Another Tech Tip Tuesday with Jesse Mulligan at RNZ.
Jesse Mulligan (00:01): It's Tech Tuesday. Time to catch up with Daniel Watson from Vertech IT Services to answer your tech questions and attack some general topics in the range of information technology, and hard to ignore Christmas, and Daniel, [foreign language 00:00:17], welcome. I have one here for you. It's just come in. My husband has been working from home the past few months and spending a lot of time on Zoom. Is it worth me buying him a decent plug in microphone for his laptop for Christmas, or does it not make much difference asks one listener?
Daniel Watson (00:34): Oh, God. Yes. Look, I hate being on Zoom calls with the one person who's got like a really echoy mic, because I don't, they've got a laptop in an open space. It makes all the difference in the world for everybody else on the call if you've got a good echo canceling microphone headset, and I've got a couple of models that I'd recommend. There's a good Logitech one that's in around about that $88 category. It's the H570E. It's plugs straight into the laptop. It's a USB. I'm speaking to you right now in one of them. And it's for a good price point, quality wise, it's comfortable. Does the job, doesn't run out of batteries, but you can go further up the chain and spend a bit more money on like a Jabra with the Bluetooth and better speakers and all the rest, but that would be a good starting point.
Jesse Mulligan (01:21): Yeah. Excellent, and we can hear how good that sounds. And yet don't actually realize when you're talking to someone with a bad audio connection how distracting it is and how it actually detracts from what they're saying, right?
Daniel Watson (01:33): Yeah. Yeah. And we're all doing a lot more of Zoom meetings than we'd probably like these days. And as we people move back into the offices, there's going to be a bit more background noise and a good echo canceling mic will filter out a lot of that stuff, so it doesn't come through on the call. I've worked from [inaudible 00:01:50] sometimes and we've had the roosters coming by and people can't even hear that guy going off, which is crazy, because it does on my end.
Jesse Mulligan (01:57): Side note, my wife has a new laptop and we've just discovered what I understand as a common problem, which is the microphone laptop is very, very directional. So if she's talking to someone and she's not dead in the center of the screen, often she'll be muted. And actually my brothers in IT. I asked him about it. He said, "Yeah, it's about the number two most popular help desk inquiry is people wondering what's going on." Apparently, it's a new sort of a privacy setting in laptops where it's very, very directional.
Daniel Watson (02:25): Nice. Yeah. Unfortunately, it can pick up the stuff behind you as well, too.
Jesse Mulligan (02:28): Mm-hmm (affirmative). Any other ideas for good Christmas gifts with a sort of a tech theme?
Daniel Watson (02:34): Right. Okay. I've got a few here, right? Okay. I've got a teenage daughter and she's got a pension for stealing my Bluetooth speaker and never returns it fully charged, right? I mean, this is so ... If you've got that kind of situation in the family household where everybody wants to listen to their own tunes on your Spotify family playlists, then I would invest in getting a nice little speaker for each person in the family so they can do their own thing without causing Dad to go nuts. So that's a good one.
Jesse Mulligan (03:07): You have self interest there, too?
Daniel Watson (03:09): Yeah. Absolutely. Those are the best presents, the ones you can enjoy, too. Okay, so another one that I recommend is [Kiwi's 00:03:19] love going on the outdoors and we're either going to be out on the boat this summer or are we going to be out strolling through the Bush, right? So two things, if you've got somebody who likes to get out there, but you want to keep them safe, I'd recommend getting a VHF, one that floats, like the Uniden 270. I've had one of those for years. It's about 270 bucks. It floats. It's waterproof. It takes a beating. I've used mine during sea scouts or [inaudible 00:03:50] diving in the water and rescuing kids and that kind of stuff. It's fantastic. And there's nothing like sure have a cell phone, but having a VHF radio means that if you do get in trouble out the water, if you press send on that, everybody else with a VHF radio in your vicinity is going to hear you and they'll be a lot quicker getting to your aid than perhaps waiting for Coast Guard to arrive.
Jesse Mulligan (04:10): Okay. There's a certain channel you want to be on as well, right?
Daniel Watson (04:14): Well, channel 16, yes. Yeah, yeah. And there is a panic button for that, so that when you hit that, it's whatever channel you're already on, it will go to 16 and transmit.
Jesse Mulligan (04:23): Cool.
Daniel Watson (04:24): Yeah. Yeah. Useful. The other one is personal locator beacons, okay? So I had a great time. I did Outward Bound earlier on this year when we went a lockdown, and for the first time, got to use a personal locator beacon where one of the men of our party became hypothermic. And it was so awesome being able to pull that thing out, press the button, and have 20 minutes later, a chopper over here to pull him out, which is fantastic. So when you're going out in the Bush, it's people, we don't have anything dangerous in the Bush, but people do die of exposure. If you had to try and walk out with a shattered ankle or something like that, it would be excruciating. But if you can whip out a PLB, which will cost about 400 bucks or something like that, it's going to save you so much anguish. And they last for seven years of battery life. So it's not really a big investment over that kind of timeframe.
Jesse Mulligan (05:18): Very good. And I guess all this stuff is just available from sort of tech stores. I mean, you'd be able to pick up the VHF at like a fishing marine supply store, I suppose. But I'm thinking of like Jaycar or PB Tech maybe?
Daniel Watson (05:33): Yeah. Burnsco. There's lots of places online for that kind of thing. Yeah.
Jesse Mulligan (05:38): You can do some fishing this summer, Daniel?
Daniel Watson (05:41): I'll be anchoring in the water. I'm a bit of a, more of an open water swimmer. And if I see fish, when I'm doing that, that usually gives me a bit of a surprise.
Jesse Mulligan (05:51): All right. Well the, water sounds-
Daniel Watson (05:53):[crosstalk 00:05:53] in the water when I'm in there.
Jesse Mulligan (05:54): Okay, cool. Yeah. I'll keep my burly trail far away from you. All the water's meant to be pretty warm, so it should be pretty good for ocean swimming. Thank you. Have a great Christmas break. Really appreciate your time on the show this year, Daniel. We'll catch you in 2022.
Daniel Watson (06:10): Great stuff, mate. Take care in the sun and make sure you [inaudible 00:06:12], eh?
Get in touch with us at daniel@vertech.co.nz or call him on 021 2798019