Posts Tagged: ‘Miscellaneous’

Tiny Inventions II – Originally Published March 2017

March 12, 2017 Posted by Tiny

A Pain in the Whatchamacallit
By Tiny Ruisch

Way back in June 2013, I wrote an article describing many of the things that I was going to invent.  Unfortunately, due to time constraints, I never did get around to marketing the tonocle, the T-belt, the CORdrive or the other great ideas I had.  Since then, I’ve thought of more inventions to market.

How many times have you meant to throw something in the trash can and missed it because the darn thing was just out of reach?  That will never happen again when I start selling the TINYtrasher.  This remarkable machine will be a modified trash can on wheels.  It will be WIFI enabled and can be summoned to wherever you are by pushing the trash icon on your phone or other WIFI enabled device.

The TINYlet is going to be a modern day, useful replacement for the toilet in any bathroom.  Seat up or down arguments would be a thing of the past.  The TINYlet seat would always lower itself two minutes after a flush.  When a user enters the bathroom, the seat would always be down.  If it needs to be raised a simple step-lever would change the seat to the proper position.  The super, duper, custom TINYlet will be the only toilet in the world that would never plug up and need to be plunged.  An installed garbage disposal would grind up any blockage.

Tiny’s ClearVue toaster will easily toast your bread with infrared rays.  The traditional metal sides of the toaster would be replaced with a clear acrylic plastic.  The advantage of a ClearVue is simple.  You can see the progress of the toasting bread.  Each slice would be cooked to the perfect shade of brown for each individual user.

Ten years ago, I almost invented the TINoller.  This was going to be a modified baby stroller.  My initial thought was to attach a motorized wheel chair to the back of my grandson’s stroller so that I could easily push him.  Realizing that this idea would prevent me from getting any actual exercise on my daily walk, I thought about attaching a scooter.  This would enable me to push and ride at the same time.  He outgrew the stroller before I could build it, but the idea is still valid.

The TINY Paper Roller is the invention that will ensure that the toilet paper is always placed correctly on the dispenser roller.  The dispenser would have a small lip at the back of the dispenser under the roll.  If the paper is placed on the roll backwards, the paper would catch on the lip and bunch up.  The dispenser would only work if the toilet paper is properly installed so that the paper rolls off the top towards the user.

Don’t you hate it when you’re driving down the road and hit the occasional, rare, pothole, causing your coffee to spill out of the cup and into your car’s cup holder?  If you’re like me and don’t like using lids or only filling your cup half full, you will need to buy the TinyUnSpill cup.  This cup will have a small Geo-sensor embedded in the bottom “spring” plate.  Whenever your vehicle hits something like a speed bump, the sensor will react to the rising cup and automatically open a hydraulic valve which will raise the cup and prevent the liquid from splashing over the side.  Hitting a pot hole will have the opposite effect.  This cup will not spill your beverage, unless you slide sideways.

Remember the Pet Rock craze of years past?  I’ve been thinking of creating the “Tiny Pet Mouse Registry” or TIPEMORE.  Almost everyone in the world has an old computer mouse laying around.  For a small registration fee, people can register their mouse on TIPEMORE.  After their mouse becomes an official pet, they will be able to spend more of their money on buying things like care and feeding instructions, how to play with your pet, showing off your pet, etc.  This could be a great money maker.

I had better quit writing now and go get my Kickstarter applications filled out.  I’m certain that with my great ideas I will have no problem raising millions of dollars in funding.

Thanks for reading.

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Cruising 2017 – Originally Published February 2017

February 5, 2017 Posted by Tiny

A Pain in the Whatchamacallit
By Tiny Ruisch

I hope y’all don’t think I’m getting redundant in this monthly Whatchamacallit article.  Once again, I’m sitting on a cruise ship writing about the consumer technologies of cruising.  After all, this is the third time I’ve written on the topic.  You’d think that in eight years I could write about something new.  Oh well, if you’re bored, just turn the page and see what the other club members have submitted for the newsletter.

Still here?  The past week, I’ve been reflecting on how technology has changed some of ways I cruise.  The Mrs. took me on our first cruise ship in early 1990.  I don’t remember much about it except for some concern that the airplane wouldn’t be able to take off for Miami because of all the snow on the ground and the bad weather.  We finally left late.  Our luggage left even later and didn’t catch up to us until we were on the ship for two days.  There wasn’t a lot of personal tech back then.  A few people were getting desktop computers, laptops were almost unheard of and the internet was in its infancy, mostly restricted to universities, governments, military services, etc.  The World Wide Web and America On Line was still a year or so in the future.

Fast forward to March 2013.  I was on my eighth cruise with the boss (this time, she didn’t have to force me to go).  On this cruise, I didn’t take my laptop.  Instead, I used my new Archos 70IT tablet.  It was running Android 2.2 (Froyo).  Paired with a Bluetooth keyboard it made an excellent machine for shipboard cruising.  I used it to write an article for the club newsletter.  I just recently retired that tablet from my tech arsenal last month.

Two years later, I did basically the same thing for another newsletter article.  Same equipment, except for adding my first “smart” phone.  It was the Galaxy Note II.  I liked that phone, but it had enough quirks that I’ve never gotten another Samsung.  In both of those articles, I discussed the high cost of internet connectivity at sea.  I’ll just mention here that for seventy-five cents a minute, I didn’t have any connectivity.

Now it’s 2017.  What’s new?  This trip, I’m carrying more equipment.  I’ve got my new seven inch tablet (see my review in this newsletter), my year old Moto X and my ten inch Nextbook Windows 10 convertible.  I brought a Bluetooth keyboard for use with the tablet.  I haven’t yet used it and probably won’t.  My reason for taking the extra laptop was that I would be spending a lot of time putting together this newsletter.  I’ve since changed my goal to spending SOME of the time editing it.

The other biggest change is that I bought the Satellite data plan.  Surprisingly, upload speed is faster than download.  Of course, faster is a relative term.  Speeds average between 1-1/2 to 2 mbps.  The good news is that I’ve got plenty of time to watch people and to practice my thumb twiddling.  I’ve mostly been able to download and play the podcasts that I like to listen to.  A few sites are extremely slow.  Unfortunately, the club’s website is one of them, so I haven’t been able to do my daily check.  Although fairly slow, the connection has been mostly reliable.  I haven’t found any area of the ship where I haven’t been able to connect.  You’ve got keep using it though.  If my screen saver comes on, the connection goes off.  The only other aggravation is that you can only go online with one device at a time.  I had to delay downloading a major security update for my phone until I could shut down my laptop for an hour.

The satellite data plan is a little pricey, $120 for the entire cruise.  I justify it by telling myself it is free because I use the cruise credits I get for being a frequent cruiser.  My guess is that is as good a story as any other fairy tale.
Many other things have remained the same.  I’ve had a few discussions with other passengers and showed them ways to make their electronics easier to use.  There are also a few that can’t wait to get back home to check if their local library subscribes to Overdrive, Hoopla, Zinio, etc.  I met one person that thought I was an electronics wizard when I plugged a flash drive into my phones USB to watch a video.  The weirdest thing I saw was a fellow that came to the table where I was writing this article.  I was there because that was where one of the few plugins were.  He plugged his phone in and asked if I would watch it for him.  Then he just walked off and was gone for a half hour or so.  Maybe, I look trustworthy?

Life is good.  Thanks for reading.

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Dumb Predictions? – Originally Published January 2017

January 11, 2017 Posted by Tiny

A Pain in the Whatchamacallit
By Tiny Ruisch

Happy New Year!  It’s that time again for everyone to make their annual predictions about what will happen in the future.  Not me.  You all should know by now how I am usually a little different.  After all, people with much more intelligence than me can probably predict the future with much more accuracy than I could ever hope to achieve.

For instance, the following prediction: “There is not the slightest indication that nuclear energy will ever be obtainable.  It would mean that the atom would have to be shattered at will.”  This prediction was made in 1932 by none other than Albert Einstein.

Is there anyone who hadn’t heard about Steve Jobs predictions on a stylus pen, smaller tablets and larger phones?  That puts him in the same league as Thomas Watson, IBM chairman in 1943, when he said there was a world market for maybe five computers.  IBM predictions improved in 1959 when they told Xerox that the world potential for copying machines was about 5000.

There are many other examples of brilliant people making the same types of accurate predictions.   In 2005 Steve Chen, the co-founder of YouTube claimed that the platform couldn’t survive.  He said, “There’s just not that many videos that people want to watch.”  A year earlier, Bill Gates predicted that SPAM e-mail would be solved within two years.  He also stated that his company, Microsoft, would never make a 32 bit operating system.

I could go on and on for pages about other people who made tech predictions that didn’t quite come true.  How about these other predictions?:
1) Subsidized cell phones will continue to decline and maybe even join floppy disks in the “I remember when” category.
2) Smart watches pass out of the what is it good for stage and replace cell phones the same way that automobiles replaced the horse and buggy.
3) Windows 7 will hang on as long as XP did.
4) Apple will invent wireless charging.
5) 3D television will make a comeback.
In case you might be interested, those are all predictions that I made in my January 2016 column.  You can see that my accuracy isn’t any worse (or better).  I’ll only make one prediction for this year: 2017 will bring some great computer club meetings, a lot of information on the club’s web site and some excellent monthly trips to Texas.

Thanks for reading.

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Brand Loyalty – Originally Published November 2016

November 6, 2016 Posted by Tiny

A Pain in the Whatchamacallit
By Tiny Ruisch

Four years ago, in October of 2012, I wrote an article about companies that I won’t do business with if I can avoid it.  You might recall my vitriol towards the Sony Corporation for the evil they did by installing a root kit on my computer.  I still haven’t forgiven them and likely never will.  I’ll just smirk when they get hacked again.

Instead, I’m going to talk about some other companies that haven’t done a very good job of retaining customer loyalty.  Some have a long track record of errors and I’m surprised that they have stayed in business.  Others probably will not go out of business but probably should.

Yahoo! has recently been sold again (maybe) to Verizon.  This is a company that once was once the most popular website in the U. S.  Once worth over $100 billion dollars, it started to decline about fifteen years ago.  Verizon is reportedly going to purchase it for about $5 billion.  Over the years, Yahoo! Missed out on chances to buy Twitter, Facebook, Google and YouTube.  The latest news is the hack of more than 500 million user accounts.  Rather than inform customers, the company didn’t do anything for two years.  They must be lousy hackers, since Yahoo! has between 2 and 3 billion users.  I think we’ll be hearing more in the future.  I don’t have to worry.  I deleted my account about five years ago.

Another company recently in the news is Samsung.  If you haven’t heard about the Galaxy Note 7 problems, I hope you’re enjoying your vacation on Mars.  I think that Samsung initially did a great job of responding to the exploding battery reports by recalling all of the phones, no questions asked.  Now it appears that the replacement phones are having the same problem.  As I write this article, Samsung has ceased sales of the device.  I don’t think the story is over yet.

I could write several pages on how badly Sony has treated their customers over the years.  If you are interested, feel free to do a search on my website and review my past thoughts.  They haven’t changed.

There are many companies that unfortunately are able to stay in business even though they don’t give a rat’s you know what about their customers.  I’m mainly thinking of communications companies.  Have you heard of any positive customer service stories about ComCast, AT&T, Verizon, etc?  I have.  They almost always get a lot better whenever some competition enters the market.  Often they end up buying the new companies, take a market loss and then return to their past ways.

It is beginning to look like we might soon lose other organizations.  Both of our major political parties are in danger of putting themselves out of business.  Neither bear much resemblance to their roots.  Maybe it is time to resurrect the Whig or Federalist Parties.  We could also turn to the Dixiecrats, the Progressives or the Natural Law Party.  The Know-Nothing Party could be the most appropriate choice.

Thanks for reading.

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Cyber Security Awareness II

October 30, 2016 Posted by Tiny

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TinyJWRinLC
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Thursday, October 20, I attended the Cyber Security Awareness Workshop at Port Arthur, Texas.  This was a follow up to the Cyber Security Awareness Kickoff held earlier in the month.

There were three discussions, each lasting an hour.  All of the speakers were extremely interesting and spoke their entire allotted time.  I took a few notes each session.

1. Real Cybercrimes – Detective Brian Cater, Port Arthur Police Department.

Detective Cater spoke mostly about internet scams that were actual cases in the city.  These were mostly the same scams we hear about nearly every day: phishing, website spoofing, lottery scams, online job listings, etc.  In recent years, victims have generally been older people.  In most cases, funds are lost and never recovered.  If you are a victim, suspect a scam or want to learn more, check the Internet Crime Complaint Center website.

As he ran out of time, his final tip was to create your Social Security Account if you haven’t already.  That way, no one else can create one using your identity.

2. Social Media – Javier Barajas, IT Support, City of Port Arthur.

Mr. Barajas gave an interesting talk on using social media.  The average person uses their cell phone 4.7 hours a day.  He talked about things to watch for and gave some great examples.  My personal favorite was a young lady that posted “guess who got a new credit card” and uploaded a picture of her new card.  One of the responses to her post was from someone that asked what the cvv number on the back of the card was. You can guess what happened.

Advice:
a. Watch what you post, once on the internet, it’s always there.
b. Don’t share your location.
c. Click “like” on Facebook may result in bad things – Many of these sites are data farming.
d. Check your social app privacy settings.  An internet search can prove useful.
e. Use two-step verification when available.
f. Use different e-mail addresses/user names for different sites.
g. Don’t use selfies as your avatar.
h. Don’t enable auto login.
i. Change your passwords frequently.
j. Close old accounts.
k. Think twice before clicking on links.

3. How to Configure Your Home Network – James Cammack, Instructor at Lamar College PA.

Mr. Cammack gave a great presentation on setting up and configuring your router.  He used an excellent analogy of comparing a router to the U.S. Post Office.  One delivers web pages to your computer and the other delivers mail to your house.  Both use addresses.

Advice:
a. Use WPA2 encryption.
b. Change your router password.
c. Hide your SSID.
d. Use guest network (or disable if you don’t want to share).

Mr. Cammack only had time to finish part of his presentation.  Hopefully, he will speak again next year.

I had another great day in Port Arthur and am looking forward to attending next years events.

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Cyber Security Awareness Month

October 8, 2016 Posted by Tiny

On October 6, I attended the 5th Annual Cyber Security Awareness Month Kickoff in Port Arthur, Texas.  There were four seminars, all free to the public.  I thought I would share a few notes and comments on my day.

1. The Internet of Things – was presented by Ira Wilsker of the Lamar Institute of technology.  He gave a presentation on the many home appliances, medical devices, security systems and other things that are all connected to the internet.  One of the many problems is that most of these things have no security and can be used as ingress points into your home network.  He also talked about how they can be used as remote bots for attacking web sites and used the recent Krebs on line site as an example.  I didn’t bother to note all the many items he talked about, but there were a few that I found interesting:

Johnson & Johnson warns insulin pumps can be hacked – many medical devices and systems are vulnerable, maybe even more so than driver less automobiles.

Connected Cattle – a farmer that has tagged all of his cattle with devices that monitor their health, feeding, etc.  It can even tell when the animals get pregnant.

IoT devices being increasingly used for DDoS attacks – a Symantec blog explaining how a Denial of Service attack works.

Sad reality: It’s cheaper to get hacked than build strong IT defenses – an excellent article by Iain Thomson that compares hacking defenses to the Ford Pinto formula.

2. NetSmartz – was presented by Detective Michael Nixon, Beaumont Police Department Special Victims Unit.  He talked about keeping safe from cyberbullying, on social media, etc.  Some notable links were:

Parents & Guardians – a section of the NetSmartz website with tips for caretakers of children.  There are also sections for educators, law enforcement, teens, tweens and kids.

CyberTipline – where you can report cyber crimes.

Suicide of Amanda Todd – a Wikipedia article about a fifteen year old girl who was cyber-bullied.  She posted a You Tube Video, and then committed suicide.

3. Security Today – was a presentation by Dell Computers and Wayport Business Solutions. They spoke about the SonicWALL Advanced Gateway Security Suite which is an advanced firewall.  They also briefly talked about Lightbeam, a web browser extension for keeping track of third party web sites that track your online activities.  (My research after the fact shows that the extension is only available for the Firefox browser.)

4. Cell Phone Forensics – was presented by Elie Van Horn of the Port Arthur Police Department.  He spoke about data found on cell phones and the methods used to find it.  He also spoke at length about how cell phones can be used to track you.  Some interesting links:

TeenSafe – an online service that can be used to put tracking software on phones.

StealthGenie – another tracking app.  My later research revealed that this app is no longer available because the creator has been jailed.

MobilStealth – still another tracking app.

So what did I learn from the seminar?  I had a passing knowledge of most of the items presented.  One thing I found the most interesting of the entire day was a website that was mentioned by the first and third speakers.  The final speaker started his presentation by stating how he was definitely going to check this site when he got home.

SHODAN, The Search Engine for the Internet of Things is exactly what it sounds like.  With it, you can search for things connected to the internet.

I really enjoyed the day and am looking forward to attending again next year.

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Sometimes I Wonder – Originally Published October 2016

October 4, 2016 Posted by Tiny

A Pain in the Whatchamacallit
By Tiny Ruisch

Sometimes I have a hard time deciding what to write about in this monthly column.  There are so many things that I wonder about.  Many of them are big enough that I can write a whole page on the subject.  Others are so minute that I occasionally need to write a potpourri column like this month.

As I write this, the iPhone 7 is about to be released.  I long ago quit wondering why people would sit in a line outside the Apple Store for weeks to buy a phone.  This time I’m wondering about the missing headphone jack.  Personally, I think that is really the future.  I hardly ever plug into the jack on my phones.  I’ve used the one on my current phone twice.  Once when I first bought the thing to make sure it worked.  I also used it one time when I forgot to charge my Bluetooth headset.  The thing I’m curious about is what the new iPhone owners will do when they fly on an airplane.  Bluetooth isn’t allowed on many airlines because of interference with the aircraft’s navigation equipment.  I’ve got a feeling that the rules will soon be changed.

Sometimes I wonder if I should buy a dedicated e-reader.  I must admit that I was pretty envious when Tom showed off his new Koby.  Every time I think I’m about to pull the plug, I realize that my tablet(s) are really sufficient for my reading needs.  I’m at the point where I’ve got so many of them that they’re scattered around my house like bread crumbs from an old sandwich.  I’ve even got my first tablet, an Archos 70.  I got it back in 2011.  I use it for videos and reading.  Someday it will probably be just another picture frame.  Soon, I’ll be wondering if I should buy the new Nexus 7 that is supposed to be released in October.  It probably will depend on the price.

Almost every morning when I open my Facebook account, I wonder why I don’t just close the darn thing.  Then all of a sudden, among the obviously false political claims and impossible to believe factoids, I see some information about a relative, make a silly comment and log out.  Thankfully, I’ve avoided all other social media.  You can’t Twit me a Snapchat or Google+ me an Instagram.

Sometimes I wonder how long it will be before there isn’t any disk drives at all in our computers.  Long gone are the days of having stacks of floppy disks sitting alongside our machines.  After they disappeared, CD drives soon followed.  Hard drives are slowly giving way to solid state drives.  Someday in the future, all of our computers will have their operating system stored in flash memory.  Every thing else will be stored on remote servers.  I’ll be long gone, but the hobbyists of the future will be the only one that use local storage.

For as long as I can remember, I’ve wondered if the major Operating System manufactures will ever play nice with each other?  The main reason I don’t buy any Apple Products is that they don’t play nice with my other technology.  Long ago, I quit using Microsoft Outlook because it was too difficult to synchronize with Android.  Unfortunately, it is getting worse instead of better.  Have you ever tried to video chat with an Apple product with Android, or vice versa?

Over the years, I’ve wondered about lots of little things.  For instance, why does Windows always make you click on start to shut down the computer.  I wonder if I will ever get all the old newsletters scanned and uploaded.  I wonder if I’ll get a good gift at the club’s Christmas exchange.  I wonder if people like the monthly Mindbender puzzles.

One last thing I wonder about.  Should I end this article?

Thanks for reading.

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Should I Buy a Chromebook? – Originally Published August 2016

August 7, 2016 Posted by Tiny

From the Dark Side
by Tiny Ruisch

You may find it difficult to believe, but I’ve been giving serious thought to completely abandoning Microsoft.  Over the last year, the Windows 10 upgrade fiasco has really disillusioned me.  I’ve got Windows 10 installed on two computers and except for a few minor complaints, I like it a lot.  I decided long ago that I was going to keep using Windows 7 on my main laptop and my desktop.  I’ve invested a lot of time installing and tweaking just the software I really use.  I don’t clutter my two “work” computers with unnecessary programs.  For a year, Microsoft update has made it pure “H‑E‑double hockey sticks” for me to keep these two computers free of Windows 10.

Although many people don’t realize it, Windows 7 mainstream support ended last year.  This simply means that there will be no product upgrades.  Extended support will continue until 2020.  This means that I will still get security updates.  Maybe now I can be a little less vigilant in watching the recommended updates list.  Now that the free upgrade has passed, maybe there will not be any more evil updates.

I use my two Windows 10 computers for playing games, web browsing, making article notes and testing new programs.  I recently retired my last XP computer.  Someday soon I plan to install Linux and turn it into a media server.

Now that you know the background I’ll tell you about the real purpose of this article.  I’ve been giving serious thought to saving my money and purchasing a Chromebook.  There are many advantageous reasons for doing so.  Because there are very few programs installed on the machine, you can get some pretty good hardware for a reasonable price.  Although Wi-Fi is a necessity, it will be available in nearly all the places I would be using it.  Maybe before too long Chromebooks will routinely come with mobile SIM card slots.  It would be awesome to use Google Project Fi on them.

One of the great lures of a Chromebook is a recent change that allows you to use native Android apps.  This leads me to believe that it won’t be too long before all Android apps will run.  I am sure that in the future, Android and Chrome will be combined into a single OS.  That could create some awesome possibilities.

Right now, I would have two major problems with using a Chromebook.  I use LibreOffice and Scribus nearly every day.  Neither of these have yet been ported to use with the Chrome OS cloud system.  Because the Chrome OS isn’t very popular, I don’t expect this to happen in the near future.  There are some hacks and other work arounds, but I’m getting old and don’t want to spend a lot of time messing with them.

As far as I know, no one in the club has a Chromebook.  If everyone would like to donate $30 or $40 dollars, I would be happy to buy one and make a presentation at a future meeting.  Since that likely won’t happen, I guess I’ll just have to be patient.

Thanks for reading.

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Things I Won’t Be Spending Money On – Originally Published August 2016

August 7, 2016 Posted by Tiny

A Pain in the Whatchamacallit
By Tiny Ruisch

I was watching television when an advertisement was aired for My Clean PC.  My first thought was that this might make a pretty good Whatchamacallit topic for the club newsletter.  I opened a virtual desktop and went to the My Clean PC website.  Bravely I ignored the Web Of Trust warning and enabled all scripting.  I downloaded and ran the free diagnostic tool.  Oh No!  My computer has a dangerous start up item, 110 registry irregularities and 12 repairable security vulnerabilities.  My internet settings aren’t optimized and there is 38.61 MB of internet clutter.

I restarted my computer and ran Wise Registry Cleaner and CCleaner.  Then I opened another virtual desktop and downloaded the diagnostic tool again.  This time there were only 109 registry irregularities.  I wonder if Wise isn’t as good as I thought?  It looks like CCleaner did a fine job.  My internet clutter is all gone.

The dangerous start up item was HPservice.exe.  The diagnostic tool didn’t tell me how it would improve my internet settings.  All of the security vulnerabilities were related to Internet Explorer.  Not only would I never spend money on the technology, but I’d advise you not to purchase any of these types of programs you might see advertised.

My Clean PC isn’t the only technology that I’ll probably never spend my money on.  I haven’t had a land line telephone for more than ten years.  I don’t know how much telephone service costs these days, but I’m sure I’ve saved thousands of dollars.  I know I’m missing out on enhanced 911.  E911 wasn’t mandated until 1999, so I’ve lived most of my life without it.  I know I’m missing out on crisp, clear calls that don’t get dropped, even though I seldom talk on the phone.  The only thing I really miss about a land line is the satisfaction of slamming down the phone when I’m really mad at someone.

I will probably never spend any money on a 3D printer.  I really like the technology and think it would be cool to be able to print some items.  Then I get realistic and realize that I really haven’t any practical use for it.  I seldom print anything any more.  After all these years I still haven’t any need for a laser printer.  Maybe when three dimensional print advances enough that I can print a cheeseburger, I’ll rethink the issue.

If you’ve read any of my previous articles, you already know that I won’t be spending any money on Sony technology of any kind.  I won’t bore you again with my reasons, but will just restate Sony is not very reliable in their security.

Even though qualify as a senior, I won’t spend any money on technology that is designed specifically for “seniors”.  I have found that most of this stuff is mostly overpriced and outdated.  If I find I should need a keyboard with big lighted keys, I know I’ll be able to find one on Amazon or Newegg for about a third of the price.  I still haven’t figured out why anyone would buy a computer just to keep up with what their grandchildren are doing.  The answer is that they are probably busy hacking their grandparents computer.

I doubt if any of my dollars will ever be spent on a “smart” watch.  I just can’t see the need for having technology that doesn’t really do anything.  All that a smart watch really does is interface with a computer.     It is more of a small monitor on your wrist than anything else.  How many do you actually see whenever you are in a crowded area.  I don’t even need one for telling time.  When I retired from the Navy in 1989, I took off my watch and I never put one back on again.

Now that I’ve saved all of that money my by not buying useless technology, I can finally afford to buy that new computerized toilet seat.  Do you know the one I mean?  It connects to your phone via Bluetooth and you can adjust the temperature of the seat.  There are a couple of speakers built in to the seat lid so you can listen to your favorite music while sitting in the bathroom.  I’m pretty sure that future updates will feature technology that will tell you when it is time to change the paper roll.

Thanks for reading.

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Wondering About Windows 10 – Originally Published July 2016

July 3, 2016 Posted by Tiny

Wondering About Windows 10
by Tiny Ruisch

I’ve been wondering!  As we get closer to July 29, there are so many things that might happen with the Windows 10 operating system.  The free upgrade will soon be coming to an end and I’m sure there will be more changes in the way Microsoft does business.  Here are some of my predictions.  Just like for the New Year, they probably won’t be too accurate.  It’s still fun to make them.

I think that Microsoft will magnanimously have a change of heart and continue to offer free upgrades to Windows 10.  Of course, if I’m right that also means that those of us choosing not to upgrade our operating systems will probably continue to receive pop up advertisements and other spam from Microsoft.  Another possibility is that instead of a free upgrade, there will be a heavily discounted price on upgrading.

I also predict that those of us who upgraded for free will finally have to start paying for the free by enduring more advertising.  Personally, I can live with this as long as they don’t get as nauseating as the “upgrade to Windows 10” campaign was.  In fairness, I should mention that Google seems to be sending me more ads on my Android phone.

One thing I am pretty sure will happen is that we will start seeing lots of rumors on various tech sites, news organizations and of course, Facebook.  I can see them in my mind.
1) Microsoft will start charging an annual subscription fee will probably be one.  That may eventually happen, but I don’t think it will on machines that were updated within the free time period.
2) Don’t take your laptop into the bathroom because Microsoft will be turning on the camera to check what brand of toilet paper you use.
3) They have also installed a key logger with the latest update.
4) Microsoft will start making Windows 7 updates more inconvenient to obtain.  I can imagine slower downloads so that you will want to upgrade for more speed.
I’m sure there will be many other rumors.

Do you think that Microsoft will continue to be as aggressive with updating as they have been the first year?  Security updates and new builds have been installing fairly frequently in the first year.  This has been one of their stated reasons for upgrading.  I wonder if the fast pace will continue after the grace period ends or will they revert to a massive monthly update on the first Tuesday?

I hope I’m wrong, but I’m going to make a prediction that Microsoft will do some nasty things in their future “mandatory” updates.  For instance, if they think that your favorite anti-virus software isn’t compatible with the operating system, they could just uninstall it.  By the way, don’t plan on installing any “unauthorized” hardware on your system.  You’ve agreed to let them do this if they want to.

There is only one thing that I don’t have to wonder about.  After July 29, we will find out what the cost of free is.  There will also be a lot of customer complaints that they wanted to upgrade to Windows 10 but weren’t able to.

Isn’t wondering fun?

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