HTC Evo Sprint Tethering

On October 2, 2011, Sprint announced their cap on mobile broadband of 5 gigs. Boo Hiss.

On October 10, 2011, I discovered that PDAnet was no longer tethering due to no longer seeing my htc evo. I have reinstalled new drivers, etc.. and windows control panel says my drivers are crap. So I tried klink. Crap again. Both programs are paid for. Both not working. Same problem on two different laptops.

5 gigs isn’t much by today’s standards of net use especially if you stream netflix and hulu. I am doomed.

I finally get the rv out of the shop and my net access while on the road goes to crap. I don’t mind paying sprint.. just give me something I really can live with.

Time to start shopping. Just not sure there is anything better out there at this time. In the meantime, relooking at this driver issue. Maybe its minor.

Walk on Water

A new toy has caught my eye, the Shuttle Bike Kit. It allows you to ride your bike on water. Yes, there are other aqua/hydro bikes but the beauty of this, is its portability. Everything you need is in a back back to take where ever you ride your bike. At least that is what is advertised. No need to tow or get a rack on your car or rv.  No need to have to drive to a launch ramp. Wherever you can get your bike, you can  go.

I live near salt water. I’m fighting rust as is without pedaling my bikes in brackish waters. Therefore, best to sacrifice something with two wheels from Wal-mart. Not sure if we even have any real fresh water in the state of Florida. Speaking of which, the alligator factor has me concerned. Those suckers are everywhere. They have adjusted nicely to the various degrees of salt in the water and are thriving.

Haven’t updated the blog recently as I just have too many toys, too little time, or so it seems. I discovered dailycheapreads.com and my kindle runneth over with freebies. The more I read, the less I cross stitch or use the computer.

During the day, still on the auto free exercise plan and just trying to stay active. Seems to be THE BEST medicine for rheumatoid arthritis. I have monthly infusions of actemra and have now started weaning from steroids. Steroid weaning is not going as well as hoped. So staying active is even MORE important. I just hope I can stay motivated in the cooler weather to remain auto free as much as possible.

Living in a resort area, its easy to forget all the wonderful things here. So once a week, I try to go to the beach for an hour… an hour of appreciation of how lucky I am to live here. Course, everyone’s idea of paradise differs… this just happens to be mine.

The rv is still in the shop.

Plastic Treasure

Today I went to St. Andrews State Park in Panama City Beach, Florida in search of hidden treasure. Also known as geocaching.

Someone takes a plastic container and hides it in the middle of nowhere with useless stuff in it – posts gps coordinates on the net.. and count me in… I’m going after it.

I found it and put more useless crap in it for the next person. Personally, I feel my useless crap is better than the useless crap that was already in it, but that’s strictly a personal opinion thing. Its all crap for sure.

I use to use cacheberry now know as cachesense for geocaching with my blackberry phone but I now have an android phone. I’m hoping to get in on the beta testing for the android version as I really REALLY missed it while out searching for plastic treasure today. Today I used c:geo which is a free android geocaching app. I’m just use to cachesense.

I almost gave up in my search at the park. I had convinced myself that the treasure had become alligator snack. At last minute.. I got out my hiking stick to shuffle some leaves that looked slightly out of place. Bingo. The discovery was mine….and as a bonus, no poisonous snakes.

I rode my bike to the park. The exercise was a good thing and its far cheaper to get in the state park via bicycle than car. I usually buy an annual state park pass but this year, I bought it and gave it to a friend as a xmas gift. It only cost $2.00 to bicycle in, so I’m not complaining. Also, the bicycle got me where I needed to be far easier than a car would of.

I’ve been riding my trike a lot since it can carry a ton of stuff but today it was nice breaking out the Trek Navigator 3.0 Its a lot faster and easier than riding the trike. I just wish it wasn’t such a heavy bike. However, while still on the auto free exercise plan, I am glad that I can pick from the trike, the trek navigator and my old very light weight schwinn traveler ten speed. I am debating to see if the bike shop would let me trade in my trek navigator on consignment or something, for a lighter weight trek.

The heat was brutal today and I’m dreading tomorrow’s outdoor activities already. Tomorrow, I need to bike ride about 12 miles  –and- do quite a bit of yard mowing.

This diet sucks.

Sprint HTC EVO 4g

Wow.. what fun. Upgraded the blackberry to the htc evo. New toys are always fun to play with. However, when upgrading to an android, be sure that you have deleted ALL VOICE MAILS from your current phone prior to transferring to the new android. Failure to do so, can result in a voice mail notification that is ridiculously hard to delete… and sometimes not even possible. One would think the employee at the store doing the transfers, would be aware of this and be kind enough to let customers know.

Nope.. you are on your own with this one and GOOD LUCK getting rid of that pesky little voice mail notification.. notifying you of the voice mail on your old phone that you can no longer access.

I did get rid of the vm notification but I tried so many different things, I can’t repeat the steps.

Most end up having the old phone reactivated so they can do a regular delete, then reactivate the new phone. When I first read “the cure”, I figured it was worse than the illness. After messing with it for awhile…. I was darn close to calling Sprint for reactivation of the old blackberry so I could get rid of the lost in space voice mail.

The way the HTC evo handles ringtones is interesting. I prefer the work around of just making a folder on the SD card called RINGTONES.  Whatever you slap in there, will show up as an available ringtone. Or.. do it the way they want you to. Go to music app or to your download folder.. play song, then have the menu option of applying it as a ringtone. On paper, sounds ok. In practice, too many steps. Just make the RINGTONES folder on the sd card and be done with it.

I do miss CacheSense  for the blackberry and look forward to when/if the android version comes out. There are android geocaching apps, but I just really liked CacheSense.

I tried Tango for video conferencing to take advantage of the Evo’s dual front and rear cameras. Tried it with a wifi connection and with 3g (no 4g here) and apparently I just don’t have the speed needed. So I’ll be on the look out for something that works more toward quantity with less quality.

Haven’t tried the mobile hot spot feature, for up to eight devices (plus 29.99 charge) yet. But the ability did result in me nuking a plan that I had for my net on the go while in the rv. I just hope I don’t regret it. The roku box in the rv depends on it. On order is the Freedom Pro bluetooth keyboard which apparently works with the Evo.

I have only had the Evo 4g for a day. I’m sure I’ll discover all sorts of cool things as use it more.

Naturally, in two weeks, the Evo 3D is coming out.

Porta Potty Predicament

Recently took the van out for my first van camping experience. Thankfully,  the site I had at the state park was very near the bath house. My original plan of the TravelJohn Foldable Commode Chair had a few drawbacks.

The space saving design when not in use was a real bonus in the van. It was surprisingly sturdy. However, I can not stress this enough – one needs to make sure the bag is attached securely at ALL times. When in use, it took more room up than anticipated… a lot more room. Downsizing from a 38 foot diesel pusher to a van for camping, made me appreciate the creature comforts of my rv even more (which is STILL in the shop). I think this product is best for outside use. I don’t like venturing out alone at night…..

So – on to plan B.

The Reliance Hassock Toilet , a smaller version of the 5 gallon bucket design type.

To me, the lack of handles is a design flaw. It does have inserts on each side to grab on to though. My initial “fix” to the handle problem is the use of a Home Depot shopping bag. It also provides a way to camouflage the toilet.

I plan on testing this product out with various amounts of water before attempting a camping test in the van. I learned the value of at home testing on my last trip. I have a feeling that perhaps the lack of a handle was not an oversight but a method to insure that the transport of the toilet would be level by the use of both hands, resulting in a reduction of spills by sloshing. The design of the toilet is nothing more than a bucket within a sturdy exterior container. The interior bucket can spill into the exterior container even though the toilet tissue holder doubles as an internal bucket cover.

It has been suggested that an interior disposable absorbent liner be used between the bucket and exterior container if not using bio bags with the product. Bio Bags can be costly.

The lack of a shower/bath in the van was indeed a down side to camping but not something that can’t be worked around. I do want to add an awning to the van. The current CareFree awning it has is a total piece of crap, in my opinion. The same goes for the add a room package that didn’t keep bugs out so you might as well not add the so called room.

It will be awhile before I go out in the rv or van, so back to cross stitching.

Cross Stitch Burn Out

During the nice weather where swimming, bike riding, rving, camping, geocaching are my main interests, cross stitch takes a back seat. More like a winter burn out. So, instead of finishing up the huge projects I was working on, I started something new. Typical of the avid cross stitcher – its an illness.

At the Seaside – Girl on Beach – vervaco kit 75.086 is my current project.

Vervaco kits are fairly easy and require far less time and concentration than some other cross stitch projects that I have already started. I seem to actually finish the vervacos.

Keyboard for snackers

I am trying out a flexible roll up keyboard. I originally purchased it thinking it would be an easy solution to pack with the netbook.  The keyboard is as flexible and light weight as advertised. If purchased on eBay, you  get quite a selection of colors – all for about five bucks, delivered to the door.

I’m going to wear out the back space key trying to get use to typing on it. You have to pound on the sucker or so it seems. Typing speed is down to zip.

Now for the good….

Salsa and chips may not be a good snack around most keyboards..but this flexible baby laughs at them. While at the store,  I should get trail mix and some gooey stuff.  No food item, not even pizza or buffalo wings can hurt this keyboard.  Maybe while out, I should leave a chocolate to melt between the keys. Its not like it will cause damage and its not like I have any of these food items either.

I’m still on the diet from hell and ready to crack. I know… I know… its not a diet.. its a lifestyle change. Oh gag me!

Need to work on the typing aspect of the new keyboard. The  spill proof – food proof features have me sold but sometimes, having a keyboard you can actually type on, is nice.

This is the perfect keyboard for in the kitchen though. It does not work well on your lap. It is very flexible and needs a flat surface under it. Did I mention that the keyboard is really cute? So does it really need to be practical as well?

In the interest of testing this keyboard’s full potential, and nothing to do with DIET HELL off to the store I go for some “test” foods.