I ordered a new Lumia 928 yesterday, and am anxiously awaiting a shipping notification from Verizon. In the meantime, I am beginning to research this huge leap into a whole new platform. Microsoft has a very helpful website that gives you an idea of how to transfer your calendar, contacts, and email, as well as answers some frequently asked questions. All my contacts are in Gmail, and I have an Outlook.com account, so I am in good shape there. However, I did find a thread at the Apple support forums that raised a red flag-apparently switching operating systems without turning off iMessage first is a bad, bad idea.

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I love to find tips and tricks that make my life easier, and that’s why a recent post on Lifehacker caught my eye … the title might have had something to do with it, too, as I do love MacGuyer-esque fixes.

Three of my favorites include how you can:

Make Perfect Pancakes with a Squeeze Bottle

Make Perfect Pancakes with a Squeeze Bottle

Yes, this one is pretty self-explanatory! Whip up the pancake mix, use a funnel to put it in a large squeeze-bottle, and then make perfectly round pancakes. The best part is that if you don’t use all of the mix, the container can go right into the refrigerator (or freezer) for next time! Now there is an easy cleanup!

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Spring time in Texas is hot; we do not really have seasons, just hot and not so hot. We are deep into the spring turkey hunting season, and some days it is just unbearable. I hunt with a bow, so that is done in a pop up tent blind. Turkeys can see extremely well, so I wear a long sleeve black shirt and black ninja mask. Of course I always wear my snake boots and long pants. The blind is basically an oven. I recently heard about people turning ice chests into an air conditioner on the go and decided to make one. Here is how I made my version.

The ice chest I used is an Igloo 25qt Marine model. I chose this model because it was the most common used on the projects I found. It is available almost anywhere ice chests are sold and comes in around $30. What I will attempt to do, is cut holes in the lid to install a fan that blows across the ice and a vent to redistribute that cool air.

Other than the ice chest, to make your own you will need a fan, pipe for the vent and a 12v battery. I used an auto fan from Walmart that cost around $11, a piece of 2 inch PVC with an elbow, and a battery I used on my deer feeder. The entire project came out to around $50 since I had the battery.

To make the opening for the fan, I simply took the front protector off, traced it and then drew a line slightly inside so it will not fall through the hole. I used the square grids of the lid to line up the hole and make it even. I cut this opening with a utility knife. Not a fun experience, but it got the job done. Repeat this step for the PVC pipe, but do not make the hole smaller. It needs to go all the way through. For this hole I remembered I had a rotary cutting tool, so it only took seconds.

Once the holes are cut, I just made sure everything fit. I used duck tape to hold the pipe in place and  used it inside the lid under the fan because the lid is hollow and I wanted straight air flow. Currently, the fan is being held in place with the tape, but I plan on adding some c-clamps once the project gets out of beta testing.

The end of the fan is made to use a car cigarette lighter. I snipped the wire, stripped it, and attached it to the battery. The wire with the white strips goes to the positive connection. Since the fan has a switch and fuse,it is easy and safe to use. All that is needed now is ice and a warm day.

This project took less than an hour to build and the results are positive. I like how it is going, so I will clamp the fan down more permanently now. I also will build a box on the side to hold the battery and use a 12v solar panel to charge the battery while in the field. Since my only complaint on this model is the fan noise, I will build another using two large computer fans that are virtually silent. My only concern is moving enough air to make a temperature difference.

I hope you have enjoyed my DIY project and try your own version. Please share with us if you build one or have any improvements to this design.

Blue Lake Bush beans fresh from my garden

How many of us have been at a grocery store and been disappointed with the variety and quality of produce? How many sandwiches or other dishes have been befouled with limp lettuce or a feeble yellow-green-pink tomato? It’s no wonder kids (and some adults) aren’t too keen on vegetables. What to do? One solution is to start your own garden, especially an heirloom garden. The term “heirloom” is still often debated, but for the purposes of this post I’m going to loosely define the term to mean an openly pollinated plant that breeds true to its parents and is not an artificially genetically modified organism.  Often these varieties have been cultivated for generations. There are quite a number of resources available online, for example the Seed Savers Exchange.

The important practical benefit of using heirloom plants is that you have the opportunity to save seeds or cuttings of a given plant and use them in subsequent years—allowing you to control your own food supply rather than relying on 3^rd party control of your foodstuffs. From a culinary standpoint, heirloom varieties can be dizzying, and they come in types you would never see in supermarkets. The flavor of a homegrown tomato simply outclasses virtually anything you’d find in a store. The downside is that certain varieties may have susceptibility to certain diseases to which hybrid varieties have been bred to be resistant, but the genetic diversity offers a strong buffer to monoculture problems of the type bananas are facing. For the very old among us, they might remember the Gros Michel banana, now largely wiped out due to a fungal disease. The banana that most are familiar with in the western world is the Cavendish, which is said to be inferior in flavor.

My post is by no means meant to cover all plant types and nitty-gritty gardening tips—that would encompass many pages, but at least offer the perspective of someone just starting out with a few vegetable types. You definitely don’t want your first experience with gardening to be overwhelming!

Initial planning of the garden layout: Space and light. How much do you have, and what kind of natural lighting exposure will your garden have? I had a large area between part of my back yard and the driveway that was level but had old gravel in it, so initially started with a few EarthBoxes. I had a newborn and a busy work schedule, so free time was problematic.

EarthBox® plant growing system. So simple to use, I could do it!

The EarthBox proved to be a very convenient way to begin growing vegetables for me, offering a few key benefits for a budding gardener. The EarthBox consists of a plastic tub, roughly the size of a recycling container, a soil divider/aeration screen, water tube and mulch cover “tarp” and an overflow hole. By containing a water reservoir and sheet-like mulch cover, weeds are eliminated and water is conserved. Using the four containers I have, I’ve been able to successfully grow summer squash, tomatoes, peas, and various kinds of beans. In the Spring I prep the soil in the container, removing any old roots from last year’s crop, mix in the proper fertilizer and such, put the mulch cover over it and decide what I want to plant in the EarthBox. EarthBox provides what they call “Replant kits”, so it’s easy to do year to year and get new mulch covers and the correct fertilizer amount. The newer EarthBoxes feature optional casters and plant staking systems, making them even easier to set up and use.

Here are two of the boxes with zucchini, yellow summer squash and bush beans with my initial raised bed in the background

In the summer, I could get up early, water the containers before work, then water again as needed that evening or the next morning, stopping when the water started trickling out of the overflow hole. Obviously, plant number and size is key to preventing too-rapid depletion of the reservoir. The larger or more numerous the plants, along with warmer temperature, the more water  will be used. I still use them to this day … they haven’t worn out!

From my experience, tomatoes and bush beans did exceptionally well in the EarthBoxes. I recommend you give Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds a look when selecting seeds. They have a beautiful full color catalog and reasonably priced seeds of so many varieties it would take me years and years to try them all!

Purple Bush bean flowers and baby bean pod hanging below it. It will soon be a dark purple once fully developed.

Here is a sampling a some Costata Romanesco zucchini, green Blue Lake bush beans, and mature Purple Bush beans.

 After the success of my heirloom gardening in the EarthBoxes, I wanted to do some scaling up and decided to start growing more in a raised bed. A raised bed is often simply a box set on the ground filled with soil, and usually around 10-12” give or take deep. Raised beds are great for areas with poor soil, like my back yard which has very heavy yellowish-brown clay.

Now, I love garlic, roasted, sautéed or fresh. A former coworker who was an avid gardener gave me a few hard necked garlic bulbs to start my garlic supply. Hard neck varieties tend to do best in areas with colder winters, but most garlic you find in the store will likely be soft neck.  What a joy! I had been irritated by garlic in multiple stores of late showing green centers from either being a tad too old or exposed to too much light, so I wanted to try my hand at growing my own.  I got hooked up with Carpathian, Porcelain “Music”, Turban and Purple Glazer.

Romanian garlic … serious vampires beware!

To this end I built my first raised bed, a little large maybe, about 5’x10’ and about 10” high using 1.5″ thick white pine wood boards from the local home goods store and filled with good soil. To keep out the squirrels, rabbits and such, I put six rebars around the edges of the bed and anchored chicken wire to them and kept them doubly anchored to the bed with landscaping staples. Completed in the early Spring, my first actual plants put in were tomatoes, since garlic is planted in the Fall.

I tried a few different tomato varieties, primarily the eating types versus the heavier, fleshier sauce/pulp varieties. Most were an indeterminate variety, as opposed to determinant. In tomato parlance, indeterminate plants produce fruit over the course of a season, whereas determinant plants produce fruit all at once. In the southern Ohio climate, I can often nurse tomatoes of out some plants into early November!

A small red cherry tomato of the Russian Koralik variety

I found I enjoyed the smaller, sweet yellow cherry-sized tomatoes, and the “black” tomatoes, many of which originated in the Ukraine. Black tomatoes are a deeper, purplish brown color and have what I can only describe as a richer flavor than other tomatoes, and are more recent additions to the US garden.  Red, pink, white, yellow, green (not the unripe type), black and orange tomatoes, and color mixes thereof can be found, from tiny cherry or grape tomatoes only an ounce or less in weight versus multi-pound larger varieties such as the Beefsteaks or Brandywines. Funny thing is I didn’t much care for tomatoes as a kid, even though my parents had their own garden. It wasn’t until I was in my late 20s that I began truly enjoying them.

I like to start  3-4 tomato seeds, and other plants, like peppers, that benefit from an early start  in peat starter kits that expand when watered. From each peat “bag” I will nip the weakest two or three and leave the strongest to plant directly in the ground if the weather is warm enough, gradually moving the seedlings to brighter light outside before doing the final planting. Seedlings taken out too young run the risk of getting burnt by the sun or damaged by very cold night temperatures.

Tomato seedlings, only about a week from germinating

Tomatoes tend to prefer more alkaline soil, so I often will mix in dolomite or limestone, and are rich in calcium and magnesium to both increase soil pH and add nutrients, plus the elevated calcium prevents or reduces blossom end rot, a bane of tomato, squash and pepper gardeners. I usually start the heirloom varieties from seed in late March…southern Ohio weather this time of year can be hard to predict.

Tomatoes grow like crazy in warm weather 

Tomatoes generally like about 10 hours of sunlight, and generally like to be watered deeply every five days or so. Avoid watering the leaves too much to avoid spotting.

One year I tried Roma Striped tomatoes … talk about eye-candy! 

When the tomatoes are finally ripe, nothing in the store will compare!

Here’s a mix of red, black and green tomatoes…all ripe, all sweet and ready for a splash of balsamic vinaigrette!

Garlic has to be one of the most ridiculously simple plants for a gardener to grow and maintain. Towards the end of October here in Ohio, I round up my healthiest stored bulbs and break off the best looking cloves from each type and start next year’s batch.  I sow mine about 3-4” deep, about 8” apart, put a little mulch on the bed, and forget about them until next spring. Usually around early March I start to see a few leafs poke up and in our climate don’t usually have to worry about frosts as they tend to be hardy like daffodils, and don’t typically need to water them until late April when it starts to warm up.

Raised bed showing emerging garlic in mid-March

Further on in late May or early June, a secondary benefit will appear from hardneck garlic: garlic scapes.

It’s hard to escape hard neck garlic scapes as they coil around the plant tops

Garlic scapes are the flower buds of garlic, and once they do a twist or two, you should harvest them anyway as the garlic will otherwise devote too much energy to them and the bulb might be smaller. Scapes can be cut up and used like scallions, having a slight, but no overpowering, garlic flavor. Come late June or early July, my garlic is usually ready to harvest via careful spading. Shake the dirt off (don’t wash!), clip the stems about 6” up and store in a dry, dark area for a week or two, and soon you’ll be able to grab your own garlic for cooking.

My garlic fresh from the ground…remember: save some of the bulbs as “seed” for next year to start the cycle over! 

The other advantage of adding a larger raised bed was that larger plants can be more easily grown, as one might guess from the size of the squash plants in the EarthBoxes pictured earlier.  You don’t want to try to grow too large a plant in too small a space!

My wife and kids wanted in on the growing action so I built them smaller 4′x4′ beds, here “in-progress”

This year I’ve added two smaller beds for the family to try their own vegetables, so it will benefit us all by everyone learning more about growing their own food and experiencing the wonders of gardening. A bonus for us is that more boxes means the opportunity for more vegetable varieties!

For those budding gardeners sporting iOS devices that might like some planting tips for their garden, the ad-supported Vegetable Planting Calendar might be a good place to start.

Landing page of Vegetable Planting Calendar

Information appearing when selecting Bush Beans

Obviously the information is fairly top-level for the plant variety, but is a good start for beginners or those wanting a quick resource at their fingertips.

Depending on the scale, you might be interested in starting, the upfront costs and effort will be rewarded with crops of your choice. Best off all, you will have a better understanding of what goes into your food, and have the opportunity to spend more time outside enjoying and learning from your garden and less time driving to the market. Plus with heirloom plants, you might not even need to shop for more seeds!

I am still lamenting the decision Google made to kill off Google Reader.  While I am generally ok with Feedly, I am actually in the same boat I was with Google Reader when I use another service like Feedly.  If Feedly goes away, then I am stuck yet again.  So I began searching for other alternatives and had a friend suggest something called Tiny Tiny RSS.

Tiny Tiny RSS has all of the features Google Reader has and more.

Tiny Tiny RSS Web Interface

The web interface looks a lot like Google Reader.  It lets me star things for later, and with the help of some plugins to TTRSS (Abbreviated, so I don’t have to type it out every time!), I can also share articles to Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and Google+.  TTRSS is written using a lot of the same programs WordPress uses, including Apache, PHP and MySQL.

The Tiny Tiny RSS Android App

There is an Android app that you can sync up to the web-based version on the server.  It has all the features of the web app, but they are scaled down for the mobile interface.  The Tiny Tiny RSS app also scales up to Android tablets as well; Tiny Tiny RSS  is free for 7 days and can be unlocked for $1.99.

Can I get my Google Reader feeds into Tiny Tiny RSS?

Yes!  All you have to do is get the subscriptions.xml file in the Zip file that Google Takeout provides and import it on the Feeds tab, OPML option in preferences on your TTRSS site.  The above screenshot is what it looked like for me.  When I did this it imported all of my feeds with zero issues.  It even maintained the folders I set up in Google Reader.

Tiny Tiny RSS: Good News / Bad News

The bad news here, is that if you aren’t a server geek or programmer then setting this up on your own may not be easily done. However, if you know a Linux geek, then you can bet he or she is probably already looking into it and may even have it set up already.  If you know that Linux geek really well, then maybe he or she can set you up with an account!  ;-)

Honestly though, if you have ever set up a blog with WordPress on a host, then you can likely do the install on this yourself.  My hope is that for non-technical users some hosting providers will start offering Tiny Tiny RSS as an option.  I had the whole thing up and running on a server in about 30 minutes, and that was with all of the prereqs installed ahead of time.  Lifehacker has a great article on setting this up; so if you want to try it, then I would start there if you are new to this kind of thing.

The really good part of this is now you are not beholden to Google, Feedly, or anyone else but yourself (or your helpful Linux geek) if you choose to set this up.  Tiny Tiny RSS is Open Source software, which means if it doesn’t do something you want you can change if you know how; that’s always a good thing in my book.

MSRP: Free as it’s open source but there may be a cost for hosting if you choose to host it.

What I Like: Does all Google Reader does and more; Not dependent on any service other than ones you pay for

What Needs Improvement: For me?  Nothing.  For non-technical users, I hope someone takes this and starts a service, as  It’s really useful; No iOS client

While we were attending CES 2013, friends in the congregation emailed me and said, “Dan, as you know we are building a new home. We know you are at CES and would appreciate it if you would keep an eye out for any home automation that looks cool. We really want to build some “smarts” into the house.” I did keep my eyes out for new smart home technology, and when I met with them last week I had something to share with them. My recommendation was that they not wire anything into their smart home, and that they should only use after-market offerings to accomplish the goal. The reasoning behind my suggestion was this: smart home technology is still relatively young, and it is moving so quickly that anything they wired into their home NOW will likely be obsolete in a few short years… or less. The following are some of the pros and cons that went into why I made my suggestion.

Integration vs Simplicity:

Aftermarket solutions may not be as deeply integrated with itself as a built-in system would be; in other words, you might have to load a few different apps on your mobile device to cover all the ground you are looking to cover, but even that is a positive since it likely means a simpler, more straightforward approach. After all, one app that does everything is going to need to be more complex than a few different single-purpose apps. Not convinced?

Think about your television remote, your cable remote, your TiVo remote and your Apple TV remote. Each is relatively simple and straightforward. Even those who are technology-challenged can usually figure them out in a few seconds. Now think of a universal remote that handles any and all remotes functionality but comes with a thousand different buttons. Most people need a PhD to figure out how to simply turn on the television and watch a network program. Case in point: I still don’t know how to use my in-laws’ universal remote, and I’m a gadget-loving guy! Small, simple pieces will win out every time if you are looking for the shortest learning curve and the most ease-of-use.

Flexibility:

Once a solution is wired into your home you are pretty much stuck with it. Sure there are elements of it that you can replace or upgrade on your own, but for larger changes you’ll need to bring in an expert and pay… and pay… and pay. And if you want to move a wired speaker? That will require the home automation specialist AND a contractor to rerun the wires and patch and holes. Then you’ll need to repaint. An after-market solution that connects wirelessly requires no wiring, and it can easily be upgraded or replaced when the time comes without having to call anyone in. Sure the built-in solution will be hidden from view and as a result be far more discreet, but the downside of building it in far exceeds the upside in my opinion.

Upgradability:

This dovetails with the previous point, but upgradability deserves its own section due to the importance of it. Say, for example, I like a specific home audio system and install it in my house. Now say the same company comes out with a new product which is far better. If I am using an aftermarket home audio solution, I can simple unplug the current product, plug in the new one, and connect it to the rest of the house. The entire process will take a few seconds … at most. Try that with a home audio system that is hardwired into your home.

The same is true if I am using one system and then decide I like someone else’s offering more. If I hardwire the system into my home, I need to live with it — or shell out hundreds (or thousands) of dollars. With the aftermarket solution, I can disconnect everything and either give it to someone else or sell it on eBay. Then I can purchase the new system and set it up in minutes. In other words, other than the expense of buying something new, I have complete flexibility. My inlaws, who hard-wired their audiovisual system into their home when the renovated, are pretty much stuck with what their original decision. That was just a few years ago, and the expensive system they had installed is already obsolete.

Portability:

Okay so no home automation system is actually portable, but there are components of an aftermarket system that can be easily moved. That is never the case with one that is hardwired into a home. I, for example, spend much of the summer at our place in Pennsylvania. There are a number of key components of our ever-growing smart home that I can easily bring with us when we go up to the mountains. That means I can get some of the same flexibility and functionality without any added expense. Try that with a solution that is hardwired!

Wireless Ubiquity:

The type of system I am recommending to my friends wouldn’t have been possible just a few short years ago. Before WiFi, ever-present connectivity, smartphones, and tablets were commonplace, none of the smart home solutions I use and recommend would have been possible. Now however, most everyone has a smart device that is effectively an always-connected computer. These devices let us control a host of different functions and, in many cases, we don’t even have to be home. So long as we are connected to the internet, we can reach our home and change settings.

Sonos is one clear example of just how much this has changed. Until last year they offered a pricey remote that controlled their products; they discontinued the product last year. Why? Simple. Anyone with an iDevice or Android device can download an even better version of the controller for free and use their phone or tablet in place of the remote. There’s even a third-party app available for Windows Phone devices. Why in the world would someone purchase a big, clunky remote when their phone can already perform the desired functions better … and for free?

The Bottom Line

The bottom line is that in today’s world, the ONLY reason to hardwire your smart home is for the aesthetics of having everything hidden away. If that is important to you and you have money to burn, then have at it! For the rest of us, it is now possible to get much of the same functionality by setting these different connected services up ourselves. In this series we’ll look at a few of the areas that are already automated in my home … and a few I’m planning to begin using in the near future.

How to Shop for a Realtor
- image courtesy HAR.com

Sarah and I recently sold our house and bought a new one …  or to be accurate, the house is new to us and was built in the 1920′s, which is part of what drew us to it. I’ve received numerous questions from friends about the criteria we used to find our realtor. Since a home can be the biggest, most expensive piece of “gear” any of us may own, I thought I’d share our lessons we learned here.

We sold our home on the second go-around. The first time we listed it, we didn’t click well with the realtor, and the housing market was still reeling from its lows. On top of that, our area was flood-prone, and Hurricane Irene had recently flooded the area. Even though our house was bone dry, no one came looking in our town for quite a while, fearing that all the homes were waterlogged. When we finally decided to re-list it, we went into it knowing that we’d have a list of criteria as well as questions that needed to be answered before we would be comfortable with our chosen realtor.

First, we wanted to know how many active listings the realtor had, and how much experience he or she had in selling homes? This seems like it would be an obvious thing to ask, but we were extra concerned because we knew our area was a tough sell. That tied into our second question – how comfortable was the realtor in the area? Our first realtor was familiar with our town but normally dealt with much more polished communities, and that led to a disconnect in how our home was presented and marketed. We also wanted to see examples of how a realtor advertised and promoted a home.

• Did they do open houses?
• Would they be making color flyers and brochures?
• How many pictures did they plan to post online?
• Did they have concrete advice on how to stage our home so it would look appealing to potential buyers?

Finally, we wanted to know how aggressive they would be in pricing the house. We knew we wanted to sell, but we also knew we didn’t want to sell at any price. A realtor who saw price as a marketing technique would not be a good fit, since we were not interested in dropping the price repeatedly to sell as quickly as possible.

So once we were armed with questions, we set up appointments with three realtors in the area. We found one through word of mouth, where a friend of a friend said their family had used a particular realty firm. Another one sent us a flyer in the mail and actually called us after our first listing expired, so we set up an appointment with him as well. Finally, I used my running route to look for repeat names, figuring it would help us find an agency or realtor who seemed to do a fair amount of business in town. Sure enough, one agency kept popping up, so I called them too.

Upon sitting down to meet with realtors, we learned a very important point: Always have a signal defined in advance that you will use with your spouse, or whoever is with you while you interview realtors. We had one man come to our house who we both disliked immensely (pro tip: Do not tell two women that they should have a man talk to car mechanics for them, so no one takes advantage of them), but we didn’t know how to politely ask him to leave. So we sat through his entire sales pitch, then locked the door and swore to never speak of him again. Come up with some sort of “no way in hell” signal in advance, even if it’s faking appendicitis.

A good realtor will come armed to a second meeting with lots of details on your area. The biggest buzzword that gets tossed around is “comps”, as in, “what are comparable homes being listed and sold for in your area?” This is very, very important, because it helps shape what price to list your house. You may think your house is worth one number, but if houses with the same basic style and structure are selling for 10% less, you will either need to adjust your expectations or have some incredible upgrades to make the price difference worthwhile. A good realtor will be able to articulate both sides of that for you; they will also be able to point out areas that may need to be repaired, and they will help you fill out a seller’s disclosure of things that were previously repaired, don’t work properly, etc., so potential buyers understand the condition of the home.

Another area to consider, especially if you’re selling an older home, is to ask potential realtors to discuss how they handle negotiations over home inspection issues. We had major clashes with our buyers over the home inspection, and I know of at least two people who had deals fall apart or get very dicey during inspections. In New Jersey, most buyers and sellers retain the services of an attorney once a sales contract is signed, but the realtors still work behind the scenes to help broker the deal; after all, in the end it is in their best interests to get the sale closed, and that means trying to come up with solutions that are amenable to everyone.

You’ll want to ask how the realtor has handled home inspection issues in the past — Did they work with the attorney and the other realtor? Did they step aside and just let the attorneys fight it out? Were they aggressive in fighting for their clients? This is a bit more of  a gray area, because you may want a realtor who is aggressive, or you may prefer that your attorney deal with issues that come up in these later negotiations. But it’s worth knowing how your realtor has reacted in the past, as it gives you some idea of the guidance you may receive if an issue does pop up later on.

One of the big concerns I’ve been asked about regards the realtor’s commissions. The concern is that if someone gets a commission to sell your house, they aren’t working for you but in their own best interests. On some level that’s probably true, but at the same time, the realtor is doing the legwork, marketing, and behind the scenes negotiating to sell your home, so if they sell it for a higher price then they will get a higher commission. But on the other hand, if they don’t do all the work, and the deal falls apart, they get nothing.

On more than one occasion I joked that our realtor was really working to earn his commission, as we had him running all over the place meeting with contractors, trying to organize inspections, and really, right down to the closing we were sweating bullets that the deal might still fail. Up until that deal closed, our realtor hadn’t been paid a dime for his efforts. He worked weekends and evenings with us, would send us emails late at night with updates, and more than once we received updates from him at 5am! Much of that was before we even sold the house. So we weren’t too concerned with him earning his commission, and really — it was only fair. If you broke down what our realtor earned over the time that he knew us, it was a very modest amount per month. It’s just that he received all at once (after our deal had closed) due to the structure of realtor commissions.

In the end, there are two basic things to remember about how to shop for a realtor (or any other salesperson who will represent you, really):

#1) Is this person knowledgeable in the field and your area in particular?

#2)  Do you feel comfortable with them? In other words, doo they answer your questions effectively, come highly recommended, or present a professional attitude and work ethic that will justify the (likely very large) monetary transaction that’s involved?

If the answer isn’t yes to both, don’t hire the realtor.

Sarah and I were fairly picky when we chose our second realtor, and we’re grateful that we found a true professional who would be able to help us through what turned into a very messy, emotional, and complex transaction. If we had gone with the first person we stumbled upon, I don’t think any of it would have worked out as well as it did. We took our time, interviewed people, and really made sure we were happy with our realtor choice. Selling and buying a home is a big decision, and having the right business partner while doing it makes all the difference!

Do you need to remove gum from a smartphone screen? Here’s how …

I am the go-to person among my friends and family with smartphone troubleshooting questions. Last night was definitely a first, though, as someone (who has requested to remain anonymous) managed to stick their iPhone in a pocket with a piece of used chewing gum. The result was a sticky mess all over the iPhone screen, but with some quick searching and a common household solvent, I figured out how to remove the gum from the screen safely!

Apparently this isn’t as uncommon as it seems, as there was a whole discussion thread on the Apple support forums about it. Consensus was that Goo Gone was the safest choice, with the warning that too much would make the screen very slippery. So I very carefully sprayed a small amount of Goo Gone on a paper towel, and nervously approached the sticky iPhone.

Goo Gone to the rescue!

Luckily, the Goo Gone tip worked perfectly. Within a few seconds, the gum started to come right up, and after a moment it was gone completely. This could have been far worse. After all, it only took $4 worth of a simple cleaner that most people have lying around to fix it. If we hadn’t gotten to it immediately, and the gum had dried onto the screen, or worse, it got into the headset jack or the volume keys, we probably would have been looking at replacing the entire phone. I’ll take a run to Home Depot over a run to the Apple store any day!

As it turns out, this is too much Goo Gone.

Unfortunately, even a light spritz of Goo Gone on a paper towel was enough to make the screen ridiculously slimy. It did get better with a very slightly damp paper towel and some patience, but it was an important lesson: have a very, very light hand with Goo Gone while using it on your iPhone. Or, you know, don’t store your smartphone with ABC gum!

Figuring out how to remove gum from a smartphone screen was a first for me. What’s the weirdest substance you’ve ever gotten on a smartphone or computer? How did you fix it? Share your best tips below!

I admit, I did not make much use of the “Do Not Disturb” setting on my iPhone when it first appeared. But Apple’s commercials for the Do Not Disturb on iOS feature with the Williams sisters playing ping pong caught Sarah’s attention, and she insisted I learn how to maximize the setting. Apparently my iPad and iPhone echoing each other with emails, news, and text messages all night was starting to get on her nerves. Imagine that! So I had to learn quickly how to set up Do Not Disturb, before my iOS devices were banished from the room!

Do Not Disturb is pretty much exactly what it sounds like. While it is set, your phone continues to receive emails, texts, phone calls, and all the other things that cause the screen to light up and the phone to buzz and ping. But your phone won’t buzz, ping or light. All those emails and messages build up, but until you turn on the screen you won’t be disturbed by them.

Setting up a Do Not Disturb on iOS is super easy. There’s two options: manually and by time. Manual is pretty easy, as it is a switch on the first page of Settings. Finding the time setting is a bit deeper, under Notifications. Here you find there is far more to “Do Not Disturb” than just a simple On/Off. You can set it to automatically kick on and off at set times (I have mine set to start at 10pm and end at 7am), and more importantly, specify what calls are allowed to come through. You can set everyone, no one, and just your favorites. In addition, you can choose to turn on a setting that automatically lets the second call from the same number through, regardless of their status as a favorite. This way, should some unforeseen emergency, you won’t find out about it when you wake up and see ten missed calls.

I also think Do Not Disturb on iOS has another benefit beyond just peaceful sleep. There are times when you shouldn’t be checking your phone; at dinner, in meetings, while you’re studying or getting work done. But when you hear that buzz or chime, or the screen lights up, it’s like a Pavlovian response. You MUST check right away. What if it’s not AP Mobile with a headline, but a VERY IMPORTANT EMAIL. Of course, that email might be the 50,000th Buy.com sale of the day, but what if it’s more exciting? We get conditioned to hear the buzz and reach for the phone…but flipping “Do Not Disturb” on kills the notifications. It’s a way to stay connected without the disturbance of buzzing, beeping, and screens flashing on and off.

(just in case you missed the ubiquitous commercial!)

If you sleep with your iPhone or iPad in the room with you, or you can’t help from reaching at the first beep, get acquainted with Do Not Disturb. You’ll find that such a basic setting can make a huge difference!

Have you ever longed for the days of your childhood you spent with your eyes glued to the black and grey screen of the Nintendo Game Boy?  Did you pride yourself on beating Super Mario Land?  I know I did.  I don’t know how many countless AA batteries I drained with that handheld.  Now, with Game Play, you can relive those glory days on your iPhone 5 without jailbreaking your device.

Typically, Apple has frowned upon emulation apps in the App Store.  Though recently, Gridlee, a thinly veiled MAME emulator within a game, has made its way on to the App Store; some fear that once Apple realizes Gridlee’s deeper functionality, it will be removed.  In simple terms, Game Play is a Game Boy emulator that can be played through Safari, so that it is not subject to Apple’s App Store rules.

Here’s what you’ll need to get started:

• An iPhone 5 – For now, this only works on the iPhone 5, but support may be added for other iDevices.
• A Google Drive account – This is free cloud storage, like Dropbox.  You will store your Game Boy ROMs in your Google Drive and this is where Game Play will read them from.
• Game Boy ROMs – This is basically a file that acts as a Game Boy cartridge.  These can be acquired online.  You must save the .gb file somewhere in your Google Drive, I made a new folder called GB ROMs.

First, you must open this link on your iPhone 5 in Safari, and then add the page to your home screen.

Next, you’ll have to click your shiny new Game Play icon on your home screen sign in to Google Drive.  Once signed in, you’ll need to exit Safari and reopen Game Play from the home screen icon.

Once restarted, you should see a screen like the one below.

Then, you’ll tap the Game Play screen and it will bring you to a cartridge selection screen that looks like this.  There is also an option to include game artwork on this screen.  To do this, you must save a JPEG file with the same name as the ROM alongside the .gb file on Google Drive.

Once you click on one of the cartridges, the game will start up and you’re ready to play!

Game Play is a great way to replay those old, but never forgotten Game Boy cartridges, but it’s not without its faults.  First, Game Play is only available on iPhone 5.  Hopefully support will be expanded to other devices soon.  Second, there doesn’t appear to be any sound functionality.  I tried a few games today and I didn’t hear any music or sound effects from the games.  Third, it appears that only certain Game Boy ROMs can be played.  Out of the five cartridges you see above, I was only able to play Super Mario Land and Kirby’s Dream Land.  The Game Play FAQ says that it does not support Game Boy Color ROMs, but that support will be added in future releases.  I’ve also read that any Game Boy ROM with a built-in Game Boy Color mode will not work currently.   With all of this said, I have a feeling that some of these issues will be fixed soon.

However, if you’ve been itching for a Game Boy fix, then you’ve got to try this!

Also, you can visit InSeven Limited, Game Play’s developer, on Twitter.

Check out this gallery for screenshots of Game Play in action.

Remember the commercial that went something like “Reading is fundamental”? It is but there are some times when it is far better to listen to an email or a document than read it. I had done this via an iOS app but then I learned that iPhones, iPads and iPod touches have the capability built right into the operating system as part of Apple’s commitment to accessibility for those who are impaired for any reason. In this case the functionality is perfect for those whose sight is poor but it work just fine, for example, when I want to listen to a document in the car. Turning on the functionality is simple and, best of all, you have complete control over whether or not something gets read.

Go to “Settings” and then to “General”.
Choose “Accessibility”.

In this panel you’ll see numerous settings that make the iOS device better for those who are visually or auditorially impaired. Choose “Speak Selection” . This will let you select the text you want read. Were you to select “Speak Auto-text” your iOS device would ALWAYS read out loud. That gets annoying in a hurry.

Once you turn “Speak Selection” on you’ll be offered the option to fine tune the way the device “reads”. The most important setting is the Speaking Rate. Use the slider to find the most comfortable speed with which text will be offered. (Note: Each time you slide and release the button a sample will be shared. This way you can move the slider around until it is just right.

You can also choose to have each word highlighted as it is read. This is a great way to know where you are in any given document. You can also use it to train yourself to read faster.

From there you simply go to any email or document and select as much or as little text as you want. A new option will appear that offers to “Speak”. Select it and the text will be read to you.

And if you turned on the setting for highlighting text each word will be shown as it is read.

I use this feature constantly in the car or when I am trying to multitask. It is one of the many hidden gems that make using an iOS device a pleasure.

I have a confession to make. Despite an Evernote account, and a Catch.com account, being a dedicated Todo and Pocket Informant user … I use Apple’s Notes App more than almost any other piece of software on my devices.

Sometimes, when you’re taking notes, you don’t want lots of bells and whistles, you just want to take notes. There’s a reason the pen and paper have endured, and that’s the simplicity of pen to paper. No sync, no cloud, no tag this and categorize that. Notes is the closest to that sort of simplicity, and I use it for just about everything. There isn’t much to tweak in Notes, but there are a few ways to organize yourself with it that really make it go from simple to indispensable.

One thing that I recommend changing immediately in Notes is the font. That marker-y font is cute, but unfortunately it will carry over if you email those notes to someone else. So if you’re sending your boss minutes on that last meeting, or using your notes as a reference in an email, you don’t want it to look like you purposely made things look childish. So head to the Settings app, and scroll down to Notes. Select the Helvetica font, and your notes will look neatly typed. It’s a small change, but in my mind it makes a difference in appearance. In settings you can also select which email account is the default to be tied to your notes.

Now, organizing Notes can seem impossible. There’s no clear title search, no tags or categories. But like pen and paper notes, it’s up to you to organize it. I use notes to set our meal plans for the week, so that note gets the top line of “Meals Week of: 1/22″, and then I pop my breakdowns below that. Giving notes the proper title also helps if you plan to email the note to someone else, since the top line becomes the subject line, which can save you a step when sending emails and keeps things organized.

If you REALLY want to save yourself a few steps, use Dan’s iOS shortcut tips and create shortcut templates for your most-used note-taking. That way you can literally open notes, enter a shortcut, prefill the note with your template, and off you go typing away. I use this constantly with business meetings, having broken down my business notes into a half-dozen or so categories of what get discussed. This way at the end I can send the notes to myself at the office and include anyone who wasn’t able to be at the meeting, plus by using a set template it makes it far easier for everyone to read the email and determine what’s needed from them.

You can obviously do all of this with Evernote or a more powerful application, but there are a few drawbacks. Maybe you’re waiting for a sync from Evernote to finish, or you don’t have access to certain websites in your office. Plus I have yet to find a note-taking app that is as fast as iOS Notes. Touch the icon, hit the plus sign, and start typing. The biggest bonus, though, is that you can search notes on your device using iOS Universal Search. So with Notes you have a fast, offline-capable, email-ready, searchable app. As I said above, I have tried the more complex apps, but with a few minor tweaks and settings I am faster than ever just using plain old Notes. It may be simple, but it gets the job done right!

One terrific (but often unused) tool baked right into iOS is the ability to create keyboard shortcuts. With them, you can type in just a few brief letters and have a much longer piece of text appear in the body of whichever document you are working on. They are particularly useful when you have a block of text that is used on a frequent basis. For example, our Kickstart This! posts all use the same basic structure. Having the ability to type kkick and have the entire template replace those five letters is exceptionally useful. Best of all, it is extremely simple to set up shortcuts.

Here’s a quick step-by-step guide.

Go to “Settings”, then “General”.

Select “Keyboard”.

Scroll down to “Shortcuts”. At the bottom you will find a window for “Add New Shortcut…”. Select it.

Choose a phrase you often find yourself typing. In this case it is Judie’s and my Twitter addresses. Next you’ll want to choose a trigger. One of the things I learned from TextExpander (one of the best and most important Mac OS X applications on my computer) was that doubling up the first letter is a great way to set up and remember triggers. In this case, I simply doubled up on the “T” in Twitter.

Now when I type “Ttwi” our Twitter names appear.

If I then hit the space bar the letters I typed are replaced by the actual phrase I was looking to insert.

It is a simple timesaver and, once you begin using it I suspect you’ll quickly add more and more shortcuts; yes, it is that useful.

In the past week, we’ve heard results from AT&T and Verizon, and in the particular case of Verizon which had iPhones account for TWO THIRDS of its smartphone sales, 20% of those sales went to former Android users. I have detailed my years long Android exclusivity, which just ended in late December with the purchase of an iPhone 5. I got one for my wife and we got them for our teenage sons … so we are an iPhone Family now!

But we are also all heavy GMail users, and users of Google services in general. So while my contacts were a mess elsewhere, they were well-organized in GMail. Same for the rest of the family.

The problem? When you create your GMail account, it doesn’t import your contacts. Why that is, I have no idea … but there you go. For some who used the Exchange option to set up their Google accounts that is less of a problem, but Google doesn’t support that process anymore so you need a new method. Enter ‘CardDAV’.

Here is what to do to get all of your Google Contacts:

• Open the ‘Settings’ on your iOS device.
• Scroll down and select Mail, Contacts, Calendars.
• Select Add Account…
• Select ‘Other’ at the bottom of the list.
• Select Add CardDAV Account in the middle of the list.
• Fill out the information as follows:
• > Server: Enter “google.com”
• > User Name: Enter your Google email address.
• > Password: Your Google Account or Google Apps password.
• > Description: Enter a description of the account such as ‘Google Contacts’
• Tap ‘Next’ from the top of the screen, and your info is verified.
• Make sure ‘Contacts’ is set to ‘On’, this means you are all set!

And that’s it! Now when you go to contacts you will have all of your Google contacts added to your list!

What cool tips do you have – or what questions do you need answered? Let us know!

Image courtesy of iFans.com

What a world we live in – We now have computers that fit in our pockets, gorgeous televisions that are 1″ thick, and a dude who skydived from the edge of space.  Continuing along that vein, now you can program your credit card sized computer, otherwise known as the Raspberry Pi, to open your garage door for you using Siri’s voice commands on your iPhone.  Seriously.

RaspberryPi.org forum user “DarkTherapy” was able to code his Raspberry Pi saying he used “SiriProxy running on the Raspberry Pi, along with wiring Pi to access the Pi’s GPIO pins and turn a relay on/off.”  He then hooked up the relay to his automatic garage door system and voila, he can open his garage door by telling Siri to “Open the garage door” on his iPhone.

Currently, the system only works over WiFi, so you better hope your home’s WiFi signal reaches to your driveway.  DarkTherapy notes that it could be set up to work over cellular VPN in the future.

If you’re brave enough, head on over to this forum post for instructions on how to do this yourself.  Otherwise, you can check out the video, below.

The parts for my new HTPC

Hello again, friends and tech-lovers.  Today we are going to talk about building a Home Theater PC or HTPC for short.  More importantly, building a budget-friendly HTPC.  In one of my previous posts, I talked about the Ceton inifiniTV 4 tuner, a great way to turn your PC into a set-top box for your cable TV.  But, what if you don’t have a PC lying around to use?  What if you don’t want to spend a bunch of money to buy a PC?  I’m going to show you how you can build an HTPC for around $300.

Why build an HTPC, you ask?  If you have a lot of TV Shows or Movies on your computer and you want a place to store and play them, you’ll want an HTPC.  If you want a gorgeous way to present any type of media when you have friends over, you’ll want an HTPC.  The other reason is what I mentioned above, that you can buy a TV tuner and turn your HTPC into a set-top box with unlimited storage and the ability to record/watch four – count them – four channels at once.

Two important items to note before you begin looking for parts to build your HTPC: 1.  You do not need the newest, fastest, technology for an HTPC.  If streaming HD video is the majority of what you’ll be doing, you could get by with an Intel Celeron processor as long as it has integrated HD graphics.  2.  If budget is playing a big part in your HTPC build, you will need to look around for parts that are on sale.  That’s what I did and I came away with a decently priced and nicely spec’d machine.

Keep in mind that the PC I’m building at the moment is an extender for my current HTPC in my living room.  The HTPC in my living room has 2TB of storage that houses many movies and TV shows.  We are going to be putting this HTPC in our bedroom so that we can watch the same videos that are stored on our main HTPC in the living room, from bed!  If you’re building your main HTPC, you are going to need additional storage by adding a large hard drive.

First, you want to start off with your PC enclosure.  I got this neat little barebones kit on-sale at Newegg for $80.  It includes the case, motherboard, and power supply.  If you split the price up between the three items, it comes to $30 for the case, $30 for the motherboard, and $20 for the power supply.  All three of those are great prices for those items.  Plus, the case is perfect for my purposes.  A CD drive is not necessary for an HTPC since all software you need is available online.  You can even install Windows via a USB stick; very cool, right?  Here’s a link to a Microsoft page that will give you the skinny on how to do that:  Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool

Front view of the case with the side open

As far as the processor goes, you really do not need a processor that’s going to break the land speed record.  In this build, I chose the Intel Pentium Dual-Core G860 that runs at 3.0 GHz.  As I mentioned earlier, you can honestly get away with a Celeron processor running at 2 GHz, but I went for the G860 because it was a good deal.  The main thing you want to make certain of is that the processor has integrated HD graphics.

I went for a Solid State Drive for this build, because I wanted the HTPC to be able to start up very quickly.  It would be annoying to curl up in bed wanting to watch a movie, when all of a sudden you have to wait a couple of minutes for Windows to load.  Let me tell you something, installing Windows 7 on this machine was the fastest I’ve ever seen.  And so far, it takes about 15 seconds for the HTPC to start up!

Truthfully, you probably don’t even need 4GB of RAM for an HTPC, as you won’t be doing too much multitasking.  But since 4GB isn’t a big investment, I like to err on the side of more RAM.

Keep in mind that you’ll need a copy of Windows.  I happened to have one lying around.  You might also need a keyboard and mouse as well as a remote.  I’ll list my remote suggestion in the rundown, below.

I won’t bore you with all of the details on building a PC, as there are far more qualified people out there to show you how it’s done.  When I first started building PCs, I followed this handy guide:  Building a PC Step-By-Step

Let’s recap the list of parts and the prices I paid:

Barebones Kit – $80 on-sale

Intel Pentium Dual-Core G860 Processor – 3.0 GHz – $59 on-sale

120GB Solid State Drive – $70 on-sale

4GB DDR3 RAM – $17 on-sale

Windows Remote – $14 – I have two of these remotes and I can not recommend them enough.  Not only can you control the PC, but you can also operate the mouse with the finger pad on the remote.  It is also plug-and-play, and instantly works.

Building a computer is easier than you think it is.  It’s like putting together a very easy puzzle once you understand where the pieces fit.  If you’ve ever had the urge to do it, there’s no better reason than to build an HTPC to add to your home theater setup.  If you have any questions, please feel free to comment on this post and I will be happy to help.

Once you watch a movie this way, you won’t want to go back.

Even you could have a media center that looks like this:

Apple has long left the PowerPC based Macs of old behind; however, any G4 or G5 based Mac is still a very capable machine.  Most of the G5 Power Macs I have come across are dual-core G5 machines and some of the iMacs are as well.  Apple isn’t releasing updates for the last supported version of Mac OS X that will run on PowerPC based Macs.  Firefox and Chrome are also both unsupported on PowerPC based Macs, so even if that old Mac still works, continuing to use it as it is means you are vulnerable to all sorts of security issues, so you are also losing out on a modern browsing experience.

So if you still have a PowerPC Mac, you can get some more use out of it by installing Linux.  While I won’t lead you through all of the details in this article, I will let you know what Linux versions you can run on those last PowerPC Macs.

What Distros are there?

Now that the PowerPC based Mac is pretty much done, this list is getting slimmer every day.  With that said, there are many Linux distros that work great on G5 and even G4 based Macs.  I’ll list them and their features below.

Lubuntu 12.10

The latest version of Lubuntu 12.10 was released on the same day as the rest of the Ubuntu based distributions, and it actually has a spin for PowerPC based Macs.  The L in Lubuntu stands for its desktop environment, LXDE.  LXDE is a light weight desktop that looks a lot like Windows XP, but is a bit less garish than the Blue and Green default style on Windows XP.  If you like the old school Windows interface, then you’d like this one a lot.

Unlike other Ubuntu remixes, there’s both a live CD and the alternate text-based install disk, which is the one I used on my G5 because the standard live disk didn’t work on my G5.  Once it was installed, I had to configure X windows by hand.  There were also some issues getting sound to work, but I was easily able to resolve them.  However, once configured, this distro ran the best of the ones I’ve tried.  It may not be the best one for those new to Linux because of these issues, but if you want to try this route, feel free to comment below, and I’ll see if I can help.

Fedora 17

Fedora 17 ran fairly well, but the fans in my G5 all kicked up to high-speed for no good reason.  Also, the Gnome 3 interface may not run as well without the proprietary drivers (which don’t work on any PowerPC Mac).  There may be a way to fix some of these issues, but I couldn’t come across a way to fix them, and there’s a better solution below.

Ubuntu 12.04 LTS

Yeah Ubuntu 12.04 sounds like it’s old, even though it was only released in April, especially since the newest version was just released.  There are some things that just don’t work well with 12.04, but if you just use the 2D version of Unity you should be pretty happy.  The installer worked magnificently, and once I logged into the 2D version of Unity, it works just like it should.  Since it’s a Long Term Support version, you should have a solid period of support left, so this is a pretty good option for those who like a no fuss, little muss version of Linux.  The best part is it’s available while the 12.10 version isn’t in the default Ubuntu flavor.

Other distros

Other distributions that should get a look are Debian and Yellow Dog Linux.  Of the two, Debian is probably the one I would try next.  Yellow Dog has long been supported on PowerPC based Macs, even having some support on even older Macs, but I don’t recommend it as it’s a little less up to date than other distributions.

Why?

I know some will ask an important question: Why do this?  Well, if you have an old PowerMac that you can’t use for Mac OS X any more, and you’ve already replaced it, then the question should be why not?!  Linux is freely downloadable, and these old machines make perfect little servers and even limited desktops.

The only issue you may have for general web use is Flash.  Adobe has never and will never release Flash plugins for PowerPC based Linux machines.  That’s really the only thing that may not work for every day web use.  The only other problem would be that if you need specific packages which aren’t compiled or aren’t available for Linux on PowerPC.  One example would be the Google Chrome browser or its open source counterpart Chromium, neither of which are available for Linux running on PowerPC.  The good thing is that most other components are there, so you may never even notice that you missed those packages.

Another reason you might want to do this is to be a good steward to our planet.  Wouldn’t that PowerMac look better actually getting some use rather than collecting dust in your closet (or crushed up in a landfill)?

So if you have an old G4 or G5 PowerMac, Powerbook or iMac lying around, then what are you waiting for?  Download one of the above distros and try it! And then let me know how it’s working out for you.

If you need help, let me know in the comments and I’ll do my best to get you going.

D-Star is the newest mode I have recently added to my Amateur Radio arsenal.  I bought an Icom ID-31A D-star, radio which I will be reviewing here soon, but I wanted to share a little about D-star and why it’s a cool mode before I did the review.

The History of D-Star

D-star is a mode that was created by the Japanese Amateur Radio League in 2001 after doing three years of research.  JARL designed it as an open standard so that manufacturers could build the radios.  Icom is the first company to make radios for D-star, however they aren’t the only ones who do;  in Japan, D-star radios are also made by Kenwood.  However here in the states, Icom is the only manufacturer that produces D-star radios.

D-star is an open standard only in that anyone can choose to make radios that use the standard.  However, D-star is currently dependent on the AMBE (Advanced Multi-Band Excitation) codec, which is built into a chip that is included on every D-star radio. This codec currently is patented and requires a license to be purchased by the manufacturer from Digital Voice Systems, Inc.  It’s only recently that the prices of the license and this chip have come down to make it cost-effective to be included in many radios.  The first radio, the Icom ID-1 which is on the 1.2 GHz Amateur Radio band, is still available today and is still very pricey at $999.95.  The original MSRP on this radio was $1600 dollars, so as you can see, D-star started off as a really expensive mode and really took a while to gain in popularity.  Within the last few years, with both 2 m and 70 cm bands getting radios, D-star has exploded.  There was a long time where we didn’t have any repeaters here in Columbus, but we now have 2 different repeaters with modules on 2m, 70cm and one machine has modules on 23 cm(1.2 GHz) as well.  Worldwide,  about 6 repeaters are going on-line per month making it even more viable every month.

So what is it?

D-star stands for Digital Smart Technology for Amateur Radio. What it essentially is being used for today is for voice communication over a digital medium similar to your cell phone or a Skype session.  In fact, it even uses similar technologies to a modern GSM smart phone.

The above graphic is a very simplified flow of communications from one radio to another using D-star.  It’s similar to FM radio, and it even uses FM in its flow.  However, it does much more.  Your voice plus data is sent to the AMBE chip.  From the AMBE chip it goes to a GSM chip to prepare it to be sent to the analog FM radio.  From the GSM chip it goes to FM(Frequency Modulation) radio and on to the antenna.  On the other end, it’s the reverse.  The antenna picks the signal up as a FM signal, sends it to the GSM chip and then to the AMBE chip where the data and voice are split apart and then you hear the station as well as see any data he’s sent along with the transmission.  This all sounds complicated and it is, but in the end, it’s very simple for you to use once it’s all packaged in a radio.

Since D-star is a digital mode even when your voice is involved, it has many unique properties that really make a difference when it comes to range.  If you have ever listened to AM or FM radio you are familiar with how these signals will degrade as you move away from the station.  The same thing happened when we used analog television as well.  The farther you got away, the more static a station got until the static was louder than the radio stations signal.  Amateur Radio modes like FM, AM and SSB also have the same kind of degradation.  Well, with D-star, you need less signal as you are transmitting bits or ones and zeros.  D-star and other digital modes do not have fading like analog, because there’s either enough bits for the radio to decode into a signal or there isn’t.  That means you always hear the other station at full strength until ‘he drives off the cliff’, as we call it.  One minute the station will be there and the next he’s not.  It’s because of this property of digital signals that you get, on average, a 30 percent increase in range with the same transmitter over the analog modes.

D-star has two primary modes.  The first, and most common mode is DV, or Digital Voice.  In this mode, you talk as you normally would on an analog repeater, but it’s now digital on the D-star repeater.  Before I go into how that works, a repeater in layman’s terms is just as it sounds.  It repeats what it hears.  So you key up, and it simultaneously transmits what you say at a high power level.  In both the analog world of FM and D-star it increases the range of the local stations; in the D-star world it can get more interesting.

What do I mean?  Well instead of tuning in to the repeater as you normally would, you can also do some pretty fancy stuff that really makes D-star fun.  The first is using the gateway that is built into most D-star repeaters.  The gateway is, essentially, a connection to the internet.  The repeaters connection to the internet allows you to easily link to other repeaters on the fly.  You can also link to what I like to call internet repeaters, but it is truly called a reflector.  Reflectors are set up so that you can connect your local repeater to the reflector, and other hams can also do the same with their local repeater.  Reflectors are usually setup for specific reasons.  The most commonly used reflector out there is reflector 01C.  Some people call this one the megarepeater as there’s almost always someone connected to the reflector.  Using this reflector, I’ve been able to chat with stations in England, Columbia, Scotland, Japan, Germany, Russia as well as the United States.  Today while walking my dog, I chatted with NG9P, whose name is Dale, and at the time was located in Illinois.  When I first got my license, the only way you could talk to the world was to use a High Frequency or HF radio.  Those are usually not very portable due to the higher power needed, as well as antenna systems that measure not in inches but FEET.  It’s not very convenient to carry the 16 foot antenna needed to work on the 10 m band while your walking your dog.  With D-star you can do this easily from almost any location.

The second, and less common mode on D-star is DD or digital data.  The DD mode is usually reserved for the 23 cm (1.2GHz) band.  For that, you’d use the Icom ID-1 radio.  This radio connects to your computer with an ethernet cable turning the ID-1 into a wireless amateur radio network, essentially.  You can see other people’s hard drives and transfer files over the ID-1 as long as you are keeping the FCC regulations in mind (IE: No smut and no commercial use).  The speeds we are talking here aren’t anywhere close to 4G or even 3G, but they are pretty decent at 128K.  This is much higher speed than commonly used amateur radio packet modes on 2 m and 70 cm which top out at 9600 baud.  This could be very useful for transferring pictures from one local disaster site to another.  DD mode can also be used with repeaters with gateways as well.  Technically you could also use this to get internet access, but because of the possibilities of coming across questionable content, I would use traditional Internet services rather than relying on the ID-1.

Conclusion

D-star is the very thing that Amateur Radio needs.  Right now there just isn’t as much interest in the hobby like there was when I was a kid.  It’s seeing a resurgence thanks to the elimination of the morse code requirement, but it’s still not near the levels it was in my grandfather’s day.  In that time, Ham Radio was at the forefront of technology; they did things no one else did,  APRS did position reporting and tracking before Google did with Google Latitude.  There were whole companies that started out of someone’s desire to make something that wasn’t, and instead of patenting it they sold the parts and plans so you could make it too.  When the internet came along, it basically made what we did on ham radio common place.  I am part of a podcast that has people in 4 different states and an occasional guest from outside of the country and it happens on a weekly basis.  That makes ham radio look less interesting, because it’s so easy to do that with today’s technology — plus you don’t need a license to use Skype, Google Hangouts or Mumble.  D-star helps a lot with this.  You still need a license, but just this morning I was able to have a short round table conversation with M6DER from the UK and ZL1LIU from New Zealand all while taking my dog for a walk.  How cool is that?

While D-star is just the first new mode I added in the last few years, I hope that I will be adding something even more interesting in the coming months.  Stay tuned, and I’ll share what I learn as I continue my journey in Amateur Radio.  If you decide you want to make the jump into Amateur Radio and want to know what to do first, feel free to drop me a line!  73 (Best Regards in Ham Lingo)

The Nexus 7 is no doubt one of the hottest tablets to hit the Android Community. Running a bloat free Google OS on top of a Tegra 3 platform has proven to be a crowd favorite. So why take the possibly “warranty voiding” steps to gain Root access to the device? Even if you are not an enthusiast there are many benefits to rooting the tablet past the obvious flashing of custom roms and themes. Some of the best Android apps require root access to work, so without root you can  pretty much use the tablet to its full intended use, but you arguably are not getting all the experience you possibly could. We’ll take a look at rooting the device and check out some of the cool things you can do once you have it. You can decide for yourself if it’s worth it or not.

Why Would I Want to do This Anyway?

Rooting gains you admin access to the system files. This allows you to do things that you could not normally do out of the box. Some drawbacks to rooting are that you for all intents and purposes void your warranty and if you go poking around too much you can really botch things up. Now as bad as that sounds this device usually does not have any trouble during the process and you can easily return it to factory condition if you need any hardware repairs done. My Nexus 7 is rooted but I have not yet needed to flash a new ROM. I use root for a few key apps that I use in my daily routine. Here is my list of top reasons to root the Nexus 7.

1. Flashing new Roms/Themes. Developers are always cranking out software fixes, improvements, and themes for Android Devices. The Nexus 7 is no different, there are tons of cooked up Roms with all sorts of improvements ready to download. Benefits are speed improvements, battery life, features and user customization among other things.
2. Backup. I make frequent backups of my system state (nandroid through recovery) and apps (titanium backup) just in case anything were to happen or I messed around too much. I can simply restore my backups to an earlier point and resume like nothing happened. A must when you start flashing custom Roms.
3. Wireless Game Controller. The Nexus 7 is a portable gaming beast. Android games are moving along and one that is doing quite well is Dead Trigger. This game is great but in my opinion difficult to control. The $2 controller pair tool allows you to wirelessly pair your PS3 controller for precise game play. This improves the gaming experience dramatically.
4. Better Anti-Virus/Anti-Theft. Avast makes a killer app for Android that is a free all in one app to protect your device. It requires root for the Anti-Theft feature and does all the installation work for you. I have piece of mind knowing I can find my device if ever lost and knowing that it’s protected from all forms of Virus and Malware.
5. Expandable Storage. You have the option to connect USB external storage to the Nexus 7 with an OTG cable and a free app from the market. Carry around more videos and media without worrying about maxing out your internal memory. This is must have for offline videos and music. This also allows for host mode for connecting other USB devices, hopefully this is an option for non root users, but for now root is required.

Gaining Root..

The community has once again made the whole rooting process a very simple task. There are a few steps that must be done and of course there are ALWAYS risks involved, but for the most part it’s pretty straightforward and not too difficult. This process will completely wipe your device, so backup anything you want saved before you move on. This installation is for a Windows PC. I cannot recommend anything for MAC users only because I have not tried to root using a MAC. That may be something to do in the near future. Check the links down below for more info.

Rooting made simple, there is a button for everything and  easy to follow detailed instructions

1. Download and Install the Nexus 7 Toolkit. (thanks to XDA user Wugfresh – 129 MB download)
2. Install the drivers. Use the automated installation if possible. With any luck this will work for you, if not, then follow the step by step procedure. (this sometimes is the hardest part of the whole procedure)
3. Unlock the Bootloader. Caution: This will completely erase your entire tablet. It will be factory fresh  afterwords though and unfortunately is a requirement.
4. Root the device and install a custom recovery. TWRP or CWM are highly recommended and the most popular, plus CWM is built into the rooting program.

Thats it, you are finished. You can now enjoy the benefits of a Rooted Nexus 7, check out some of these must have apps that require root. There are more but I use all of these myself.

• StickMount - Required for OTG storage. Free
• Sixaxis Controller - PS3 Controller Pairing Tool. $1.99
• Avast Mobile Security - Killer All-In-One Antivirus/Malware/Firewall/Device Recovery. Free
• Titanium Backup - A must have for backing up all apps when flashing new Roms. $6.58
• MyBackup Root - A solid complete backup solution. Free/$4.99
• ES File Manager/Explorer – A complete File Management tool. Free
• Rom Manager – Clockwork’s compliment to their CWM recovery. Makes flashing new Roms and backing up system state simple. Free/$5.99

If you have any more rooted apps to share please post a link below. Thanks to XDA Developer forum and Wugfresh for his simple to use toolkit.

Via XDA Forums

*MAC users check out this video for a walk through using OSX (Youtube member Version3tech)

One of the first things you might want to do after getting your Ham Radio License is talk on the radio.  However, there are many things you may have to do to get that done depending on what kind of radio you purchase.

If you purchase a handheld radio, you likely already have an antenna included in the box.  These radios typically will have 2 m and 70 cm bands on them so the antenna is small enough that they usually include one right in the box.  Even my Yaesu VX-7R included an antenna that works on the 6 m band as well.

These handheld radios which include these bands are usually the first radios most ham operators start off with.  However, if you purchase a high frequency (HF) radio so you can talk to the world, then you likely don’t have an antenna since most HF antennas would be too large to fit in the box.  You will either have to purchase one or build one, which for some could be daunting. But if you follow the instructions I have below, then you should be able to get on the air in short order.

Today I am going to explain how to “build” a simple antenna that requires no soldering skills.   Building antennas is a skill that you should acquire as a ham operator.  You can, of course, buy an antenna, but what if your current antenna was destroyed by a storm and all you had is your coaxial cable and some wire?

In a future post, I will discuss how to build a simple antenna out of wire, which is quite similar to the one we’re building today. For now, here is the parts list for what you will need to build a simple antenna for the 10 m band:

1. 2 Jetstream JTMHF10 10m Mobile HF Stick Antennas.

2. MFJ-347 Dipole Mount

3. A length of Coaxial Cable, preferably RG-8X or RG-213U to keep losses low.

4. SWR Meter

5. Optional: Build a Balun and buy or build an antenna tuner.

The first item on the list is a 10 m Mobile antenna, or more specifically 2 of them.  These are made so you can put them on your car/truck and operate on that one band while you drive or ride (with riding being preferable for safety’s sake).  In this case, we are going to use the MFJ mount to make a rather common antenna, a dipole antenna.

What is a dipole antenna?  Traditionally, a dipole is an antenna that is usually made with 2 pieces of wire and a center insulator.

Now, you can’t just have any length of wire otherwise it will not work due to a high Standing Wave Ratio (referred to as SWR from here on out.).  SWR is a ratio of the amount of power going out versus the amount of power being reflected back down your coax in a basic sense.   The more power reflected back, the less you are transmitting via your antenna.

Ideally, you want a 1:1 ratio which means all of the power your radio is producing is being radiated by your antenna.  So, to make a 10 m dipole with wire, you would need about 16.5 feet.  This sets the center frequency to 28.4 MHz which is in the middle of the sideband portion of the 10m band.  I will get more into sideband, or more correctly Single Side Band in a future post, but for the purpose of this post, this is the usual standard voice mode for HF or High Frequency radio.  As for how I got the length of the antenna, the Kitchner-Waterloo Amateur Radio Club  has a handy calculator on their website to help calculate the length of the antenna. This is a formula I will be using in another post as well. Today’s antenna will not require us to know this information, but to understand what a dipole is and how they function is crucial to knowing why this antenna will work.

Construction of the antenna could not be easier.  Once you have all of the components, you just screw the stick antennas into the MFJ-347 mount, extend the whips on the antenna such that each side is about the same length, connect the coax to the antenna side of the SWR meter and the transceiver side of the meter to the radio.  Set your radio up in any mode that can provide a continuous signal.

Single sideband only transmits a signal when you are talking.  FM mode will transmit a carrier even when you are not talking and CW or morse code will transmit a signal as long as you hold the key down.  On my radio, I use FM since I do not have a CW mode or tuning mode built into my radio.

Key up the microphone and check the SWR.  Typically you want 2:1 or better with 1:1 being the goal.  Some radios include antenna tuners (more on this later) or built in SWR meters that you can use instead of an accessory meter.

Optionally, you can (and probably should) build a balun.  A balun is shot for balanced/unbalanced.  It essentially takes the unbalanced coaxial cable and converts it to a balanced output since a dipole is a balanced antenna.  However, I have successfully used the above antenna with no balun.  For more on this, check out this reference on antenna balance and this HamUniverse article on how to build an ugly balun.

Building a balun is easier than you think, and it should increase the performance of your station as well as make it a bit safer by reducing the amount of RF that is on the shield of the coax.  I chose not to do this for the moment as my radio, a Radio Shack HTX-10 only produces 25 W.

When operating at QRP or low power level of 5W or less, you could also probably get away with not using a balun as well, but it’s one of those things that can only help your station and not hurt it.  You can get away without it, but it’s probably something you should look at doing in the near future.

The second optional portion of this setup is a transmatch or antenna tuner.  The tuner’s job is to match the 50 Ohm output of the transceiver to the unknown feed point impedance of the antenna system.  In layman’s terms, this takes care of the SWR of your antenna system so that you can use an antenna on one or more bands.  With this antenna, you could set one up with 80 m whips and setup an antenna tuner and use it on 80, 40, 20 and 10 m bands.  This makes it much easier to operate on modern multiband transceivers like the Yaesu FT-817ND.

Antenna tuners can be manual or fully automatic depending on the radio or tuner you purchase.  Some radios even include this in the radio chassis making it very convenient.  This is something you don’t need if you are only operating one band (like I do, since my radio can only operate on this band), but it surely can’t hurt to have a better match.  This match does not occur without some losses, but it will help protect your radio from a high SWR situation that can occur when you are building antennas and let you actually use an antenna system that may not be the best.  For more on this, check out the wikipedia article I linked to above.

How does the above antenna work?  Well, recently 10 m propagation itself has been fair to poor during the day and trending more towards the fair side.  Propagation is a behavior of radio waves that give radio its range; the better the conditions, the farther your radio signal will go and the farther you will be able to hear.

With HF radio, good conditions are far more important than with high frequency bands like 2 m and 70 cm.  With fair conditions on 10 m, I was able to use my little 10 m radio to talk to a K4AAK who is located in Marietta, GA.  From Columbus, OH to Marietta, GA is about 549 miles away by car.  I am hoping with improving conditions, I can probably get to talk to stations outside of the US.

To some, this may seem like a pointless exercise.  When you can talk to the world by just typing into your computer or using Skype, being able to build, operate and maintain a HAM radio not seem like a big deal.  However, keep in mind I can operate this station in pretty much any location and have it setup in minutes using either a battery or a generator.  You simply cannot do that with the internet, especially when you are in a disaster situation like the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Learning skills you need to get your Amateur Radio License and building antennas will help you help others when disaster strikes.  I hope you find this informative and interesting, and if you want to know more about this fun hobby, let me know!

W3RAZ

Amazon Prime Streaming “Ronin” on Nexus 7

Flash is dead…or is it? Although Adobe Flash is no longer support on the latest version of Android 4.1 (Jellybean), that does not mean you can’t enjoy the benefits of Flash content and movies. The move from flash-based content to HTML5 has been long underway but the truth is that the internet is still riddled with flash content including the one of the “King’s of Media”, Amazon Prime. Without Flash it is simply impossible to stream Amazon content to your new Nexus 7 tablet. When you go to the Play Store and look up Flash you get a message telling you that it’s not compatible with your device.  Luckily, one of the benefits of Android is that with a simple check box you can side load any application (.apk) that you want.

It only takes a few minutes and a few pieces of software to gain access to all your Amazon Prime content as well as any other flash-based media working on your shiny new Nexus 7. All you’ll need the latest version of flash and a flash supported browser installed. You don’t need to root the device or install anything special. I have yet to face any issues or problems after giving this method a try. Here is a few simple steps to get you playing flash content in a matter of minutes. (This should work with any Jellybean device, not just the Nexus.)

1. Go into Settings then Security and check the box that says “Unknown Sources” as seen below.

2. Grab this flash .apk  (Adobe Flash Player 11.1-111115012.apk) and install it after it downloads. Click here to download the file.  *Alternatively if you have flash installed on another Android device, just get an app backup program like Astro Viewer and grab it yourself.

3. Go to the Google Play store and grab your favorite Flash Compatible Web browser. I like xScope Browser. Click here for the Google Play link.

4. Fire up xScope and login to your Amazon Prime account and stream away. You should have no problem playing any other flash-based web content as well.

For now this is the only solution that I found that works on Jellybean. Be aware, it may or may not be stable but I have yet to run into any issues at all. Give it a shot and let us know how it works out. Not as simple as playing content on a Kindle Fire, but certainly an easy way to remedy the solution.

Image courtesy of headlondon.com

Siri is an interesting innovation.  I remember back in my early days  in the tech biz, when I read about and heard plenty of people talking about a) how voice recognition was just around the corner, and b) how voice recognition was dang hard, and it was going to be a long ways out in the future.  Of course, in those days a 500 MB drive was considered “wow, that’s big!”, so you can guess how naive both sets of opinion were! Now we have Dragon Dictation and any number of other voice recognition software apps.  And of course, Apple’s Siri.

The question I always ask myself is, “What the heck should I use this for?”  For whatever reason, most voice recognition software chokes on me (I tend to mutter), and my weird combination of New Englander by way of California beach bum accident appears to give most voice recognition software fits.  But I’ve still managed to integrate some Siri usage into my life.  On the other end, we have Dan, who is able to actually send full emails and write rough drafts of posts using such software.

And between the two of us, well, we’ve got a couple of suggestions …

Dan’s tip:

After writing a post draft I have begun using the built-in text to voice feature on either my Mac or my iOS device to have the text READ to me. I have caught more than a few mistakes by listening to “someone else” read it to me. Worth a try!!!

Doug’s tip:

This is similar, and maybe you already know about it, but: you can ask Siri to read text messages to you when they come in. If you hear that “bing!” noise, just activate Siri and say, “Read it!”; she will, and then she’ll ask you whether you want to reply or have her re-read it. *Very* good for when you are, say, driving. [Ed note - not that we advocate doing anything other than driving when you are driving]

So those are a couple of ways that your faithful Gear Diary folks have been using Siri to help improve things.  What about you?  You come up with some novel uses for Siri?  Share them with us below!

Tired of going to Best Buy and looking through hundreds of boring, repetitive case designs? Skinit.com thinks they’ve got you covered. Today, the website launches an innovative line of customizable cases for the iPhone 4 and 4S. As a site known for their high-quality protective skins and casings, the company’s aptly named Infinity series offers up a two-part accessory featuring a protective skeleton and a fully personalized “Switchplate.” As seen in the image above, the switchplate locks directly in to the casing, and is both removable and completely interchangeable. Once you’ve got the case, you can purchase additional switchplates separately.

Additional details from the press release are quoted below:

“For those individuals with a sense of style that is forward, fierce and ever-changing, Skinit introduces the iPhone 4/4S Infinity Case™, a unique customizable case series with interchangeable Switchplates™ that can be swapped out on the fly to fit any mood or occasion.

Users can purchase Switchplates, which can be decorated with thousands of designs from the Skinit library, to express their own individual style. Users can also upload any image to the Skinit Customizer, creating a custom Switchplate from personal photographs and designs of their choosing.”

If you’re not already sold, you can try out the Customizer right here. Or if you’re not feeling creative, you can browse the Skinit design library. For a cheaper design solution, colorful sharpies are available at Amazon and Staples – just remember to buy the white iPhone model.

As a Verizon Galaxy Nexus owner for merely a month, one thing that I have learned is that you can not expect to have the update from Google at the same time as the GSM version.  Here I sit one month in, and it’s been five months since the launch of the phone on Verizon … and I still have Android 4.0.2.

Why?

Funny you should ask.  I have too.  In February, there were many posts about the Verizon version of the phone “losing” it’s developer phone status.  Many of the posts were quickly updated as Google stated that it is still a developer phone, and that they still issue updates but they don’t provide complete code as part of the Android Open Source Project for CDMA phones(as reported by AndroidCommunity.com).  The Verge reported that Google removed it from some of their developer pages because the Verizon version doesn’t support all features, namely Google Wallet (currently).

In any event, it’s still a supported Galaxy Nexus device both for users and developers.  Google STILL provides the updates to the phone.  However, as Android Software Engineer Jean-Baptiste Queru has pointed out: it’s the carrier’s fault for the current lack of updates.  He doesn’t directly point out Verizon, but most Verizon Galaxy Nexus owners know that’s who he means . Here we sit, five months after our phones were released, and nothing has come out or been said, officially anyway, about when it will roll out.

The OMG an UPDATE Reaction

In early May, there was a flurry of activity surrounding a possible update to 4.0.4 for Verizon Galaxy Nexus owners.  Verizon Galaxy Nexus owners were so excited.  Finally we were getting an update!  The only problem is none of these sites have actually confirmed if this was a true update with Verizon and Verizon has yet to update its support docs.  It is known was that some devices had received the update including some display devices in the stores.  There were a couple of screenshots that accompanied these posts.  Lots of people said Verizon was slowly pushing this out.  It has now been 2 weeks and nothing has come to my phone.  Adam over at Gottabemobile.com also confirms this.  In fact, less than 24 hours after the “update” started appearing, the “update” was pulled from the original link.  So is it an official update?  Maybe not.  This just looks like a soak test for a future update.

Some enterprising people were able to get the image from the link before it was taken down and have instructions to help you load it on your device.  I will not link to it in this story mostly because I, or Gear Diary do not want to be responsible for you bricking your devices if you mess up.  With that said, you can use Google and find the instructions.

It is that update that some posters on various blogs and forums will point to and say yes an update was released.  Hear this: a leaked update is NOT and HAS NOT ever been an official update.  Even if it’s an official and limited test, it’s not an official update.

So How do you Tell if it’s an Official Update?

The only way I know of to confirm if an update is an official update is if Verizon updates their support page with a list of changes in the ROM.  This PDF file is the current update for the Galaxy Nexus which is listed as being build number ICL53F.  You find this by going to: “Settings-About phone” and then looking at the Build number at the bottom of this screen.  The website could be updated before or after you get the update.  In Mike’s case, with his Droid4, it happened about a week before he got the update.  It’s only when Verizon updates the support page for your device is an update official.

Now if you are lucky enough to get included in a test, Verizon will, of course, support your phone.  Especially if you are not rooted or if you’re bootloader is still locked.  However, for the majority of users it’s not official until that page has been updated.  Once it has, it’s safe to say that it will eventually roll out to every Verizon Galaxy Nexus owner.

Then:

If I were attempting to mobile blog using Apple devices a year ago, I would have needed to bring my laptop, camera and other devices. If, however, I work trying to keep things to a minimum and use only mobile devices I still would have needed the following – my iPad, my Canon G11 camera, the SD card adapter for the iPad and… Judie.

The Canon G11 was necessary because while the iPhone 4S had a good camera it didn’t have a GREAT camera. We strive to have large, bright, clear pictures here on the site and that required something of the caliber of the Canon G11. In fact, when I first started with the site, my pictures were so bad that Judie sent me her old Canon G9. It was a lovely gesture but, looking back, I realized that it was also her way of making the statement “Your pictures stink Dan. Get with the program.” I would take the pictures I needed using the camera, pull out the SD card, plug the adapter into my iPad, slide the SD card into that and import the pictures onto the iPad. From there I would crop those pictures and attempt to add a watermark. As you can imagine, it was not always an easy process.

Then I would use the WordPress iOS application to write the basic text of the post and to input the pictures into it. From there I would upload the draft, send a link to Judie, and ask her to do the following – clean up the language, center the pictures because they were always adjusted left, add a featured image, and input all of the necessary tags because the app made inputting tags a pain in the neck. There were even times when I would be so frustrated with the WordPress app that I would send the text and photos to Judie via email, and I’d ask her to do the post. This worked well enough, but it was still a pain and required at least two of us in order to get a decent, clean post up on the site.

That was then… this is now.

Now:

These days all I need in order to blog on the go is my iPhone and my iPad, and I can even get away without having one or the other if need be. That is because both the hardware AND the apps have improved to the point where mobile blogging is simple, fast and, if need be, a complete process from start to posted. The workflow now it looks like this.

I take whatever pictures I need using the iPhone. Yes, the camera on the iPhone is so good that it gets the level of quality that we are looking for on the site. I can use the iPhone on its own but in order to make it even easier to get good pictures I use Belkin’s LiveAction Grip camera adapter.

The $49.99 iPhone accessory works with the free LiveAction app and, among other things, creates a great handle for the camera that gives me a shutter button exactly where it would be were I using something like the Canon G11. (A small limitation of the app is the fact that, because of Apple’s limitations, one needs to then choose the images one took with the LiveAction application and save them to the photo album, but it is certainly easier than pulling out the memory card in the adapter and going that route.

Speaking of the SD card adapter, I don’t need to have it with me any longer thanks to iCloud. Yes, PhotoStream means that anything I take with the iPhone is on my iPad almost immediately. From there I crop the pictures taken with the iPhone, and then I add a watermark using the application iWatermark. And if I want to do something more with the images, there are any number of apps that are quite powerful for image editing and play.

That takes care of the image part of blogging, but what about the actual process of writing a post on the go? That’s been made easier by a few advances over the last few months. The first is the global voice recognition on the new iPad. It means that I’m able to write the first draft of a post on the go, without having to worry about laying the iPad down and having a good typing surface, which is exactly what I did here. In addition, because I can speak far more quickly than I can type, I’m able to get a lot more on the screen rapidly by using my voice, then I can using the on-screen keyboard.

At the same time, because of the speed advances with the new iPad the on-screen keyboard is better than ever. Sometimes, I will write directly in the blogging app (more on that in a moment), but usually I use the Note.app that comes with both the iPhone and iPad. I do so because, again thanks to iCloud, I can write on any of my Apple devices and have the same text everywhere. That means I can start on my iPhone, continue on my Mac and finish on the iPad. (Or any other order you can think of…)

If I want to type rather than dictate, but I don’t want to use the on-screen keyboard, I can use Belkin’s new YourType Folio + Keyboard Case. It jus came for review today, but I can already say with certainty that this $99.99 case/keyboard combination finally nails it and creates something that is truly usable. The keyboard is excellent, the case is nice and has a built-in stand AND the Bluetooth keyboard can be removed from the case and positioned exactly where is most comfortable.

Oh, and the keyboard actually works!! I’m using it as I write this, and I am finding that, for once, I can type as quickly as I normally do on a full-size keyboard. Yes, it is a nice case in and of itself and it offers probably the best Bluetooth keyboard I’ve seen for the iPad. So between dictating, a better onscreen keyboard and Belkin’s keyboard/case, writing a fairly long post on the iPad is a simple and doable prospect.

But dictating or typing isn’t the end of the story. I also need to have something that allows me to put the pictures and text together in a post. Sure, I can try doing so using the mobile Safari browser, but I don’t find it to be easy or intuitive. I can also go back to the old standard, the WordPress app for iOS, but it hasn’t improved in many, many months. It’s still hard to use, handles images poorly, doesn’t allow you to add a featured image, and it is in more ways that I’ve mentioned an unfinished product. Fortunately I no longer need to rely on the WordPress app for mobile blogging thanks to Blogsy.

Yes, Blogsy. It is a stupid name but an AWESOME app. It’s so awesome that all of the Gear Diary editors are now using it.

I found it difficult to move between the “what you see is what you get” and the HTML side of the posting experience, each is handy for its own purposes and moving from one to the other would often crash the app or have some other weird thing arrives, and the app crashed constantly.

Improvements in the app, as well as the increased speed of the new iPad, seem to combine to make this a far less often occurs. Yes, the app will crash at times but not nearly as often; I have yet to lose work that was in progress, so it really doesn’t bother me all that much.

The $4.99 Blogsy application makes writing simple; the formatting window makes playing with the text relatively easy, and the app makes adding links to a post a breeze.

A pop-up window allows you to add tags and categories, and a recent update even added the ability to put in a featured image. Granted, it required Judie to do something on the server-side of things, but now it works beautifully. The app even allows you to upload numerous images at the same time from both your photo application and your photo stream.

But there is even more that I like, with regard to image-handling. Blogsy makes the proper placement of the photos so easy that, when combined with all the other aspects of the app, I am able to send a post to the server as “pending” in as close to “finished post format” as anything I could do on my Mac. And if need be, I am also able to simply post directly from the app. That was NEVER possible in the past unless I wanted to have posts go live with formatting errors or missing information.

The result of all of this is the fact that true mobile blogging is now a reality. I’m able to take pictures, manipulate them, crop them, add a watermark, write my text, add the images, and add all the additional information necessary for a post in just minutes …  and it doesn’t matter where I am. In fact, I’m using it with my temple blog as well, and when I received three images and a paragraph of text the other evening I was able to have that post up on the site with in five minutes. That’s how good mobile blogging is in 2012 thanks to the iPad and Blogsy and a few key accessories. The only thing that hasn’t changed is that Judie still needs to go over my posts one last time for grammar and other bloopers.

Are you finding certain tasks becoming easier and easier as the iPad and the apps that work with it improve? Let us know in the comments.Oh, and if you were wondering, this entire post was written using voice, the Belkin keyboard case, Blogsy and the iPad.

Airpush is an evil adware app that does this to help fund application developers.  Airpush is not an app in and of itself, but can be included in some applications you install on Android.  To see what I am talking about, check out this article on PCworld.

What app is doing this?  Use Airpush Detector.

Airpush Detector is a handy application that can be used to find the offending app or apps.  Just install this app and it will reveal which apps you need to get rid of. Once I find the app and get rid of it, I usually will send it a bad review as well.

There is an opt-out on the web that you can use to avoid these ads, but no way that you would know you could even do this.  They also have an app for opting out, but I would not install ANYTHING from them on my phone as it would be suspect.

I am all for application developers making money, but making my phone do weird things shouldn’t be part of that equation.

In my continuing series on the subject of Ham Radio, I’ll now attempt to answer the great unknown question: Which ham radio should I buy??

Well What do you Want to Do?

In a lot of ways, this is almost the same as asking which phone one should buy.  The first question you should be asking isn’t which radio do you want to buy, but what do you want to do, or what is your goal?  Knowing what you want to do is important, because if you buy the wrong radio and try to do something it wasn’t really designed to do, you could get pretty frustrated!

With that said, there are many different modes and bands you can start with.  In almost all cases, I recommend purchasing a handheld radio that has 2 meter FM abilities.  Handheld radios have many benefits over a mobile radio or a base station radio.  First, it’s easy to take along where ever you go.  You’ll invariably need to have 2 meter equipment somewhere in your shack for serving in ARES (Amateur Radio Emergency Service) and many other public service areas of ham radio.  It is my single most used band at the moment, with 70 cm coming in a close second.  Additionally, 2 m and 70 cm also have a technology called repeaters that make them convenient to use.

Well What is a Repeater?

You might have already asked that question.  If you have studied for the test, you may already have that answer.  If you are just beginning to study, then you might want to know what one is!  A repeater is essentially a radio that listens on one frequency and repeats it on another frequency.  This will usually greatly extend the range of a simple handheld radio, because the transmitter on the repeater usually has more power than your handheld.  A typical handheld radio has, at most, 5 watts of power.  A repeater can have up to the legal limit for the frequency in question.  In the case of 2 meters, it’s usually 1500 Watts PEP (Peak Envelop Power).  Most repeaters may use less power as the FCC regulations say you must use the minimum amount of power to establish communications.  In any case, repeaters usually give you a greater range than the radio will by itself so you can see why you may want to use a repeater from the start.

We usually call repeater operation a duplex mode.  It’s called duplex because your radio switches between 2 frequencies that are separated by some established limits.   In the 2 meter band, the input frequency is plus or minus 600 KHz.  I will get more into repeater operation in a future post.

What do I need?

In most cases, if you are looking at purchasing a hand-held radio, the radio typically comes with an antenna (usually what we would call a “rubber duckie” antenna), a battery, the radio itself, a manual and a charger.  Some radios ship a belt clip and wrist strap.  Some even ship a wired headset in the box.  In most cases, that should be all you need.  However, if you intend to work in an environment with a lot of noise or where you have a significant other who doesn’t want to hear your radio’s “noise” then you may want to also pick up a wired headset.  You also should look into purchasing a spare battery and possibly a rapid charger.

Recommendations

I know that if you are new to this hobby, a lot of what I said might just be confusing to you.  There are many choices.  Some expensive, some not expensive.  So what do I purchase?  I’ve outlined a few good choices below.

Wouxun KG-UV6Dv2

Wouxun is a brand that I had never heard of until last year.  A friend of mine, Russ Woodman(K5TUX) told me about them when I was attending the 2011 Southeast Linux Fest.  The KG-UV6Dv2 is a dual band radio.  Dual band means that it has 2 different amateur radio bands.  In this case, it has 2 Meters and 70 centimeters.

This radio operates at 5 watts maximum on the 2 meter band and 4 watts on the 70 cm band.  It also has all the features you would need to start working the repeaters in your area.

The best part about this radio is its price.  Wouxon makes all of these features available at the incredibly low price of about $160 dollars ($159.95 plus shipping from Universal Radio).  The price of this rig makes it an excellent radio to start with.

Yaesu VX-8GR

One of the most interesting radios I have seen in the last year is Yaesu’s VX-8GR.  This radio is also a dual band radio but it also includes an integrated GPS as well as everything you need to use something called APRS or Automatic Packet Reporting System.  What APRS does is it takes a position fix off of the GPS and then transmits this using a digital mode called packet radio.  Other stations listening in can then see where you are by using a similar radio setup and a computer.  You can even see other APRS stations on the internet by using Aprs.fi.  Again, I will delve more into APRS in a future post.

The VX8GR can be had for $349.95 from Universal Radio.

Yaesu VX-3R

One final radio I will share is Yaesu’s diminutive VX-3R.  This radio is about the size of a large cigarette lighter.  It fits easily into your gear bag and almost feels like you aren’t even carrying a radio.  The only downsides I can see to the VX-3R is that there is no keypad and the output tops out at 1.5 watts on 2 meters and only a watt on 70 centimeters.  If you near the local repeater, then you should be fine with the VX-3R but if you live in a fringe area you might want to look at either of the above radios.

The VX-3R is $189.95 at Universal Radio.

Get Active!

There are many more available radios, but these are three that I like really well, and that I think would serve as good radios for someone just starting out in the wonderful hobby of amateur radio.

However, if you don’t have the budget for even the Wouxon, there is a free way to get your feet wet.  That is the internet based service called Echolink.  Echolink is free program available for Windows and Macintosh that lets you connect to a repeater over the internet.  To use the software, you must first sign up for an account at the Echolink website and once your account has been approved you can download and install the software.  Once you have the software, you are presented with a list of countries.  Once you drill into the United States, it breaks it down by the 10 different call areas.  Ohio is in the 8th call area and Pennsylvania is in the 3rd.  There is a map available on te internet to help you determine which call area you live in.

Once you find a repeater (listed in Echolink as a station ending in a -R), you can connect and then you are on the air!

Some hams would not call Echolink real radio, however they would be wrong.  Unless you are connecting to an internet only conference node type, you will likely be going over RF at the other end.  Echolink is an excellent way to learn good operating procedures and get your feet wet with Amateur Radio.

WW2W's Shack

After my last ham radio post, one of the first things I wanted to write about is how you can get your Amateur Radio License.  Well, it’s not as difficult now as it used to be.  When I last tested to get my General Class license, I had to be able to receive Morse Code at 13 words per minute.  Not long ago, the FCC and agencies in other countries removed this as a requirement for any class of license, so now all you have to do is pass one to three theory exams depending on what class license you want to go for.  Or at least, that is the requirement here in the United States, and because I live in the US, that is the system I am most familiar with.  To find out about the requirements in your own country, I would try searching Google for the agency that covers you.

Study!

In the US, this is what you need to do …  First, I would purchase a book covering the theory you need to know to pass your particular test test.  Subjects that will be important are Ohm’s Law, how to calculate the length of your antenna, and more.  There will also be a portion of each exam that covers the laws you must follow as a radio operator.  One example of a rule is that you must identify your station with your call sign at the beginning of each conversation and every 10 minutes through-out, as well as at the end of your last transmission.  But that’s just one of the many rules you must know in order to pass the test.  A book on this is almost essential not just to pass the test, but to know what you are doing after the test, and there is book that covers each license class.  The classes are Technician, General and Extra.  RadioExam.org has a list of books you can purchase for each class.

Practice!

Once you have studied for the test, the next step is to practice!  As the question pool is known, there are many sites around the net that help you practice with questions from the exact question pool you’ll face when you go to take your exam.  RadioExam.org is an excellent resource to practice for your test.  Also, another web-based practice site is AA9PW.com.  There are also apps for Android and iOS that allow you to take a practice exam no matter where you are.  Once you can consistently pass the test, then it’s time for the next step: actually taking your exam.

Taking the Test

Again, RadioExam.org has an excellent source on how to find out where you can take your exam.  In my grandfather’s day, you had to find your regional FCC office to take the test, but now you don’t have to.  The law has made provisions for VEC’s or Volunteer Exam Coordinators.  These are usually organizations that have been set up by fellow hams to proctor the exam.  The two that are best known are the ARRL’s own VEC, called ARRL-VEC or W5YI’s VEC.  Check RadioExam,org if either of these do not have test sessions near you.  Once you find a date, continue to prepare.

On test day, make sure you bring a simple calculator, pencils, your ID, and any paperwork you may need.  Once you take the test, they will usually grade it right away and let you know if you passed or not.  If you passed, congratulations!  As soon as your license shows up on the FCC web site, you may begin to use it!  You will receive a paper copy of your license in the mail.

Next Steps

After you get your license, the first band I would try is the 2m band.  This band is popular and easy to operate.  Your first real radio should probably be a simple single band radio until you learn the ropes.  Don’t go into this blind; search the web for local clubs that can get you in contact with fellow hams, so you can learn the ropes of how to be a good radio operator.  We in the amateur radio community call this “Elmering”, a process where the community can help new hams become better operators so that together we can help pass down the hobby from one generation of operators to the next.  Without this process, Amateur Radio will fade into non-existence.

Image courtesy of OrganicKuwait blog

Hi there, SBCGlobal users!  I’d like to speak to those of you who work on Macs or Macbook Pros; I’ve been off Windows for a while (wow; I make it sound like heroin, don’t I), so I don’t know if what happened to me today is true on Windows boxes as well as Macs.  Read on if you like, though, because maybe you’ve bumped into this problem, too!

One of the things that pleased me when I upgraded to OS X Lion was with regard to the email program.  I like Apple’s email program; I find it much less “heavy” and easier to use than Outlook, and for the Lion upgrade, Apple made it much easier to add new accounts.  Now, it’s similar to how it works on iDevices:  you tell it what account you’re setting up, what the password is, and the program goes out and pulls all the relevant information for you.  You don’t have to go to multiple web sites to find out if you’re account uses POP or IMAP; you don’t have to ask your friend in IT what the SMTP server is, or what port you need to use.  Account, password, boom, you’re done.

Except this morning, I couldn’t send email any more.

I spent a while debugging–I used to be an IT person myself, in a former life–and determined that the problem was with my SBCGlobal account.  I tried all the basic things: force quit of the email program and reopening it; rebooting; yelling at the screen.  Finally I deleted the account and re-added it.  And boom, I was back in communication.

Here’s the deal (caution: nerdly stuff ahead):  apparently at some point, SBCGlobal went from POP accounts to IMAP accounts.  When I looked at the configuration information for my account in my email program, the differences were these:

• Incoming mail server had changed from pop.att.yahoo.com to imap.mail.yahoo.com
• Outgoing mail server had changed from smtp.att.yahoo.com:dougom@sbcglobal.net to sbcglobal.net
• Port had changed from 995 to 993

The gist:  If you are running Lion, have an SBCGlobal account, and suddenly find your Mac email not sending, delete the account and add it back in again.  This will hopefully get you going once more.  (You may have to force quit and restart the email program after you make the change–I didn’t, but in my experience sometimes you have to do that extra step.)

That’s all!  This little helpful hint brought to you buy your friends at Gear Diary.  Spread the word!

On a recent game day, I charged up my Kindle in anticipation for the long trip since it was not my turn to drive. I planned on staying relaxed before we played while following the adventures of Katniss Everdeen fighting to survive in the arena, but when I laid back with my neck pillow, the Kindle refused to let me into the depths of the Hunger Games. It would be another long, boring ride without the comforts of the Kindle Keyboard. Upon arriving at home, I plugged it back in and once again charged overnight only to discover it would only turn on while running off of wall power. It seemed that my battery had officially died! Since the Kindle is second-hand (thanks, Judie!) I did not want to send it back to Amazon and risk a hefty charge or a long wait to get it running again. After consulting the book of knowledge (Google), I decided I could take matters into my own hands and change it myself.

Here is how I did it.

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