August 2014 Newsletter: Internet on the Road, Google Maps Street View, QR Codes to Play Videos

Published: Wed, 09/03/14

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Monthly Issue # 82 August 31, 2014                                                    www.geeksontour.com
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August in the West


Where we've been: We spent most of August in Oregon. That's a picture of Crater Lake above. We didn't do much sightseeing however, mostly we were at rallies teaching our stuff! Then we continued south to California, caught a glimpse of the Redwood forest and taught come smartphone / tablet classes for the Golden Gate Computer Society.  See our August photo album for lots of pictures, and our August blog for all the details!

Where we're going:  For September we'll be primarily on California's central coast, then we'll head east to Arizona. In October we have a scuba trip to the Bahamas, so we're doing something different. We'll be leaving the RV in Arizona somewhere and flying to Florida. Then we'll return in December. See our Calendar/Map page for more details.
Wanna go Diving with Us? We're going to the island of San Salvador in the Bahamas, a place that has been on our want-do-dive list for quite a while. We're joining  small group, including Jim's dive buddy from New Jersey. We've told them to bring their digital cameras and computers and we'll be helping them to view and organize their pictures and videos. We'll even teach a little about creating your own movies with music and narration for uploading to Youtube. We'd love to have you join us. Contact Us or see this Dive Trip Info page for the details.

By the way, our pictures, Blogs, Web Albums, maps, and videos are all examples of what we teach.  If you're a traveler, we teach you how to plan, preserve, and share your travels.  It makes the experience that much more enjoyable to get creative on the computer and share your travels with friends and family.

Welcome New Members!
Our biggest audience: 740 for Picasa

We had a fabulous time at the FMCA Convention in Redmond, OR. We taught 8 seminars and 2 hands-on classes over a 3-day period, and welcomed nearly 100 new or renewing members to Geeks on Tour. We hope to see you all watching lots of tutorial videos! And, if you have questions, we're standing by to help in our Forums

Calendar: Coming up in September/October

For more details, see our website Calendar.  

Q&A Forum
Playing a Video from a Printed Page
Paper handout with Videos!

When we present our seminars to live audiences, we cover a lot of information. We want people to be paying attention and not taking notes, but we know they'll forget most of it unless they have a takeaway - something written, so we offer detailed handouts for everyone in the audience. We also play some of our tutorial videos during the presentation.

How can we give our audience one of our videos as a takeaway?

QR codes is the answer! A QR code is one of those funny looking square barcodes. When you scan them with your smartphone or tablet, they act like a Link on paper. You can do this too!

What do you need to know about connecting to the Internet on the Road?
It depends. That's my stock answer when people ask me about technology. In this case, it depends on how much you need the Internet. It depends on where you travel. It depends on how much you want to learn. The possibilities are endless. Understanding that there are  3 distinct technologies for getting a wireless Internet connection is very important: Cellular, Wi-Fi, and Satellite.
We've used them all, and we're still learning. This article will tell you all about it, including a recommended book for learning still more!
Read More
Google Maps Street View

Think about the last time you looked at a map and wondered which route to take. Wouldn't it be nice if you could actually see the road? How about being able to ask people who have driven that route and get their opinion?

That's exactly what we did last week when we were parked at the Elks Lodge in Petaluma, just north of San Francisco, and we were going to travel to Monterey - south of San Francisco. The scenic route is Hwy 1, the Pacific Coast Highway. The big highway route is traveling on the east side of the area.

Read More
Weekly Show on Learning Smartphones and Tablets

Have you recently acquired a Smartphone or Tablet? Do you wish you knew more about it? Or, have you had one for a while and know they can do more? Just thinking you might get one?

Every Sunday at 2pm Eastern time, we are producing a live half hour video broadcast on the web teaching about Smartphones and Tablets. Then they are immediately recorded as YouTube videos.  You can see them all on our Geeks on Tour Youtube channel.

If you are a member, we include "Show Notes" with each episode listed on our Weekly Show page. This way you can find exactly what you're looking for.

RV Travel Newsletter by Chuck Woodbury

Current Issue

That's all for now. We hope you learned something. Your next issue will be next month. Any questions, please visit our forum. If you like this newsletter, please forward it on to your friends! If you received this issue forwarded by a friend you can subscribe to get your own copy delivered to your in box - it's free. You can also visit the archives of past newsletters

Happy Computing!

The Geeks on Tour website is an online learning library for Travelers who want to learn to use their computers and mobile devices for managing digital photos, making blogs, using maps and other online resources. Anyone can watch our free videos, read articles on our Computer Tips for Travelers Blog, sign up for our free monthly newsletter, or Picasa weekly tips. A small fee makes you a 'member' and you can then view any of our 260+ video tutorials on these subjects in our Learning LIbrary.
Geeks on Tour
Sincerely,
Geeks on Tour
jimandchris@geeksontour.com