Category Archives: Technology

Roam Mobility: a cell phone solution for Canadian traveling to the USA!

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In Canada, we are stuck with some of the worst (read most expensive) cell phone plans of the OCDE countries (see also Michael Geist Blog).
Things are even worst if you travel abroad with your cell phone and keep your current provider of service: welcome to the wonderful world of roaming charges. Here is are things look as of June 7th 2014:
Bell: Roaming charges 1.45$/min, 6$/Mb and 0.75$/text or pay 20$ for 100Mb or 50$ for 500Mb and so on
Rogers : Packages consisting of 40$ for 50 min, 200 Mb of data / 80$ for 100 min and 500 Mb of data.
Similar fees can be obtained for other Canadian providers.
RoamMobility
Recently found the solution to this, let’s call it, problem: Vancouver-based Roam Mobility . You can get a Sim Card from Roam Mobility that gives you a “permanent” USA phone number and nice roaming prices and options:
  • Unlimited nationwide talk
  • Unlimited global text
  • Unthrottled high-speed data
  • Free long-distance calls to Canada (yes!)
  • Voicemail and caller ID
So, how does it work? You either buy you Sim Card directly from Roam Mobility or, as I did, in a Staples store (“Bureau en Gros” in Quebec). When you register your Sim Card on Roam Mobility web site, you are attributed a USA phone number that will be valid as long as you use the service once per year. You than chose a package for 1, 3, 7, 14 or 30 days (there is also an option for those who have longer stay)
  • Data only
  • Text and talk
  • Text, talk and data
Once you pick your plan, you also chose online your activation data and time. For my part, I picked the landing time of my flight. So the only thing you have to do is to change your Canadian Sim Card to the Roam Mobility Sim Card (assuming that your phone, like mine, is unlock). Note, you need to carry the Sim Card holder opener tool (or a small paper clip). If you never change your phone Sim Card, there are ample instruction on YouTube. Here is the one for the iPhone5/5s. Changing the Sim Card takes only a few seconds; no need to shutdown your phone.
Once done, change the APN to roam (no password) and that’s it, your ready to go. On IOS 7, this is what the previous link will tell you to do:
  • Select Settings
  • Select Cellular
  • Select Cellular Data Network
  • Under the Cellular Data section change the APN to the word roam(Username & Password should be blank)
  • Scroll down and under the Personal Hotspot section change the APN to the word roam (Username & Password should be blank)
  • Save the setting and restart your phone

If this is the first time you use you card, you will be walked through the setting of your USA voice mail once your phone is activated at destination. No your Roam Mobility Sim Card does not work within Canada 😦

The plans are 3.95$ for 1 day (300Mb of data), 11,95 for 3 days (900Mb of data), 27,95 for 7 days (2Gb of data included), … And yes you can share your data with your iPad or computer. This is a fraction of the cost charged by our Canadian providers for roaming charges or “travel packages”.

Plans

It worked flawlessly and when landing in Canada, simply put your Canadian Sim back in the phone and store you Roam Mobility card for your next trips.

Brilliant 😉

P.S.: Roaming Sim Card and packages are even less expansive in Europe. I’ve tried Austria and Belgium up to now. So if you travel even moderately, paying up front you cell phone and having it unlock gives you access to very good deals outside the country.

 

New academic templates for DevonThink Pro

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I have been a user of DevonThink Pro Office for a number of years now and made it a central part of my digital workflow. Over time, I naturally my organization toward a project-based hierarchy, trying to self contains all key information regarding a particular project into a DTPO group and sub-group structure. So I keep what I call an Ongoing database, which have all of my ongoing projects: manuscripts and other documents being written, financed research projects and contracts as principal investigators, other research projects as co-applicants or collaborators, courses that I teach and so on. If it’s completed, it’s archived and thus pull put of the Ongoing database.

Capture d’écran 2014-05-10 à 12.43.15

I have created a few standard templates containing a main folder (group) and sub-folders structure for a few key academic activities:

  • Research Grant
  • Research Contracts
  • General Research Project (not corresponding directly to the above two; can be personal!)
  • New Student
  • New manuscript
  • Conference (Attending/Presenting)

The following file (Projects) is a zip of a folder named Projects that contains these templates. Clicking the previous link  should already produced an unzip folder on your standard download folder. Simply drop the folder into ~/Library/Application Support/DEVONthink Pro 2/Templates.noindex. It will become available in the New from Template sub-menu of the Data menu.

I am quite interested in hearing if this is useful, if the structure of these templates are appropriate for your workflow and knowing about your own structure.

Office for iPad: too little, too late!

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Microsoft announced today that they are releasing office for iPad. If all you want to do is see your files or display you PPT, the apps are free. If you want to be productive i.e. create or edit…you will have to shell-out the Office365 subscription cost. Really! And that is for a product that is stuck with OneDrive and SharePoint.

If you buy a new iOS device or a new OSX device, you are already better served with the free iWorks suite. For most users, this is also more than enough. Frankly, Keynote is so much better than PowerPoint (which on my Mac regularly crashes or corrupt its own files). WORD is OK for simple document, here simple meaning not too large or complex. Otherwise, again on OSX be ready for regular crashes on large and complex WORD documents (lots of sections with tables, figures and so on). Writing a PhD thesis on WORD is simply pure torture. Students should be advised to learn LaTeX right off the bat.

If you are truly working cross platforms and are interested in true real-time shared editing, free Google Drive is actually quite impressive (never thought I would say that of the (evil) Google!) and light years ahead of clunky SharePoint for collaborative work. Tested in a room with peoples on Windows, OSX and iPad all accessing the same “WORD” document for editing. Works like a charm! Did I say it is FREE?

Finally, OpenOffice is an acceptable, free replacement. The issue is for it to be efficient, everyone in your work entourage needs to adopt it. Otherwise, also works nicely.

In other words, unless forced by a stone age IT department to have Office for iPad on your device, you probably do not need it.

3D printing, the ultimate gadget for grown-up kids

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“Tea. Earl Grey. Hot” — Picard in ST:TNG

star-trek-replicator

…Oops in the title, I meant serious scientists, of course 😉 The first time I saw a 3D printer under 10000$ in action, I told myself they were right again, “they” meaning Star Trek.

Almost a year ago, we bought a MakerBot Replicator 2 for our research group. Our interest was to be able to do fast prototyping, quickly create small pieces, adaptors and so on. It certainly change the way approach our laboratory experiments, more importantly we do not have to go to machine shop until we have a much better idea of what work and what doesn’t. We were even able to start exploring way 3D printing could change one our field of applications (brachytherapy, if you need to know!). We also found out that printing with PLA resulted in much more sturdy and better print quality than ABS plastic.

file_202807_0_CES2013-MakerBot01

3D printing is a game changer not only in scientific research and engineering but also in medicine, where application in dentistry and organ printing, liver was even predicted in 2014! Of course you can find this great talk about 3D printing and airplane or 3D printing in space.

However, 3D printing will become mainstream technology very quickly. Already, cheap 3D printers can be bought in Staples. The biggest news, to me, is that public libraries are about to make3D printing accessible to… the public. The Toronto public library has made such announcement recently: 5 cents a minute, maximum of 2 hours of printing time. Of course, this bring a fairly good number of questions regarding intellectual properties. For instance, you could print your own Lego-like blocks at home; the raw material costs about 40$ per Kg. If you type in Google “3D printer and IP”, you will get thousands of hits.

If you need a good primer on 3D printing technology, Wikipedia has a very nice one.