Technology in Mind

I saw this on the local news last night and thought it would be of interest to my readers.  Of course I use strong encryption and I always use a VPN tunnel when working at a coffee shop or so.  Is your WIFI router at home encrypted?

My wife decided that she wants to start making videos podcasts on youtube to promote her yoga business, Ocean Thoughts Yoga .  She had already purchased an intro .mov video clip from iStock.  Wouldn’t you know it?  Movie Maker didn’t have the proper codec to import the file.  I ended up converting it using Quicktime Pro to an .mpeg file so that we could use it.

She had previously recorded a yoga nidra session just using voice, so we decided to integrate use it for the session. There was also an intro clip of music that she wanted to use but it was purchased via iTunes and was an .m4p file and therefore DRM protected.  However a while back I purchased a program called Sound Taxi which makes the conversion to an unprotected .mp3 simple.

So with a little work and editing, then uploading to youtube.  We created her first Ocean Thoughts Yoga video clip.

Today my wife was talking to her friend in Germany over VOIP.  As I mentioned earlier our VOIP  adapter ‘bit the dust’, so she was using the X-Lite software. The quality is great, and the only downside is that you have to use the computer’s microphone and a headset rather than having the freedom of a cordless phone. But this method will do until we can purchase a replacement adapter.

Her friend mentioned that her antivirus software was saying it was out of date. Through a cross-conversation with my wife it seemed that her friend had demo software who’s subscription had expired.  I sent her friend a link for the free COMODO personal antivirus/firewall software.  She installed it, but I think she didn’t do something correctly which ended up blocking her off from the Internet.  The issue was made worse because the software was only available in English, so it seems that my good intentions ended up back firing.

So now I sort of felt obligated to correct the problem and help her uninstall the software.  But even after uninstalling, her Internet still wasn’t connecting, so I also walked her through doing a system restore to a prior date.

Afterwards I wanted to help her get an antivirus program reloaded and quickly searched google for a remote assistance solution. It brought up CrossLoop, and I had recalled hearing something about it a while back. I quickly installed it, and sent her the link to install.  She provided me with a generated number, and I connected right away to her computer and could see her screen as if I were sitting in front of it.

I then proceeded to reinstall the latest version of FireFox on her computer, because her other installation was having all sorts of issues. And then I found a German language antivirus program and installed it as well. CrossLoop allowed me to quickly diagnose and fix her issues than trying to explain how to do it over the phone.

Afterwards I found out that they have a program in place where independent technicians like myself can make ourselves available to assist people using CrossLoop. So I signed up and added their widget to my sidebar.  Perhaps this will add to my cadre of options for possible money earning opportunities.

But if you’re looking for a quick remote application to share your computer with someone, or access someone else’s to assist, this program is very simple to use.

I downloaded a program a while back called Zattoo that allows you to view live television over the Internet.  Right now it’s of little interest for most Americans as it’s only hosting European stations. That is unless you happen to be from Germany as my wife is. 

Using Zattoo, She’s able to view television show favorites that she used to watch while growing up via Germany’s ZDF and ARD stations.

It doesn’t work out of the box for people in the U.S. though as it only permits users in Europe to view stations from the country they’re in.  For example, if you’re in the UK, then the only stations available are those traditionally available in the UK.

The trick to making it work is simply using a VPN connection that gives you an IP to make it appear as though your computer is in that country.  I can’t cite the particular VPN solution I’m using because Zattoo has a tendency of blocking VPN providers that it learns is being heavily used in this fashion, as happened to SwissVPN this past February.  But it’s sufficient to say that you need a provider that will give you an IP in the particular European country you’re wanting to view the station in.

Note that I’ve also tried using Tor and European proxies without success.  It did permit me to crawl along, very slowly so that I could at least register and download the software. But I found it unusable without using the VPN solution.

There is a TV Guide in the latest version, but it doesn’t permit recording, so you have to make yourself available to view the program you desire at the European time. This can be tricky with the time difference.

Today I spent some time configuring my HTC S621 (aka Dash) to work using the OZ Messenger on T-Mobile.  OZ Messenger enables users to use AIM, ICQ, or Yahoo Messenger over their phone. Except instead of using GPRS/EDGE/3G, it uses your SMS text messaging plan (if you have one).

What’s funny is if you search on the Internet concerning this issue, you’ll quickly find out that most people are trying to do the opposite.  They want to use a web based platform in order to avoid SMS charges.

I’ve tried those methods using Fring, Palringo, and Mundu to name a few.  The problem is that in my low signal area the connection is too unreliable and I’m dropped frequently.  SMS tends to be more reliable as it doesn’t drop you everytime your phone loses signal.

Another reason is that the battery life tends to suffer dramatically from running these applications in comparison to using SMS.

So the OZ front end is nice, plus I can simply send SMS’s to most mobiles through the normal SMS interface for those not using an IM client.  The only issue I have found is that I can’t seem to IM via SMS through MSN Messenger, and of course Jabber clients (i.e. Gtalk) only seem to work through the Internet based applications.

What do you think?

  I’ve used the BVA8051 Leadtek VOIP adapter with Sipgate in Germany so that my wife could have a local Bremen telephone number. It worked great for many years but suddenly stopped functioning. I’ve reviewed my settings multiple times, even reflashed the firmware.  I also verified the proper ports were forwarded.  But it constantly gives me a busy signal.  On the other hand, when I downloaded the X-lite software from Sipgate, the soft phone functions just fine. Therefore, it looks like my hardware is really dead and I’ll have to purchase a different adapter.  The BVA8051 is a ‘dated’ item now, so I will be trying to find a more up to date device.

I’ve updated my theme to ‘Pixeled’ by http://samk.ca/freebies/ . I reduced the side columns to 1 instead of 2, since I’m finding that most wordpress themes seem challenged by the notion of a 2 column theme. I’m sure it’s possible to make this look correctly with enough fidgeting with margins and the like in the .css files, but I think I can get by with the 1 column anyways.

Now that the Presidential election is behind us, I hope to spend more time in the world of technology, sharing my thoughts on items of interest I find on the web as it relates to social networks, gadgets, mobile technology, and virtual worlds.

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