Charlie Hoover

Helpful information regarding your Electronic life- all the computers, smartphones, tablets, home entertainment and internet tools you rely on to be productive and entertained.

Stephen from Lexington asks, “I’m thinking of getting a small tablet of some kind but I don’t know which one to get. My wife loves her iPad but I’m not sure I need one that big or that expensive. I really just want to have a good screen to read books, check email etc. I’ve been looking at either the Kindle Fire or the iPad Mini. If I go for the cheaper one will I regret it?”

Well Stephen this is a great question! It’s also pretty subjective but I’ll start off by saying that you wouldn’t regret getting the Kindle Fire. As smaller tablets go it’s a very well designed device. You’ll have access to pretty much every major app you could want as well as a direct link to Amazons catalogue of books, movies, TV shows and physical goods. If you’re mostly focused on the books though, I would recommend looking at the standard Kindle Paperwhite. It won’t run apps but you’ll be hard pressed to find a better reading experience anywhere.

On the Apple side of things we have the new iPad Mini which is their first foray into the smaller tablet arena. As such while it’s a very beautiful device, it doesn’t completely fit into the existing lineup yet, mostly due to its lack of what Apple calls ‘Retina’ resolution for the screen. If you’re already deep in the Apple ecosystem then it may be worth considering though, especially if you’ve purchased a ton of apps or content through iTunes already. In general you’re better off spending the extra money for the full sized iPad Retina since you’ll be getting more for your money and a better reading experience.

If it’s a matter of getting the most for your money, I’ll recommend something you might not have heard about: The Google Nexus 7. It’s a 7” Android tablet that’s a fantastic compromise between the Kindle Fire and the iPad Mini. It’s fast, cheap, and can run almost any of the 700,000 apps in the Google Play store. It’s only real down side is the lack of a decent camera but if that’s not your priority it’s going to be your best value. Whatever you decide to go with let me know if you’re enjoying it!

Charlie Hoover is a Senior e-Life Technologist at Geek Housecalls of Lexington.

If  you have an e-Life problem or concern of your own, you can contact me via email (elife@geekhousecalls.com ), Facebook or Twitter (@elifeadvisor). I look forward to helping you! For those of you, who want more information about windows 8 or new tablets, visit our blog

http://www.geekhousecalls.com/Blog.aspx

Charlie Hoover of Geek Housecalls

Helpful information regarding your Electronic life- all the computers, smartphones, tablets, home entertainment and internet tools you rely on to be productive and entertained.

mer is rapidly coming to an end and that means it’s time for families to turn their attention towards preparing for school. Every year, back-to-school preparation seems to become an increasingly more complicated process and technology is an important, yet stressful, part of the back-to-school checklist. To help relieve some of this stress, I’ve chosen a couple of questions this month that focus on back-to-school issues.  

John from Lexington asks: “I just bought a couple of cheap netbooks for my two teens for school. I discovered that they don’t seem to have any software for them to do homework (write papers, etc). I’d prefer to not spend much money, if possible. Any ideas?”

Yes, there are actually several great services available. I’ll be focusing on Googles’ product here, but there are other options like LibreOffice that I’ll go into detail about on our Blog [http://geekhousecalls.com/Blog/tabid/82/entryid/200/eLifeAdvisorAugust2012.aspx] I also recommend checking with the school(s) regarding software requirements or purchasing deals with companies like Microsoft. There are often discounted rates for students that make software more affordable. 

My favorite recommendation is a service called Google Docs (drive.google.com). It’s a suite of Internet-based applications that lets you create documents, spreadsheets and presentations from any web browser. The service is free so all they’ll need is a Google account. Because it’s based in the ‘Cloud’, data isn’t stored on their computer directly and everything is automatically backed up as they work. This means that if their computer dies (even in mid-sentence), they simply log onto their account from any machine to finish their work without losing any data. Files can also be shared with others for live collaboration, making it a great solution for big projects. You can use this feature to track their progress and even help them with their homework remotely. It’s a perfect solution for busy families! 

Beth from Lexington asks; “My son is starting high school and I’m thinking about getting him an iPad to help with his school work but I’m on the fence about the expense. Do you think its worth investing in one at his age? Is there a good cheap alternative?”

You aren’t alone in asking this question Beth. It comes up a lot and to be honest it’s a very personal decision so giving a solid answer is tricky. Many schools are adopting iPads as an alternative to laptops, so you may want to check with the school on what their plans (if any) might entail. The iPad is a powerful and flexible tool for doing everything from homework and reading to playing games and watching movies. It’s also possible to enable parental controls to limit what it can do, which is one of the reasons schools are loving them so much .

If your main concern is the expense, there are numerous lower-cost alternatives. The ‘Nexus 7’ is my current favorite non-Apple tablet; it’s less than half the price (roughly $200), very powerful, more portable (its physically smaller which is great for smaller hands) and has access to a similar collection of apps. It’s an amazing deal for the price .

In the end there has never been a better time to be a curious kid and the specific device isn’t as important as what they get out of it. After all, the tools available to them are the stuff of science fiction! Both devices will give them access to reference material from around the world, interactive learning, productivity tools, and yes even games. Whichever you choose though, I also recommend buying a hardened case for it like the ‘Otterbox’ to protect your investment. Even the best intentioned kid can have an accident and gravity is very unforgiving to mobile devices. 

Thanks John & Beth for sending in your questions. If you have an e-Life problem or concern of your own, you can contact me via email (elife@geekhousecalls.com), Facebook (facebook.com/geekhousecalls) or Twitter (@elifeadvisor). I look forward to helping you!

Ana Flaster

By Ana Hebra Flaster

She still pees the same. Everyone asks Libby about this when they hear she donated one of her healthy kidneys in order to improve her dying husband’s odds of receiving one himself. Libby tries to reassure them. She wants the world to know: if your loved one ever faces a years-long wait on an organ donation list, you can speed things along by becoming a donor. “They’re amazed when I tell them: I don’t need to pee any more or any less than before, and the whole thing was easier than recovering from labor.”

But of course, “the whole thing” was never easy, not by a long shot. The “whole thing” was a six-year slog through a medical system that at times seemed to be killing her husband in order to save him. In the first four years of treatments, Libby watched her husband go from a burly 260 pound 40 year-old man to a 125 pound dying one, even though he never once saw himself that way.

Skip’s problems began with an odd ache in his feet, which a podiatrist diagnosed in 2002 as plantar fasciitis. Orthotics didn’t help, and after a year a new problem appeared: pin prick sized spots on his legs that sometimes grew to the size of quarters, but always hurt, “like someone stabbing him with a fork,” recalls Libby. A dermatologist treated him for vasculitis, but another year went by and things only got worse. By 2004, a new dermatologist ran tests that detected protein in Skip’s urine. His kidneys were in trouble.

Enter a nephrologist, a hematologist, a cardiologist—all strategizing as the still-unknown illness progressed from major organ to major organ. After three courses of chemotherapy and several weekly courses of plasma pharesis, Skip’s kidneys finally failed. He went on dialysis, continued with plasma pharesis and then a stem cell transplant. Everything aimed at keeping him alive long enough and then well enough to have a shot at a new kidney.

Each doctor’s visit, diagnosis, medicine and dose, side effect and improvement appears in Libby’s neat handwriting in the notebook she shows me as we talk about those years. She points to one page where she wrote the name of one of the chemo drugs Skip took. “That was a bad—a really, really bad drug,” Libby says, and her blue eyes turn away from mine for a moment. She stares into the distance and shakes her head. The notebook is still open; her finger starts to tap hard over the name of the bad, bad drug that almost killed Skip.

We’re outside a Lexington Starbucks on a clear spring afternoon, a soft breeze moves through Libby’s blonde hair as she picks up her story again. I’m struck by the strength that emanates from her soft voice as she calmly describes the unimaginable pain of those years, of planning her husband’s eulogy, of wondering how she’d find a suit that would fit his skeletal frame for the burial, of agreeing to Skip’s request for the black Ford F150 pickup he’d been eyeing, thinking to herself, “how can I deny this man anything.” She almost whispers the story, as if telling a secret from a past life.

The family’s many friends helped, of course, with lasagna dinners, interpreting medical-ese at appointments, driving Skip to and from dialysis sessions—but it’s clear that Libby shouldered most of the burden in those years. She drove Skip in the early mornings to his dialysis appointments, went to her day job, stopped by the hospital in the afternoon to see Skip, went to her second job and came home at ten to tend to the couple’s three sons, laundry, lunches for the next day, maybe a late-night stint with homework.

Mostly, though, Libby was Skip’s unflappable wingman. She shrugs off my comment about her strength. “Oh, no. Skip was my rock. He never doubted he’d recover. He saved me.” But it was Libby who asked the toughest questions at Skip’s appointments, so much so that one of them referred to her as a “bulldog.” He meant it to sting, and it did, but Libby had bigger problems to solve. Sometimes she needed to search for elusive doctors in the hospital cafeteria till she found them, took them to Skip’s bedside, and got him the attention he needed. She cajoled the doctors into signing off on a stem cell transplant that some were reluctant to approve on their own, knowing Skip’s survival odds were dismal. Her argument to them: He’s going to die anyway; this is his only chance. If Dr. X, signs off, would you? On one particularly bleak day, when Skip was in critical condition in an upstairs ward, she waited by the hospital’s main entrance, knowing the doctor they’d been waiting for all day was likely to use it at the end of his day. When she saw him coming, she stood up. “Where do you think you’re going?” she asked. She reminded him about all her calls and messages, of how sick her husband was, and, slowly, the doctor turned around and changed course. He examined Skip, approved more treatments then left for the day. The next morning he took himself off the case. “At least Skip got what he needed from him. That’s all I cared about,” Libby says.

By late 2007, Skip was healthy enough to go on the kidney transplant list although the wait could be years; one family member was a match but was later medically disqualified. Then, at a support group meeting, Libby heard a wife describe how she’d successfully donated a kidney to “a pool” and it sped up her husband’s wait on the transplant list. Libby immediately began working with NEPKE, New England Paired Kidney Exchange. In May 2008 Libby donated one of her healthy kidneys. A month later, on Father’s Day, the hospital called with the news: they had a donor match for Skip.

The jubilation in the house erupted in tears and whoops of joy. Their oldest son heard the shouts and ran into the house, sure something was wrong. When Libby told him the news, he fell to his knees and wept. Ironically, Skip was so focused on a T.V. golf broadcast that he asked if the hospital needed him to go right away. “YES,” Libby cried. “NOW!”

Libby’s smile lights up the air around her as she remembers that final miracle in the story. Then she tells me about the chair, a green Lazy Boy Barcalounger that Skip practically lived in all those years of his illness. “Jimmy had to write an essay in school—sophomore year, I think. He wrote about the first time he fell in love. Guess what he wrote about? How much he loved that green chair because it held and comforted his father when he was sick.”

That’s one kind of love, of a caring son for an ailing father. Another is a love like Libby’s. A love that never stopped fighting for a solution and, in this case, found a way to save a life.

Ana Hebra Flaster is a freelance writer and Lexington resident. Ana’s work has been featured on NPR and the Boston Globe.