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...