10 Tech Things

I have always loved tech but these days. the invasive surveillance by big tech companies is seriously getting out of hand. My tech set up these days to avoid the surveillance-industrial complex...

1. I bought a Pixel 9a and "deGoogled" it (yes there is some irony there) by installing Graphene OS. It's a pretty simple process which is outlined on this YouTube channel.
2. This phone does not take the best pictures so I do have a Galaxy S26 Ultra with no sim card in it that I use for quality photos and videos. I would prefer a point-and-shoot camera but the cost for these once cheap cameras has increased by 500% over the past 20 years!
3. I use Mint mobile for my cell carrier due to their cheap $15 per month plan. For more secure calling here is an option. My life is quite boring so no super secret squirrel calls or texts for me, just a bunch of boring texts and calls between me and hubby and me and a few friends.
4. I have several laptops, one with Windows 11 for work-only stuff, one with Windows 10 which I use occasionally because it has old versions of MS Office and Adobe Photoshop on it, and two that I changed the operating systems to Linux Mint, a more privacy-focused operating system. There are lots of videos on how to do this on YouTube.
5. I also use privacy-respecting browsers (Brave, Firefox, Vanadium), free and open-source software (LibreOffice, VLC, Handbrake, etc), and secure apps (Signal, Organic Maps, etc).
6. I have gone old-school for some work things such as using a paper calendar book, a paper and pen for writing notes, and phone calls when needed (more secure than email).
7. And I am going more old-school for my entertainment options too. Hubby loves Netflix (way too much tracking) but I prefer over-the-air antenna for my dumb TV, books and DVDs from the Goodwill instead of reading everything on a Kindle, and listening to the radio instead of streaming music.
8. Other entertainment options I have tried include HAM radio, paper books of crossword and find-a-word puzzles, going outside and taking a walk, playing darts, jigsaw puzzles, and I am thinking about getting a metal detector.
9. I have pretty much closed all of my social media accounts (reddit, X, Instagram), but still have Facebook to keep in touch with the kids and grandkids (although I am looking for a way to delete this account as well).
10. While I would need to be a hermit to avoid all tracking, I am making small changes, like paying cash instead of credit card sometimes, writing letters (I have a few friends that still like to write letters), and having in-person conversations with friends.

AI AI Oh!

So AI is taking over...everything. On the one hand I am old and like using my brain, but on the other hand, using it saves me So. Much. Time. Aside from the obvious AI slop that is all over YouTube, there are so many ways to use this new technology...

• When Chat GPT was first released, I didn't really have a use for it but I told it to write me a song in the style of Kanye West (he may be a creeper but he is a talented songwriter). Within seconds it produced better lyrics than Kanye could and I was shocked!
• Then I had a PDF document that I couldn't un-PDF and faced the task of typing out an entire document so I could rearrange it. In desperation I uploaded it to Gemini AI and it printed out the document perfectly into a Word document and I was able to get my revisions done in record time.
• Next, I had some bylaws for an organization that I said I would review and update. Thinking that I could spend a couple hours revising and researching or I could ask Gemini AI to revise the bylaws according to current 501c3 rules, I uploaded the document and within a literal minute had an updated, accurate, and beautifully revised document. Awesome!
• I wanted to see what Gemini AI could do with photos so I uploaded a photo of hubby, told it to turn the photo into a cartoon, and it downloaded a cartoon-looking picture of hubby which I used for our Facebook page. Cute!
• My friend emailed me at zero-dark-thirty this morning and said "can you please write me a letter to our leasing company asking to be released from our current lease a couple months early because my new house just closed?". I simply cut and paste her exact words into Gemini AI and within a minute it printed out a letter for her to send. Her only comment was "you write so quickly and professionally!" I did tell her it was AI and not me doing the work. She was shocked.
• I was talking to a friend who is a district manager with a company that recently asked him to run a second district when that manager quit unexpectedly. I asked him if he ever uses AI and he said "yes, all day, everyday". I suggested that with AI, he could permanently run both districts, make a higher salary for doing the extra work, yet the company can also save money by not hiring a new full time district manager. He said he was already on it and is expecting a job offer, at much higher pay, any day now.
• Finally, I attended a meeting today and I asked who had their AI avatar on. The host said one lady in our group couldn't attend the meeting so she had her avatar attend the meeting in her place (basically it records the meeting and sends the recording to her inbox). Yikes this technology is evolving quickly!

So I guess whether we love AI or hate AI, it is here to stay. I didn't like the concept at first but remembered the movie 'Hidden Figures' that I watched several years ago. The computers (ladies who computed math equations) were being replaced by computers (the machines).  Instead of complaining about the change like most people were doing, one lady jumped into learning the new system thereby securing herself a new job as a trainer for how to use the new machines. In this vein, I try to watch a few "how to use AI" videos each evening so I can find new and effective ways to enhance my work with the new technology.

Graphene?

My project today was to change the Android operating system on my cell phone to the Graphene operating system.  Both Apple and Samsung monitor your every waking moment when you use their phones (it's 24/7 monitoring if you wear their smart watches), so I thought I would give a more privacy-centered cell phone a shot. On the one hand, I am the most boring person on the planet so I have nothing to hide, but on the other hand, I think people should express their displeasure with big tech monitoring everything they do through such actions. Also, I only use my cell phone for texting and the occasional call, no social media, etc. The process was surprisingly easy (I followed the Side of Burritos YouTube guy's step-by-step video). And now I have a basic phone that appears to work just fine. Apparently you can fancy it up with a bunch of apps but I haven't done that yet.

A quick tip--be nice to people!  If there is one thing the world needs more of, it's kind gestures.  I was reading Lori's blog post about a nice experience she had recently at a restaurant and it reminded me that everyone should probably do these sorts of things for others. Here are some other examples of kind gestures.

Apparently I Am a Tech Genius!

Not really, but I certainly felt like one when hubby and I successfully changed out the battery in my old tablet and it actually worked afterwards(!).  In fact, we were feeling so technically proficient that after the tablet experiment we took the hard drive out of an old laptop and killed it (the hard drive) with a hammer.

In the case of the tablet, the battery was nearing five years old and draining really fast so I ordered a battery online for $20 then we watched a video on how to change it out and it was actually pretty easy to do.  I was really surprised that the tablet turned on when we put it back together since we had never done something like this before; hopefully this battery holds a longer charge and keeps the tablet alive for a few more years!

In the case of the laptop, it was one I had had for years.  It was an early prototype for the newer Dell XPS and was top of the line back in the day.  But I never really liked it so it sat in the closet for years and when I took it out recently to reset it so I could give it away, it wouldn't turn on.  Again, we used YouTube to figure out how to remove the battery thinking to replace the battery so it would work again but after we took the battery out, I went online only to find the battery cost $199!  Yikes.  Since I didn't want to put so much money into a very old laptop, I decided to remove the hard drive since it still had my old files on it which I don't want to share with anyone who may end up with the laptop, put it back together sans the hard drive but with the old, nonfunctional battery, and we will send it to the Philippines where they can fix pretty much anything for very low prices.

The moral of this story is that you can actually do many technical things that you may not think you can do with only the help of a few YouTube videos.  If you have old tech devices that you want to bring back to life with cheap online components, give it a shot!

How I Research a New Purchase...To Death

This is my new tablet. It is a Galaxy Tab S5e and so far I love it!  In fact I am writing this blog post from my new tablet (doable but much slower than on my laptop!).

I've been looking for a new tablet for a while. My Tab S2 was amazing but I had it since 2015 and the battery life was declining daily (it was lucky to last four hours on a charge).  What I really wanted was a high powered 8 inch tablet with a fast processor and lots of memory. So I started to research. And research some more.

The best tablets, IMHO, are from Samsung. I am a huge Android fan, and really don't like Apple products, so Samsung it is.  After hours of online research and watching copious YouTube review videos, I finally went to Best Buy to check out the tablets they had in stock.  Unfortunately there are no high end 8 inch tablets on the market now (Apple has the 8 inch iPad mini 5 which is apparently a great device if you are an Apple fan, and Huawei has a well reviewed 8 inch tablet but I was worried about what would happen to it after the ban against Chinese tech products goes into affect in a few months).

At the store I decided I really liked the S5e tablet, it seemed pretty fast and was amazingly thin and light so even though it was a 10 inch tablet, carrying it around with me everyday wouldn't be much heavier than carrying the 8 inch tablet.

So back home I went to research prices (I told you I tend to research things to death). I checked prices at all the online stores (Amazon, Best Buy, Walmart,  B & H, etc), as well as prices for the device at military stores, open box deals, and Costco. It turns out Costco had the best price ($429 versus $479 at all the other stores for the 6gig/128GB with a bonus 128GB memory card) so off I went to Costco to buy it. Besides saving money over the price of the tablet at other stores, Costco also has an amazing return policy if I decide I don't like it.

After a few days of use, I still really like it. The extra screen real estate is nice, I ordered a great tablet cover from Amazon for it for $12, it charges really fast, and I have yet to use up all of the battery even using the tablet for an entire day and evening. The screen is amazing and the sound is amazing too, the only downside for some people would be that it doesn't have a headphone jack (it comes with a dongle for the jack in the box) but I have some inexpensive wireless earbuds which work great with it that doesn't physically teather me to the device which I really like. 

Galaxy will release the Tab S6 next week which is supposed to be the exact same size and weight as this tablet. It will have a faster processor chipset and be better, spec-wise, than this tablet but after considering this, and the extra cost (the new tablet will run around $650), I decided that it wasn't worth it to me to have a marginally faster tablet and the included S pen which I don't use anyway.

So that's how I tend to consider every new purchase. Do I really need it, are there other alternatives, what will for my needs, do I need the very best item or will OK work well for me, which store had the best price, can I find review videos to get other people's opinions on the item, etc. Ad nauseum.

This is Why I Am a Late Adapter

While I love technology in all its guises, I am actually a late adapter in almost all cases.  Early adapters, people who have to have the newest tech the minute it comes out, generally pay the highest prices and run the highest risk of their brand new tech items not working as promised (or even exploding!  Yikes!).  Here are several reasons I am usually cautious with new tech stuff...

• Bitcoin was all the talk at our last Christmas dinner as all of the nieces and nephews who work in tech were raving about this new cyber currency (and collecting it up like they were investing in gold).  Now cyber currency is tanking.  I'm very leery about currency that is not regulated or backed by, well, anything or any government.
• I'm a big fan of Galaxy cell phones.  I had the S3, Note 4, S5, and now the S8 Plus but I bought these all after they had been on the market for while and after they were priced at half off.  For those who bought the Galaxy Note 7 however, their phones would catch on fire and in some cases explode--yikes!--to the point that the entire line had to be recalled.  I like waiting for new tech to have a "shake out" period so any problems can be noted and fixed.
• Sometimes new tech promises more than it can deliver.  My friend bought a new Tesla a couple years ago and raved about the "free" cost to drive it because it came with free charging for life.  As of today there was a notice that this perk will be going away.
• MoviePass was a great idea for about a minute, but again, it seemed to have promised way more than it could deliver (how could they not see that some people when promised 'all the movies you can watch' wouldn't, well, watch all of the movies they possibly could?).
• Finally, I am still leery about any personal tech that can be hacked.  Whether we are talking about cars, home assistants, or medical devices, having my tech stuff be hacked, or worse, be hacked and used against me, is pretty scary!

10 Ways I Save Money on Tech Stuff

Some random things I do that save me a lot of money on tech stuff:

1. I buy my internet domain names at NameCheap so they are only $10 per year (other places charge much more).
2. I host my websites through In Motion; with their bulk hosting plan I can host as many sites as I want for $200 a year.
3. I have had TMobile forever for my cell service and I often check to see what their latest plans are (we got in on one of their plans a while back which gives us three lines--one for me, one for hubby, one for one of the kids--with unlimited everything for $100 total).
4. I buy all of my tech stuff on sale after massive amounts of research.  My favorite places to buy things are through the Best Buy's 'deal of the day', through Tech Bargains, when TMobile or Samsung has half off their cell phones specials, and sometimes at Costco when there is a good sale.
5. I get my software via Tech Soup through a non profit I do work for.  It is highly discounted and is an excellent deal (but for non-profits only).
6. I also make use of lots of free online software (Libre Office for hubby's computers, free online photo editors, etc).
7. For work, when I have to organize call-in meetings, I use GoToMeeting and freeconferencecall.com.  Google Docs is also excellent for collaborative writing projects.
8. For internet it is similar to cell phone plans; I keep an eye out for any sales or specials on internet service from our local provider (Cox), most recently they had a plan where it was cheaper to get internet and basic cable TV for a flat rate and they said the price will never change so I grabbed that deal and we are pretty happy with it!
9. I absolutely LOVE the Kindle app on my cell/tablet/computer.  Our library is really amazing anyway but they have so many online services now that from their website I can download all kinds of free things from books to music to movies to magazines, etc.
10. Finally, online banking has saved me a lot of hassle and effort.  I have three banks, two not even in our city, and I mostly do all of my banking online.  All of my paychecks are automatically deposited into my bank account, all checks are deposited through the app on my phone, nearly all of our bills are paid online, we can transfer money to the kids for free...I'm not sure how we all lived without online banking in the past!

Free Tech Stuff

Here are a bunch of resources for free, useful tech stuff:

• 15 Tech Upgrades You Can Get for Free
• 10 Incredibly Useful Online Sites
• Software So Good You Can't Believe It's Free
• Top Free Software
• Free Software from NASA

I Need to Stop Shopping!

We are getting ready for our trip and I have been doing way too much shopping!  Among our purchases:

• Hubby pulled out his (very old) netbook that he uses for traveling and it was SO SLOW that I decided he needed a new travel computer.  A tablet would be kind of hard for him to manage because he plays a lot of poker online so he ended up with a small ChromeBook which he loves (and was very cheap at under $200).  The Chrome Book was SO SIMPLE that he loves it.  He doesn't really do anything on computers besides watch Netflix and play poker so a computer with only a couple of buttons to click on works great for him.
• I did get a $500+ refund when I returned the new computer I bought hubby last week.  I thought a big 17" laptop would be great for him as he tends to watch Netflix and play poker at the same time so more screen space seemed like it would be a good idea.  However,the computer came with Windows 8 which he absolutely hated and told me to return it.  So now he will just keep his 15" laptop until a better operating system comes out.
• I got (yet another) new tablet.  I had a 7" tablet a few months ago but since it was just barely bigger than my cell phone it wasn't all that useful so I sold it on Craigslist (at a $30 loss from what I originally purchased it for).  But for traveling I decided I would rather carry a tablet that my 14" laptop.  So I did a ton of research (as usual) and found that while a nice Galaxy Tab Pro 12" or a Surface Pro would be wonderful, it would also be very expensive (at $600+).  So for $279 I got a 10" Asus Memo tablet which had many hundreds of very positive reviews.  I need to buy a blue tooth keyboard and mouse for it (via Amazon which is much cheaper than in stores) and I will be all set for traveling with a very lightweight but still very functional computer/tablet.
• I need some black shoes for my WSOP work.  Last year I spent about $10 on a cheap pair from Payless which actually worked fine (they were comfortable but since they were plastic-ish tennis shoes the smelled pretty badly after eight hours of work).  So now I am looking at getting some more expensive New Balance shoes (like this) made specifically for walking which I will be able to use both for work and for my distance walking.  *Speaking of which I have walked six miles a day for the past four days and hope to keep it up until we go on vacation*

Bottom line: after our trip I am definitely going on a spending fast until about July.  The month of May should be pretty quiet around here and I figure that while I am working during the month of June I will be too busy to go shopping.  I need to start saving money instead of spending it!