NorthStarNerd.Org

Amity Snow Pine Gold Explosion

What a great way to slide into Friday evening! We received 3 inches of fresh snow today, and at dusk the sun exploded on the scene. I live in northern Minnesota on the edge of a pine forest (and across from a waterfall). I took these photos using HDR photography (see prior post: HDR for the Amateur Photographer).

Maybe I should have titled this post "Fire and Ice at Sunset"!

Click upon any image to view at full resolution.

Amity Snow Pine River

------------------------------------

Amity Snow Pine Gazebo

Using Your Kindle Fire Browser (screenshots)

With Amazon's latest Kindle Fire upgrade, their browser has become much more web friendly. Let's take a look at how the the browsing experience has improved. With this release, you may now utilize the entire Kindle Fire screen for viewing a web page. Given the smaller tablet size compared to an iPad, this is HUGE (literally and figuratively!).

I've also included a couple of other screenshots which should help you use your Kindle Fire browser, including how to easily get rid of the hundreds of tabs that always seem to be open. 

You may also be interested in linked to my post: Personalize Your Kindle Fire w/o Rooting. It helps you get rid of the dreaded Amazon Carousel.

Click upon any image to view at fullo resolution!

When you open your Kindle Fire browser, you will see four arrows in the bottom right hand corner of your screen. Pressing them maximizes your browser to your full screen. The second screenshot's lightly shaded red area demonstrates how much viewing area you gain.

Browser Default Status

-----------------------------------

Browser Vewing Maximized.
(press the "up arrow" at the bottom center to return the menus) 

----------------------------------

Getting rid of all those tabs!
(press and hold on any tab ... this pop up menu appears) 

----------------------------------

Accessing the browser menu items

 

USA Pond Hockey Championships Slide Show

How do you describe the frozen northland where 30,000 people descend upon Lake Nakomis on three cold days in January to watch teams vie for the Golden Shovel Award? Fantastic!

Welcome to the USA Pond Hockey Championships.

Take a moment to watch my animated slide show (with music). I spent the afternoon over at the championships taking photos (after first skiing 25 kilometers this morning). This is Winter in Minnesota!

2012 finds teams competing from all over the United States and Canada (even a team from Latvia)! Players range from old rink rats to former NHL players. The final aerial photo in my slide show is courtesy of the local CBS affiliate (story). Enjoy!

Finally, if you're on this page, I assume it's because you like hockey being played outdoors! Link to a previous post of mine and watch the movie trailer for Pond Hockey!

USA Pond Hockey on PhotoPeach (click in bottom right to expand)

(click upon to view at full size)

 

Rube Goldberg Meets Target

I pinged Target rather hard on a customer service fiasco early last Fall. With this video and their Rube Goldberg Machine, they are back on my good side. Well done, Target! I don't even mind I am helping you advertise by featuring this video. It's worthy!

------------------------------
From Wikipedia!

Kindle Fire & GoLauncher: Where are my books?

A number of folks have had a difficult time finding their books after installing GoLauncher (no root) in their desire to rid themselves of the dreaded Amazon Carousel. While the Kindle Reader App appears, when launched it appears as if all of ones books have disappeared. Thankfully, this is not the case, but it is confusing at first. Thus, here are some Kindle Fire screenshots and instructions.

Please note that after you "launch" a book via the traditional Amazon Carousel interface, you are able to use the GoLauncher Kindle Reader app to continue reading your book. In other words, you need only return to the Carousel when you want to open a NEW book.

Should it be your desire, this process also allows you to reset the Carousel home screen as default.

Note: This entry is additional help for the Personalizing Your Kindle Fire Post

Here are the promised screenshots: (click to maximize)

#1: Bring up the GoLauncher Menu

-----------------------

#2: Press upon <Add>

-----------------------

#3: Press upon <Application>

-----------------------

#4: Scroll down and check <Launcher>
(this app will always return you to the Amazon Carousel) 

-----------------------

#5: Now start the "Launcher" app 
(yours may be located somewhere else on your screen) 

-----------------------

#6: Select or Navigate to <Books>

-----------------------

#7: Open your desired book
(you may now return to GoLauncher and read via the Kindle Reader app) 

SharePoint Apps: iPad - Yes ... Kindle Fire - No

I've been using and testing business applications on tablet computers since January of 2011. Via my "day job", I often find myself immersed in SharePoint (SP). While one may always connect diorectly via your browser to a SP web page, this process can be a bit slow and cumbersome. Thus, I decided to test the Filamente Lite and SharePlus Lite apps on both my iPad and KindleFire. The "lite" applications are free, but restrict usage of viewing only! The "pro" versions are paid, and generally allow editing of of SharePoint content.

First let's address what did not work. As much as I tried I could not get any Sharepoint site to connect via either app on my Kindle Fire. I suspect that there is some underlying issue with the Amazon internet connection via wifi which may be utilizing Silk. Regardless, it was a no go (bummer!).

On the iPad, my experience was much better. Both apps easily connected to my SharePoint 2007 and 2010 sites. However I quickly discarded Filamente because when it came time to open MS Office documents (Excel, Powerpoint and Word), the app did not take advantage of my entire screen. I don't like wasting valuable screen real estate.

Thus, hands down my choice was SharePlus Lite. It even worked in terms of viewing SP 2010 discussion forums, which is something the native SP "mobile" mode does not support. This pleased me very much! From this point on, I will take you through some screenshots such that you may experience the app.

Here are the apps I use most often for work:
(click upon any image to view at full size)

If you would like to test SharePlus for yourself, I would recommend the following:

• Download and Install SharePlus Lite for iOS or Android
• Link to Towson University's SharePoint 2010 Demo Site
• Configure / Connect Shareplus in this manner
  • No User ID and Password required
  • No Domain
  • Windows Based Authentication
  • Use this url: https://sp.towson.edu/sites/demo

In general, whenever connecting to a SP site, you will use "windows based authentication" (even on an iPad), and ignore much of the SP url. In the case of Towson, the full url is:

• https://sp.towson.edu/sites/demo/default.aspx
  
  • We ignore: /demo.default.aspx

-----------------------------------

SharePlus Lite: Towson University Configuration

-----------------------------------

Home Screen: SharePlus Lite
(MS Office Documents Example) 

-----------------------------------

SharePoint 2010 Project Site

-----------------------------------

SharePoint 2010 Project Sub-Site

-----------------------------------

SharePoint 2010 Project Documents

-----------------------------------

SharePoint 2010 Project Documents: Sub Folder

-----------------------------------

SharePoint 2010 Project Documents: Items

-----------------------------------

SharePoint 2010 Project Documents: Page View

-----------------------------------

Home Screen: SharePlus Lite
(Discussion Forum Example)

-----------------------------------

SharePoint 2010 Project Site

-----------------------------------

SharePoint 2010 Discussion Forum

-----------------------------------

SharePoint 2010 Discussion Forum: Threads

-----------------------------------

SharePoint 2010 Discussion Forum: Messages

Drinking From the BarCamp!

In this instance, I am drinking knowledge! Tomorrow night I will attend a Minnesota event sponsored by our local BarCamp, Minnedemo. Although my event is in Minnesota, BarCamps are hosted throughout the world. These get togethers are a fantastic way to learn how the "world of the web" is progressing. You will meet individuals who have product ideas for using the the web and software in ways about which you had never dreamed! 

You need not be "technical" to obtain benefit from a Barcamp. Most presentations present idea, and give brief working demos of software if that is germain to the discussion. I can remember when I first "got it" about mobile and the web. Quite a few years ago I attended a BarCamp where two young gentleman presented a new product idea ... cell phone cameras ... text messages ... and large professional sports stadium monitors. Basically, one would flash up a message asking fans to take a photo in the stadium, and send the results immediately to the host sports team. Within a few minutes the best examples would be shown on the HUGE stadium monitors. End result ... a marketeer's dream ... interaction with the customer, phone numbers, contact information etc.

Attend a BarCamp and learn! Here is a brief description of tomorrow night's Minnedemo. You'll note that I also get a real drink, not just knowledge!  :-)

"MinneDemo is for real, working technology products made in Minnesota. Demos are 7 minutes long and PowerPoint IS NOT ALLOWED. Some have described it as geek show and tell. We like to think that geeks and those interested in what they are doing (i.e., investors, media organizations, etc) will enjoy an event centered on seeing what the local scene is up to and networking before, during, and afterward with food and drinks. It’s an energizing and informative evening"

Take Cover: Angry Nerds!

Sometimes it takes a while for me to learn something, but when I do ... whamo, I am all over it! That is the case with Angry Nerds. This past April 1st, Atlassian created the perfect April Fools joke, Angry Nerds. However, the response was so great, you can actually "play" the iPad / Android game (no fooling). When you link to Angry Nerds, make certain you click upon the nerds in the game viewer!

Finally, I had to create my own Angry Nerds ... circa the Northstar Nerd (see below)!

Oh yes, Atlassian makes a good wiki, Confluence, and this was extremely smart marketing!

Uber Geek: Bill Sleeper ... 96 years young

The Northstar Nerd is two months shy of his 56th birthday. How neat would it be in 40 years to be as cool as Uber Geek, Bill Sleeper? This guy is amazing! Here are a few excerpts from an interview conducted by Geek Wire:

“Can I give you a demo?” (asks Bill Sleeper)

It’s not unusual to hear those words inside the offices of a technology company, but this is the Merrill Gardens retirement community in Mill Creek, north of Seattle. The man with the cool gizmo is Bill Sleeper, 96, the resident technology guru. And the subject of his demo is a Laser Stage Lighting device on his kitchen counter. Sleeper hits the switch and soon the ceiling of apartment is filled with a sea of colorful dancing dots.

“At night, this blows you away!” he says.

Thus, the next times technology befuddles or confuses you, remember uber Geek. If you stop learning in your 20's, 30's ... 50's, etc, life will charge you by.

Kindle Fire vs. iPad Web Browsing

I like my both my Kindle Fire and iPad. Many tech blogs have lambasted the Kindle Fire, but not NorthstarNerd.Org. Amazon's tablet provides a great platform for reading books, watching movies, and doing a quick check of email or web pages. However, if your goal to browse a significant amount of web content, take a look at my screenshots. You will find the iPad is your preferred platform. 

Three screenshots are given below which should give you a sense of perspective, but first the "technical" specs: (landscape viewing of web pages ... I always browse in the landscape mode on either device ... much easier to read text)

• iPad: 1024x768 pixels
• Kindle Fire: 1024x600 pixels

While a difference of 178 pixels might not seem like much, the screen sizes are quite different ... and here are the result. Click upon any image to maximize.

Image #1: iPad screenshot showing the area not seen on a Kindle Fire

---------------

Image #2: Original screenshot from Kindle Fire

---------------

 Image #3: Original screenshot from iPad

If you are still with me, and wondering how I take screenshots of my Kindle Fire (without rooting the device), link and follow these instructions from CNet. You may also wish to view the original page from my blog which I used for the screenshots.

One final comment, the Kindle Fire represents a great marketing move by Amazon. The Fire convinced me to join Amazon Prime, and I gave a free membership to each of my three adult children and wife. When the family compared notes after the holidays, almost EVERYONE had done 100% of their Christmas shopping online via Amazon. Still think Amazon is giving away the Kindle Fire???

---------------------------------------------------------- 

Updates: You may also wish to read these two posts:

• Using Your Kindle Fire Browser
• Personalize Your Kindle Fire w/o Rooting