The Pixel 2 Cover came early

..and Susan surprised me with a photo shoot on a gorgeous Autumn day down by the Oslofjord :)

Pixel 2 status a week or so later

I had hoped to be out and about taking photos with this phenomenal little device, but no one has clear plastic covers available for immediate delivery, in fact the soonest I could source one will be delivered in a week\s time.

Otherwise I can report that initial problems experienced by Google with the 8.1 update to Developer Preview/Beta customers has been solved and I received my update yesterday, and it is remarkably stable.

I have taken a few photos and can confirm their excellent quality.

Looking forward to receiving the Pixel 2 cover on the 7th November, after which I will make the phone my Primary device from a SIM point of view, leaving the 6P as the twin. This will release the 5X  for transfer to Aksel by Christmas assuming his interest.

Heavens, I knew it had been a while since my last post, but a year!?

I decided to make this entry after making a decision to purchase a Pixel 2 at some absurd price, but to make this my last EVER smartphone, laptop, Mac, or whatever new technical device used to catch my interest.

Why? you may wonder..

Well, it can be connected to my also adopting a Vegan lifestyle, concern for the planet, thereby doing my little bit for the years remaining, which may be more healthy as a result :)

Since last year I would say that my major change has been to watch a number of YouTube channels on a fairly frequent basis, mostly in the mid-afternoons following lunch, my second and last major meal of the day until a substantial breakfast the following day at 7-8AM.

Admittedly too many of them have been related to the catastrophes which have hit the USA in 2017.. first the Trump abortion, then hurricane flooding of the Houston area, Florida keys and Miami, Puerto Rico which has been virtually left to themselves by Trump's administration, then huge residential areas of the North West engulfed by multiple wildfires, including friends Susan & Jarek visited in the early Summer, who were lucky to escape with serious burns..

A lot of.. broken off there by an Allo from Susan in Key West, and forgot where I was going  :)

 Oh yes, I have watched a number of Climate Change presentations by the likes of NASA, and serious scientific bodies. To be honest, I am seriously afraid the Earth is screwed.. the Arctic ice is practically non existent in the Summer, permafrost is melting, massive chunks of ice are drifting away from the Antarctic, Greenland glaciers are retracting, as are the majority of glaciers in other parts of the world, particularly those areas which millions rely on them for their crops and water.

This is bound to result in all kinds of tradgedy, struggles and war in the coming decades, yet the average person continues to fly off on their holiday, drive everywhere, eat meat, etc., etc. Thankfully there is a movement to renewable energy sources, but the cost of installing the huge wind farms, solar panel areas, etc. are fighting with the costs of the incredible destruction caused by the super storms for resources. Will the former changes be enough, and in time?

Meanwhile, population numbers increase, oceans are polluted by plastic, and runoff from agriculture, insects are vanishing in scary proportions.

Thanks heavens I am not a depressive type.. but I am worried for my grandchildren and families they may bring into the world..

Time to catch up

A long gap I'm afraid, but there have been a number of personal reasons for that mainly related to too much exposure to the sun in my 20's..

Anyway, yesterday I watched several YouTube videos about running Android apps on certain Chromebooks, and was most impressed. One of the devices which would be capable of this was the ASUS Chromebook Flip, and as these cost only 2999.- I ordered one from Proshop for delivery in a day or two.

The v53 version of Chrome OS will enable the above feature, and I look forward to trying it out.

I am currently running on my Lenovo n20p Chromebook using tethering to my Nexus 5X, which is working very well.

New Smartphone this year or not?

I have been following all of the new releases from Google, Microsoft, Huawei, LG, Sony, and all the others, with interest and a deal of disappointment. There always seems to be one small, but important item, (e.g. OIS) left out of them, but for the Microsoft Lumia 950XL, but there it is a matter of 'Windows', and I have a sinking feeling about the future of Microsoft and Lumia phones.. there probably will be a Surface Phone in the near future, but then my old Nokia/Lumia connection with the phones will be lost, and Windows Mobile is missing a few key apps, like Google+.

However, I continued checking out special offers on Prisguide.no, and suddenly there was an offer I couldn't resist. Elkjøp had LG G4s going for 4.4K ! And they will be receiving Marshmallow :) Poland has the upgrade already, and my phone might well be a Polish one. It has happened before.

It is on its way and will probably arrive by Saturday, with a plastic Curve cover, and a Sandisk Pro Extreme 32GB microSD card with 95Mbps read/write times, over the top for the G4's 4K video, but better too much than too little.

Watched some good and some bad video on YouTube, but I am looking forward to trying it out. The stills are known to be fantastic, and Steve Litchfield gave it an almost perfect review.

Upgraded home broadband

After learning that Telenor were close to improving the broadband speeds I can expect in the very near future I swapped to using wi-fi on the old ZyXEL router (instead of running in Bridge mode to an Airport Extreme setup), which gave me and Telenor the opportunity to measure the local capability of DSL out here in the very lovely sticks.

I was immediately able to up my broadband deal for one that was slightly better on Upload speeds, without paying significantly more. Only snag was that the wi-fi connection first died on me, and then went up and down like a yo-yo. Turned out to be a problem related to the antenna, so I called Telenor's service dept., who were kind enough to send me a replacement in the form of the 2.4/5 GHz variety, which will handle the extreme speeds expected shortly.

It installed like a dream. Telenor is vastly better now at knowing all about me and my various hardware/contract deals, so a couple of minutes after plugging it all in it was ready configured. Just needed to change passwords and start the longer job of re-configuring wi-fi on the various components of my hi-fi system, which still require one to tap in everything on the remotes.

Nexus Player didn't see the 5GHz channel at first, but after a spot of searching on XDA I found exactly the answer needed, i.e. drop to channel 40, and up it came :)

So, everything is working superbly, no interfering channels to be found near me, and I am super happy with Telenor :-D

Broadband..

I have had a mix of old DSL gear, a 4G Mi-Fi, and a 4G package on my primary smartphone, for quite a while now, all of it from Telenor, and been reasonably happy with download speeds obtainable from these, BUT Upload speed on the DSL connection, used to provide wi-fi throughout my house, was abysmal. Max. 600kbs and generally no more than half of that.

So, I came across what appeared to be a super deal from Telenor's competitor, Netcom. 4G Broadband 100GB/month super speeds... I ordered the package and it arrived on Friday 5th September (?). I was really looking forward to seeing upload/download speeds better than my 4G mi-fi, but after a spot of bother setting the Huawei B593 up, I was super disappointed to measure speeds that were little better than those from the DSL equipment. (7.5Mbps/0.6Mbps)

I called Telenor on Saturday morning, spoke to a very helpful guy there, and decided to return the Netcom package asap! ..by the New Year I'll be able to get 50Mbps/12Mbps speeds here in Nærsnes :)

My current router, a ZyXEL, was connected in Bridge mode to an Apple Airport Extreme, which spoke to a pair of Airport Express devices coupled to an Onkyo receiver and a Pioneer Blu-ray player. Bridge mode prevented Telenor from talking with the device to check upgrade possibilities, SO (long story, I know) on Sunday I reverted it back to normal mode and for the first time used the ZyXEL to provide wi-fi in the house. Now my Telenor status page showed it was possible to increase download speeds to 12Mbps, and even squeeze uploads to 0.8Mbps. It only cost pennies more, and used the same ZyXEL router.

So, for the next couple of months I'll be content with 12Mbps knowing there are better days ahead :)

Memory of Newfy in1958-ish

https://plus.google.com/105646979806381715520/posts/3xoUb2pckxx

A post about St Johns which caught my eye and my heart :)

Gerald fraser

11:33 AM

 

Edit

I was there for a year in '58, my first 'posting' with the Decca Navigator company. Landed in Gander. Spent time in St. Johns , driving out to Pouch Cove daily where we had a Navigator Station. Loved St. Johns, even won a prize on the radio for knowing a piece of music :) Then on to Port aux Basques by Newfy Bullet. We stayed on the line ;) Oh, and I forgot a stint on a monitor station based right by a fish plant. OMG.. and breaking down on the runway at Gander while monitoring the Dectra signal. A lot seemed to happen in Newfy! I left in that winter when all the cables and poles were buckled by a thick coating of ice, and went on to PQ for a year. I loved Canada :)

There was also a Station in the middle of Newfy somewhere but I'll have to search for it on Maps..

Panasonic FZ1000 arrives

I am hopping over quite a bit to arrive here, but the Lumix FZ1000 is my first 4K Bridge phone. Susan handed it over to me yesterday, since when I have set it up, checked a couple of stills, and am otherwise starting the long learning process which always accompanies a new device. Luckily most of my cameras are from Panasonic, so the Menu system is no problem. Unfortunately there are no guides by people like David Thorpe who provided a great guide to his setup on the GX7, which helped me quite a bit.

However, learning about this superb device is half of the reason for buying it.

I was very much surprised by the Røde Stereo Videomic Pro. It is unbelievably light, such that one feels the need to handle it with extreme care when opening the battey cover, or setting the tiny switches.

I came across a Chris Hull on YouTube who uses the same gear to produce some superb videos of ducks, and various other subjects., with great sound too.

I also came across him as a well known user on AVForums Camrecorder forum, where he answered a query and gave me a lead to a software package which just happened to be on offer as it was Memorial Day in the US, so I got several bonus packages at a very good bundle price :)

All for now, but expect more here anon.

My phones query

This is my answer to a query by Marek Pawlowski.

Thanks for asking the question, which has resulted in my going back through various records to trace all my phones and their dates of purchase.

My 'phone' history goes back to 'portable' phones where portable meant you could carry it around if you were healthy ;) I believe it was a Norwegian brand, and I could even log into my PC over 300 baud.

My 'museum' contains all of the phones since then bar a Nexus One which was replaced when its power button became intermittent.And an iPhone 4 my nephew has taken over.

I won't bore you with the full list, but the first phone I considered 'smart' was the E61. A gorgeous beast of a phone which could do everything but take pictures. There were a couple of Nokia Tablets after that, and I would bet my boots Apple had a good look at those before coming with its iPhone.

However, I digress. The smartphone that was a quantum leap when I bought it was the HTC Magic. A solid little phone which still works on Android 1.5.. I tried to warn people back then in June 2009 that Android was going to take over, but few listened :(

Although you needed good eyesight, it was so much easier to use than the E61. So, my money goes on the Magic where it all started.

Chromecast Backdrop

Spent some time yesterday trying to find out why Backdrop photos were so dark on my TV. Was it the HDMI position, my photos, but no, others photos were dull too.

At least I discovered that my photos were perfectly bright when Cast directly, as were others photos. This could be seen when in the Chromecast app on the Backdrop page where one can follow the slideshow, and View Photo whenever you want to do a compare.

So I wrote a brief query on the Chromecast Community and so far received a couple of ansers that were no help. The first guy claimed his were OK, though I still wonder.

Could Backdrop be using a different path to the Chromecast device vs Casting from a device, i.e. is the latter more direct and/or of higher resolution?

Will see if this receives more answers anon.

Mobile device status

Have been 'having fun' with my various Android devices in the last few days/week (?), after keeping ajour with CyanogenMod CM12 status.

The Galaxy Nexus from Samsung is a solid workhorse, too slow on startup for me to love it, but, when CM11 nightlies started dropping off in frequency, it was clear that things were moving fast on the CM12. Actually the developer had trouble with his own GNex too..

So, when a new Beta was released for the GNex I downloaded it, with a special Gapps version, read through the experiences others were having on XDA, and set at it with gusto. Its amazing where the time goes when playing with these things, so I had a couple of late nights and early mornings during the last week or so..

The CM12 beta installed OK, but there was space trouble for the first versions of Gapps I tried. Finally, I had success with the Pico version, and the long process of restoring apps began. Finally got things the way I like, using the Google Now launcher, though startup still suffers delays which I believe is related to sorting out the Carrier (Telenor). Will try it without a SIM, and see if that helps.

Lollipop was now running on the LG G3, the Nexus 10, Nexus 7 2013, and the GNex.

This left the Galaxy S2 running very fast on Stock 4.1.2. There was really no need to upgrade this device to Lollipop other than to see how it ran, but after quite a lot of preparation I downloaded various suggestions from old GS2 YouTubes aimed at getting my Recovery to a version required for CM12 installation.

Lots of the above were great for installing some kernel to get root status, but the only one that included a very old version of CWM was the Siyah kernel I had used a year or so ago.. When I had got the GS2 into a pretty hopeless state, the Siyah saved my bacon :)

Now I had the old CWM version it was possible to Restore what I believe was CM10 from the middle of last year. This restored slowly, but it got me to a state allowing Restore of CM11 from around Christmas. I then had CWM 6.0.4.5. Enough to install the CM12 Beta from lysergic, which awaited with the same Pico Gapps.

The CM12 Beta installed with no problems, and I was able to run Nandroid after setting things up the way I like. I am really impressed by how well Lollipop runs on this very old device. Equally as well as the GNex, and with 200+ MB free ram!

There we are then, all Lollipopped :)

This by the way is written on my new N20p 13" Chromebook from Lenovo.

LG WCD-100 Qi charger purchase

I bought a ZENS charger a while back, but the high temperature compared to using microUSB has put me off using it on devices with built in batteries, as I am convinced the high temperature WILL reduce the battery's lifetime.

Today I watched some YouTube videos about the LG Orb charger, but ended up buying a WCD-100 which is designed by LG for their G3, from CD-ON for kr. 299. The orbs cost closer to 500.-, not a price I wished to pay.

I tried the G3 on the ZENS, but I think it is on the edge of providing the right level of power.

Post-Christmas present, Lenovo Chromebook N20p with touch

I have had my eye, and ears via podcasts, on Chromebooks, and at last with a price of only NOK 2.2K I ordered a Lenovo N20p 11.6" touch screen device.

It arrived, surprisingly, on the 2nd of January, and took no time to set up as the Gmail account finds everything you have previously set up on Chrome.

On the 2nd I tried out various apps I mainly use, and today I tried more advanced apps like Chrome Remote Desktop, which allowed me to control the iMac and change iTunes, there being no Remote for iTunes app, which is my essential app on various other Android devices.

Evernote on the web is not very attractive, so I can only hope Evernote stop adding features I have no use for, and get down to making the web UI useable.

Otherwise, I was happy to find Chromecast worked well with YouTube (which also has a crap UI).

That's it for now. I'll be back later when my experience is a few weeks old..

Pre-Christmas presents

I actually pre-ordered a Nexus 6, but this was an almighty delivery screw up by Google/Motorola that I changed my mind, and bought an LG G3 with one of those fun QuickCircle covers.

The latter wakes with a gentle double tap, to show a gorgeous watch, which is replaced by 5 icons on sliding to the left or right. The most useful one of these is the yellow notification icon, which shows each new notification as you slide left.

The second most useful icon starts the camera, which has an excellent auto focus, and will take a photo on saying "KIMchee". "LG" doesn't work as reliably.. photo quality is excellent.

A third icon is a third party app giving access to a bunch more icons, like calculator, messages, call log, music, torch, etc.

QuickCircle was a big deciding factor in my purchase, while the old 1/3" sensor was a negative factor in my decision to drop the Nexus 6. Sony has announced a new Exmor R IMX147LQT sensor with 1/2.3" size.

Steve Litchfield made a YouTube video about the LG G3, which he described as almost perfect. Needless to say, I agree. Lollipop should arrive soon, though 4.4.2 is perfectly OK, and LG 'stuff' is no problem.

Windows 10 Tech Preview

Thought I would have a go at this when I heard about the opportunity on Windows Weekly, knowing I could learn something under way.

If all went well I would have learnt nothing, but it didn't. I made the flash drive, but I just couldn't get it to work. After a lot of time spent looking for the answer, I wrote a post on the relevant Windows forum, and went on to try another PC, my old T91MT.

This installed with none of the Samsung's problems,  and,  though the screen resolution is lower than the prerequisites, everything else worked much faster than Windows 7..

This success led me back to the Samsung, where a couple of lucky Google searches pointed me at the Rufus flash drive builder. First efforts with this failed to install as well, but another lucky search led me to producing another Rufus build,  this time in FAT32 format. Lord knows why, but that allowed me to complete a custom install, which got rid of all the Samsung rubbish, which was so difficult to remove in 8.1.

From there it was all plain sailing :-)

Once I was happy with the status, I carried out a new Macrium Backup, very fast now! I also looked into Recovery, making Bootable flash drives  for both PCs, and custom Recovery folders with the help of reagentc and recimage.  (See Evernote)

This used up all the old flash drives, so I ordered a couple of new ones, which might arrive today.

Stereo Update

My back is getting over carrying the Subwoofer, and then the Onkyo Receiver home from the local 'Post in a Shop', up the steep hill to my house. The back pain came a day or two later, and I'm just getting over it..

Of course, deciding to refurnish the 'stua' to suit the stereo system didn't help any, as I have a hell of a lot of books, and boy are they heavy!

I've moved the bookcases and shelves to their end sites, but there are still large 'movers boxes' of books waiting to take their new places on the shelves.

Moving the bookcases and a few pictures uncovered some pretty resistant dust stains that had to be washed as well as possible where they had become exposed.

So, the end wall of my stua now has three book shelves, where the TV takes centre place on top of a now unused Soundbar. On its left is the Onkyo NR-535 Receiver, and to its right is the Pioneer Blu-ray player BDP-450. All in rather uninspiring black boxes.. oh yes, and I have an Airport Express providing audio from iTunes to the PC Input. Hardly any visible wires these days with HDMI cables between the devices, and a short Optical from TV to the Receiver :)

The basic 2.1 sound is surprisingly good! Those old Sony SS A-705s are remarkable. Mind you they cost a bit back there when the kids were young.

Only snags/Cons; the Blu-ray Remote (like many) is hopeless. It was ages before I pressed something and suddenly saw SACD video.. come to think of it, they might have an Android app, though I don't feel like spending more on a Pioneer Wifi option. Why couldn't they have built it in like Onkyo do?

BUT, I'm damned happy with the result, and can recommend both the Onkyo and Pioneer devices to anyone reading this.

The Onkyo NR535 plays well

I nearly killed myself carrying the Jamo SUB 260 up the steep hill home, and a day or two later I made the same trip with the Onkyo NR535, which was a few kilos lighter, but my back was beginning to react.

Putting the system together physically was no problem. The same Sony SS-A701's 45-20000 Hz. Unfortunately there was no -3dB or whatever indication on the sheet I had. So things ended up being more manual than I thought it would be, considering the advanced nature of the Onkyo!

The Jamo SUB 260 caused more trouble than it should. Some text to go with the installation diagrams might have helped.

I did a lot of surfing for help on the latter, and was surprised to find little, though that little led me to manual adjustments via Setup which fixed the problem :)

"If it is a negative figure then turn the gain on the sub down a bit and rerun the auto setup. This will mean the amp will send a stronger signal to the sub which should help it to wake up."

The problem?

The SUB worked OK for 20 minutes with the On/off switch in Auto On. You couldn't turn the auto aspect off ! The Automatic Speaker Setup using a microphone at the listening spot did its work, but came up with two errors; it found the SUB to be 33 cm beyond the Front Left instead of 50 cm nearer the listener. Not sure what that contributed to ref the 2nd more important error. It set the SUB level at -5dB. This wasn't enough low frequency umph to trigger the SUB back on after its 20 minute time out even though the SUB was working somewhat right up to the Off point.

So I manually adjusted the subwoofer level in Hardware settings until the SUB reacted at ca +11dB, and then I backed off a touch to +10. Might be able to drop that a touch more after some days experience.

It has been working fine now for an hour or so, banging out Art Blakey drums, and Count Basie big band stuff. Not my favourites, but good test pieces :)

That's it for now. My middle back is still uncomfortable..

My Sony Stereo system has given up the ghost

After many years of excellent service it has retired to the cellar room, and I've ordered a reasonable replacement, an Onkyo NR535 5.2 Receiver, together with a Jamo SUB 260 Woofer.

The Sony SS-A701 Front speakers are still going strong, with 45 Hz to 20 KHz response :)

I spent a couple of hours searching for the latter's specifications without luck, but eventually found them inside the old Stereo manual, which I nearly threw out. There was a single sheet which I'll copy here in case it'll help someone else locate them some time in the future..

I'll continue in a few days time with a mini review of my experience setting the new system up.

Where have you been Fraser?

I''m afraid 2013 was spent mostly with visits to the Drammen Eye Clinic, where I had cataracts fixed in both eyes, trips to a skin specialist in Asker concerning an itchy spot on my back, which she operated on. The biopsy showed more needed to be removed, so next it was a trip to Bærum Sykehuset Clinic, first for a check by the surgeon who would operate, then for quite a deep operation on the same area of my back to remove everything.

Once that was done, I was able to start a treatment for the results of too much sun in Singapore back in the 1950s, and later in Qatar during the early 60s. The treatment was horrific, turning my forehead into something you didn't want to look at! It took a month, and left me with clear baby skin on my forehead :)

The repeat trips to Drammen concerning my right eye, proved to be a Lamellar Macular Hole, and unfortunately could not be fixed, unless some major issue crops up. I can't complain though, as my colour vision is phenomenal, and with 20/20 cheapo glasses I can read really clearly close up :)

Otherwise, 2013 was the return of my interest in photography, triggered by Susan purchasing a new Nikon D7100. I had done quite a bit of reading about the various alternatives, and decided in the end to go Micro Four Thirds, by buying another Panasonic Lumix, the GX7. Then in quick succession I came across another Lumix, a demo LZ200 Superzoom going for a song at Komplett.no.

Both of these gave me lots of opportunity to add new neuron circuitry..

Later, I came across another bargain, this time for 5K, an Olympus OM-D E-M5 with a good Kit lens. This camera has a fantastic Optical Image Stabilization system, which operates over 5-axes or directions, and takes super photographs.

Of course, all told the above cost a bit, though much less and lighter than typical Canon DSLR gear.

More about this anon :)

PS The next episode will be about my purchase of a Samsung TV (another bargain) in order to try Google's Chromecast.