4 NEW WAYS OF UTILIZING TECHNOLOGY ON THE GO

I wrote about this subject at the end of 2012. Since then, new technologies have arrived, for example, the Internet of Things (IoT) and the Internet of People (IoP). Technology is defined as the sum total of state-of-the-art means to solve practical problems. My previous article focused on RVing but, since we have sold our RV in March of 2017 and settled in a home at the Viewpoint Golf Resort, I  shift here to technology applications in general travel.

Wikipedia defines the Internet of Things (IoT) as the network of physical devices, vehicles, home appliances and other items embedded with electronics, software, sensors, etc. which enable them to connect and exchange data with other objects within the Internet.  Now at 9 billion, experts estimate that there will be about 30 billion objects by 2020. Whoa! But why is this no surprise really? IoT is exploding because it enables many useful things: smart people, smart grids, virtual power plants, smart homes, intelligent transportation and even smart cities.

the pacemaker fitted into Bill's upper left chest area

Last Year, Bill collapsed in New Zealand (see this). Upon his return to Phoenix, his cardiologist placed an online heart monitor, an IoT object, on him before we went on our road trip to Pittsburg, Kansas. Because of the monitor, he was able to see how Bill's heart was behaving as we made our way to his 55th HS Reunion. He immediately ordered him to stay put in Pittsburg until a pacemaker could be fitted at a hospital there (click here).  Another good example was the gadget installed in our new car by our insurance provider. For three months, the driving monitor documented monitored how Bill drove. Because they discovered he has good driving habits, his premium was reduced!

Skyroam

For a time we still used our GPS because it had a wider screen than phones despite the fact that I had the Google Pixel XL.  But new cars now have the hugest of screens to which you can cast your phone GPS app.  The phone, good apps, and Internet on the Go guide us wherever we are so they have become indispensable. They tell us where we can find the food we crave for at the moment, the cheapest gas, or the off-the-beaten-path attraction, our correspondent bank’s nearest ATM, or even where the nearest law enforcement station is (although I hope we don’t have to need this). Internet on the go is so important. However, the technology that makes it work anywhere around the world is still quite expensive,  I think. Skyroam charges $9 per day or $99 per month) It's a good thing offline maps have become available and are, in fact, very useful.

my Sony a6000 mirrorless camera

I loved my Nikon DSLR. Photos I took with it won many awards. But it is so bulky I have always asked Bill to carry it for me. So guess what he did? For my 2017 birthday, he gifted me with the Sony A6000 Mirrorless Camera, the newest thing in photography. It is the size of a point and shoot but has the power of a DSLR! Editing photos is a hugely rewarding task so the proliferation of post-processing software has helped me a lot. But now, with the ease of taking photos, it is the storage problem that has become center stage. Google Photos helps me organize and keep all my phone photos in the cloud for free and Facebook’s Moments gives me cloud back-up for all my camera photos in addition to external hard drives.

social media

Finally, the Internet of People (IoP) follows the IoT explosion. When things get smarter, humans and things will cooperate in new ways.  Features of apps we currently use already enable us to communicate faster and better all at the same time even with the family in different parts of the globe. We no longer easily share just pictures but videos as well. Social media allows us to act singly or in groups, in whatever format we prefer, and to however large a circle we may want to reach. It is projected that messaging apps will render emails useless; some universities don’t give out any more new emails. Blockchains have enabled many things, including a Bitcoin economy. Who knows what else is coming for human transactions?

PINNABLE

After almost ten years on the road, we have many devices we no longer can do without while traveling. The laptop I use is more powerful than any I have used and yet is the lightest and smallest.  Bill and I are not early adopters but we certainly utilize technology as much as possible. In this lifestyle, technology has become our slave. But, actually, my slave is Bill because oftentimes, I do not know how to operate many of those gadgets...in the beginning!

Our Lifestyle Adventures: Finally Finishing amid a Fiasco!

Well, I have finally submitted my final manuscript and images to my publisher. Hurray!

The few days before I was able to do that that were sleepless and stressful. I couldn’t put down my laptop except to eat, catch a few hours of sleep, or go to the bathroom. My working hours became 4 am to 7 pm for four straight days. I suspended all wifely duties, including cooking and washing. My husband Bill just went out to buy food. The clothes were left to pile up.

Polishing the manuscript was quoted to me at two thousand dollars. I decided to save that money and do it myself. I licensed for three months the top-rated Grammarly, a grammar-checking software, for a $59. But installing it proved quite a challenge to this technophobic computer lady. We asked help from Byts Computing that was near our Resort. They did it for $25!

Well, the software identified spotted more than 1,500 critical and advanced issues, among them contextual spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors. There were more sentence structure, style, and vocabulary issues, too. I was correcting them at the rate of 100 per hour when, all of a sudden, I hit some key. What followed next almost killed me!

The computer just kept on erasing all the lines after the one I was editing. For one hour, it did that, to my utmost chagrin and horror! Half of the book was summarily wiped away! I nervously ran to Bill, holding off my tears. He was at the gym working out. I pleaded with him to take me to the computer shop. When we got there, the task was aborted, and the file restored.

I lost a whole day’s work! But I went back to work, determined to complete the polishing step. The thought of finally finishing the book, submitting it and being able to turn to marketing pushed me beyond my wildest imagination. At the end of one cycle of corrections, I found out that new errors were introduced. The task had needed four rounds before I was finally satisfied.

253 issues still remain. Most are words that the software did not recognize because they were Tagalog, names or taken out of context. The rest are passive sentences that are better left like that. It was funny, but I found out that my favorite words were “huge, definitely, and pretty.” They were overused! I was completely drained when I finished.

But now I feel good. Those four days were the most I had worked since I retired. But I feel a great sense of accomplishment. My publisher has put together a design team to help me see the book to final publication. I have to make decisions on book size, paper quality, etc. The next time I will work on the book will be to correct the interior and exterior proofs online.

I understand that will be in about three weeks after the design issues are settled between the design team and me. Most probably that will take me to April when my husband and I will be back from our three and a half-week European vacation in Italy, Spain, and France. It is a case of perfect timing, you might say. I may be able to launch the book late May or early June!

Whew! As a reward for our valiant efforts, my husband and I went to see Kingsman: the Secret Service and downed two large bags of popcorn!

Wonderings on Wanderings: Selecting a Publisher

design/title number 1

 design/title number 2

The first thing I was confronted with after finishing my manuscript and sending it over to my editor for Round 1 edit was whether I should go the Traditional or Self-publishing routes. Now that I have sent the revised draft for Round 2, I have decided. Here’s how I made the two decisions. (Included are three tentative cover designs/titles; please comment which you like best!)

design/title number 3

In traditional publishing, the author writes a query letter or a proposal to a publishing house (or has a literary agent do this for them). If the house decides to publish the book, it buys the rights from the writer and pays a small advance on future royalties. Then it puts up the money to design and package the book, print, market, and distribute the book to the public. If the house decides not, the author can turn to another house or literary agent. In self-publishing the author provided the funds to produce the work and market and distribute the book. In the past, the author printed copies resulting in stacks of unsold books gathering dust in the garage! Print on Demand (POD) technology changed all that.

self publishing arm of Amazon

The fundamental differences between the two are 1) time, 2) money, and 3) control. With traditional publishing, a manuscript can take years to become a book because an author may have to pitch the manuscript to several publishing houses or hundreds of literary agents before it is picked up. With self-publishing, an author can literally have a finished book within six months. But authors have to pay for this service, which can be thousands of dollars. Traditional publishing pays some advance and vigorously promotes your book. When you self-publish, you're all by yourself. Thus self-publishing works best for people who are good at marketing and want control because an editor at a publishing house may turn your manuscript into something very different from what you want.  With self-publishing, the author decides about content, design, and appearance, even where the book is marketed and distributed.

self publishig arm of Simon and Schuster

I am 65 and did not want to wait. I am self-publishing! But then I was confronted with many self-publishing companies that offer various publishing packages. Fortunately, the day I turned over my draft for Round 2 Edit to my editor, I found out that four of the most popular companies (AuthorHouse, iUniverse, xLibris, and Trafford all owned by Author Solutions that is affiliated with Pengin/Random Books) had a 50% off promo but only up to Friday, March 14, in just two days! I quickly asked them to give me up to Monday, March 17. They all did! Together with three other companies that did not have promos (CreateSpace by Amazon, Outskirts Press, and Archway Publishing of Simon and Schuster), I set up a matrix with the following criteria: technical services such as ISBN/Congress/copyright assignment, cover and interior designs, formats and trim sizes available, business services such as retail price and royalties, distribution arms, marketing extras, and intangibles and add-on services. 

independent publishing house

The variety of offerings led me to think clearly what my goal was in publishing the book. Was it to tell my story to friends and relatives or to tell it to a wider audience? If the former, I should select the cheapest alternative which turned out to be $925. If the latter, I should select a completely different type of package, one that would give me the opportunity to be heard by a wider number of people. I chose the latter, at $1,299 (originally $2,599) that had an editorial evaluation service with the package. If the editors deem your book to be worthy, they stamp the book cover with an Editor’s Choice seal and, if your marketing program is deemed adequate, your book is advertised with the Rising Star collection. With sales of 500 books in traditional outlets like bookstores, your book will be stamped a Star and  given financial aid. 

one of four by Author Solutions

So I bought the chance to be in these Recognition Programs for $325 more. Even if I do not land them, the editorial evaluation alone will enable me to improve my book. Besides, with the royalties provided, it means only an additional 300 books to recoup the additional investment. I thought it was worth the risk.

one of four by Author Solutions

At the time of this writing, I have signed the Publishing Agreement with iUniverse and I have at most six months to turn over my manuscript to them. I plan to do so before Bill and I leave for Europe on May 17. Six months after, I will have a book on the market!

one of four by Author Solutions

In other words, I have finally committed to deliver to you, my dear readers, a book about what you have been reading about in this blog: our four and a half year cruise of North America…with all the juicy stories behind the scenes! 

one of four by Author Solutions and the one with whom I signed up

WOW: Utilizing Technology on the Go

showing off my Samsung Galaxy Note II from Bill and my Samsung GalaxyTab 2 from Trish and Deejay

Technology is the sum total of state-of-the-art means (specific methods, materials, and devices) used to solve today’s practical problems.  Today’s means include hardware, software, etc.  The practical problems of cruising in an RV are 1) staying in contact with distant family and friends, 2) reducing load on the RV to minimize fuel expense, 3) getting around new destinations through unfamiliar roads, 4) documenting the enjoyment of new places, activities, and friends, and 5) being prepared for all kinds of conditions (no power, getting stranded, etc.). For you, we scan below the general purpose gadgets and the special RV technologies we are using on the go!

General Purpose Gadgets

the roof contains the dome for the dish satellite
as well as for vents, heat strip, and a/c units plus antenna

Black Fridays (which is always near my birthday) have always been opportunities to upgrade our gadgets. In 2010 Bill gave me with a high power, lightweight (3 lbs) 13-inch Toshiba Protégé laptop. In 2011 I gave him a 5-inch and lifetime map update Garmin GPS.  He gave me a new combination microwave/oven/crisper and a Samsung Galaxy Nexus, a smartphone with mobile Hotspot.  And we gave ourselves the connection for our DirectTV satellite In-Motion dish. This  year Bill got me a Samsung Galaxy Note 2 which is a 5.5 inch smartphone (and he gets the Nexus) and Trish, my eldest daughter and her husband Deejay got me a Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 for my birthday/Christmas gifts (Bill gets the Protégé then!).

the Kindle!

So with all this processing power in our RV, we can do anything we want anywhere! We use the laptop and tablet for keeping and updating many digital files, banking and paying bills, writing posts and processing other stuff, emailing and  video-chatting with family (April in the UK and Claudine and family in Calgary and all the kids and grandkids all over  the USA). The Kindle now holds about 50 odd books and mags for Bill and me. And our smartphones, besides being our          phones, now have Mobile Hotspots, replacing the MIFI (Verizon broadband), become our PDAs (personal digital assistant), and serve as back-up cameras when we forget to bring the bulky Nikkon DSLR! 

Wide Screen Garmin GPS

The GPS has the widest screen available (although there is a wider screen, special RV GPS model which we thought was  too spendy) in the market and now includes real time traffic information. Together with the smartphones, we always have a guide to the next campground, the next tourist spot, the nearest Costco, the nearest  Redbox,  the type of food we crave for the moment, the local attraction we do not want to miss, the nearest gas station, the closest dump station, and other necessities of being so new in and around places all the time!

Nikon DSLR D5000 

Bill's Dashboard

The DSLR camera has been great for taking superb shots of outstanding scenery. We have 2 lenses to take care of most distances (like capturing a bear in action from a safe distance), action shots (like me singing in a karaoke session),  and other changing requirements. The DSLR gives us greater control and better pictures than a point-and-click camera. It allows for higher resolutions for higher quality pictures. Editing the photos for posting to this blog is an enjoyable and hugely rewarding task especially after you see the results. We now have about 30,000 photos in all our external drives combined, exceeding a terrabyte in capacity.

Ziller Karaoke System

And I haven’t even talked about our thousands of songs on our 2 iPods and our Asian Karaoke system (gifts to each other from early times)!

                                       RV Technology Gizmos

Bill's main control system or tanks, batteries, propane, water

Our home on wheels also requires lots of special technology! We utilize systems that are mostly satellite-based so that things can still be operable wherever we may end up. There are also usually different kinds of systems available for different kinds of situations. And the devices are usually more compact than those we use in regular homes.

refrigerator controls that now shows electric power use

combo washer/dryer

Let us take power for instance. On the road or while dry camping (camping without hook-ups or in the boondocks), the refrigerator runs on LPG. Parked at a full-hookup campground, it draws power, like all other appliances and lights, from a 30 or 50 amp circuit (we prefer 50 because we have included everything a home needs including a washer/dryer).  While dry camping, lights are run by house batteries while the generator runs all others heavy drawers such as the furnace, air-conditioning, microwave/oven, washer/dryer, etc., including my hair dryer!.

main system under the RV for control of plumbing systems

the campground hook-ups we attach to

Plumbing is also different in an RV. We have three different tank systems.  We can hook up to city water or store it in a fresh water tank underneath the RV.  The “grey water” tank holds the water from the sinks, shower, and washing machine/dryer combo. The “black water” tank holds - you guessed it- the water from the toilet.  We have to make sure they are all drained and flushed regularly.  Most campgrounds have hookups to take care of this but when they don’t or when we just use a parking lot, like at a Walmart for a night or just camp by the side of a river as we did on the road to the Arctic Circle, we have to look for public or for pay dump stations or (heaven forbid!) resort to blue boys (you don’t want me to tell you about those!).

monitor for inside and outside temperature and humidity
and the white unit above right for automatic control of fans and vents

This is only our second RV (first was Star and now it’s M’A). We have yet to install solar panels, and activate the in-motion TV so I can watch even while Bill is driving (whenever I need to watch Nadal live!). And driving a 37 foot Class A towing a compact car behind it means a total of about 52-53 feet! Backing up can be quite tricky. So there is a TV  monitor that helps Bill. And the towing system (Blue Ox is the brand we use) is readily set up in a Saturn (too bad they are out of production). We have not had an opportunity to use the short-wave radio though. There is really no end to the  technology we can benefit from.  

protector for gas leak from anywhere

microwave/browner/oven/combi cooking

After almost 4 years on the road, we have many devices we no longer can do without. We are not really early adopters but we certainly utilize technology as much as possible. In this lifestyle, technology has become our slave! So has Bill become mine because I do not know how to operate many of these gizmos!

entertainment deck