Technology

Technology

Modern Digital Designs

Published by Chalita Majang on 7 February 2022

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Or how to keep up with the Joneses!

Modern Digital Designs being used to sell books
Modern Digital Designs for The Megan Series

My Dad, Owen Jones, is a writer, as regular readers of my blog will already know, and has been a author of books for ten years on February 21st 2022. I was a teenager then, but I remember the excitement of the occasion very well.

It had taken him about fifteen years to produce a book from his father’s automatic writings as a Spiritual Healer, and the last thing that he had to do was produce a cover for the book.

Looking back on it, it probably shouldn’t have, but it did come as a shock that he would have to do that as well. Now, my Dad knows his way around the Internet, but this was a totally new experience, and it was for me too.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, he did that and uploaded everything to the leading online bookshops of the day.

Book Cover

The cover was basically a flat image of the front cover of the book, but that was what all authors were providing at the time.

However, over the years, some more design-savvy authors began to provide more eye-catching cover images.

As far as I recall, it began with spread-eagled shots of the front and back covers plus the spine. They were definitely a big improvement.

Modern Digital Designs

After that, book covers went 3-D, and that is even better in my opinion, as a general item, but there are specialised uses for all three styles.

Finally, so far, that is, some authors are putting modern digital designs and the 3-D covers with the blurb on a relevant background image, and that is the bee’s knees in book advertising covers for me.

Look at the postcard I made for my father at the top of this page.

I am thinking of learning how to do this, so if you are interested, please encourage me to get into modern digital designs with an email.

Best wishes,

Chalita.

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Dere V14 Air Notebook

Published by Chalita Majang on 9 January 2022

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Dere V14 Air Notebook image
Dere V14 Air Notebook with warped mouse pad

This article is my own personal experience with the Dere V14 Air Notebook, which I bought a little while ago. I will not be going into all the specifications of this device, because you can find this information on the manufacturer’s website. I will say that it comes with Windows 10 Pro and the Intel core i7 processor though.

Dere V14 Air Notebook

My first impression was that the Dere V14 Air Notebook is small and came with unadvertised accessories. I have been using 17 inch laptops for a decade, and didn’t realise how much smaller 14 inches is. That is my fault. I should have done. However, it becomes a real problem when you transfer your spreadsheets across. If they were made to make full use of the larger screen, then there will be data that is not visible without scrolling, and if you resize the spreadsheet, the data will appear very small. You may need (stronger) glasses!

It is very light, but that was not a reason why I bought this device anyway.

Computer Accessories

The screen shows very vivid colours. It is the best screen I have ever worked with without a shadow of a doubt. It is very easy on the eyes. The sound capabilities of the Dere V14 Air Notebook are, however, not in the same league. I listen to the radio a lot when I am working, or not, too, but I can often hardly hear it, which is completely unlike the Asus machines that I have been using for the last seven or eight years.

I will need to buy external speakers.

The Dere V14 Air laptop does not come with a carrying case, which I consider to be a serious fault. Why would a company that is proud of itself not provide a case with its name on it? In fact, this computer doesn’t have its name on it at all.

That is just weird!

And another strange thing is the camera. It is on the hinge with the screen. I don’t know whether it is an Asian/Caucasian thing, but in normal work mode, the camera is focusing just above my head. I suppose that is why they give you a free external camera, which should be unnecessary.

Yet another ‘free accessory’ that should be unnecessary is the USB hub. This device has only ONE measly USB port in this day and age! I am sure that the original specifications stated two ports – one normal and one high-speed. I would never have bought a computer with just one.

The three best features of this $600 laptop are the screen, the Intel core i7 CPU and the solid-state drive (SSD). It is so fast! I didn’t know what I was missing, and will never go back to spinning disks.

My feelings are mixed at the moment, but I think that I just about come down on the side of the Dere V14 Air Notebook.

Dere Air Review Update After Six Months Use

That last paragraph above is wrong. I would never buy another one of Dere’s products!

Pro’s

1] It is very fast

2] It is very light

3] The colours are fantastic

Con’s

1] The mouse pad distorts with the temperature! Sometimes, it distorts so much that it stops working. I think that the keyboard moves too, but I am not quite so sure as I use the black overlay they provide – otherwise the characters on the keys are difficult to read.

2] The sound system is completely inadequate.

3] Having only one USB port is really annoying. Yes, they provided a very cheap USB hub, but the Dere fails to recognise it quite often. I bought an expensive hub, but the problem persists. Perhaps the motherboard is distorting with the mouse pad.

4] It should have come with a mouse and a carrying case.

Review Summary

Now I know why the manufacturer has not written it’s name on this notebook. Basically, the Dere V14 Air Notebook is an embarrassment. It’s a cheap model that has not been designed very well (eg: the camera and speakers), and even has bits missing (eg: extra USB ports, mouse, carrying case, and heat-resistant housing).

The screen and the SSD are the only things it has going for it, and it’s just not enough for me.

My rating is 4/10

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The Cloud – An Internet Service Provider

Published by Owen Jones on 21 October 2018

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The Cloud - An 'Internet Service Provider'

The Cloud – An ‘Internet Service Provider’

The Cloud – An ‘Internet Service Provider’

Many people rely on the Internet these days for their daily communication and entertainment. Television is dire, and people don’t talk much anymore… at least, they don’t tend to talk to the ones around them. People sit in groups, but talk to people miles away via the Internet. I am one of the worst, I wouldn’t use a pub that didn’t offer WI-Fi Internet. Most pubs, clubs and restaurants do offer Internet access, but some of them offer it via an Internet Service Provider called The Cloud.

I am not sure how extensive The Cloud network is, but several pubs in our area (Barry, South Wales) are connected to it.

Most establishments use ISP’s that are available to the public like Virgin, BT, Sky or whatever and they seem to function well no matter how busy the places are. On the other hand, many pubs and restaurants are quite small, and so, Internet access is unlikely to be overloaded often.

However, some of the largest pubs now use an ISP called The Cloud. I’m talking about places like Whetherspoon’s and similar sized businesses. I don’t know what The Cloud costs to install, but in my experience, the results are dreadful.

You have to register to able to use it, and once you have created an ‘identity’, it is supposedly your calling card anywhere that uses The Cloud. It sounds all right, but pubs with private accounts don’t require my personal details in order to use them. This data can be sold, so, in effect, you are paying for your Internet access.

Why do larger bars need to do this when smaller ones don’t? Not only that, but Internet access via The Cloud is far inferior to that of normal ISP’s. Surely, the traffic in larger pubs should allow them to provide superior access, not the opposite?

If micro bars can afford to pay for decent Internet access for their customers, why can’t larger ones? It doesn’t make sense to me…

Contempt is the only word that springs to mind… and they make us pay for it…

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All the best,

Owen

Podcast: The Cloud – An ‘Internet Service Provider’

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Search Engines

Published by Owen Jones on 22 July 2018

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Search Engines - is Google always the best?

Search Engines

Search Engines

I should imagine that if I asked a hundred people, which is the best search engine, at least ninety percent would say Google, but how many of them ever consider using other search engines? Google has done such a tremendous job of PR that it now attracts at least 85% of search queries. In this article, I am going to look into the phenomenon of search engines.

I looked through my computer’s logs and found that my blog had figured in a search that used the query ‘Asus F541U Laptop Computer‘, because I had written a review of that computer after buying one earlier this year. First, I checked Google, the default search engine on my Asus F541U, then I checked some others – six in total. Here are the results of my article’s placing or rank within those search engines:

Google: >100

Yahoo: 3rd

Bing: 2nd

Ecosia: 2nd

DuckDuckGo: 2nd

Yandex: 2nd

That’s right, my article could not be found within the first 100 entries on Google, yet five other top search engines ranked it within the top three most read articles on that particular laptop.

How can that be?

It’s simple, Google charges for the higher ranking slots. In other words, it takes an upfront commission on all sales made through searches made on its site, and that is why, if you enter the name of a product, the top dozen or more listings will direct you to shops where you can buy it.

I wrote my review of the Asus F541U to help people and attract them to my website, so I am not going to pay to promote it, and that means that Google is not interested in me or it.

So, if you want honest search results, you need to be careful which search engine you use, however, there are other advantages too.

For example, Ecosia donates a percentage of its profits to planting trees, and DuckDuckGo promises not to track your searches. This is important, because most search engines do, which is why, if you search for, say, the Asus F541U today, you will see ads popping up everywhere for it for the next week to come.

So, let’s stop automatically going for Google. Google is basically a list of shops ranked in order of what you want and which one paid the most to get near the top. Some people might call that corrupt.

Give the other search engines a chance, you will be pleasantly surprised.

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All the best,

Owen

Podcast: Search Engines

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Facebook Friends Part 1

Published by Owen Jones on 22 July 2018

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Facebook Friends

Facebook Friends

Facebook Friends Part 1

I recently ran a campaign to drum up support for for my latest novel, and a large part of that took place on Facebook. However, I only had 1,100 Facebook friends and it soon became apparent that I would need at least double that for a campaign of thirty days. Now, obviously, not everyone you ask to become a friend fancies the idea, so to get, say, 1,500 new Facebook friends in a month, you have to invite at least fifty new Facebook friends a day.

I have had 1,100 Facebook friends for ages, but when I started recruiting in ernest, more and more people asked to become my friend too. It was as if Facebook saw that I was looking for new friends and so promoted me to others via that block on your timeline – People you may know…

However, if it is true that Facebook helped me get new friends, it is also true that they discouraged me from talking to them. In the morning, I would start asking my Facebook friends to check out my book and vote for it if they felt able to, but after about twenty such messages, I invariably received a warning that I was probably violating their TOS.

I was even banned for twenty-four hours once. However, I soon settled into a pattern of waiting for the warning, and then doing ten an hour until I reached my goal of a hundred a day – 3,000 in the month. I fell a bit short because I only had 2,600 Facebook friends, but I will have the shortfall by the time I finish my next novel.

I had 3,220 visitors to my target URL, although KindleScout, the hosts don’t reveal how many voted. My book was deemed HOT for 393 hours out of the maximum of 720, so draw your own conclusions. I think that most people I asked went there, and most of those voted for my book.

Now the fun part. Of my existing Facebook friends, the original 1,100, not many, a few hundred, reported back that they had helped, although that doesn’t mean that the others didn’t. I probably wouldn’t tell a friend that I had helped either. However, well over half of the new Facebook friends told me that they had voted for my book., and I think that I would with a new friend as well.

There were several splinter groups, which are interesting.

There were about fifteen who asked me to return ‘the favour’. When I asked how, they told me to buy their book, read it and write a review for Amazon and Goodreads – about four days’ work, and I would have to but their book, in exchange for their two-minute vote on my cover and blurb! I should coco! Needless to say, they are no longer friends.

Then there were the twenty or so who explained I detail that they were busy professionals with no time for trivial activities. One man wrote me four long emails explaining how little time he had. It would have taken only two minutes to click NOMINATE on the strength of the cover and the 100-word blurb!

There was one man who said that he was very sorry, but he could not access the Internet… he was saying that via Facebook’s Messenger! I don’t know whether he was doolally, or he thought I was.

Then there was a huge group of ‘beautiful women’. This group is the one I found the most interesting. Naturally… but more of them next time 🙂

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All the best,

Owen

Podcast: Facebook Friends Part 1

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Facebook Friends Part 2

Published by Owen Jones on 22 July 2018

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Facebook Friends Part 2

Facebook Friends Part 2

Facebook Friends Part 2

(From part one: “Then there was a huge group of ‘beautiful women’. This group is the one I found most interesting. Naturally…”)

I would say there were about four hundred in my group of new Facebook friends. They all came from Texas, and most of them from Austin. None of them had any friends, or one or two older men, no interests, no place of birth, zilch. Most of these liars had a birth date in the Nineties. Only about a dozen of these females, if that is what they were, complied with my request to vote for my book. Most ignored it and asked whether I was married, had kids, made good money, owned my own house, etc. When I say most, I mean 395 out of 400!

I started to wonder about these people after about ten of them asked me to send them an iTunes card. So, I started asking for selfies taken there and then, in an attempt to check that they were actually women. About half sent me photos that could have been copied from anywhere. I assume that they were older women, in a relationship or even men.

When I questioned them further, some got angry, some sent me nude photos (again could have been copied from any porn site, and some, probably a hundred, said the camera on their smartphone was broken. About a hundred sent me probably genuine selfies, some rude, and offered to come and live with me ‘because they had fallen for me’.

Further conversation revealed that nearly all the women were currently in sub-Saharan Africa attending their sick mother, but would be returning to Austin ‘soon’.

This is an industry, really… a large industry. Nearly all those people were African, but there were other groups of Asians and South Americans. Mostly on the make. Many young women in the last two groups offered private, live sex shows for payment, but I never asked how much. $5-$10 would be my guess. I did see a few free samples and they did seem live, as opposed to pre-recorded.

I met about a dozen men who asked me to help them get funds out of their country by giving them my bank details, but they stood no chance.

Finally, I met two women, one in Mexico and one in Ghana who were brilliant. They both offered to help me (in non-sexual ways), and I think that we will be friends for a long time.

So, that was my experience – two friends out of the new fifteen hundred.

However, I learned to take precautions with my Facebook account’s permissions, after one angry person started posting on my timeline in an obnoxious manner because I wouldn’t buy her an iTunes card and I felt really sorry for a girl who was (genuinely) worried about her mother’s health. She wanted $200 to set up a fruit stall, but I didn’t send it.

Update: the ‘Mexican woman’ actually got me a job interview with a Scandinavian bank, which I am following up 🙂

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All the best,

Owen

Podcast: Facebook Friends Part 2

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Bluetooth and Its Benefits

Published by Owen Jones on 24 April 2017

Bluetooth and Its Benefits

Bluetooth and Its Benefits

Bluetooth and Its Benefits

Bluetooth is a method of wireless communication between electronic devices. You can think of it like Wi-Fi, radio or Infra-red in that it has a similar effect, although it is not the same technology. Many phones, computers, tablets, televisions and speakers are provided with Bluetooth these days, because it is convenient and obviates the necessity of messy, trailing wire connections.

Bluetooth is typically used to connect a phone to a computer, a computer to a TV and speakers to a multimedia device such as a home movie centre or stereo system. Bluetooth devices, once introduced to one another, will usually connect automatically when they are within a certain distance – often thirty feet or so, but sometimes a lot less.

Despite these benefits, Bluetooth is quite cheap to implement, so if you are buying a new device and have the option of including it in the package, it really is worth considering, even if it has Wi-Fi

However, Bluetooth is not as standard as Wi-Fi. Wi-Fi just works across different devices and manufacturers, but this is not always true with Bluetooth, no matter what you are told. I know, because my old Samsung phone will not connect to my old Kindle (3rd Generation), but I have been assured that modern devices are more friendly and more compatible.

I don’t know, but it sounds the way to go. However, buyer beware!

Something else that I have been told but cannot corroborate, is that Bluetooth uses a technique known as ‘frequency hopping’ with low-power signals, which means less interference to surrounding electrical items and better economy, which obviously means longer battery life. Wi-Fi, on the other hand, is a notorious power-sucker.

For example, Bluetooth is the usual means of communication between hands-free in-car phone kits and wireless headphones in the office.

Bluetooth devices can also be networked and grouped, so that within the catchment area, you can establish group chat, intercom networks as you like. A bit like the old Walkie-Talkies. This could be useful in a large house, a restaurant or a hotel, or just a way for children in bed to communicate with their parents downstairs. These groups are called PAN or Piconets.

Due to the low cost of Bluetooth, its current proliferation, and the backwards compatibility of modern implementations of the Bluetooth protocols, it is fairly safe to say that Bluetooth is here to stay, so get on board, and look for ways that this very useful, but not so well technology can be useful to you,

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All the best,

Owen

Podcast: Bluetooth and Its Benefits

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Telefunken Flat-screen TV

Published by Owen Jones on 21 April 2017

Telefunken Flat-screen TV

Telefunken Flat-screen TV

Telefunken Flat-screen TV

When we moved into our apartment on the day before the Easter celebrations started here in Fuengirola, Spain, there was no television. I hadn’t noticed that when I signed the tenancy agreement, and Easter is huge here – most shops shut. Anyway, our landlord turned up on Easter Saturday with the biggest TV, either I or my wife have ever lived with – a brand-new, 100cm (39″), D39F265B3CW Telefunken Flat-screen TV. Why do they have to make the model numbers so long… Perhaps, they have used up all the short FX9-type designations.

Anyway, our last TV was analogue, and the instructions for this one were in Spanish, so he had to get someone to install it for us, a process which took the young man about fifteen minutes, after he had nipped out to find an extension aerial  cable. Apparently, the cable that comes with the set is only about a foot long.

Even with only a simple roof aerial, I was pleased with the performance and picture quality of the Telefunken Flat-screen TV. I had had other Telefunken goods before living in Thailand for thirteen years, so I knew that the chances were that I would not be disappointed this time. Easter Monday is not a holiday in Spain, and at eight thirty sharp, an engineer arrived to install cable television and wireless Internet. That took four hours, but it was free, because I was still under contract to Movistar (the company) from my previous residence.

When he was done, the Telefunken Flat-screen TV Full HD, LED, Smart TV with wireless capability really came into its own. We were mesmerised by the quality of the picture and sound. Our only problems were, that the landlord had not left us the manual for the TV, and the Movistar manual was in Spanish. No amount of trawling the Internet produced any useful literature for me.

However, by pressing all the buttons on the handsets (television and cable), and with luck and intuition, I persuaded the Telefunken Flat-screen TV to reveal its built-in help screens in English, and after that, it was easy enough to have it reproduce programmes in their original language.

If there is one thing that I do find annoying bout the Telefunken Flat-screen TV, it is that, having selected to use the original language, the next time you use that channel, it reverts to Spanish. It does not remember your preferences, or maybe there is a lock, but I haven’t found it yet.

There are dozens of bewildering options for screen, sound and Internet on the Telefunken Flat-screen TV

Most of which I have yet to understand, but one feature that I love, because it saves my wife a good deal of stress, is the AVL option, which sets a maximum volume. My wife and I both hate it when adverts come on and start screaming at us. She reaches to turn the sound down, and when they are over, I turn it back up again. This procedure used to repeat itself all evening until we went to bed. Sometimes, we would both get annoyed. However, thanks to the Telefunken Flat-screen TV’s AVL feature, that is a thing of the past, and I am very grateful for it.

One last point, which I know must be possible, but I don’t know how yet, is to erase characters that you I have typed using the handset when in Internet mode, but it’s probably quite easy.

All in all, I love this new Telefunken Flat-screen TV, but if I could just find a manual in English, I would be even happier.

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All the best,

Owen

Podcast: Telefunken Flat-screen TV

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Asus F541U Laptop Computer

Published by Owen Jones on 12 April 2017

Asus Laptop F541U

Asus Laptop F541U

Asus F541U Laptop Computer

I have had laptop computers  of various makes since 2004. My main bugbear with them was that the battery either died the day after the insurance ran out, or its capacity to hold a charge reduced dramatically – like say from three hours to thirty minutes. Overnight!

They also got hot, some very hot, on the front edge, where your wrists rest, which I always thought strange, seeing as the battery was always situated at the back.

Anyway, the laptop that I just had to replace, or not ‘had to’, but thought it prudent to, was an Asus Laptop X54C. It is now four and a quarter years old, and still working fine, but it has started making noises like a buzz saw, and a month ago, its battery capacity dropped from three hours to forty minutes.

That in itself is astounding – thank you, Asus – but it also boasts Ice Cold technology, which kept the front of the Asus laptop cold and probably added to the life of the amazing battery.

So, when looking to replace it, I was tending towards another Asus laptop. My only problem with my old Asus was that the USB ports, one on either side, were right at the front (on the side) so it took me ages to learn not to hit them with my little fingers. See the review elsewhere on this blog).

Anyway, the designers at Asus have not learned from that mistake, but they have made an even worse one with the on/off button. It is now where the ‘End’ (of row) button used to be!!!

On the first day of using the computer, I must have switched it off inadvertently thirty times! Cursing Asus for their stupidity each time. Now, a week later, I only do it once a day, but it is still a silly, basic design fault. Come on Asus, you can do better than that!

I bought my new Asus Laptop F541U in Spain this time, and there was no manual in English, which I consider another oversight. The salesman assured me that I could find it on line with no trouble. Why, Oh, why am I so trusting? I haven’t found one yet! Oh, sorry, I have found articles that say they are English manuals for the Asus F541U, but are not when you pull them up.

My other criticism is that pressing the keys the keyboard does not always produce the expected result. For example, the ‘n’ key provides the ‘:’ and the ‘;’, and there are some problems with the symbols on the numeral keys too. I suspect that that is a result of my having chosen English as my input language, and Set-up therefore having chosen the wrong keyboard driver for my model, but it is still an obstacle that I would rather not have to live with.

I will not bother you with the specs of the computer, you can look them up yourself easily enough, but suffice it enough for me to say that it is a fast machine and the display is better than any TV I have ever seen! It is stunning…

The Ice-Cold technology is still there, which I appreciate, and the battery life is three and a half hours, which I think is great. If it holds that ability for a few years, I will be a happy user.

There is an extra USB port too – a USB-3, which is beyond me at the moment, as are some of the other sockets, but the Asus Laptop F541U is obviously an advanced computer, it is just that I am having trouble finding out what it can do!

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All the best,

Owen

Try this link for discounted Asus laptops on Ebay: Asus on Ebay

Podcast: Asus F541U Laptop Computer

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MF910L AIS 4G Pocket WI-FI

Published by Owen Jones on 14 October 2016

MF910L AIS 4G Pocket WI-FI

MF910L AIS 4G Pocket WI-FI

MF910L AIS 4G Pocket WI-FI

I am back in the remote Thai village of my wife’s birth, where we have a house. We have moved to Spain, but when we lived here, until five months ago, we had an Internet connection from the local telecom company, but it has been discontinued. So, I was stuck without Internet in a village where the only things to do are work and sleep.

Some holiday!

Anyway, my daughter bought me an MF910L AIS 4G Pocket WI-FI for 2,000 Baht (£40, $60). My first thought was that it was expensive, but then I realised that if it worked, it would free me and give me something to do. Still, a 2,000 Baht second-hand Iphone could probably do the same.

Anyway, this small, lightweight unit is quite powerful. It comes with an AIS SIMM card (AIS is a regional phone company). That card lasted me four days, but I suspect that it wasn’t the real deal, it was a cut-down thing to prove that the gadget worked.  A real SIMM card cost 100 Baht (£2, $3) and is good for 500 GB. 4Gig had been ‘used’ when I bought it, but in the last two days, I have used 1.87GB, which includes listening to the BBC World Service all night.

So, my 100 Baht is going to go a long way – at least my three-month’s holiday. That makes it cheaper than having the phone company install a connection. Furthermore, the MF910L AIS 4G Pocket WI-FI can handle ten connections simultaneously, so that is my computer, my Kindle and my phone, plus those of my wife and daughter… and, I am not tied to the house!

Because it is essentially a mobile phone connection, I can go anywhere I can get a signal. In fact, I am currently in a remote shop, which doesn’t have Wi-Fi, enjoying a beer and the proprietor’s daughter is using my MF910L AIS 4G Pocket WI-FI too.

It is nice to be able to spread a little happiness 🙂

I have not tested the range of the MF910L AIS 4G Pocket WI-FI yet,  but it certainly works for 30m. In fact, AIS reception is not the best inside our house, but it is fine in the garden, so I leave the MF910L AIS 4G Pocket WI-FI out there and work in my office.

Yes, I know that I’m supposed to be on holiday!

The device also comes with its own home page where you can adjust how it works and send SMS (handy for the Kindle). I love the MF910L AIS 4G Pocket WI-FI and recommend it to people who need Wi-Fi wherever they go. Small bars, coffee shops and restaurants can also afford this to provide the Wi-Fi that people expect these days.

I suspect that my MF910L AIS 4G Pocket WI-FI will only work in Thailand as it is, but there are country settings on the homepage and I saw a document on the Internet explaining how the MF910L AIS 4G Pocket WI-FI could be unlocked. I’m taking mine back to Spain.

I’ll let you know.

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All the best,

Owen

Podcast: MF910L AIS Pocket Wi-Fi

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Roaming Hotspots, Batman!

Published by Owen Jones on 11 October 2016

Roaming Hotspots, Batman!

I didn’t even know that roaming hotspots existed until two days ago, and now I am one!

I need the Internet. Anybody who knows me knows that. I need the Internet more than I need shoes and if the choice was Internet or trousers, I would have to wear some sort of skirt. Every penny that I have earned since 2001 has been earned online, but I was making money online five or six years before that too.

So, when we came back to rural Thailand in August, it was a shock to my system to be without, since the free government Wi-Fi doesn’t penetrate to our house. It used to but not now that I need it. I have spent six weeks chasing hotspots where the signal did reach and they roamed hourly.

Needless to say, I got very little work done, and my income plummeted like a stone. Then I fell ill and for three days and all I could do was stay in bed.

No books, no Internet, nothing to do… it was driving me mad, so my daughter went out to get me something for it – a SIMM for an old dongle I had in a draw. That didn’t work and the lazy sod on the helpline just told us, ‘Modem kaput, bye”.

The next day, my daughter went further afield and came back with a small gizmo I’d never heard of before. It is one of a breed of roaming hotspots. It is rechargeable, cost £40 (but I suspect that that includes travelling expenses), pumps out 65 Megabits and unlimited bandwidth for £2 p/w.

I think that it’s marvellous. A charge lasts about five hours, but during that time, I can sit anywhere I like in Thailand and enjoy as good a service as anyone  – be it on the beach, on a mountain, or in a field of cows. I assume that it will work abroad too, if supplied with a relevant SIMM, however, I will never know, because I have promised the gadget to my daughter when my wife and I return to Spain next month.

I was telling a friend last night about having become a roaming hotspot, and he said, ‘ Welcome to the Twenty-first Century!’

Ironic that, since everyone I mix with considers me their reference book for all things computer-related. Perhaps I need a broader base of friends, but if I were still living here in three months, they would all become roaming hotspots and do away with their current expensive wired or wireless connections.

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All the best,

Owen

Podcast: Roaming Hotspots, Batman!

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Kindle vs Book

Published by Owen Jones on 31 December 2015

Kindle vs Book

Kindle vs Book

Kindle vs Book

If you are an avid reader, I am sure that you have heard of Amazon and its electronic book device called the Amazon Kindle? So, what are the pros and cons of the Kindle vs book? There is a problem with the amount of trees we use for paper and this has partially been countered by the use of recycled material, but have we overcome the problem? Probably not, so the Kindle vs book question could help out tremendously here. The latest version of these popular handheld book readers can hold the content 3,500 books and that saves a lot of paper and a lot of recycled paper too.

Kindle vs book? That is the question. Obviously, it has to be a personal choice. I personally like having a physical book to read and hold, but I do not like lugging the weight of half-a-dozen thick, paper books with me when I go on holiday. I like it even less, when I am travelling around, say, the Far East and finish my last book before my vacation ends. It is not always easy to find a good book store abroad.

This is where the Kindle wins the Kindle vs book debate. If you run out of reading material, you either go on line with the built-in Wi-Fi and download a book or if there is insufficient wireless coverage, go into an Internet Cafe, download it by computer and transfer it by USB. However, this should never be an issue as the latest Kindles can hold 3,500 ebooks.

There are hundreds of thousands of books written by famous authors before 1923 that are out of copyright and you can download them free of charge from at least three sources and probably more. The Kindle vs book debate will go on and on, but I think that it is just a question of horses for courses. And talking about courses, universities will probably switch to ebook readers within five years, soon to be followed by colleges and high schools.

Kindle Screen Size

There are at least two Kindle screen sizes: the standard Kindle screen size of 6″ and the Kindle DX with a screen of 9.7″, which is marketed to better read text books, newspapers and magazines. However, there are other ways of reading Kindle ebooks too. You can get a free Amazon app to allow you to download and read Kindle books on your desktop, laptop, tablet, palm top and even cell phone. You can even read kindle books on your TV screen, so the Kindle screen size is really up to you.

Handheld Book Readers

Kindle is Amazon’s ebook reader, but there are other handheld book readers too. Dozens of them in fact, but they are all about the same price and Amazon has the advantage of having such a huge catalogue of e-books ready for instant download. some of which are free. There are other e-book stores and libraries though offering free, downloadable ebooks for handheld book readers like the Project Gutenberg Press Library and Google Books. if you are interested in handheld book readers, you will have to look at the Kindle, but remember that there are other choices too.

Electronic Book Devices

Electronic book devices are usually just called ebooks or ebook readers. Kindle is only one of the many electronic book devices on the market. Indeed, people were reading ebooks ten years or more before Kindle handheld book readers became available. Kindle recognises that too and you can use one of the free kindle apps to read Kindle books on you desktop, laptop or cell phone screens. Amazon Kindle handheld book readers are popular because they are so portable, but a full size computer screen is still easiest of all electronic book devices to see.

Kindle Reader Format

The kindle reader format is Amazon’s own, in-house format called AZW and every ebook that you buy or download from Amazon will be published in this format. However, the Kindle will read other formats if you transfer material from a computer via a USB cable or if you get Amazon to convert the file for you. If you want to convert a document to the Kindle reader format, you can send it to an email address at Amazon, where they will convert it free of charge and send it back to you. Using the Kindle reader format will solve strange formatting quirks produced by non-AZW formats. The Amazon Kindle will also read ebooks to you as audio books. Stephen king was the first author to publish a novel exclusively in Kindle reader format.

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All the best,

Owen

Podcast: Kindle vs Book

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Kindle Fire HDX

Published by Owen Jones on 20 July 2014 2

Kindle Fire HDX

Kindle Fire HDX

 

Kindle Fire HDX

I wouldn’t say that I consciously resisted buying an e-reader, but I certainly didn’t rush into it either. However, I found a good reason for buying one last week and opted for the Kindle Fire HDX. I won’t bore you with the exact specifications, because you can get those anywhere, but I will say that it is about the size of a European paperback, a fifth of the thickness and about a fifth of the weight.

The first thing that became obvious to me as a big man with chubby digits was that typing or hitting anything accurately was going to be a problem, and so it has been. I saw a man using a stencil on YouTube and wonder why one wasn’t bundled with every unit. Buying one separately is a nuisance and a lot more expensive. If hitting the right letter with a huge forefinger is difficult, then placing the cursor in the middle or a word that you have misspelled or predictive text has mucked up for you is even worse.

Having said that the Kindle is not meant to be a writing device, but it is very handy for it to double as one when you’ve missed the bus and fancy writing an article about it there and then while you’re waiting for the next one. I find that very useful turning out an article on the spur of the moment, and a way around the problems is to write it in Word via an App, email it to yourself, and then process it for mistakes. That works very well.

I don’t find it particularly useful to have my emails follow me wherever I go, but I imagine that many would. It is useful for me to use a special email address though and have its contents put in the document folder automatically for perusal later and I use the feature every day. I send articles to my Kindle all day for reading in the evening.

I have loaded a few novels onto my Kindle for entertainment, but I like the opportunity that it gives me to do research. The device has Internet capability, but where I live I am rarely in range, so being able to send stuff to it is great. I send a lot of old books from the Guttenberg library to it. History books, books of fairy tales and mythology – things that I just would not be able to get where I live. It saves me a great deal of time, since it means I can work when I wouldn’t have my laptop.

However, the best reason I found for buying one was that it means that I can carry huge books around with me, bought at a fraction of the cost of the print editions and always have them at my fingertips. I just bought the Writers Handbook, and at 834 pages that would never have left my office, but now it goes everywhere with me, thanks to my Kindle Fire HDX.

by +Owen Jones

Podcast: Kindle Fire HDX

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