Yup, we went to the home of the Magic Kingdom, Mickey, and of course, for the golfer, Tiger, but didn’t actually see any of them.
I was there to attend the annual meeting of an Air Force Public Affairs group I belong to and in the process, learned a lot about tech in Orlando…yup really high tech too, but more about that later. First, let me give you a little background on each item I took with me…most I have had awhile and written about, but several are new and definitely worth writing about now in the context of my trip.
First and foremost is my Asus Eeepc 1000He which is a stock model with the exception of installed RAM…I added another 1Gig for a total of 2Gs RAM and of course, I have a flash drive plugged in to take advantage of the Windows 7 Ready Boost feature. For those who haven’t heard of or used it, it’s available for Vista and Windows 7.
Here is a brief explanation from Microsoft written for Vista but which also applies to Windows 7:
With Windows ReadyBoost, you can use non-volatile flash memory, such as that on a universal serial bus (USB) flash drive, to improve performance without having to add additional memory "under the hood." The flash memory device serves as an additional memory cache—that is, memory that the computer can access much more quickly than it can access data on the hard drive. Windows ReadyBoost relies on the intelligent memory management of Windows SuperFetch and can significantly improve system responsiveness. It's easy to use Windows ReadyBoost. When a removable memory device such as a USB flash drive or a secure digital (SD) memory card is first inserted into a port, Windows Vista checks to see if its performance is fast enough to work with Windows ReadyBoost. If so, you are asked if you want to use this device to speed up system performance. You can choose to allocate part of a USB drive's memory to speed up performance and use the remainder to store files.
The two newest items I took along were a Doxie Scanner and a Virgin Broadband Mobile “dongle”. The Doxie is a really small (11.5" x 2.0" x 1.6" ) full featured scanner which I found to be an excellent extra to take with me. Here is the full version of what it does from the folks who make it:
Introducing Doxie™, the new, modern paper scanner that's so simple, it'll revolutionize the way you think about sharing and storing docs and photos forever. Doxie is ultra-portable, fully automatic, and integrated with your favorite desktop and web apps – ready to scan and share all of your paper for just $129!
Doxie scans directly to the cloud: send to apps like Google Docs, Flickr, Evernote, Picnik, Tumblr, and much more. Doxie works with local apps too, so you can scan to Acrobat, iPhoto, Picasa, or right to the desktop with ease. And Doxie scans your documents, business cards, receipts, and photos intuitively – so you can ditch the paper stack and get everything organized. Doxie scans all of your documents, then makes it easy to store and share –
So simple, Doxie will change the way you organize your paper forever. Just plug it in, insert your document, and press Doxie's multi-action heart button to scan. You'll get a PDF digital copy in seconds. Doxie's intuitive, fully integrated design makes organizing your paper easy, from bills and receipts to reports, drawings, recipes, love notes, and everything in-between for your home or office. Doxie is document scanning made easy.
Docs and photos are made for sharing, so Doxie makes it easy to post your stuff online, integrating directly with your favorite local and web apps – post directly to Google Docs, Evernote, Flickr, Picnik, Scribd, and more. And the free Doxie's Cloud service turns your paper into short URLs for instant sharing for e-mails, chats, and tweets – just insert your paper and get a link. It's that simple.
Doxie's apps make sharing and archiving easy – Doxie has direct support for local and web apps with smart integration for sharing and organizing your paper. Send your document to Acrobat for archiving, Evernote for reading on your iPhone, Google Docs for instant OCR, Picnik for easy photo editing… and much more. Doxie creates PDF files, lossless PNG, and JPEG images, so your scans are always exactly the way you want them, where you want them.
Scan and share your photos in brilliant color. Doxie automatically straightens and crops your paper photos, then drops them right into iPhoto, Picasa, or Lightroom – just like a digital camera. Put in your favorite photos – Doxie keeps up with fast, stunningly crisp scanning. And Doxie can post your photos directly to Flickr and Picnik, for instant sharing and easy editing, portable, modern, and USB powered, Doxie is always ready to scan – Doxie offers crisp, clean copies of your paper in full color at up to 600 dpi thanks to its patented scanning technology. No power cables or complex drivers – just connect Doxie to any PC or Mac, launch the Doxie app, and push the button. Doxie's ultra-light design and multi-action heart button gets your docs where you want them. Everything you need is in the box – the Doxie scanner, intuitive companion software, even a carrying case.
And yes, I did almost all of the above and it worked like a charm!
The Virgin Broadband Mobile plugs into your USB port and allows you to access the internet anywhere while avoiding the ripoff charges many hotels charge. The one I was staying at in FL wanted $12.99 a day! It's 3G Nationwide Wireless Internet Without A Contract. Connect without Wi-Fi or hotspots; Pay As You Go with no monthly bills; Use cash (Top-Up), credit, or debit; Plans start at just $10 which is the one I used for this trip so you can see I paid for the plan the first night. That one lasts for 10 days and gives you 100MBs which is good for about 10,000 emails, 25minutes of video or 5Hrs of Web browsing. You do have to buy the “dongle” but I found it on the net for $80, $19 less that on the Virgin page. You do not have to keep buying time/MBs so in my case, when the $10 plan ran out, I could theoretically go for a year and not buy anymore and still have a current account. I got good reception in lots of places in FL and GA and even in O’Hare while I was waiting for flights coming and going. You can checkout the various plans at: http://www.virginmobileusa.com/mobile-broadbandThe other items I took with me included my i2! Earbuds which I found to be excellent for the flights I took except for the 767-300 which has the worst audio I have ever heard…same with the high-priced over the ear headphones I usually take with me. Anyhow, I found the convenience of the lanyard style which I hung around my neck, as well as the fact I could keep them in my shirtpocket in the neat little bag they come in, a big plus. Sorry big expensive earphones, no more trips for u.
I also used my Pinnacle HDTV stick (now a Hauppauge product)
to record some TV shows and a couple movies before I left and then transferred all of them to my Corsair 32Gig flash drive
so on my 8 hour flights from Honolulu to Chicago and return, I wasn’t forced to watch their choice of movies!
In order to have enough time to keep my netbook running for the whole 8 hours, I brought along my iGo netbook charger which has a cable that fits both your car and the plug in your seat on the aircraft as well as a whole list of other stuff like your cell phone, mp3 player, etc. (This works for me as I fly United, but can’t say for other airlines.)
And for reading…all I needed was the free Kindle reader for PCs from Amazon and I was all set with lots of choices, many of which are free, e.g.
You can check this out at Amazon.com, just click on Kindle order now and then go to the bottom of the page for the free download.
Quite a lot of stuff to take along, but actually it didn’t take up much space.
As I mentioned at the beginning of this column, I was attending a meeting and quite frankly, didn’t anticipate how much technology is a part of the Orlando landscape. As an AF group, we were fortunate to be able to tour the facility that the Air Force Agency for Modeling and Simulation (AFAMS) occupies along with some gwhiz parts of Lockheed Martin’s facility. AFAMS is the Air Force's top-level modeling and simulation (M&S) policy implementation, integration, and support agency. If the title sounds foreign to you, think Link trainer, very well known to old jocks, but in todays AF, M&S covers a great deal more. As for Lockheed Martin, they are heavily into designing and implementing training for not only all branches of the military, but for civilian enterprises as well, e.g. one of the most fascinating was a hospital room where life-like patients were in hospital beds and were able to simulate real people even to the extent of reacting to improper drug administration. I asked one of the techs if they could simulate a patient having a heart attack and, well, you guessed it…it was so real it was scary...they even talk, but the value of this sort of training is hard to calculate. One other very interesting fact came to light during a demonstration of a helicopter training scenario; I asked the operator, who looked pretty young to me, what sort of training or previous job he had held…his answer, I am an expert gamer! So stop picking on your grandkids for playing all those computer games and tell them what they might consider as a career path!
That’s it for now. Have fun, but be careful out there in Internet Territory
Aloha, Lou
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