Posts from the ‘Technology’ category

My Technical Comeuppance

I’ve made my living for the past 33.5 years as a computer programmer: self-employed. My education did not include computer programming except for some very basic courses … 42 years ago!

I am self-taught and continually self educated, but thankfully I work with a great team of 3 others and one in particular, we’ll call him “R” is definitely a technical whiz. I am a decent programmer, have learned and relearned and since every 2 or 3 years, we must jump to the next level, I imagine this is my life. I happen to love it even though when things “change”, I initially believe that I will NEVER get it. But, so far, I do – YEA!

The facets of programming and computer system maintenance and the use of smart phones, tablets and wearables … I do not claim to be an expert in all. I often say that my knowledge is fairly narrow. I know a lot about the language and paradigm I work in: C#, typescript/javascript, html … all under a VisualStudio umbrella. My photography hobby led me to learn Photoshop (minimally … maybe medium-ly) and because there is some need for lightweight graphics in my work, that knowledge has come in handy. Word, Excel, Outlook … all used personally as well as professionally. If I have anything really tricky system wise, I rely on a local company that does that vs slogging through it on my own and possibly making a mess of things.

Three years ago, I switched from a Windows phone to an iPhone. Two years ago I switched from a Windows tablet to an iPad. About 4 months ago I added an Apple Watch. The Apple devices work well with my Windows laptop. We are a happy blended “family” :).

I think of myself as a “power user” of my devices. Ok, “power user – lite” … still, I use them and have “apps” that help me do things efficiently.

So.

Several weeks ago, in an effort to improve the specification of tasks in my work group, I offered to act as a kind of secretary to spec out in a rough design, certain tasks for our group. In group meetings, we discuss how forms and views should be laid out and sometimes what we “hear” does not correspond to what was wanted. I suggested that even some “scribbles” of the layout would be helpful.

For my first go, I did just that: paper and pen!! And I took a photo and shared that, got an ok and added to our group task software.

As I was working with “the boss” on this first round, he asked: “What app are you using?” I laughed and said pen and paper…

Later, I remembered the question and got to wondering … was there an app for this. Probably there WAS an app for this.

So, I searched and was absolutely astonished at what I found. The video below is 4 years old. She has a newer video with iPad and Apple Pencil, but what got me was her explanation of why she used an iPad and “ePencil” for taking notes in school.

I shared the above video, plus several others with all of the programming team. Most of the videos I found were from Med School students. The math, the science … OMG! … and then they took time to share how they took notes and studied. Color me appalled at my laziness :) in keeping up with this part of technology.

R, took off with the links sent and sent me a note that he started using his 2012 iPad for a project and that the note taking helped a lot.

Then he shared this:

In addition to being the team guru, he is a home schooling dad who is learning Latin along with his 13 year old daughter. Hoo … I say HOO-RAH!

Meanwhile, I slogged along with combining screen shots and notes in OneNote on my iPad Pro 9.7 with Apple Pencil. Fun as well as useful. The ability to erase vs crossing out with pen and paper makes for better “scribbles”. The ability to easily change color and thickness helps also. Our task specification definitely improved and we worker bees are happier and I think more productive: WIN-WIN!

In addition to work, I am slowly moving away from paper and toward an all digital environment for scratchpad notes and lists. BUT – thanks to my recently acquired knowledge, the digital environment includes handwritten notes on my iPad with Apple Pencil.

Above: Two applications open in order to calculate ratio of my standard bread recipe with a flour mix from another recipe… Normally, I would do this on a notepad and then maybe or maybe not remember to add the calcs in my recipe page…

The handwritten thing is important. There is a lot of evidence regarding brain exercise via handwriting. As a child of the pre-personal computer era and even though my writing leaves something to be desired … I can make it legible if I take my time … I know that I retain what I handwrite in a different way than I retain what I type.

I am so thrilled to have discovered a way to use technology in a different way. A way that adds to the ease of keeping track of information, while utilizing all of the technological tools that make it easy to find things and more fully using the devices available.

Power User … not quite, but good grief … despite my dismay at my ignorance, I am thrilled to have learned something.

Back to it

I’m writing this on Sunday evening, the last night of my 14 day holiday break.

It has been a wonderful, refreshing time away from the normal work schedule. I actually didn’t work except for answering some emails and a bit over 1/2 day on Friday due to a minor emergency … but that was good as I was somewhat forced to hop to and my head is “back in the game”. I haven’t taken this much time off – as in completely off – in many years.

Even though I get outside as much as possible normally, we got out even more the last 2 weeks. The weather was all over the place, but not much snow and as we had a melt down this past week, the drive is a sheet of ice, but the yard and woods are nearly bare – walking and playing has been good!

I had time to get to know my new bit of tech fun: a wearable … series 4 Apple Watch.

All sorts of info at a glance! After trying several watch faces, I settled on what they call Infograph. It has the most “complications” of any current face. Complications are the editable quick app items on the face. I have Sunrise/Sunset, Weather, Digital time, Activity, Date, Heart Rate, Timer and Battery as my selections … all of the apps I use most.

One I use a LOT is the timer.

I use this for cooking and baking instead of the oven timer. The oven timer goes off and chimes until I get to it. If I’m indisposed or outside or in a meeting … kind of obnoxious. The phone timer is easy to reset, add a minute or keep an eye on if I am outside. There are a number of presets as well as you can set a specific time. I often use the timer as a 10 minute warning before a meeting. That allows me to enjoy outside time or inside play and training or whatever without being concerned about watching the clock.

The Activity app. I spent some time over my break learning about not only the Activity app, but how it worked with the Health app and Fall detection. I find all of it amazing technology. There is an internal accelerometer and a gyroscope that are part of the technology for all of the “movement” functionality.

The Health App screen consolidates activity, ECG, Heart monitoring and Fall detection history … PLUS allows you to enter other things: for example blood pressure, oxygen and a whole screen full of pertinent items. And everything can be exported to a PDF to send to clinic and/or physician.

But, back to Activity. Apple calls it “Close the Rings”. You set goals for Moving (outer red), Exercise (middle green) and Standing (inner aqua). Additionally, the app details give calories burned (active and non-active), steps and several graphs showing the times of activity. But the visual of the rings is a quick and easy way to see how I’m doing through the day without getting involved in details. I had a fitness band device several years ago and besides being not that comfortable to wear, I found myself getting a bit too obsessed about the details. The “close the rings” visual works better for me. The watch itself – I hardly know I’m wearing it: light and comfortable. I have the 44m – the largest and no complaints about how it sits on my wrist.

When I had the previous wearable, I DID like that I could see messages and emails easily without digging out my phone: outside and especially in Winter when my phone was in an inside pocket and wearing gloves, etc. And in the dark outside! I was happy to have that functionality back with this watch. The convenience of seeing if a message, notification or email is something that requires immediate action is wonderful. And while I would not try to respond from the watch normally, there are some quick response items selectable from a menu: Yes, No, Sure, Thanks, Ok. As a consultant, it is one more tool that allows me flexibility in what hours I spend at my desk while still being “available”.

Some of the messages when out and about are notifications from Emmett’s “wearable” device! If you’ve followed the blog for years, you will know that I used a GPS device with Bear and now the latest version with Emmett.

It is called Whistle and in addition to GPS tracking, alerts for “away from home”, low battery … it has an Activity tracker :)!

So. Absolutely no excuse(s) for either Emmett or me not getting our exercise!! Whistle is getting close to adding some other things like temperature. That is important to me, especially when we get back to rving. It has always been a worry if I had to leave Bear and Auggie in the motorhome on a hot day. I leave the generator running and AC on but if there is a failure, the motorhome heats up fast … not as bad as a car, but worse than a house. The temperature functionality will be one more useful thing to give me peace of mind.

But, the GPS and the App and the Watch:

Above shot of the watch is the type of message I get when we are walking. Although you can shut off messaging for walks and outings, I do not. I want the device giving me info in the hopefully, unlikely event, that Emmett and I are separated.

If that did happen, I am able to activate tracking on my phone and see where Emmett is in relation to me:

Darn cool!! This part gets better and better and faster as time goes on – better devices, more high speed cell coverage – progress. I want training and our relationship to be the first defense, but this kind of backup is priceless to me.

Yoga via the internet!! I do have a Yoga DVD that I like. It has some 15-30 minute things like: Yoga break from the computer. But my favorite is via YouTube: Yoga with Adriene

Adriene has a calm and peaceful demeanor, and she always stresses awareness and intention vs perfection in position. Adriene’s dog Benji is always in the background. Starting January 1, a series of 30 days titled: Dedicate. I am doing the 30 days.

With Emmett… (sharing the mat!)

And Auggie!

When I started Day 1, Emmett was pretty sure that it was play time since I was on the floor. I stayed quiet, followed as I was able and he eventually settled … on the mat! So I worked around him.

He is getting the idea and settles faster every day. I am thrilled to have both him and Auggie near.

Sunday.

Back to work tomorrow. A Winter Weather advisory is in effect from 8:00 p.m. this evening (1 hour from now) until 5:00 p.m. tomorrow. Mostly for the morning commute which thankfully, I do not have to make.

But, the weather did inspire me to take a quick run for a few items.

Beautiful.

Back to it tomorrow!

Video: Morning snowshoe walk

A video! I took this – video at the end – earlier this week before we had a bit of a melt. As noted previously, video is not my favorite thing … I don’t do it well and struggle with editing … primarily because I haven’t spent time to learn. But also because I tend to like the subtle story telling of still photos.

However, some of the action stuff is fun – particularly Auggie, who is often like a “speeding bullet” and also very vocal … about everything!

The people I know, who do some video and might assist, all use iMovie on Apple operating systems. My only Apple device is my phone. I intended to use some of my Christmas holiday break to work through some tutorials and negotiate a bit of the video editing learning curve but kept putting it off and mission NOT accomplished

But, this morning, I did a search for “iMovie for Windows” and found a product that is supposed to be close-ish as in ease of use and powerful features.

Yea!

A promise of 30 minutes. A fun looking interface. I was all in.

I watched a quick tutorial and added my video. And then … AND THEN … it didn’t need editing! I was thinking that there were points where I turned or stumbled or talked baby talk that I wanted to edit out, but it turned out that I was ok with the entire thing. Maybe that is a good first try. The software does seem easy to use. I have some other videos that I KNOW need editing so I’ll take a whack at them.

But meanwhile…nearly 5 minutes of Bear, Auggie and I tromping through the snowy woods. I don’t want to oversell this – it is a simple walk :) !!

One of the stars after we “wrapped” filming…

… just hanging out!

And the other star … lying low.

Windows 10 Installation: my experience

According to several news sources, 14 Million Devices were upgraded to Windows 10 on July 29 (this number likely includes 5 million Insiders (Beta testers), but still – an impressive start. And the numbers jumped fourfold in the next 3 days.

Two out of my own three devices are part of those numbers and although I haven’t tapped a lot of the Win10 new features and I was NOT unhappy with Win8/8.1 … I am very much liking what I’ve seen so far.

But first, my Install experience on my new Toshiba laptop (quad core i7 2.60ghz processor with 16 GB Ram AND a solid state drive, i.e. a very current and very fast combination of innards) and my Toshiba Encore tablet (Intel Atom 1.3 ghz processor with 2 GB Ram, i.e. not the fastest tablet in the west!)

I reserved my Windows 10 upgrade ( Windows 10 Icon) on June 2. (I reserved my Win10 Upgrade on my new Toshiba laptop, my Toshiba Tablet and my backup Acer Laptop) On the morning of July 30, I received the pop up notification that my Windows 10 Upgrade was here – on my Toshiba Laptop. ( Windows 10 Is Here)

Throwing caution to the wind, I did the first install on my Toshiba laptop…the speed demon, but also my production machine…the machine on which my income depends. I have never, ever installed something like a new operating system on the first day on the machine I absolutely depend on. But, this round, after all I’d read and seen (videos) … I trusted Microsoft.

After the “Your Windows 10 is here” and “working on it” …and the license acceptance, the above screen appeared. VERY cool – I scheduled the install for 6:00 p.m. At 5:00 p.m., a notification popped up that reminded me that my Win10 update was scheduled in 59 minutes and gave me an opportunity to keep that time, schedule a different time or cancel altogether.

I never had a second thought…

Onward!!

Here we go!

The update proceeded without a hitch and it was nice to have both the percent complete info as well as info on what was happening: small text at the bottom of the screen.

Success at the 32 minute mark on the Toshiba Laptop.

It took an hour and a couple of minutes on my Tablet.

I have not yet received notification that the upgrade is available on the Acer. The Acer was the first device that I reserved on. There is some info that the rollout happened first for those devices that were most compatible. Additionally, the download is reputed to be a “stealth” download in that it downloaded in the background as it could and then the “Your Upgrade is Here” activates – on completion of the download. I don’t know any of those things for fact, but the order of things is working for me as I’d decided to keep my backup Acer on Windows 8.1 for a week or so and make sure there were no glitches in my work environment.

For Margaret :) … None of my folders or existing files were disturbed by the update. I haven’t read of any existing files or folders being lost by the upgrade.

There are some that are unhappy with the Win 10 install setting the default browser to the new Microsoft Browser “Edge”. I find this a bit laughable. I knew I needed to keep my default browser Internet Explorer or Chrome because Edge does not support the debugging mode of some legacy software I must support. It took me about 15 seconds to change the default browser from Edge to Internet Explorer: type “default browser” in the Cortana search box.

You can also click on Settings (Gear icon) and use the “Find a Setting” search box. AND, instead of directing you to a web page with directions, both searches take you directly to the spot to make the change.

Click on the current default browser and the Select App window pops up and you may select any browser you have installed or go and find one you want.

That’s it on my installation experience. It was easy and glitch-free on both devices. I worked Friday on normal stuff, including the legacy apps which must use Internet Explorer vs Edge and all was fine. I have zero complaints and am excited by all that Windows 10 offers. As I said, I have not really explored much, but below are a few simple things that I like a lot.

The party line is that Windows 10 merges the familiar with the new. The Start screen is back with jump links and all any Windows XP -> Windows 7 user is used to seeing. The Windows 8/8.1 tiles are there as well but if you dislike them, you can remove them. If you like them like I do, you can make them your own. You can customize the Start screen to your heart’s content!

Also the Taskbar. Add things you use often or just use the Start screen…take your pick.

Pinning applications to the taskbar was a Windows 8/8.1 feature and open apps had a lighter color AND you could see a preview of the window in miniature…but Windows 10 allows you to see the miniature preview and as you move the mouse up…you can see a full screen preview as well as get a close button. There are more taskbar features – above is just a sample.

Below are links to my initial Windows 10 post which includes several links on Windows 10. And following that link are two YouTube videos on Windows 10:

The first is a Joe Belfiore video – Joe is the Microsoft voice of Windows 10. I feel like he is a friend of mine. He is passionate about Windows 10 as he was about Windows 8/8.1 and Windows phone. He invokes a curiosity in me to delve into all that the Windows operating system is capable of. His video is nearly 34 minutes long. If that seems too long, try the second from a Windows Insider (non Microsoft beta tester). That video is just short of 12 minutes and highlights some of the new features in an easygoing way.

Lastly – do you need to upgrade? No. It is a personal choice. If you are happy with your current setup and are not a power user … at least wait a bit. Windows 7 and Windows 8/8.1 registered owners have a year to update for free so you can take time to decide and let the first round of patches and updates happen.

I love the way the technology is going and I am thrilled with the Microsoft management team: Satya Nadella at the top and the others I’ve watched in developer conference videos. I think the future of technology is exciting. I also think that which platform you choose: Apple, MS, Android … there is not a wrong choice – look at them, find the one that resonates with you and how you’d like to use your devices. Ultimately, things are coming together in a way that makes it easy to select one and work with the others. In my mind, it is an incredibly fun time and will only get better.

Now, if technology could solve global warming and particularly the Hot-Hot summer we are experiencing this year in Montana … I would be ecstatic!!

My Windows 10 Post

Joe Belfiore

A Windows Insider (non Microsoft)

Windows 10 is here!

And I have it and I really, really LOVE it!

Very cool and an easy upgrade … the download happened in the background and the install took 35 minutes on my machine.

Details this weekend.

New stuff: it keeps getting easier

About 3 months ago when I was reworking my Windows 7 backup computer, it suddenly quit. I tried all I know and let it sit for days and tried again, but it was done. It was 5 years old which is ancient in my world, but still…as a backup, I thought it would work for some of the older software I was supporting.

My production machine, my Windows 8.1 Acer is two years old and I bought it to have a Windows 8 machine and as an interim machine as it was inexpensive and kind of light in the memory and processor speed. But it has been doing fine until several weeks ago when suddenly the “P” key and the left arrow key stopped working. And it was not because there was a crumb or something in the key. The touch keyboard’s P and left arrow didn’t work either.

In a panic, I considered another inexpensive computer.

But, I went online and found that other people had the same issue with the Acer and some of it was resolved by a reboot. Although, a reboot is typically the first thing I do, I started the whole trouble shooting issue thinking the problem was mechanical. It wasn’t until later in the day that I realized the touch keyboard was also having an issue. Bottomline, I rebooted and both keys came back on board.

Still.

I make my living on the computer and a non-working computer = no $$ and I was a bit nervous about an already not so robust machine that was 2 years old, possibly failing completely.

I had been looking off and on and putting off a purchase but the glitch got me looking seriously and today the new machine arrived.

I bought a customized Toshiba. Toshiba customizable laptaps ship direct from China.

The new machine has 16 gb RAM, 256 gb Solid State Hard Drive, an Intel i7 quad core 2.6 ghz processor with integrated graphics. This baby should fly like the wind!

The cool thing is that after starting up, the start screen had the usual extra stuff: games, various extra this and that. But after I signed in, the machine got itself ready and before I new it, my new start screen looked like my Acer start screen…just the way I like it.

Wow. So happy! I still have to set up my work environment, Quicken, Photoshop plus some utility programs that I use, but they are all subscription and/or downloadable and the only time consuming thing will be my work environment.

I’m guessing that instead of days to set up, I should be good to go in several hours.

New stuff: it keeps getting easier.

Elsewise, another beautiful day that topped off about 74F with a nice breeze.

Happy Friday.