Off Grid Power

You know, the Goal Zero Yeti 1250 battery pack with 60w solar panel isn't a bad idea, but it takes over 2 days to recharge from zero in direct sunlight.  But if you combined that with a Morphon 400w wind turbine (which can dump 1.4 kw of power over a windy day) you'd be right set for running your portable electronics all day, every day assuming you had some combination of sun and wind . . .

Yeah, it's a couple thousand dollar investment and not single-man portable but for a long term base camp (Boy Scout Summer camp?)  you'd have a single simple solution to keep the power going!

Start Here: How to Self-Publish Your Book by Jane Friedman

More interested in the paper published book?  Jane Freidman has a great article listing out tips and resources for self publishing your print-on-demand book or traditional book for sales.  Click through for more!



Start Here: How to Self-Publish Your Book | Jane Friedman

How To Self-Publish An Ebook from The Creative Penn

Do you have a manuscript that you've always wanted to publish?  Or just a long story that you think could be a commercial success?  eBook publishing isn't particularly difficult, gives you a huge potential audience and can make some money.  For a great guide, check out this site - they are basically ad free and aren't selling anything, just providing good information on how to publish an e-book on all the major platforms, from Amazon to iBooks to Nook and Smashwords.

• How To Self-Publish An Ebook | The Creative Penn

2016 Philmont Montage - Trek 608BB2

Google Photos made this silly little video montage from some of my Philmont 2016 photos from Trek 608-BB2.

Alec 2016 Winter Band Concert

Alec's first symphonic band concert of his Sophomore year. Three tracks, holiday spirit. Pardon the audio; the mic picks up the HVAC almost better than the band. One of these days I'll just run a line into the mixer.

Facebook for Scouting Units

A slideshow from a few years ago I put together going over the basics of Facebook for Scouting Units - Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts, Venturing Crews and more.   Handy information for all levels of units.

Facebook for Cub Scout Packs from William England

Interesting Eagle Bench Project Plans

I've seen a lot of Eagle project benches - these are some nice, rustic artistic benches with a great design and easy construction.  They're free standing - unless you attach them via concrete and angle iron.

Lawrence Indoor Aquatic Center Photos and Review

We went to the the Lawrence Indoor Aquatic Center this weekend with our Scout Troop.  Enjoyable afternoon - smaller place than I'd expected for the family side, but still good fun.  Follows are some wide angle photos of the place from the corners so you can get an idea of what it looks like.

(photos taken with the Kyocera DuraPlus Pro as part of the Sprint Product Ambassador team - #sprintemployee)

Yes, the wide angle 'action camera' has massive distortion at the sides - you can see the poles and walls circling around.  I think it's pushing 170 degrees of view so distortion can't be helped; and that's the style these days with the kids.  Didn't get a chance to do a trip down the slide or similar to get some real action footage and didn't have a body mount to do anything cool, so you get to see static photos.  Clear enough for a mid-range durable camera!

Getting Awards

Been with Pack 3094 for near on 10 years - finally got the paperwork turned in for the Cubmasters Key knot - 2 years service as a Cubmaster and 1 year as Assistant Cubmaster.  It was presented last night at our Pack meeting by our incoming Cubmaster, Allan.  Thanks!

April 2000 flooding at Fox Lake, KS

Flooding at Fox lake, April 2000. Recovered from my UNIX box, transcoded from MPEG-1 VCD format. Shot on Hi-8, edited on a Pentium 200 with Pinnacle video software.

2015 Robyn Spring Choir Concert

Shawnee Mission West Choir - Spring Concert. Forgot to edit and upload this one; finally had time to get it posted to the internet!

Thanksgiving at the England House - 2016 Version

A full family Thanksgiving - And thanks to the modern self timer, we all got in the pre-dinner photo!  Good food, good family, good times. Even the table joined in the celebration - it got cleaned off for it's annual scrubdown and polishing!

Alec Riding a Bike - October 2005

Found an old short 15fps video from a Palm Centro (?) of Alec riding his first bike.

The Ceremonial Umbrella

Tonight we visited with the London delegation from Westminster, including the Lord Mayor of Westminster.  The Shawnee Mission West Marching Band was invited for the 9th time to play in the London New Years Day Parade - on New Years Day, 2018.  Being London, and winter, of course it's going to rain.

So the Lord Mayor of Westminster presented Alec with a ceremonial umbrella - because of course if you bring your umbrella, it won't rain!

Video courtesy Todd Atkins:

And photos:

Blogger Video Upload Test

Directly uploaded this video to Blogger vs the usual Youtube.

Our Animals

Reblogging Robyn's post about the cat and dog:

MY cat and Dog

Random

Sam

A nice shot of Scoutmaster Monty

Just something about the western feel of this image of Troop 387 Scoutmaster Monty appealed to me.  I cropped it a touch and applied an 'Instant' filter to it for the vintage look.  Out at Gobblepalooza November campout, 2016.

Shot with Canon Rebel T3i, Tamron 28-270 lens at 220mm, F7.1, 1/400 sec.  
Photo courtesy W&N Photograpy, under CC-BY attribution.  
Original photographer Will England

Gobblepalooza 2016

Fire. Food. Friends.

Enough.

Alec playing Saxophone at Hy-Vee for Veterans Day

Alec was invited with the Shawnee Mission West Band to play at a Hy-Vee for their Veterans Day Breakfast.  One of the coolest, and yet oddest, concerts I've been to.  The whole band clustered around the Deli counter while the veterans had tables to sit at with a (great) free breakfast.  Alec rocked out!

2016 Philmont - Baldy Peak 360 Degree View

Got out to Philmont in 2016 and summited Baldy. A quick shot from the top!

Glow Marching Band Concert, October 21, 2016

Senior Marching Band glowstick event for Shawnee Mission West from 21-October 2016!

First Audiocast in 10 years

Then there was sound . . . . 10 years ago I was podcasting using a variety of tools that have all gone the way of the bitbucket.  So now it's a Google Sites host for the files and Audacity for the recording.

Just a basic test to see if this is all working!

Blogger Mobile photo test

I'm trying photo uploads on Blogger mobile client. Last time I tried this it didn't work very well matter fact it just crashed. I'm doing the audio transcription via the Google speech to text just add one more layer of complexity.

About them people skills

" If you don’t have or don’t learn the people skills, even if you’re a superstar engineer you won’t advance. You have to be able to interact with people as a person does, not as a engineer. Even if your juniors can’t design their way out of a paper bag, be supportive; help them, don’t complain they can’t design. If your superiors won’t listen to your excellent ideas on how to improve process and/or save big $$, explain it to them once and then move on; don’t dwell on how foolish they are. At some point you’ll be given leadership responsibilities. If you don’t think you have the people skills, ask for training in them. You may not get it, but at least it will show initiative and that you care about self-improvement. Being a good leader isn’t about rewarding good performance or punishing bad performance, you need to inspire your team. " (cribbed and modified from a Quora post)  -- applicable to any technically related career. Coder, Architect, Designer, Engineer.

Adding a home screen on the LG X power

By default, the LG X power Home Screen with App Dock only comes with two home screens for widgets and icons.  This quickly gets cramped as you add weather widgets, agenda widgets and more.  While limiting the number of home screens can help to reduce CPU and memory usage from widgets, it does limit your flexibility and creativity in using the phone - which is a key feature of Android!

So, lets figure out how to add more home screens to allow you to customize your LG X power to the max.  Unlike most Android phones where you simply drag a widget or icon to the edge of the screen the LG X power is different in how you add more home screens.  To add a new home screen to the LG X power when you are running the Home Screen with App Dock, you need to pinch from the corners diagonally - at which point you will get this view:



Tap the '+' button to add a new home screen for more widget space, icon storage or more. 

That's as hard as it gets - just pinch diagonally and tap plus!

LG X power SD Card Support

The LG X power is one of the nicer phones to include SD Card support!  You can add up to 256 GB of online storage for your music, movies and more.  But in inspecting the phone, there’s not a slot visible to put in your SD card!  What now?

Simple – LG has combined the SIM card tray and the SD Card slot together.  You’ll need the SIM Card removal tool from the box (the thin pin on a loop) or a fine safety pin.  On he left lower side you will find a tiny hole – gently push the SIM removal tool into the hole and the card tray will come out.  Beware – the SIM card will try to fall out.  Do not do this outside or on a windy day!

Above the SIM card slot is the SD card slot; just gently place the SD card in the tray, metal contacts facing down, and reinsert the SIM card tray.  This works best if the phone is powered off first.  You can follow this Sprint Tutorial for visual guidance on putting in your SD card into the LG X power.


You’ll be able to store your personal music and video library on the SD card without any problems.  Some apps may be able to be moved the the SD card, but they may not behave as expected.

Enjoy your new memory space on your LG X power – you certainly have the battery life to watch a few movies or listen to music for a long while!

Will England

LG X power App Drawer

By default, the LG X power ships with their new homescreen that does not include an app drawer.  All the apps you install are dropped on the homescreen.  You can use folders to organize them but there’s not a formal app drawer.  Not sure of the thinking behind that – perhaps other phone makers have tried it and found It successful. There has been lots of discussion about this on a variety of online forums, and even Google has considered dropping the app drawer.

Fortunately, there’s a workaround!  If you go to Settings – General – System Updates and update the LG Software, you will download a new homescreen with an app drawer.  To make it your permanent app drawer, tap the circle icon on your icon bar. 

A popup will appear asking if you want to use the LG Home Screen or the LG Home Screen with App Drawer.  Choose the one with the app drawer and set it as default.
From then on you get the classic Android experience with your downloaded apps installed in the app drawer and your home screens available for widgets and icons of your choosing!


- Will England

Outlook / Exchange on the LG X power

LG has dropped their own mail client, instead shipping the phone with Gmail.  So, the first thing you may ask – what do you do if you have an Exchange or other email account?  With the 4,100 mAh battery and days of battery life, the X power is a great business phone, good for long commutes, days away from the desk and never ending conference with no power outlets.   Well, the installed Gmail client does support Exchange and it works relatively well.  You can simply go into System settings, Accounts and Add an account of type ‘Exchange’.

However, if you’re a power-user of Outlook features, you’ll want to go to the App Store and download the Outlook for Android client.  It’s fast, powerful and feature filled with full view of your calendar, a great agenda widget for the home screen and more.  Best of all?  It’s free from Microsoft.  It does use about 60 MB of memory space on the phone, but that’s minimal compared to other apps (Facebook, *cough*, 200+ MB). 
When you’re first setting up Outlook, you’ll need to cancel out of the default Office 365 setup screen.  From there you can choose the account type (Exchange in our case) and it even has an Advanced settings panel to set your server, username, domain and more.    For more help you can visit the Microsoft help page for Outlook on Android
.
Once set up you get a ‘Focused’ view of your inbox with messages sent just to you.  You can tune what appears there and what goes to the Other tab.  You also get to see all your folders on the server, your full calendar, contacts and a slick view into flies attached to your email.  I find it more efficient than the desktop Outlook client I use.

In a nutshell, the LG X power offers a good email experience out of the box even for Exchange users, and Exchange power users can install the Outlook for Android client for even more power and features.

Disclaimer:
       The Product Ambassadors are Sprint employees from many different parts of the company that love technology. They volunteer to test out all sorts of Sprint devices and offer opinions freely to the Community. Each Product Ambassador shares their own opinions of these devices, therefore the information in this post does not necessarily reflect the opinions of Sprint. The PA's do not represent the company in an official way, and should not be expected to respond to Community members in an official capacity. #sprintemployee

Scholarship Links

Mostly creating this for Robyn and Alec so I have an ongoing list of scholarships for them to apply for.  Originally created 8/24/2016.  Ideally these are non-need based scholarships for high school seniors entering their freshman year of college.  A couple are for current college students.

Also a nice tool to estimate your EFC from FAFSA before you dig into all this:
https://fafsa.ed.gov/FAFSA/app/f4cForm?execution=e2s1

(Tip: Create a scholarship application email address; some of these are going to get you *spammed*)

Boy Scout, Eagle Scout and one Summit Scout scholarship:
https://blog.scoutingmagazine.org/2018/01/29/8-great-scholarships-for-eagle-scouts/


Simpson Strong Tie $2,000 architecture, structural engineering and construction management scholarship:
https://www.strongtie.com/about/company/scholarships



Society of Women Engineers Scholarships (many different scholarships for women in Engineering)
http://societyofwomenengineers.swe.org/index.php/scholarships#activePanels_

Look Twice, Save A Life Scholarship ($1,000) - Motorcycle Safety Awareness
http://www.insuranceproviders.com/look-twice-save-a-life-scholarship


Jack Cooke Kent Foundation - typically income based but worth a shot up to 95K a year.
http://www.jkcf.org/scholarship-programs/college-scholarship/faqs/

KC Metro area 11th graders ($10,000 annual scholarship, up to $12,000 EFC eligible to apply)
http://www.kcscholars.org/about-kc-scholars/


Essay, 750 words, $1,500
http://www.theinjurylawyers.com/scholarship/

Essay, 2500 words, $2,500
http://infoguides.pepperdine.edu/AEL

ARRL Scholarships for HAM Radio (80+, single app by Jan before college year)
http://www.arrl.org/scholarship-descriptions

Q-Switched Laser Scholarship (needs acceptance letter from college), $2,500
https://astanzalaser.com/q-switched-laser-annual-scholarship 



Bryant Surety scholarship, up to 2000 words, $1,000
https://www.bryantsuretybonds.com/bryant-surety-scholarship-opportunities

ChamelionJohn.com Essay (3 essays, 1,000 words each, $3,000
http://www.chameleonjohn.com/scholarship/universities/apply 

SME Engineering Scholarships
http://www.smeef.org/scholarships/highschool.asp

Clubs of America (current college student?) 600 word essay, $1,000
http://www.greatclubs.com/scholarship-award-for-career-success.asp

Courage to Grow 250 word essay, $500 (Spam Warning)
http://www.couragetogrowscholarship.com/

ESA Scholarships for Kansas (various)
http://www.epsilonsigmaalpha.org/scholarships-and-grants/scholarships/results/?state=Kansas

 Foreclosure.com - current college students - $1,000 essay
https://www.foreclosure.com/scholarship

Hospitality Matters - 750 word essay, $500
http://www.cascaravacations.com/hospitality-matters-scholarship-entry-page/

Inverters-R-Us $1,000 500-1500 word essay
http://invertersrus.com/power-scholarships/

Moll Law Group 1000-1500 word essay, $1,000 (college student)
http://www.molllawgroup.com/scholarship-contest.html

PreJax Foundation - have a parent with MS; 500 word essay; $1,000
http://www.theprejaxfoundation.com/The_PreJax_Foundation/Apply.html

ProofReading.com - 1500 word essay, $1500.
http://www.proof-reading.com/proof-reading_scholarship_program.asp

RentHop.com - 1000 word essay, $1,000
https://www.renthop.com/college_scholarship

Restshop.com essay about CPAP , $1000
https://www.respshop.com/respshop_scholarship.php

Jackson White Law Essay, 1000 words, $1000
http://www.jacksonwhitelaw.com/criminal-defense-law/scholarship/


Young Patriots Essay Contest 1,200 words, up to $5,000
http://debate-central.ncpa.org/young_patriots_essay_contest_scholarship_1516/

Over 1700 articles on Scouting

http://scoutmastercg.com/tag/index/

Unofficial, but some fantastic information on scouts and scouting.

New lines with Google Voice

I really like the Google voice to text transcription, but it is a bit lacking on new lines. Back in the day I used to be able to dish out new line new line and get two new lines.

Now, I have to put a period at the end of the sentence and then carefully say new line and wait. Once the first new line I showed up then I can say the word phrase new line again and get the second new line.

For someone who likes to break their paragraphs up with white space between the paragraph this is kind of a frustrating feature on Google Voice.

Slate 8 - Great media device - Sprint Product Ambassadors

The Slate 8 isn't going to win any awards for fastest, most powerful or highest resolution tablet. But what it does have is a super clear IPS screen and enough horsepower to run Netflix, Amazon Prime Video or Google Play Movies. So what you have here is a fantastic kids or back seat media device. Or, in my case, a way to catch up on Top Gear during my lunch break! And bonus - it's basically free for existing subscribers and only few dollars a month for new customers!







Both LTE and WiFi playback kept up with the clean resolution on the tablet. I found no lag, stuttering or buffering problems watching full episodes or jumping from clip to clip on YouTube. I'm really impressed with the screen on this tablet - it's nicer than the Galaxy S2 tab I have. Brighter, clearer and wider angle of view.



Now all I need to do is find a stand or case for this to properly prop it up on my desk!







Disclaimer: The Product Ambassadors are Sprint employees from many different parts of the company that love technology. They volunteer to test out all sorts of Sprint devices and offer opinions freely to the Community. Each Product Ambassador shares their own opinions of these devices, therefore the information in this post does not necessarily reflect the opinions of Sprint. The PA's do not represent the company in an official way, and should not be expected to respond to Community members in an official capacity. #sprintemployee

Ad Blocking - it's the users way of saying enough is enough!

I've been running ad blocking software since, well, it first came out on Firefox.  Then Chrome and now it's available on iOS handsets now.  Why?  This snippet from the Adobe Digital Marketing blog sums it up quite well for me: 

Users are fed up with bad advertising experiences. Every install of an ad blocker is a statement against annoying ads, security risks, slow browsing, and ads’ consumption of computing resources. With ad blockers, users have taken back control of their browsing experience. Now, it’s up to publishers to adjust.

Exactly.  The ads are annoying - slow - and stop me from seeing the content I want to see.  By using the ad blocker, I can see the content without the overlays, popups and junk.  I want to support the publishers, but the content people and publishers are going to have to make some changes.  Again, suggested changes from the Adobe Digital Marketing Blog:

How publishers can adjust
If bad ad experiences are causing users to flee to ad blocking, good ad experiences can help decelerate this trend. Here are nine ways to ensure a good ad experience:

1. Make sure the ad load to content load is fair to the user.
2. Match audio and video ad experiences to user expectations. In-stream ads can automatically play video since the users expects this. In contrast, in-banner ads shouldn’t automatically play audio or video because it interrupts an otherwise quiet browsing experience.
3. Prevent ads from obstructing content.
4. Screen ads for security risks.
5. Optimize ads for speed.
6. Optimize ads to consume the least amount of computing resources possible.
7. Seek out deals with advertisers or intermediaries that have a vision for well-designed, useful ads.
8. Ask users for feedback on your ad experiences. Look for insights in the feedback that can make the ad experience better.
9. Apply the “does this work for me” test. Give your audience the experience that you would enjoy yourself.

Do you block ads when you are browsing the web?  On your phone?  What's been your experience as a consumer, and as a publisher of content?

What are the best jobs for work life balance?

Balancing your career and your home life seems simple when you're young - work all the time, play later!  But as life and a family come along - or you realize you may want to do something more than your paying job - work life balance starts to become important.

Do you have a job with a good work-life balance?  What make that important to you? 

Glassdoor took their survey data and compiled a list of the top 25 job titles for work-life balance, along with their availabilty and salary data:

1. Data Scientist

• Work-Life Balance Rating: 4.2
• Salary: $114,808
• Number of Job Openings: 1,315

2. SEO Manager

• Work-Life Balance Rating: 4.1
• Salary: $45,720
• Number of Job Openings: 338

3. Talent Acquisition Specialist

• Work-Life Balance Rating: 4.0
• Salary: $63,504
• Number of Job Openings: 1,171

4. Social Media Manager

• Work-Life Balance Rating: 4.0
• Salary: $40,000
• Number of Job Openings: 661

5. Substitute Teacher

• Work-Life Balance Rating: 3.9
• Salary: $24,380
• Number of Job Openings: 590

6. Recruiting Coordinator

• Work-Life Balance Rating: 3.9
• Salary: $44,700
• Number of Job Openings: 446

7. UX Designer

• Work-Life Balance Rating: 3.9
• Salary: $91,440
• Number of Job Openings: 338

8. Digital Marketing Manager

• Work-Life Balance Rating: 3.9
• Salary: $70,052
• Number of Job Openings: 640

9. Marketing Assistant

• Work-Life Balance Rating: 3.8
• Salary: $32,512
• Number of Job Openings: 384

10. Web Developer

• Work-Life Balance Rating: 3.8
• Salary: $66,040
• Number of Job Openings: 2,117

11. Risk Analyst

• Work-Life Balance Rating: 3.8
• Salary: $69,088
• Number of Job Openings: 208

12. Civil Engineer

• Work-Life Balance Rating: 3.8
• Salary: $65,532
• Number of Job Openings: 809

13. Client Manager

• Work-Life Balance Rating: 3.8
• Salary: $71,120
• Number of Job Openings: 503

14. Instructional Designer

• Work-Life Balance Rating: 3.8
• Salary: $66,040
• Number of Job Openings: 782

15. Marketing Analyst

• Work-Life Balance Rating: 3.8
• Salary: $60,000
• Number of Job Openings: 341

16. Software QA Engineer

• Work-Life Balance Rating: 3.8
• Salary: $91,440
• Number of Job Openings: 457

17. Web Designer

• Work-Life Balance Rating: 3.8
• Salary: $53,848
• Number of Job Openings: 500

18. Research Technician

• Work-Life Balance Rating: 3.8
• Salary: $36,525
• Number of Job Openings: 299

19. Program Analyst

• Work-Life Balance Rating: 3.7
• Salary: $71,120
• Number of Job Openings: 524

20. Data Analyst

• Work-Life Balance Rating: 3.7
• Salary: $58,928
• Number of Job Openings: 1,954

21. Content Manager

• Work-Life Balance Rating: 3.7
• Salary: $60,960
• Number of Job Openings: 409

22. Solutions Engineer

• Work-Life Balance Rating: 3.7
• Salary: $92,456
• Number of Job Openings: 652

23. Lab Assistant

• Work-Life Balance Rating: 3.7
• Salary: $27,550
• Number of Job Openings: 779

24. Software Developer

• Work-Life Balance Rating: 3.7
• Salary: $80,000
• Number of Job Openings: 3,330

25. Front End Developer

• Work-Life Balance Rating: 3.7
• Salary: $75,000
• Number of Job Openings: 1337

Is iOS 9 Content Blocking Fragging Your Analytics?

Last month, Apple rolled out the ability to block certain web content via applications, like Ad Block.  these don't just block the annoying advertisements, they also block important tracking metrics for your website and business.  Two apps have made it into the top 100 of the App Store so far.  So, what impact are they having on your mobile business?

I took a few minutes to check for my employer.  I created a segment in Adobe Omniture for IOS devices running a Safari browser, then set up an Anomaly report on page views and Occurrences.  Turning the dates back a bit to give the anomaly algorithm more to work from, this is what I found:

In a nutshell?  Nothing.  We'd be looking for traffic drops in iOS Safari after September 16th.  What we saw that was out of the norm was traffic peaks for the iPhone pre-order and iPhone launch.  Traffic is trending upward for mobile, expected for the fall device refresh season.

Adobe is reporting similar: "What is the impact of ad blocking apps across Adobe’s customer base? So far, it’s not measurable. [...]   Adobe’s Digital Index team has access to traffic data across hundreds of sites, and they analyzed the Safari traffic trend over the last couple months. How much has Safari traffic dropped since the release of iOS 9? Nada. "

From a web metrics provider and analyst point of view, that's great news.

One in Seven.

On Monday, August 27th, one in seven people in the world were using Facebook.  At the same time.  One billion simultaneous users.

Regardless of your personal feelings for Facebook, that's quite an accomplishment, both from the human connection point of view and from a technical perspective.  

Source.

Best Sprint Direct2You Sweepstakes photo

This one wins the internets:

#Direct2You #Sweepstakes Great service. Everyone should do this. pic.twitter.com/2TD4hrkXcA

— Misty Richmond (@MDRichmo) September 23, 2015

Learning GIMP

Trying to use GIMP to replace Photoshop so I did a basic image, gradient and outlined text on the image for a Facebook post for Boy Scout Troop 387.  Didn't turn out terribly bad...

Updates to Will England - the Homepage

After five more years of neglect, I updated my personal web page for Will England by adding a 'viewport' for a 'responsive design' mobile friendlyness.  Why?  Well, I've dropped nearly below the fold on Google and I'm not on the home page of Bing for a name search.

And, I had a nice meeting today with Chris from iCrossing and the Kent, the SEO expert at Sprint today who mentioned again, that they use my home page as an example of SEO done right.  But I failed them.  :-)  Thanks again for the tips (and the BBQ, Chris!)

So, sometime in 2020, I should plan my next web page update!

Day off

It's nice to get a day off once in awhile. We took the whole family to church. Later we caught up on laundry, paid bills, and had an early dinner before the wife and daughter took off for softball practice.

This weekend was supposed to be a full weekend Boy Scout camp out, but we ended up going to Schlitterbahn water park for just the day. That was definitely a good idea, because everyone was exhausted and burned by the end of the day and camping after that would have been well, painful.

Google Photos Unlimited Storage, At Reduced Quality

SO, I was curious how 'reduced' the quality was going to be on the Google Photos Unlimited Storage offer.  They claim anything up to 16 megapixels is essentially unchanged.

So I posted a photo to the unlimited storage, compared it to an iPhoto export and to the original JPEG.

Google reduced the file size to 1.1 megabytes.
iPhoto Export reduced the file size to 2.2 megabytes.
The original photo was 4.4 megabytes.

All photos remained 16 megapixels in size at 72dpi.

But how does it look at 100% crop?

See for yourself - which image is original, and which came from Googles' compression?

I'm satisfied.





(spoiler: Left is Google, Center is original, right is iPhoto export)

It's raining

Seems to be raining this Fourth day of August.

My First Visit to Bartle

Back in April of 2009, I rode the Ducati out on some Missouri back roads and found a little town at the intersection of C, U and ZZ roads.  Just past there was a scout ranch.  It was early season and I figured they were closed - but I went a bit down the road and shot a photo of the Duc at the visitors center parking lot:

Bartle Summer Camp 2015

Not been blogging much - not sure what to write anymore.  I got busy.  That's it - I got busy doing summer and camp things.  So I'll write about what I was busy with.

This summer was my fourth year back to the H. Roe Bartle Scout Reservation - and Alec's fourth year.  Through hard work and a good scouting attitude (at least at Scouts) he was chosen to join the tribe of Mic O Say - the honor camping program at Bartle!  (Alec is on the left)

I wasn't even sure about camp this year - I'd just completed a week as Daycamp Director; Nikki had been out for 3 weeks at the Bahamas and Powederhorn training class and I was feeling a bit fragile.  And Nikki had signed me up for the Outdoor Leader / Assistant Scoutmaster classes while I was at camp.  So I had to pack for Hunter, Alec, and two sets of gear for me - one for in camp, and another for the 36 hour outdoor skills class.

To top it off I'd dropped tobacco cigarettes on July 1, switching to electronic vaporizers, so I had more stuff to concern myself with.

Packing was a cluster fuck to say the least, just jamming random crap in the bag and leaving the garage a bloody mess.  3 weeks back from camp and I still haven't put that back together.  Sleeping was optional at camp; hot and damp to begin with and I decided to go cold turkey from the prescription and liquid relaxation devices for the week of camp.  First few nights were spent awake, listening to the wild life.  Then up at 5:30 to get coffee and clean up trash that the raccoons had scattered.

But all turned out well - the OLS class was excellent, with superior leadership from Dave Allen, Chieftan in the Tribe and Nick Badgerow, the train-the-trainer wizard from the council.  He's also a hard core backpacking guy so I was able to pick his brains for tips and ideas for the upcoming Yellowstone trek.

The other students in the class were almost all first year parents.  I volunteered as patrol leader, and the other class members taught me something important - as a leader, it's not my job to do all the work, but to simply ensure it gets done.  Delegate, supervise and contribute only where needed.  They were offended when I tried to help - it implied to them that I didn't think they were able to get the job done on their own!  Excellent lesson in leadership.

After getting through OLS, I seem to have begun to relax and slept more at night.  Alec survived his two nights in the woods contemplating his obligations and completed his brave ceremony successfully. I even had some quiet time and made a new friend or two!

A good year at H. Roe Bartle.  I will be back next year as Assistant Camp Master.

Photos Test

A geek in a cube.

Same geek.  Same mirror.  Different cube.  10 years later.  Inspired by this post of October 2005.

Spring Break - Day 6 Thursday

Rainy day,  kids budget busted.  Indoor play most of the day while Nikki and I went up and bought a 2004 Nissan Frontier pickup. Old,  reliable and one owner.  Matches the van. 

Nikki and Robyn went to an Archery event with their Venture Crew, and Hunter, Mason and I took the new truck to Merrybelle's to get her trash taken out.  Then up to the pool for an hour of swimming, followed by Quick Trip donuts. 

Home,  worn out and down to bed.

A good day.

Spring Break, Day 4

Wednesday. A blur of a day.  I remember we sold Nikki's 2011 CBR for the asking price to a nice young girl from St.  Joseph, MO.  Beyond that - it's right fuzzy. I think I got the  turntable set up in the garage.  Played Pink Floyd, A Momentary Lapse of Reason as the first record on the new setup.

Hunter had friends over and rode bikes around the neighborhood. Alec had Chris over from across the street.  Mason had Lizzy over,  also from across the street.

Full,  fantastic family busy day.

Spring Break, Day 3

Today - mainly focused on maintaining hardware.  Took mom's Honda mower to the shop for the hard starting problem. Changed the oil and plug on the Toro and sharpened the blade.  Cleaning the garage - 2 boxes of stuff to moms for long term storage. Got a small bit of progress toward setting up the turntable in the garage for analog playback over the Klipsch La Scala's.

Nikki is nearly done with stripping and repainting her Trek bike! Looking great...

Loaded up the family for  ice cream -  supposed to be free cone day at Dairy Queen but the lines were too long.  Russell Stover serves Blue Bell ice cream and with the current Listeria scandal,  they aren't serving ice cream.  So  off to A&W  for root beer floats!

Kids rode bikes all day up to the school and back and up again.  They sure like bike riding...  Finally finding some freedom and empowerment.

Dominick came over tonight to visit Hunter - without parent! Rode his bike all the way up here -  nearly a mile from his house.  They watched some movie and Nikki took them back home.

Several calls on the CBR's -  mostly broke folks trying to jaw me down  but two real people who'll be over tomorrow to check out the bikes...

Speaking of bikes,  Mason,  the youngest,  made a great YouTube video about why to wear a helmet when riding a bike!  Helps him complete his Cub Scout Bicycle Pin!

Found out the times for Rich's wake and service.  Alec will get to drive up to Chicago with his great Aunt and Uncle - I'll run up on near saddlesore pace to crash the wake on  the FJR.  Good way to memorialize Rich - a solid 1k ride. 

Today was a good day.

-will england

Spring Break, Day Two

Day two.  First time in a long time I have slept past 6am. Up at the crack of 9. Coffee first then sort out the mess of bills that stacked up the past two weeks. A bit of robbing Peter to pay Paul,  and we're off to the church to help the Clinton Cub Scout Pack unload and return the Pinewood Derby track.

Back from that,  fielded some calls about a family emergency - more on that another day - and then off to take inventory on the Cub Scout Daycamp storage unit.  We have more than we'd hoped - good news there,  finally!

Back home and work to catch up on laundry.  Somewhere in there I forgot to eat.  But the kids have clean clothes and clean dishes to eat from.

30 minutes and I  pick up oldest son from his mom's,  then raise a glass to a good man taken too early.

Perhaps tomorrow I shall make time for the family, instead of focusing on the world around them that they just expect to happy magically.

- will

Spring Break, Day 1

Saturday was the first day of Spring Break.  Because of changed vacation carryover policy, I had enough time banked to take the week off.  So,  for the first day of Spring break, I got up at 5 am, drove down to Clinton, MO and helped the Cub Scout Pack there set up and run their Pinewood Derby.  First time they've ever had one!

Very neat experience - great volunteer parents and the scouts were all very well behaved.  Everyone had a great time,  you humble author included.

After? Costco run,  then nap.  Finished the evening out reading in bed with my wife beside me watching a movie on her laptop.

A good day.

Learning the Edge (The Galaxy Note Edge, that is)

The wraparound edge screen on the Samsung Galaxy Note Edge is a unique and curious design element on this phone.  I've just gotten my Note Edge and am working on learning what you use it for!  From PhoneDog.com, you can get to:

•     App settings and Shortcuts
•     Favorite Apps
•     Settings, including music controls, contacts, etc
•     Glowing edge wallpaper while the main screen is off
•     News ticker with scores, stocks etc
•     A night clock

This YouTube video illustrates a lot of the cool things you can do with the Edge screen - I'll be re-watching this as I learn more and play with the phone over the next few weeks:

Charging Up the Samsung Note Edge

The Samsung Galaxy Note Edge was one of the first phones with the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 chipset offering a ton of improvements and massive speed.  One of the nicer features for the rest of us is Quick Charge 2.0.  Quick Charge 2.0 offers communication between the phone, battery and charger brick to increase the voltage that the charger brick delivers to the phone.  Higher voltage means a faster charging rate.  Take a look at this graphic from Qualcomm illustrating a 30 minute charge:

With Quick Charge 2.0 you can get nearly a full charge in less than an hour - even 15 minutes of charging will get you several hours of usable battery out of the Note 4!

- Will England

Nexus 6 as a Phone

The Nexus 6 is known for it's fantastic software, top of the line hardware, brilliant screen and camera.  The Google integration is top of the line.  As a data device and tablet it's nearly perfect.  But how does it work as a phone?

Pretty well really.  Calls complete quickly and the voice clarity is excellent.  Handset sound is clear and loud.  The dialer is unique and offers a great view into your contacts, letting you see frequently accessed contacts and a quick and functional search. No more scrolling through hundreds of contacts!  Each contact has their profile image from connected social networks and you can text, email or call them from the dialer screen.  The search at the top of the dialer screen searches both your contacts and local places - a very nice touch for calling nearby businesses.

I have found a few quirks in the phone though - switching from headset or handset audio to speaker has a noticeable delay in raising the audio level.  The proximity sensor is just wonky - sometimes after I take the phone away from my head, the screen remains black; sometimes when I'm holding the phone against my face the screen lights back up.  Normally not an issue, because with a phone this big I'll use my bluetooth handset more than holding it against my face.  Another delay is in the ring tone for incoming calls - it starts to play the ringtone, pauses a second, then restarts the ringtone.  Another minor software bug, but it should be fixed in a future update.

An interesting new feature is 'Caller ID by Google'.  This is a feature on the Nexus that uses reverse lookup over the web when a call comes in to identify who is calling based on web records of the phone number.

The messaging app works well, opening quickly and showing nicely threaded contacts.  Occasionally, you will get a bug pop up where an SMS will be re-sent several times.  Sprint and Motorola are working on a fix for that and it should be delivered in a future software update. In the messaging app, you can touch the contact icon and get a quick overview of their contact information.

Call network quality is one of the best I've found - even in known low-signal areas I have yet to drop a call.  Super solid radio performance for phone calls.

In a nutshell?  Even with a couple bugs, it's a great phone experience!

- Will England



Disclaimer: The Product Ambassadors are Sprint employees from many different parts of the company that love technology. They volunteer to test out all sorts of Sprint devices and offer opinions freely to the Community. Each Product Ambassador shares their own opinions of these devices, therefore the information in this post does not necessarily reflect the opinions of Sprint. The PAs do not represent the company in an official way, and should not be expected to respond to Community members in an official capacity. #sprintemployee.

Nexus 6: Camera Authority

I'm a big shutterbug - I've been learning about and playing with photography since grade school, even having built my own camera obscura.  I always like to test out the cameras on the phones I use.  I take a lot of sports and action photos from the kids, lots of nature photos while I'm out hiking and riding, and the obligatory cat photos when I'm home.  Most cell phone cameras have been fair at best - poor detail, washed out colors or slow.  The Nexus is none of those.  While the camera functions are relatively basic, offering only HDR+, Photosphere and Panoramic modes, the camera itself is fantastic.

As you can see in this snapshot of my Random cat, the clarity and detail is uncanny.  Each whisker and hair is captured clearly.  At a 100% crop there's no color fringing or purple edging at the high contrast areas between the dark background and the bright sunlit cat.  The many different layers of grey and hints of yellow and brown all come through with excellent clarity.

Depth of field is interesting too - this shot was at F2.0, and you actually get some background blurring and depth of field from a small sensor cell phone camera.

Running a 1/3.06" Sony CMOS sensor at 13 megapixels, the Nexus can open up to F2.0 for excellent low-light performance.  The flash uses dual LED's on the back encased in a ring for more even lighting and better flash performance.  It even offers optical image stabilization for less shake and blur when you're shooting those low-light photos!


Disclaimer: I work for Sprint and volunteer as a Product Ambassador.  The Product Ambassadors are Sprint employees from many different parts of the company that love technology. They volunteer to test out all sorts of Sprint devices and offer opinions freely to the Community. Each Product Ambassador shares their own opinions of these devices, therefore the information in this post does not necessarily reflect the opinions of Sprint. The PA's do not represent the company in an official way, and should not be expected to respond to Community members in an official capacity. #sprintemployee.

Migrating to the Google Nexus 6

As part of the Sprint Product Ambassador team, I get called to test and review different phones about every two months. As such, I'm constantly swapping devices, updating software and re-downloading my standard apps from Google Play.  Usually takes a couple hours of work each time I swap phones.

Courtesy Marques Brownlee

I was pleasantly surprised with the Nexus 6 - after activating the radios, and signing into my Google account, I found that two-factor authentication is built into Android 5 lollipop.  Two factor authentication means Google will send an SMS with a unique code to devices that you haven't used before.  This helps keep your account safe.  With Android 5 on the Nexus, this is built right into the setup procedure, eliminating waiting on an SMS and copying the code from screen to screen.

The next pleasant surprise was with my apps. Switching phones frequently, I've always checked the 'back up my settings to Google', but never found any benefit to this in the past.  With Lollipop on the Nexus, the phone prompted me to restore my apps and settings from the Google Play store!  Selecting just what I needed on this phone, I clicked through and after about 30 minutes of data intensive downloading, all my apps were re-loaded on the phone.

Google has provided a knockout piece of hardware and with the improved setup in Android 5 Lollipop, I think this is going to be a great phone and a great test run!  Stay tuned for more impressions.




Disclaimer: I work for Sprint and volunteer as a Product Ambassador.  The Product Ambassadors are Sprint employees from many different parts of the company that love technology. They volunteer to test out all sorts of Sprint devices and offer opinions freely to the Community. Each Product Ambassador shares their own opinions of these devices, therefore the information in this post does not necessarily reflect the opinions of Sprint. The PA's do not represent the company in an official way, and should not be expected to respond to Community members in an official capacity. #sprintemployee.

Winfield Bluegrass (Walnut Valley) Festival, 2010

Found this old video from 2010 Walnut Valley Bluegrass Festival on Google Plus, backed up from my phone.  2010 - 4AM.  Even stage 5 has shut down, but the music never stops.  Random group of strangers under the streetlight in the Walnut Grove, Winfield KS.

Will England's Year in Photos 2014

What a fantastic year - I'd forgotten about some of these events, all captured from auto-backed up photos from my mobile phone.  Too cool!

January Cat Photo

Obligatory cat photo for the month.

April 2013: Tour of Honor Saddlesore 1,000 Extreme

With Nikki's prompting, I took a wander around Kansas in April of 2013 and seemed to have picked up all 7 Tour of Honor sites, pending approval. While I was riding, I went ahead and got receipts and stuff; turned out to be around 1,040 miles round trip and took right at 23 hours - that qualifies for an Iron Butt Association Saddle Sore ride.  Combine them both and it's a Saddlesore Extreme.

The Tour of Honor is a Summer long grand tour, where you ride and take photos of your motorcycle with various memorials to veterans, police and other service organizations. If you get 7 sites in any combination, you're  a 'finisher'.

I Rolled out on the stock CBR at 11:20 AM from Overland Park, KS. Rode out to Ft. Riley, Abiline KS, then Colby KS on I70. That was a *push*, keeping up with traffic, uphill into a headwind. One of the best memories was on I-70.  I'm flat out redlined, laying down on the tank, going downhill.  At the bottom of the hill, there was a highway patrolman.  I sat up, never let off the throttle and waved - I was turning 10,000 RPM and making 74MPH.  He looked at me, looked at his radar gun and just shook his head.  I can only imagine what he was thinking!

Colby at Sunset was gorgeous - unfortunately no good photos.  Abiline was a fantastic town and I can't wait to go back and explore more.

After Colby, I turned South to Sublette, KS then back East across US160 in the dark to Anthony KS. From there up to Wichita, over to Girrard KS and back to Overland Park by 10:20 AM on Sunday.

1040 odo miles, 23 hours should qualify for the Saddlesore, and I've been listed as a finisher on the Tour of Honor site. Now, what to do next weekend?

A few photos:


Loaded up for the start. Fieldsheer Eiffel tank bag, Tourmaster Cortech tailbag. Beadrider seat beads.

Loaded up and ready to go. by kcsporttour, on Flickr

Exactly 2,000 miles at the start of the ride:

Rolled over 2,000 miles at the start of the SS1K by kcsporttour, on Flickr

M65 Atomic Cannon over Ft. Riley, KS

2013_284_M65 Cannon at Ft Riley 2 by kcsporttour, on Flickr

On I-70 Westbound:

Road Shots are Fun by kcsporttour, on Flickr


Buffalo Bill Statue near Oakley, KS by kcsporttour, on Flickr


2013_284_Anthony KS 1 by kcsporttour, on Flickr

Really cool helicopter in Girard, KS.

2013_284 Girard by kcsporttour, on Flickr


1040 miles later, back in Overland Park, KS


Final milage - 1040 miles, 23 hours and 1 minute. by kcsporttour, on Flickr

The Map:

Sharp Aquos Crystal First Impressions

As part of the Sprint Product Ambassador team, I have the opportunity to try out new phones from time to time and blog about them.  Usually it's something new and cutting edge - this time though, it's the Sharp Aquos Crystal.  Quietly released by Sprint in October, this interesting handset design from a non-typical Android company is a pleasant surprise.

With a 5" bezel-less screen running 720p resolution, the phone is a full size midrange value.  The Aquos has a very clean, excutive appearance, free from extraneous branding.  From looking at it, you would think 'Seiko', not 'Sharp'.

What's in the box?  The usual phone and charger - a basic 800ma brick, suitable for your phone, but not reusable for tablets or other big battery devices.  No headphones are included.

The Aquos has a removable back panel for access to the SIM card (included) and a MicroSD slot capable of supporting up to 128GB chips, but unusually, a fixed 2040mA battery. The back panel has a fine pebbled texture for improved feel and grip.

Once it's activated, we'll test out the Harman Kardon sound and patented Clari-Fi™ technology. Sharp (or Harman) claims that the Clari-Fi technology restores compressed digital music to "its full glory for crisper, wider and more dynamic audio through your headphones or accessories."   We'll see how that works out with standard lossy MP3 files -- I should still have some low-bit rate 128 files somewhere . . .

The Aquos supports the latest LTE band aggregation (Sprint Spark) so it should offer great download speeds and long battery life in upgraded Sprint markets.  With Bluetooth 4.0, it should also provide great connections to both my calling headset (Plantronics Voyager) and my music headset (Moto Buds).

For calls, the Aquos uses a 'Direct Wave Receiver' - since it has no bezel, it has no where to put the typical speaker for the handset.  Essentially, it vibrates the entire display area for calls.  Early reports show a less than stellar sound quality, but I'll mostly be using a bluetooth headset, so not a huge factor for me.

Wrapping up the first look at the handset, you'll find the USB port on the bottom, with the volume rocker on the left side.  On top is both the 3.5mm headset jack and power button.

“Disclaimer: The Product Ambassadors are Sprint employees from many different parts of the company that love technology. They volunteer to test out all sorts of Sprint devices and offer opinions freely to the Community. Each Product Ambassador shares their own opinions of these devices, therefore the information in this post does not necessarily reflect the opinions of Sprint. The PA's do not represent the company in an official way, and should not be expected to respond in an official capacity. #sprintemployee.”