My First Android App!

Ok, so this is a first for me. I have always had an interest in radio from around the globe. I think it is interesting to be brought to another place via live broadcast or streaming music. So, about 6 months ago, I decided to create a free Android App for radio streaming. I recently, finally finished.

It is called “World Radio” [I know, not too creative]. Although it is clearly new and obviously from a novice Android Studio and Java developer, it DOES work nicely. I try to test the stations often to verify they are operating or have not changed streaming addresses. I also am working to gather quality radio, as opposed to mainly Top 40 / Pop.

I had no idea Google made developers jump through SO MANY hoops before publishing an App! But it has been a great experience.

My first Android App is very small, at 5 Megabytes. Please give it a try if you use Android! I need people to use it on various Droid devices, so even if you do not use these types of Apps, please test it for a day or so, and maybe give me some feedback. I’d really appreciate it. THANK YOU!

Sorry iPhone people – I have simply never gotten into the iOS world, but may do so in the future ;>

My World Radio App is located here:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.riguy.worldradio

Thanks!

The Kids are Alright

It is not so much that teenagers or “tweens” are so tech-savvy that they can all hack, black hat style, straight into school systems and networks. It’s more akin to walking around the building’s back area and discovering an unlocked door in plain sight. Why waste time breaking in or breaking down the front door when you can simply open the unlocked door in the back? Anyway, this article by “The Atlantic” demonstrates clearly that some teens will stop at nothing in order to communicate with each other during school. And to think … we used to throw paper balls containing messages when we were young.

“The Hottest Chat App for Teens Is … Google Docs”

How a writing tool became the new default way to pass notes in class

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2019/03/hottest-chat-app-teens-google-docs/584857

Kubernetes Clusters on Google Cloud Platform

I had a chance recently to dig into the Google Cloud Platform, in particular Kubernetes clusters and virtual machine instances. This is the “Compute Engine” offering of the GCP, or Google Cloud Platform. The GCP also offers much more, for example, Cloud Storage [data, object storage], Cloud SQL [MySQL/PostgreSQL], and App Engine [building web + mobile apps]…

Read the full story here …

Google Cloud Platform Pitch

Kind of Marketing, kind of sales pitchy, kind of, “Rah-rah, go Google, go”, but I cannot say these observations are wrong. This not only applies to Google Cloud but to Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure as well.

Per the author of this Medium article:

“More often than not, it is because, coming from other platforms, they have gotten used to some features requiring multiple steps, or some operations being complicated, etc. And often they find out that in GCP you can do this specific operation in a couple of clicks, or by setting up a simple text-based configuration. Then you see that light bulb turning on in their head, and there you go… happy customer.

A few of these happen so often that I compiled them in a list to share with others who might also benefit from these “aha!” moments. You could say these are the five things I wish they told me when I started using Google Cloud.”

Full article here.

Chrome Not Working With Latest Windows 10 Update?

Chrome and the latest Windows 10 April Update have a very big issue together, considering the millions of PCs running Windows 10 AND Chrome worldwide. Chrome will not open up SSL based sites after the latest April Windows 10 update [1803]. Some are pointing to the CryptSvc [Windows certificates service] as the cause of the issue or creating a conflict with Chrome. Going over the various sites covering this issue, it is clear that a viable solution has not been found. Consumers and businesses end up reformatting drives or reinstalling Windows 10 fresh without the latest version update [1803], or worse, chasing false hopes such as “uninstall your anti virus” [that is not the issue and a poor decision] or “stop the CryptSvc” [very bad, and wrong, idea].

Windows 10 April Update – Chrome now just “Establishing secure connection..”

The secure connection problem points to TLS or HTTPS or even the new ‘QUIC’ technology perhaps? This is just intuition at this point, but I would guess that QUIC is involved – it is a Google creation that ties in with data transport, and the symptoms point to it as a possible culprit that does not play nice with the latest Windows 10 update.

QUIC is a new transport which reduces latency compared to that of TCP. On the surface, QUIC is very similar to TCP+TLS+HTTP/2 implemented on UDP. Because TCP is implemented in operating system kernels, and middlebox firmware, making significant changes to TCP is next to impossible. However, since QUIC is built on top of UDP, it suffers from no such limitations.

https://www.chromium.org/quic

 

Samsung Galaxy Line

I agree with this guy – the Samsung line of Galaxy phones are the main game in town. I use a Galaxy S8+and it is a fantastic smart phone.

Samsung is playing on a different level, and now the iPhone is the only competition

“Samsung has a great way of keeping itself in the technology conversation by having dueling flagship phone releases: a Galaxy S around March, and a Galaxy Note around August. It has also had a knack for releasing really great phones over the past three years in particular. From the Galaxy S8 to the larger Galaxy S8+ and now Galaxy Note 8, Samsung has a product set at a range from roughly $650 to $950 in sizes that can appeal to a wide range of buyers.”

https://www.androidcentral.com/editors-desk-samsung-different-level

Big Google

Is it me or is the ‘Google’ on the  search page much bigger than it used to be? I thought my browser window had been ‘zoomed’ to about 125% or similar. But it turns out, this is their new super-sized word logo ;> It takes getting used to, if you ask me.

But it does get them NOTICED, that much is certain.

goog