RATING HOSPITALS
Posted on June 30th, 2015 by Joy Schwabach
A CHEAP TRIP
Posted on June 28th, 2015 by Joy Schwabach
A reader wondered how much data his smart phone would use, with GPS running the whole time, on a road trip to Florida. First the good news: The GPS system doesn’t use data. Now the bad news: Downloading maps does. One way to avoid data charges is to get a free app called “CoPilot GPS,” which currently has over 14 million users. (We wrote about it once before, but didn’t realize how crucial it was for saving data charges — since we’re on an unlimited data plan, but with very few talk-minutes.) After you install the app, download the region or country you’re interested in. Now you’re ready to see maps and directions offline. You don’t need any cellular or […]
GOOGLE HEALTH TIP
Posted on June 27th, 2015 by Joy Schwabach
We use Google every time we have a question about anything, but some searches are better than others. Adding details helps. Compare the search for “Paleo diet,” with the search on “Paleo risks.” Without the word “risks,” you get a lot of promotional sites. Search on “gluten-free risks,” not “gluten free,” to get the full picture. Adding the word “myth” can also help when searching on health topics, such as “myths of soy.” Sometimes we add the words “side effects” or “dangers.” If something sounds like an urban legend, we copy and paste the whole phrase into Google.com. It’s often revealed as a hoax.
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JOBS REPLACED BY ROBOTS
Posted on June 26th, 2015 by Joy Schwabach
Forty-seven percent of U.S. jobs are in danger of being taken by smart machines and software in the next two decades, according to a recent study by Oxford University’s Martin School. Oddly enough, knowledge workers at the middle and top of the work force are more at risk than those doing physical labor. Already, for example, some news services are using robots to write financial and sports stories.
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APP HAPPY BIRDING
Posted on June 25th, 2015 by Joy Schwabach
If you can’t tell the difference between a White-Breasted Nuthatch and a Blue jay, we’re ashamed of you. You probably could use the “Merlin Bird ID” app from the Cornell University Ornithology Lab. Non-smart phone owners can skip the app and get the information they want from AllAboutBirds.org.
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BRACELET PHONE
Posted on June 24th, 2015 by Joy Schwabach
We sometimes wear our hearts on our sleeves and soon may be wearing our phones there. A company is raising funds on Indiegogo.com, a crowd funding site, like Kickstarter, for what they call the “Blu Wearable Smartphone.” This is not like Apple Watch and similar wrist watch gadgets, this one wraps all the way around your wrist or forearm and you can read the display as your turn the band. The screen is as big as a regular cellphone, only it’s curved around your wrist. It’s ten inches long when unrolled, and two inches wide, You can do that these days, using Corning Glass Company’s “gorilla glass,” which is so flexible you can bend it almost completely back on itself. […]
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BEWARE OF TV ADS
Posted on June 23rd, 2015 by Joy Schwabach
We’re amazed at the info a website can collect about us without our doing anything but visiting.
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THE TRADE IN ON AN OLD PHONE
Posted on June 22nd, 2015 by Joy Schwabach
If you’re like us and have a so-called “unlocked phone,”‘ with “prepaid service,” you may be curious on what it would cost to upgrade. First off, the trade-in value: Amazon would only give us $80 for a Samsung Galaxy S3 that cost us over $500 a few years ago. If we wanted to buy that same phone (used, without contract) from them, the price was $95. Not bad. T-Mobile, our service provider, by contrast, offers to buy it for $40, and sells it for $200. By the way, we pay only $30 a month for unlimited web and text usage and a paltry 100 minutes of phone calls. (That’s okay, we normally only use about ten minutes. We don’t talk […]
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FREE SAT TEST PREPARATION
Posted on June 21st, 2015 by Joy Schwabach
POETRY LOVERS PAGE
Posted on June 21st, 2015 by Joy Schwabach
PoetryLoversPage.com was created in 1995 with one of the first complete collections of poetry by Rudyard Kipling, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Edgar Allen Poe. It also has the best of Robert W. Service, William Shakespeare and many others. Readers may also submit their own poems. The site still has a 1995 (early days for web sites) look, but the poems make it worth a visit.
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