)

Any techie out there will love any of these. All are great gifts. This gives you a technique heads up! Sometimes it is hard to buy for people that love tech. This list is also great for birthdays and other occasions to buy a technique as a gift. I did technology reviews in the past, not sure if I am going to bring those to this platform or keep looking for a place to host them.

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break the internet

One of the things that always makes me wonder is the concept of influencers. There are social media influencers. These are people that when they post or say something, other people grab ahold of it and run with it. Influencers can be interesting. I know that many of the ‘Internet” influencers are different from 30 and 40 years ago. Hollywood and Bollywood were where influencers came from back then. Now you have social influencers with YouTube channels and Tiktok channels. I have a really good friend that is a futurist for one of the large consulting companies. One of the digital trends that he often watches is what social platforms are critical.

We were talking the other day, and he mentioned a new thing I hadn’t noticed. Influencers now seem to be more focused on traditionally marketed products. Or, to put this more clearly, the demo has shifted. Yes, there are still influencers that are focused on the new and cutting edge products. That was the genesis of the influencer movement. But now, suddenly, more traditional products are also engaging influencers. He noticed that while a few years ago, social media influencers were young, now they represent the broader community. Currently, there are influencers in every age category. There are even a growing number of both dogs and cats in their roles.

The other thing my friend noted, and we talked about much longer, was the reality of influencer roles. When you are an influencer, you have to be more careful than those that are not. You cannot simply explode and say what you want to say. You see, influencers now also fall prey to the reality of being seen. Everything they say is suddenly news. It is the danger of being an influencer. Everything you say becomes shared. I feel bad for influencers on the many sites I am on. They lose freedom, and eventually, they lose the right to speak their minds. It is a role I have taken a few times on the many writing sites I have been on. I haven’t in a long time because I prefer to be able to say anything.

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winter tech

It’s the time because of the snow around me to do my annual winter Tech. First off, it’s cold. I’m writing this post on my walk, and it’s 24° outside. Yesterday’s rain followed yesterday’s novel. I was followed by a light powdery of snow on top of the mix of snow and rain. So I thought it time to talk about winter tech. The first winter tech company/product I would like to discuss is Ravean. Ravean is accompanied based in Norway, originally a kick starter project. The original product that the company offered on kick starter was a heated vest. After the heated vest, they do the men’s coat. Then they did heated gloves. This year they brought out cork-covered hand warmers on kickstart. He did the perils that around for many years. But the team that builds this stuff does it in Norway. On average, Norway is between 30 and 40° cooler than where I live and where even many Europeans live. So they know cold.

I can honestly tell you this morning, but having my Covid 19 masks around or on my face makes a big difference. The show keeps your face warm. But not mind you that that’s the benefit of wearing a mask other than the fact that it does keep in face form. The real value of the show is helping prevent other people be exposed to that horrible virus. The bad thing about the mask is it fogs my glasses. The bad thing about fogging your glasses when it is really cold is that it freezes. So I had to slow down and put my glasses in my pocket.

The last part of the cold weather tech that is improving tack for today is the Yakima. The Yakima system attaches to your shoes and gives you a significantly better grip on ice and snow. As I’m walking this morning, I was very happy to have my outcome is on. Yesterday we had a mix of snow, first about 2 inches and then rain just enough rain to make/and of course/when it drops down below 25° which it did last night becomes ice. Last night, the last vestiges of the storm dusted the top of the ice with some fresh snow, resulting from a somewhat slippery path. The Acoma System supports digging into the ice and reducing your risk of falling while walking; you have to be crazy like me to be outside walking today, however. The other side of snow mixed with rain creating slush and then freezing means that when you step on the grass, get that fun crunching noise. Two things I learned on this morning’s walk, even with the Ackerman system, avoid what appeared to be cleared patches of sidewalk their slippery, and I should’ve brought a thermos of hot coffee with me to keep my hands warm.

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