Tech Talk at ShieldsGroup

So yesterday I got a call from someone with a local number asking why I called her. I had not called her. She insisted I had. My call log said I hadn’t.

Looking around online, it’s possible that someone is spoofing my number, but — only once? And to a local cell? That seems strange. It appears there’s nothing one can do about it, in any case, except change your number.

However, sites addressing the issue suggested phone owners register their cell phons with www.donotcall.gov. I registered. Again.

This won’t fix the problem of the call spoofing, but it might save me a moment with telemarketers.

This app has nine features. Seven are clunky / unnecessary. Two are handy.

1. The AR Gameland Finder looks in a direction & shows Gamelands on the horizon. There’s no way to define the radius, leaving you to consult a map. Perhaps it would be good when walking through the woods, trying to find the gameland you wish to hunt, but the map would work for that, right?
2. MAPS feature shows where gamelands are located. Combined with the GPS, this is useful to ensure you’re on state gameland. This is the best feature of the GoHuntPA Toolkit. I’m leaving it on my phone for this feature alone.
3. The INSTAGRAM feature takes you to pics posted by MYGOHUNTPAMOMENT. This is useful if you don’t know how to use Instagram. But if you don’t know how to use Instagram, you probably don’t have an Instagram account. Still, you can browse pictures of other hunters. And, as I understand it, stalking is part of hunting, unless you’re hunting turkey.
4. SEASONS & BAGS has an icon that looks like a calendar, but it doesn’t take you to a calendar. Instead, it takes you to the PA Game Commission website. And it’s not formatted for your cell phone. Does it seem strange to anyone else when data is loaded into an app for your mobile device and it’s hard to read because it’s not formatted for your mobile device?
5. The LAWS & REGULATIONS is a PDF of “The PA Hunting & Trapping Digest” that is, once again, not formatted for mobile use.
6. SUNRISE / SUNSET is handy if you don’t have a smartphone to ask. “OK GOOGLE, WHAT TIME DOES THE SUN SET TODAY?”
7. WEATHER is good if you don’t have a weather app or web browser to give you the weather.
8. The SOS function is very handy. Although most smartphones let you attach your location to a text, the GoHuntPA Toolkit does this for you. At your instruction, it will send a text or email asking your emergency contact for help, giving them your coordinates and a link to Google Maps showing them where you are. This is another good feature.
9. TRACKER — If you don’t have location sharing with G+ this would be a substitute.

All in all, this isn’t a bad app for the price. (It’s free.) However, with the exception of the maps and SOS functiond, it’s unnecessary.

I have been using a WD Passport Ultra quite regularly on one PC.

It’s a fine unit — not at all intrusive. Just does what the designers ask it to do.

But the other day I tried it on another computer and it wouldn’t unlock.

The PC I had been using it on unlocked it automatically.

But the new PC needed the password. A password I had been incredibly careful to document.

Honest.

After two hours with WD support logging into my PC and updating the firmware and everything else, the tech (level 2, of course) finally said…

“How long is your password?”

I counted…. “24 characters.”

He laughed. “That’s the problem. It can be no more than 12.”

I had to reformat it, but finally got it working everywhere with a password no more than 12 characters in length.

Thanks, WD, for good tech people.