Tinys World of Technology BS

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.

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.

A Pain in the Whatchamacallit
By Tiny Ruisch

I’ve been cruising again!  You may or may not know that I’ve been busy relaxing with the Mrs. on one of our cruise vacations.  It’s been two years since I last wrote about my thoughts on technologies aboard the ship.

One thing that hasn’t changed since the last time was the ship wide WIFI at a decent 54 mps.  The internet junkies can get their fix for a mere $0.75 per minute.  Of course, you could always sign up for the 480 minute plan and pay only 33 cents per minute.  I found it amusing that there was also a $3.95 sign up fee the first time you used the service.  Personally, I’m just fine with waiting until we enter port.  I’ve always been able to go ashore and find free WIFI somewhere.  That gives me a chance to check my email and do a little browsing.  It’s not a big thing. After all, I am on vacation.

I left my laptop at home again.  I brought a seven inch tablet to watch some videos.  It spent most of the time on the desk in the stateroom.  I ended up using my pocket computer (a Samsung Galaxy Note II) for all of my book reading and most of my video viewing.  I kept my folding Bluetooth headset and an extra battery in my pockets.

On this cruise, it seemed that a lot more people were reading actual books.  I’m not sure, but I think this might have been due to the fact that there were a lot more older passengers.  There were still a lot of tablets and e-book readers in sight though.

I was one of the few passengers that had a camera.  Most people used their cell phones for picture taking.  A few people were using an I pad.  I hope they got good pictures because they sure looked stupid to me when they held up a tablet at the dinner table.

The shops, bars, internet cafe, coffee bars, etc. do not take cash aboard the ship.  Your room key not only electronically unlocks the door, but it is also your on board credit card.  It only takes a matter of seconds before your purchase is charged to your account.  Interestingly, the casino takes either cash or your key card.  If you use the card, there is a 3% service charge.  Go figure!

The key card is also used as a passkey to get off the ship in port.  At the start of the cruise, a web cam is used to take each passengers picture.  When going ashore, you just stick you card into a machine that looks like an ATM.  It beeps and you get off.  Coming back aboard is the same process, except for a Security Officer that checks your face against the picture in the file.

We took the ships “Behind the Scenes” tour.  This was a guided four hour journey through various crew only areas of the ship.  Technology was in abundant use throughout.

We didn’t get to see the engine room, but we got to walk through the Engineering Control Center.  It was about the three-fourths size of our meeting area at Sugarloaf Community.  Two officers are on watch at all times.  In addition to the engines, all of the ship’s auxiliary systems such as the water distillers, sanitary disposal tanks, fuel tanks, electricity generators, etc. are monitored and controlled from this station.  They kept a close watch on me as I studied the setup.

In the galley (kitchen), there was a monitor at nearly every piece of cooking equipment.  The displays had instructions for the cooks instructing them what to cook and when to cook it.  A computer in the head chef’s office allowed him to input his instructions into the system.  He was also able to order supplies from the storage areas.

The crews living areas had berthing, recreation and galley facilities.  They had their own cooks that used the same system as the passenger areas.  There was a large room with two or three dozen internet capable computers for crew use.  Many crew members had their own computers which they could also use.  Another thing that was available for the crew is college credit courses via the internet.  I don’t know if there was a fee or not.

By far, the most technology was visible on the bridge.  The first thing you see is a huge monitor displaying the radar for several miles.  The ship’s location is accurately displayed with GPS coordinates.  Another screen displays up to date weather data and the forecast.  Several other stations had monitors with vital ships information.  Almost all of the sailing is done by auto pilot.  The Captain gives his orders and the crew enters the data into the computer.  About the only time it is done manually is for practice in case the systems go down.

When we were on the bridge, many small fishing boats could be seen in the area.  One of the other tour members asked if we should be worried about them.  I got a few glares when I said that maybe they should be more worried about the fact that Windows XP is still being used.  I don’t know what system it was, but one of the monitors was in screen saver mode.  Windows XP Professional was being prominently displayed.

Almost all of the technology I saw had a backup system that was the exact same as the original.  It was interesting to see two computers with the same data on the screen.  Now that I think about it, there was one system that didn’t have a backup.  I guess we can only hope that the windshield wipers on the bridge don’t fail.

Thanks for reading.