Like a lot of non-profits, the ones I support order many things through Amazon. If your have Amazon Prime (and you probably should if you are ordering more than a few items per year) then you should absolutely get the Amazon Prime Rewards credit card.
This card gives you 5% back on all purchases you make at Amazon or Whole Foods. And if you are buying a lot of gear through them, it adds up. For example a solid $1000 laptop will net you $20 back. Most cash back credit cards are 1–2%, so it’s worth it to have this card, even if you only use it at Amazon and Whole Foods.
Note: Be sure to get the Prime Rewards card. A friend of mine—who was also a Prime member—had only the standard rewards card and so was getting only 3% back.
I just visited my friend Jen who owns a horse ranch in Washington state. She has 15 acres including the main house, horse barn, lower barn, extra auxiliary barn, workshop, tack room, arena, back cottage… you get the idea. She was just using the default wifi router that her ISP had provided, which only reached about 3 feet into the horse barn (the closest building to the house). And of course cell coverage is spotty there.
I did a bit of research and then purchased a TP Link directional outdoor wifi access point plus 100' of weatherproof ethernet cable. I was hoping to set it up as a wifi repeater, but since I couldn't get admin access to the DHCP server, I just gave it a static IP and set it up as a separate access point. It's a bit more hassle since people will have to join both networks separately. Warning: you will have to have access to a computer with an ethernet port to do the initial setup. We had to dig up an old-school MacBook Pro from 10 years ago since I forgot my ethernet adapter at home.
But boy does it work great! When I ran the first test by simply placing it facing out a first floor window, it easily reached over 100m down to the workshop and arena. Mounted outdoors and on the second story, I'm sure it will reach twice as far covering that whole side of the property. For less than $100, this setup is a super cost-effective way to extend wifi. You could get an omni-directional one, but the range will be reduced. It might even be better for some applications to simply get two of these and point them in different directions.
Here’s all the gear you need:
To keep this article relatively short, I'm going to leave out some of the details.
First do the basic configuration for the Windows OS on the backup laptop. This involves uninstalling all of the bloatware that comes with it (pretty much anything that can be uninstalled should be, aside from required device drivers such as those from RealTek or Intel), and applying all of the latest system updates. I also advise you compress the internal hard drive, remove older versions of the system files, and use the USB flash drive as additional storage when applying system updates. While you are at it, install Resilio Sync on the backup laptop.
For each of the computers that you want to back up, install Resilio Sync and then add the folders you want backed up to Resilio. I recommend the 3 Ds: Documents, Desktop and Downloads. If you keep specialized files elsewhere (photos, videos, music, fonts etc.), be sure to add those folders as well. As you do this, copy the read/write key for each folder and paste it into a text document. Label each key with the computer/user name and the folder name. I save this document out to a file on a USB drive and take the drive with me to each computer I'm working on, but it could also be stored in a secure cloud service like LastPass or Google Drive.
Once you are done setting up Resilio Sync on each of the org's computers and you have the read/write key for every folder on every computer you want backed up, it's time to link them to the backup laptop. On the backup laptop, format both portable external drives to ExFAT. I named them 4TB backup #1 and 4TB backup #2. Create a folder structure that will organize your backups. I recommend a top level folder for each computer, and inside a folder for each folder that is being backed up in Resilio Sync.
In Resilio Sync on the backup laptop, click + and choose Enter key or link. Paste in the key for each folder and link it to the appropriate folder on the portable external drive. It might take a bit of time for the folder and file structure to be read in and indexed by Resilio Sync, but after that the sync should start. If you can, plug one or both computers into the Ethernet network. This isn't essential but I find it tends to make things go a lot more quickly.
Once the first drive has finished syncing, quit Resilio Sync on the backup laptop, safely eject the external hard drive, and then plug in the second one. You may need to use the Disk Manager to remap it to the same drive letter as the first drive (usually D:). Now start Resilio Sync and let it do it's thing once again on the second drive. In the meantime, take the first drive and put it somewhere safe. Ideally off-site (the further removed geographically the better, but keeping in mind you should be swapping the drives every week or so) or in a fireproof and waterproof safe locally.
Definitely check to make sure you can restore from the backup before you actually need to. One of the great things about Resilio Sync is that it stores the backup in the same file structure as the original files. You can just browse through the folders and files and open a few select ones to ensure everything looks good.
The other thing that is great about Resilio Sync is that it keeps a 30 day archive of older versions of files. So if there is an accidental delete or modification of a file, you can right-click the folder in Resilio sync, open the archive, and pull out an older version of the file from there.
My personal backup laptop with one of the backup drives mounted to the back using 3M dual lock fastener tape
I've been helping nonprofits with IT for almost 5 years now, and I've tried a bunch of different systems. While there is no one-size-fits-all solution, I think this works best for a lot of SOHO (small office/home office) orgs, and especially those where cloud isn't a viable option (where cheap and fast internet is not available).
You always have to worry about power outages. I have previously used a dedicated UPS. But having a laptop and USB bus-powered hard drives obviates the need for this extra item, and keeps things simpler.
Resilio Sync is hands down the best backup app I've found. I used to recommend CrashPlan, and it's still a good app. But I like Resilio because it backs up continuously and you can easily add other devices to create even more redundancy if you wish. It has the archive feature for accessing older versions. And most importantly it keeps it's files in a readable form so even if you lose both the original computer and the backup computer completely, as long as you have one of the backup drives, it's easy to get back up and running.
Definitely let me know if you end up doing this and what your experience is with it.
My personal backup laptop running Resilio Sync to keep my MacBook Pro backed up
I'm currently staying at place that has a central WiFi access point at the main building, and my room is the furthest. I can get reasonable signal on my laptop, but my phone—which has a weaker antenna—cannot reliably sustain a connection.
My solution is to use the Internet Sharing feature in macOS to use my laptop as a bridge between the WiFi and my phone.
I have digital photos from the late 90s and early 00s that just aren't very high resolution. In fact I have my first-ever selfie that was taken on an Apple QuickTake 100 back in 1994 at 640✕480 pixels; ⅓ of a megapixel.
But neural networks and machine learning are making it possible to add detail and resolution to photos like this. It's basically making an "educated guess" about what detail was there and "restoring" it. But it does a pretty good job, and I think it gives a better overall effect to older, smaller, or noisier photos. Science fiction becomes reality. 😊
There are some open-sourced tools out there that you can use for free. But they certainly aren't the easiest to use. I'm sure more user-friendly tools will be coming out in the next year or two. In the meantime, the one I've been using is a site called Let’s Enhance. It’s a paid service, but they do give you 5 free conversions when you sign up. And if you are really strapped for cash, I’m sure you can create multiple accounts to extend your number of free conversions.
I just watched this TED talk which was a fantastic introduction to the web site Dollar Street. It is a massive database of images taken from all over the world of people, homes, and the artifacts it their life. Anyone who is thinking about problems or opportunities in a particular area of the world or in a given community would do well to start here and get a rudimentary understanding of how those people live. That is going to provide a lot of valuable context.
An interesting point that seems obvious in retrospect: images don't vary by country but by income level.
I spent 3½ years administering a RingCentral VoIP system of 15–20 lines. I would say they are ok. They are definitely feature-rich, with a decent mobile client and a partnership with Zoom for video conferencing. Coupled with the non-profit discount we negotiated, it was reasonably priced. However ease-of-use—both for the administration and the end users—was mediocre at best. And I spent far too long trying to work out all of the quality of service (QoS) issues with the network to ensure that calls were rock solid. Their technical support was underwhelming when it came to helping me troubleshoot and fix that.
But the number one reason why I recommend you go with another vendor* is because they are purposefully deceitful with their billing. Granted I had billing issues that I needed to contact them to resolve, including overcharges and fraudulent long distance. Unfortunately that seems to be par for the course with telecom companies. But they take it to the next level.
RingCentral adds an item to the bill called Compliance and Administrative Cost Recovery Fee. It is placed in the list of charges that include Emergency 911 Service Fee, Federal Universal Service Recovery Fee and State and Local Taxes. So you’d be forgiven for presuming this was of that ilk. However if you dig into the fine print, they make it quite clear: “The CRF is not a tax, nor is it mandated by any level of government or government agency.”
Now granted, this additional charge is not a lot of money. However just the fact that a company would deceive it’s customers by boosting profits by burying standard costs of doing business in with the mandated fees shows just what they think about their customers and acceptable business practices. This puts them squarely in the realm of telcom companies like Comcast, Charter, AT&T and Verizon. Comcast does this sort of thing and they are routinely crowned the Worst Company in America.
Unfortunately switching costs for your phone service are high, so unless they do something truly awful, my org will likely be locked into using them. But if you haven’t made the decision yet, or if you are small enough that you can switch without much pain, definitely check out Jive or a few other alternatives.
* I’ll say up front that this might just be a pet peeve overreaction on my part; use your own judgement.
The wildlife conservationists I help work in very remote areas where there either is no electrical grid, or the one that is there is unreliable. In these scenarios, it’s important to have your own powered light source.
MPOWERD Luci solar lights are a favorite. They are reasonably inexpensive and perform well. They also have several variants to choose from.
If you find you need more light than the solar charge can provide, a gravity light is another viable option.
These days a USB power bank is a common tool for the field. So just pick up some inexpensive USB LED lights—or better yet a super bright multi-LED light—and plug them into the power bank.
Or you could go big and bring along a portable generator, which could be gasoline / natural gas powered or even solar / wind powered.
These days it is super-easy to capture quick video clips that you want to post to social media or embed in a blog post. For quick and easy editing, I use the QuickTime Player app on the Mac.
Open the clip in QuickTime, then click Trim… in the Edit menu (or press Cmd T). Drag the yellow handles from the left and right to narrow down to the start and end frames respectively, then click the Trim button to finish the edit. The newly edited clip will open in a new window, and you will have to save that out to a new video file.
Pro Tip: If your video file is in a format that QuickTime doesn't recognize (like MKV), use Handbrake to convert it to H.264.
The biggest downside of the most recent line of MacBooks is that they are unable to be upgraded. The memory and storage chips are all soldered directly to the logic board.
However at least with the MacBooks (both Pro and Air) made 2012–2016, there is a workaround. You can use the SD card slot to add more space. If you use a standard SD card, it will stick out from the edge. But you can get a micro SD card and a short SD card adapter, which will sit flush with the case (or at least close enough for practical purposes).
It's my photos, videos and music files that are eating up all my space. So I bought this 200GB micro SD card to use as and expansion to store my media files. (I looked into the 256GB ones, but they were nearly double the price for only 28% more storage.)
There are several different short SD card adapters out there. I tried the one by Adafruit designed for the Raspberry Pi, but unfortunately it doesn't work on the Mac. Or at least it is intermittent so I can't count on it. I ended up going with a BaseQi adapter. It's more expensive, but the review are good and it is designed specifically for this purpose. Be sure to get the right one! There are several different sizes, each designed for a particular year and model of MacBook. There are also some by 8mobility that look reasonable too.
I just double-booked myself because and event I had committed to on Facebook wasn’t in my personal Google calendar. So I decided to fix things to prevent it from happening in the future.
I did find articles on the web about how to do this, but since Facebook updates the UX so often, they were of course out of date. Here is the current way (as of Oct 2017):
Wow, this is huge. For the longest time I thought the only way to get a movie to play in PowerPoint using just a presentation remote was to change the Play setting to Automatically. The default value is On Click, but that never worked; a click would just take you to the next slide. But there is a way to get it to work, and it requires adding an animation to your movie.
Select the embedded movie, then click the Animations tab. If your window is wide enough, you will see options for Play (this is the one we care about), Pause, Stop as well as Fill Color and Grow/Shrink. Otherwise these are buried under a menu button with a yellow star icon called Emphasis Effects.
However you get to it, click the Play button and it will add an “animation” to the slide that will play the movie on click. With this set, during your presentation you can now click the remote once to bring up the slide with the movie on it, and then click a second time to start the movie playing.
If you want it to play automatically, you can set Start for this animation to with previous.