Both Glenn & Paul were in the studio

Notifications of new show notes and edits are tweeted at: twitter.com/ddhart.
– They're tagged with #Zentech.
– When what's said is unclear to me (or I'm unfamiliar with a topic) I tend to quote (" ") verbatim.
– Editor's comments are delimited by < >

Briefly, Glenn mentioned a university study in the UK regarding memory loss and aging. Apparently, the ability to remember remains fine with age, it's just that older folks start running out of space to store new information.

Glenn thanked members of KVMR for their support. To become a member, please go to kvmr.org.

The guys talked about a couple of adult toys — the Arduino and Raspberry Pi. These are small programmable electronic devices that can make lights flash in different order and combinations.<and drive relays to perform physical tasks>. They are a motive force behind what you'll find at maker fairs, like the local Curious Forge.
<The Raspberry Pi comes with Mathematica, a CAS (Computer Algebra System), I've heard:
Raspberry Pi Includes Mathematica Free>

At 40 cents each, Paul has been experimenting with RGB LEDs, which, in combination, can be driven to give various colors. He noted the LEDs are either on or off and don't change in brightness with the amount of current going thru them, like an incandescent light bulbs do. Instead, their brightness is controlled by turning the current on & off quickly, and it's the time on vs. time off that determines the brightness.

Glenn said he saw a project in the Make magazine to make your shoes light up while you walk — the light changes depending on how much pressure is put on different parts of the shoe.

Paul said the Arduino costs about $20 or $30, the Raspberry Pi is about $49. The Raspberry is essentially a complete computer and operating system, the Arduino is a simpler, more primitive device that requires more user involvement.

To hook up the Raspberry Pi you just have to use an HDMI cable to plug it into your TV and plug in a flash drive (included if you buy the kit). Then you can use the 2 USB ports to attach a mouse and keyboard, and you're in business. It has…
– a MIPS processor running at 800 megaHertz.
– a graphics processor unit.
– a choice of operating system — a derivative of Linux or the MIPS OS.
– as with the Arduino, there are peripheral circuit boards available to do various things as well as a variety of software.

Paul said, as he had previously, that Youtube is a good resource for do-it-yourselfers. The videos tend to be short and to the point, while addressing a single topic.

Paul talked about the link at the top of this page. When you sign up at Flag Counter, you are given a URL that you then incorporate into your own web page. <I think it counts the number of visitors to your page and what country they're from> When someone visits your page, Flag Counter "increments one flag count per country that has visited you". He said the service is free but they do put cookies on your system though he thought they might be harmless. He thought it might still work if you turn your cookies setting to off.

Glenn said, "I have often said, in my book, the very best way to avoid getting viruses, Trojan horses, anything malicious or something malicious on your computer is do not open anything in your email". Paul added, stay up to date with the Flash player, it's the single biggest vector for the invasion of your machine — it's required for many things and it's bug-ridden.

Ralph called. He was thinking about an Arduino project to make a door opener for his chicken coop that would go up and down along with the Sun.
– First check to see if someone has done it already.
– Paul searched for the words: chicken coop controller. He found applications that not only control the door, but also provide other functions — weighing eggs, monitoring alarms and temperature, etc.
<This might be it>

Ralph also asked about podcasts of the Zentech show. Paul said there are some old ones, <here> <and here> and that he just doesn't find the time to put up more shows. He said KVMR does have podcasts of the many other shows it broadcasts. Go to kvmr.org and click the link called "Podcasts". These are just talk shows because copyright issues prevent podcasts containing music.

Paul said he enjoys the TED Talks and the Radiolab shows. Google the words: ted talks. You'll find a "marvelous series of videos".

Paul implied that it was from Radiolab he learned about loyalty cards at casinos. The casinos keep track of frequent visitors and their rate of winning or losing money. If they find you've been losing a lot, they may offer you a perk like a free stay at a hotel, just to keep you coming back.

Paul offered a tip to save money. He suggested you download, as he did on his Nexus tablet, all the apps for all the 'box' stores like Lowe's, Home Depot, Walgreens, CVS, Ikea, Rite Aid, etc. You can then get discounts, coupons etc. In particular, he likes the Lowe's app. It lets him order what he wants and have it delivered, or have the items boxed up and be ready to be picked up at the store. The stores are very competitive in this area, they can't afford not to offer these services, conveniences and savings.

Paul wondered why one would buy a Kindle when they could buy a tablet.
– The Kindle is a loss leader. It's cheap to buy but Amazon (its maker) expects you to keep coming back to buy things for it — books, music etc.
– Amazon tries to restrict you to their own website. You don't have access to the Google Play Store (without hacking the Kindle).
– Paul has been perfectly happy with an Android tablet <his Nexus 7> that can access the Google Play Store and, after getting the Kindle app, also have access to Amazon products.
– There are also Kindle apps for the Apple devices and desktop/laptop PCs.

Glenn said he's consider getting a Kindle Paperwhite reader. Paul explained…
– The Paperwhite looks more like a printed page than conventional tablets do.
– Conventional tablets use backlit LEDs and their batteries typically last 10 to 12 hours
– The Paperwhite can go for weeks between charges.

Paul said when you're shopping for an Android tablet, it should let you have access to the Google Play Store without any hacking.

Next show Paul plans to review the Dragon 7 tablet that he bought for his sweetie.
– It doesn't have a GPS chip.
– It doesn't have Bluetooth.
– It does have a camera.
– It does have OTG USB (On The Go USB). That means you can add those missing components.
– If you use it in a car, OTG USB means you can push it into a dock that has USB, and if there is a GPS USB chip in the car "you can make this kind of hybrid monster that does all the things you want it to do…"

Paul said he's found "even better" free GPS software called OsmAnd. There's also a paid version for $7. "You can actually download every map in the world" though that's not advised because you generally have limited storage on a tablet.
<More on OsmAnd here>

It's become common for tablets not to have external flash drive storage, Paul said. There can be a problem if the user removes the flash drive because that takes away some of the storage that the tablet depends on and that "can screw stuff up". The thinking now is that with judicious management, along with online storage, the internal memory should be sufficient.

Glenn mentioned his online backup isn't working because he has too many pictures on his iPhone and iPad. And he's having trouble deleting the pictures en masse <as I understood him saying>. Paul thought someone will make an app for that, eventually.

Last updated 10:23 PM 1/22/2014

Both Glenn & Paul were in the studio

Notifications of new show notes and edits are tweeted at: twitter.com/ddhart.
– They're tagged with #Zentech.
– When what's said is unclear to me (or I'm unfamiliar with a topic) I tend to quote (" ") verbatim.
– Editor's comments are delimited by < >

NOTE: There will not be a Zentech show Christmas day 12-25-13

Paul said that sometimes, when you see a pop-up in your browser telling you to upgrade a program, like the Adobe Flash player, you might end up installing a bogus tool bar. He asked, why would someone create such a tool bar? Apparently, it's because there's typically an affiliate fee that is paid by an advertiser — usually a fraction of a cent per click — to those who create & install such tool bars.

Glenn thanked members of KVMR. To become a member, please visit the KVMR website. There's even a vehicle donation program.

When viruses infect his laptop, Glenn said the easiest remedy he's found is to reinstall the operating system. He reminded listeners to backup, backup, backup!

Paul offered a tip for finding the backup program that comes with Windows 7 (possibly in Windows 8 too). Hit the Windows key in the lower left of the keyboard and then perform a search with the word: backup. He said that will launch the backup program. He said that increasingly, operating systems use the search facility to run programs, rather than having to look for a program in the folders.

Paul said the backup program in Windows 7 isn't called "backup" but rather something like "File History" or "File Manager". He was told, but hasn't yet verified, that it can do incremental backups — like Time Machine on the Mac.

Paul noted that flash drives are getting so cheap that one might consider using them for backups. Glenn added that flash drives give no warning of impending failure. Paul said that hard drives might make a noise before failing, or you might notice data not being saved correctly. Flash drives fail catastrophically.

Glenn warned listeners to be sure that all files have finished being written to the drive before removing it. Use the 'Eject' command <right-click on the drive in My Computer or the Safely Remove Hardware icon in the system tray>. This will insure that all reading & writing to the drive have been completed.

Paul said the flash drives have a limited number of times they can be written to <they "wear out">. Computers use a temporary storage area (a cache) where data to be written is stored. Eventually, the data is written to the flash drive all at once. Also, these drives have internal circuitry to insure that all parts of the drive are used evenly. No one spot is written to over and over — so it doesn't "wear out" there. These two strategies combine to maximize the life of the drive.
<In Windows XP, you can set whether the computer uses the write cache: in My Computer right-click on a removable drive & go to -> properties -> hardware -> properties -> policies>

The guys talked about the good old days when mass storage involved tape machines and large hard drive platters. When the computer user typed the command 'mount', technicians at the main frame would litterly mount the tape on the tape machine and then send the message 'Ready' back to the users screen.

Frank called in with 2 questions. He's shopping for a laptop and wanted guidance for comparing the CPUs — like an AMD with 4 cores at 2 gigaHertz speed compared to an Intel CPU with 2 cores and 2.5 gigaHertz. He plans to do some video editing.
– Look for video benchmark software to run speed tests.
– A lot of the video performance would depend on the hard drive access speed rather than on the CPU.
– Much of the performance depends on the type of video circuitry. If it's integrated on the motherboard, it will likely be slower than an independent video card and inadequate for video processing and gaming.
– Laptops don't typically allow you to change the graphics processor. Dell can custom-build a laptop with the video processor of your choice.
– Getting back to comparing the CPUs, Paul said use the word 'versus' in a search along with the CPU names. While talking, Glenn did the search with the words: compare amd versus intel cpus. He found cpubenchmark.net.
– AMD chips are cheaper, but that doesn't mean they are any less in quality or performance.
– If price is not an issue, get an Apple. Be aware that the low-end Mac Books do have an integrated graphics processor. And though the difference between the integrated and discrete processors is less than it used to be, the difference still exists.
– Paul found the website videobenchmark.net that compares video cards.

Frank's second question is about finding a laptop that he can run with a remote control so he can operate its DVD recorder. Frank said there used to be something called Media Center that would do what he wants, but he can't find it now.
– Paul said there's nothing in Media Center that you can't do in other ways — like an infrared USB device with a remote control. Search Ebay with the words: remote control for pc. He thought there might now be such a device that responds to wireless signals (instead of infrared).
– There is a BlueTooth wireless device called the Atom or something like that. It should do the trick. Paul found the SMK Link Blue Link Remote Control Adapter for $25 at Target. Or you can google the words: bluetooth remote control.
– If you don't have BlueTooth on the laptop, there is a USB dongle for about $3 that will enable your computer with BlueTooth. The range of BlueTooth is about 30 feet.
– Also, consider getting a refurbished laptop from Joy Microsystems. They don't have their own outlet, but they sell thru Amazon, Overstock and other places. Google the words: joy refurbished.

Ron called looking for external hard drive for the iPad Air. Does he need to jailbreak the iPad to use these drives? He saw the app called iFile that lets you manage the files like Finder does on the Mac. Ron is an artist and would like to access files that reside in his iMac, using his iPad.
– Glenn has seen wi-fi hard drives that might work for him. They also work with Android and desktop computers.
– Paul looked up iFile and it said you do have to jailbreak the iPad.
– Android devices can connect directly to an external hard drive and, unlike the iPad, the file system is readily accessible.
– If the iMac has iPhoto on it, you can use PhotoStream. It uses iCloud, an online storage service. Frank's internet connection is finicky, so that might not work well for him.
– If you go with Glenn's suggestion of a wi-fi drive, check out the Western Digital Mybook Live from Best Buy for roughly $149. It uses the protocols of Apple Time Capsule and acts like an inexpensive version of it. Paul has actually been using a refurbished 2 teraByte unit he got for something like $70.
– If you go with jailbreaking the iPad, you may find some apps no longer work, as Glenn found out.

Steve Baker, KVMR's program director came into the studio. He said KVMR had its volunteer recognition party the other day and Glenn & the Flea Market were the winners of the Osborne Woods Award For Community Service. Glenn was also named to the Volunteer Hall Of Fame for his service to KVMR.

Doug called with a question about the different types of memory cards — Compact, Memory Stick, SD cards, etc. He asked if some are more reliable than others.
– Glenn said no one is better than the others and you usually have no choice but to use the type your particular device can take.
– In general, SD cards are usually preferred. Compact is hard to find & expensive. Memory stick is particular to Sony products.
– Get brand name memory cards. Paul has had problems with off-brand and recycled cards.
– Multi-card readers are cheap & useful, especially around the holidays when guests arrive with their own particular memory cards.
– Check the speed rating of the flash media, especially for video cameras where something like 10X is required.
– Memory cards are pretty cheap — usually under $1 per gig.
– Be aware that some cameras take cards up to only a certain size.

Last updated 9:45 PM 12/11/2013

Notifications of new show notes and edits are tweeted at: twitter.com/ddhart.
– They're tagged with #Zentech.
– When what's said is unclear to me (or I'm unfamiliar with a topic) I tend to quote (" ") verbatim.
– Editor's comments are delimited by < >

Zentech is scheduled to air on 12-11-13 but probably not on Christmas day.

Glenn's phone call quality was terrible on this show. I hope I didn't mishear anything.

The show was not particularly information dense, so the notes will be a tad sparse. Hey, it's Thanksgiving eve, what do you expect.

Dave "Buzz" Barnett, KVMR's chief engineer, was the guest host. Glenn called in from the Bay Area. We didn't hear from Paul.

Glenn said Apple is having difficulties filling orders for the iPhone 5S, the newest model, and has told the manufacturer to increase its production. They have an overstock of the 5C model.

An on-going issue for Apple users is getting the KVMR Flea Market webpage to display correctly. Glenn restated the solution he found when this was brought up during the 10-23-13 show — use the Firefox browser. He said he'll continue to work on the problem to pinpoint the exact cause.

Glenn helped a friend explore the possibility of using a SIM card from a TracPhone, which is not a smartphone, in one that is smart — like an AT&T or T-Mobile smartphone. He also suggested trying the SIM card in any unlocked, off-contract smartphone — a used phone, for instance. And if you're going to get an older iPhone, make it the 3G or older model.

Dave was looking at some tech news and noted that Microsoft is preparing to kill Windows RT. Glenn said RT isn't able to run standard Windows applications <unless they are compiled for RT>, and Microsoft is moving on to Windows 8.1.

Win81 can be made to look more like Win7, which is closer to WinXP that Glenn is familiar with. Dave concurred and said he likes the older shortcuts available to WinXP — like WindowsKey + E to launch the file explorer. Dave said some of them are not available in Win8.

As on the last show, Glenn said that Samsung & Intel are collaborating on a Linux based operating system for mobile phones.

Dave said that most webservers run on the Linux operating system. When you install Windows, it brings with it all kinds of services. With Linux you can install with a rich set of services & programs, or install a minimal system for a specific purpose — like a database server, for example. As a result, Linux tends to be more efficient, have less overhead and be more secure.

Dave said that the Android operating system on the smartphones, though widely used, is still owned by Google, and developing an alternate open source Linux-based OS is good hedge, in case it's needed.

A few years ago there was an open source project called OpenMoco that was an attempt to build a universal, SIM card-enabled smartphone with Linux. He didn't know what happened to it; he thought they had "trouble finding the hardware". There were a few prototypes spotted in the Far East but he doesn't know more about it.

Glenn said Best Buy is going to have a "doorbuster" deal on Friday (he thought Friday) on a 32" or possibly 42" LCD TV for $99. It's not a smart TV, the kind you can hookup to the internet, Glenn said.

Glenn mentioned that KVMR has 2 broadcast studios — A & B. Studio B was meant to be a backup in case there's trouble with studio A and it's now used for training. Glenn likes B because it's more user friendly.

Dave said studio B is set up better to use KVMR's digital library and is being used for archiving many of KVMR's recordings (some 16,000 CDs) into the Flac format. Unlike the MP3 format, Flac (Free Lossless Audio Codec) is a high quality recording — it doesn't lose any quality from compression, it's lossless.

Glenn wondered about the details of the new building that KVMR is moving to, which will be across the street. Dave said it will have an upgraded operating system with most of the hardware that's in studio B.

Dave said the phone interface will be different. The Axia brand phone interface for the operator will be the same, but behind the scene it's different. The current system "takes the audio in the board and translates it to a standard copper phone line pair". <It's analog, I guess> The new facility will use VOIP with something called Asterisk.

Dave said that recently the FCC had a filing window close for low power FM stations (LPFM). Any established non-profit organization not involved in broadcasting was able to apply. Low power stations transmit at under 100 watts and typically have a coverage area of 2 to 4 miles. He said about 2800 have applied. One such station is KFOK at 95.1 in Georgetown.

Glenn brought up the subject of HD radio. KVMR has the ability to broadcast in HD, and he wondered what the channel designations are. Dave said that 89.5-1 is a digital copy of their analog signal.
– On an HD radio, if you tune in to 89.5 (analog) it will switch to HD channel 89.5-1, if the signal is strong enough. HD is normally a weaker signal with a smaller coverage.
– If the signal is strong enough and you then dial in 89.5-2 you will hear classical music from a service called Classical 24.
– KVMR has the ability to use channels 89.5-3 & 89.5-4 but the bandwidth of HD radio is 96Kbits in total. 2 channels will be 48Kbits each, 3 channels 32Kbits and 4 channels will be 24Kbits each. KVMR has decided not to broadcast more than 2 channels because the quality would be too low.

Jerry <maybe it was Gary> called wanting to know the peak allowed wattage of a LPFM station and what can be done to extend the coverage.
– The limit is 100 watts if the antenna is no higher than 10 meters above average terrain. The taller the antenna the lower the allowed power.
– You can extend the range by using a translator. It will receive the primary frequency (89.5) and rebroadcast at a different frequency to cover a new area (like 104.7 for KVMR's Woodland translator).
– There is a fine of about $10,000 if the allowed wattage is exceeded.

Thanks to all the listeners & subscribers. To become a member please visit the KVMR website.

The Flea Market will NOT broadcast tomorrow. Glenn didn't know what will take its place. It will be on the following week.

At the very end, someone called in to complain about the poor quality of today's audio.
– The quality problem was with Glenn's cell phone call.

Last updated 8:23 PM 11/27/2013

Additional notes

Notifications of new show notes and edits are tweeted at: twitter.com/ddhart.
– They're tagged with #Zentech.
– When what's said is unclear to me (or I'm unfamiliar with a topic) I tend to quote (" ") verbatim.
– Editor's comments are delimited by < >

Both Paul & Glenn were in the studio today

Paul briefly mentioned that he loved the LED watch he had back in 1970. He'd have to push a button to summon the time — the battery would drain too quickly if the display were on constantly.

Glenn had trouble remembering the login password for his new Windows 8 laptop and that drew a comment from Paul about passwords. He said the number one computer security violation stems from theft of the hardware. The greatest loss of personal information comes from theft — more than hacking and viruses. However, passwords are poor protection for a stolen computer because there are hacks to bypass the login.

He went on to say you can register your computer with, he thought, Outlook.com, and then use that service to unlock the computer if you forget the password. There's a similar service for Mac users of the Maverick operating system and possibly Mountain Lion.

Glenn said the only reason he got the new laptop is because it has a touch screen (mouse not required). It's a combination laptop and tablet Asus (his favorite brand) for under $400. It has a 10" screen, an HDMI output for sending video to a TV, a 15 pin VGA output, SD card slot, 2 USB3 slots, an Ethernet port, wireless capability, 320gig hard drive, 4gig RAM (goes up to 8gig) and is less than 2 pounds.

Paul asked him why he didn't choose a tablet with a fold-down skimpy keyboard. He said he didn't like those skimpy keyboards, the lower horsepower, the smaller RAM and smaller storage capacity of the tablets.

Paul installed Skype on a Windows 8 machine and found he was required to create a new Skype account — his old one no longer worked. Apparently this has to do with Microsoft buying Skype. He has yet to find a work-around.

Paul said that in the past couple of years 32bit machines have been discontinued and only 64bit machines are being sold. The operating systems are 64bit also, leading to faster performance. 64bit machines can more easily address memory larger than 4gig. There are programs so poorly written that they use memory than they should — Outlook <not outlook.com> is an example. The 64bit systems handle such programs better.

Paul found a website that lets you opt out of having the Yellow Pages directory delivered to you. You have to create an account there and provide your street address.

Paul noted that printed directories are handy for finding local business. You can also use local.google.com for local listings. Businesses or even individuals that go thru the confirmation process, when listing themselves with Google, can embellish their listing with additional info about themselves or their company.

If you have location services turned on in your mobile device, local.google.com will keep track as you move around, and provide relevant info specific to your location.

Paul said that webpages can look different depending what device you're using to view them. The web servers can tell what you're using as well as your operating system and can adjust the webpage for more suitable viewing.

Google's various services <gmail, docs, etc.> use a secure connection. The security is warranted because so much personal data is being transferred. The throughput on a secure connection is slower because it takes time to encrypt and because webpages aren't cached and require frequent reloading. The slowdown is not an issue these days because machines have become so much faster.

Deborah called. She just wanted Glenn's phone number but then realized she should do it off the air. Glenn asked her to call the office number after the show (530-265-9073).

Kathy called. She recently upgraded her iPhone to iOS7 & now the battery depletes quickly. She said she found useful tips for conserving power at mashable.com in the article "7 Ways to Stop iOS 7 From Killing Your iPhone Battery". On that page she also found an article about what's new in iOS7.
– There's a new feature in iOS7 where you swipe your finger across the top and it brings up the wi-fi, cell phone, and the 3G data interface, and you can turn things on and off from there.
– Kathy wanted to know how to find what version of the OS her phone is using. Glenn said go to Settings -> General -> About to find the info.
– Glenn said he's using iOS7 on his iPhone and he's not had any problems with the battery.
– In addition to turning off wi-fi & Bluetooth, Paul said that using your phone close to cell towers also conserves power — the phone doesn't have to boost a weak signal.

Paul also suggested turning of the Search Index to conserve power. The index keeps track of emails, webpages, applications, logs etc to make things easier to search for. Turn it back on again if you have a new entry in your contacts, install a new application or enter a new phone number. There's a Search Index in various devices, not just the iPhone.

Paul said he really likes his Google Nexus 7 — a 7" tablet made by Asus. He said if you wiggle your finger in the upper right corner and then pull it down, the Quick Menu come up and that takes you more directly to the settings. There you'll find the Power Statistics that tell you how much of the power consumption is due to the various things the device is doing. He's found that up to 50% is due to the screen's backlight and that turning down the brightness doesn't compromise usability and still conserve battery power.

Scott called. He suggested the KVMR phone system have an audible cue to let people know they are the next ones to be on air. He also jokingly suggested putting tape on a cat's paws — they go nuts, they're hilarious. <This was in response to Paul's earlier innocent comment about removing the stickers from Glenn's new computer and sticking them to a cat>

Paul got key fob camera. They go by the name 'keycam' and typically have 320 X 240 resolution. Apparently for amusement, he put it on the head of a weiner dog to get a dog's-eye view.

He also had read and article on the website brainpickings.org <Paul said it's .com but I think he meant .org> about a small camera that attaches to your pet's collar, takes a picture every 10 seconds and makes a GPS fix. This is to track where your pet wanders. He hasn't been able to find this type of camera and ask listeners for more info.

Glenn said Samsung and Intel are collaborating on a Linux based operating system for mobile phones. They want an open source operating system, which the Android is not. Paul speculated that Samsung may have lost its license to use Android because of it's legal dispute with Apple. <mentioned in the 6-5-13 show notes> Google may not want to get involved in the dispute. Android is showing up on many devices and it's the "characteristic feature of the high quality of the Samsung Galaxy and Samsung S3 phone". Paul thinks they are the "best phones out there".

Paul noted an issue that came up for him recently where a product's license agreement said "you are not allowed, without permission, to review this product in a public forum". He said this is understandable because it's easy to write a negative review when you didn't use the product correctly.

Pilar called. She is a Mac user and she can't listen to the Zentech show using Firefox or Safari. When she click the Listen Live she gets the little window that says KVMR audio player, but when she clicks on the play button nothing happens. She's able to play streaming audio from other stations. She's asked Paul about this before a wondered if he had anymore info.
– The guys tried on their devices and it worked ok for them.
– Check the volume control of the KVMR audio player.
– Glenn thought she should try an app that plays radio streams. He searched for: mac app radio tuner. He found "Apple downloads dashboard widgets and there's tuner there". He currently has an app on his iPad called Tune-In Radio.
– They had her try the individual links for the 32kbps & 64kbps streams but neither worked.
– They had her copy (Control + click) one of the links, run iTunes, click 'Open Stream' or maybe 'Open URL' and pasting that link in. She tried that but it didn't work. <She may not have waited long enough during her time on air>
– Do a Disk Utility check.
– Try resetting your router. For her Comcast router just pull the power plug. Then Paul found out she also has phone service thru Comcast and revised his suggestion — use the reset button to do a warm reset because pulling the plug won't do it as her router has a battery in it.

Paul asked her if she has any other equipment and she said she also has something called a Time Capsule.
– He told her to look up: double nat. That's double network address translation. It's where the router is translating the public internet address once and it's getting translated a second time by the Time Capsule. She'll probably have to reconfigure the Time Capsule for bridge mode.
– Paul asked her to email him to continue the trouble shooting.

Glenn thanked KVMR members for their support. If you'd like to become a member, please go to kvmr.org.

Both Glenn and Paul may both be out of town for the next show. They hope to find a guest host.

Last updated 10:20 PM 11/13/2013

Glenn will talk about Google Offers and their refund policy

Additional notes

 Notifications of new show notes and edits are tweeted at: twitter.com/ddhart.
– They're tagged with #Zentech.
– When what's said is unclear to me (or I'm unfamiliar with a topic) I tend to quote (" ") verbatim.
– Editor's comments are delimited by < >

Glenn was in the studio and Paul called in Casper CA near Point Cabrillo on the North coast.

NOTE: There will not be a show on the 5th Wed this month (10-30-13) due to the membership drive. There will be special programming in its place.

Glenn thanked current KVMR members for their support. To become a member, please visit the KVMR website.

Glenn said he's gotten complaints from 2 iMac users about not being able to get the KVMR Flea Market website to display properly while using the Safari browser.
– He recommended they use the Firefox browser and that solved the problem.
– Paul tried to replicate the problem but it worked fine for him.
– Besides using a different browser, Paul suggested an upgrade to the operating system. He sees no compelling reason not to get the Mountain Lion OS, if your machine is compatible. It's about $19. Glenn thought you'd need at least a Core 2 Duo processor to run Mountain Lion.

Paul said some early Macs, typically from early 2007, with a Core 2 Duo couldn't run Mountain Lion because the graphics processing was not fast enough. He mentioned a website where you can enter the serial number of your Mac and find the date of manufacture as well as other info.

Paul reminded listeners that you can put the Ubuntu operating system (a version of Linux) on a Mac as old as the G4 <later he said G5>. Go to Ubuntu and download the G5 or Power PC (PPC) version and follow the instructions. Older laptops with an Intel processor work even better, using the Intel version of Ubuntu.

Glenn asked Paul if he knew what the critter is on the Firefox emblem. According to Glenn, it's a red panda. Paul remembered that the original Mozilla project had a gecko for its logo

The forerunner of the current Firefox browser was based on Netscape code (though the code itself was not copied). Netscape eventually became the property of AOL (America On Line). <The Netscape browser was popular during the 1990s>

Paul noted that the Point Cabrillo Lighthouse had its foghorns silenced by the Coast Guard. He then talked about sound propagation as well as progress that's been made in marine navigation.
– High-pitched sounds are more directional than low-pitched sounds.
– However, the high frequency sounds don't travel as far as the low-pitched sounds.
– It's harder to tell where low pitch sounds are coming from. The strategy had been to not go in the direction where the fog horn gets louder because your going toward the horn & hence toward land.
– Glenn speculated that the horns at Point Cabrillo were shut down because sailors now use GPS. The lights of the light houses as well as an older navigation system called Omega are being phased out slowly because it's not clear who may still depend on them, Paul said.
– Paul said the sailors now download their charts rather than use printed ones.
<From today's All Things Considered: NOAA Says No More Paper Maps Of U.S. Waterways>

Brother Free called. He has an Emachine PC with a Pentium processor E5400 and Windows 7. He defragged the hard drive and consequently lost all of the icons on the desktop. Otherwise it works fine.
– Press F5 to refresh the desktop. He tried that but it didn't help.
– Right-click on desktop -> View -> Show Desktop Icons. That solved his problem.

Patricia called. She lives in Browns Valley where she doesn't have any internet service except dialup. She wanted to know what options she has for a broadband service. She said the Verizon cellular service is available to her and Jetpack from Verizon (in conjunction with a smartphone) had been recommended to her.
– Ask Verizon how much extra it would cost to use a smartphone as a hotspot for your computer. She already did and was told it would cost $100 per month for 2gigs of data.
– Dish Network & Direct TV have satellite service that might work for you.
– Digital Path might also be an option. Call them at 800-676-7284. Digital Path was installed at Glenn's property for an initial fee of $250 and subscription fee of $50 to $60 per month for unlimited service.
– Paul said, go to a Verizon store and ask about mi-fi. It's just a black box that converts cell phone signals into wi-fi signals. You don't need a cell phone to use it. Make sure the Verizon store you go to is a company store not an independent store.
– If your computer doesn't have wi-fi, you should be able to plug it directly into the mi-fi box. Or, you can add wi-fi to your computer with an adapter for about $6.
– Other cellular providers have a similar product. Ask your neighbors what cellular service they're using, to know what works in your location.
– Words to remember when asking about these services are 'mi-fi' and 'tether '. Tethering is where a cell phone converts cellular signals to wi-fi.
<A review of Jetpack>

Bongo called. He uses an amplifier to boost his cellular signal and has antennas in the house to distribute the signal. He wanted to know if there is something he can do to boost the signal to increase the range, or should he continue adding antennas throughout the house.
– Glenn suggested using a wi-fi router to distribute the signal that's coming into the house. Additionally, you'll probably need a modem to take the cellular signal and pass it to the router. The modem would come from AT&T and may commit you to a contract.

Bongo is using an iPhone 4 and Paul suggested he go into Settings and look for something that says 'tethering'. If that's not there, you don't have that plan from AT&T. Bongo said he already jailbroken the phone and Glenn suggested he go to Cydia and look for an app that does tethering or acts as a hotspot. Glenn once used an app called TetherMe which costs $5.

Bongo went on to say that he doesn't hang out at wi-fi hotspots so he doesn't use the cloud to backup the files from his phone. As a result, he doesn't have enough available memory to upgrade his phone to version 7 of iOS. He wanted to know how to get the data off his phone. He doesn't have a computer to back it up to.
– Ask a friend with a computer, who's not already using it to backup an iPhone, if you can backup your phone on their machine. Use iTunes on the friend's computer to select what you want to keep. iTunes will also tell you how much memory you've freed up. Once you have transferred the date to their computer, you can then put the data on a flash drive.
– Since you only have a cellular plan at home, it can get expensive to backup to the cloud.
– Read up on other suggestions – google the words: ios 7 upgrade insufficient space.

Mary called to say she uses a mi-fi device from AT&T and it has worked wonderfully for her. Paul added, the cool thing is you can use the mi-fi device anywhere you can get a cellular signal from the provider, not just at home. And you can connect to it from any wi-fi enabled device (smartphone, tablet etc.).

Matthew called. He said he's simplified his life by selling his computer & cell phone. He wanted to know the cheapest way to receive messages.
– Try something like the GoPhone or TrackPhone. Check with Walmart or Best Buy and ask for a plan with just text (txt) service.
– You can use cell phones without a cellular plan by using it only in a wi-fi mode. You just need to find a place that has wi-fi: McDonalds, Flower Garden, an AT&T store, etc.
– Freedom Pop is another option. Their minimum plan is about $18/mo. See the show notes from 10-9-13 for more info.

Bill called with a comment. He uses Mac OS10 Snow Leopard. He was about to pay $29.95 to get Mountain Lion but then found out that the latest OS, called Maverick, is free. He said one of the improvements is longer battery life for those using a laptop. Visit the Apple site.
– Paul cautioned that if you go from version 10.6 to 10.9 of the OS, Power PC applications will no longer work.
– To tell which apps will have problems with Maverick, google the word: maverick compatibility applications

Last update 9:46 PM 10/23/2013