Beat Your Commuting Blues With These Techy Boredom Busting Ideas

There is nothing worse than being sat on a long commute on the train with nothing to do. Many people opt to read the free newspaper that they’ve picked up on their journey but as you know, these don’t last long. Long commute times can be tricky, especially if you’re someone who experiences travel anxiety or claustrophobia when on public transport. We are lucky however, to live in an age where you don’t just have to rely on a newspaper to help you get through your traveling woes. We now have a plethora of technology that is perfect for those long journeys, so check out how to beat your commuting blues with these techy boredom busting ideas.

Photo by Stephy Miehle on Unsplash

Fight the anxiety

When you’re feeling cooped up inside of a train and you’re struggling with an anxiety attack, one of the best things to do is to accept what’s happening and tackle the problem head on. Luckily, technology can now help with such a thing, and you can now download anxiety hypnosis apps for you to listen to on your journey to help keep you relaxed. There are also apps that can help monitor when you’re anxious and try to help you pinpoint and resolve your issues. Try some anxiety apps to help pass the time and ease your travel anxiety.

Play a game

One of the best methods of distracting yourself from your anxiety, or even just to quickly pass the time is by playing a game. Going back a few years we wouldn’t have been able to enjoy such a luxury on our commute to work. But now, thanks to smartphones, tablets and laptops, we are able to enjoy games that thrill us, like biking games from smartbikegames.com/. Or, if you prefer a more gentle game, you could put your mind at work with amazing puzzle apps and games. Before you know it you’ll be at your stop!

Catch up on missed TV shows

Again, thanks to the progression in technology not only can we obtain the devices to watch our favorite TV shows, but we even have programs that give it to us in HD quality so that we can easily catch up on all of the missed TV shows. Work out how long your journey is and see if you can fit a certain amount of episodes into the journey. It’s a great distraction and allows you to keep up with trending conversations in the office!

Look up recipes

One really clever idea that people are doing loads these days is looking up recipes on their commute to work. Why’s this? Well, many people are already thinking about getting home and eating delicious food before it all happens again the next day. Why not save yourself some time when you get home and look up some recipes to cook for dinner. It will save you worrying about it, and also give you the chance to get any ingredients that you may need on your journey home from work.

What Does It ‘Tech’ To Become A Modern Gamer?

Gaming, like so many other pastimes, has evolved over the years. In the past, old school games dominated the landscape along with basic TVs and 2D graphics. Nowadays, that is no longer the scene when you or I sit down to play. The gaming scene has changed so much, in fact, that it is hard for some us to keep up with the trends. So, this begs the question: what does it take to step into the twenty-first century? The answer is a lot, but these are the main components for all you wannabe contemporary gaming geeks.

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Modern Console

It is no longer acceptable to have a regular game console in 2017. Indeed, even the manufacturers at the forefront of the industry are struggling to keep up with current advancements. The reason is VR or virtual reality. Companies like Sony and Microsoft may have the best consoles now, yet that is bound to change in the future. At the minute, Oculus is the king of VR, but Tesla and other rival firms are challenging their superiority. If you don’t want to be behind the times, it’s probably best to get on the bandwagon sooner rather than later.

Awareness

However, owning the latest tech isn’t the be all and end all if you have zero knowledge of how the console works. Quite simply, your skills will atrophy to the level of a beginner, and that isn’t a sign of a modern gamer. To avoid embarrassment, you must have a certain degree of awareness of how the modern games work. Yes, practice is also a factor, but there are only so many hours in a day. To take gaming to the next level, it’s vital that you understand the dynamics. Otherwise, you will be a sitting duck.

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Mod Cons

Having a Xbox One or PC isn’t enough. To be a contemporary player in the game, you need the extras, too. To start with, a high-resolution television doesn’t go amiss, and that isn’t to show off your wealth. New games focus on graphics much more than in the past, so a TV adds to the user experience. Speakers are the same as the sound effects are as much a part of modern gaming as the visuals. Also, an internet connection is vital because most games are based online. Plus, a headset is necessary to converse. After all, gaming isn’t a solitary hobby anymore – it’s social.

Time & Patience

Finally, time and patience are requirements if you don’t want to fall at the first hurdle. Adapting to new games is never easy, especially if you’re a retro type of person. However, you have to try if you want to transform into a quintessential modern gamer. To do that, you require the time to practice and the patience to keep your cool when it goes wrong. And, it will go wrong at some point in time.

These aren’t the only factors, but they are four of the most important. If you can implement these into your gaming experience, you should evolve with the times.

First Year At College? "Tech" This Advice

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For any person approaching their first year of college, it’s an eye-opening experience in every way you can imagine, and even more! From the people to the nights out, from the culture explosion to the new things you’ll learn about yourself, and the money, or lack thereof. Much as it’s a cliché to say that being a student means you're just gonna have no money ever, it’s the truth. And as part of being a student, you’ve got to find ways to make your money stretch further, and a direct result of that is having plenty of nights in. Tech plays an important part in being a student, from the obligatory Netflix watching to the studies, but what tech do you need to survive that first important year?

Your Computer

It’s a big debate whether to go for Macs or PCs, but you’ll need to get one that is as multi-purposed as possible. If you enjoy gaming, you’ll need something with a lot of memory and speed, and there are AVADirect PCs for any gaming enthusiast, but it will also depend on your course what computer to use. If you're doing something like video production, then maybe you'd be better off with a laptop rather than a tower, and something with a screen larger than the standard 13”. If you're doing an English major, tech doesn’t have to be at the forefront of your mind as much. But your computer will be your lifeline when you have no money, so get a good one!

Money Management Software

It’s not really something that crosses your mind, but if you managed your money better, you would be out of the dorms more! Software like Mint is useful because they provide mobile apps too. But it is a slower approach to money managing because you'll have to enter transactions into the app. There are apps like Money Manager or Money you can get that is a handy techier alternative.

Note-Taking Software

Everyone has their own idea of how best to take notes, and there are apps like Evernote which do a generally good job, but it doesn’t cover every base. You may need to get Microsoft OneNote instead. But if your note style taking is much more in-depth than a few words here and there, you should invest in speech to text software. While there are some great apps that do the job when you're dictating your notes after class in your dorm, like Google Docs, you may need something a bit savvier in terms of software that can instantly turn a professor’s ramblings into text. Try Dragon Dictation, but be warned, with any software it takes time for it to learn vocal inflections, so don’t expect it to work right off the bat.

Free Software

The magic word, free! There are loads of sites like JourneyEd that offer software (and sometimes hardware) discounts, but there are also software packs you can find online that are specifically for student use that cost nothing.

An Epic Guide to Business Tech Fails

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When people imagine modern businesses, they think about offices replete with cool tech. In reality, a lot of businesses are making some pretty severe mistakes with their IT infrastructure that can harm their business in ways they perhaps hadn’t considered. This is a quick but detailed look at many of the fails such businesses make with their tech. Don’t make the same mistakes with your business!

Being too parsimonious

The performance of your business technology is extremely important. If things don’t run quickly and smoothly, then general business performance will suffer. A lot of business owners, in an attempt to save on startup costs, will place a premium on savings over performance. While it is possible to spend way more than you need to on, say, office computers, not spending enough is actually a fairly common business mistake. You don’t want to be stuck with computers that grind to a halt whenever the employee tries to open new programs. Productivity will suffer. Don’t be tempted to cut corners, and make sure you’re also investing in a good Internet service.

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Ignoring life cycles

Even when you get some very good tech, the fact remains that these things tend to have a life cycle. Some will say that you need to replace computers every three or four years; while good maintenance can extend that lifespan by quite a good measure, there’s no denying that the vast majority of computers (unless you really spend a lot on some real beasts) will start to show signs of slowdown around this time.

Companies who have the means to do so should consider replacing tech around this time; otherwise, start investing in maintenance to bring them up to speed. Beware that maintenance costs can, over time, exceed the cost of simply purchasing new computers.

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Improperly getting rid of old tech

So if you’re in a position where you need to replace tech, then you need to work out what to do with the old tech. It could be worth keeping some around for backup purposes, or finding less performance-heavy tasks that can be assigned to them. But, in general, it’s best to get rid of them responsibly. Otherwise you’re just cluttering the office with tech you’re not going to use anymore!

Throwing them away isn’t the answer, as tempting as it is to do away with the problem as quick as possible. You can resell that old tech to make a few extra bucks for your company, or even look into professional recycling. Simply throwing this stuff away isn’t just a waste of opportunity and cash; it’s also dangerous for the garbage collectors, as they often contain hazardous materials.

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Not getting specialized help

If you’re really stuck when it comes to your business IT needs, then you should probably consider hiring specialized assistance. This is a popular option for startups, as it saves on a lot of costs. After all, even hiring a part-time, in-house IT professional will far exceed the costs of getting another business to assist you.

Take care to consider your options, because wherever your business is located, there’s bound to be a plethora of IT services. One thing you should keep in mind is the specific work you do. Some companies will be better equipped and trained to deal with one type of business over another. So let’s say, for example, your business is a financial one. In which case, you would want to consider looking into IT support for financial services.

Relying on the cloud too much

People talk about the cloud as though it were some newfound omniscient being to which we must always pay homage and appease in whatever way it demands. That is to say, people seem to think that every business should be using the cloud almost exclusively, lest they fall behind and become completely irrelevant in a few years (or even in a few months, as some particularly zealous cloud fans may claim). And yes, there’s no denying that the cloud is tremendously useful for businesses. This is especially true for startups that need to save on IT costs, as it provides you with a lot of the benefits of having your own flexible and accessible server without the upfront costs of building one yourself.

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But if you’re only relying on the cloud, you’re putting a lot of your data and services at risk. If anything goes wrong at the end of the provider, then you’re going to run into some big business problems. Have other solutions, and remember to back things up outside of the cloud regularly. Speaking of which...

No backup strategies

Back when computers were a little less reliable and more prone to sudden crashing or even death, people become pretty used to hearing advice regarding backing up data. Just because computers are much more reliable these days (unless you’ve ignored the advice in the first paragraph and bought a bunch of duds!), it doesn’t mean you don’t need to place a premium on regularly backing up. Not only should you have a specific strategy for backing up data, but you should also, y’know, implement that strategy. (A lot of businesses have a backup strategy that they routinely fail to actually put into action.)

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You can look into automated backup programs that will help back things up to both the cloud and to physical storage devices. An outsourced IT service can also assist you with the backup process if you're working with the right one.

Insufficient power protection

No, we still haven’t progressed past the point where we no longer have to worry about power surges, thunderstorms, outages, and spikes. Businesses that are using tech heavily - i.e. pretty much every office-based business that is using more than, say, three computers at any given time - need to invest carefully in power protection. A lot of businesses use very cheap and simple power strips that simply don’t offer enough protection for their hardware. This isn’t just something that’s prevalent in startups - even established businesses tend to use surge protectors and the like that are at least five years old.

When electrical disaster strikes, it’s not just that computers will suddenly turn off - data may become corrupted, or, worse, the hardware itself may become so. Install proper power protection methods to ensure you don’t lose too much when the electrical infrastructure of your office fails you.

Being too relaxed about cybersecurity

Do you think that your business is too small, too unassuming and off-the-radar, to suffer some form of cyber attack? You may, in fact, be at even more risk, precisely because a lot of cybercriminals prey specifically on smaller businesses that they suspect may be a bit lax when it comes to cybersecurity. Don’t assume you can’t be a target. There are fiends out there who want to get their dirty paws on your customer and client data, as well as your trade secrets. You need to ensure your company has strong cybersecurity measures and that all your employees are properly informed of the risks and security procedures.

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Not enough training

Speaking of employees, don’t just assume that the age we live in means that every employee will be completely expert when it comes to using computers. The fact is that a lot of business tech is actually underutilized. The sheer amount of work you can get done on these things is incredible, but the most time-saving and useful methods are usually not the obvious methods. If your employees become more learned about the software and hardware they’re using, then their output can increase by mind-boggling amounts. Perhaps you should think about getting more IT training to ensure your employees can really harness the true power of the tech you’ve invested so much in.