Permanent USB Power Plug

It’s easy to hardwire auto and motorcycle accessories with a handy 12 volt to USB cable. Instead of screwing around with clunky cigarette lighter adapters you can purchase a special cable. These drop the vehicle’s 12 VDC line voltage down to the standard USB output of 5 volts. They’re available in standard USB plug or specific Micro USB, USB-C and other common connections…

USB Vehicle Cable

Nowadays most everything we own can be charged with a USB cable. These vehicle cables are available with Mini USB or Micro USB terminals to fit most any Samsung, Motorola, HTC, LG phone or Garmin GPS. Most are available for under five bucks.

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Backdating Google Maps

Call me an old fart, but I hate the new mobile version of Google Maps.

Judging from recent reviews on Google Play I am not alone. The improvements have streamlined some functions- like the confusing Navigation interchange. But others have just disappeared- like Latitude and the wonderful My Maps feature. Yet  even when I did manage to unravel the mysteries of the new interface I found the app kludgy. Even downright wrong.

The GPS seldom managed to show my position accurately. Then I could never get the display to position itself “direction of travel to the top” as opposed to north at the top. It was irritating to see something that had worked so well suddenly looking like a 5th grade science project. Correction– a 5th grader should probably have been consulted.

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The Comedy of Errors Known as AT&T

Left Hand, meet Right Hand.

“There you are, your own number on your very own door. And behind that door, your very own office! Welcome to the team, DZ-015.”

Telephony NirvanaMy recent switch to AT&T Uverse had me feeling like a character from Terry Gilliam’s cult classic movie Brazil. Every step of the way we discovered a different department that operated some obscure nuance of the AT&T bureaucracy- yet operated as a wholly independent entity. The Uverse people can’t help you with wireless services, a traditioinal landline is another department, legacy DSL is handled completely separately and on and on.

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DSL = Dead Slow Landline?

Before You Ditch DSL Check This…  

RJ45I often hear complaints about the speed of DSL (or lack thereof). But there may be a very simple cure for your DSL woes.

A Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) uses the standard telephone cables running all over town and through your house to carry high bandwidth traffic. It does this by sending the data traffic at a much higher frequency than the voice information. In fact it’s so high your ears can’t hear it- which is why I can surf and talk simultaneously on the same telephone line. Continue reading DSL = Dead Slow Landline?

Toolbar Hell

Unwanted Toolbars Ruining Your Day?

Add-on toolbar spam has been steadily increasing over the last couple of years. Last week I was pushed over the edge by an update of my favorite free anti-virus program. Suddenly AVG Free had decided I needed another toolbar on my browser- and hijacked my default search provider! Now a simple search or new tab brought up an AVG-branded search page from Yahoo! Continue reading Toolbar Hell