Category Archives: Technology

Kindle Subscription Now Available!

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Did you know that Amazon offers Kindle subscriptions to some blogs? I recently bought a Kindle and just discovered the Kindle blogs store contains over 13,000 blogs! Some are free, most are 99 cents a month (FYI Amazon decides on the pricing, based – I think – on publication frequency).

After some RSS feed tweaking I applied to have What Betty Knows listed, and it is now live here!

WBK Amazon subscription page view

Note that it is only available on certain Kindle devices (because some of them do not reproduce images, NOT because I “opted out of making it available”), so check your device. In any case you will not be allowed to purchase a subscription if you don’t have a usable Kindle model registered.

There is a 14-day free trial period, so you can cancel if the Kindle experience doesn’t work for you.

However! Whether or not you have a Kindle, please do me a favor: If you enjoy WBK please go to this link and write a review. It doesn’t need to be long (there is a 20 word minimum required), but would help convince others to check out WBK. Most helpful would be for you to say what you like about it, as trying to describe the content is difficult unless you already know me :-)  Thanks!

Quick Tip: Google Maps Now Shows Bike Route Elevation

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Now when you plot a bicycling route using Google Maps you also get elevation information so you can make changes to it before finding yourself confronting a steep hill unexpectedly.

NOTE: Currently this feature is available only when using a desktop browser, not yet for mobile browsing.

bike elevation Google

Quick Tip: Personal Safety Website Notifies Your Contacts

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When I’m going to meet up with a potential new musical partner, buy something from a Craigslist ad, or go anywhere unfamiliar and non-public alone, I usually tell my partner or a friend the who/what/where/when and ask them to follow up if I don’t contact them to say it’s cool. Hopefully you do the same.

Now there’s a free way to do this without requiring as much pre-planning (or the risk of forgetting to tell your friend it’s okay and they wonder if they should call the police!):

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Quick Tip: The Computer In Your Car

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Starting around 1996, our automobiles entered the computer age. Sensors and microprocessors took up the task of monitoring, and in some cases adjusting, many of the functions of the engine, brakes, and other components that previously acted only as set by a manual tool and whose failure only became evident when the car stopped working.

This new electronic monitoring system also changed the way in which periodic state inspections for safety and emissions are done. Whereas previously the garage would stick a hose up the tailpipe to suck in fumes and analyse it for pollution, then visually inspect the lights, turn signals, etc., now much of that information can be transferred digitally from the car computer’s memory via a data port. With the right tool you can access much of this data yourself – for instance, I have a device from Automatic Labs that stays plugged into my car’s data port and communicates to my iPhone via Bluetooth!

All of this is great… until something happens to your car’s battery:
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