Florida in January
Sunset on Siesta Key in Sarasota. Jim's birthday 2013Get Away Stay Connected: This tagline from our Coach Connect days describes our lifestyle. We love to get away, but we also love to stay connected. Usually that means using our computer, but since Florida was our home for so long, it also means face-to-face connections with old friends and colleagues while we're here. This time, while in Fort Lauderdale, we decided to re-join our Toastmasters group. Both Jim and I were very active in Toastmasters for many years before we hit the road. We've even visited one club outside of our area during our first year of traveling. We'd like to do more of that - Toastmaster's meetings are so enjoyable, uplifting, and educational. It is an international organization with groups everywhere we go. It's good to be a member again.
Calendar: Coming up in February/March
 Registration is open for our third TechnoGeek Learning Rally in Bushnell, Florida March 26-30. Come learn about lots of technology to enhance your RVing lifestyle! Geeks on Tour Members get a 20% discount. Hey! That's another reason to Join Today. The rally is 5 days, including 4 breakfasts and 3 dinners. There is an optional 2-day pre-rally focusing on smartphones, and an included 2 days post-rally Homework Help. 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?
For more details, see our website Calendar. 
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:
- Upload Picture from Picasa to Facebook Group?
- Combining Photo Albums in Facebook
- Moving Pictures to a New PC - what will I lose? (scroll to bottom for new posts)
- Discuss the WiFi Ranger (scroll to bottom for new posts)
- Picasa to Facebook Uploader Pro
- Problems inserting image in Blogger
- Streets and Trips with Windows 8
- Shutterfly and Email
TechnoGeek Learning Rally
 
 
You should attend the Learning Rally if ... ..
- You've attended any Geeks on Tour seminars and left wanting more.
- You've bought some cool gadgets from www.TechnoRV.com and want to learn more about using them. Or you want to buy more.
- You have multiple computers, smartphones, tablets, cameras ... yet you still consider yourself a beginner with computers and technology.
- You are an RVer. We hold the rally at an RV park! We also will teach about technology and gadgets specifically for RVing.
- You just love learning new stuff!
- You have lots of questions about using your technology. We will have 3 sessions of open Q&A with our panel of TechnoGeeks!
- You'd like to show your kids something ... that they didn't teach you!
- You've looked at the schedule and like what you see. tentative daily schedule
- You've looked at the menu and you're getting hungry. Rally Menu from last rally.
- You want to compare notes with other RVers about their smartphones, Internet connections, email issues, photo-sharing options, RV gadgets, etc.
- You'd like to attend a small RV rally, where there's ample opportunity to get to know people, share meals, learn, and party.
- You've been to a TechnoGeek Learning Rally before and you want more!
When: March 26-30 with optional free 'Homework Help' days after rally and optional 2 day Smartphone Learning Camp pre-rally.
Where: Bushnell, Florida. Paradise Oaks RV Park.
Cost: Rally: $149/person limit 40
Smartphone Pre-Rally: $79/person limit 10
20% discount for paid Geeks on Tour members
RV Site: Rally rate is $25/night, not included in registration.
Call Call Paradise Oaks at 352-793-1823.
Register Now
11 am Checkout Time?
Chuck Woodbury of RVtravel.com doesn't like to checkout of an RV park so early!
Read Chuck's article and tell him what you think at the current issue of RVTravel's Newsletter. Also take a look at his video of the HUGE Quartzsite RV show.
Do Me a Favor ... Don't Listen to your Friends on Facebook!
When you get a Facebook message that starts with "I want to stay PRIVATELY connected with you..." you should know that the instructions that follow are pure nonsense. Don't do it when it tells you to find your Friend settings and "REMOVE the CHECK on "COMMENTS & LIKE" and also "PHOTOS" By unchecking those boxes all you've done is cut yourself off from receiving your friend's photos, comments and likes. It has NO bearing on who else can see their posts, but it is a worthy lesson in how Facebook privacy works. Read on and I will explain what is going on as well as tell you the right way to stay PRIVATELY connected - it's a lot easier than removing checkmarks on all your Friends' settings!
Understanding Who Can See What
What your friend needs to do to "stay privately connected" is to set their Audience Selector to just Friends or a specific Friend list. Each time you post something in Facebook, you have the option of changing the 'Visibility' of what you post, choosing Friends means it is visible to only Friends, choosing Public means it is visible to anyone, choosing a list like 'High School Friends' limits the visibility to just the members of that list. You can also change it after the fact. Geeks on Tour members can view the video: Facebook Privacy to learn more about the Audience Selector.
Check it Out
Go to Facebook right now and take a look at the posts in your Newsfeed/Home page. For each and every one, you can tell who can see it by looking at the little icon at the bottom of the post, before any comments. If you see the circular globe icon then you know that the Public ... anyone ... can view that post. If you see the icon of 'Friends' (two little heads) then this post is visible to just the original poster's Friends. Now, notice that comments do not have the audience icon next to them. Comments can be seen by whoever can see the original post - no more, no less.
Some Truth in the Hoax
The weird part comes when Facebook shows you any comments that your friends have made on other's posts. If the post they commented on was a Public post, then it could easily be by someone you don't know. You'll wonder, "why in the world am I seeing this post by John King, when I don't know John King!" You're seeing it (probably in your ticker on the right of your screen) because a friend of yours commented on John King's public post. When Facebook shows you your friend's comments, they'll show you the original post and all other comments as well so you have the context. I agree that this is weird, it's like automatic eavesdropping. But the way to stop eavesdropping is to talk on a private connection, not to broadcast publicly and simply ask the eavesdroppers to stay away!
The Real Solution
If John King doesn't want his post being seen by non-friends like you, the solution is NOT to ask all his friends to unsubscribe to his comments! The solution is for John King (and all of us) to post to Friends only. Facebook will not show you your friend's comment if it was on a post that is visible to only John King's friends. Remember? A comment has the same visibility as the post. If the post is shared with Friends only, then the comments can only be shared with Friends of the original poster. If you "WANT TO STAY PRIVATELY CONNECTED ...." then use the privacy setting of Friends only. You should see the 2 little heads on all of your posts - 
. or a star icon that represents Close Friends or other list  . You should not see the icon for Public:  or the icon for Friends of Friends 
You can even ask Facebook to change ALL your past posts to be shared with only Friends, regardless of how you set it when you posted. Just go to your privacy settings and use the 'Limit the Audience for Old Posts on Your Timeline.' I used to post generally to Public, after all, I'm saying much of the same things on Facebook that I readily write on my public Blog?! But, I've changed my mind now. The purpose of Facebook, for me, is to communicate with my friends. There is simply no reason for my communication to be seen by others. So I have taken advantage of the feature to change all my old posts to Friends only.
Details of the Hoax
 As with most Hoaxes, this one has been around a while and just gets recycled with different words. When I first noticed it last summer, it started with the telltale words, "PLEASE DO ME A FAVOR ..." then it proceeded to instruct you to UNsubscribe to comments and likes. The language has now been updated to adapt to new language and procedures in Facebook. Here is the complete message:
Hello, my FB friends: I want to stay PRIVATELY connected with you. I post shots of my family that I don't want strangers to have access to!! However, with the recent changes in FB, the "public" can now see activities in ANY wall. This happens when our friend hits "like" or "comment" ~ automatically, their friends would see our posts too. Unfortunately, we can not change this setting by ourselves because Facebook has configured it this way. PLEASE place your mouse over my name above (DO NOT CLICK), a window will appear, now move the mouse on "FRIENDS" (also without clicking), then down to "Settings", click here and a list will appear. REMOVE the CHECK on "COMMENTS & LIKE" and also "PHOTOS". By doing this, my activity among my friends and family will no longer become public. Now, copy and paste this on your wall. Once I see this posted on your page I will do the same.
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"the "public" can now see activities in ANY wall"
Absolutely not true. If you post to "only friends" - then only friends can see it, period.
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"REMOVE the CHECK on "COMMENTS & LIKE" and also "PHOTOS". By doing this, my activity among my friends and family will no longer become public."
Not true. If I uncheck comments and photos from your name, all it means is that I will no longer receive your photos or comments in my Timeline or Ticker. If the original post had the visibility of Public, it will still be visible by the Public. The solution is to simply change the Audience Selector to Friends.
What is happening here is the writer of this "I WANT TO STAY PRIVATELY CONNECTED ..." message is confusing what CAN be seen, with what WILL be seen. They may have been using the Public visibility all along, so anyone COULD have seen what they wrote, but they didn't because they would need to visit the poster's Timeline, something we don't do very often. Since Facebook started delivering our Friends' comments, we are seeing content that we never looked at before. We could have seen it before, but we didn't. It's true that we can't stop the fact that Facebook is delivering this content - unless EVERYONE unchecks the subscribe to comments feature on ALL of their Friends - but, it's clear that the way to protect our own content is to make it private to just our Friends, or to a specific list of Friends. If you have a lot of friends, you may want to limit many of your posts to just your Close Friends for example. See member video on Facebook Friend Lists. And, if you don't believe me, check out these other articles on this topic:
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Getting the Most from Your Smartphone's Camera
 More and more, people are using their smartphones to capture all the pictures in their lives. Many of them don't know that there are special settings and features that will help them take better pictures. And, once the pictures are taken, there are lots of ways to share them.
Basic Camera Features
Before you can take a picture, you need to know where the button is! It will look a little different on different phones, but it is usually a fairly large and round button on the screen. Depending on your particular phone and settings, you may also be able to use a physical button on the side of your phone. Before taking any picture, be sure to clean the lens. A dirty lens ruins the picture, and since it's always in our pockets, it's almost always dirty! Lens cloth, or micro fiber is best, but these lenses are pretty hearty - a corner of a tshirt will do the trick.
You should know how to:
- Touch the screen to adjust focus and exposure point, you will see a square outline.
- Take a picture
- View the picture you just took (and get back to picture taking mode)
- Switch between rear and front camera lenses. The front lens lets you take a picture of yourself.
- Take a video clip
- Turn your flash to On, Off, or Auto
- Zoom in or Out with the slider, or pinch and zoom with two fingers. We advise against zoom however, since this is not a real zoom, it's just magnification. You're better off cropping the photo afterwards.
Menu of Options and Camera Settings
Make sure to explore the menu on your camera. You may not see it right away, you may need to slide it out from its hiding place. Or you can touch the Menu button to make it appear. The first menu item is the gear for settings. On an iPhone that will be on the main phone menu settings under camera. On my Droid Razr, the gear menu is where I find the option to turn on geotagging, which means the photo location will be stored with the photo. This is also where I can specify a clicking sound when I take a picture ... or not. Turning the sound off can make it easier to take candid photos! Next comes Effects like black and white, or sepia. I never use these because I think they are better applied after the fact. Next comes scene settings - these can be very effective and I recommend that you try them all. For example, sunset mode can greatly enhance a sunset picture. Just be sure to set it back to Auto before you take the next picture that isn't a sunset! Panoramas
 Panorama is on the 4th option. It's also available on the iPhone. Just turn it on, then get ready to pan your camera across a wide scene. Touch the shutter button and start panning. The camera will take multiple pictures as you pan. When it's done, it will automatically stitch the photos together into one.
Timer is also available on this menu, so you can set your phone on a rock, turn it on with a 30 second delay and touch the shutter button. Gather your group and the picture will be taken after the delay time. For iPhones, you need to download a separate app for a camera timer.
HDR - High Dynamic Range on iPhone
HDR is a very special photographic feature. It actually takes 3 pictures with 3 different exposures, then it puts them together so both the bright sky and the dark shadows get exposed correctly and your photo is very rich. In the iPhone, HDR is a simple On / Off button on the camera screen. On Android phones you can download an HDR app. The link will show you all the HDR Apps, we haven't used them enough to recommend one.
Sharing
Probably the best reason for taking photos on your smartphone is the ability to instantly share them via email, Facebook, and other options. Whatever photo sharing accounts you have installed on your phone will show up on the sharing list for your pictures. To see the sharing options, first you need to be viewing the picture you want to share, then simply touch the picture and you will see some icons appear. The icon for share is either one or two arrows, just touch that and you'll see the list of possibilities. (see Member Video: Facebook and your Smart Phone)
If you have Google+ installed, there is an option to automatically upload every picture taken by your phone. It will go to a special, private, space on Google+ Photos called 'Instant Uploads.' To see if that is turned on, open your Google+ App and touch menu, then settings.
What to do with the Pictures on your Phone
This is a decision. There are two parts to it:
- Where else do you want these pictures? You do not want your only copy of these pictures to be the ones on your phone!
a. You can upload them to photo sharing websites like Google+/Picasa Web Albums, Flickr, Facebook, SmugMug etc. This can even be done automatically as in the case of google+ mentioned above. You upload by using the Share technique.
b. You can import/copy them to your computer. To import, connect the phone to the computer with the USB cable that came with it. Now it is like any other USB drive or camera (see Member Video: Import Pictures from Smartphone to Computer)
- After they've been copied to at least one place other than your camera, do you delete them from your camera?
a. Yes: this would be treating your phone like any other camera, keeping it's photo memory clear. When you want to show someone a picture using your phone, you can show them the copy on Google+/Picasa Web Albums or Flickr or Facebook etc.
b. No: this will enable you to show friends any photo taken with your phone, even if you don't have a good Internet connection. BUT, you will clutter your phone this way as hundreds of photos collect.
c. Delete most of them: You could choose to delete most of the pictures from your phone, but leave the ones you know you want to be able to show at any time, anywhere.
How to Delete Pictures from your Phone
Android: from Gallery, open your camera roll. Touch your menu button and choose Select multiple - you should now see little checkboxes on each photo. Touching the photo will put a checkmark in the box. When you've selected all photos you want to delete, tap menu and choose Delete.
iPhone/iPad: Open your photos app and touch Edit. Now when you touch each photo it will show a checkmark that it is selected. Notice at the top of the screen you have the choice to share or Delete.
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