Florida in December

December started off with our own TechnoGeek Learning Rally, click the link to read all about it.  The next one is tentatively scheduled for end of March in the same RV park in Bushnell, Florida.  If you're interested please leave a comment at the end of the article.

Then we moved on to our favorite Thousand Trails park, Peace River.  We presented several afternoon seminars while we were there, but still had plenty of time to paddle the river.  We even made a short video of our kayaking trip.

We ended the year home for the holidays in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.  While visiting with family and lots of friends, we found ourselves giving impromptu smartphone lessons.  After helping one friend set up email on her phone, she exclaimed, "That was THE BEST Christmas present EVER!"  We love what we do!

Happy New Year everybody!

The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.
Eleanor Roosevelt

Calendar: Coming up in January/February

If it looks like we're in your area, contact us to come to your RV park!  See our Frequently Asked Question: How Can I Get the Geeks to Come to My RV Park?

• Jan 9 Sarasota PC Users Group (Cloud Computing)
• Jan 11-17 Geek Week at Peace River Thousand Trails (Picasa, MovieMaker, Smartphone photograpy)
• Jan 21 Bellagio Computer User Group in Boynton (Smartphones)
• Jan 29  Betmar Isles Computer User Group in Zephyrhills
• Feb 5  Charlotte County Computer Group in Port Charlotte
• Feb 12 Greater Tampa Bay Computer Users Group in Brandon
• Feb 15 Tampa SNUG (Facebook)
• Feb 16 all day, Central Florida Genealogical Society (Picasa, Blogger, Photo Story)
• Feb 17 Central Florida Computer Society
• Feb 18 Valencia Falls Computer and Technology Club
• Feb 19 Palm Isles Computer Club in Boynton Beach
• Feb 20 Boca Raton Computer Society
• Feb 21 Valencia Lakes Computer and Technology Club in Delray
• Feb 25-28 Florida Ass'n of Computer User Groups Technology Camp at Club Med in Port St. Lucie

For more details, see our website Calendar.  

Top Ten Picasa Tips of 2012

Chris Guld, of Geeks on Tour, writes a Picasa Tip of the Week.  She's been doing this nearly every week since mid 2008, and you can see them all in our PicasaTutorials.com website.  If you subscribe to the email for Picasa Tip of the Week, then you've already seen these, but it's nice to review.  Here are the top ten articles from PIcasaTutorials this year:

1. What happened to Picasa Web Albums?
2. Upgrading to Picasa 3.9
3. Picasa Tip: Resizing a Picture's Height and Width
4. Picasa Tip: Framing Photos
5. Sorting Folders vs. Sorting Pictures within a Folder
6. Adding Text to a Collage
7. Is Picasa the Only Software for Managing all your Travel Pictures?
8. Picasa Tip: Make a Collage for your Facebook Cover Photo
9. Fun with Picasa 3.9 Effects
10. Picasa Tip: Adding Lipstick

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:

1. Picasa - Preserving Albums 
2. Android - FoxFi no longer free
3. Tracking Visitors to your Blog
4. Pointers on Pictures
5. Google Plus?

RV LED Lighting

There's more to technology than computers and smartphones!  All the rage in lighting these days is LED lighting.  Brighter, less heat, more efficient, these lights are perfect for RVs. But, they're also a bit pricey, the more you understand about them, the better choices you will make.  Our friends at TechnoRV have written a Buyer's Guide to RV LED Lighting. Check it out by following this link: TechnoRV Buyer's Guide

Thinking of Michael

Chuck Woodbury of RVtravel.com writes a New Year message about Michael that we should all read.  As RV Travelers we have such wonderful opportunities to enjoy our world.  Take advantage and enjoy it. 
Read Chuck's article and more at the current issue of RVTravel's Newsletter.

Share a Map of your Travels with Google Maps

Every year that goes by, it gets harder to remember where we traveled.  So, I like to end the year by making a map that I can share using Google Maps.  I'm not going to cover how to plan travels and change the destinations or routes.  I'm also not going to cover making custom markers with your specific information, there is a video for that.  In this article, I just want to show how to create a quick and easy map of all your travels for the year, save it, and share it with others. The first thing to understand in Google Maps is the difference between 'Get Directions' and 'My Places.'  Get Directions is just a tool, what you see is temporary and will be wiped out when you ask for the next directions, or move to another web page.  My Places is where the maps you create are saved to your Google Account.  Be sure you are logged in with the appropriate account.  The quickest and easiest way to create a map to save is to start with the Get Directions, then save the resulting route to a 'My Places' map.

Get Directions

Let's say that you started your summer travels from Corpus Christi, Texas, then traveled to the west coast via the Grand Canyon.  You traveled up the west coast a ways, then back east thru Idaho and eventually south, returning to Corpus Christi.  You can enter every major stop as a 'Destination' in the Get Directions portion of Google Maps.  It starts off giving you two fields, one for your starting point, and one for your destination, but you can keep adding destinations to your heart's content.  When you have enough entered, you can click the Get Directions button.

Save the Map

Notice that Google Maps gives you information for the trip, it shows a total of 5,467 miles and it gives a complete listing of turn by turn directions.  We really don't care about that right now though, we just want to save this map, with it's markers and route line, to a permanent map.  Scroll thru the turn by turn directions, all the way to the bottom, and you will see a link to 'Save to My Maps.'  In order to save it, you must give it a name.  If you've done this before, you will have a drop-down arrow listing all your existing saved maps.  At the bottom of the list is an option for 'Create a New Map.'  When you click Save, your map will be given a name something like 'Directions to Corpus Christi.'  To give it your custom name, make sure you're on the 'My Places' screen and you're looking at the list of your custom maps. Click on the Directions to Corpus Christi map and you'll see a big red 'Edit' button.  Click that and you can change the name of the map.  When you're done, click 'Done.'

Share the Map

There are several ways now to share this map.  You can send a link to someone by clicking the link icon and copying the URL provided.  Or you can embed a live copy of the map, also by clicking the Link icon, then copying the code for Embedding.  Geeks on Tour members can watch a video on how to embed the map into a blog post.
The simplest way to share this map is just to take a screenshot of it.  You can use the Snipping tool in Windows 7, or Command-Shift-4 on a Mac.  But, my favorite way is to use Picasa - just press the PrtSc key and Picasa grabs the screen, then you can crop it and even add text like in my '2012 Geek Travels' above.  The end result is just like any other picture, you can share it on a Picasa Web Album, or on a Facebook or Blog post.  And, if you keep your map in something other than Google Maps, you can still use the Picasa Screen Capture technique to grab it and share it.
If you do this, we'd love to see it!  You can upload the picture of your 2012 travels to our Facebook page!  Just click in the space provided to 'write something,' click the Photo/Video link and select your map picture to upload.

Post a Comment on this Article ...

What is Cloud Computing?

The 'Cloud' is simply The Internet - but it is taking on special meaning as Apple, Google, Microsoft, and others are offering accounts where you can have your own slice of the sky.  They also offer device independence.  If you can start a document with your computer, finish it on your tablet, and view it on your smartphone, you're using Cloud Computing.  With names like DropBox, Google Drive, iCloud, or SkyDrive, it no longer matters what device you have in your hand because the application, and the content is in the Cloud.

The Cloud is the Internet

So, where is this cloud?  And who owns it?  Remember ... the 'Cloud' is simply a synonym for the Internet.  The Internet is made up of thousands, maybe millions of Server computers, connected by millions of miles of cables, and thousands of routers.  It's all linked together with an agreed upon system, an Internet Protocol.  Nobody owns the whole thing, although Google, Microsoft, and Apple do own some pretty large chunks.  It is the mother network of networks, it is vast and it is complex, so we need a simple analogy to describe it.  Pretend that the Internet is in the sky rather than in computers here on earth, and the term 'Cloud' fits nicely.  It also helps with terms like UPload and DOWNload.  UPload means taking something on your computer and sending it UP to the Internet ... to the Cloud.  DOWNload means taking something that is on the Internet (in the Cloud) and bringing it DOWN to your computer.

Cloud Computing is using Computer Services from the Cloud Instead of your Computer

'Cloud Computing' means using Cloud-based services to store your stuff, rather than your own computer or hard drives.  For example, you can store all your spreadsheets in the Cloud and access them from wherever you are.  Cloud Computing also means using Cloud-based services for your software instead of buying boxed software.  For example, you can use Word, Excel, and Powerpoint on Microsoft SkyDrive rather than buying Microsoft Office for your computer.  Most travelers we know don't have a whole lot of need for Excel anymore, but occasionally, you need to make a spreadsheet, or read one that someone else sends you.  Using SkyDrive, you can do that without paying for any software.

I could argue that I've been using Cloud Computing since the early 90s when I used CompuServe for communicating with friends on the Internet, or definitely since 2003 when I started using Blogger.com to post to my website - my blog.  But we didn't call it Cloud Computing then, we called it Web-Based software.  The term Cloud Computing is taking hold because of services like Microsoft's SkyDrive.  Using SkyDrive, you can create and store Word documents or Excel spreadsheets.  All you need is some device (computer, tablet, or smartphone) to access your SkyDrive account.  It's like having a virtual computer in the sky with your name on it.  Some people think that the Cloud has something to do with Apple because they call their service iCloud, but no, Cloud Computing is a generic term.

What if you Don't Have an Internet Connection? Synchronize!

Having a good, high-speed Internet connection is taken for granted in modern American households, but for those of us who live in an RV - we don't take anything for granted!  That's why we love the synchronizing (sync) feature.  Using Dropbox as an example, it not only stores your stuff in the cloud, but it synchronizes with a folder on your computer whenever your computer is connected to the Internet. For example, we plan our travels using Microsoft Streets and Trips, we create a file called geektravels.est.  Let's say that I created the travel plan and Jim says he wants to make some changes.  Before Dropbox, we had 2 choices:

1. Jim could use my computer to make his changes, or,
2. I would copy the geektravels.est file to a USB drive and give to him for his computer.  Now we have two files, one with my version of our travels and one with his - what a mess.

Now, we each have a Travels folder that has been set up with Dropbox and shared.  Whenever I make a change to our travel plans, I save it to my local copy.  Dropbox automatically notices the change and synchronizes it with the Cloud copy, AND, it also synchronizes the Cloud copy with the copy on Jim's computer.  The next time either of us looks at the geektravels.est files, we will be looking at the current version even without a current Internet connection.  We are working with a local file, Dropbox takes care of making sure that both my local file and Jim's local file are the same.  This has made our lives so much easier.

Comparison of Major Cloud-Computing Services

This article is meant to introduce you to the concept of Cloud Computing, any specifics about how these programs work is likely to change on a daily basis!  Jim and I, at Geeks on Tour, use Dropbox constantly to keep all our shared files synchronized.  We would be lost without it now.  We've also used Google Docs (which is now Google Drive) for a few years as a way to create and share online documents and spreadsheets. If we were to start today and pick just one service, it would likely be SkyDrive ... it has the most complete set of capabilities, the most free storage space, and it's integrated with Windows 8.  We also like the Group sharing feature.  If you use any of these Cloud Computing services, we welcome your comments.
Post a Comment to this Article ... 

Make Friends with your Smartphone; go on a Date!

While home for the holidays, we saw a lot of old friends.  One of them, Mary Helen, told us how she was frustrated with her new Android smartphone.  She's always been pretty proficient with computers and it bothered her that she didn't understand this new device.  I said, let's spend an afternoon together and see what I can show you about your phone.  I love mine, maybe I can help you make friends with yours!

So we got together one day and Mary Helen brought her phone, and her list of questions and we started to chat.  Since it was such a beautiful day outside I suggested we go for a walk.  We brought our phones along and I turned on Runkeeper so my phone could tell us how far and how fast we walked - that helped me explain the GPS capabilities in the phone.  As we walked, I pointed out the nearby cell tower and explained the different ways our smartphones are connected.  I asked her questions to check that she was understanding my meaning and she answered with an excited enthusiasm.  The more you understand about how something works, the easier it is to learn how to use it.

When we got back to the house, Mary Helen got out her list of questions and we started going thru them.  How do I stop it from beeping every time I get a new email? How do I set a unique ringtone for when I receive a Text message? How do I set a picture on a person's contact info? How do I get all my email accounts delivered to one single inbox? How do I take a picture and email it to a friend? How do I keep the screen from turning off after only 30 seconds?  How do I get Apps, and what Apps should I get?

After a while I was hungry, so I suggested we go out to lunch.  I showed her how to use her phone to Navigate to California Pizza Kitchen.  Once we got there and ordered their delicious chopped salads ... and a glass of wine ... I showed her how to use her phone to write a post on Facebook and 'Check In' to California Pizza Kitchen.  I took a picture of her and posted that, making sure to tag it with her name so it showed up on her News Feed as well.  I showed her how to download a barcode reader App and scan the square QR code on the menu to find out more information about the restaurant.  This was really fun!  And I could tell that she was getting more comfortable with her phone. 

When we finished, Mary Helen said, "You know, you could market this.  Do private lessons like this instead of in a class."  hmmm, what a great idea!  What do we call it?  How about going on a Date with your Smartphone?  And, I'm the chaperone!  I don't know what we'll charge yet, but you can bet it will be reasonable - especially if you pay for lunch!