So, recently I decided it would be neat to have the computer read me back a talk I had written and given. I suppose I could just record it by reading it aloud into a microphone, but that would get tedious and who likes to hear their own voice? Why can't a Siri-like voice could read it for me? Hmm

So if you have internet service already .. and need a home phone line .. 
​Save $$ with Ooma: Home phone for only $109 up front and then just $5/mo for taxes/911 fees. http://www3.ooma.com/refer-a-friend/?referral_code=WIP1981 …

So I ordered up the hardware .. it took a week to arrive.

After it arrived, I took 15 minutes to register it online and and enter my payment  info/911 address location information. I select my new number and  then declined the 'premier' service offer - although it is half the cost of the comparable vonage service - as I only wanted a landline replacement.

Installed the ooma app on my cell phone as well. Calls to my new phone now also ring on my cell whenever I am near wifi (most always). And I can call out on my cell via wifi as if from my new ooma number. Nice

Bottom line: My telco cost per month now comes to just under $5 per month (for 911 fees and tax). Even nicer!

see also Magrath Call to Action: re Axia Fiber Optic Internet
and high speed internet options comparison table /rdd

Wherever this standard is implemented, public users with have access to MagrathOpen public wifi with only a single pre-shared key required = 'ShopMagrath'. Chamber could promote the service with signage “Free MagrathOpen WIFI Here – password = ShopMagrath – Support your Magrath Chamber!” or similar.

Problem: Laptop or computer infected with malware/virus/slow/unwanted popups, because say, a friend has kindly uninstalled/reloaded back to original pristine factory state (a new full setup required) or because my system is just sick and has pick up a bug somewhere 'out there'. 

Auxiliary problem: Don't have any spare cash for a tech to come by and do it for me.

I keep having to look this kind of thing up, so I think it is better to repost the how-we-did-it's ..
From time to time I find it useful to extract audio (MP3 format) from a video (MP4). My camera takes pretty good video, but a recent how-to video project involved editing several videos, pictures and audio together to make sense of all my ramblings.

In this case, I had video with audio I wanted to use and vice versa and wanted to mix them together .. into a final version video using another program called the  Openshot Video Editor.

A long while ago my brother Greg got me connected to a website called 'Nauvoo Cousins' or the ilk that listed your connection to LDS Pioneers from the Nauvoo era. It was discontinued a while back and I had been searching for a suitable replacement utility ..

I have been a fan of OpenDNS for a long time now. This free offering automatically protects you and all your 'connectors' (those freeloaders you have connecting to your home internet connection - computers, laptops, phones, tv's, neighbors, houseguests, etc ).

You just have to signup and configure your home router to use the OpenDNS DNS servers to you find good stuff and block the bad stuff on the internet. 

Having been a user of RootsMagic6, I was happy to upgrade to RootsMagic7 when it became available back in Dec 2014 .. and while it installed and worked fine on my Win8 laptop, I was sadly disappointed that it would not work correctly under Ubuntu - until today.

Oh, I don't like Ubuntu, she stated emphatically. As if that was that. I let it pass .. I suppose she is entitled to her own opinion. Later, however, I pondered just what she might not like about it. Is it the cost? Free for everyone everywhere to use? Was it the security features? The fact that it is virtually virus proof? The ease of installation and re-installation or the fact that it auto-updates everything along with the operating system? Hmm. Maybe she doesn't want to use all the free software – Libreoffice, GnuCash, Gimp and stuff like that? Perhaps she doesn't like watching Netflix on Chrome, or using the Family Search Indexing program, browsing the internet and all that stuff without having to shell out big bucks for the latest and greatest hardware. Is it the fact that it just keeps working, even on older hardware without having to reboot (or lockup or crash) like other operating $y$tems do. Or that most internet servers out there are LAMP based (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) or variants. Even many 'proprietary' windows-only programs can often be run on Linux using the free Wine windows emulation program, so that can't be it. I have only run Linux on all my business computers for a mere decade or so now, so perhaps my opinion pales in comparison. I haven't yet found a reason to go back to the evil empire. Regardless .. I refute her assertion. I think she just thinks she doesn't like Ubuntu ..

http://www.ubuntu.com/desktop/features