Still no carrier gives you a 2nd line with a different phone number. But since the last post, things are a lot different.
If you buy direct from China, you have dual SIM card GSM phone for cheap, almost half that of my refurbished unlocked GSM phone many years ago. They use those phones when people travel, it's much cheaper to just get another SIM from the convenient store than to do cross border roaming. So you have two independent lines on a single phone, active all the time. So you don't need any magic dual sim adapter unless you still don't want to part with your old GSM phone.
The other way is of course to buy a smart phone from China, and the only choice is Android. Typically they have two sims because of the same reason above, and that it is popular to have one sim for voice, and another for broadband. So you can say money when you don't need broadband all the time. But both sim's are fully functionally.
The easiest, anywhere, is that you buy a smart phone. In Android you have Google Voice app bundled, and you have the app in iPhones. This app is pretty integrated in Android. You can set that international calls will be using Google Voice alone. Or any phone or text you send, you will be given the option of which number to use. Or of course you can start GVoice to use the other number. Also, you Google number is live all the time, direct to your phone.
You just need to signup for a Google Voice account and then ask for a new number. It's free and "permanent" except for international calls. But I think Google Voice is only available in US. The only problem is that you use Google number as your main number. I don't know if the app deals with a 2nd Google number. Also, the rule is one mobile number for one Google Voice account. You can redirect the numbers how you want it, but you need two mobile numbers to register for two accounts.
Skype is in disarray one year on. It's probably because Skype has been using a sophisticated encryption intended for desktops years ago, and it's P2P, requiring extra processing than just the calls. Typically they work but not well for the latest Android phones.
If you don't want to scrap your old phone because of the phone list, look if it supports Bluetooth. Most does. You just need to enable it and the new smart phones can import the phone list directly.
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Friday, December 30, 2011
Home Security - cam, monitor and DVR (2)
Update to first part.
Wifi IP CAM didn't come down in price by a lot. Direct from dhgate, it is closer to the $50 mark rather than the $100 mark. You need a portable or desktop to record the video automatically. That's not bad when you are sleeping or away from the desk.
DVR changes a lot since last time. Even in the past, it doesn't make sense to have a CMOS CAM, turns the images into analogue signal, then the DVR re-digitize the image, compress and store it in hard disk. Now, many people don't have NTSC and PAL anymore. HDMI output for a CAM is too much. So it only make sense to integrate the CAM with the DVR.
They became cheap small HD camcorders. They are everywhere but they are just not for security CAM application. You need overwrite or cycle recording. So you never need to change "tapes" or SD cards. The other very desirable feature is software motion detection - which saves a lot of storage space.
There are one in dhgate exactly that. They say it's for cars. The price is not a lot more than $50.
My old DVR is going strong. Similar things are still on sale but became more expensive now, a lot more than $50. The output of my old CAM's are still NTSC. HDMI output will be a lot more expensive.
Wifi IP CAM didn't come down in price by a lot. Direct from dhgate, it is closer to the $50 mark rather than the $100 mark. You need a portable or desktop to record the video automatically. That's not bad when you are sleeping or away from the desk.
DVR changes a lot since last time. Even in the past, it doesn't make sense to have a CMOS CAM, turns the images into analogue signal, then the DVR re-digitize the image, compress and store it in hard disk. Now, many people don't have NTSC and PAL anymore. HDMI output for a CAM is too much. So it only make sense to integrate the CAM with the DVR.
They became cheap small HD camcorders. They are everywhere but they are just not for security CAM application. You need overwrite or cycle recording. So you never need to change "tapes" or SD cards. The other very desirable feature is software motion detection - which saves a lot of storage space.
There are one in dhgate exactly that. They say it's for cars. The price is not a lot more than $50.
My old DVR is going strong. Similar things are still on sale but became more expensive now, a lot more than $50. The output of my old CAM's are still NTSC. HDMI output will be a lot more expensive.
Sunday, December 25, 2011
Printing on custom paper size in Ubuntu Linux
I'm so surprised that you cannot do that, not when your child is born, not when he graduate high school. Somebody is waiting for that for his grandson birth announcement.
Basically the software package will allow any paper size. But the printer typically has a list of papers, but no custom.
I was looking for something that avoid killing any of my brain cells. But actually I think that's unsolvable. I made a compromise, looking for a simple offset that I can specify to align things to where I want them. No luck.
So I decided to solve it once an for all. The problem:
Typically, you can select a paper on the printer that is not the same as the size on your package that you really want - real. Typically the printer will place the real paper in the middle of the printer paper. But for the printing, the real paper is aligned with the upper left corner of the printer paper. So there is an offset when the real paper is not aligned at the corner, but the middle.
You can set the paper margin on your package to offset this. Assuming the printer paper is larger than your real paper. And that your real paper can fed through the printer.
top margin = desired top margin
bottom margin length printer - length real + desired bottom margin
right margin = (width printer - width real) / 2 + desired right margin
left margin = (width printer - width real) / 2 + desired left margin
Since you know the dimensions of papers anyway so it's not too bad by using the calculator. You may even be able to set the software by a macro or script.
Basically the software package will allow any paper size. But the printer typically has a list of papers, but no custom.
I was looking for something that avoid killing any of my brain cells. But actually I think that's unsolvable. I made a compromise, looking for a simple offset that I can specify to align things to where I want them. No luck.
So I decided to solve it once an for all. The problem:
Typically, you can select a paper on the printer that is not the same as the size on your package that you really want - real. Typically the printer will place the real paper in the middle of the printer paper. But for the printing, the real paper is aligned with the upper left corner of the printer paper. So there is an offset when the real paper is not aligned at the corner, but the middle.
You can set the paper margin on your package to offset this. Assuming the printer paper is larger than your real paper. And that your real paper can fed through the printer.
top margin = desired top margin
bottom margin length printer - length real + desired bottom margin
right margin = (width printer - width real) / 2 + desired right margin
left margin = (width printer - width real) / 2 + desired left margin
Since you know the dimensions of papers anyway so it's not too bad by using the calculator. You may even be able to set the software by a macro or script.
Friday, December 16, 2011
Managing EBS in EC2 for Ubuntu Linux
EBS in EC2 means virtual hard drive. You are given one to start with, which is attached to your instant to run things. This is exactly the boot drive where your OS is. The free tier gives you 10GB EBS for free, but the free micro instant comes with only 8GB, which doesn't add up.
Sooner or later you need more disk space (or less). You can change the size of the boot disk but very inconvenient. First you create a snapshot (copy) of the boot drive. From the snapshot you create a volume (new drive), with bigger space. Then you stop your instant (computer), remove the boot drive and connect the new one. But you still see exactly the same old drive, because it's up to your installed OS to change the partition. In addition, you can perform a lot of operation only on an unmounted drive. So you may need another instant (like CDROM drive for the install disk) to modify your boot disk. If you modify the partitions you can easily brick the whole disk. Also, when you are working on EC2, you don't normally have GUI.
It's much easier to create a virtual empty disk drive, and mount as any directory on the file system that you desire.
First, you create a new volume on the EC2 control panel, with the capacity you needed. Then you just attach it to your instant, running or not. For Linux, the control panel will give you a new device name by default, such as /dev/sdf . If you specify sdb, the extra disk space will be mounted to /mnt later by default.
The job of visualization is completed. You need to configure your hard drives via your computer, i.e., your instant.
You need to start your instant (if not running) and then connect to it with ssh. Then you need to "format" the new hard drive.
First check if the drive is there:
#
Sooner or later you need more disk space (or less). You can change the size of the boot disk but very inconvenient. First you create a snapshot (copy) of the boot drive. From the snapshot you create a volume (new drive), with bigger space. Then you stop your instant (computer), remove the boot drive and connect the new one. But you still see exactly the same old drive, because it's up to your installed OS to change the partition. In addition, you can perform a lot of operation only on an unmounted drive. So you may need another instant (like CDROM drive for the install disk) to modify your boot disk. If you modify the partitions you can easily brick the whole disk. Also, when you are working on EC2, you don't normally have GUI.
It's much easier to create a virtual empty disk drive, and mount as any directory on the file system that you desire.
First, you create a new volume on the EC2 control panel, with the capacity you needed. Then you just attach it to your instant, running or not. For Linux, the control panel will give you a new device name by default, such as /dev/sdf . If you specify sdb, the extra disk space will be mounted to /mnt later by default.
The job of visualization is completed. You need to configure your hard drives via your computer, i.e., your instant.
You need to start your instant (if not running) and then connect to it with ssh. Then you need to "format" the new hard drive.
First check if the drive is there:
#
sudo fdisk -lYou will get errors because these commands are not compatible with the file system or something else on the drive. To "format"#sudo mkfs -t ext4 /dev/sdfThe device name should be the same you have chosen at the control panel. If you have chosen sdb for the lastest Ubuntu, all you have to is reboot at the control panel. The drive will be mounted at /mnt. Then you can setup directory links to this space as desired.
For any other device name or any other mount directory, you need to edit /etc/fstab. And add the line:/dev/sdf /your/directory auto defaults,nobootwait,noatime 0 0You can see that sdb is there already, to be mounted to /mnt. In your boot drive, you should also create an empty directory /your/directory. Then when you reboot via control panel, this empty directory will be replaced by the disk space of the new device.
Thursday, November 24, 2011
What is out there smartphones update
I almost brought a smartphone from China. But they don't have Black Friday.
The latest 4G phones are free. iPhone 4S is not free, but it's not 4G either.
Basically the latest spec, very new across all the major carriers, are qHD phones with 960 x 5??, slight less pixels than iPhone's 960x640. These Androids are pretty standard sized at less than 5" in height vs apple's 4.5". The iPhone won't fit in any women's pocket anyway. Bigger screen allows easier touch tying - keys are bigger!
8MP camera with 1080p HD video capture. Front camera 640x480(?) VGA video conference.
Android 2.3 has multi-touch, while iPhone haven't. Some brands announced that they will upgrade your phone to Android 4 pretty soon.
4G for AT&T is available in the form of LTE. It's symbolic as at the moment as even 3.5G HSPA isn't that widely available. For this reason the iPhone don't have LTE yet. LTE should be the world standard following GSM/WCDMA. But because of frequency fragmentation across the world, I doubt if the current LTE phones will work all over the world with it roll outs extensively throughout the world.
The mandatory entry level data plans are symbolic. You can't do anything smart with that. But the expensive plans more than offset by the free toys. If you don't have a pocket sized 1080p camcorder yet, you save yourself another $100. When the time comes to impress somebody with 4G speed, you can just run over the limit and pay extra for once.
Verizon and Sprint split on 4G. Verison offers LTE while Sprint has WiMax. Maybe the reason is that Sprint is on the PCS band while Verizon is on the traditional mobile band.
There are no generic qHD phones from China yet. Data at best is HSPA (HSDPA, HSUPA). And I doubt if the LTE phones they may offer at a later date will work well in both Europe and America.
Of course, you need a plan and a 2 year contract for the awesome free phones. But I can tip you off with a small secret. Third part credit checks are less dirty than carriers' own. Carrier's share non-public blacklist database, while you know what is on your credit history. So walking into a carrier's own wireless shop is the worst that you can do if your credit have problems. Third party wireless shops are better. Online check is best. They have to be automatic and in the open. So try Amazon wireless if you need to.
The latest 4G phones are free. iPhone 4S is not free, but it's not 4G either.
Basically the latest spec, very new across all the major carriers, are qHD phones with 960 x 5??, slight less pixels than iPhone's 960x640. These Androids are pretty standard sized at less than 5" in height vs apple's 4.5". The iPhone won't fit in any women's pocket anyway. Bigger screen allows easier touch tying - keys are bigger!
8MP camera with 1080p HD video capture. Front camera 640x480(?) VGA video conference.
Android 2.3 has multi-touch, while iPhone haven't. Some brands announced that they will upgrade your phone to Android 4 pretty soon.
4G for AT&T is available in the form of LTE. It's symbolic as at the moment as even 3.5G HSPA isn't that widely available. For this reason the iPhone don't have LTE yet. LTE should be the world standard following GSM/WCDMA. But because of frequency fragmentation across the world, I doubt if the current LTE phones will work all over the world with it roll outs extensively throughout the world.
The mandatory entry level data plans are symbolic. You can't do anything smart with that. But the expensive plans more than offset by the free toys. If you don't have a pocket sized 1080p camcorder yet, you save yourself another $100. When the time comes to impress somebody with 4G speed, you can just run over the limit and pay extra for once.
Verizon and Sprint split on 4G. Verison offers LTE while Sprint has WiMax. Maybe the reason is that Sprint is on the PCS band while Verizon is on the traditional mobile band.
There are no generic qHD phones from China yet. Data at best is HSPA (HSDPA, HSUPA). And I doubt if the LTE phones they may offer at a later date will work well in both Europe and America.
Of course, you need a plan and a 2 year contract for the awesome free phones. But I can tip you off with a small secret. Third part credit checks are less dirty than carriers' own. Carrier's share non-public blacklist database, while you know what is on your credit history. So walking into a carrier's own wireless shop is the worst that you can do if your credit have problems. Third party wireless shops are better. Online check is best. They have to be automatic and in the open. So try Amazon wireless if you need to.
Sunday, November 20, 2011
The what is out there buying guide for smartphones
With multitouch gestures and swype, my faith in smartphones is restored. I'll probably going to try one.
Tiny physical keyboards are out, so it's really iOS (iphone) vs Android. I'm sorry to say that Apple is going in the way of the PC market. Android has taken over, huge, but Apple will remain profitable, trend setter, and cute.
Screen
The first thing to look at is the screen resolution, not the size. iPhone 4 and 4S has 960x640 pixels. At 326 ppi (pixels/inch), Apple call it retina display. If you are old enough, it should look like those light boxes for viewing films for slides. Anyway, you should not be able to see pixels.
But density and resolution isn't that crucial. It's image problem, yours. You may not want to see all of a web page in a 3+ inch screen. At that super density, it will be sharp but there's other coloring and lighting problems. I won't and can't go into that but really it's your image problem.
iPhone 3 is worthless at 1/4 of the resolution and about 1/4 of the density. There are plenty of Android devices at the same resolution and size - even cheaper.
There is the new Android phone, Galaxy Nexus, that has HD display 1280x720p. The screen is slightly larger at 4+", but that's pretty standard in Android phones. There are the odd one or two Android phones with screens slightly denser than the iPhone 4, but they don't really sell, and hard to find.
The most common Android phone has screen resolution 800x480, about 4"+. It doesn't look that much compared to iPhone 4. But imagine that the best netbook, like the MacAir, with it's screen height squeezed into less than 4 inches. You need good justification to have a higher ppi screen, other than my phone is sharper and smaller than yours.
The screen has something to do with playing back HD videos. Piping out the data via the Himi connection to the TV is easy. Decoding, resizing and filtering to display on a smaller phone screen takes more processing power. So expect jitters if you don't have HD screen, and a powerful processor.
Next criteria - carrier and network.
You still want a phone right? In US, the network is still split between AT&T and Verizon/Sprint, the same old GSM vs CDMA network. Now that GSM becomes WCDMA/3G/UMTS, it would be rather confusing.
You can't go wrong with AT&T and it's resellers. Phones will be compatible worldwide, and most phones are quad band, not limited to USA or rest of the world. Either you have to get an expansive, unlock phone without contract, or you unlock the phone yourselves if possible. In past experience, you can unlock your phone via your carrier after a few months, saying that you need to travel.
Data
Carriers find three different ways to charge you - voice, text, and data. It is ridiculous as not so long ago, text is only popular in countries such as Czech, for younger people to save money on phone bills. Now text cost more than voice, and voice is worthless. You can have free text, via data, but you need a smartphone with apps to go with it. Another justification for a smart phone.
Data speed is a major differentiator for networks. Verizon/Sprint got there first and call it 4G. The similar thing in AT&T is HSDPA for the rest of the world. These are normally included other than the most basic data package. However, unless you have a lot to upload and download in a rush, like HD video, 3G speed are decent.
High data speed is particularly relevant to WiFi tethering, where you use your phone as a WiFi router like you do at home, so all your WiFi capable devices can access the internet via your phone, anywhere where there is reception. All smartphones have WiFi and most are tethering capable, thought some cheap carrier resellers hide it. But the problem is that carriers charge an arm and a leg for it.
So I don't think data speed is relevant to average smartphone users. 3G speed is decent. Download videos you made via the SD card. And go to McDonalds if your computer need free WiFi.
iOS 5 vs Android 2.3
iOS is on the iphone 4S, not the 4, unless you hack it. Latest Android on phones is 2.3, mostly come with 2.2. Android 4 is only available on the latest Galaxy Nexus. Android 4 unifies the tablet version with the smartphone version of Androids.
The killer app for iOS 5 is Siri, the voice assistance that allows you to do very sophisticated things, according to Apple. Actually if you hack it, you can get it on iphone 4 too, and it's available to any OS soon, provided Apple don't crack down on it as in WiFi tethering. I think for average smartphones, most will be satisfied with voice to text, saving you a lot of typing.
Android has multitouch, while still hidden in iOS 5. I won't buy a smartphone without multitouch, the same that I won't get a portable without it. Considering it's cheaper than apple, it's a no brainer.
Many Android has swype out of the box, or you can install it yourself free. iPhone has it on app stores, but not as smooth and integrated. There are similar things on the Android market place with varying degree of intelligence. You can touch type without lifting your finger, by just sliding your finger on screen.
Android has better integration with Facebook, Twitter, and of course Google everything, if you like that sort of things.
Cam and Video
This are unrelated to playback on the screen. Later phones has HD video capture at 720p. The resolution is still less than 1 megapixels. At CAM mode the resolution is usually a bit higher like 3mp to 7mp. It's all about the len. There's no point to use the phone as a SLR camera. For HD video capture, it's worthwhile to get a cheap and small camcorder so you don't lost your expensive phone easily.
Most phones come with a decent len at the back, and many with an additional pinhole cam at the front for video conferencing, suitable on the go, with sufficient burring to compensate for the lack of makeup.
Plan
AT&T has the fashion accessory plan for the iPhone 4S, if you use the phone as fashion accessory only. It's $40 plus mandatory $15 data plan for the 4S. Text extra, if you don't know how to text via data. With this plan, you can't do much for the data, and hence you can't be smart much.
In contrast, it's reseller, Simple Mobile, has the $40 unlimited everything plan, up to 3G speed, upgradeable to 4G. It's BYO, bring your own phone. For iPhone 4S without contract, it can be just under $700!
Sprint reseller Virgin, has the $35 for unlimited data (4G?). It's Android lineup is pretty update and cheap too. But it's only for US and then some.
Recommendations
To maintain your international geek image without paying an arm and a leg, I recommend to get an Android direct from China, plus a Simple mobile plan.
Almost of the phones are made in China anyway. It's sort of open source hardware plus open source software Android. The display and chips are fairly standard. The best ones, 800x480, are over $200. It's International and 4G.
If you don't want that state of the art, $100 gets you a pretty smartphone and pretty display too.
Online marketplace sites like dhgate are ebay killers. There are numerous scan artists like eBay in the beginning but there are good protections in place. For standard electronics, you can get full refund if they don't ship you the numerous functions on the list.
Unlike eBay, they allows review too but people are't that talkative as in Amazon. Don't like the idea that the Chinese mafia has your name and card number in their record?
Anyway, there are plenty of reliable merchants and the units they sold worldwide is staggering.
Other reasons you need a smartphone
GPS - smartphones use network information, internet, wi-fi, in additional to satellites to provide accurate information fast. Some have turn to turn instructions and for me, a google map anywhere in the world is super for me.
Free text, free phone call via internet. But you pay the data package. A device good for HD porn will do your stuff justice.
Show your merchandise and portfolio any time. I still remember a non-story about a traveling sale person showing his next seat passenger in his brief case, electrical extension sockets with extension wire. Is that really still necessary?
A pair for grandma's and grand kids? It's so easy and so cheap with video, apart from the plans.
Tiny physical keyboards are out, so it's really iOS (iphone) vs Android. I'm sorry to say that Apple is going in the way of the PC market. Android has taken over, huge, but Apple will remain profitable, trend setter, and cute.
Screen
The first thing to look at is the screen resolution, not the size. iPhone 4 and 4S has 960x640 pixels. At 326 ppi (pixels/inch), Apple call it retina display. If you are old enough, it should look like those light boxes for viewing films for slides. Anyway, you should not be able to see pixels.
But density and resolution isn't that crucial. It's image problem, yours. You may not want to see all of a web page in a 3+ inch screen. At that super density, it will be sharp but there's other coloring and lighting problems. I won't and can't go into that but really it's your image problem.
iPhone 3 is worthless at 1/4 of the resolution and about 1/4 of the density. There are plenty of Android devices at the same resolution and size - even cheaper.
There is the new Android phone, Galaxy Nexus, that has HD display 1280x720p. The screen is slightly larger at 4+", but that's pretty standard in Android phones. There are the odd one or two Android phones with screens slightly denser than the iPhone 4, but they don't really sell, and hard to find.
The most common Android phone has screen resolution 800x480, about 4"+. It doesn't look that much compared to iPhone 4. But imagine that the best netbook, like the MacAir, with it's screen height squeezed into less than 4 inches. You need good justification to have a higher ppi screen, other than my phone is sharper and smaller than yours.
The screen has something to do with playing back HD videos. Piping out the data via the Himi connection to the TV is easy. Decoding, resizing and filtering to display on a smaller phone screen takes more processing power. So expect jitters if you don't have HD screen, and a powerful processor.
Next criteria - carrier and network.
You still want a phone right? In US, the network is still split between AT&T and Verizon/Sprint, the same old GSM vs CDMA network. Now that GSM becomes WCDMA/3G/UMTS, it would be rather confusing.
You can't go wrong with AT&T and it's resellers. Phones will be compatible worldwide, and most phones are quad band, not limited to USA or rest of the world. Either you have to get an expansive, unlock phone without contract, or you unlock the phone yourselves if possible. In past experience, you can unlock your phone via your carrier after a few months, saying that you need to travel.
Data
Carriers find three different ways to charge you - voice, text, and data. It is ridiculous as not so long ago, text is only popular in countries such as Czech, for younger people to save money on phone bills. Now text cost more than voice, and voice is worthless. You can have free text, via data, but you need a smartphone with apps to go with it. Another justification for a smart phone.
Data speed is a major differentiator for networks. Verizon/Sprint got there first and call it 4G. The similar thing in AT&T is HSDPA for the rest of the world. These are normally included other than the most basic data package. However, unless you have a lot to upload and download in a rush, like HD video, 3G speed are decent.
High data speed is particularly relevant to WiFi tethering, where you use your phone as a WiFi router like you do at home, so all your WiFi capable devices can access the internet via your phone, anywhere where there is reception. All smartphones have WiFi and most are tethering capable, thought some cheap carrier resellers hide it. But the problem is that carriers charge an arm and a leg for it.
So I don't think data speed is relevant to average smartphone users. 3G speed is decent. Download videos you made via the SD card. And go to McDonalds if your computer need free WiFi.
iOS 5 vs Android 2.3
iOS is on the iphone 4S, not the 4, unless you hack it. Latest Android on phones is 2.3, mostly come with 2.2. Android 4 is only available on the latest Galaxy Nexus. Android 4 unifies the tablet version with the smartphone version of Androids.
The killer app for iOS 5 is Siri, the voice assistance that allows you to do very sophisticated things, according to Apple. Actually if you hack it, you can get it on iphone 4 too, and it's available to any OS soon, provided Apple don't crack down on it as in WiFi tethering. I think for average smartphones, most will be satisfied with voice to text, saving you a lot of typing.
Android has multitouch, while still hidden in iOS 5. I won't buy a smartphone without multitouch, the same that I won't get a portable without it. Considering it's cheaper than apple, it's a no brainer.
Many Android has swype out of the box, or you can install it yourself free. iPhone has it on app stores, but not as smooth and integrated. There are similar things on the Android market place with varying degree of intelligence. You can touch type without lifting your finger, by just sliding your finger on screen.
Android has better integration with Facebook, Twitter, and of course Google everything, if you like that sort of things.
Cam and Video
This are unrelated to playback on the screen. Later phones has HD video capture at 720p. The resolution is still less than 1 megapixels. At CAM mode the resolution is usually a bit higher like 3mp to 7mp. It's all about the len. There's no point to use the phone as a SLR camera. For HD video capture, it's worthwhile to get a cheap and small camcorder so you don't lost your expensive phone easily.
Most phones come with a decent len at the back, and many with an additional pinhole cam at the front for video conferencing, suitable on the go, with sufficient burring to compensate for the lack of makeup.
Plan
AT&T has the fashion accessory plan for the iPhone 4S, if you use the phone as fashion accessory only. It's $40 plus mandatory $15 data plan for the 4S. Text extra, if you don't know how to text via data. With this plan, you can't do much for the data, and hence you can't be smart much.
In contrast, it's reseller, Simple Mobile, has the $40 unlimited everything plan, up to 3G speed, upgradeable to 4G. It's BYO, bring your own phone. For iPhone 4S without contract, it can be just under $700!
Sprint reseller Virgin, has the $35 for unlimited data (4G?). It's Android lineup is pretty update and cheap too. But it's only for US and then some.
Recommendations
To maintain your international geek image without paying an arm and a leg, I recommend to get an Android direct from China, plus a Simple mobile plan.
Almost of the phones are made in China anyway. It's sort of open source hardware plus open source software Android. The display and chips are fairly standard. The best ones, 800x480, are over $200. It's International and 4G.
If you don't want that state of the art, $100 gets you a pretty smartphone and pretty display too.
Online marketplace sites like dhgate are ebay killers. There are numerous scan artists like eBay in the beginning but there are good protections in place. For standard electronics, you can get full refund if they don't ship you the numerous functions on the list.
Unlike eBay, they allows review too but people are't that talkative as in Amazon. Don't like the idea that the Chinese mafia has your name and card number in their record?
Anyway, there are plenty of reliable merchants and the units they sold worldwide is staggering.
Other reasons you need a smartphone
GPS - smartphones use network information, internet, wi-fi, in additional to satellites to provide accurate information fast. Some have turn to turn instructions and for me, a google map anywhere in the world is super for me.
Free text, free phone call via internet. But you pay the data package. A device good for HD porn will do your stuff justice.
Show your merchandise and portfolio any time. I still remember a non-story about a traveling sale person showing his next seat passenger in his brief case, electrical extension sockets with extension wire. Is that really still necessary?
A pair for grandma's and grand kids? It's so easy and so cheap with video, apart from the plans.
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric shared network printing
Shared printers over the network used to be so simple in Linux, as long as your printer is connected to any computer. Even Windows is doing quite well.
Not anymore. In Oneiric, you can't set the printer via the system settings any more. You have to go through your own internet. Browse to http://localhost:631, the standard CUPS interface.
And then what? Who cares? Can I print now?
First go to your server, the computer to which the printer is connected. Check the printer tab if you see your printer. Then go to the admin tab to enable most if not everything on the server list.
Then go to, say, your netbook. Browse to the same interface. Check the printer appears in the printer tab. Then you also have to enable most if not everything on the server list, while your netbook is obviously the client.
If I know that I would have pay a few dollars more for a wireless printer.
Not anymore. In Oneiric, you can't set the printer via the system settings any more. You have to go through your own internet. Browse to http://localhost:631, the standard CUPS interface.
And then what? Who cares? Can I print now?
First go to your server, the computer to which the printer is connected. Check the printer tab if you see your printer. Then go to the admin tab to enable most if not everything on the server list.
Then go to, say, your netbook. Browse to the same interface. Check the printer appears in the printer tab. Then you also have to enable most if not everything on the server list, while your netbook is obviously the client.
If I know that I would have pay a few dollars more for a wireless printer.
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