My brother reminded me that I forgot the most important tech tip EVER, in last week’s News. So here goes, hang on tight.

Try rebooting! What that actually means is to do a power cycle, or, power it off, then power it on. Yes, that is likely the single most critical and worthwhile tech tip I can offer. And it’s not just me, a lot of tech folks will tell you, ‘Rebooting’ cures a whole lotta what ails you.

From TVs to cars, to phones and computers, a power cycle can often be just the thing to resolve problems. Too bad you can’t do that with our government, but I digress.

So Bruce, thanks for the reminder.

Now, on to the next thing. Tech can be tricky, and super frustrating, so be patient, and if you are getting angry, then call for help. Call your kid, or your grandkid. Call a neighbor or a friend, but don’t get mad. Sometimes you need to take a break. Feel free to write me at [email protected] if you need to, and I’ll try and help.

Don’t fall for any scams. I talked about this last week and, over that time, I received several, including one from ‘UPS’ about a package unable to be delivered to me.  What’s the thing about getting a text message that says ‘Hi’, or the one saying they haven’t seen me in a while and let’s get together and blah blah blah. I delete those and report them as junk, which is an option when selecting Delete.
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Final tech tip of the day, ease up on the tech. Go take a hike, or at least a walk, and look around where we live. It’s stunning here. Northern New Mexico has to be one of the most beautiful places on the planet. Don’t want to walk, then drive. One of the most stunning drives I’ve ever done is up Hwy 84 to 64 and across to Taos, and then down to Espanola through the Rio Grande Gorge. So much to see.

By BD Bondy
 
Carol asked me to write about my 5 favorite tech tips from the past year. Since I don’t remember any of them, I’ll just write about 5 good tech tips.
 
If you still actually use a computer, particularly for writing, then learn the basic keyboard shortcuts. Copy & Paste, Bold, Underline, End, That sort of thing. A Windows link you should have is HERE. 
 
For Apple Users HERE:
 
Backup your data. On tablets and phones, you’re probably saving to a cloud based service that backs up a certain amount of your data. That’s a good thing. However, if you only backup 5Gb of the data, you probably need to buy some more space. On my iPhone, it’s 99 cents a month to get 50Gb of data, which backs up both my phone and my computer. Carol pays for one or two terabytes of data, as she has more devices and more to save. On my PC, I use a backup drive. I attach it every once in a while and copy and paste the folders I want saved. On a Mac, you can use Time Machine.
 
Keep your device up to date. For the most part, this is a great thing to do. You can turn the option off on many devices, but it’s usually a good idea to keep it up to date. Bugs get fixed, new security updates get installed, and once in a while, a new feature will be loaded.
 
Use the cruise control on your car. And I mean, set it to the speed limit. It’ll keep you going a steady speed, maybe avoid getting stopped by a cop, and it’s easier to drive that way. Don’t be in a hurry, relax, and enjoy the ride. It’s best to get to where you’re going safely and in one piece.
 
Look out for scammers. Don’t believe everything you see on your device. Social media is not the right place to get your news. The IRS isn’t sending you messages to pay up, the US Marshal’s aren’t requiring you pay a fine or go to jail, and Apple and Microsoft are definitely not monitoring your computer for viruses and trying to fix it for a fee.
 
I still get messages from “UPS” that say they couldn’t deliver a package and please call this number, blah blah blah. They’ve been coming to my house for over 20 years, so there’s no reason they can’t deliver a package. Often, the grammar is obvious enough that something is fishy, but checking the sender’s email address by clicking on it and expanding the info is a great way to find that it isn’t really from whomever they say they are.
 
There you go, some free tech advice, worth every penny. 

It’s the end of 2023, and another ‘good riddance’ I say. That’s not really fair, as there were some great things in 2023. And there’s always good and bad to live with. That’s the real world, I suppose. I am fortunate enough to have a great deal to be thankful for, so I will amend my statement to, ‘so long 2023’.
 
For those of us lucky enough to live in Northern New Mexico, technology sometimes seems a fuzzy, distant thing on the horizon. It seems to come upon us more slowly here. It also sometimes sneaks in on us, without our noticing. Driving through Espanola, there are a lot of Wi-Fi devices and cameras mounted on the traffic lights. Subtle, in a way you might not notice.
 
I have a bunch of cameras at my house, mostly to watch the animals that show up, but also to see when the UPS driver snuck up so quietly and left several packages, so quietly my dog didn’t notice. The guy is a Ninja.
 
I was facetiming my daughter last night and it was dark on her end. She said something like ‘Hey Google, turn on the living room lights’ and the room lit up a second later. I forget that sort of thing is easy to do and commonplace elsewhere. I have a friend here in Abiquiu that controls his office lights with his iPhone. I guess it’s not so far off. I feel like a chump as I have to stand up and walk over to the lightswitch. Still, I can look at the feral cat that lives under our porch, from an app on my phone, so I’m not a total troglodyte.
 
All this is a lead-in to an article I read about some commonly used IoT, or Internet of Things. My refrigerator isn’t ordering groceries for me yet, but that tech is out there. My cousins are farmers in Illinois and their tractors map the planting using GPS, which is then used during the harvest. John Deere is definitely a leading edge company when it comes to using tech in agriculture.
 
We have a smart thermostat that is controlled from Carol’s phone. She can access the thermostat from anywhere she has an internet connection. Particularly useful when we’re coming home, let’s say, from a long day in Santa Fe and it’s gotten cold and we’d like to warm the house up for when we get there.
 
Medicine is getting into it with smart watches that can not only monitor your heart rate, but they can measure your oxygen, temperature and some are now doing blood pressure and blood glucose. I have a little pocket device that can do an EKG. I can see in the near future where you can have clothing with built in sensors that send info to your phone about your health.
 
Newer cars are connecting to the internet now as well, not only for navigation and music, but they can automatically sense an accident and send an ‘SOS’ for help. There is way more going on than what is obvious, and you can read about some of that HERE. Real-World Examples of IoT Software Development Success (msn.com)

I’ve written about this before, but it has come up again recently, so here goes.

I’m not a fan of Windstream. I’m not a fan of Elon Musk either, however, I probably wouldn’t care for a great many CEO’s of the companies I buy from. So I am a big fan of Starlink, and Amazon, for that matter. Starlink is relatively expensive. While it has been completely trouble free for the last year and a half, price matters, so it’s not for everyone.

I’ve written about hotspots before. I know some folks out by the lake that use ATT hotspots. And a person just down the road from me recently got a T-Mobile hotspot she is VERY happy with. The one I didn’t have any real knowledge of someone using was the Verizon hotspot, and now, I know someone on Hwy 84 that got one for their rental casita.

Generally, the speed you can get from a hotspot is very good. I’ve heard ranges from 40mbs to 200mbs. Streaming is certainly able to be done using them, and even multiple devices streaming, so the bandwidth is there. I was told that T-Mobile went through a bad period for quite a while earlier this year, while they were working on the tower over by the rural events buildings. That seems over with, it's back up and faster than before.

The only issue that you might have is data caps. Like some services, you buy your hotspot with a data limit. After you reach that limit, the service is throttled down so speeds decline. You will then have the option to buy some more data or wait out the period until your next billing cycle.
As a bit of background, these cell service Wi-Fi hotspots work by using the cell towers in our area. The cell tower is the communications hub for the Wi-Fi hotspot device. The hotspot device then broadcasts a Wi-Fi signal that your device (phone, tablet, computer, etc.) can use. Your Wi-Fi device talks with the hotspot, which translates the data to a cell signal the tower uses, and the tower routes that data to wherever it needs to go.

It’s similar to the DSL coming from Windstream into your house via the phone lines, or the Cox signal, over the coax line, or the satellite signal from Starlink. They're just different delivery systems of the same data, eventually being changed into something your device can talk with.
Ultimately, the available signal at your house can determine the brand of hotspot. I have a verizon phone, but not a Verizon signal at my house, so I use Wi-Fi calling at home. Since the building of the T-Mobile tower though, I have line of sight to that so I could get a T-Mobile hotspot and dump Starlink. It would probably be a money saver, but like I said, I’ve had zero issues with Starlink.

If you are not happy with Windstream, then you might check out a hotspot from one of the Big 3 phone providers. ATT works out by the lake, but not much most places around here. Verizon is good in our area, but not at my house. T-Mobile is newer, 5G, and may be a good choice, if you get their signal.
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Another thing to consider. Back in the day, we briefly had a Sprint hotspot. We could drive around in the car with it and get a WiFi signal via the Sprint network. I would guess that if you can power your hotspot, you could take it with you. Just a thought. And remember, for short term, you can likely use your phone or tablet as a Wi-Fi hotspot. If it has a cell card in it, then the option to set up a hotspot on the device is likely in the Settings App.