Inside View

First Adventure on the Big Red Bus

Mia Goldbach with Bus Eireann.

I TOOK OUR five year old daughter on a half day bus journey that resulted in her bringing a birthday present to her six year old cousin. Along the way, I think she started to enjoy inter-city travel by Bus Eireann.

We have watched the big red buses pass through Cashel through the years and now they are the only long-range travel option transiting the town. Aircoach ceased operations in June 2012 as the State subvention for private operators was dramatically reduced. Because our bus services are cut in half, I cannot use a Cashel Bus stop to get to Dublin for a morning meeting. That limitation has totally eliminated my ability to attend Dublin events that start in the morning.

But there is no morning agenda awaiting Mia so we took the earliest bus from Cashel at 0925 and rolled into Drogheda before 2PM. Along the way, Mia played Hair Salon, sketched in a monster's magazine and talked to me about animals in fields. All things considered, it was a fun trio.

(Sent Yahoo! Mail mail2blog via O2-Ireland service using my Sony Xperia Z.)

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Field Testing Nokia GPS

Photo of my Lumia 925 and Moleskine.

I DRIVE THOUSANDS of miles every year using Nokia Maps verbal guidance and over the years I have learned several quick ways of verifying whether my handset is up to the challenge.

If you buy a new mobile phone and intend to use its GPS, you should take your unit outside and see how long it takes to lock onto satellites in open air. You know you have a problem if more than 30 seconds elapse before lock-on. The problem could be nearby electromagnetic interference. Or it could be a weak GPS unit. My best units achieve lock-on within 15 seconds.

With my Nokia 925 handset (in the photo), the green button finds my actual physical location. If you know where you are and the green button is more than 100m away, you will encounter navigation problems en route. Those may occur as the navigation arrow jumps around on screen, often rotating into the opposite direction from your actual movement. This would occur with poor antenna sensitivity and if it happened to me, I would hesitate before replacing my handset with a similar one from the same shop. You might see the same problems if your unit was assembled during a faulty manufacturing process.

In my experience on European motorways and American expressways, Nokia Maps work well without assisted GPS. This saves me a minimum of 100 Euro a week while roaming in other Telco networks.

Art as it should be

Photo snapped of Mia at work while using my Nokia Lumia 925.

WE HAVE SEVERAL tins of paint more than three years old so I am putting it to good use as an art project. The young artist helped select the colours before she could hold a brush.

Mia was delighted to receive a commission to paint a flagstone blemished by rust. I was delighted to watch her approach her task. She envisages trees accented in red under a yellow sun. She takes her commission as ice cream cones and will receive an adult portion of a tub of vanilla ice cream when she finishes.

I want to take Mia to drawing lessons several times during the next 10 months. And I also want to chronicle her work in a Flickr album, flowing into a DVD that she narrates. Stay tuned to my flow at http://audioboo.fm/topgold for the rest of the story.

Discovering Dorset the Old Way

Photo from Adventureland. Wifi from Bournemouth Airport.

I FLATTENED MY over-the-air data allowance after a week in England and that meant poring over brochures for travel information.

I plan to write and talk later about how I switched off the information normally dripping into my phone but for now I'm fascinated how we made our way around with paper brochures and signage. One excursion led to an afternoon with the White Rabbit (in the photo).

The most significant thing for me is the realisation that we culled plans from three sources. The grandparents favoured the brochures. Their grandchildren often had picked up inside information from fellow holiday makers their age out in the meadow. And I preferred sneaking a peek at TripAdvisor, Foursquare and BestOfDorset when I had a WiFi signal.

On the day we found an Adventureland, we also found free access to the aircraft museum across the parking lot. And everyone left happy.

[Sent mail2blog using free WiFi at the Bournemouth Airport.]

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Playing TripAdvisor vs Foursquare

My shot of TripAdvisor in Cashel.

TRAVELING WITH GRANDPARENTS gives me an opportunity to see how intelligent electronic services like TripAdvisor and Foursquare can be when compared to printed brochures or well-presented street signage. All three deserve consideration.

For several years, I've searched for things like "coffee" or "kids" with Foursquare and then a very credible "explore" function appeared. I've also used TripAdvisor's "nearby" facility to scroll through options but the results seem slower to present on screen when compared to Foursquare. And then along comes Here City Lens which offers an augmented reality perspective on what's nearby for food, accommodation, shopping, going out, and sights. If I cross-reference City Lens to TripAdvisor and Foursquare, some rather compelling ideas emerge--and I avoid the embarrassment of trying to find imaginary venues that exist in both TripAdvisor and Foursquare.

Overcame Fear of Big Furries

I MARK MAJOR events and this week it is young Dylan's progression with big furry animals. He's pictured below and he suddenly wants to meet and greet them.

He was helped along this path by the ambiance of British pubs. Most of the child-friendly places we visit in the south of England also accommodate dogs as well. So where we brought our two youngsters, some locals brought their three dogs. And that sometimes resulted in friendly greetings for all concerned.

The only downside of this new-found confidence is knowing that dog ownership is probably not far behind.

[Sent mail2blog using The Greyhound Inn wifi in Corfe Castle, England.]

Running Around Corfe Castle

Mia in the stocks of Corfe Castle, captured by Lumia 925.

WE SPENT SEVERAL HOURS inside Corfe Castle, one of Britain's most iconic and evocative survivors of the English Civil War. The hands-on activities around the castle could provide ideas for the caretakers of our own Rock of Cashel, the bit of history on our own doorstep.

Corfe Castle was partially demolished in 1646 by Oliver Cromwell, engaged by the Parliamentarians. Cromwell's work is well known by local families who survived his pillaging when he visited our lovely market town of Cashel.

Mark Your Apps for K-12 Education #playedu

Screenshot from G+

IF YOU HAVE an education app written for Android, you can mark it for inclusion in the Google Play for Education program, which is being piloted by schools across the United States. Marking your app identifies it as targeted for the US K-12 educational market and queues it for evaluation by a 3rd party network of educators.

To mark your app for inclusion, go to:

Holiday Snaps Easily Cost 20 Euro A Day

Screenshot from O2 Messages

I RECKON I COULD SPEND 20 euro a day snapping photos on holiday. That's based on each image weighing 2 MB and my phone backing up an average amount of photos to my cloud services.

During a two week holiday when you don't control how your phone backs up your images, you could return home and discover you owe your mobile network more than 140 euro just for backing up your photos over the air.

Medical Tourism While on Holiday

My shot of a Mexican pharmacy.

WHILE ON HOLIDAY in the United Kingdom, I discovered real value as a medical tourist. We availed of a free consultation on a Saturday, followed by free drugs at a chemist.

In one fell swoop, I realised Irish citizens could reduce their outgoings for prescriptions, simply by driving north of the border or by spending a holiday in another European country where medical costs are much lower than in Ireland.

I saw busloads of American pensioners crossing over to Nogales while I lived in Arizona. The drugs in Mexico are much cheaper than in the States. So when you're on a fixed income, you do what you need to do to keep your costs in line.

Ear Report