Saving to Google Drive from Google Mail

Often I get emails that are really documents; eg, travel reservations, receipts, minutes... There is a way to save them to your Google Drive as a PDF file with two clicks.  You can google "save gmail to google drive" and get many hits; one is http://lifehacker.com/quickly-save-an-email-to-google-drive-with-google-cloud-1593199317  The summary is:

1. Click the little print icon at the top of your gmail email.  
2. You will get a Print dialog page.  If the Destination field doesn't say "Save to Google Drive", click the change button under that.  Find the entry "Save to Google Drive" and click it.  If you don't see it in the selection list, click "More" at the bottom of the list.
3. Back at the Print dialog page, click Print.  Off it goes as a PDF to your drive

Note that it saves the document to the "root" of the drive.  If you want to save it in a Drive folder, you'll have to switch over to the drive, click "recent documents", and then click on the drive folder navigator to find the folder where you want to save the document.  Use your mouse to drag the document to the folder.  That's it.

Recent Corporate Hacks and What You Can Do to Protect Yourself

The US government has been hacked... I got my notice today that I was "on the list."  South Carolina has been hacked.  Lastpass has been hacked.  Basically, you can be assured that information about everyone on line is in multiple databases being sold to nations, terrorist organizations, companies, and individuals that mean to do you harm.  The information they have includes at least

1. Your name
2. Your email address
3. Some preferences on your buying habits
4. Something about your past employment or activities

In addition, they may have your phone number... how many of you have had mysterious phone calls where you answer and no body is on the other end?  Robo-devices checking whether or not the phone number is active:  premium price to the buyer if legit phone number.  They may have your address and your social security number.   This is China, Russia, ISIS/ISIL, Iran, Pakistan,...  They are not amateurs.

Please begin using two factor authentication on all accounts that offer it.  I use it. This is a difficult topic to describe in a written/short tutorial.  Instead, please go to this UTube and follow what it says:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VUPuf6uwi4.  You can google "Youtube two step verification" and add whatever search terms you want to get other training videos.

For those using Lastpass, Lastpass uses two-step verification, but you have to start it.  Furthermore, it uses, among others, "Google Authenticator," which makes it "easier" to supply the verification number.  To start Lastpass two-step authentication, go to your "My Lastpass Vault" and open your account settings (on the left navigator).  When the new view pops up, click "Multifactor options" in the top menubar.  Follow the directions.   You can select from many different smartphone applications as your "authentication helper," but if you are on google, you might as well have all your authenticator function in one place.

If you need help, let me know...

Example and Tutorial for a Technical Solution for 4G Network (up to 350M) for our Community

See "Rural Connectivity, Cambrium Networks".

From the Verizon 4G page:

LTE in Rural America

At Verizon Wireless, we're committed to extending 4G LTE coverage beyond the footprint of our nationwide network. With the LTE in Rural America Program, we're collaborating with rural carriers that serve areas not currently covered by the Verizon Wireless network. By combining their tower and backhaul assets with our core LTE equipment and premium 700 MHz spectrum, these participating rural carriers can more quickly build and operate their own 4G networks.

Expanding 4G LTE access to rural areas not only provides the speed and reliability of 4G to rural carriers' customers when they travel, it also ensures a seamless experience for Verizon Wireless customers traveling in areas outside our network.  Together with our partners, we're bringing the speed and performance of 4G LTE to rural America.

Here is a press release on what is happening in Europe:  http://press.ihs.com/press-release/technology/high-speed-broadband-and-4g-lte-coverage-dramatically-rises-europe-accordin

Here is a recent opinion piece on 4G Rural Networks:  http://www.aglmediagroup.com/opinion-the-keys-to-the-rural-cellular-buildout/ 

Here is an "easy-read" piece on status and capability:  http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2015-02/11/ee-investment-rural-network.  Here is a youtube example:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SzGhnIH9Sk.  Here is another "easy-read" overview:  https://danielmiessler.com/study/cellular/

I should mention that 4G and followon technologies can be hybrid networks:  Use fiber where financially cost competitive and use 4G transceivers to bridge the gap.  Don't use copper for any significant distance.  

Among other references:

• Wiki Review- 4G
• Wiki Review- LTE
• Indiana Rural Broadband Report 
• Verizon LTE in Rural America Report
• Connect South Carolina Web Page
• 2015 Final Report
• Broadband USA (a US govt contracted office, if I understand right)
• Building the 4G LTE Wireless Network
• Example of equipment
• A Broadband Wireless Cost Model
• Planning a Broadband Network

Navy Phishing Letter

I got this yesterday.  It is obviously spam:

Dear Customer Important Alert for Account Access Users! You may have recently received an email from Navy Federal Credit Union inviting you to take a survey about Navy Federal Account verification survey, to protect and safeguards your Account Details. Survey invitations are sent to the email address we currently have on file. To get started on the survey, just click the link below. Click here to help you perform this verification survey. © 2015 Navy Federal Credit Union® Security Advisor

It is from Jawalakhel, Lalitpur, Kathmandu, Nepal

What would be the roadmap to a 4G Rural Americas Program Solution?

1.  Education... lots of it... on this blog and by other means.
2.  Identify potential suppliers.  Write an RFI (Request for Information) to see if there is are suppliers that can provide a technical solution consistent with our needs and constraints (eg, terrain)  Who?  Don't know.  Any suggestions?  How about a joint RFI from the three mountain communities?
3.  Identify potential manager companies.  The assumption is that there will be a technical solution and then a business management solution.  I would be very surprised if the two functions would come under the same hat.  The manager corp take care of operations.  I'm working on that.
4.  Serious negotiations could occur only if there are reasonable responses to the RFIs.  RFIs are NOT the final kind of technical document.  It is only a scope and possibility document.
5.  Establish the potential manager company, at least for the timeframe required to evaluate the responses to the RFQs.
5.  After RFIs come RFQs (Request for Quote), which would be generated jointly by the RFI writers and the potential manager company..  The responses would be evaluated and a partner selected.  A contract with the manager company would be established.   A budget for implementation and operation would be drawn up, etc.  From here it is the project management drill for a program.    

Slow Internet, High Costs for Internet, TV, cellphone, phone service in our communities

The communities where most of my readers live are situated in rolling hills or mountains.  4G cell service is spotty- we get it second hand from a nearby city.  4G as a technology has the potential to provide all our communication services at a low cost compared to what we pay today.

However, our "standard" internet service is ATT DSL with a max of  6M and it is costly.  Some of our members have gone to a satellite service, but that is expensive and doesn't move the speed bar that much. I think all of us have to use a satellite service for TV, which is, in itself, expensive compared to options that can bundle all communication services on the same infrastructure.

Some in our communities are lookiing at Uverse-like solutions, solutions that run over fiber and then copper wires.  Those technologies are self limiting because they either include small copper wires, which have limited signal capacity and are degrade the signal with distance, or they include expensive fiber.  Whether it is cable, Uverse, or satellite, they are not long term, economical communication service solutions.

4G, which you should recognize as something your cell phones might use, is a technology that is coming into its own as a community communication service. I've been talking with Verizon tech about "LTE in Rural America Program", VOLTE, and "Small Cell".  (Follow the links for background.)   I've also been keeping track of Verizon progress on the flagpole- technical issues, etc.   Small Cell coupled with the LTEiRA looks like the best choice, but we may have to invest in the Small Cell as a community.

A typical, non-dedicated LTE broadband service can provide a download speed in excess of 30mb/s and an upload speed in excess of 15 mb/s.   LTE-Advanced can provide peak rates up to 1 Gbit/s fixed speeds and 100 Mb/s to mobile users.

I would welcome others who know about how 4G would work for a geography and low population density such as ours to comment below.  

Attention: All AOL users- your mail isn't getting through... and all Google Mail users- look at spam and filter aol

It seems that there has been so much spam/fishing/bad emails from AOL to Google Mail that Google automatically puts all aol emails into the Google Spam folder.  So, AOL people:  your email is not being seen by Google people unless they specifically "filter" messages to allow AOL email in their Inbox.

For Google Mail people. Look in you spam folder. You will have to be proactive and set up a filter for every aol person with whom you correspond.  Details on setting up filters can be found at https://support.google.com/mail/answer/6579?hl=en.  Paste this in your address bar.

Also for Google Mail people:  If you know about filters, you might be tempted to just put aol.com as the filter criterion; then route the messages to your Inbox.  The risk in doing that is Google is putting aol into the spam folder for a reason:  AOL seems to have been infiltrated and there are too many phishing attacks originating from that domain.