THAT DARN CODE
A friend of mine is furious about her paper vaccination card. Her tour group says she can’t go to Egypt without a digital version. Too bad she didn’t get her vaccination at a place like Walgreens or Walmart. Then she could have gotten the necessary QR code.
“How to Get Digital Proof of Your Vaccine Record No Matter Where You Live,” you can go to vaccinecheck.us and pay a subscription fee to have a QR code that works everywhere. I paid $50 to check it out.
At first, I got nowhere. Every time I uploaded my card and hit “submit,” the uploaded file disappeared. Later, I got three emails from VaccineCheck, one of which had a link to “start the verification process.” But when I clicked it, I got one of those bad URL messages. So I called the company listed on my credit card statement, PinPoint LLC. A guy answered vaguely: “Hello?” He had no idea what I was talking about. PinPoint is listed on the web as a shipping company.
The next day, I got a fourth email from VaccineCheck.us, this time with a link to a QR code from the Illinois Department of Health. Darn! I immediately wondered if I could have cut out the middleman. But when I tried to do it on my own, I got a message saying that my information did not match their records. Perhaps it was because they still had my old address. It turns out I have to go to the Department of Motor Vehicles to update your address.
Then I had an idea. Couldn’t anyone take a picture of their vaccination card and turn it into a QR code, using one of the free QR-code generators online. I tried it and it worked like a charm. However, when my friend tried the same thing, her Egyptian tour group said that the QR code had to come from a state health department or healthcare provider.
What a mess. I hope state governments and/or doctors get their act together soon. For more info, search on: “Does My State Have a Covid-19 App?” from PCMag.com.
Update: The friend who couldn’t get her QR code was able to get it from the Illinois Department of Health. Then her physician also started offering QR codes for vaccine records.
Using a Backup Phone
The other night, at a square dance, I tried making a phone call during the break and got a “no cellular networks available” message. That was strange. The dancers around me were connecting to Xfinity and other networks, no problemo.
I decided to add a phone number to my five year-old iPhone for times when my Pixel phone won’t connect to T-Mobile or US Cellular, its two options. To do this, I bought a TracFone SIM card three-pack from Target for $1. It came with SIM cards for AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon. I chose AT&T. TracFone, by the way, is now owned by Verizon, but the Verizon SIM card required a Verizon phone.
After watching a YouTube video to remind myself which way a SIM card goes in, I inserted it. Then I signed up for a year’s worth of TracFone calls and texts for $125. It included only 1.5 gigabytes worth of data for the whole year, but all I want is the ability to make phone calls and texts when my Pixel phone is incommunicado.
Old Movies
My bad: I said in a previous column that you could get the “Old Movies” app for iPhone or Android, but it’s Android only. Instead, try “FilmRise” or, if you have a library card, you can use Kanopy. I decided to take advantage of a 14-day free trial of “The Criterion Channel,” which has great films but is $99 a year after the trial.
Facebook Marketplace Revisited
A reader wrote: “I have sold and bought several items using Facebook Marketplace. What I do is to research on Facebook who they are and long they have been members and what appears in their comments.
“Recently we purchased for $1,500 a recumbent bike I found locally. That was about 50% of its original cost. I researched the seller and although he wouldn’t come down off the listing price he delivered it to our home. To have bought one similar elsewhere might have cost nearly $500 in shipping costs.”
As for selling something, you could research the prospective buyer too, typing their name into the search box. If they look suspicious, you could ignore their query.
Finding Your Files
A reader wrote: “Cloud storage is fine, but my wife trusts her SD card more – for her 20,000-plus (and increasing daily) photos. It’s also easy and quick to copy to a PC, tablet, or laptop regularly.”
There’s only one drawback, he says. With some phones, it can be difficult to figure out what to store where, and how to find them again once you’ve stored them. “In my experience,” he says, “Cheetos and other bribes work well with the nerds who can do this stuff in their sleep!”
I use a free app called “File Master,” for Android and iPhone. It shows me a slightly more detailed view of what’s on my phone than Android’s “Files” app. Google Photos and Google Docs are also good for organizing your files.
App Happy
A reader suggested “Serial Reader,” a fun,free app for Android and iPhone that provides hundreds of classic books, each of which can be read in 15 minute segments. They have everything from Jane Austen to P.G. Wodehouse.
Internuts
Cato.org/human-freedom-index/2021 has just published this year’s “Human Freedom Index.” It shows that in 83 percent of countries in the world, freedom (religious, economic, etc.), has gone down slightly. The U.S. has slipped to position 15, tied with German and Japan. In the top three are Switzerland, New Zealand and Denmark.