Category: ‘Whatchamacallit’

Mostly Free Software – Originally Published November 2018

November 4, 2018 Posted by Tiny

A Pain in the Whatchamacallit
By Tiny Ruisch

I’ve been loading my new Alienware Aurora R7 desktop computer with software.  So far, I’ve spent zero dollars and I expect to spend the same amount in the foreseeable future.

People who know me can tell you that I don’t normally spend my dollars for stuff I can get for free.  I guess it’s my Dutch heritage.  Part of the purchase price of a computer is used to pay for the operating system.  I’m fairly certain that if that wasn’t so, I would be an avid Linux user today.  After all, that penguin is kind of cute.

One thing that I normally do with a new computer, I haven’t done with this machine.  I haven’t installed very many third party security programs.  I’ve been using Windows firewall and anti-virus.  As of this writing, I am not planning to install some old favorites like CCleaner.  I haven’t decided whether their recent problems make the program as useful as it was in the past.

Other programs that I’ve installed are Libre Office, which is my default word processing software.  I also use Scribus for creating the club newsletter.  I use Core FTP for transferring files to the various web sites that I maintain.  In addition to Notepad, I use BlueGriffon and Kompozer for HTML editing.  I still use FileMenu tools on all of my computers for the sheer utility that is provided.  I really tried to like the new Windows File Explorer, but I finally went back to using FreeCommander XE.  Of course, I’ve installed about six different web browsers, mostly for testing purposes.

The only paid for program that I’ve installed is Inpaint by Teorex.  This is a graphics utility program that does only one thing, but it does it very well.  Inpaint erases unwanted elements from photographs.  It is fast and easy to use.  I originally got the program years ago as a free Giveaway of the Day.  If I’ve spent actual cash money, you can assume that it must be a pretty good program.

Other graphics programs that I’ve installed are Paint.net and FastStone Image Viewer.  These programs have been discussed and demonstrated at length several times at club meetings.  Suffice it to say that they are excellent programs.

I may also install another program that I paid for.  It was originally a shareware that I purchased for ten dollars if I remember correctly.  VuePrint is an image viewer that can also do minor editing.  I originally purchased it because I liked how fast you could view and print images.  About eight years ago, the author quit updating the software and released it as freeware.  If you want to try it, you can download it here: VuePrint-Free Image Viewer.  Note: I haven’t tested the software on Windows 10.

I’m getting to be a little older and kind of turning into a curmudgeon.  I don’t often look for new software, but when I do, the first place I look is Gizmo’s Freeware.  On this site you can search by software categories, do a search for a topic or you can read various lists such as all of the free software from Microsoft.  Another great feature of this web site is the Resources section where you will find several lists of tips, guides, tutorials etc.

If you are looking for a good, free program you can probably find it at Major Geeks.  The site has been online for many years and has a vast repository.  There is also an active forum where you can seek help.

You can find, create and publish open source software for free at SourceForge.  Sometimes I go to this site just to check the statistics on the home page.  As I write this article, SourceForge has 430,000 projects listed.  There have been 19,192,106 downloads this week.  I find those numbers to be astounding.  That is a lot of programs.  (I wonder if they make a hard drive big enough to hold them all?)  I’ve found that the real computer geeks hang out on this site.

A few other good places to find freeware are Donation Coder, the Freeware Geeks and NirSoft.  Nirsoft is unique because it has more than a hundred programs, all written by one person.  Many of them are small utilities that are really useful.

Free software is really nice but you should remember that free lunches are pretty good too.  Neither is really free.  They just require a different kind of payment.  Some programs are scaled down versions that entice you to buy the full program.  Some require you to give them personal information.  Many of these programs are written with the hope that users will like them so much they will make a payment to the author.  I’ve done just that for some of the indispensable software I use.

If you start downloading and installing free software, be extra careful.  I recommend doing a internet search with the software name and the word “problems” or “reviews”.  If there are a lot of hits, be suspicious.  There is a lot of free stuff that comes with a free Virus or Trojan included.  Download only from a trusted site.  Before you install, scan with your anti-virus program.

One last link that you can check to find some good free software links is our Club Website.  Log in and check the posts.  You can also search the older club newsletters.  A lot of freeware has been reviewed in the past.

If you’ve got a favorite program (free or paid), why not take a few minutes and let the rest of the club members know about it?  Write a short review and post it on the club’s website or send it to the Newsletter Editor.  Remember our club motto?  It is “Users Helping Users”.

Thanks for reading.

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Alienware Aurora R7 – Originally Published October 2018

October 7, 2018 Posted by Tiny

A Pain in the Whatchamacallit
By Tiny Ruisch

I’ve got a jealous grandson.  He is envious of me.  I think I have figured out why.  I recently replaced my HP Pavilion a6342p Desktop PC, circa around 2006 or so.  At the time this machine had some pretty impressive specifications.  Over the years, I made a few upgrades, but it was still becoming a frustrating machine to use.  Sometimes it would take minutes to load a program.  One day it will be re‑purposed, probably as a Linux media server.

I bought an Alienware Aurora R7 desktop with some pretty impressive specifications.
• Processor: Core i7 8700K (3.70GHz) Six-Core
• Memory 16GB, Speed DDR4-2666
• HD Interface SATA 6Gb/s, Capacity 2TB
• Video GPU Type NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti, Memory 11GB GDDR5X
• Gigabit LAN
• LAN Data Rate Speed 10/100/1000Mbps
• WLAN Killer 1535 802.11ac 2x
• Bluetooth 4.2
• Wireless Technology 802.11ac
• 6 USB 2.0 (Type-A) Ports
• 3 USB 3.1 (Gen 1 Type-A) Ports
• 1 USB 3.1 (Gen 2 Type-A) Port
• 1 USB 3.1 (Gen 2 Type-C) Port
• and much more

I’ll admit it.  This machine is overkill for my typical use.  When I was running tests, I finally got it to slow down a little.  I had opened Scribus (publishing software), LibreOffice Writer (twenty documents), VLC Media Player (playing a movie), NPVR (tuned to a TV station with the sound muted) and FastStone Image Viewer (playing a slideshow with continuous loop).  I didn’t stop any of my normal system programs that were running.  Then I opened my Firefox Browser and started opening tabs from my bookmarks.  After about 120 tabs, I started to notice the other programs slowing down.  I didn’t check system resources because I knew that in real life I would never have this scenario.

Like almost everything electronic, there are a few downsides to this machine.  Although there are a lot of USB ports, there isn’t a dedicated SD card reader.  I was thinking of removing the 15-in-1 (4 slot) reader from my old desktop and installing on the new machine.  I have found that I don’t really need it.  Other than in my pocket computer, I just don’t use SD cards much anymore.  My only other quibble is that the machine comes with Windows 10, but that is a whole other subject.

The first thing my Grandson said when he found out I bought an Alienware, was “can I get one for Christmas?”  I told him he would have to talk to his Mother and Father about that.  I think he’ll start saving his money.  I did set up a guest account, so now I’ve got Steam, Epic Games and a few other things installed that I’ve never had before.  I’ll probably set up a Steam account myself as there are a few games that do look interesting.  I sure hope everyone that reads this article is as jealous as the Grandson was.

Thanks for reading.

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My New ISP – Originally Published September 2018

September 9, 2018 Posted by Tiny

A Pain in the Whatchamacallit
By Tiny Ruisch

I miss Suddenlink.  The Mrs. and I are getting settled in our new abode.  There will likely be many future whatchamacallit articles on tech in a new parish.  Of course, that’s assuming I have internet in the future.  I’m not saying it’s bad, but I’ve already made several calls to tech support.  I think that might be as many as I’ve had to make to all other tech companies I’ve dealt with in twenty years.

We moved on Saturday, July 14.  To prepare, the day before I drove to Livingston to set up electricity, water, garbage, etc.  Since I finished early, I decided to also start cable and internet.  I should have paid heed to the fact that it was Friday the 13th.

The apartment leasing office recommended that tenants use EATEL, a company that I had never heard of.  Like many other ISPs, their website advertised a fiber optic network with all of the bells and whistles.  I decided to drive to the business office (about 20 miles) and arrange for service to start.  Aside from an internet plan, I needed TV for the Mrs.  The package had to include the Game Show Network (also not for me).  I’m personally fine with streaming services, but I know that I could never teach the wife to use them.

Of course, I wanted to use my own modem and router but was told that I couldn’t because their network was fiber.  She told me they didn’t have a rental fee.  After being told that no, they couldn’t give me the equipment and let me do the setup, I made arrangements for a service call on Tuesday morning.  That was a tough weekend for me.  The cell phone service here is terrible and I started having internet withdrawal symptoms.  After asking the sales representative to write down my account number, I was on my way back to Livingston to sign a new lease.

July 17: Tuesday morning I was pretty impressed when the installer arrived only about thirty minutes late.  He installed a modem and a router.  The reason he could not use my router is the television box is Wi‑Fi and could only connect to their router.  (At least that was the reason I was given.)  I allowed the setup because I knew I could connect my router later and have my same secure network names and IDs that I had previously used.  I was pretty giddy.  After all, I could get online again.

After he left, I realized that there wasn’t a DVR.  I didn’t think this would be a problem because I was planning to call support anyway and set up an e‑mail account with an @eatel.net address.  I would only be using this account for the off site address for my web hosting service.

July 23: I called support and gave the lady my account number.  She couldn’t find the number in her system.  She searched for my name and couldn’t find it.  She finally found it by an address search.  It turns out that when I signed up for service, I wasn’t given the complete account number.  There should have been a -001 appended to it.  I asked for a recommendation of what DVR I should buy to use with there system.  Tech Support seemed amazed that the installer hadn’t installed a DVR since it came with the plan.  Another service call was scheduled for DVR installation.  She set up my EATEL e‑mail account and gave me a temporary password: Etl‑10981. I repeated it back to her at least four times, making sure of the hyphen and numbers.  I even used my old military training to repeat the letters: Echo – tango – lima.

July 24: We received our first EATEL bill in the mail.  The due date was for July 12.  We had moved into the apartment on July 14.  I told the wife that I was calling them the next day anyway.  The e‑mail password wasn’t working and I also could not sign in to “Light Wave TV”, the service that lets you stream TV stations that you subscribe to.

July 25: I got an e‑mail from EATEL explaining that the due date was incorrect and should have read August 12.  Once again, I called Customer Support.  This gal was really nice and told me that I could easily use other e‑mail services like Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, etc.  She said they might be easier for me to set up.  I calmly explained that I was pretty good at setting up e‑mail addresses as my other 92 of them were all working perfectly.  She transferred my call to Tech Support.  In less than five minutes the problem was solved.  It turned out that the password I so carefully verified was wrong.  It should have been Eatel instead of Etl.

July 26-AUG 1: I went to Yankee land for a reunion of my siblings.  Each day, I expected a call from the wife asking what to do about the internet.  Thankfully, no long distance trouble shooting was required.

After a month of several frustrations, I am finally mostly satisfied.  One day I was so upset that I went to Spectrum.  I was going to change even if I lost the money I had already given to EATEL.  I was surprised to find out that Spectrum couldn’t service my address.  I’m pretty certain that this is because the apartment owners have a deal with EATEL.  I am getting upload speeds of about 290-300 Mbps.  When I use my VPN service, speed drops to about 50 Mbps.  Interestingly, when I go online with a UK address, I get about 90 Mbps. Some day when I have time, I’m going to test all my VPN servers to find best speed.  There are 128 of them (25 in the USA).

One of the reasons for such a drastic speed loss is because I’ve connected my router to the system and am using it for access.  I feel much better knowing that I have control of my local networks.  The biggest difference with my setup here than in Lake Charles is that I am only running four networks instead of seven.  I still miss Suddenlink.

Thanks for reading.

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End User License Agreement(s) – Originally Published August 2019

August 18, 2018 Posted by Tiny

A Pain in the Whatchamacallit
By Tiny Ruisch

I remember about thirty years ago I bought some new software.  I don’t remember the program, how much I paid for it or whether I liked it.  What I do remember is opening the box and taking out a shrink wrapped disk.  After opening the disk, I took out the End User License Agreement (EULA).  The opening paragraph read something similar to this: “By opening the package, you agree to our Terms of Service.”  These companies were sneaky back then and they are still furtive today.

What got me to reminiscing about this was the EULA for Toolwiz Time Freeze, a sandbox program software that I recently updated. It doesn’t get much simpler. The terms of service were easy to read and understand. Compare this with many other EULAs of thirty or forty thousand words that you cannot understand without consulting a dictionary.

I’m not going to go into a long diatribe about the evil things some EULA agreements do.  Things like saying you agree to never sue the company, post bad reviews on social media, agreeing to future changes, etc.  I’m also not going to write about some of the funny EULAs.  I’m pretty sure that Apple doesn’t really think anyone will use iTunes to manufacture missiles.

Instead, I’m going to tell you about some EULA services I use.  Like most other people, I don’t read all agreements before installing software.  You can slap my wrist the next time you see me.

EULAlyzer is a program I’ve used for many years.  When you are installing new software, open the program and you will see an option to “scan new license agreement”.  A new window will pop up with an icon to drag over the EULA window.  The EULA will be imported and you can analyze it.  You do this simply by clicking the “analyze” button.  Eulalyzer then reviews the license for keywords such as tracking, advertising, third‑party, data collection, etc.

I’ve been getting e-mails from Paranoid Paul for more years than I can remember.  Paranoid Paul is a free service that allows you to track changes made to online documents that affect your privacy or your personal information.  This includes Privacy Policies, Terms and Conditions or User Agreements.  I haven’t actually been on the website for most of those many years I mentioned earlier.  To use the service, you must submit an e-mail address.  Then you pick which documents you are interested in following.  Whenever there is a change, you will receive an e‑mail with a brief synopsis of what is new.  The service is free.

Occasionally, I find other programs or websites that claim to do the same thing, but I have found none of them to be as useful or easy to use.  Life would be so much easier if privacy policies were as clean and concise as the one on my personal website.

Thanks for reading.

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I’d Like To Apologize – Originally Published July 2018

July 5, 2018 Posted by Tiny

A Pain in the Whatchamacallit
By Tiny Ruisch

King Charles I said, “Never make a defense or an apology until you are accused.”  Things sure haven’t changed much since the 1600’s.  It seems like every day, someone in politics is apologizing for something stupid.  Who am I kidding.  It is more like every couple of hours.  My personal favorites are when they say they are sorry and then in the next sentence, explain that it was because they weren’t really at fault.

I could elaborate for hours on how the President is sorry he has to separate children from their parents because of the Democrats.  I won’t though.  After all.  This is a technology column, not political.

In the technology world, we have our own “Apologizer in Chief”.  Mark Zuckerberg founded Facebook in 2004 and made his first privacy apology in 2007: “We simply did a bad job with this release and I apologize for it.”  In 2010 he made another apology: “We just missed the mark,” he said.  “We heard the feedback.”  Then there was an apology in 2011: “I’m the first to admit that we’ve made a bunch of mistakes.”  There have been many other apologies from Mr. Zuckerberg.  Maybe his apology tour will be the culmination.

Of course, Facebook isn’t the only tech company that has recently made a confession and an apology.  Apple is sorry they slowed down older phones.  Uber didn’t know their drivers did naughty things.  Sony is always regretting something.  Wells Fargo is so sorry that they re‑invented the company.  I can’t remember if Equifax apologized or not.  One of my favorite apologies was when the Twitter CEO was sorry that he ate at Chick‑fil‑A.

With all of the apology fever going around, I thought I had better make an apology or two myself.  After all, apologies are serious business.  I’m more or less a serious guy.

I’d like to apologize to the computer club for publishing last months newsletter on Thursday.  I know that everyone expects it on the Monday before the meeting.  Although I’ve attempted to find someone or something to blame it on, it was late due solely to my own laziness.  I hope that no one was too severely inconvenienced.

I would like to apologize to the Golden Triangle Computer Club for the bad joke I made at one of their meetings.  When a Norton Utilities Disk was the featured door prize, I told them I hoped I would win it.  Then I could throw it in the trash and there would be one less Norton program in the world.  Although I made the comment in a moment of complete lucidity, I certainly regret offending any Texans.

Lastly, I would like to give a sincere apology to all of the companies whose EULA’s I claim to have actually read.  As everyone knows, “End User License Agreements” are very important in the computer world.  Like many other people I have many times clicked that little box that says I have read and understand everything in their short documents.  Actually, I have never read them.  I use a program and a couple of websites that do it for me.  I’m so sorry that I deceived the affected companies.

I was going to apologize to the reader for writing this article, but I’m not sorry I did.  I started with a quote and I’ll finish with one from Jim Bouton: “It never hurts to apologize, especially if you don’t mean it.”

Thanks for reading.

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Over-Technologied Redux – Originally Published June 2018

June 10, 2018 Posted by Tiny

A Pain in the Whatchamacallit
By Tiny Ruisch

Way back in November of 2010, I invented a new term.  I can’t believe that it hasn’t caught on.  Over‑technologied is a term that I made up to describe a situation where technology is used either unnecessarily, stupidly, inadequately or in some other silly manner.  I think that people who have the latest, greatest, newest technology and then don’t know how to use it are extremely over‑technologied.  I made up the word, so I guess I can make up the definition.

At the recent Google I/O Show, they announced their updated Google Assistant (with six new voices).  By now everyone has probably heard the call to the hairdresser and the restaurant making an appointment.  Although I don’t know how much was real and how much was made to sound nice for playback, I think this is another case of being over‑technologied.  Making an appointment is one thing.  Can you imagine what it will be like during election season when the politicians call to beg for money?  How about the many other spam call companies?  Personally, I plan to handle those problems by just not answering any calls from unknown telephone numbers.

How many people do you know with so many flash drives, storage cards, disk drives, etc. that cannot find a file because they can’t remember where they stored it?  Do you think they might be over‑technologied?  I’ve got a hint for them.  Cloud storage is cheap.

Every year manufacturers release their new cell phone with higher prices.  They justify having to gouge us by increasing the over‑technology that is installed.  Do we really need two cameras?  Is massive storage required when almost all data is stored in the cloud?  How many people really need sensors to check blood pressure, atmospheric pressure, light intensity, relative humidity, etc.?  How many people do you know that actually use a fingerprint sensor to unlock their phone?  My phone has the ability to fast charge with a special power adapter.  I’ve used it exactly two times.  The first was when I bought the phone and checked to see if it worked.  One other time, I forgot to charge the phone and used quick charge for about ten minutes.  Like almost everyone else, my phone is over‑technologied.

Our homes are definitely becoming over‑technologied.  Do we need refrigerators that keep track of how much milk is left in the jug?  How about those toilets that can warm the seat, automatically lower the lid, etc.?  I haven’t done a search, but I would be willing to bet that you can find one that automatically washes and blow dries when you finish your business.  My DVR is so over‑technologied that when the time changes, it doesn’t.

I’m probably going to get a lot of disagreement when I say that almost every Operating System has become over‑technologied.  Windows has been in such a hurry to add features that almost every time there is an update, there will be complaints about systems becoming inoperable.  If you survey a hundred different Android users, you will be lucky to find ten of them with the same OS.  Linux is about the same except that you would have a hard time finding a hundred users.  Even Apple suffers the same problems as the others.  The technology has advanced so much that they are not able to keep up with the security.  Additionally, you would be hard pressed to find anyone that uses all of the newest features in any OS.

Much of the over‑technology I wrote about eight years ago is still valid today.  Maybe I’ll have to address the subject again in 2026.

Thanks for reading.

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More Things I Hate About Technology – Originally Published May 2018

May 13, 2018 Posted by Tiny

A Pain in the Whatchamacallit
By Tiny Ruisch

Way back in October 2009, I wrote an article about things I hate about technology.  I’m not going to regurgitate the whole thing, but I will say that I still hate: 1) having to use several different types of USB cords and connectors; 2) End User License Agreements; 3) SPAM and forwarded e‑mails; and 4) buying a water filter for my refrigerator.

In fact, buying a water filter is what caused this months rant.  I recently went to a popular home store to buy a new filter for my Whirlpool refrigerator.  This is the same one I owned back in 2009.  After that experience, I learned to keep a file in my Evernote account listing serial numbers, product codes, manufacturer information, and most importantly, replacement part numbers.  The only problem, none of the numbers on the filters in the store matched the one I needed.  It turned out that the filter manufacturer had changed the numbering system.  The employee told me I should have brought the old filter in to the store.  I asked why since I had the number.  They were polite, looked up the new number on their fancy computer and promptly sold me the wrong filter.  After another trip the next day, I got the correct filter.  I have noticed this problem on many other items in the past.  I wonder if manufacturers think that people will buy the wrong part and just lose their money?

Maybe hate is to strong of a word, but I’ve always disliked how companies almost always have to use a proprietary document format.  The perfect example is word processing.  Why must each program have a different extension?  Is it good for business to make consumers remember “.doc”. “.odf’, “.wps”, “.docx”, “.odt”, “.txt”, “.rtf”, “.abw”, “.abi” and hundreds of others?  Almost all word processing software has a save as feature to convert files to other formats.  They can’t be that much different.  Why isn’t there a standard where all programs save in a standard format?  After all, this idea seems to work pretty well for HTML internet files.

Have you ever heard how technology brings the world closer together?  Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat and many other social networks supposedly are the main reason.  Personally, I dislike how technology does the opposite.  Have you ever been in a conversation and the other person is busy fiddling with an electronic device?  Did you ever notice that many younger people don’t have simple skills like making change, telling time, following a map, etc.  These and many more are because they rely on technology too much.  I would suggest that we are moving farther apart.

I guess that I’ve done enough complaining for this month.

Thanks for reading.

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My Internet of Things – Originally Published April 2018

April 2, 2018 Posted by Tiny

A Pain in the Whatchamacallit
By Tiny Ruisch

I just realized what a liar I’ve been.  For several years, I’ve been telling people that I don’t really have to worry about the Internet of Things (IOT).  I thought this was a true statement because I didn’t have many connected devices like thermostats, doorbells, web cameras, etc.
I finally got around to taking an inventory of my IOT.  The results surprised me.  I’ve got quite a few items that are connected all the time.

1. a desktop computer;
2. a laptop computer;
3. my cell phone;
4. my wife’s cell phone;
5. my wife’s tablet;
6. a HULU streaming device;
7. a Chromecast streaming device;
8. a computer with NextPVR; and
9. two portable hard drives.

Those are the items that are connected all the time.  I also have quite a few things that are connected at intermittent times.

1. a tablet I use for watching videos;
2. a convertible laptop/computer;
3. a Linux laptop;
4. an older laptop that I use for testing; and
5. several old cell phones and tablets the I start to re‑purpose and never finish.

I have four networks in my house.  One is for guests.  One is for devices that are connected all the time.  One is for my local network files.  The final network I use only for extra sensitive online things like my banking.  After initial setup, maintenance is not much of a problem.

So far I’ve resisted a smart TV, connected refrigerator, connected doorbell, web cameras, etc.  Every time I almost decide to buy a smart device, I find another article about how easy they are to hack.  This is partly due to consumer stupidity, but the greater problem is manufacturer disregard for customer security.  Don’t believe me?  Maybe a web search will change your mind.

I’ve often expounded on companies like Sony that will not get my money because of this problem.  Until IOT vendors show progress in their security procedures they won’t be getting any of my money.  Maybe one day that super duper got to have IOT devices will be released and I’ll just have to get it.  If so, it will probably be time for a fifth network.

Thanks for reading.

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Start Your Own Website – Originally Published March 2018

March 11, 2018 Posted by Tiny

A Pain in the Whatchamacallit
By Tiny Ruisch

I purchased my first internet domain name on May 10, 2001.  For several years before that, I had a personal website that I hosted on the AOL free server.  Fast forward to 2018 and I’m the owner of a dozen different domain names. (I’m counting the club websites which I lease to the SWLAPCUG at cost).

I think that everyone should get their own domain for a variety of reasons.  The biggest reason is so that you can easily control your e-mail.  If your e-mail address is YourName@suddenlink.net, you would lose it if you ever changed your Internet Service Provider to AT&T or another company.  If you had your own domain, you could have the e-mail address of YourName@yourdomain.com or .net, or .org, etc.  You would keep that e-mail for as long as you owned the domain.  Never again would you have to change your e-mail address.  Not only that, you could have many e-mail addresses.  I usually create a new address for different sites.  If I get a lot of spam, I know who sold my e-mail address.

Owning your domain isn’t expensive.  For instance HostGator, the club’s web hosting service, charges $12.95 a year to register SWLAPCUG.org.  Hosting services are $7.16 a month.  If you sign up for three years, the rate drops to $3.96.  If you do a web search you will find many companies and many different pricing plans.  For that low fee, you get unlimited e-mail addresses, disk space and bandwidth.  There are several other hosting sites that offer similar pricing.

Once you’ve purchased the service, you can easily make a website to show off your hobbies, a family photo album, share recipes.  Other uses for personal domains and websites are to give family members their own e-mail address, host private chat rooms, backup files, etc.

You could also do like me: plain old fashioned BS.

Although it is helpful, there is really no reason to know HTML coding.  There are several free programs that can have your personal website up and running in just a few hours.  Most hosting companies offer easy installation of these applications.  Web searches will find you many more.

The club website is powered by open sourced bulletin board software.  On my personal site I use several free programs: RV Web Site Builder, WordPress, Blue Griffon, to name just a few.  My point is that if you can use a word processor, you can use website software.

I sure hope I’ll be checking out some new websites in the near future.  After all, if I can create a website, anyone can.
Thanks for reading.

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Cruising 2019 – Originally Published February 2019

February 10, 2018 Posted by Tiny

A Pain in the Whatchamacallit
By Tiny Ruisch

I’ve been cruising again!  I checked my article index and found that it has been only a year since I wrote about “cruising technology”.  Normally, I probably wouldn’t again address the topic so quickly, but I had some new and unique experiences this trip.  Some things have gotten better and others are worse.  Unfortunately, the worse column is much bigger than the better.

Most things haven’t changed much since I last wrote a cruising article (February 2017).  This trip I brought my cell phone, a seven inch tablet, an eleven inch convertible tablet and my laptop.  On my last cruise, the internet was slow, but adequate.  I foolishly thought I would get some website redesign completed.  So far this trip, the satellite service has been slow and inadequate.  I’m not sure of the reason, but I think it is partially due to many more people using the WIFI network to access the “Carnival Hub”.

The Carnival Hub is the cruise line’s app that connects to the ship’s WIFI to allow passengers to do several things:
• View the weather for each day of sailing
• View dining menus
• Search for family and friends on board
• View and purchase shore excursions
• Chat with family and friends on board (five dollar activation fee)
• Day by day schedule of on board events
• “Favorites” feature with a reminder for upcoming events
• Searchable deck plans with key areas highlighted
• Real time information on current account balance
• Much more

This application has been greatly improved since the last time I sailed.  It is free to use, but it seems that satellite internet traffic has been much slower this time.  I can’t know for sure.  I do know that it is faster early in the day before most people are awake.

When you purchase the cruise line internet plan, you are only allowed to log on with one device at a time.  I had successfully used my seven and eleven inch tablets, my cell phone, my wife’s tablet and cell phone.  On the second day of the cruise, I was going to do some editing on the club newsletter.  I booted my laptop, but it refused to connect to the internet.  Finally, I was frustrated enough to go to the service desk and ask.  The girl that was working there said that several people were having the same problem.  She said that it was some kind of DNS problem.  I told her thanks and changed my settings to “Obtain DNS server address automatically”.  I had been using Google DNS servers as they are usually a little faster.  She was amazed and had me show her what to do.  After griping about the ship’s tech support, she jokingly (I think) asked me to apply for a job.

Other things haven’t changed too much.  Most people are still doing their book reading on Kindles, iPads, Android tablets or large screen smart phones.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         It does seem that fewer people are reading, but I am sure that is just a bad observation on my part. I won’t be taking the “Behind the Scenes” tour this time so the only shipboard technology I’ve seen is the retail sales system and the bingo playing software. Of course, there is a lot of other technology at the casino.
Sounds like we’re coming back next January. I guess I could be talked into it.
Thanks for reading.

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