Internet by Tethered Cellphone - Reboot

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to our E-mail Digest or RSS Feed. We will then send you the stories that are posted each day in an e-mail digest. We use a service called Feedburner for delivery of these emails. You will receive an e-mail from Feedburner after you subscribe and you must click on that email to activate your subscription. Thanks for visiting and enjoy all the information! RV.Net Blog AdminWe are currently at a rally in Albert Lea, Minnesota.  We’re using our Verizon Cell phone, tethered to our laptop , for our Internet access.  (To see what I mean by Tethered cell phone, watch the video on this page.)  Albert Lea is not a Verizon area.  Our cell phone reports that we are on an ‘Extended Network.’  It’s actually working quite well… Except when it doesn’t work at all! Read more Tell a Friend Read More →

Recycle your Old Computers

by Geeks on Tour: I don’t think anything gets out of date faster than computers. Except maybe milk! Your shiny new thousand-dollar purchase is ready for the trash heap in as little as three years. That adds up to a lot of trash! But, you don’t want to just throw these things in the trash! They have nasty stuff in them like mercury, lead, and arsenic. They also have valuable stuff that can be recovered if processed correctly - even Gold! Read more Tell a Friend Read More →

Wireless Internet - 3 ways

Even though we’ve been covering this topic for 6 years now - it’s still the most popular question we get from people just starting to experience the joy of RVing. “How do I get Internet access on my laptop while we’re traveling? Read more Tell a Friend Read More →

Making Money with your Blog

Do you have a blog with lots of readers? If so, you may be able to make some money by hosting ads from Google Adsense. If you do this, you will have no control over the exact ads that get displayed on your blog. Google scans the content of your blog, and displays ads appropriate to that content. For example, in our Geeks On Tour articles and links blog, we write a lot about Picasa and about Wi-Fi. At left is a sample of the ads that Google displays on that blog - all about Picasa and Wi-Fi. This makes it more likely that a reader will click on one of the ads, and every click represents a few pennies in the blog owner’s Adsense account. Don’t expect to get rich quick ok? We’ve had Google ads on our GOT blog for a couple years and we just now got our second $100 deposit from Google! We haven’t promoted this blog much and only have 50 - 100 visits/day. You really need at least 500/day to make noticeable money. If you get up to 3-4,000 visitors/day you can start planning retirement! How do you know how many visitors you have? That’s Google Analytics. You put a little piece of code at the bottom of your blog’s template, then Google analytics will know everytime someone visits. To put ads on your blog, first you need a Google Adsense account. You can sign up at Google.com/adsense. You’ll need to enter a website address, whether you’re getting a personal or a business account, and your bank account information. Once you... Read more

Interesting new product

Anytime I travel in the motorhome I take an LCD projector with me.  I do this for several reasons.  First, I use the projector in my work to give seminars on electrical safety.  Second, I use the projector for viewing my photos.  Third I like to project movies on the side of my motorhome for friends and family to enjoy, and finally, once a year the group I camp with gets together to watch the Ohio State Buckeyes play the Penn State Nittany Lions and we use the projector to view the football game on a large screen. I recently became aware of a new product on the market that attracted my interest.  The Benq Joybee GP1 Mini Projector.  On the surface this is a very clever tool, weighing in at 1.4 lbs. and fitting in the palm of your hand. Read more Tell a Friend Read More →

Blogging Offline with Windows Live Writer

by Geeks on Tour: A while ago, in my personal blog I wrote about discovering Windows Live Writer. It is a program, freely downloadable from Microsoft, which allows you to compose blog entries offline. It works with several blogging systems, including the 2 I use - Blogger and WordPress. After you compose your blog post, it will take care of uploading it to the web, including the pictures. Last week, we had some trouble with our Internet connection and I wanted to write a blog post, so I dusted off Live Writer and gave it another shot. It’s really an amazing little program! I’m using it now, even when my Internet connection is working fine. In a couple of my recent personal blog posts, I have maps as part of the blog post, and the maps don’t come from my normal Google Maps. They’re from Virtual Earth, Microsoft’s competitor to Google Earth. That’s because I used Live Writer to insert the map. Since Live Writer is by Microsoft, it uses Microsoft’s maps. Live Writer makes it just SOO easy to insert a map. It’s also waayy easy to insert a link, and the links automatically open in a new window! If you’ve been using Blogger, you know that making a link open in a new window is a painful process there. If you hate how Blogger adds new photos to the top of your post, you’ll love how Live Writer adds them at your cursor position. AND, you can even set it up to so that your photos get uploaded to your own hosted webspace (FTP)... Read more

Natural Treasures a Step Away from Red Rock RV and Camping Park

Across North America, we have arguably some of the best variety national parks anywhere in the world, from wetlands to prairies to awe-inspiring mountain ranges. As travelers Juanita and Gordon can attest, one place to enjoy some of our national parks is the Red Rock RV and Camping Park. In their Trip Journal “Seeing the USA in Our Chevrolet,” one can easily see the many attractions to be found here. Read more Tell a Friend Read More →

What is Twitter?

by Geeks on Tour: This isn’t exactly RV related, but Twitter can be used to keep up with the RVing community.  So many people ask me about Twitter, it must be time for an article.  I like to explain by example, so let me show you how I’m using Twitter.  I just visited my Twitter home page, and this is what I saw: I feel like I’m walking into a room where there are lots of people milling about and talking.  The cool part is that these are all people I’ve chosen for one reason or another, it’s my special party room.  And they aren’t too talkative, just a few words about what they’re doing or what they’re thinking.  In less than a minute of glancing at my Twitter home page, I’m up-to-date with all the people I’m ‘Following.’ Let me introduce you around.  The first person you see at my party represents Public Earth.  These are people we met at The Rally.  They are launching a special website about places.  You can find and view these places using a Google Maps interface, store your places in your Public Earth account, and download them to your dashtop GPS for directions.  I think it’s something I’m really going to like – and I won’t forget about it because I’m following their ‘tweets.’ Next comes GypsyJournal – this is Nick Russell, a fulltime RVer, and a friend.  I usually follow his blog, but that takes a lot more time than just seeing him at my Twitter party!  Because of this post, I see that he’s getting ready to go to the... Read more

VIDEO: Taking Technology on the Road with Geeks On Tour

Last week at The Rally I met one of the most popular and passionate couples in attendance. Whether at the RV.net booth or in the seminar halls, as you will soon see Chris and Jim Guld of GeeksOnTour.com are as fun and informative privately as they are onstage and on camera. Read more Tell a Friend Read More →

Google Earth and The Rally

Yesterday, at The Rally, we presented our Google Earth seminar to a packed room. Happy faces of Google Earth Audience From Geeks on Tour April 2009 It was great fun. Most of the people in the audience had already used Google Earth a little, but I know they learned a lot by the end. At one point during the seminar we mention that ‘some people think that Google Earth is just a way to look at a satellite image of your house.’ That brought a lot of nervous giggles from the crowd – apparently we were talking about them Although we did show how to look at a satellite image of your house, we spent the rest of the hour and a half showing all the other things you can do with Google Earth, and exactly how to use it. Chris Teaching Google Earth at The Rally From Geeks on Tour April 2009 If you missed the seminar, you can download the seminar handout from our website for free. Actually, you can download all of the seminar handouts if you’d like. Just, please respect that this is for personal use only – if you’d like a seminar presented you can contact us with the email link also on our website. Google Earth handout Every RVer Needs a Blog handout High-Speed Internet on the Road handout Managing Digital Photos with Picasa handout There are still two seminars coming up - High-Speed Internet on the Road Sunday 3-4:30 in Seminar A and Managing Digital Photos with Picasa on Monday 10:30 - noon in Seminar E. Here’s a video from the Google Earth seminar: Tell... Read more

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