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 June was primarily spent preparing and attending the Good Sam RV Rally in Louisville, KY. We presented 7 different seminars. The large seminar room 'C109' at the Kentucky Expo hall was basically all ours for the week of the rally!
We also offered 2 hands-on sessions on the Early Bird day. We had a full house (20 people) for our hands-on Photo Editing with Picasa class, and just a few less than that for our Smart Phone Boot Camp. We loved every minute of it, and were thoroughly exhausted by week's end.
A Sad Note About our Friends at TechnoRV
Life is not always fun and computers. On June 25, we attended the memorial of Josh May. Josh was the 14 year old son of our friends Phil and Tracey, and brother of Ally, from TechnoRV. It tore our hearts to see friends in such pain. It also warmed our hearts to see the outpouring of love for them and the memory of Josh. Many family members were there, having flown over from England. Friends were in attendance from as far away as California. Their extended RVing family also showed up by the score as well as people from the campground and the local community. Nearly 100 people attended. Goodbye Josh. You were loved.
July Schedule
In July we have a few appearances scheduled thru the APCUG, the Association of Personal Computer User Groups. On July 10 we will be in West Nyack, New York and we'll present back to back seminars on Picasa and Smart Phones for the joint meeting of the Rockland PC Users' Group and the Westchester PC Users Group. Next comes the Mid-Hudson Computer User group in Poughkeepsie, NY, then the FMCA NE Area Rally in Essex Junction, Vermont. At the end of July we'll come back south to Connecticut for the The PC Users Group of Connecticut. To see everything on our schedule, check out our monthly calendar. You can also click on the map at right, then any placemark to see the details.
Forum Topics
The Q&A Forums on the Geeks on Tour website are a great place to discuss the topics we cover. This is where we answer our members' questions. Anyone can read the forums, you need to be a member to post. Here are some topics of interest:
- Unwanted Messages on Facebook
- DVD Maker
- Comments on a Blog
- Streets & Trips: Adding POI Megafile to current map
- Droid 4G LTE connections
- Scanning and Saving
- Streets and Trips on sale at Staples $20
 What are QR Codes and How do I use my Smartphone to Read Them?
I'm sure you've seen them, those black and white, square codes. Like a computer's digital attempt at finger painting, these are called QR Codes for Quick Response. They started with Toyota as a way to track cars thru the manufacturing process. Because they can hold a lot of data and be read very quickly with a smartphone, they have taken over printed promotional media. With one square inch (or even less) of space on a printed flyer, business card, or brochure, a business can disseminate an entire website of information. A QR code can even be programmed to play an online video, show a map location, or download a file.
It's called a QR code - but it's just a special type of Bar Code so all you need on your smartphone to read it is a Bar Code scanner app.
Here's the video that shows you how to do it:
If you learned something from that - check out all our Smartphone tutorial videos. The first few are free for all, the rest require a membership.
If you want to create a simple QR code of your own for a website URL - try the free service at www.createqrcode.appspot.com.
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New 'Short Course' of Videos on Picasa Collages
I love Picasa's Collage feature and use it almost daily. Up until recently our Geeks on Tour Learning Library for Picasa only had one, older video about creating a collage. There's so much to the collage feature that it was impossible to make one of our short tutorials that would do it justice, so we made a series of them and put them together with some written instructions as well. We call this a 'Short Course' and we expect to have more of them on other topics.
Here is one of the videos from the short course. It's about using Picasa's collage feature to create a banner collage for your Facebook Timeline.
If you are a Geeks on Tour Member, you can view the entire short course.
The Short Course on Picasa Collages includes 7 Tutorial Videos and one Quick Reference Sheet
Picasa's Collage feature gives you the ability to put multiple pictures together onto one page and create a new image. You have several choices for arranging the photos. Once you understand how to manipulate all the options, put it together with Text and other features of Picasa, you'll start to see what a powerful tool Collage really is. In order to teach you enough to get to that point, we've put together written instructions, several videos, sample collages, and a printable quick reference sheet, all on this one web page. We call it a Short Course. It's all about collages, and nothing but collages. Where needed, there are links to some of our other Picasa Tutorial Videos to teach some of the foundational skills you need.
- A Basic Collage - Mosaic Style
- Basic Collage: Picture Pile style and options
- Where is the Collage Picture Stored?
- Using Collage to Create a Banner Picture: Setting Size and Adding Text
- People Collage
- Using a Picture as Collage Background
- Using a Collage as Facebook Cover Photo
- Printable 'Collage-Quick-Reference Sheet'
Samples of Picasa Collages
We hope we've piqued your interest enough to check out the Collage Short Course. If you're not a member, why not join now? You can become a member for as little as $7/mo. We hope you'll want to continue month after month, but you're free to cancel at any time.
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Internet from your Smartphone with PDANet or FoxFi
You may remember this video we did a couple of years ago when we first got our Droid smartphones. It shows how we use some software called PDANet to tether our phone to our computer, giving the computer an Internet connection.
New Smartphones with New PDANet = WiFi Hotspot on your Phone
Both Jim and I now have Droid RAZR smartphones and they have the ability to be a WiFi hotspot. If you go thru Verizon and turn on that feature, it will cost you an extra fee. However, if you use the PDANet/FoxFi software, you just pay once for the software and the hotspot gets its data from your phone's data plan. It's really amazing.
After you've downloaded the necessary software, you just turn on your phone, touch the App called PDANet or FoxFi, touch 'Activate WiFi Hotspot mode', and voila! You can look at the available WiFi hotspots on your computer or tablet and you'll see your phone listed. Connect to it, and you're online, using the the Internet connection provided by your phone.
This is using the data on your phone's data plan, so be aware of your data usage to avoid exceeding your contract limits. If you had an original Verizon unlimited plan, I hope you renewed it recently because you will no longer be grandfathered into the unlimited plan. Although there is iPhone versions of the PDANet software, Apple doesn't allow it, so you have to 'Jailbreak' your phone - cutting the umbilical cord to Apple - before you can install it.
What is FoxFi?
FoxFi is free software, that turns your Android smartphone into a Wi-Fi Hotspot without turning on any extra features from your cellular provider (Verizon, AT&T etc.) You just install it from the Google Play store, you don't have to root your phone or do anything special. If you don't know what 'rooting' means - don't worry about it! You don't have to do it. It works on most Samsung/Motorola/LG phones and new HTC phones with Android 4.0.
What is PDANet?
 PDANet is software from Junefabrics.com. Although there is a free version, we recommend the full version currently priced at $16. That is a one time fee. If you get the free version you will not be able to use the Internet connection to browse to secure sites. PDANet is the software we demonstrated in the video above to tether your phone to your computer with a cable. The latest version includes an option for WiFi Hotspot mode. When you select that, you'll see FoxFi! These two great products have joined forces. I like that because I sometimes have trouble with the WiFi and plugging in the cable solves my problems.
Is this Illegal?
No, this is not illegal. Of course the cellphone companies would rather you pay their extra fees for the tethering/hotspot options, but when we're paying them nearly $300/mo already, I really don't think they mind! I was a bit surprised, however, to find the salesmen in the Verizon booth at our last rally telling customers about FoxFi! I guess they figure it sells phones and data plans if you know you can use your phone to provide Internet to your other devices as well. You're still paying Verizon for the Internet use.
For travelers, especially fulltime RVers like us, this is a wonderful way to get Internet on the road.
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