Tag: internet

How to Determine the Quality of Your Mobile Signal

In the today’s interconnected world, a cell phone reception affects text messaging, email, internet, social media, applications, and other services. This is to say that we constantly need a reliable 3G or 4G LTE signal, however, providers are not always able to deliver it. Hence, it is not uncommon for users to realize the shabbiness of connection only after signing the contract. What you need to do is gain a realistic picture of the signal strength and then decide on further steps in becoming a full-fledged digital citizen.

Mixed signals

Bad reception is the worst nightmare of those who are used to being in tune with the digital world on the go. Moreover, high cellphone bills should really allow us to smoothly access the internet with a few taps of the finger. Now, it can be difficult to objectively evaluate the strength of the signal due to the fact that it tends to change all the time. Sometimes, even moving a few feet can improve the connection.

Carriers reconfigure the infrastructure, the urban landscape shifts, and the weather has its mood swings. Your phone can also undermine the reception, but if the trouble started upon moving to the new area, then it is likely you’ve managed to find a black hole of coverage. Obstacles and obstructions between your device and the tower emitting the signal usually cause the interference: Those who are close to the cell phone tower location should have the best signal.

People busting their head with signal difficulties often invite a friend with the same service provider over to their house in order to see how their signal holds up, or ask around the neighborhood to find out what’s people’s favorite carrier. Furthermore, there is a possibility to access a Coverage map on the carrier’s website and type your city, state and zip code. Of course, this still does not give you concrete numbers, but we shall get into that now.

Hard science

Those who want to check the actual signal strength should not settle for the fluffy bars. This indicator is not overly dependable because the cell phone signal is measured in decibels (dB). They are basically radio waves, with the standard frequency of -50 (full signal strength) to -110 (a dead zone). There is no industry standard that links dB values to the number of bars — it is subjective across the carriers. On the other hand, a dB figure is just the type of hard evidence you need.

The dB readings are usually available in the Settings menu, and you want to see the number which is as close as possible to the -50 dB. Also, iPhone users can dial *3001#12345#* and enter a Field Test mode — a dB scan result should be in the left-hand corner. As for Android platforms, they should navigate to the Network or Status under About Phone option in General Settings. At last, one of the most effective ways to handle the signal issues is to conduct a mobile internet speed test.

Once you obtain the value, wander around your house to discover the dead zones, as well as the places with the best signal. Just bear in mind that connecting to the tower drains the juice from your phone and make sure you are not blocking the internal antenna in your device. The problem on the carrier’s side means that you can probably terminate the contract and switch to the new provider. Finally, in case the DIY research does not produce the expected results, call the carrier and get to the bottom of the situation together.

Cover all the bases

There are a few things as frustrating as waiting for progress bar to reach its end. Lousy signal turns your phone into something like a glorified calculator, which is unacceptable, since we should all get exactly what we pay for. So, inspect the signal strength using one of the aforementioned methods. This helps you make a decision about whether to jump ship and find a new carrier. In high-tech information age, problems in this department cost you precious time, money and nerves.

Aug 1, 2016
9 Internet Precautionary Measures for the Young Ones

Sure, using internet on our daily lives is fun but one must be responsible on how to handle online interaction. It is not all about fun and gathering information because there is a potential danger when you do not know how to manage your life online. Most especially the kids today, they need to be protected from people online who has the intention of harming them. Internet can take over and control the kids without proper guidance.

So, parents you must take safety precaution on your kids ‘ online presence:

SPEND MORE TIME WITH THE KIDS. This one is basic. Parents should always be present in any way they can. Spending quality time with the kids would mean less time for using the web. You can do fun and outdoor activities like visiting museums or just taking them to a park then have dinner.

TALK WITH THEM. Yes, this is important too. Ask them about their activities, both in school and online. Know what they want and things that annoy them. In this way, you can gauge how you are going to interact with them. Parents should also ask about the kids’ problems in school or something that bothers them, so that they can create a plan to help them.

WARN THEM NOT TO SHARE INFORMATION. What are these information? Basically, their names, school, age, phone number or even home address. Tell them that they must not send a picture to someone whom they just met. It’s also the same on posting anything online. Tell the kids that they should not post any personal information like the address and mobile number.

CONTROL PRIVACY SETTING. Yes, you also must tell the kids that as much as possible, keep their social media account on private setting. Or they could just choose the people they want to share information with like their real friends.

REMIND THEM TO PROTECT THEIR PASSWORD. Tell them that they MUST NOT divulge to anyone their social media account passwords.

GIVE ADVICE ON SELECTING FRIENDS. Online presence can gain a lot of friend requests, but the kids should filter who they are going to accept. Tell the kids not be befriended with people they don’t know personally.

LIMIT THEM ON USING THE WEB. Limit the kids on using the internet. Allot a designated time when they can surf the web, do research and interact with friends. You can successfully do this by placing the computer in a central place inside the house and post a schedule to remind them.

TELL THEM TO USE AN APPROPRIATE PHOTO. Only post a decent photo so that online people will automatically give respect and kids can avoid bullying or something like that.

TELL THEM TO THINK BEFORE THEY CLICK. A lot of people are being judged based on what they post online. So, tell the kids that they must think twice or even thrice before sharing information, commenting on articles, debating with online users or even reading blogs.

Remember, prevention is better than cure. So, take this precautionary measures seriously for your kids’ safety.

About the Writer:

This lady believes that writing is a great invention for communication. Ellen Summerhills is dividing her time on academic activities while doing research for bestessays .com to help her financially. She likes movies, outdoor activities and coffee.

Oct 15, 2014
Yellow Pages – New to the ‘Online’ way
Yellow Pages – Advertisements

Montreal’s Yellow Pages Group is well known for advertising, especially in print media. It is a competitor in a segment which is expected to be dominated by Google and other online sources. However, despite the competition, today it has around 276,000 Canadian advertisers out of a potential pool of 1.2 million.

Yellow Pages recently opened itself to data science. This marks the end of outsourcing its big data applications. The company looked at strategic cost implications of in-house big data application to get higher profit margin. It has spent millions to consolidate its 18 data centers into 3 and brought its outsourced business intelligence application in-house by constructing Hadoop clusters to house it.

The company has two analytics applications:
- Anametrix, used internally
- Yellow Pages Analytics, used by advertisers
Advertisers use Yellow Pages Analytics to crunch metrics like visitors, page views, KPIs and to calculate potential ROI. This is done using big data – one table has 52 billion records with millisecond response times.

Richard Langlois is the current IT director of Yellow Pages. He was hired in 2012 to transform the company by accelerating the move to digital. When he was hired Yellow Pages Analytics was outsourced to a California firm. Strategic cost implications led the company to bring the company into the digital age by bringing the application in-house. Langlois was given a blank cheque and 18 months to do an infrastructure overhaul, part of a four year plan.

Langlois appeared in a big data conference in Toronto in June, 2014. He claimed that there is no need to re-invent the wheel for big data applications.

“What you know about business intelligence, data center architecture, development, strategic planning … we use all of that and big data.”

Yellow Pages is transitioning from print medium to online. There are subtle differences between these media and Yellow Pages is looking for ways to leverage these differences and get maximum returns.

“We need to provide location-based content so you bring business to the advertiser.”

Langlois presented the flow chart of Yellow Pages Analytics at the conference. There are 16 servers and 2 primary nodes for the Hadoop clusters. Also, there are 5 data base machines in production for availability and load balancing. There will be an analytics services layer for business intelligence dashboards to make things easier for small and medium size companies to do analytics and to relieve the IT department of extract, transformation and load (ETL) operations. This does not include improving the collection of data, creating new applications such as unified tracking tool and methodology.

Despite the complexity of the flow chart, Langlois maintains big data roadmap is no different from an enterprise architecture roadmap. He also added that it is important to decouple architecture from projects so that changes in projects don’t affect the architecture.
Jun 14, 2014
Google Launches ‘Loon’ to Deliver Internet Access With Balloons

You know what’s awesome? The Internet. What’s not so great: The utter pain it is to find a fast, reliable Internet connection in so many parts of the world. With its latest moonshot, Google[x] is fighting that headache with creativity, attempting to make an awesome thing, well, even more awesome by spreading the Internet to the furthest reaches of the earth.

The delivery method? High-flying, Internet-spewing balloons.

Eighteen months in the works, the top-secret project was announced in New Zealand, where up to 50 volunteer households are already beginning to receive the Internet briefly on their home computers via translucent helium balloons that sail by on the wind 12 miles above Earth.

While the project is still in the very early testing stages, Google hopes eventually to launch thousands of the thin, polyethylene-film inflatables and bring the Internet to some of the more remote parts of the globe, narrowing the digital divide between the 2.2 billion people who are online and the 4.8 billion who aren’t.

If successful, the technology might allow countries to leapfrog the expense of installing fiber-optic cable, dramatically increasing Internet usage in places such as Africa and Southeast Asia.

“It’s a huge moonshot, a really big goal to go after,” said project leader Mike Cassidy. “The power of the Internet is probably one of the most transformative technologies of our time.”

The so-called Project Loon was developed in the clandestine Google X lab that also came up with a driverless car and Google’s Web-surfing eyeglasses.

Want to see the high-flying, potentially world-changing chicanery in action? The Project Loon’s Google+ page packs plenty of behind-the-scenes photos of the endeavor. Residents of the southern hemisphere may just get an up-close view of the balloons before long: Google is hoping to bring Project Loon to other countries on the same latitude as New Zealand.

Jun 16, 2013