RV Centennial Stories at RV.net

Did you know that this year marks the 100 year anniversary of RVing?  That’s the theme at The Rally, and there are some vintage RVs here to honor it, the earliest being from 1936!  We’ll take some pictures today and add them here.  And, yes, I had to submit my story as well … actually it’s my parents’ story, since I was only 10 at the time of our first RV trip.

I know I’ve posted this video in the blog before, but I think it bears repeating!  Here’s the video I did about my family’s early RVing days:

And, as long as I’m at it, here’s a little video of our current RV home and how we modified it with our offices: And, here’s a brief overview of where we’ve been in this RV so far: In case you’re wondering, all three of the videos above were created using Photo Story 3 – a free program from Microsoft. We’re teaching a seminar on how to do it (it is SOO easy!) on Sunday here at The Rally.

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There are lots of choices, just look for ‘Wireless Network Adapter.’  It will also say 802.11 somewhere in the description.  802.11b is the oldest technology, then comes g, and the latest and greatest is n.

Turn off your Internal Wi-Fi

It’s important to understand that these do not ‘boost’ the Wi-Fi adapter built in to your computer. They ‘replace’ it. You should turn off the internal adapter in your computer in order to properly use an external adapter.  See the Geeks on Tour ‘Show-Me-How’ video ‘Turn Off your Internal Wi-Fi.’

Improving our Wi-Fi Experience

When we parked at our current RV park, and tried to connect to the Wi-Fi, it took a while to make the connection and browsing was very slow. So we took our new Hawking Wi-Fi adapter out of the box, used the included CD to install the drivers, plugged the adapter into a USB port and turned off the wireless switch on the computer.

This time the connection happened a little faster, but, more importantly, the browsing was faster. Still not as good as our DSL at our home park, but better nonetheless. Wi-Fi is 2-way radio. Low-powered, 2-way radio.  The radio and antenna built in to your laptop computer is often not good enough for the distances and obstructions in an RV park. Plugging in an external adapter (radio and antenna are both inside) with a wire to your USB port allows you to move the adapter over to a window, or even outside a window so as to get an unobstructed line-of-sight to the source of the Wi-Fi – the Access Point. Unobstructed line-of-sight is the most important factor in a good Wi-Fi connection.  Notice, in the photo of our adapter above, that I have it pointed out a window.  Notice also that I have the metal mini-blinds raised above the adapter.  Those metal mini-blinds can make a big difference in your connection!

For other, past articles/videos on this topic:

The #1 Best way to Improve your Wi-Fi Connection
WiFire Long Range Adapter
Get the right Wi-Fi Adapter
54Mbps is Not better than 11Mbps
Wi-Fi for Beginners

Other Geeks on Tour Show-Me-How videos on this topic.

Related posts:

1. WiFi Antennas: Getting Creative
2. The #1 Best Thing to Improve your Wi-Fi Internet connection
3. What is Wi-Fi? (part 2)

When we first bought our motorhome, it had 2 TVs.  One in the front, living/dining area, and one in the back – the bedroom.

We got rid of both of them and set up a TV tuner with a projector and a window-shade screen.  It’s great!  We have a big screen with surround sound – a pretty good home theatre for any house, let alone a 30 foot class C motorhome!

When I recently purchased a new Windows 7 laptop, we wondered what to do with my old laptop.  It was still working fine, ( see rule #1 for buying a new computer) so I wasn’t going to send it off to recycling.  How about a TV for the bedroom!  Jim found a stud in the wall and installed a TV shelf bracket that fits my old laptop just perfect.

The antenna connection was already there, all we needed was the TV tuner.  The one Jim got is the ATI  TV Wonder (he got a great deal – $25 – by buying it on the daily special at Woot.com), but he’s also used the Hauppage.  Just google for USB TV Tuner to see lots of other choices.  Basically this tiny box is the guts of a television!  Just plug one end into the USB port of your computer, and the other end into an antenna.

Of course, there is software as well, and you need to be sure whatever you get works with your computer’s operating system.  Once you have it all set up, you have TV!  Ours even came with a remote control.  And, since it is still a computer – it is even better than a TV – you can get the Guide from the Internet, you can record and playback shows using your computer as a Digital Video Recorder (DVR.)   And, if you can’t find anything on TV you can use the computer to play a DVD or watch Internet video on Hulu.

Be aware that this system is a bit of a resource hog.  Don’t expect it to work on a computer that’s too old – read the system requirements on the tuner.  And, be ready to get a bit geeky in setting it up.

I actually have no clue what’s involved in setting it up   That’s Jim’s job!  But, I do like having TV in the bedroom – when Jim’s watching football on the big screen, I now have other choices!

Related posts:

1. Do you turn your computer off?
2. 7 Tips for Buying a New Computer
3. Turn off File and Printer Sharing

I was wrong.

When you live fulltime in an RV, it’s your life – not a vacation.  And, our life involves sitting at the computer a lot.  When we’re in travel mode, it means sitting in car seats a lot.  In other words, we have to make a conscious effort to get exercise in our life just like before we became RVers.  And, since we’re always in someplace new, we can’t get into a habit of any walking route.  

Enter the Wii Fit.  We love it!  We got the Wii Fit several months ago – but it’s been in hiding for the last couple months    We just got the Wii Fit Plus to re-energize us.  Both Jim and I have done our ‘workouts’ twice this week.  It’s something that actually fits in our lifestyle, *and* in our RV.  If you’re already fit, the exercises will be laughably easy, but if you’re a ‘mouse-potato’ like us that’s a good thing!

One great thing about the Wii Fit is that it keeps records for you.  It knows how long since you last worked out, it knows how much you weighed last time and how much you weigh now.  It has no hesitation in telling you in a clear voice, “You’re Overweight!” 

If you’ve never seen a Wii Fit – it’s hard to describe.  It’s a video game, but you don’t sit down and operate a game controller.  You stand on a ‘Balance Board’ (that’s how it knows how much you weigh) and hold sensing devices in your hand(s) so it knows where your hand(s) are.  Here’s the promo video from Nintendo who makes it:

It will take you thru yoga exercises, strength exercises, and aerobics exercises.  It’s not a group game – it’s one person at a time.  At first I didn’t like this, I thought it was something we could do together.  But, the positive is – I have no excuse – I don’t have to wait for Jim, and he doesn’t have to wait for me.  We each must take responsibility for doing our own exercising.  Also, since it’s just one person, it really can be done in the RV.  It’s tight, but it’s doable.  The only thing that doesn’t work is the exercises where you need to stretch your arms overhead.  My hands touch the ceiling, Jim can’t raise his arms at all without hitting the ceiling.

I *LOVE* the yoga exercises – flexibility has always been my focal point for feeling good.  Jim loves the games (he’s such a guy!) – there’s a new one in the Wii Fit Plus where your character on-screen is a bird.  Your job is to flap your wings and lean in different direction to fly to places on the screen and gather points.  It’s so fun.  And, your arms are tired when you’re done! 

The Wii Fit Plus also includes mind/memory games along with the fitness.  There’s one where your onscreen character is standing amongst a group of balls – you’re kind of like a pinball amongst the bumpers – your job is to bump the balls by moving your hips.  The game comes in by the fact that the balls have different numbers on them and the goal is to bump just those balls where the numbers will add up to 10.  It’s harder than it sounds – there’s negative numbers too!

And, last but not least – the Wii Fit provides a lot of laughs – especially when I watch Jim flapping his arms like a bird

Someday we’ll get brave enough to take some video – meanwhile, check out this guy who took his Wii Fit on an RV Road Trip:

If you’re interested in buying a Wii Fit system, it’s available at Amazon.com or even Walmart.  There are several pieces to it.  The Wii player – like a standalone DVD Drive.  This plays all sorts of Wii games, not just the Wii Fit.  It’s possible you may already have this.  The Wii Fit Plus is a disk that you put in this player.

Then you need the balance board and the controllers along with the sensor bar.  You can buy many of these pieces separately.  If you get the whole package it will set you back around $350.

It’s meant to plug into a TV, but we use a projector and screen.  If you want all this to be portable, you may consider the mini-projector – Joybee.  I wrote about that  in a previous post.

Now, get off that couch!  Let go of the mouse!  And, go work off that holiday cheer.

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We’ve been wanting this new feature!! And now, with Streets and Trips 2010 – we have it.

We can now plan our trip on the laptop with Streets and Trips, then transfer the locations to our Garmin Nuvi 255W.  As I wrote in a previous post, we like to use both the laptop and the Garmin Nuvi to navigate while we travel.  We recently attended the Hershey RV Show and were thrilled to meet Larry Petersen at the Microsoft booth.  We attended his seminar to learn about the new features in the 2010 version. 

He demonstrated several methods of sharing data.  You can import and export .gpx files, you can use a USB cable and ‘Send to GPS’, or you can use the MSN Direct service.  I researched our device – the Garmin Nuvi 255W and decided the USB method was the best.  For more information directly from Larry – check out the Streets and Trips Blog.

Here is a short video on the process to send Locations from a Streets and Trips 2010 route to a Garmin Nuvi 255W.  All you need is a USB cable (with a mini ‘B’ connector that fits the Nuvi) and an Internet connection:

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1. Thousands of POIs for Streets and Trips
2. Trip Planning with Streets and Trips
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Specifically, it’s for laptop users with Windows (XP or Vista) operating system.  We will be offering this class as a Gypsy Gathering pre-rally in Celina, Ohio on September 26 and 27.

We find lots of people on the road are using a laptop for the first time.  A lot of them don’t know about the switch on a laptop that turns the Wi-Fi capability on or off.  And, they also don’t know what happens when they close the lid of their computer. 

Some of these people have been using computers for many years as part of their work.  When they were at work and something went wrong – they just called the computer guy.  They can’t do that now, and there’s more they need to know.  They need to know how to make backups.  They need to know about computer security and maintenance.

Jim and I have been in the computer support business continuously since the early 80’s.  Since we’ve been on the road and helping our fellow RVers, we’ve compiled a checklist of essential knowledge and skills we believe every computer user should possess. We developed this class – and many of our Show-Me-How Videos – to help people fill in the gaps in their knowledge.

As you can imagine, with the wide variety of information to teach and the wide variety of experience levels in the class, this is not an easy class to teach.  To keep everyone on track, we’ve written a workbook and recorded Show-Me videos to guide us through the class. You can click on the picture of the workbook to see the table of contents.

The class is broken up into 3 sessions with 2 or 3 specific exercises to be completed in each session.  Much of the class is taught by the videos (that’s why you see the headsets in the photos), so people can learn at their own rate.  And, there are many more videos on the disk than what we cover in class – there’s *no* reason to get bored in this class!  You can click on the disk image below to see the disk contents.

Here’s the review questions for the class, why don’t you take it and see how you do?  If you can confidently answer all the questions, then the class is too basic for you.

If you’re unsure of half or more, then the class would be great for you.  And, if you’re in the vicinity of Celina, Ohio at the end of September, you can sign up for the Boot Camp at the Gypsy Gathering Rally.  The cost is $99 for the two day class, bring your own computer.

If you have any questions, or you’ve attended one of our boot camps and have any comments, we’d love to see them as a comment to this blog post.

If you know of a rally, or an RV park where they would like us to present our Boot Camp, we can do that too.  We need a minimum of 6 attendees, and a maximum of 20.  Of course, it needs to be somewere in our vicinity.  We plan to spend the winter in Florida.

If you’re interested in the Boot Camp, but you can’t attend a class, you can purchase the book and DVD for $20.   Here’s the introductory video to the DVD.

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1. Leesburg, Florida and Computer Boot Camp
2. The Geeks at FMCA
3. Geeks on Tour Tutorial Videos on Disk

by Chris Guld, Geeks on Tour: We spent the past week in Essex Junction Vermont at the FMCA Northeast Area Rally (NEAR.)  To our surprise and delight, there was Wi-Fi available right at our parking spot.  We could tell it came from the fairgrounds since it was named, “CVFairmn1.”  We were at the Champlain Valley Fairgrounds.  We like taking advantage of available Wi-Fi so as to avoid going over our bandwidth allotment on our Verizon contract. 

We connected right up and to our double surprise it was blazing fast.  And, I do mean blazing. 

Until all the coaches got parked!  The Wi-Fi slowed to a crawl and became unusable.  We had to go back to our Verizon connection.

Then, when we taught our Google Earth seminar, we tried the Wi-Fi again.  Google Earth has some pretty hefty bandwidth requirements.  There are some things we just can’t show if we’re using our tethered cellphone. 

The Wi-Fi worked great!  We zoomed around Google Earth, turned on several layers, and still could dive into a Street View without a hiccup.  This was on the same CVFair network, so we tried it again when we got back home.  No good.  It was so bad that it refused to display a web page.  The connection showed as 5 bars, and the connection speed (as opposed to the throughput speed) was fine – it wasn’t a signal issue.

We waited a couple hours and tried it again … we were back to high speed.  Thrilling high speed!  For those of you who like numbers,  I did a download speed test with TestMy.net and got 4.2 Mbps on the Wi-Fi as opposed to .5 Mbps on Verizon.

So … what was going on?  Well, there’s no way of really knowing without talking to the network administrator and using some diagnostic tools.  But Jim and I have our suspicions from having seen symptoms like this before – when he was the network administrator and did have the diagnostic tools. 

We think it was an individual connecting to the network, and their computer had the kind of virus that turns it into a ‘zombie.’  These ‘zombies’ are being controlled by some spammer and are programmed to send out thousands of spam messages.  When an infected computer connects to a Wi-Fi hotspot, it starts sending these spam messages and simply takes over all the available bandwidth – leaving none for the rest of us.  The owner of the computer is usually completely unaware, cursing the slow Wi-Fi along with everyone else. 

As soon as the zombie disconnects from the network – all is well.

What can you do about this?  Not much. But I think it’s still good for you to know.  If you’re in a Wi-Fi hotspot where there is a support phone number to call – that often means there is a system administrator who can monitor the activity and kick off an offending user.  It’s certainly worth a call. 

By coincidence, we also heard this week from a friend staying in a park that uses a satellite dish as the Internet source to their Wi-Fi hotspot.  One person connected to the network, downloading full length movies, pushed the network over the FAP (Fair Access Policy) limits.  This essentially eliminates Internet service for the whole network for 24 hours. To understand more, you can watch this video on FAP. 

Chris and Jim Guld

www.GeeksOnTour.com

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1. Can I use the WiFi from a Nearby RV’s Satellite Dish?
2. Internet by Data Card for Travelers
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Do you turn your computer off?  Leave a comment below.

There is a middle road, and it’s called ‘Sleep.’  With Vista, that is the preferred state.  For Macintosh, here’s an article about Sleep.  If you put your computer to sleep in between sessions it won’t take so long to boot up the next time.  It will just pop right up to where you left off.  If you put it to sleep overnight, and you are plugged in to power, it will wake itself up to do scheduled tasks like backups and scans.  My computer does this every night while I’m asleep so it doesn’t slow down operations during the day when I want to work.

Watch the video below for an excerpt of our Geeks on Tour Show-Me-How topic about Vista and the Sleep option.

Chris Guld, www.GeeksOnTour.com

Computer Education for Travelers

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1. Turn your Computer into a TV
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3. Computer Backups are Worthless

Last month was the first month that we used our Verizon service exclusively for all Internet access.  Although we were very happy to see that we could comfortably stay under our 5GB bandwidth allotment, it wasn’t particularly fun.  We had to constantly be aware of our bandwidth usage.  We like watching Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show on his website.  We didn’t dare do that more than a few times because of Verizon’s limit of 5GB/month.  And, downloading a movie was definitely out of the question – most of them are close to 2GB.

We also turned off the automatic updates on our Windows Vista systems.  One update (SP2) was 350MB!  If both Jim and I had downloaded that using our Verizon connection, that would have been 15% of our monthly allotment right there!  So, we held off on that. 

Finally, last week, we were in a campground with good Wi-Fi.  Yeah!!  No limits here.  We downloaded our updates and had a Jon Stewart marathon! (we don’t have a TiVo – or even a TV for that matter!)

Our bottom line, as always … If you need the Internet wherever you travel, you need to use all three ways: Wi-Fi, Cellular, and Satellite.  I’m looking forward to having our Satellite service back operational … Jim’s working on that right now!

Now, if I could just find a park with a working Hot Tub!

Chris Guld
www.GeeksOnTour.com

p.s. If you happen to be at the FMCA Convention in Bowling Green, Ohio this week, we will be giving our High Speed Internet on the Road seminar on Monday, 7/20/09 at 11:45 in Seminar room #12.

Related posts:

1. How much is 5 Gigabytes?
2. The Best Wi-Fi in RV Parks
3. Wi-Fi is Like a Box of Chocolates

Although I like Live Writer a lot, I haven’t been using it for my personal blog (on Blogger) because I use a lot of pictures and the pictures come from my Picasa Web Album.  I use Picasa Web Album’s ‘link to this picture’ feature, and it just seems easier to do that while working in Blogger than with Live Writer.

UNTIL …

I discovered the Picasa Web Album plug-in for Live Writer!  How cool!  Now all my Picasa Web Album photos are available to me with just a couple clicks.  I am using Live Writer for all my blog posts now.

If you use Live Writer, you’re familiar with the Insert section of the sidebar.  This contains all the basic tools for creating links, photos, and maps.  If you look at the bottom of the list, you’ll see the option to Add a plug-in.  Click on that and you can spend hours perusing all the possibilities.  The one I’m talking about is called Picasa Image Plugin.  If you don’t see it in browsing around, you can search for Picasa.

Once you’ve downloaded and installed it, you will see ‘Picasa Link…’ in your Insert bar.  Click on that, enter your username and password for your Picasa Web Album, and in a couple seconds, you should see a list of all your albums.

Select the album to work with and you’ll see all the photos.  Adding a photo to your blog is as simple as clicking on the little left arrow next to the photo you want.  The picture will be inserted exactly at the point where your cursor is in your text. 

You must be online

In my previous article about Live Writer, I promoted the fact that you can create your blog entries while you are offline.  This is a big reason to use Live Writer for travelers who don’t always have a good Internet connection.  But, to use this Picasa plug-in, you must have an Internet connection to your Web Albums.  You can always use the ‘Insert Picture …’ button to get photos from your My Pictures folder on your computer.  Then Live Writer will upload them to Blogger (or whatever Blog system you’re using.)

If you don’t have a blog now, then just stow this tip away.  The point to learn is that Picasa has gained support from lots of directions.  It’s good to be popular!

Chris Guld
www.Geeksontour.com
Computer Education for Travelers

Videos: Adding pictures to your blog from Picasa Web Albums (membership required)

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