The Computer/Computing "To-Do" List

The first thing on my computer related list for this summer is to rip a "good" number of our movies on DVD into a universal portable format. From where I stand, "universal" video format would mean MP4. Please understand, that when I mean "rip", I don't mean to download! I mean to take DVDs that we've bought, own, and convert them to a different format for our personal use. I'm going to bet that, that fits in the vast majority of peoples' definition of "Fair Use". I'm going to leave the how part of it up to you to find out in the wilds of the internet. There are plenty of sites that describe the process in detail. The fact is that we are going to be spending a fair number of hours in vehicles, cabins, and hotel rooms this summer and the obvious use of movies in some computer file format will be advantageous.

The need for this comes from our family's conversion to the common use of tablets; iPads to be specific with the exception of myself (Android). You know of course that the iPad has no facility to physically connect to external storage. So an intermediary needed to be found. Earlier this spring, I came across the HooToo Tripmate as a wireless means of getting files to my students in the classroom. In the midst of that, I realized that it could just as well stream media to various platforms as long as they had the Tripmate App. About a month ago, I tested it with my ThinkPad Tablet (Android) while my friend Pat did the same thing on his iPad Air. I put a movie converted to MP4 on a flashdrive which was plugged into the HooToo Tripmate Elite (Newegg special, about $20). We both streamed the movie to our respective machines without issue. All that needs to be done is for each device to log onto the Tripmate's access point, open the App, navigate to the folder/file that the user wants and voila', INSTANT STREAMING MEDIA. Unfortunately, there is the "Teddy Roosevelt" digging the Panama Canal part, which is to laboriously rip and convert the a decent library of movies for the kids to access!

Item #2? Yeah, a power supply replacement. I recently came across a very nice Seasonic M12 II, 80 Plus Bronze semi-modular PS unit for about half of what the normally sell for.....so...... at some point, when I'm really ready to pull the giant Cosmos II back out from under the desk, then I'm going to switch it out from the Cooler Master 600w PS that's in there. So I needed this? No! But I'm a big Seasonic PS believer and they are quiet and run cool. I'm all about that. Plus; the price was right. About $45, after shipping. 

My garage isn't exactly an e-waste dump, but I've really got to get in there and do some cleaning out. Most of what I'm going to get rid of will go to the new computer club but there are some items that need to be sold....

....which of course, leads to this sub-list. Items to sell off! This is very difficult for a border-line hoarders like me, but I've gotta do it. 

Unfortunately, all this good planning to get things done isn't completely contingent on my motivation alone. I really need for my wife to figure out where she's going and get all the stuff in the garage into her new classroom! When that's been taken care of, then I'll be free to get my cache of computer parts out of the garage. Till then, the main trick to to NOT add to the pile!

WhoDat HooToo?

This is pretty much the reaction of my students when I told them about HooToo. Who's/What's HooToo, they/you ask?

These guys are not well known. Well Duhh!!! They are a small outfit that's just a few years old out of Silicon Valley (of course), that up to this point has some USB hubs and one really interesting product.... in a couple of variations.

....the HooToo Tripmate HT-M01. That's it up there. It's about the size of an old clamshell cellphone. What does it do? Well...... what does it not do is a better question! It is a WiFi router, NAS, WiFi/Network bridge, charger and personal "Cloud". In essence; it's the answer to my geek-boy prayers! I did not buy this. It's $50.

I bought this! This is the HooToo Tripmate HT-M02 "Nano". It's the size of 3 saltines stacked together, as you can probably tell by the relative size in comparison to the USB and Ethernet cables in the picture. It was $20; well, actually $18.xx. The difference? It doesn't have a battery and has to be plugged into some source of power delivered through the micro-USB cable. So, it doesn't charge stuff, and it's power delivery is limited. However, it will in fact run a flash drive, I wanted to test the concept and it was CHEAP!

What concept? You guys might have noticed that I've been yammering about "cloud" type things for a while now. I have a need for people to access files via devices, whether tablet, phone or computer, wherever it is I'm at. My students need files from me. My children need videos from me, and my wife needs whatever comes to her mind from me. One of the things I've run into is that the majority of tablets don't have regular ports on them to read storage, no USB, no SD card reader. What HooToo does (HT-M01, Nano, Elite) is to create your own little cloud around you.

 

Kind of like Pig-pen in Charlie Brown. Plug in any USB storage and it will use it's wireless access point (with or without) internet and broadcast it out to whoever has it's Tripmate app. There are apps for Android, iOS and PC. My position on the device was that, the idea sounded cool, and I had a use for it. But it was so new that I didn't want to invest a lot of money into it and have it NOT WORK. For me; $20 is an amount that I can handle losing, but $50 would irritate me.

It showed up in the mail yesterday from Newegg and I got it working last night. Then tried it out in my classroom today. It worked exactly the way they said it would. The set up was very simple and in fact if I was them, I'd replace that large confusing manual with a Quick Setup Guide. My students downloaded the app and were instantly able to access the files they needed. You might be asking, if we have B.Y.O.D. and WiFi internet access all over the building, what is the purpose of having this thing? Isn't it redundant? Yes, we have the whole Google Drive/Google Docs thing and yes indeed, most kids have their own device and others have school provided notebook computers. However, all of this is subject to the vagaries of our heavily filtered network where files are uploaded to god-only-knows-where and back down again in the same room. Isn't that just a little perversely inefficient? Besides which, I have a number of students who for whatever reason still can't get on to the system. Don't know why. This way, I can get them what they need directly! And if you are in a school district that doesn't have those resources at all.......?

Who doesn't have one of these? With this and my Nano, I am the king of all that I survey, or at least inside my classroom anyway! "Behold; I am become the cloud".....or something like that anyhow.

And when I'm not teaching? Well; I'm completely expecting that HooToo to go on vacation with us. This will give me a way to provide files to the children in the backseat while they are on their tablets.

Now that I know that it works and I have uses for it. My plan is to buy the soon to be released Tripmate Elite which not only has a battery (that my Nano doesn't), but two higher amperage USB jacks so that it can function as the one charger for out phones and tablets, wired connection to the hotel's network via the Ethernet and provide my own WiFi Access Point as well. The best part of this $50-60 device? It'll keep me from having to buy the Corsair Voyager Air for $200!