On walking and talking

One of the things I read recently talks about doing new things when you can. Learning something new helps your brain. When my work asked me what kind of phone I would carry, I chose an android. Normally for my phone, I carry an iPhone. I did that to force myself to learn a new system. It helps you, over time, continue to learn. One of the things I find interesting, though, is the ownership issue. I have my Bose headset. I wear it and often have conversations with people at work. Most of my walk on Friday was spent on work calls.

I’ve noticed that if you have two phones connected via Bluetooth, there isn’t a soft handoff when the call is done. I listen to audiobooks and podcasts on my iPhone. I had work calls, one that was a conference call and one that was a clarification call from a coworker.  I started listening to Science Friday at the end of the second call (I love the podcast).  The podcast didn’t play on the headphones; it played on the phone. There are two fixes to the problem, but I always forget to do the two things before trying to switch. I remember after the fact but then have to replay the last 30 seconds lost in my book or podcast!

First, you can shut off the headphones, turn them back on, and they will reconnect. The second is to go into settings, Bluetooth, and reselect or reconnect the second phone. It is one of those minor things, but you notice it, as there are seldom days when I don’t have calls when walking. I suspect it is more of a problem than a global problem. The percentage of people that have two phones is small. The percentage of those that use both phones with a single headphone set is even smaller. I guess I am the tiny intersection of functionality that few people consider important!

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Cool Tech Round up!

Some technologies that I am thinking of are going to explode. Lookingglass is one of these. Lookingglass is still a little expensive, but they are an interesting play overall. First, they have a holographic monitor; you can plug it into your USB and your HDMI port on a computer and see holograms. Their new solution includes the ability to create holograms. Their software is well done, and overall I think there is a future for Holograms! Another similar product in a different market is one of my personal favorites. AstroReality is the second tech company today.

AstroReality makes AR solutions starting a few years ago with a model of the Moon and Neil Armstrong’s footprint. Open their application and point it at the object, and you will get lots of information. This application of AR is phenomenal, and I have to say they are one of my all-time favorite companies! Plus, listening again to Walter Cronkite talk about NASA is worth the price alone. Another company I am thinking will take off is the laser projector. The newer models are smaller than in the past (portable to a degree). There are two kinds of laser projectors, standard and short throw.

Laser projectors allow you to have a much higher quality projected image; with the newer, more portable (they weigh a solid 18 pounds, so they are less portable than a small projector), you have the flexibility to show movies. I like the new Anker product, but I am a huge fan of Anker. Everything they touch that I own has been high quality. Their Capsule (small portable projector) is amazing. The new portable laser projector is also amazing. They have AndroidTV on the device in both cases, so you don’t have to run your phone battery down to watch things on the screen when camping!

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Rinse, repeat eventually people will think they are facts.

As has been demonstrated, the difference is that those things are never said under oath. No matter what lying under oath is perjury. Perjury is a crime that results in you losing all credibility as either a witness or, for that matter, as a speaker.

I often speak on the topic of connectivity. My current Hubpages article speaks about that very issue. The reality of this concept of free internet. Today, you can get free access to the internet, but it is limited, and you pay by getting advertising. That is not conducive to a child’s learning. But, honestly, the internet itself is not the best learning tool. There is little structure and less than ideal controls.

This is not a call for censorship, simply a reality of what is presented. Movies, Records, and TV have standards for what younger audiences can see or hear. The internet and, for that matter, social media do not have those limits today. Once you are on the internet, you are in the pool’s deep end.

Again this is not a call for complete censorship. I would much prefer that the internet be curated for younger users. Not censored, but managed in the sense of what they get to see. Conspiracy sites (one of my pet peeves is calling them Conspiracy Theory sites, they are as far from a theory as you can get and still be on Planet Earth) are bad for younger learners. They are bad for many older learners, but I can’t do anything about them older learners. People believe what they want to believe even if it is, at best, wrong.

I would like to see a process where we separate the internet for the chef. I would like to see a safer internet for young learners. I would also like to see both sides of the story system mandatory, but that isn’t ever likely to happen. It sort of fits with my dream of an internet veracity engine.

Repeating things over and over does not auto-generate facts.

Free Internet?

https://discover.hubpages.com/technology/Futurist-How-do-we-get-to-internet-for-all 

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Nuclear power is not the answer. Fusion, if it works is, but fission is not an answer.

was listening to a Podcast yesterday and heard an argument that made me wonder. First, it was an argument that I’ve heard both sides of many times. It was the argument that Nuclear power is safer than Coal-Fired Power. In the environmental impact today, yes, that is true.  Coal-fired power plants emit many more long-term dangerous gases into the environment. I won’t argue that because, frankly, we need to stop using Coal. But the argument for Nuclear power being safer than Coal makes me nervous. Many years ago, I was protesting a nuclear power plant in Indiana.

The argument for nuclear power plants is this roughly. The number of people killed in Nuclear Plants to date is 50. That is a roughly correct number. Yes, many more people have died in Coal Mines and from Coal-Fired Power plants. That is also a fact. But facts are subtle when you nuance them. There have been three major Nuclear power disasters. None of them have happened in the last two years. But, you cannot now, nor likely can you, enter the nuclear facilities where those accidents happened for many more years. If you did, you would well not walk out alive.

If the argument for Nuclear power is espoused on the podcast, if we rely on renewable resources, we won’t have enough power to meet our needs. That argument worries me for several reasons. First, it assumes that we have achieved the maximum capacity for Wind, Solar and Water generated power. That we have the maximum transmission capabilities, and that won’t improve. Those are two huge assumptions. ½ of power, when transmitted over a distance, is lost. Solar panels are between 18-25% efficient today. Entire nations are moving to renewable power. Fusion, rather than today’s nuclear reactors, would be a much better model overall—less risk long-term and more power available with fusion than the fission we use today.

I’ll end with this. Solar panels will become more efficient. Wind Turbines will become more efficient. I hope we can fix the transmission loss issue. But Nuclear power is only a small component of the future unless it is Fusion. Fusion would be a tremendous gift for humanity. As it exists today, Fission is a highly inefficient system that is risky.

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In a world of downloads uploads don’t matter, but…

My Hubpages post this week is focused on the issues around free-internet. First off, I am concerned that we are chasing the Cable Modem model for home internet. Going wireless is a much better short and long-term solution. It worries me that the various companies pushing a wired future aren’t paying attention to the reality they are in. Or worse, they are advertising things that aren’t real. I have argued for a  long time that the value of your home internet connection has evolved. What once was critical is less so now.

So let’s consider the reality of free-internet. First, let’s get the internet to the 2.1 to 3 billion people who do not have internet today. Let’s improve the internet for the 1.1 to 1.5 billion people with below-average to poor internet connectivity. The stories of kids sitting in McDonald’s parking lots to do their homework aren’t encouraging. The other side of this situation is that let’s start thinking long-term. If we dig trenches to homes and trenches to the apartment building to deploy Cable modems, we are doing the people of the world an injustice.

Wireless is truly the future. But we do have one other issue that is plaguing the internet today. The reality of disinformation is huge now. The reality of home-connected devices will forever change how people view the home internet. The more connected devices you add to your home, the more your internet will need upload capacity equal to or better than your download. In a world where everyone streams from various media companies and does nothing else, download speeds matter. In a world where you want to email pictures to mom and dad, upload speeds matter.

Link to the longer article

https://hubpages.com/technology/Futurist-How-do-we-get-to-internet-for-all

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Hodge Podge post

I have an Amazon FireTV in my office; it is my screen share monitor (I have the Google cast and the Airtame connected to the monitor). First, I am a big fan of the AndroidTV product, and the FireTV is very useful. I can watch YouTube and other media sources easily in my office. I often watch YouTube see how things work or how to repair items. One of the other things connected to that TV is a multiple HDMI splitter that allows me to input several HDMI Sources (Blu-ray player, computer, and so on). HDMI as a video cable standard is pretty good. The big issue for me is small cables!

Overall, FireTV has improved. Since the original box was released, I’ve used it, and we have a FireTV system in the RV now. You can steam the vast majority of your media services native to the TV. You also get Alexa, and that is a good thing. Ford has the Alexa Connect option on their new cars, and frankly, it is really useful. Although my one voice control complaint is that the two primary systems I use (Siri in my car and Alexa in my wife’s car) do not approach driving directions the same way. It is funny how little things can drive you crazy. But, they do and honestly it would be nice to change that!

The next innovation I would love to see with both Siri and Alexa is the ability to search within an application. Today that is limited, neither really does a great job searching inside of other applications. They do search inside some applications but not all of them, from a media perspective, it would be nice if Siri did a better job of searching inside of applications on the AppleTV system. (if you open for example Hulu, you have to use Hulu search inside the application). Still the overall solutions in both cases work pretty well. Someday perhaps the integration will be even better!

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the art of connection

Playing around with our new truck, I realized that I have been incorrect in how I have talked about connected or autonomous cars. There are truly three connections you can make to a car. The first is the autonomous driving connected car, a self-driving car connected to services to drive safely. The second is the manufacturer actually including a connection to the car. This usually involves the car connecting to the company that you can use a software package and connect to the car. Some of these applications include remote starting and other fun features.

Finally, there is the concept of a remote 3^rd party device connected to the Onboard Management Port of your car. All three of these are, in fact, forms of connection. Each relies heavily on the wireless network around you to provide the information and feedback that your system requires. Playing around with all three is interesting. I have used the remote start feature on cold days when I drive to work. It is a long walk from the warm building to the warm car, so it is important to have a prewarmed car at the end of the day!

Connection is the critical solution for the digital transformation age. The better our connections, the better our results!  As people move further and further into the new paradigm, the quality of connections will become a much larger driver than it is today. I remember moving to the East Coast and having to change my cellular carrier. You can’t have business conversations with the phone, and it refuses to stay connected! We ended up switching our service within six months of moving East. That is a critical component because the difference between coverage and bandwidth is a huge consideration.

It doesn’t matter where your signal is; it is the quality of the signal where you are that matters!

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Would you believe 19?

I’ve been having a computer issue with one machine for five days. First, I contacted Microsoft Support, but they were less than useless. After three attempts, they said, blow the machine away and start over. That would cost me around three days to find, install, and set up the software. As I would not be able to do a backup, the issue would be restored to the new computer if I did that.  The issue is an odd one that I am not sure I have fully understood, which makes troubleshooting even more difficult!

1. My edge browser launches, loads the home page, and then shuts down.
2. Chrome does the same thing.
3. I can open opera, and it stays open.

My initial thinking is that whatever common components on a Windows PC, Chrome, and Edge share have become managed or corrupted. I’ve tried the following to fix the problem.

1. Reinstall edge, reinstall chrome
2. Reinstall windows 11
3. Set edge and then chrome to launch as administrators
4. Open a private browsing session
5. Use MSConfig, turn all non-Microsoft services off and reboot.
6. Uninstall the last windows update

I tried a couple of smaller things, but those six all failed. The one that worries me is reinstalling windows didn’t work. Edge and Chrome will stay launched longer than they did when I first had the issue. So, they are both using a common component that is failing. I have a second PC, so it is not a horrible issue to work around. It is, however, bloody annoying at best. I will continue to try a few things, but honestly, I am not spending a lot more time on this. The next big update for Windows 11 will likely solve this issue by rebuilding edge and chrome.

The joy of troubleshooting is a success! So far, no joy here in Mudville.

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There is nothing like tech hobbies (for me)!

One of the things I will try this summer, is using the Deeper Sonar with my SwellPro Drone. The Drone can land on water, and the Deeper is designed to be handled less than gently (you can cast it). It provides a high-quality sonar image back to your phone. The Drone also returns video to my phone, which is a nice thing overall. That way, I have more information available when out on the water. Knowing what is coming is always something boaters are concerned about. You don’t want to get caught in a storm when boating if you can help it. When I was a teenager, my grandfather and I were on the far side of Lake Ripley (not a huge lake but still 10 minutes to cross) when a really bad thunderstorm rolled in. It was not the most pleasant experience; I have to say.

The Drone is rated to carry 1.2 KG, so we should be fine. The Deeper unit is less than 8oz, so we can easily move it with the Drone. Once the Drone lands, the Deeper will start pinging the bottom. If there are some really interesting things in the lakes we explore, we will break out the ROV and take a personal look. Drones and ROVs are something I spend a lot of time on.

It is a hobby; I have to say I met a professional Drone pilot the other day at work. It was amazing to talk to someone who flies Drones for a living. I suspect that would have been my career choice when I was thinking of a new technology field had it been available then!

Drones are cheaper now and continuing to get cheaper. There are several specialty Drones, and many now incorporate the GPS function of following me. Follow me has the Drone flying behind you, capturing what you are doing, which can be very cool unless you do something you don’t want on video.

As I said, Drones are and have been a hobby now for the past few years. I have been looking at the indoor safe Drones; I think that might be fun. Just have to keep it away from the Dogs!

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the joy of learning

One of the ways I learn is by hearing multiple different explanations of how things work. Yesterday I got to listen to one of my favorite speakers, and a couple of things I hadn’t fully grokked; the concept came home while he was talking. The first is the overall concept of microcells. Microcells will be more prevalent as we move down the 5g path. The good news is that it makes the network better in the long run. The bad news is you have to have a lot more of them. The density of microcells and population is going to be about the same.

But then you get that one gig up and one gig down on your cell or cellular device. Anyway, it came to me yesterday. The evolution is underway! There are several things that we are looking toward in the near term. By we, I mean me, but we sound better. One of those things is getting back to 3d printing. I also want to master the laser engraving of Laserpecker II. I have failed to produce good results on the first two attempts; I will go back and read the directions carefully. I want to be able to print laser-etched things!

The other thing I am working on is getting rid of things I will not use. I am making another concerted effort and no longer have things I don’t need. I would say us, but I would have to let another person have a voice in those decisions, which would greatly increase the number of things we “no longer need.” It is a long-running disagreement. One side of the house believes technology isn’t needed. The other side of the house believes having enough outfits for ten days without laundry is more than enough!

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