Top 50 Emergency Uses for Your Camera Phone

Ways Your Camera Cell Phone Can Save Lives and Property

In an emergency you'll need to provide and receive help, and after it's over, you'll have to return, repair and rebuild. Central to this is communication and documentation.

Any camera could be used for some of these things, but the phonecam carries a distinct advantage. It can immediately transmit your pictures. Disposable cameras and digital cameras are acceptable. Below are 50 ways the camera phone can be used in an emergency to document, record, and relay important information. (Excerpted from http://www.disasterprep101.com)

. Last minute child ID. Whenever the family might be separated, take last-minute pictures of all family members, especially the kids, and pets.

. Send a map. Draw a map on paper, take a picture and send.

. Injury photos to the doctor.

. Suppose help isn't available, and someone's sick or injured. If there are visible signs or symptoms, relay pictures to medical personnel who can walk you through whatever treatment is possible.

. Damage documentation. In catastrophes, it'll be days before insurance adjusters get there to file claims. Photo all damage.

. Report suspicious activity. Upload pictures of suspects and the situation to the police.

. "Here's the landmark." Gathering the family is critical. If you don't have a fixed meeting place, send pictures of where and what you're near so others can find you. This also works well if you're lost in the wilderness and need to relay pictures of landmarks.

. "Meet us here." If you have a fixed rendezvous point, send a pic you already have on file so others will know where to meet.

. Photo shopping list. When stocking up in anticipation of an emergency, take a picture of your pantry as a quick shopping list.

. Driving directions. If you're trying to tell others where a certain location is, send a picture by picture set of directions.

. "Meet this person." If your family evacuates, send them a picture of the person they're to meet.

. Last minute property inventory. Snap quick shots of your property and to show the current condition of your property.

. "Adventure" journal. Take pictures to record what you do, where you go and people you meet during an evacuation.

. Situational severity. First responders will be overworked. They might not be available for what they consider a minor situation. Send a picture of how bad things are.

. Quick text messaging. You might not have time to type a message, and the lines might not be open long enough for a conversation. Write a note on paper, take a picture and send that.

. Minor traffic mishap. If told to swap info by authorities, photo the damage, people involved, witnesses and their tag numbers, and others involved to show their injuries (or lack thereof).

. Wallet backup. Take pictures of your wallet's contents (or important documents) to record numbers, and show that cards are or were in your possession. Be careful with this info as it's very sensitive and can be used for identity theft!

. Inclement weather reporting. Send a picture to the weather service.

. First Responder intel. The more first responders know about an emergency, the more rapid and appropriate a reaction they can make.

. Missing persons. Send picture of picture from your wallet.

. Relay property damage to or from neighbors who return home first.

. Help insurance adjusters find your property. Take current pictures of landmarks or unique damage near or at your property.

. Copy bulletin boards from an emergency shelter.

. Bus, subway or city map.

. Document your route.

Record medicines or food brands.

Ways Your Camera Cell Phone Can Save Lives and Property

. Record parking spot locations.

. Engine repairs. Send a pic to a mechanic who may talk you through a quick fix.

. Business or service function and hours. Copy posted business hours or listed service functions (and pricing) for later review and recall. You can also report price gouging.

. Child custodian. If you can't get to your kids at school or other function, relay a picture of the person who is coming to pick them up.

. Info on injured or hospitalized people.

. Hotel room number and location.

. ID your evac gear. Take a picture to prove ownership.

. Photo scavenger hunt. Give kids a short list of things they should take a picture of.

. Identify the close-up. Take a really close up picture of something while the kids aren't looking.

. Document your whereabouts.

. ID the rescuer.

. If a rescuer is picking up your child or pet, photo the rescuer (and the child or pet) and the vehicle they used, their name tag, registration numbers on helicopters, vehicle tag numbers or names of boats.

. Document your cleanup.

. Document expenditures. In addition to receipts, photograph the goods acquired, equipment being used, services being performed and the people involved.

. Property pics for retrieval companies. Some scenarios will see you unable to return home. Property photos will allow you to identify specific items you'd like retrieved.

. Evacuee status. Authorities will want to know who is injured, dead or missing, and who is okay and where they are.

. Overcome language barriers. Pictures make communication easier.

. Transmit road conditions.

. Relay traffic conditions.

. Crime scene evidence. People have returned to a home undamaged by a disaster, but later looted.

. Too much on the screen? Should the TV flash pertinent information and you don't have time to write, take a picture of the screen for later review.

. ID for doctors or pharmacies.

. Emergency supply information. If supplies are low, people can send a picture of the types or brands of items available at different spots.

. "Last Minute List" items and shutdown. In addition to a written list, create a photo file showing items you need to take and steps to secure the house before leaving.

. Evac atlas. Create a "travel atlas" of emergency assets available along evacuation routes.

Reaction plan for the reading disabled.

The reality of virtual machines

With Virtual Machine software you can easily test different operating systems and programs,
and also derive many other benefits. Read on to find out more. With Virtual Machine
(VM) software, a single computer can run more than one operating system, and switching between them is as easy as switching between applications.

And there are many reasons why you would want to run more than one OS all at once.

For instance, if you have recently switched to Windows Vista, you are bound to come across an application that is not compatible with the new OS.

Instead of losing hair over it or hunting for a PC with Windows XP, you could just install a VM app like Virtual PC 2007 and run Windows XP virtually on your Vista machine.

If you are a fan of older games, you may discover that they only work in Windows 98 or Windows ME. Using VMware Player, you can quickly create a VM running Windows 98, and avoid the need for a separate machine or dual-boot system.

Or if you are more adventurous and have installed the 64-bit flavour of Vista, you will find out sooner or later that it doesn't support 16-bit applications.

You will probably never need to run a 16-bit application, but if the need arises, then the easy way to do this is to run a 32-bit OS virtually.

Play safe

We live in a very dangerous online world and you should not be downloading just any application or game from the Internet and running it on your machine, unless that is your idea of fun.

Instead, you could plonk the application in your virtual OS to see if it misbehaves.

Even if it the app is a virus and ends up killing your virtual machine, it just takes a few clicks to restore the virtual OS to its pristine state.

Also, if you are like us and love to test beta software, you know that things can get ugly at times.

Instead of practising abstinence, you could just run it in a virtual machine and if things should go wrong, your PC won't be affected and your virtual machine can be easily restored to a pristine condition.

Hello Linux

Or maybe you are just tired of hearing your techie friends rant about what a great OS Linux is and how it is superior to Windows.

But you probably never had the chance to try Linux because you are not ready to abandon Windows or you don't even want to create another partition for Linux.

So now you can find out what the excitement is all about by installing it within a VM and if you find that your friends' claims are not true, you can nuke Linux without leaving a trace on your PC.

And if you happen to like it, then there are plenty of Linux distributions for you to check out and you can even run them concurrently in separate VMs.

Hardware considerations


There are plenty of other advantages to running VM software but there are issues to consider too.

Firstly, you should re-examine the license conditions for each OS you install under the VM software, even though you are installing the OS on the same machine.

For instance, if you only have one copy of Windows Vista then it is illegal to install the same copy on your virtualisation software.

Of course, this doesn't apply to Linux or any of the open source OSes, so you can install as many copies as your want.

Next, you should have a decent machine with ample RAM as the VM will not only share processor time but also need a chunk of RAM to run its OS.

To run a VM smoothly, we recommend a PC with at least an Intel Pentium 4 3GHz or AMD Athlon 64 3000+ processor and 1GB of RAM, although you will be a lot better off if you had a dual-core processor and more RAM.

However, no matter how fast a processor or how much RAM you have, some applications are still off limits – you are not going to be able to play any DirectX 9 or graphics-intensive games with current VMs.

If you plan to do this, you are better off installing the OS on a separate partition and creating a dual-boot system.

To get started with virtualisation, you will need a VM app – there are many available but the popular ones are Virtual PC 2007, VMware Player or Server, and Parallels Desktop.

For more information, you can also surf to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_machine.

Google launches its ‘let’s annoy Microsoft’ plan: Pings Yahoo and works regulators

Google launches its ‘let’s annoy Microsoft’ plan: Pings Yahoo and works regulators by ZDNet's Larry Dignan -- Google has reportedly reached out to Yahoo to thwart Microsoft’s unsolicited $44.6 billion bid. And in case that doesn’t work Google has already started working policymakers. Simply put, the games have begun (Techmeme). Get ready for the FUD fest folks. As noted on Friday just a few hours after Microsoft went public with its Yahoo bid [...]

Microsoft offering to buy Yahoo

Yep you read right. The big M is offering to buy Yahoo in order to challenge (who else but) Google's dominance in the Internet search services and advertising. According to Bloomberg, Microsoft made a made an unsolicited USD44.6 billion offer for Yahoo! Inc and Yahoo has actually responded that they are evaluating the offer 'promptly'.

A screenshot of the news on Yahoo News

Considering that Google has dominated the Internet search and advertising market in the last few years, it isn't actually surprising that Microsoft would take action to stem their dominance. This offer for Yahoo however, is a bigger action taken than Microsoft than I expected.

We'll keep things updated here on this ongoing development so stay tuned for more.

Sourced from AFP and Bloomberg.

A familiar face

The ubiquitous computer was once seen as a foreign object to be dreaded.

When personal computers first came to Malaysia, a very senior bank officer told the participants at a seminar that his son had one at home but he would not go anywhere near the contraption.

His candid remark drew chuckles from the participants. Most of them were in the same boat and readily sympathised with him.

That was more than two decades ago.

Today, if the same remark were made at any business meeting, people would be more shocked than amused.

The bank officer could be forgiven as, in those days, the PC was as foreign as Hollywood's ET, an extra-terrestrial with human intelligence that happened to drop in from outer space.

Most of the PCs then looked like 14-inch TV sets with a CPU that stored data and information, and a keyboard with a strange gadget called a mouse attached to it.

You could go online and get connected with a whole new world by moving and clicking the mouse on a piece of rubber called a mouse pad.

It was excusable then for one, especially someone from the older generation, to have a phobia towards the new gadget. After all, it was set to "infiltrate" every government department, commercial firm, auto workshop and even individual household 20 years down the road.

The invention of the computer ushered in a new era; communication became a whole new ball game, ever changing and ever improving.

But the computer was intimidating in the beginning. It was new, intelligent and could communicate in different languages. I must confess that, for a very long time, I merely used it as a word processor – nothing more like an electric typewriter, really.

But the digital revolution has been swift and has encroached into our lives – slowly but surely. Eventually, we gave in and embraced it with feeble resistance.

However, there are still people these days who are still intimidated by the computer. The fear causes a mental block that prevents them from taking the first leap across the digital divide.

So, while others are happily joining the Internet community, roaming online, playing games and getting connected with other Netizens, there are some who have dug in their heels and refused to learn.

The computer is here to stay. It will gain a stronger foothold and further impact our lives as it takes on more human functions, including surgery.

There is no doubt that teenagers have welcomed the computer age, and taken to computers like ducks to water. The teens may not be able to write meaningful essays but they sure can teach older folk a thing or two about computers.

How about those of the older generation who prefer to stay on the sidelines and miss out on all the fun? Will we keep giving the excuse that we are not computer-savvy, and then remain an observer forever?

A recent report from Singapore highlighted the increasing number of silver-haired geeks who are as passionate as teenagers about the latest gizmos.

Retired, and with money and plenty of time on their hands, they happily surf the Net and acquire the latest PDAs, handphones and digital cameras.

They are proof that, yes, the proverbial old dog can learn new tricks. You can, too, if you are willing to take the first step!