Author and IT Consultant since 1986

Inspired by the impressive capabilities the “Tricorder” applicatilon instilled in my normal Android devices, I decided to do a little research.  I specifically wanted to find applications that interact with the physical world in interesting and meaningful ways.

I came up with a list of applications that can turn your phone into a metal detector, a document scanner / photocopier, a heart-rate monitor, a telemetric measuring device. and even a geiger counter.  All these apps are freely available on Google Play.  See the complete list, including my own tests, descriptions, and download li.ks on my Cool and Useful Apps Hub.

Anyone who has logged on to Google Docs recently has seen the message that “Google Docs will soon be upgraded to Google Drive.  Google Drive will be the new home for your files.”  We’re given the option of getting started now, so I decided to give it a try and post my impressions here.

My first thought was that Google had figured out a way to monetize Google Docs – since we will have to pay for storage beyond 5 Gigabytes.  Granted, 5 Gig holds a lot of documentation, but Google wants to house all your files from everywhere – pictures, videos, and presentations, in addition to documents on which you wish to collaborate.  I can see that 5 Gig getting eaten up pretty quickly for some people.  Additional storage starts at 25 Gig for “less than $2.50 a month.”  Our current household data storage on our networked FreeAgent drive is about 100 Gigabytes, so I won’t be backing everything up to GD quite yet.

Getting Started on Google Drive

Clicking on the ‘Get Started and Learn More’ link took me to a page with highlights of the GD service, along with a short promotional video, all pointing out how I could share and access files seamlessly from my phone (Android and iPhone), tablet, PC, Mac, and Chrome OS.   Then there was the next button, “Get started with 5 GB free.”  There, I was given a welcome screen, offered another video (which I didn’t watch), and yet another button “Try Google Drive.”

After clicking that, I was finally taken to the Google Drive interface, which looks a lot like the Google Docs interface.  A message appeared letting me know that I could revert to the Google Docs UI at any time in the settings menu, but I don’t know how long that will be available.  If you were comfortable with the old interface, you’ll be able to work with this one – most of the original options and look-and-feel have been preserved, except ‘collections’ are now ‘folders’ and there is no ‘home’ view.  ’Star’-ing items is the same, and files can be dragged from one folder to another.

Google Drive for the PC

I convinced my wife to sign up for the service, and install the optional PC component.  She is not an IT expert, but the setup was easy enough for her.  Basically this application creates a new folder on your PC, and anything you put there is synced to your Google Drive.  She copied some of her real estate files to the new folder, and they were available on the web a moment later.

Google Drive for Android

I then downloaded the Google Drive app for Android on my Epic 4G Touch phone.  After accepting the TOS, I was able to access all my folders and files.  This post is not intended to be a real ‘how-to,’ but suffice it to say that I was able to load my files, edit, re-save, and share them with specific people, all from my phone.

Of course, my low-cost Sylvania tablet has access to the Google Market (excuse me, I mean “Google Play”), but like most apps that I actually want, Google thinks GD is incompatible with my device.   I worked around this in two ways: 1st, the excellent X-Plore file manager running on the tablet has native support, and connects to Google Drive.  This shows my folders and files there just like the local folders and files, and I can open them directly in OfficeSuite Pro.  This worked without a hitch.  Next, I logged on to drive.google.com using the tablet’s stock browser (Android 2.2).  At first it just gave me the old Google Docs interface, but once I switched from the ‘mobile’ version to the ‘desktop’ version, I was able to access the full GD functionality.  Oddly, whenever I finished editing something and went back to the main screen, it would switch back to the mobile version.

Out of curiosity, I tried copying the .apk file for the Android version of the app from my phone to my tablet.  9 times out of 10 that will work fine, even for apps Google claims are incompatible with my tablet.  This time however, the app would not install.

There you have it, Google Drive accessing files via the web, Android phone, and PC.  I have no Apple products with which to test.  I got to thinking about the 5 Gig limit for free storage.  My wife now has an account.  With her account and mine, we have 10 Gig.  We also have two kids, which brings us up to 20 Gig…

Updating by request (thanks,  Chad), June 11th, 2012)

Well, we’ve been using the NetTalk Duo as our only home phone system for about 4 months now.  Overall, I’d say it is a great value, but there are a few things that could be better.

1) We were unable to activate a new credit card with the company’s auto-activate phone line.  We tried 3 different times with 2 different phones hooked to our home system, and it just never worked.  It worked the first time with a cell phone.  I have not tried to search NetTalk’s forums for this.

2) Sometimes there is a long wait between completing dialing a call and the first ring.  It doesn’t happen often, but when it does we might wait 30 seconds or longer before we hear the first ring.  The first few times it happened I thought it had maybe missed one or more digits during the dialing and I called again.

3) Sometimes the service does drop digits when entering a code.  For example, if I join a conference call for work and have to enter the conference code, some digits are sometimes missed and I have to enter them again.  If I slow down just a little, it seems to work reliably.

These issues are really nothing more than minor annoyances, and don’t occur at all most of the time.  Call quality seems to be on par with Vonage.  The number porting process went without a hitch, although it took 3 or 4 business days to complete.  For less than 1/10th of the cost of Vonage, I’m happy we made the move.

Oh, there is one thing I really wish the NetTalk Duo did that Vonage did: flash the voice mail indicator on our home phone when someone has left us a message.  They do let us know via email (which I get on my cell phone) when we have a message.  The only other way we know is if we pick up the house phone and dial the 2-digit voice mail access number. [click to continue...]

I have written a new article on using disposable email addresses from spamgourmet.com to protect your email address from spammers. I deliberated a little bit on where to submit it – Yahoo! Voices or HubPages? It is a rhetorical question at this point, but here are the pros and cons.

Yahoo! Voices:

This used to be Associated Content, one of the advantages of publishing articles there  is that they often pay a little bit up front for pieces they think will have broad, long-lasting appeal.  Another ‘pro’ is the brand recognition garnered by any Yahoo! site compared to HubPages.

HubPages:

 HubPages has its own set of advantages over Yahoo!.  For instance, one always has the ability to update or delete articles on HP.  Images and video can be embedded throughout the article, as well as automatic support for the inclusion of interactive maps, polls, and quizzes.  Both sites share advertising revenue with the authors, but on Yahoo! it is all in their control.  HP lets you, at your own discretion, include Ebay capsules and Amazon ads, as well as adsense.

Historically, HP has paid better in terms of residual income, when the earnings are adjusted by the number of articles I have on each.  I have 5 times the number of articles on Yahoo! Voices than I have on HubPages, but my monthly income from Yahoo! is only about 30% higher.  So the financial incentive seems to point to choosing HP, but…

I originally elected Yahoo! anyway.  My intent is to link several other articles to this one, including some privacy policies on various web sites.  I figured the Yahoo! name would carry more weight.  However, Yahoo! rejected the piece with the following canned text:

 ”…we do not publish content that contains affiliate marketing links, nor do we publish content related to, about, or linking to websites that contain such content (such as programs offering incentives to click links or ads, read emails, or surf other websites).”

I can assure everyone, there were no affiliate links in the article, nor were there links to any sites promoting incentives to click links or ads, etc.  There is a link to spamgourmet.com, the service the entire article is about, which is a non-profit provider of disposable email addresses.  There is a link to Smokers Kastle’s web site, which is used in a hypothetical way for providing real examples of how disposable email addresses can be used.  Finally, there is a link to a posting here on JP about hosted email servers as a means to combat spam and malware.  None of these sites host any kind of link or traffic-generation incentives.  A few ads are here, but that in itself shouldn’t have led to the reasons I was given in the rejection notice.

I didn’t bother trying to argue with Yahoo! or edit the article.  As you might have guessed, I published it without incident on HubPages.  Please check out How To Fight Spam with spamgourmet.  I hope the article does really well there, just so I can thumb my nose at Yahoo!.

With the United States firmly entrenched in the post-industrial stage of socio-economic evolution, companies must place a greater emphasis on service offerings and customer service in general.  Here are two good examples of what they shouldn’t do, unless their goals are to alienate customers and garner negative feedback and publicity.

Arpin Van Lines Loses Urns and Customers
When my father passed away last year, we inherited a house full of belongings in Arizona to deal with.  Some of it went to Good Will, but the rest of it needed to come home to Michigan with us for dissemination to family members and for sale.  Since the collection included several pottery urns (somewhat fragile) and a baby grand piano (extremely heavy), we decided to enlist professional movers.

Re-assembled vase with Gorilla Glue showing

First problem – delivery took over a month.  At one point the company told me that the driver was bitten by a spider and had to be hospitalized.  OK, I get that, but the company couldn’t say where the truck was, or when it might be back on the road.  They rarely called me back when they said they would.

Once they did arrive, they couldn’t re-assemble the piano completely.  Whoever took it apart wasn’t available, and the guys that came with the truck couldn’t figure out how to re-connect the foot pedal assembly. [click to continue...]

2011, 1st quarter financials are in. Gas is near or over $4.00 per gallon. Royal Dutch Shell reports earnings of $6.9 Billion. That’s about $76 Million per day. How about our old friend Exxon? $10.65 Billion, or $117 Million per day. Read that again. Exxon Mobil is profiting $117 million dollars a day. Finally, how is the beleaguered BP? With the recovery expenses of the oil spill we would expect to see the company in some trouble. The fact is, their profit was $7.124 Billion in the 1st quarter. Poor BP – they’re only earning $78 Million a day. Must be a real drag.

What’s it add up to? These 3 companies alone are raking in over $271 Million a day in profit, and we’re expected to pay $5.00 per gallon of gas by mid-summer.

Earlier I mentioned that among revenue sources available when you publish on HubPages is their referral program.  Too bad I didn’t fully understand how to use it right off the bat, as a family friend read my first Hub and decided to create her own account and publish there.  I missed the boat on having her sign up with my referral code, but OK.  Anyway, she wrote an insightful piece on the trouble with Verizon Phones and Data Plans.   Do me a favor, check it out and leave a nice comment for her.

Another friend, a fellow Yahoo! Contributor Network publishes a weekly article called News of the Weird World.   It is a great series if you like oddball stories from around the globe.  Apparently, partly as a result of the changes Google has made to their search algorithms, Tony isn’t getting the readership he needs to make this endeavor worth the effort.  Check it out.  You’ll probably find the eclectic collection an interesting weekly diversion.

I was in the process of adopting Chrome as my browser, looking for and installing extensions that would make it work like Opera (speed dial and content blocking), simply because Opera wouldn’t support Socks 5 Proxies. Imagine my relief and surprise when I discovered a little-publicized additional function in the latest release of Opera (11.10) – it actually does support socks proxies, including version 5.

For easy, step-by-step instructions including screenshots, see How To Use Opera with a SOCKS Proxy.  For the short version, read on.

I found this while reading the release notes, which mentions how to go about setting it up, as it is not available in the normal preferences menu. You have to put opera:config in the browser’s address bar and hit enter, which brings up a preferences editor. Scroll down until you see the Proxy section. Expand the tree, and enter the IP address (not DNS name or alias) and port in the SOCKS Server field. If you, like me, use ssh tunneling to establish a SOCKS proxy, this will be something like 127.0.0.1:8080 (substitute your own port). A few lines down, click the checkbox for Use SOCKS. Leave Use WAIS, Use HTTP, Use FTP, and Use HTTPS un-checked. Click the [Save] button, and Voila! Opera is using a SOCKS proxy.

I’ve tested this on both Windows XP and Ubuntu linux.

On a separate note:
WordPress Anti-Spam Plugins
While looking for alternatives to good old Akismet, I put together a little hub on the Best Anti-Spam Plugins for WordPress. OK, I didn’t run in-depth tests to see if they are really “the best,” but other than Akismet itself, they are all free, and my preliminary testing has been very successful.

Since Yahoo!/AC has opted not to renew my Featured Contributor designation, I’ve been thinking about other places to publish.  I’m not going to completely abandon the Yahoo! Contributor Network (Y!CN), just want to build my on-line presence in other areas.  After researching several on-line publishing sites, I’ve decided to give HubPages (HP) a try.

Multimedia support: HubPages supports embedded pictures and video.  Contrast this with Y!CN (previously Associated Content), which allows pictures to be attached to an article, but they are not embedded in surrounding context, and are very low-res.  A.C. experimented with embedded video briefly, but never fully implemented it and does not currently support it.  HP not only lets you embed pictures and video, but also news feeds (rss and headlines), polls, tables, maps, quizzes, and code listings.  Code listings are particularly useful in certain “how-to” type articles.

Revenue Streams: Many sites share advertising revenue with their contributors, but this is usually limited to adsense, or a flat rate based on page views.   HP lets authors share adsense revenue, but also lets them place Amazon and Ebay ads on their hubs, and the authors keep revenue from these sources.  Kontera is also supported but is being phased out.  So income might not be as steady as it is from Y!CN, which is based on a flat-rate model starting at $1.50 per 1000 page views, but could be much more lucrative with the occasional Amazon or Ebay sale.

In addition to direct revenue, HP pays for referrals and links. In other words, if I send traffic to hubs published by other authors, I get a small percentage of their revenue. I can also refer new authors to HubPages, and HP will pay me a small percentage of the revenue they earn there. HubPages pays for these little bonuses, the money doesn’t detract from the other authors’ earnings.

More Control: Hubs can be edited at any time, meaning I can make corrections, make timely updates, or add more revenue cells in the future if they become available.  I can also re-arrange the blocks at will, moving around text, graphics, videos, even the comments section as I see fit.  The downside to this much flexibility is that HubPages does not provide ways for your content to be syndicated the way it can be on Y!CN or E-zine articles.

My First Hub: My first foray into HubPages is a review of our new treadmill.  Please see Gold’s Gym Trainer 480 Product Review, and let me know what you think.