Aug 9, 2017
Blogging Live– Paule. FROM THE NEVADA COUNTY FAIR
Filament style LED
Search eBay or Amazon. nice. Dimmable, correct color…
TECHNOLOGY OF TRAVEL
animated gifs?
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For a couple of months, the audio of today’s show is here. Recent shows are here.
The intro & outro music was by Pentatonix.
Glenn and co-host Mikail Graham did the broadcast from the KVMR boot at the Nevada County Fair and no phone calls were taken. Paul called in from Hastings in England and it’s not likely he’ll get back in time for the next show.
Glenn reminded listeners that they can send email to the guys using the address: zen at kvmr dot org.
Glenn knows someone with a 2011 vintage Mac Book Pro. He hasn’t upgraded beyond version 10.6.8 (the last version of Snow Leopard), even though he can, because he has some older programs that won’t run on a newer version of the operating system. Glenn asked if there is a way to upgrade to Sierra and not have to buy new programs to go with it.
Mikail said he’s helped people do exactly that and explained how. He suggested buying a larger hard drive and partitioning it so one part will have Sierra and the other Snow Leopard. Then when you boot up, you’ll be able to choose which operating you want to use. You’ll need to use a USB installer to achieve this. <Maybe this will help>
Mikail went on tell us, first do a Time Machine backup of your data. Then reformat your drive or get a new drive of about 1 or 2 terabytes, Next, make a small partition for Snow Leopard and a bigger one for Sierra and install the respective operation systems to their partitions. Your backup will be restored to the Snow Leopard partition the way you had it before.
You can use only the programs that are in the Snow Leopard partition when running Snow Leopard, though you’ll be able to access the data on the other partition.
Paul suggested an alternate setup. If there are just a couple of old programs you need to run, You can install Snow Leopard and the old apps onto an external drive, even a USB drive. Mikail said his method means the user wouldn’t have to keep the external drive handy and remember when to plug it in. But he agreed with Paul that it’s another way to do it. You can get a 256 gig flash drive a Costco for about $40, he added.
Also, an older application may run on newer operating systems even though it’s not officially supported, Paul said. You can try “dragging” the application’s folder from the old machine to a machine running a newer OS and see if it works. You can use Google to find out if others have already tried this with a particular old program.
Paul related his experience at Gatwick Airport. He had plans for using Easy Jet, a discount airline, and wanted to find out what platform to use for the train to the airport but there was no staff around and he had to use an phone app. When he came to the Easy Jet check-in, he found it was unmanned and he had to check his bags himself. Furthermore, the boarding pass was produced on the cell phone and he didn’t have a way to print it out — good luck if something happened to the phone. “There is no ability to manually write down your boarding pass number and there is no ability for the operator to manually key the boarding pass in”, he said.
The lesson is to print out your pass if you can, Paul said. Glenn suggested taking a screen shot. Paul said you can also use Apple wallet, which allows you to save all of your boarding passes and tickets.
A similar situation occurred while catching a bus to London. He could have booked the bus online for an extra pound, but he thought he’d buy the ticket it at the station. When he got to the station, the only way to buy the ticket was online. His point was that much of what we do depends on the internet.
The disclaimer:
“The views expressed on this show are those of the individuals and do not represent KVMR management, KVMR staff, board of directors or anything else”
Mikail noted that there is an easy upgrade you can do to older computers of any variety — replace the hard drive with a solid state drive (SSD). It’s the best thing you can do to make your old computer feel like it’s brand new. A Mac that takes 2 to 3 minutes to boot from a 5400 rpm drive will take 12 to 15 sec to boot from a SSD. Apps will run faster too. You can get a 256 gig drive for under $100, 128 gig drive for $60-$70, 500 gig drive under $150 and a 1 terabyte drive for under $230. Mikail said he can refer you to documents and videos to help you make the conversion.
Paul mentioned that he bought an Asus EEEPC computer a few years ago that originally had a SATA hard drive and he installed a SSD in it. He bought a used 128 gig SSD drive that came out of a Mac Book Air for $7. Since the Mac drives use a PCI Express interface, he bought a SATA-to-PCI Express solid state drive interface for $5. He loves the result.
Paul briefly mentioned the tech behind this broadcast. He’s using Skype right now. He said he’s able to send photos while he’s talking. He sent an animated .gif during the show.
The .gif format originated with Netscape 15 to 20 years ago. The format is making a reappearance on Facebook and Facebook Messanger. Mikail noted the correct pronunciation is jif <like the peanut butter> not gif <as in gift>.
Mikail said the new Apple Mac operating system, High Sierra, is coming out this Fall. The disk format is changing as well as the graphic format. The pictures will take up half as much room on the hard drive. If the images get on a machine with an older OS, they show up as .jpg files. He said the beta testing is coming along fine. Once you upgrade, you can’t go back to an older OS.
Paul noted that the iPhone’s OS newer than about 10.2 has a filing system called APFS that’s geared to solid state drives. Spinning hard drives are also being phased out in the Macs, where High Sierra is tailored to the SSD.
Paul’s sister-in-law has Fitbit and her iPhone has an app called Health (with a red heart) that coodinates with it. Paul, not having a Fitbit, wondered how to get the app and asked Siri. He was surprised to learn that the app was already on his phone and has been logging his activity without his knowledge. It was using the phone’s accelerometer to monitor his movement without the need of the Fitbit.
Paul said the Fitbit also tracks your sleeping patterns so you can, hopefully, improve your sleep. Mikail said there are all sorts of self-improvement apps, even ones that track your sexual activity.
Mikail said that IOS 11 for the Apple mobile devices has a mode to disable the phone when it notices you are in a car and moving.
Paul said he’s seen light bulbs with LED filaments inside — LED retro bulbs. It wasn’t clear what he was getting at. I think it’s supposed to make for a warmer (less bluish) light. To find out more, google the words: filament style led.
Mikail said there is the Perseid meteor shower this Saturday night, the later the better. It’s supposed to be spectacular. There’s not going to be another like it for 96 years. And then there’s the lunar eclipse on the morning of the 26th <starts 9:02am, maximum at 10:17am, ends 11:35am Pacific Time, from what I heard>.
Last Updated 10:50 PM 8-9-2017
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