• WSChris the Computin Guru

    WSChris the Computin Guru

    @wschris-the-computin-guru

    Viewing 15 replies - 1 through 15 (of 21 total)
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    • in reply to: Connectivity issue #1542235

      I did find Cat7 cables on Amazon, about $6 more than the 50 foot Cat6 cable. As I read more though, they are talking about multiple GB speeds and like Chris says, we aren’t there yet with home equipment. The Phonak device came with the hearing aids from the VA, it is Bluetooth, it plugs into an audio out port on the tv, I wear a little device around my neck, which can be a remote control and also answer cell calls – though I’ve never set that up nor intend to – the user manual is 60 pages only the first 10 have anything to do with what I use it for – surround sound in my hearing aids. I can’t mute the sound on the tv as that turns it off completely, but I can set it to zero or 1 or 2 and hear perfectly, much louder and you have that echo as there is a latency factor of a second maybe. So it works, just not perfectly, but it did solve the main issue which was the WiFi dropping the Netflix signal, that’s gone. There is some compromise in just about everything. :^)

      Thanks for the update. I’m glad it’s working sufficiently for you.

      I had never heard about Phonak. That’s a great idea – my father-in-law uses wireless headphones for TV, because his wife doesn’t like the loud TV đŸ™‚

    • in reply to: Connectivity issue #1542103

      The 50 foot cable I ordered is Cat6, I noticed in the TV manual after I ordered it, that they recommend Cat7 – but from what I read the difference is little and many routers can’t handle the new speed anyway, mine might be one of those an E2500 Linksys from Cisco, I got maybe three years ago. Another oddity, I use a Phonak streaming device (hearing aids) often while watching anything other than sports, and it used to mute the tv sound automatically when in use and on WiFi, but for some odd reason, it doesn’t do that while LAN connected, and I can’t access WiFi connections while LAN connected. I may have to reset to WiFi and look at those settings again before plugging the ethernet cable back in as I can’t find anything in the TV settings or the Phonak manual about that. I do vaguely remember doing something about it when I got the smart TV 20 months or so ago, but it is smarter than me, I didn’t write down what I did. :^)

      The beauty of the “twisted pair” cable standards is backward compatibility. If your current hardware doesn’t support the benefits that Cat7 can give you, the data transmission will still happen! If you upgrade your hardware, the Cat7 cable will support the newer standard. You would have to be sure to upgrade ALL your hardware – network adapters, routers, switches, tin foil hats, etc.

      I had never heard of the Phonak streaming device. I’m just guessing here, but the device probably uses Bluetooth to talk to the hearing aid, and Bluetooth may be part of the WiFi adapter on the TV – and that is likely a different chipset than the wired network adapter. Worst case scenario is that you’ll need to manually mute the TV sound (hopefully that won’t affect the Phonak) when using the TV.

    • in reply to: Future computing: The Internet of Things #1542101

      I have never understood this thing “privacy” Is there a need for law abiding citizens to be “secretive” ???
      I don’t think so — Well maybe some things should not be done in public out of decency but not for privacy — every city block needs several cameras. Just last week 3 would-be robbers were apprehended here in Vegas when a video of them attempting to escape after a break-in went viral. Thanks to an observing neighbor.

      If you appear in a public place you should expect (and want) to be photographed.

      Warren

      Is there a reason for law abiding citizens not to be secretive, if they so choose? A desire not to be monitored or tracked should not result in immediate condemnation that that person’s actions are nefarious.

      There is a big difference between monitoring citizens’ public activities and monitoring citizens’ private activities. There is also a big difference between government monitoring and corporate monitoring.

      The question is where is the line drawn to ensure the information is not misused by corporations OR governments.

    • in reply to: Connectivity issue #1541378

      Well, I don’t have a laptop. Have never needed one.

      My apologies! I meant that you should test wireless connectivity and accessing Netflix wirelessly from a laptop. I didn’t mean to suggest you use the laptop to access Netflix instead of accessing it from the TV đŸ™‚

      So, I’m still a bit twisted up in figuring out what to do and why. And it still seems to be only Netflix. I read an article the other day that said they have most of the outside cable streaming business and do much more than Amazon, so it may be their resources which are stretched, not mine.

      You can verify whether Netflix is just slow at your location by accessing the site from your desktop upstairs. I believe it will be quick to connect to the site, and quick to load content. If it is, you can assume that the Netflix application on your TV is slow (the same as the Netflix application on my Blue-Ray player is slow).

    • in reply to: Connectivity issue #1541242

      I think it is probably a Netflix issue. Nothing hangs on my iPhone downstairs, but then I don’t watch movies or anything on it either, other than YouTube and occasionally BTN2go or ESPN streaming. Only the tv and only Netflix – which does isolate it pretty much. Though I will check wifi speed down there later on a laptop.

      I have a very similar issue with Netflix only on a web-enabled LG Blue-Ray player.

      If you have a laptop with WiFi, set it next to the TV and connect to Netflix via your browser. It will probably work like a champ. I have no issues with connecting to Netflix, searching, or launching content on my PC. It takes FOREVER on my Blue-Ray player.

    • in reply to: Future computing: The Internet of Things #1540478

      You’re right, of course. What I was referring to though is that, even now, if you drive down the street in any large city, Big Brother is watching you. If you walk down the street in any large city, Big Brother is watching you. Soon, with IoT, if you open your refrigerator and take out a beer, Big Brother will know what brand beer and how big the bottle. If you go back for a second one, He will know how fast you drank it. If you drink say, 5 beers, and run out. If you go out to start your car to go to the store to buy more, Big Brother may make sure it won’t start for you because you drank them too fast and your blood alcohol level is higher than what He wants to allow driver’s to have. That may prevent many accidents, and many deaths (especially here in Houston), but, now do you understand the level of privacy you will NOT have?

      The utter lack of liberty in the scenario you describe is what frightens me. The manipulation of behavior in that situation is scary, because it is done under the guise of “the public good”.

      Big data is more than just a giant spreadsheet of data. In order to parse such huge amounts of information, algorithms must be used – and algorithms could be described as “assumptions”. That means that some ONE or some GROUP gets to determine the parameters of how the data is crunched, thus affecting the outcome.

    • in reply to: Future computing: The Internet of Things #1540444

      Actually, in North America, it’s not…

      http://www.wired.com/2015/09/north-america-just-ran-old-school-internet-addresses/

      The fact that all IPv4 addresses are allocated isn’t relevant to my point. Many providers allocate unique addresses to each customer (for example, in my area Comcast and AT&T assign unique IP addresses to each customer). That isn’t necessary with the use of address translation.

    • in reply to: Future computing: The Internet of Things #1540442

      IPv6 is being implemented for the sole purpose of supporting IoT. The “we’re running out of addresses” line is bogus. Yes, there are 4 billion IPv4 addresses, but each of those addresses can have up to 4 billion addresses through the use of NAT. Why does every node need a unique address as will happen under IPv6? Tracking – IPv6 addresses are the new UUID.

      The statement in the article: “For the most part, the information is cleaned, sorted, and combined with other data to build models of our online behavior” misses the mark. With IoT, ALL behavior could be online, and those who analyze the data may be able to predict that behavior. That would make it easier to manipulate our behavior.

      There really needs to be some controls around data – what can be collected, who can collect it, and what can be done with it.

    • in reply to: Problems in Outlook mail navigation pane #1523059

      Sorry! I missed that you already tried that. dmccue provided the next step after deleting the account information – deleting the profile. If that doesn’t work, then reinstallation might help.

    • in reply to: Problems in Outlook mail navigation pane #1522195

      Instead of Closing the folder for the POP3 account, you can remove it from Account Settings

      Click File and choose Account Settings
      Choose Account Settings again
      Select the POP3 account and click Remove

      You can also remove the POP3 account without opening Outlook.

      Go to Control Panel and open the Mail applet.
      Click Email Accounts
      Select the POP3 account and click Remove

    • in reply to: One Excel file to many Word files #1516412

      I believe a Word MailMerge will provide the output you desire, but it won’t provide the final result you are hoping for.

      A Word MailMerge takes data from an internal or external source and populates predetermined fields on a form. If there are multiple rows of data, Word simply adds a new page the document for each new record. If I’m reading your posts correctly, you want a separate document created for each customer, with that document populated with the record information for that customer.

      If that is the case, why do you need a separate document created for each customer? At this point in your process, the act of creating the delivery slips is for printing. You can and should print them all from the single mail-merged document created by the MailMerge process in Word. Do you have a different reason for maintaining a digital copy of each delivery slip as a unique document?

    • in reply to: Email: Drop the junk; keep your contacts #1513153

      Excellent article Lincoln!

      Regarding your issue with AAA, I was able to change my email address simply by logging in and clicking the “Change email address” link on the landing page (see attached) Visiting AAA.com redirects you to a regional club page, and each regional page may be different.

      41235-aaa

    • I am not a supporter of web apps.
      You are betting that the app will be available “forever” and that your data will be available if the “vendor” goes out of business.
      I prefer to run an app locally, and pay for it.
      That way I’ll be in business way after the vendor has gone to greener pastures.
      P.S. I usually get the “free” version then upgrade if I decide it’s worth doing it.
      P.S. Still an Office 2013 believer. Professional version. You can get it for less than $300. Not a bad deal, really.

      Access to historic information is a concern with cloud apps. Square mitigates that concern with the ability to receive summary information in CSV format. It also hooks directly into QuickBooks, if the OP’s friend gets serious about accounting.

    • in reply to: Schedule archiving in Outlook 2013 #1497329

      Can I suggest a more proactive, and customizable approach to archival? Manage your Outlook items using Rules.

      https://support.office.com/en-sg/article/Manage-email-messages-by-using-rules-c24f5dea-9465-4df4-ad17-a50704d66c59

      If you receive a lot of messages, and need to keep them for future referral, managing them via Rules would allow you to categorize and file them according to parameters you set. Using this in conjunction with Archival, is sometimes the best way to manage large numbers of Outlook items.

    • I suggest a different, and more simple direction.

      You stated that the business uses Square. Why not implement Square Register (POS), Inventory, and Analytics? Based on my cursory exploration of the SquareUp.com website, the software side of these features is included in any standard account.

      For hardware, I would strongly recommend an iPad – but I’m speaking as a consumer who has conducted business with Square customers. It’s so much easier to see transaction information on the tablet, than on an iPod or iPhone.

      As a technical person, my first instinct would be to build a solution using Office, similar to what you suggested in your original post. But as a business owner, maintaining a custom solution can become a burden. With Square, you offload that burden onto them – but you do pay for it through transaction fees.

    Viewing 15 replies - 1 through 15 (of 21 total)