Vapor trails...The end of the trip

After leaving the Googleplex I had plenty of time left in my last day in San Fransisco, so I decided to head over the fishermans whorf. The weather was perfect at 74 degrees. It was a Wednesday so there wasn't a ton of people out. I met a few shaddy characters out there and just had to get a few selfies with them.

Then I went out for dinner at the Bistro Boudin. What a great place to eat. Friendly staff, great food, great atmosphere.

The meal was fantastic as you can see. The trip was just what this Duck needed. Time to recharge my batteries without doing a total reset before the big holiday push at work.

On returning home I had to fly to Seattle to catch a plane to the Redmond airport. Now I am a huge Duck fan (but thats not why my nic name is Duck) My whole family are Oregon Duck fans. So I was just a little disapointed in the plane I had to fly home in.

I have been training new hires just about everyday sence my return, should be a good season as they are all doing really well. The stress level is back to normal and I am ready for my fathers 80th birthday bash.Now on to the holidays and the headlong flight to the new year. "Bring it on" I say.

Oh and I'm looking forward to the Note Edge or the Note 4 from T-Mobile coming next month as one of those phones will be mine.

Until next time (who knows when that will be I am working 6 days a week or more and I don't see it slowing down for a few months) Keep your feathers dry....

Vapor Trails...... Stan

So as I was sneaking around last week at the Google complex (actually I was told I could go there) I went to building 43. As I was coming to the dorrway I seen this statue of a T-Rex. He was full of flamingos. There were flamingos in his belly, on the ground and one was hanging off his ass even. No one told me I wasn't supose to take pictures there... Until it was to late that is. Of course I didn't say that it was already a done deal, but it did prevent me from moving to the other side of it to get better shots. I found out later that this T-Rex has a name and history. His name is Stan, he was named after the man who found the fossil remains that was used as the mold for it. The flamingo's are another story. they are there "picking his bones clean" So here are the shots I got of "Stan" the secret dino of Google.

Vapor Trails, a morning at Google

I spent Wednesday morning at the Google complex, I wanted to do some shopping but they are to mean and cruel to let visitors in their shop so I just went to see these guys instead

I even had a couple photo ops

And one with this guy

But they were all there except mystery "L" no sign of it anywhere. But the rest were all happy to have their photos taken.

Well that's everybody. .. for now. Honestly without a tour or a gift shop going to Google isn't really worth it. Hey Google, step up your game!

Vapor Trails---- When your told to "Google it"

Well when most people are told "Google it" that is what they do, they get on there PC or phone and google what they want. I on the other hand got on a plane.

I landed here,

And the next day I was at Google.

I just had to stop in and see this big guy.

I hungout with a couple androids while I was there and I will post more photo's after I get them sorted and moved where I want them. I'm still on vacation and have a few days to get it all done. I'm hoping to do another post (or two) on my trip to Google before I head back to the grindstone.

See you soon

Vapor Trails... A Google search

Yes, thats right I am calling this vapor trails, a Google search and here is why.
I flew down to San Fransisco this morning and tomorrow morning I will be heading to the Google coplex to have a look around...and shop. I got the idea of calling this post Vapor trails on the way down, as I was listening to Rush's "Vapor Trails" album. It seemed fitting at 38,000 feet. And its my blog and I can call it what I want So here are a few photos of the trip down.

From Bend, Oregon heading to Portland. A perfect day for flying.

At 38,000 feet flying straight down the coast, Notice the clouds stopped at the coastline.

Comming in to the Bay area.

Tomorrow I will be heading to the Google complex and gift shop. I will post more photos and "Stuff" then. Now its time to find some grub, bub.

Some of my thoughts and other things on the Samsung Galaxy S5

Yes, the S5 is here. Like the years and flagships from them before there were more than a few rumors going on about this device. For the most part they were close, but a few were way off base. Although the phone has some nice new features. Most have had a 1000 videos done on them. (a few by me even, but by request) So I thought I would blog about a few things that I haven't seen to much or none at all on them.

So first off when making a call to someone, if you have texted with them and or called, while on the present call it will show the last contact you had with that person. This is a nice little feature, like with the call I made today to my friend Carla. It showed the last text message and the last call. When they were made, a brief bit of the text and the call duration.

Then if you close out and go to the homescreen there will be a small photo of the contact in the upper left hand corner with the time count at the bottom of it.

Now for the case I have chosen for the device, I am using the Mercury Goospery case. This is the same case I used on my Galaxy S4. I love the color and the fit is second to none. The cutouts fit well and accsess to the buttons and charging port are easily gotten to. The one change in this case from the S4 is they desided to leave the cutout for the strap out of it this time. (Thank the maker for that one)

I have had the phone now for a week and keep finding new things and improved things I plan on posting more on it as time permits. I am busy at work and when there are multible new phones launched in the same time frame, I get very, very busy.My next blog I plan on touching in on the new HTC One (M8) and the bugs in the Verizon Galaxy S5. I am hoping to hear more about fixes for both devices. I will also be dropping a review on some holsters I ordered and the result of that order.

So for now I say later gator, the Duck is out.

Speed tests and a Chromebook

So I have been playing around with some of the speed tests that populate the play store. I was wondering how they would really stack up against each other and for the most part the 4 I was using did pretty well. Here are a few screenshots I took this morning as I ran the tests for this post.

This one fared the worst, so I will get it out of the way first. Speed test, found in the play store has one issue that seemed to be a constant. The upload speed was always way off compared to the others. The best I ever gotten for upload speed was just under 3mbs. I would not recomend this app as being "Reliable"

OpenSignal, This was a pretty nice app with a constant performance.It also has a few other features that make it nice and that will have me keeping it on my phone. Not only does it test your signal, but gives you a coverage map as well. You can also submit issues you have with connections.

Speedtest.net, Probably the most popular testing app in the play store and for good reason. They update it often and it is very reliable. It also runs consistent with my next app. I would and do recommend this app regularly.

This is the FCC's official app. The one that they use to test carriers signals with and is the best one to use when you want to call your carrier to complain about your signal. This gives them all the info they need to see if there is actually a problem and which tower you are using. This app also features a nice little bonus, a weekly average. I find that this is a sweet feature.

These last two apps are by far the best I have used. I would like to hear from you if you have any that you like and trust. I would be more than happy to test them out.

Now on to the Chromebook, I picked up the Samsung Chromebook a couple weeks ago. So far I am loving it. Its light weight and very portable. The battery life is fantastic! they say 6.5 hours and I'm getting over 7 close to 8. I will post a full review once I test it out on a 3g network. I am going to be using it on T-Mobile as they are my carrier, but it will be a pre-paid plan as I don't think I will be using this feature much. I don't have Wi-Fi at my home (not much need for it) I have 4.5 GB of high speed hotspot now and for the price of a 2,5GB pre-paid card I can get another 6GB of hotspot from T-Mobile. So that really is the smarter way to go.


As always, The Duck stops here.