First Time Ever I saw this Face

New profile picture - such a tough decision! .  Do I really want a face that can be identified, or do I want to make it difficult for the facial recognition software to locate me in all the unauthorized posts of me around the Internet that I don't control?  With the help of photo editing software, I have created these candidates for my new Internet face. 

   Face in Outer Space                     Me as Galadriel the                           Hip to be Square
Terrible in LOTR

Or maybe just an emoji?  A smiley face? 

Surviving Camp Google I/O

For the 2^nd year Google I/O has been advertised as an outdoor tech festival.    The technology information is sure be the usual awesome.  But unlike Moscone, there could be logistics challenges to finding clean bathrooms, hot food, and a place to sit.

The Good
Shoreline Amphitheatre is a concert venue, so the concert at Google I/O 2016 was awesome.   Plenty of snacks to go around, great music, and lots of toys that light up means the crowd is rocking.   The keynote was also similarly comfortable except for the lawn seats which were baked extra crispy by midday sun. 

Restrooms
Anyone who has taken a family to an outdoor festival, or amusement park knows locating these in a timely fashion is not trivial.   Unlike Disneyland which has bathrooms with stained glass and working towel dispensers, the Shoreline Amphitheater is typical outdoor venue with concrete floored bathrooms with communal faucets in a circle at the center of the room.     Towels will usually run out by mid-afternoon though the events continue on into the evening.   

If cleanliness is important to you, bring hand sanitizer.   The executive portable restrooms brought in for the event are VERY nice – roomy with working locks on the doors and abundant soap and paper products.    This year Google has marked the locations of restrooms on the site map in the app. 

Power
The venue is basically a parking lot with tents and temporary building set up.     There are recharging stations around the site, and the attendees cluster around them like a modern version of the campfire.  While jockeying for space on the power strip you can get some good conversations going.  If you forget a cable, you may get a loan from a fellow developer.   Those of us who brought cables with both micro USB and Thunderbolt connectors that could be used simultaneously were very popular.   Also if you bring a grounded 3-outlet tap, you can get almost anyone to let you share their outlet AND help a friend.

The smartest thing is to carry spare batteries with USB slots to re-charge your phone and/or tablet.    Once you get back to the hotel you will need to re-charge those, so bring a power strip with USB outlets also.     

You will use your device heavily – the schedule is in an online app, and the updates appear there.  At least half the schedule will be announced after the keynote, because Google wants to keep the mystery about the new stuff.  Slack channels are the best source for up-to-date info.    You also will be checking weather conditions.  Expect your battery to drain quickly.   Power locations are also (this year) marked on the site map in the app. 

Food
Feeding 8000 people without a staff of waiters and kitchen personnel is a challenge.   The 2016 solution was lots of cold sandwiches and a few salads for lunch, and doughnuts for breakfast.   Coffee was at a premium.      A bigger challenge was trying to find out where the food was being served.   If you didn’t find a serving location fast enough, you got no food.  Not poor selection, nothing. 

Food at the nighttime events involved 45 minute lines with small portions.  (6 food trucks for thousands of people couldn’t work out any other way.)   Unlike downtown, you can’t pop across the street for an alternative.   

According to I/O 2017 app, this year there is a centrally located food court of reasonable size (125 feet long)  marked on the site map.  For the first day plan to eat breakfast at your hotel.   Plenty of snacks will be available from re-fueling stations around the venue from my favorite food groups: gummy bears, energy bars, dried fruit, and chips.  There is plenty of water.  

You can always grab dinner at Jack-In-The Box on the way home.   Our Lyft driver was very accommodating. 

Seating
For 2016 within the amphitheater seating for all the attendees was no issue.   Outside the amphitheater it was a challenge.  If you got lunch, there were 10-20 picnic tables, some scattered wooden and string chairs, and curbs.     Either you ate standing up, sat on the grass, or sat on the parking lot.    At 79 degrees, the asphalt is very hot in the sun. 

Unless you want to carry a camp chair, dress to sit on the ground.   Hopefully the Food Court (see above) will have more seating options.

Accessibility
There are significant hills on the site.  To enter the site there is 525 foot walkway from the closest parking or drop off, with a 30 foot drop.   No benches were provided.  One of the largest bathroom facilities is at the top of a 250 foot incline with 25 foot rise.    Several handicapped portable facilities were available on the parking lot where the breakout sessions were held. 

Once on the site the parking lot where the temporary buildings for talks, labs and office hours is flat.   The power cables are all covered to allow wheelchairs to roll over them, and ramps available to access the main amphitheater and the buildings.  The pathways are all concrete or asphalt. 

There is reserved handicapped seating in the talks.   The 2016 non-Google event staff was reluctant to allow any movement of the attached chairs to accommodate mobility issues such as crutches, canes, a raised leg to reduce swelling, etc. 

The distance from the amphitheater to the breakout sessions ranges from 500 feet to the closest and 1200 feet to the farthest.  (Moscone Center is 480 feet from outside wall to outside wall.)   Once on the parking lot the distance between breakout sessions was typically of the conference rooms in Moscone.  If you have mobility issues, you will probably plan your sessions around what you can get to that is closely grouped.  Moving between the amphitheater and breakout locations is similar to leaving a building and walking 1-2 long city blocks uphill or downhill to another building.

What to Wear
Dress in layers.  As Google helpfully listed on the I/O attending site, the temperatures will range from 49-75.  There are no hotels within walking distance, and no lockers to stash stuff you may not need for the entire day.    Plan to sit on the ground, walk a lot, and carry a 5-10 pound pack with your technology, jackets, water bottle, sunscreen, and other necessities. 

Why is this a Microsoft secret ? Or how to unlink your Microsoft OneDrive account in Windows 8.1

Usually I can find most of the technical help I need for simple stuff on the Internet.   My recent epic fail in unlinking a Onedrive account prompted this post.   The answers I found ranged from "why do you want to do that" to "you can't do that" to "here is a complicated way to link multiple accounts to do something similar to that, but not really."   Of course there was also the usual name-calling and topic-hijacking you see all over help forums.  

Some of the worse hits for the search were the Microsoft documentation pages.  They have a standard format which involves small print, over-complicated explanations for simple tasks, and lots of requests for feedback to ignore.  I mostly read them to find search terms that will find the real answer.

The good news is - it is simple, but Microsoft probably doesn't want you to know that.  The Windows 8 and 10 experience is based on using a Microsoft account to log on to the PC so all the settings can be synced across devices.  Using a "local" account that is not a Microsoft account is strongly discouraged and barely explained.  But for the vast majority of business users who log on using a domain account managed by corporate administrators, logging on to the Windows 8 PC with a Microsoft account is not an option.  

If you want to link a Microsoft account to a local account or domain account:

1. Hit the Windows 8 key or the logo in the start bar to bring up Windows 8 metro screen
2. Hit the search icon in the upper right corner, or pull the charms bar up
3. Type PC settings and hit enter
4. Click on PC settings, and then choose Accounts.  You will see this screen -->
5. Click on "Connect to a Microsoft Account"
6. You will be prompted for what settings you want to sync, and for the userid and password of your Microsoft account

To unlink a Microsoft account from a local account or domain account

1. Steps 1-4 from above
2. Screen will show the current linked Microsoft account.  Click on it to unlink.

You're welcome.  

My daughter's life is a teen movie

"I hate Leah*," my daughter said, as she got into the car after her math tutoring session.

"Any particular reason?" I asked, trying to keep the mood light.   Teenagers love the drama, and my teenager is no exception.   Maybe talking her through it would clear this all up.   

"She told me I couldn't sit at the lunch table."  

My heart sank.  My freshman daughter had never been good at making friends, and this did not sound good.   "Tell me what happened," I said, hoping for a minor misunderstanding.

"I went to sit at the table I normally sit at with a group.   You know the same ones I have been sitting with, the three sophomores and Leah*  and Parker*, my classmates from middle school."   I nodded and she continued.  "There were two empty seats. One of the sophomores, Asian Girl, said the seat was taken."

"Asian Girl?"  I laughed a little, and she joined in.  "That's a bit of a stereotype.  Don't you know her name?"  My daughter shook her head.  "You're not very good with names."  She shook her head no again.  "Okay, she said the seat was taken.  Did you ask who the seat was taken by?"

"Yes, but she didn't say.  So I asked her again who was sitting there.  She still didn't say.   So I moved over and took the other empty seat."

My mind spun like a Vegas roulette wheel with scenes from classic high school movies flashing before my eyes.   The lunch room is a battlefield where the conflicts are sung out, danced out, and just plain punched out, sometimes accompanied by a food fight.  Anyone and everyone in the school ends up in the cafeteria at some point, so anything can happen.   Getting ejected from a lunch table is so cliché.  Apparently, based on my daughter's experience, it is still happening. 

"Then what?" I prompted. 

"Leah said I couldn't sit there at their table.  So I went and sat by myself and ate lunch."   She paused, then continued, "After I finished I went back to the table and sat down.   They all got up and left."

"Hmm, "  I said, trying to come up with something brilliant, but obviously failing.  "Are you sure they weren't trying to be funny?"  She shook her head no.  "What did Parker say?"   Maybe her other former classmate would be more kind.

"She wasn't there."  My daughter sounded a little sad, but not devastated.  Good, I thought to myself, now I have to get her feel like a hero, not a victim.  How could I put her back in control?   So I started laughing.    My daughter looked at me, a little confused.

"You have got to be kidding me," I said, and kept laughing   "That sounds like a bad teen movie, and a few good ones." She didn't look convinced, but she wasn't crying. "That line is straight out of Mean Girls."   The movie, Mean Girls, is one of our favorites.  It features Lindsay Lohan at her peak, halfway between the cuteness of Parent Trap and totally losing her mind, dignity, and career in her  drug-arrest twenties.    "Did everyone at the table say you couldn't sit there?" 

"No, the boy didn't say anything.   And neither did the other girl I don't like much."  I started laughing again.  "Why is that funny? " she said.   I explained that she only knew the names of half the group, and the rest had just labels.   Perhaps she might relate better to the group if she asked their names.

I also told her the silent ones were typical bystanders, who may not actually support the bullies, but are afraid to say anything even if they don't approve.    It is hard to stand up to a bully, because you might become the next target.   

"So tomorrow, go back and sit at the table.   If they tell you the seat is taken, do what you did today, and ask who."   She nodded, on familiar ground.  "If they tell you that you can't sit at their table, start laughing.   Then tell them they are behaving like the movie, Mean Girls."

"And they are the Mean Girls?"  she asked.  I nodded. "They might say I can't sit there again."

"But at least you haven't run away, and you might get them to laugh about it."  She didn't look convinced. 

"I don't want to be friends with people who treat me like that,"  she said.  Silently, I agreed with her.  Lunchroom Nazis are not my first choice as friends for my daughter.  "At least they don't have a burn book, " my daughter put in, "Or call themselves the Plastics."

"Maybe they are still working on it."  She laughed again, starting to enjoy the comparison.   "Now all l you need to complete the teen movie clichéd plot is an evil cheerleader.  Blonde."  

She thought for a minute and said, "I don't think we have any evil cheerleaders.  Even the blonde ones." 

We started laughing together again, and life was good for the time being. 

*Leah and Parker are pseudonyms.   Even an MG deserves privacy. And there are two sides to every story

iVapor Smart Watch - why wait for Apple?

Apple announced their entry to the smart watch market.   The press, predictably enough, oohed and aah-ed about how wonderful the Apple watch was gonna be.   Certain lucky reviewers got the see the future product up close, but did not get to actually manipulate it.   Even without actual hand-on interaction, there was no shortage of glowing reviews of what the watch was going to be like

So why wait for the Apple watch?   Really, why?   I love my Moto, and I am not willing to wait until 2015 to have a smart watch.   I can get significant value from my Android watch in the six months that will make me a more discriminating customer.    Why wait?    Technology is not a lifelong commitment.   I have bought more than one smartphone/media player/laptop/fitness-band.    Besides, it takes Apple three versions to get it right, so I may skip the first two generations.

So until Apple comes late to the party to make their big splash,  I am going to continue enjoy the timer/email/translator/life coach/etc. already on my wrist.

Domo arigato, I love my Moto - banishing the myth of poor battery life

There is no shortage of Android watch reviews from the "professional" reviewers who use the tech for a few days and rush to judgement to grab a headline.   Not every tech relationship is love/hate at first sight.  Like "must-see" TV, it can take time to appreciate and evaluate a device.

I am on my second Android watch.  I have the LG, and that introduced me to the glories of  of Android wear.  I used it to display my boarding pass for a Delta flight.   I read my email on my wrist.  Then my Moto arrived, courtesy of Google I/O.    Since it was my second device, the setup was minimal.  (Pair, and done)  ]

I realized after a few days of wear, that my Moto was more comfortable than my LG.  The round display looks good, and there are no corners/edges that dig into my wrist.   Looking at the display screens of both, I find I can see information just as well on the smaller Moto as the rectangular screen.  

Many of the early reviews complained about the battery life on the Moto.    That tells me the  reviewer  used it less than 2 days.     As you continue to use and charge the Moto, the battery life increases.     After a week of ownership I lost my Moto on a Friday night.   Fifty hours later when I  claimed it from the lost and found, the watch still had 4% of the battery left.

That's better than my smartphones.    

So, my Moto is my Android watch of choice.   I just wish I could get a prettier band instead of the hyper-nerdy black.

Love at first byte - the Surface Pro 3 is my dream PC

In interests of full disclosure, I own 2 iPads, and an iPhone 5s.  There are 2 more iPads and 2 more iPhones in my household.   So obviously, I am no stranger or enemy to Apple.

But I love, love, love, the Surface Pro 3.  Really - it is almost everything I have been dreaming of in a PC - plus a few things I didn't know I was looking for.   That type keyboard/cover with the magnetic connection and the tilt - so easy.   I was reminded of what a pain every other keyboard, including the sleek looking Apple wireless, is to pair up and recharge.  Sooner or later the keyboards run out of juice, and it is never convenient to recharge.   And the connection - no Bluetooth pairing, so it is instantly on.  The magnetic coupling means no fumbling with cables, or matching ports.  You literally slap the keyboard on side of the table and it is ready to run.

I find the spacing on the keys totally typical..   I don't even think about it.  The kickstand on the back of the tablet makes it stand up at the same angle as would my laptop screen.    There is also a touchpad mouse controller on the keyboard, so I don't have to use an external mouse.   Or I can just touch the screen.    The screen is so readable, with that 4:3 aspect ratio.  

The PC has an i7 processor and and 256 gb storage.  That means it runs as fast and stores as much as my previous PC, but weighs half as much.   Considering I was already carrying an ultrabook, I still noticed the reduction in weight.

The only thing I still depend on my iPad mini for is the 3G connection.   If I could put a SIM card in my Surface to connect to the Internet, it would be perfect.   I don't understand why the vendors think that a Windows tablet only needs to connect to Wifi.    Carrying around an external Internet connection is like constantly carrying a power adcord because there the vendor thought because electric power was available no one would need a a battery.  

I also like not having to constantly locate the iPad equivalent to everything I do on the Windows PC.   Until the cloud storage vendors came of age I was frustrated by all the backflips I had to do to find and use files.  Each app may or may not connect to my cloud storage, and might or might not coordinate with the app I wanted to use.

The Surface Pro 3 is simplifying my life.    Windows 8 is still confusing me, but at least I can switch over to the desktop.

Amazon rules, Microsoft drools

What a nightmare!   As much as I love my Surface Pro 3, the experience of dealing with the Microsoft store would put off buying any more there.

It might be 2014, but the Microsoft store still requires that you call  a phone number and talk to a person to request a return material authorization.   So first you have to navigate a voice menu, to talk to someone whose first and second language are not English after waiting in a queue for the privilege.

And then they start walking you through the script.    Instead of an electronic logon to your account, like the Microsoft store did when you ordered, to return you have to recite all the information they already have stored on you back to someone on the phone.   Your customer service representative and I use the term “service” loosely,  repeats it back to you, incorrectly, in a heavy accent.    For your protection, if you manage to successfully communicate your email address on the account, then they must “verify” you. 

If they wanted to “protect” me, they wouldn’t make me read off personal information to someone on a voice call.     Everyone within earshot would be able to break into my Microsoft account for sure, and maybe a few others.     

For my protection they send a code to my email.   I need to access this email on the same phone I am talking on.   If I am using a service provider that does not allow me use data and text simultaneously,   I will need to disconnect the call to retrieve new email.  If I disconnect the call, I will need to be, wait for it, re-verified when I call again. 

If their goal was to make people give up on the returns process, and not return items, this experience will do that.  I won’t return anything to Microsoft store again – because I won’t buy anything from them.  Amazon, I love you. Truly I do.  Easy to order, easy to return, no sales tax, and it shows up in 2 days.   I promise I won’t cheat on you again.  

Still love the Careline

Last year I reviewed the Careline phone.   This year, as I continue to struggle with an older adult in my household, I have started to add Careline handsets around my home to replace aging technology.  

I can listen to messages remotely, or from any of the other handsets.   The phones are easy to hear ring, and have good call quality.   Pairing the new handsets is a breeze.   No one supplies me the additional handsets - they are just the best solution for me in this situation.

Should Dancing with the Stars Finals Include More Dancing?

One of my guilty pleasures is watching Dancing with the Stars.   If I miss an episode, my household is instructed to go on information blackout until I can catch up.  No morning news, no web news, weather only from weather apps to avoid spoilers . . . technology really makes it hard to stay in the dark.

This season I have really enjoyed watching Maks and Meryl's journey to the finals.  Personally, I think Maks has been robbed of the mirrorball more than once (Mel B, anyone?)  After 13 seasons he was clearly the Susan Lucci of the mirror-verse.   Though Derek Hough's choreography is excellent, after all these seasons I begin to see the same tricks over and over to hide his celebrity's lack of skill.

Carry the Load
The easiest way to camouflage is to pick the partner up.    The partner no longer has to stay in time with music, or get to the right place on the floor.   Another version of this is to twirl or drag them across the floor, which both have the same advantages of not demanding any timing of the celebrity.

Plant Their Feet and Dance Around Them
Sometimes this involves a pose, or a fancy position, but the result is the same.   For example,  that cha-cha move once more where he holds back of his partners head and raises and lowers her in time to the music at least 5 times, more if he is in a dance challenge and needs showy filler til he can think of the next move.

Add a Great Prop for Balance
Derek's not the only one guilty of this.   But dancing while sitting on a table, or a chair, or steps,  or holding on to a pole or a rope,  removes one of the greater challenges of ballroom dancing - moving across the floor. It's much easier to look good if you don't move.  

This year's partner had two prosthetic legs.   I get the difficulty involved with that, but Heather Mills did not get to dance half the time because she had one prosthetic leg.   The freestyle done this season with Amy Purdy was clever and beautiful, but, for the most part, it wasn't dancing.    It was a series of lifts (well-done) and poses, interspersed with brief sets of steps that covered very little ground, and finished with her spinning in the air a la Cirque de Soleil.    I would have liked to see her on her gazelle feet actually covering some floor.    

The freestyle from the fourth place couple was also dance-light.   A nice no hands flip from James, then some booty-shaking with backup dancers.  A run up a wall, and then twirling a martial arts spear to used up the rest of the time before a pose.

So I think Meryl and Maks more than earned the win.   We didn't get to see much of Meryl and Charlie dancing together (cut off coming in from the break) and why didn't they let the charming and hilarious Diana Nyad dance?   She wasn't great, but Billy Dee got ten times the onscreen camera time.  One more season down in the mirrorverse.   I go from selected information blackout to withdrawal

Measuring Your Content Stripe like Tequila

First of all, I know that ads are the most popular way to monetize your blog. 

But when I go to a blog, I want to read content.  As monetization increases less and less of the blog screen is devoted to actual content.   With some blogs the amount of content has been reduced to a continually thinning stripe down the page.   Even though the saying is “You can’t be too rich or too thin” your content stripe really can get so narrow that it lacks value.     Do you aspire to write the next infomercial, or are you writing "must-read" content?  

I suggest we measure the content stripe the way I measure how much tequila I am consuming – using the width of my fingers.   Three to six fingers of tequila – nice buzz.     Nine fingers of tequila – difficulty talking.   Twelve fingers of tequila – difficulty walking.   Fifteen  fingers – who remembers?

Now look at your blog on the screen.  (No cheating by using an extra-wide screen!)    Put three fingers up on either side of the screen.     How much content is visible and how much advertising?   Now try six, eight, etc.   Keep in mind like tequila, the more fingers you have, the less you remember and the less the readers get for their viewing investment.

For some of you it may be faster to reverse the measure.   If you only are giving me three fingers of content, I’ll be finding another bartender.  

Makeup or no

I need to learn how to put on makeup again.   The face I learned with is not the face I have now.

Help me Obi-Wan L'oreal/Revlon/Maybelline.   You're my only hope.

Tale of Two Cities – Taking Construction Detours on a Road Trip

In Michigan the snow obstructs the roads in the winter.   In the summer, it is construction.  The longer I live in the state, the better I am at locating those alternate routes that run free of traffic within sight of that parking lot occasionally known as an interstate highway.   On a recent trip to Indiana we ran  a foul of two traffic backups that put in contact with two extremes of small towns.

The first detour selected took us on back roads running through farms and abandoned gas stations.  We stopped briefly in a crossroads of town called Pompei.   The place was so deserted on a Sunday afternoon you would have sworn an invisible volcano had erupted and the inhabitants had dropped everything and fled.  We parked across from a general store with a front window so dusty they didn’t need curtains to keep out the light.  Crooked letters made of tape on the window advertised “Taco Tuesday” specials.   We wondered who was around to take advantage of this special, or how old the special was.  The gas station, closed, still posted a last gas price of $1.50 a gallon.   This place made Dorothy’s Kansas look like Wonderland, to mix mythologies.

The second detour took us through rolling countryside of farms once again. This time we ended up in downtown Angola.  The picture perfect town square with the pillar topped with a war monument could have been a movie set for small town America.  We passed a shop called “Touch of Lace’ that had all red, white, and blue outfits in the window to celebrate July.   In the corner of square was a cute little cinema with the old-fashioned marquee advertising a current movie.  On another corner was the county courthouse.  Two doors down was the First National Bank (of course), a two story building only a little wider than a townhouse.  The square was edged with multi-colored flower beds with petunias and marigolds, and a few other plants my botany-challenged brain couldn’t identify.

One town reeked of depression, with a brave cry of “Taco Tuesdays” to rally the remaining inhabitants.  The other lifted our spirits with its silent simplicity, small town America charming and real.    Sometimes detours can provide better entertainment than the DVDs and music on the car radio.

How to take care of a sick kid #carelinesp

Second in a series of posts about the Careline Vtech phone review unit

What do you do when a parent and a kid are both home sick?    You wash your hands a lot, try to get lots of rest to keep your immune system strong, and try to avoid touching . . . . uh . . . . well anything they have touched.   And in my case, go to work to flee the scene.


So dad was  in one bedroom convalescing, daughter down the hall resting, and me heading out the door trying to figure out to get them connected.     I moved the   Vtech Careline Telephone Home Safety System  phone next to dad, and gave the pendant to my daughter, and solved my communication problem.


Hit one for mommy, two for daddy - so simple.    My daughter thinks it's her cellphone.

**I wrote this blog post while participating in a campaign by BOOMboxNetwork.com on behalf  of VTech Communications, Inc. and received compensation for my participation. All opinions stated within are my own.

Easy Speaker phone cuts down on the yelling #carelinesp

Have you ever tried to have a cell phone conversation with someone slightly hard of hearing?   And totally averse to technology?   I swear, by the time I finish one of these conversations everyone within two city blocks knows all my business.   And I sound like a total lunatic.

In my house, I now send my senior husband to the Vtech Careline Telephone Home Safety System.  The safest part of the system is that he can't lose it somewhere in the house.  We put the main unit  right by the computer where we already had a phone jack from pre-historic times when you used dial-up to get to the Internet.

 He was trying to look up information about seniors accommodations at Disneyland.   I was trying to tell him what to do as he kept putting the cell phone to write down what I said.   I suggested he use the speakerphone on the his iPhone.  (Don't get me started on how easy the iPhone isn't for him)  He couldn't find it and hung up twice.

So I went on the Internet to the Careline support site and pulled up the picture you see above.   This time when I called back  I sent him to the Careline phone by the computer.    Pick up the receiver.   Hit the orange button.   Put the receiver down.   Yeah!  No more yelling.

Making that button orange was a great design choice.    Maybe even a little bigger would be better.   As for the pendant . . . for us it might be good to have that orange also so it stands out against the snow.

Disclosure:  This post was written while participating in a campaign by Boomboxnetwork.com for the  Vtech Careline Telephone Home Safety System, and Momisageek received compensation for participation.  All opinions stated within are my own.  (Aren't they always!) 

Careline - back to the future phone #carelinesp

Careline is a new phone design from Vtech.   It has large buttons, simple controls, and retro styling.  I remember when it came out of the box a month ago as a review model.   I thought had done a little time travel back to the year 2000.

The phone was easy to set up, and I didn't have to get a magnifying glass to read the display.   The buttons, mentioned above, are not smaller than my fingers, so I actually get where I want to go the first time.   Finally it has four fast-dial buttons.   Boy, have I missed those!   Having to hit a combination of keys for "fast-dial" is way beyond what my technology-averse husband can deal with.    At least he put my cell on  button number one.     Besides the phone, there is a pendant that you can carry around the house that will call the base, or the first two numbers that are save on the base unit.

We tried to figure out the best place in the house for the phone.    In the kitchen?   By the couch where we watch TV?   Upstairs in the bedroom?    Nope - the new nerve center of the house is now the computer.    The speaker phone came in handy first.   My husband, a certified senior citizen and rabid technophobe,  had to spend some time on the phone straightening out some of his prescriptions.   He hit the speaker button, and was using  the Internet and talking on the phone.  

Then he went out to shovel snow, and left the Careline pendant in the house.   (He thought wearing it around his neck was too girly.)   He took a fall and managed to crawl back into the house.    When I got back an hour later  he told me about the fall - and confessed he hadn't used the pendant.   His cell phone was too complicated to use.    I rolled my eyes.   What can you say?

The next day we had more snow.   This time the pendant went with him.  It's Michigan - there is lots
more snow coming our way, and now the pendant is part of his snow wear.

Disclosure:  This post was written while participating in a campaign by Boomboxnetwork.com for the  Vtech Careline Telephone Home Safety System, and Momisageek received compensation for participation.  All opinions stated within are my own.  (Aren't they always!) 

iPad Mini - Very good things come in small packages

Not being a rabid Apple fan girl I can usually resist the Apple hype.  But the iPad mini - it really hits so many of the features of my ideal tablet I had to try it.

I do own a "new" iPad, occasionally known as the iPad 3 to everyone except Apple.  Calling the third in a series of products the "new" iPad has to be one of the most ridiculous naming decisions I have ever heard.  It  almost seems like Apple wants people to be confused about what they are buying.    And what accessories are compatible with what.   I am happy to have a retina display, and the last version  of iPad with a 30 pin connector which connects to EVERYTHING.

But the size of the screen keeps me from truly loving it.   I just can't take it everywhere like I can my Kindle Fire.    Plus doing simple things like putting my photos into folders requires an app.  (at least there is one now  available)   And putting a mixture of files like documents and powerpoints and music and pdfs in to a folder so you can access them together - very complicated.    I would like to occasionally to use the iPad as a large USB drive with screen attached, and editing capability.    All those cutesie apps and games are not where the value is for me with the iPad.

Enter the mini iPad.   Now I have something I can hold in one hand.   Unlike the Kindle Fire, 3G access is available (at cost of 125 bucks, but at least I have a choice).    As much as I like my Kindle Fire, I hate that the smaller version has no 3G, and I am always searching for wifi to move content to the device.   It is better than having to use iTunes to move content, but still a hassle.    The original Kindle was the first tablet style device to let me buy or down load a book anywhere.   The Fire was a throwback to the bad old days having to plan ahead and load the device with content.      I hate having to track free wifi in strange cities.    Airports and hotels have wised up - data access is as big a moneymaker as dessert and soft drinks at a restaurant.   (And you though they really cared that you saved room for dessert!)

So my new mini is on order . . . the 3G version doesn't ship til mid-November, and I can't wait.

Binders full of women - is this so bad?

Mitt Romney has been the butt of many jokes for his turn of phrase "binders full of women" as a solution to workplace equality.

Maybe I'm too much of a geek, but I didn't see anything wrong with the comment.    Based on this turn of phrase, I am thinking that

1. He and/or his organization are researching competent women as part of a hiring plan for his administration.  
2. He recognizes that you should be planning ahead and assembling sufficient information to be able to provide a solution.  
3. He and/or his organization groups  the information into meaningful units for better analysis 

How is a bad thing?  Wouldn't we want a future president to do this?

As for the comment about a binder being "old technology",  I still think of my electronic groups of files "folders" in "binders."   Hey, Mitt . . . put me in your binder.     I need a job . . .

 

Making a List, Checking it Once - the Christmas rules

Though I am not ready to start hearing carols yet, I have started the list.    Actually it started last Christmas, so you know I am way ahead of the super moms

As I simplify to reduce stress, I realize we have evolved to a few Christmas rules that totally streamline the process.

1. Three or less presents a person.  For kids, they can't play with that many items, and only one will be the favorite.   The others might as well not be there.  Of course, there is the pressure to hit that one, so . . .
2. Fund a family outing as a present to all of you.  And sell that it is a present.  For example:
• a favorite waterpark hotel that is kind of pricey
• go to the movies at the most expensive time and buy anything you want for snacks
• see a live show at a local theater
  
3. Let the stockings flaunt rules 1 and 2 as needed. Big things can come in small packages, and don't underestimate the power of a gift certificate.

And new pajamas for Christmas Eve.  

Christmas List OneUpManship

Do you have that friend who always has their shopping done earlier than you?   And no matter how early you finish, they are still done first?

Do you ever exaggerate how soon you got your shopping done ?  (done a week early, a month early, mid-July, or even, last year?) 

Do you wonder it's a contest to get done first?   And why you care?

I wonder.   I need me some Christmas rules to reduce the stress.