Making Things Harder Than They Should Be

Things should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler.
– Albert Einstein

Einstein was a genius but he never tried to transfer videos between smart phones.

Hey Rodney, you know that video you took getting water dumped on me from the 4th floor?

Yeah, I posted it to youtube.

Can you give me a copy?

It’s on my phone. It’s too big to send through email.

Here, I think if we just touch our phones, they should set up a bluetooth connection and we can transfer it.

After smacking our phones together to no effect.

Maybe I can try texting it.

“File is too big to send as a text”

Try sending it to Google Drive.

Yeah, I could. Or I could install dropbox on my phone.

You’ve got an Android phone. It should already be set up with Google drive.

I’ll work on it and get back to you.

Between us, my boss and I have over 50 years of computer experience. (I’m old, him slightly less so.) You would think that between us we could figure out how to get a file from my phone to his computer.

He could have pulled the video off of youtube, but it would require a installing a program. We could use dropbox, but we’d have to install software. I could use Google Drive, except that I have never used it and I’m not sure if I have to set up credentials.

What we really needed was a simple way to move really big files back and forth between two devices. The answer turned out to be literally right in front of my face. And the solution would have made Einstein proud, although he would not have recognized the tool.

Guess what happens when you plug your phone into a computer to recharge?

I decided I was not nearly smart enough for my tools. Or maybe I was too smart for my own good. I plugged in my phone and the computer was very happy to move a 56MB video file to my desktop in less than 10 seconds.

Add one very old school thumbdrive and wait for another 10 second transfer.

Sometimes the simplest solutions are the best.

My boss accepted the ALS ice bucket challenge. He had two buckets of ice water dumped on him from the top of our 4 story building. The sound in this video isn’t great, but the picture is pretty clear. Here’s the video.

Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and one grandchild.

Follow him on
Twitter (@rodneymbliss)
Facebook (www.facebook.com/rbliss)
LinkedIn (www.LinkedIn.com/in/rbliss)
or email him at rbliss at msn dot com