Technology Blogs (216)

Happy New Year!

A Tire Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS) monitors the pressure in a cars tires and should it drop below a certain safe point, an icon on the dashboard will light up. This is a warning should a tire take a nail and lose air as driving on a flat can destroy a tire, especially the ones with a low profile.

Temperature changes will make air expand and contract and 2 cold mornings in South Florida (below 50F) made the warning light come on. A few minutes of driving and the tires warmed up increasing the pressure and the warning light went off.

The pressure is probably at the low reading so I'll top off with more air later today.

Lots of talk these days about releasing the Kraken.

The IT department of the last company I worked at had more than 30 computers connected to their intranet that synchronized with a remote service over a fiber link. Huge amounts of data passed through their system. At the end of each business day it did an offsite backup that took nearly an hour. If you needed to use the system during that time you were guaranteed to wait for information stored on the server.

The technician warned everyone who streamed music that only low bandwidth services were ( like Pandora ) were allowed. That didn't stop employees from downloading YouTube videos. That presented two problems... the employees were watching videos and not working and the overall bandwidth use was very high.

The place I'm at now does the same thing on a smaller scale. Streaming music and videos. While some are out on appointments and client meetings, the music on their computers plays on endlessly. One coworker plays movie soundtracks and goes off to meetings. Knowing he's out, I stop the music. I'm there to work and not entertain myself.

In the old days there were bandwidth caps where the service was reduced to a crawl and you had the option to pay for more monthly bandwidth or be frugal and choke your business data because some plans had crazy up-charges for exceeding your quota.

I'm thinking what could happen when more people update their cellphones and get 5G models with 50 times the bandwidth capacity. 5G is advertised free but what happens when excessive use reaches your plan limits. It's time to call and up your limit... or end wasted bandwidth and save your money.

Harley-Davidson is launching a new electric bicycle brand known as Serial 1 Cycle Company.

Coming soon...

Within the last year or so a lot of the social media "clowns" decided they had sucked enough of the economic lifeblood from their customers worldwide,exploited their home countries economic opportunity to the hilt and......ALARMINGLY, have decided to enter into an incestuous relationship with our sworn enemy China for God only knows what advantage they can gain only to sharply tilt the dynamic and thereby seriously threaten our National Security! Set aside,for a moment,the militarily strategic position this decision could shape for the US in the future and focus on the blatantly TURNCOAT aspect these SCUM have demonstrated to their home country. They all were allowed tax incentives,loans,the ability to pick from the finest technological talent available to start their companies in the friendliest economic environment on earth to achieve all they now have! By way of thanks they figuratively give the finger to every single customer that ennabled them to prosper! We are currently in a situation where every single opinion,political stance and ideaology they disagree with is heavily CENSORED, they ASSUME to decide who thrives economically online etc...... This is TOTALLY unacceptable and I would humbly submit that after the first High Profile lawsuit,hopefully followed by many others,along with heavy and very SEVERE Government regulation these unappreciative,treasonous,traitorous lowlifes will be properly brought to bear! If not,I don't care how Congress and DOJ go about it but I honestly believe there is sufficient grounds to,under the auspices of National Security,Seize,(by any means available,these peoples considerable wealth,revoke their citizenship and EXPORT their asses to whatever communist country they aspire to! Questions? Comments?

I was a Sprint customer for many years and when I started working for a company that had a metal roof on their building, my phone reception (inside the building) became non-existent. Some of my coworkers were Sprint customers and would stand outside to make calls. This was before phones could switch to Wi-Fi calling.
I purchased a signal booster that had 2 antennas, one outside for picking up the nearest tower signal and the other inside that relayed the phone signal. It worked pretty good for about 50 feet from the antenna. When I switched to T-Mobile, I didn't require the signal booster and gave it to a friend who was having the same trouble in the building he worked at.

Now, I'm at a place with the same problem. All the bars lit outside and inside I often had a 'no signal' error message. Switching to Wi-Fi calling wasn't reliable as I missed lots of calls and text messages weren't outgoing. They would snag and I often had to reboot the phone to get things to work again. Several calls to customer service only had technicians remotely checking my phone telling me to change the settings and make Wi-Fi the main method of communication and not cell service. One tech walked me through the settings to be sure everything was good. Rebooting the phone and trying that for a few days didn't work well. that was enough to call them and complain.

I was lucky to get someone who knew of a low power cell site device that connected directly to the network where I'm located (and not an antenna style booster) so they sent me one and I connected it. Instructions said it could be a few hours before the device would download updates and register with the T-Mobile service. Later that night, I received a text message the unit was online. When I got to the office the next day, I had 'full bars' without having to switch to Wi-Fi.

The new mini-cell site works great and 2 of my coworkers who are also T-Mobile customers are also benefiting from this device. It's just sitting on the corner of my desk right now, but I'll mount it on a wall up high for maximum coverage.

My private cell site...

Bought a couple for the twins, and my thoughts were, another TV gimmick, to rob the poor.
But I was surprised to see that this is really an alternative to costly, vapid, cable, broadcast or Satellite TV.
?Good capitalism?

There was a time I had control of all my tools, gadgets and hobby parts. I could switch hobbies for months and when I returned back to one everything was in places I recognize.
Since my move, all the knowledge is gone. Guitar things are mixed with drone and model helicopter things, plumbing supplies are in the same box as my vintage record albums.
You get the picture. What's amazing is my partner has perfect recall for things... well, the things in Miami before the move. If I needed the little metal tool to open a can of paint, she could find it in a few seconds.
I had two bookshelves one with computer books and software and the other with model aircraft things. In the aircraft was a few SD memory cards and adapters that allowed me to plug the SD into a computer. This is how I transferred drone videos to my computer. Hold that thought...

Recently, I've been looking for different things that disappeared in my move and after searching high and low and about to give up, I'll see the item I've been looking for set aside within arms reach, close enough to say it was 'under my nose' all along.

The last model helicopter I purchased has new technology the previous models didn't offer. Telemetry between the model and transmitter. Things like RPM, battery voltage can be read via the transmitter. Very cool, except I need to do a firmware update on the transmitter communicate with the receiver.

I downloaded the file to make the upgrade and I need the adapter. I have at least 3 of these things and made no less than four attempts to find them. My guess is they are together in one small plastic bag... somewhere.

It's a holiday weekend and I plan to be at the flying field a good part of it. That upgrade would be 'icing on the cake' so I've got to continue my search and check under my nose again and again for the SD card adapters.

I'm thinking about a phone upgrade this year and the model I want is around $1,000. Scary thought to pay so much for a phone, but there's an interface that connects it to a monitor, mouse and keyboard creating a desktop environment. That way, you don't have to squint and pinch.
That model is also available in a 5G version for $300 more.
If I go for the 5G model, It will probably be the single most expensive device I own, exceeding the GPS drone I purchased a few years ago.

I'm not a power user and don't spend time streaming videos on my phone so the idea of 5G isn't a requirement.

To 5G or not to 5G... that is the question.