The Amazon Dash Wand: Alexa's Newest Sibling

The Amazon Dash Wand

Amazon's New, Alexa-Enabled Kitchen Assistant

A little over two weeks ago, Amazon introduced the newest member of its Alexa Family: The Dash Wand.  The Dash Wand is marketed as a Smart Assistant for your kitchen. At about the size of a dollar bill, the Dash Wand is the smallest, most portable, and least expensive member of the Alexa family.  It is only $20, and for now at least, Prime Members get a $20 Amazon Credit when they activate the wand. That makes it essentially free.  I managed to get my hands on a Dash Wand before they went on Backorder. I am going to review The Wand for you today.

What is the Dash Wand?

Last year, Amazon introduced its Dash Buttons, which make reordering a single product from Amazon even easier.  The Dash buttons cost $5 each. As single-function devices, I'm not sure the Dash buttons ever really caught on. So Amazon sweetened the pot by adding a $5 credit for the first Dash purchase, and then even reducing the price to $1. They still languished. Personally, I do not know anyone who uses a Dash, despite the fact they're practically free. I haven't even bothered getting one for novelty's sake. So Amazon came up with a better, multi-tasking sibling.

Now, Amazon has introduced the new Dash Wand. Unlike the buttons, you can use a Dash Wand to order any product Amazon carries.  If you want to order a specific product, you can scan a barcode, and Amazon will add that product to your cart. You can also press a button and voice-order a product. I'll discuss how well that works later in this article.

The Dash Wand is designed to be a Kitchen Assistant. As such, it is water-resistant. It is also magnetic so you can stick it on your fridge

The Dash Wand also has Alexa built in, or more like Alexa Lite.  Although The Dash Wand does a lot of things an Echo or Dot can do, it does not do them all.  So depending on your needs, it's probably not a replacement for a full Alexa-enabled device. However, if you're curious, or you're looking for something to extend your Alexa network, the Dash Wand is great for that.  It is probably the least expensive way to try Alexa's assistant capabilities.

Convert a PDF or Scanned File into Editable Text, Using Google Drive

Apply OCR to Previously Saved or Scanned Documents;
Easily Convert PDF Files into Editable Formats

 

The articles in this blog are inspired by real life issues.  This weekend, I received a call from a less-skilled user. All of his electronic files had "disappeared" from his PC, and he was busy trying to recreate them from hard copies. He had already scanned a bunch before he discovered the scanned files were not editable.  Rather, he had a bunch of files that had basically been scanned into giant graphics. Was there anything he could do?

We discussed that, in the future, he needed to look for a "Scan to OCR" option in his scanning software. Most scanners include a Scan to OCR plug-in. (We also had a long conversation about disappearing files, and what that might mean, as well as setting up cloud backup through Backblaze to prevent these issues in the future.) But believe it or not, all was NOT lost. It is NOT too late to convert those scans. There is an easy way to apply OCR to saved files, using Google Drive and Google Docs.

What is OCR

OCR stands for Optical Character Recognition. OCR takes electronic information stored in an image format, (like GIF, JPG, PDF, or PNG,) and converts it into characters your programs can understand.  When you copy or scan something, basically a device is taking a picture of whatever you lay on its bed. Electronically, it saves a series of dots, rather than a series of letters and numbers. If you wish to edit a scanned document, first you MUST convert it back from a bunch of dots to characters software can recognize and understand. This process is called OCR, or Optical Character Recognition.

Most popular scanners come with OCR software.  If you are scanning a document, and you will want to edit it later, you should look for the “scan to OCR” option in your scanning software.  (It may also be called "Scan to Doc.")

If you have a document that has already been scanned to an image-based format, you will need to convert it using OCR BEFORE you can edit it.. This is also true for files you have stored on drives and other media.

OCR Using Google Docs

Google Drive contains a free and easy way to convert image-based files to editable text.  This is especially handy for PDF files, as well as files received as e-mail attachments. Google Docs has hidden OCR capabilities. You can open a file stored in Google Drive with Google Docs, and run it through an OCR plug-in while you're doing so. The steps are outlined below.

Avoid Phishing: Learn to Spot Sham Domains

Phishing Attacks Depend on Sham URLs;
Understanding the Parts of a URL Can Help You Avoid Phishing Attacks

To reiterate, phishing is an attempt to gain someone's personal data by pretending to be someone reputable. Phishing attacks are often carried out via e-mail or social media postings.  These attacks depend on registering domain names CLOSE to those of the real company or person, or by "spoofing" a familiar contact.  Learning to spot sham domain names and e-mail address is key, so you can avoid falling victim to phishing.

Today's article is going to review the parts of a domain name, as well as it's construction.  Then, we have a quiz on domain names: Is the URL Legitimate? If you can learn to spot a sham URL, you will be able to avoid most e-mail phishing attacks. And if you haven't read them yet, our previous articles on phishing can be found at http://techlaurels.blogspot.com/search/label/phishing.

Reader View in Firefox

Reader View: A Firefox Feature for a Cleaner Web Page

Reader View Strips Out Everything But the Content
It Also Can Read the Content Aloud to You

In the early days of the World Wide Web, browsers did not support a lot of fancy stuff.  Animated GIFs and Blinking Text were about the most sophisticated design elements available. But as the web matured and browser technology advanced, the average web browser was able to support a whole slew of features. Not only did we start seeing multi-columned web pages, we started seeing pop-ups, ads, and a lot of clutter.  This is fine on a lot of web sites, but sometimes we just want to read the main content, without a lot of distracting elements.  Sometimes, we yearn for the early days of the web, when information was presented cleanly, and in a decent sized font.  Reader view is here to help a user achieve that look.

What is Reader View?

Reader view, also referred to as Reader Mode, is a feature that strips away all extraneous content, leaving you with just the "guts" of the page.  It strips away things like menus, buttons, ads and background images, leaving you with just the main content. It also changes the page's text size, contrast and layout for better readability.

To demonstrate, I zoomed our last post to 50% in both "regular" and "reader" modes. Then I took screenshots.

Here it is in "regular" mode:

Mail that Should NOT Be Opened

Not All E-Mail Should Be Opened

Avoid Malware by Avoiding Malicious E-Mail

The longer you have had an e-mail address, the more probability you'll receive spam. If you read any of our series on The Privacy Implications of Internet Quizzes, you know that there are many unscrupulous folks out there, eager to harvest your information. Facebook like scams, phony giveaways, and the like are all set up with the express purpose of harvesting your e-mail address. Once harvested, those addresses are often sold. That results in spam.

By definition, Spam means unsolicited commercial e-mail. It is usually sent to a large number of recipients.  It has come to connote scams and shams. It is actually illegal. The US passed the CAN-SPAM Act in 2003, regulating commercial e-mail. But the Bad Guys are not known for following the laws.  Legitimate companies always include opt-out information in order to comply with the law. Spammers use it to their advantage, often including links that look like legitimate opt-out links, but that only lead to malicious content. Additionally, unsubscribing from a SPAM e-mail only confirms to the bad guy that you read your e-mails, making your address even more valuable.


Now much spam is actually harmless. By harmless, I mean it's just attempting to sell you something. That something is probably counterfeit, if it even exists to begin with. More spam actually tries to cause harm to you or your equipment. That spam is not as harmless. It may plant malware on your computer. It may try to steal your credentials, so the crooks can steal your money and/or pose as you and ruin your reputation.

Today's post is going to focus on e-mail you should not open. ALL of this mail landed in my inbox within the last week. Some of these were correctly filtered by my spam filter; others landed in my inbox, and I had to manually mark them as junk. All e-mails have been converted to screenshots, due to their malicious content. (Remember, you can click on the images to open them larger, in an "overlay.")

Poll and Survey Services: A Review (With Samples)

Create Polls and Surveys, for Blogs, Web Sites, Social Media, or Marketing Campaigns

This is the end of our series on Internet Quiz Services.  Folks love to take quizzes, and they can be great traffic-drivers. But many quiz hosting services do nothing but mine data, and their sketchy terms tell you little about how they will use the data they are mining. 

This series began by discussing the negatives of many quiz sites.  Then it went on to identify two quiz hosts who do not mine data: QuizRevolution and Polldaddy.  Earlier posts reviewed quiz creating and hosting services at these sites. Today, we end the series by looking at Polls and Surveys. Both Polldaddy and QuizRevolution offer poll and survey hosting, as well as tests.

Quizzes vs Tests vs Polls vs Surveys

At QuizRevolution, you can create surveys and quizzes. At Polldaddy, you can create quizzes, tests, surveys, and polls.  What are the differences between these?  Well, for all intents and purposes, a quiz and a test are the same thing.  Both offer a series of questions with right or wrong answers. Both are scored upon completion. A test or quiz usually assesses knowledge of a particular subject area.  On the Internet, however, quizzes tend to refer to silly, fun lists of questions, and they may or may not actually reflect knowledge or mastery.  Internet quizzes are more often centered around personality traits.  They may not be based on any sound theory at all.  On the Internet, tests tend to be more serious and more learning-focused.

A poll is a single question that asks one's opinion on something. It's generally multiple choice.  A survey, by contrast,  allows you to ask multiple questions across a wider range of question types.  It may include "scaled" questions, open-ended questions, and/or multiple choice. It may also collect demographic and/or personal information, such as name, sex, address, etc.  But there are no right or wrong answers, and no passing scores with a survey or poll.

Technology to Weather the Storm

Summer Storm Season is Here

Prepare for Power Outages with the Right Tech

This week, we have a different kind of Friday Quick Tip. Summer Storm Season has arrived,  and for many, that means winds, rains, and possible flooding. It also means power outages. Sometimes these outages are brief; other times they last for hours.  And for a lot of us, that means no technology. Modems and routers need power to function. And how many times has your phone's battery died, and it was ALL you had for entertainment during a storm?  Luckily, there is technology to help keep your tech useful during bad weather, and all that comes with it.

Today's tip discusses what tech you need to prepare your electronics for a bad storm.  Basically, we discuss how to keep things up and powered, so you're not stuck with nothing to watch when a storm hits other than the bad weather. With the right equipment, you can keep your electronics up and working.  And we're not talking about buying generators that cost hundreds of dollars.  Rather, we're talking about solutions that cost less than your average night out.

Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS)

In this case, UPS stands for "uninterruptible power supply," rather than the guys who deliver all your packages.  In other words, a UPS is a device that allows a computer to keep running for a period of time when the power goes out. It also provides protection from power surges.

A Review of Polldaddy and a Quiz: How Facebook Savvy Are You?

Polldaddy: A Privacy Conscious Web Service for Polls and Surveys

If you have been following this blog, you will have read our series on the Dangers of Internet Quizzes.  The first articles discussed the dangers of taking these types of quizzes, as well as the privacy ramifications.  We then moved on to safe quiz sites, and the differences between the good hosts and the data miners.  Techlaurels promised to review two quiz hosts that were good for both bloggers and quiz takers.  Our last posts discussed one of these hosts: QuizRevolution.  Today, we are going to review the second site: Polldaddy.

To start, Techlaurels migrated the quiz from Part 2 of the series over to Polldaddy.  That quiz is embedded below. The review of Polldaddy follows.

Quiz: How Facebook Savvy Are You?

If you have read through our series, you should be able to ace this test with no problems!

This quiz is hosted at Polldaddy.  Polldaddy respects your security and does NOT collect or share your data.  It is perfectly SAFE to take this quiz.  NO data is being recorded at all, and you do not need to log in or register to take the test.  You do NOT need to connect any social media accounts either.

How Well Do You Know Keyboard Shortcuts? A Quiz and a Review

How Well Do You Know Keyboard Shortcuts?
Take Our Quiz to Find Out!

Keyboard Shortcuts Presented in Quiz Format,

And More on QuizRevolution as a Resource

Usually, Friday posts are Quick Tips.  Today's post is really a Quick Tips post, wrapped up in a Quiz.

This post was originally going to be "A List of Useful Keyboard Shortcuts." However, if you've been following this blog, you'll know we are in the middle of a series on Internet Quizzes and the related privacy issues.  As a part of this series, we have been exploring GOOD quiz sites, both from a user standpoint and from a marketing standpoint.

So today's list of keyboard shortcuts is presented in a quiz format. It's a fill-in -the-blank type quiz, with the answers presented after each question.There are 20 different Keyboard Shortcuts in the quiz.

Instead of writing a boring list of useful keyboard shortcuts, I dumped the list into a quiz.  Hope you enjoy playing and learning at the same time!

More information about QuizRevolution.com, the site on which this quiz is hosted, follows the quiz. If you are interested in blogging, marketing, and those types of aspects, keep reading after the quiz.  If you're just interested in keyboard shortcuts, take our quiz and learn while you play.

(Click "read more" for quiz and review.)