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Beam: Robotic Video Conferencing
I started seeing robotic video conferencing devices appear around 2010. I wrote a few blogs on the HeadThere Giraffe, AnyBots, and VGo (see my blog entries here) and even watched an episode of “The Big Bang Theory” which featured Sheldon using a “nice virtual presence device” to meet the Woz. Despite the fast early start for…
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Using MileIQ: The Smart Mileage Tracker
I saw an ad (I think on Facebook) for MileIQ. In that ad, MileIQ promised to make tracking personal miles vs business mile easy. Since I know a few people who travel by car for business, I thought I’d give it a try. What is MileIQ Figure 1: Trip Displayed in MileIQ MileIQ is an…
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Blast From the Past: Cell Phones and Brain Cancer
This was published in early 2007 or 2006 (I moved to WordPress in Nov 2007). Way back then, the cell phone was used mostly for talking and people were walking around with their cell phones plastered to their ear. Times have changed: Texting (and other Smartphone features) have made all the difference. Enjoy. —…
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Apple Watch
A few years ago, I lost my watch and searched everywhere for it. No luck. But, since I had a smartphone, I decided that I could live without my watch. Interestingly, at about the same time, the whole world decided that watches were passe. But as is the case in life eventually good things come…
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Paradigm Shift: Smartphones Change the Way We Work
A few years ago, I wrote about a technological paradigm shift in the home from a wired network with desktop personal computers, to a wireless, distributed, network connecting multiple laptop computers. It is now 2015, and another dramatic paradigm shift is underway. Toward a completely mobile, smartphone (or other) environment. To catch you up on…
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Using the Bose Soundlink Color Bluetooth Speaker
We have several generations of Bose speakers. Unfortunately, they are not portable and Lori wanted to bring her music with her throughout the house or yard. The Bose Soundlink Color Bluetooth Speaker seems to fit the bill. Bose speakers, in general, boast great audio in small packages. For us, all of our speakers / radios…
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Google Drive Upload & Download Speed Limits
Update Sept 2023: Consider this a history lesson in the proper design and testing of technology. 🙂 AltamontCowork member Brian needed to backup the contents of his computer to Google Drive. AltamontCowork’s network slowed to turtle speed. Investigating the cause, we found the culprit: Google Drive upload was sucking all the bandwidth available on our…
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Using Chromecast
A year or two ago, I started seeing information on Google’s new streaming video device: Chromecast. The information I initially gathered was sketchy, but, as I studied it, I began to understand some of it’s capabilities. Sufficiently intrigued, I asked Santa for a Chromecast for Christmas 2014, and guess what? I got it! UPDATE…
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“The Next Communication Revolution” circa 1996
Way back in the Dark Ages (1996) I wrote about the path I thought video conferencing needed to go to become ubiquitous: Videoconferencing technology needed to be “easy-to-use”….by anyone. This is 2015, err 2021, has my vision come true? You can download the whole, very short, article here (the next revolution) but, I will…
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Cool Pet Technology
Is your pet a GEEK? If so (or if not), check out these cool technology items for your pets….and you. —– PetChatz (http://www.petchatz.com/) True to TechyMike’s technical expertise, I just had to lead off with this pet technology gadget. Video conference with your pet…and give them a treat! And you can do that all from…
TechyMike: Technology Made Easy 