Well, I'm back II

Hm. 

It seems that one.com has reconsidered my access to WordPress, or perhaps I missed the fine print where it was offered as a limited-time trial. My geeklog is still there, but I cannot edit it without inducing more pain compared to simply returning here. Bizarre -- but some hints I can take.

phone follies

Our relationship with CenturyLink was strained big-time when our move was not handled properly. I sent them a note on their website that we were moving, but we still received a bill. Two calls and six months later we were finally disconnected - only to get a collections call several months later, and a ding on our credit just as our home loan closed. Strained indeed.

We've been using two cell phones plus a cell-based home number for a year or so.. but this past winter our signal has been really poor. To my chagrin we chose to return to a land-line for our home number; given no real choice, we had kept our internet with CLink. We shifted our home/cell # to a SIM card, picked a new home number, and it was 'installed' last month. An internet+home phone offer online offered a $100 gift card as inducement, but to my infinite lack of surprise our install was a change not new service = no gift card for us.

For about five days all went well - but then our internet flaked out And our new phone stopped working. A service call placed the blame squarely inside our home, meaning that without their monthly extortion / LineBacker coverage the expense to us would be a Big Deal. We said Hake NO, disconnected our new service and went with VoIP instead. PhonePower accepted the new number and ported it over, and all was well.

For about three days.

Apparently CLink pulled the number after PPower made it work, but before the 'official' install date! How it functioned for several days without being installed, I'll never know - but nothing about this surprises me any more.

So we now have three cell numbers + a new phone number that vanished* + a VoIP home number. 
For three people, that's just silly.. but for now we'll see how it goes. The newly-ported cell number is hooked to different cell towers than the other two (T-mobile not ATT) so it could conceivably capture a better signal than the other two. That might lead to new SIM cards all around - or just as likely I toss the whole bunch and go Luddite after I go bald from tearing out my hair.

*Update - I just called someone with caller ID, and the fully-operational voIP number is the 'vanished' one! AAAaaarrRRGH!

2nd update - c-Link turned us off for non payment the same day pPower was "installing" our new phone. We have contacted Hughes Net and will cut the clink cord next week. Good Riddance.

We also ordered a WeBoost 3g signal-plucker to assist our cell phones. 
One or more of these will bring us back into contact with the connected world; whether it's worth doing will wait to be seen!

18Apr updates. The VoIP phone calls out but would not be reached from Elsewhere by either of the two numbers; it finally worked (once at least) this morning. The WeBoost system is working well in test mode i.e. cables everywhere and lashed to an outside post with a bungee cord. A more permanent fix will follow soon.

mini tech rant: am I there yet?

I'm typing this from my ASUS Transformer 10" tablet with Windows and detachable keyboard. It's been sidelined for about a year as technology marched on.  In fact here's my note from October 2014 about it (tablet rant #2). Why was that?

The easy answer is that I've been busy as usual, as caregiver to my wife.  The correct answer however is that I updated to Win 10 for free - and the wireless subsystem promptly failed. The Broadcomm wireless b/g/n SDIO drivers that want to update for the new system just don't work - seek these terms online and wince as you count the rants from unhappy users. Mostly I see ASUS users since I'm searching for them, but I've seen many HP users commenting on it as well.

Last week I found a site where a user pointed to the old but working drivers. I unZipped the file and copied the two .bin files that were reported in the Win10 driver popup, and now the tablet is online again after Nineteen Months.  Red flags will fly in the system as the auto-update politely clobbers the functioning drivers with new/bad ones; I expect this to begin soon.  I have the two .bin files on my desktop, ready to drag to the \drivers folder as needed. Silly, but at last it's effective.

The 10" tablet runs Office 10 and all modern browsers as well as a few apps. For variety it's nothing like my Android 8" store apps but I tend to grab and overuse games - so perhaps this is my better choice in the long run! It is a bit awkward to use as I'm used to Android with phones and tablets, but nothing I cannot manage - and the 10 hour battery life will be nice.

a happy tech post!

About time, it seems..

Since my ASUS 7HD died I sought out options rather hastily.  I liked the more squarish aspect ratio of the first one but it wasn't quite what I hoped for.  My second try though is a winner.

The Lenovo A8-5500 is an 8-inch tablet that is the proverbial 'just right' size.  The 7" screen of the 7HD was a bit crowded, and the 10" Transformer was too big for me to use as a tablet (just fine as a laptop replacement when hooked to its keyboard though).  This 8" screen has the same resolution of the 7HD so it's plenty bright and clear, and performance (for what I do at least) is just great.

Once it was set up the tablet updated itself to 4.4.2 Android so it's quite up to date.  However it's clear that many devices can run the same Android yet look quite a bit different!  ASUS implements their own system enhancements (even more so now with the Zen UI).  Most reviewers like ASUS mods but clearly Lenovo won't be using it - they have their own though, in the pop-sideways panel of settings and most-used programs.  Nicely done, but I already have my most-used stuff in the bottom part of the screen, and I cannot reclaim that area by removing them, so the popout is a bit redundant.  Perhaps I'll find ways to use it better but for now: not really handy.

Lenovo also crowds the main screen with icons like iDevices and unlike ASUS.  I've dumped most of the icons into a folder or two, which makes screen space available for widgets.  I admit it: I LIKE WIDGETS - which often include shortcuts of their own (ugh: triple redundancy with side-panel and screen-bottom icons).

Battery life is very good, and I've thrown some switches that imply even more savings.  I like 10-hour charges for tablets, a feature which very few tech devices manage.  I've reloaded a few common games and my astronomy apps so it's pretty much a duplicate of the HD7 now.  Once I've added in an office suite it will be closer; it appears that Lenovo has added one I know little about but I'll give it a try before filling more memory with a new version.  Google Sheet is sufficient for most of my dabbling on the tablet.

seeking a missing mind (+ tech rants)

As I began to pack up the now-sold K-s1 camera this weekend, I felt it was going to be an easy process.  When the camera arrived I deliberately removed the camera and battery, and nothing else.  I had a charger and a spare battery from the K-r already available, and I hadn't read a Pentax manual in years.  How convenient to keep everything in its place where it would be easy to find, or re-pack!

.. and then, apparently, I blacked out.

So I pulled down the as-new K-S1 box, opened it and - it's pretty much empty.  No charger, no manual, not even the strap.  Why would this be?!?  Looking back on it I strongly suspect that the manual was packed with other tech gear for the Oregon Star Party.  So I toured the big garage, the travel trailer, and every known box with astronomy or photo gear I could find.  I even went to the other garage to look in the computer section, just in case.  Nothing, neither clue nor trail.  Inside the house I opened every camera bag, every sports bag, every suitcase - again, no sign at all.  The fact that we didn't make the star-party trip (for the sixth straight year) did not help, as everything sat in boxes for a while before being emptied; I don't even recall what I had packed my camera gear into (box, bag or camera pack) so the trail was old, and cold.  Even if the original Pentax charger was packed to come along (unlikely) and the manual added for light daytime reading: why is the strap missing?  Also curious is the missing Pentax original battery; all I have now is two generic ones.  I'm frustrated beyond words, and even gestures aren't helping.

And I shall barely mention the Android tablet, now missing for two weeks (cheap replacement coming), the 3-month-old Windows tabputer that suddenly cannot do WiFi, or the fact that Android phones that had such strong signals in the house now cannot reliably make a call from anywhere on our property!
Tech sucks.

So out the door goes my spare batteries, my best charger - and out the window go a few more brain cells which I won't even miss.  The K-s2 just got a bit more expensive since much of that will need replacing at some point.  Drat.

mind flash!  I suspect the K-s1 charger went out with the K-r that I sold last month!
this would not explain the strap or owners guide though..


- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 10/12 update
While my mind went blank on camera gear, other tech items have also been quite decisively frustrating in the recent two weeks.

Tablet #1: I've been using an ASUS 7HD for a year or two with fine success.  Until recently of course, when it began to reboot or lock up quite frequently.  That's too bad as for the most part I really like the little thing for the basics: web, e-reading, quick updates to small spreadsheets and e-mail.  Given all its hiccups I wiped and restored it, then set about re-adding most of the apps.  For a week or two it was happy, then for two weeks or so it was rebooting again.  And now, for the past 10 days it is AWOL.  I know it was going out to the car to provide data for something, but it's not in the car, or the house, or anywhere I can think of.  Sure it's vanished for a day or two before but this is frustrating..

Tablet #2: While the 7" screen of tablet #1 has been nice, there were times it wasn't quite nice enough.  I bought an early model ASUS TransformerBook on clearance in town and I wanted to see how it would do as replacement for both tablet and laptop .  It came with Windows 8.1 which I bumped up to Win 10, and added Office 2010 to it - and the thing performs just fine. 
Well, it did for a while.
First off it's too big as a tablet.  The back is too smooth to hold easily, and covers for the T100 model are almost impossible to find.  Once snapped on to its keyboard it's a viable option, but definitely not a clean exchange for the 7HD.
And now it's dead too.  Not literally, just the WiFi part - so indeed pretty much literally.  It wavered a time or two but rebooting would bring the connection back up.. but those days passed about the same time the 7HD disappeared.  
Clearly a tech dark cloud has descended on our household (more on that later).

Cell phones #1-4: We are now both running iPhone 4s bodies.  My wife really likes the concept but has not done much executing, so that's a clear victory.  For myself though I prefer the Android ways of doing things.  Yes I'm up to iOS 9.0.x on my copy and it does fine, but some features just bug me since I know how easy they are on the 'droids.  So over the past two weeks I've been popping between my 4s, the 4.5" Android I had bought (and liked) for myself, and even the 5" galaxy-clone that I'd picked up for my wife before we had the iTalk.
That should have resulted in two happy people, not in lock-step with our phones but each doing what they like a phone to do best.  Only mine doesn't actually make calls any more.  That's odd since our Androids had a very good signal a year ago when we moved here, and before the iInvasion I could make a call from any room but one or two.  Now they are all flaky, even the porch outside gives me no clear signal.  Yes, that tech cloud again - somehow wreaking havoc with cell signals and WiFi tablet signals.  Bizarre.

And so here's our status:

• Two iPhone 4s are in action: for now I surrender on this front!

• I'll be calling ASUS about the Transformer soon, to see what can be done there.  In the end though,

  

  from tabletmonkeys site - cool name!

  neither is quite the answer I had quite hoped for.  Like Goldilocks I have ordered the 'just right' middle option: a new/other Lenovo 8" Android tablet.  My mind apparently is more compatible with Android than Win 10 or iOS 9, and the extra bit of real estate will help with reading, the size of my virtual keyboard and general visiblilty - while still keeping battery life pretty high.  I still like ASUS products but one reboots and one broke down, so trying another company isn't a bad idea.  Furthermore ASUS now has their ZEN UI that is obviously amazing - another layer of stuff atop Android may not be me-compatible though so I shall just say no.  I had considered (even ordered) a lower-spec bargain but these are old enough to be a low price with decent screen and chipset, so it will arrive in a few days to try out.

As always, WSS about how this turns out.  Hopefully I'll like my porridge, bed and 8-inch tablet!

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 10/14 update

Yet another bizarre turn or two in my tech world! 

• On Tuesday while dropping by my mailbox I encountered no mail - but my 7" tablet was resting atop the box in a large ziploc bag.  I know of no one in my neighborhood that knew this to be mine - but somehow it has returned.  However, it refuses to power up and removing the gel cover revealed plenty of water.  Something tells me it sat outside during our recent ¼-inch rainstorm.  It's been missing for over a week, so a heavy dew-fall or two would have done similar damage.  So the tablet is visible, but dead: long live the next tablet!  

•  Closely related topic: USPS site says the 8" tablet arrives Thursday, but eBay says Monday - so I expect it will arrive neither day, and probably Saturday.*  Why have online ship estimates been getting worse recently?  It's been a while since a package reached me 'on time', but the disagreement is four USPS work days!  Yet another reason to wonder why I spend so much time at the computer pretending that I will learn something useful.

• And now the iPhone is being stubborn about making calls in our home, just like the recent Androids!  the 4s is also more annoying when a call fails, beeping thrice loudly in my headset. It seems pretty clear that a cell tower has moved, or several trees have grown just enough to be troublesome.  And so I return to the 4.5" Android with all its little eccentricities that I prefer over Apple's little eccentricities..

* Wonder of wonders - the USPS site was correct, and the 8" tablet is Out For Delivery.  Impressive 1-day flight from Florida to Portland, guess they weren't served drinks!

And then, this -

Clearly this ongoing chat about tech could happen to anyone, and a daily update on tech woes isn't my plan for this place.  I am therfore crushing the last three posts into one to avoid cluttering the blog with such talk.

Cameras are up next - honest!

tech difficulties

How many screens does one family need?

We've been messing with phones a lot recently, but they are not the only stand-alone screens around here.  My Asus HD 7" is beginning to show some age as it needs to reboot a lot.  I wiped its memory and it was happy for a while, but reboots are coming back.  I picked up a bargain Transformer 10" detachable-kbd Windows tablet (now running Win 10) but it's challenging to use as a tablet; its back is quite slick & needs some grippiness if it wishes to be the HD7 replacement.  For some reason T100 gel covers are nonexistent so it's either go with strips of electrical tape or a get a near-fit case plus an Xacto knife to make the buttons align with the openings!  Bizarre. *

clockwise: 5" and 4.5" Droids 4.4.2, iPhone 4s, HD7 tablet, T100 WinX tablet (keyboard not shown)

And oh yes, the phones.  My wife decided an iPhone would be her best option and I figured I'd help her out by joining her, so two quite new Android 4.4 models (top two in this image) were swapped out for iPhone 4s - mine black with minimal memory, hers white and with enough to replace her iPod Classic.  After about a month I feel I've learned a few things about Apple, Android and myself.

No denying that Apple has the phone game down, even with these older bodies.  I've heard that newer ones are faster and smarter, but the hardbody 4s is one solid chunk of telephone.  It pretty much does what I need - except play music, ironically.  I've had no end of trouble getting that part working!   While I had heard the Apple camera was a fine one that killed the compact market by itself, I find it just as poor as the Droids I have owned; apparently the camera stories began with the model 5?

On the other hand, group chat is effortless with my siblings now, and most Google items are politely tucked into the iOS system (we're both on 8.4-something).  No massive complaints operationally.
And yet...

My many forms of electronic gear had solidified around the micro-USB connector.  Tablets, phones, even my K-s1 dSLR used the same cable.  (No mourning the passing of micro-D camera cables here!)  The mUSB are ubiquitous and we own a car charger for it.  Suddenly the wide (pre-Lightning) Apple port  is required in several places to keep phones charging.  And they need that a lot; perhaps iOS9 fixes that, but the 4.5" Droid I had acquired definitely did better there (the 5" Droids are daily chargers like the 4s).  We have two i-cradles which are nice for almost drop-and-go charging - but of course my new protective case would be too thick to allow the cradle to accommodate it.  Silly me, thinking it was up to others to keep things simple.

I also miss widgets.  The iPhone is two clicks away from most data sources,  but I can power up the Android and have weather, phone status and a few other status reports all on one screen.  I grew accustomed to that and I miss it.
So...

for now I'm planning to return to the smaller Android and see what I think.  Maybe in a week it will drive me a different kind of crazy, we'll see.

* Later: I found a 2-piece shell that owners suggest does improve the grip.  I shall just use the tablet cover & leave the keyboard as is, since some owners say it interferes with full screen tilt..

Geekday!

Our two computers both received notice that Windows 10 was ready to go.  They have been waiting patiently while others jumped on board, and today was their day.  Such geeky thrills!

While they went off spinning their discs I found the old:new Vivitar 180mm T-mount prime sitting on my porch.  Man it looks good for a lens that's been around for 50ish years!  This sits between the 100 & 400mm on my list of primes, and looks great while doing so.


A bit later I tripped down to Portland then came home via the local post office; they had left the lens but failed to leave my wife's new:old iPhone 4s (signature required).  Her patience with Android methods has worn out and she likes her iPod, so new tech has arrived.  While my 'droid time has been OK I've had issues with group messaging my siblings, so tomorrow is also geekday when my mint-used 4s arrives.  Never expected that day would arrive.. just don't ask me to love iTunes.

Before bed I finally managed to use my Win8.1 tablet when it had a full charge and all its 8.1 updates.  I found its reserve-Win10 notice and sure enough it was ready to download ..so  it's on Windows 10 now too!

 One long geeky day.

the thrill of cheap cell phones..

I suppose if one pays $200 or more for a cell phone it's all good cheer and happy endings.. right?  Well not always, but I shall never know.  I paid about $65 for my previous phone, a mystery 5"-screen Android that does the job well enough.  However it's been dropped a few times (and thrown once, I admit), and recently the grey screen of impending death has appeared more than once.  When looking up the solution, all sites but one said to trash and start over; the other site said to drop it again (and it worked for me too!).  I fear that's a temporary solution, so I went shopping online again today.

I had just done this for Lórien, as her 3" v2.2 Android phone wasn't holding a charge.  I got her one quite similar to mine with matching v4.2.2 software.  Well that's what they claimed: it's actually a v4.4.2 model.  It has the 5" screen, the various generic apps.. but it's quite a different phone, and nicely built.

At the same time I'd learned two things that I dislike about my 5" phone:

• it's enough too big that it can fall out of my pocket and ultimately produce grey screens, and
• the flimsy cardboard-cutout protector really .. doesn't.

With that in mind I went looking for a 4.5-inch screen to help it stay pocketed and a more protective cover than the current one.  

from eBay atop_service

Wow, it's amazing how rare sub-5" screens have become!  It's cheaper to buy a generic 5" than smaller screens in most cases.  Add to that the hope of v4.4 software and a nice cover, and it looked hopeless for a time.

I did finally find one however.  One site says 4.2.2 and others say v4.4.2 so I bought from one of the latter.  I also avoided those with $15 shipping*. It has all the usual stuff like two cameras, a generously big battery, apps galore and a gel-type rear cover like my 7-inch tablet.  Exactly what I'd hoped for!  Compared to my grey-screen phone the battery is larger but screen is smaller, and each update of Android brings energy savings.. so hopefully this one will need less nursing overall!   The site I found with v4.4.2 and a 14-day return policy (and $4 shipping: thank you!) had only white phones; bright colors would be fun but white is fine with me.

So once again I take the plunge into mystery-brand Android phones and hope to do as well as last time.  Better in fact, if it can stay with me and the softer cover can provide some real protection.  We'll see...


 * I can send a 2-pound lens across the country via Priority for $12 & they charge $15 for a thick envelope to go first class?  Err, no thank you