Zentech traded time slots with Bike Talk and there was no show on 6/11/14

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Both Glenn and Paul were in studio today.

During the show, Glenn said he would post the audio for this show. You should be able to find the podcast here, eventually.

Glenn is still struggling with Google Hangouts. He's gotten more instruction from Coryon Redd but it wasn't enough to start a hangout for today's show — "it's not intuitive in any way, shape or form". He scheduled the hangout but the window only had 'share' and 'cancel' buttons. After clicking 'share', the only way to close the window was to click 'cancel' — there was no 'create' button, or similar. Now he couldn't find the hangout and thought it was not really created. He plans to keep trying and hopes to create a hangout well in advance of the next show.

People with multiple Gmail accounts, after they log off, are presented with a login screen giving them a choice to login from a list of all their accounts. Paul said that could be confusing, especially if you're using someone else's machine where you could be seeing their accounts along with yours. <Paul wandered away from the topic without any suggestions or saying if this is a security issue. I suggest clearing the Google cookies and closing the login window. That "might" help, if you're really paranoid.>

Paul said he bought, for $24, a timing device to schedule watering of his garden. <He didn't give its name> It's a battery-powered device that screws into the garden hose. It has settings for start and stop times as well a duration and repetition. He likes it better than a Rainbird device be bought before, which had a complicated interface. He said there's a slightly more advanced unit that has a probe to be pushed into the soil to monitor how saturated it is.

Paul's latest acquisition is a flow meter that screws into the 3/4" water main. It has an impeller that spins when the water flows. One of its blades has a magnet and there's a Hall Effect sensor on the outside to detect when that blade goes by. The sensor counts the number of times the impeller goes around, which translates into gallons per minute of water. There's an add-on alarm available. It will sound the alarm when the flow rate goes above a certain value, indicating a massive leak.

Glenn said it's not too hard to fix leaks and you can find Youtube videos to help with that or just about any plumbing project.

Paul spent some time talking about plumbing and his home project to replace galvanized steel pipes with plastic. I won't go into details. If you're interested, you can listen to the podcast after Glenn's had a chance to post it.

Paul reminded us about his rule for internet searches — get your query down to 4 carefully chosen words for best results. Be objective and naive about your query; don't try to prejudge what the answer will be.

The guys then talked about auto transmission fluid and the process of flushing it. Listen to the podcast if you're interested.

Sheree called. She has a new machine with Windows 8. When she launches Internet Explorer, it opens with a blank window and she can't go to any webpages. She clicked on the gear icon hoping to go to the internet options but it wasn't highlighted, so she didn't get anywhere. The problem started after trying to download a free software program.
– Be sure you are connected to the net — she said other internet apps were working.
– Use a different computer to download the Firefox browser, and/or Chrome. Most computers these days are 64bit machines, so look for that version of each browser.
– Start Internet Explorer in safe mode by holding down the shift key and clicking on the Internet Explorer icon. IE should start without any of its extensions running. She tried that and still got the blank window.
– Safe mode can also be started by holding down the windows key & pressing 'R'. Then enter command: iexplore -extoff. That got IE working for her.

They then told her to click the gear icon -> internet options -> programs -> manage addons. This is where you can see the browser helper objects (programs that are similar to plugins). She read off what was in the list and the one from Zeon Corporation drew suspicion.

Paul asked her what anti-virus program she's using. She thought the anti-virus came built into Windows 8. It's supposed to have Windows Defender but it's not obvious: it doesn't have an icon in the taskbar.
– Windows Defender and Microsoft Essentials are no longer recommended.

Paul guided her thu the steps to reset Internet Explorer to factory default settings. Click the gear button -> Internet Options -> Advanced tab and click on "reset Internet Explorer to the default conditions". You should also do a scan for malware, a process that's not obvious when using Windows Defender. Paul thought there's a way to do it in the Control Panel. Paul said it's a good idea to shut down and then restart Windows before doing the Explorer reset.

For Windows 8 users who want to get back the look & feel of Win7 or XP there's classicshell.net. You'll get back the start button & cascading menus etc. but you don't lose the "desktop", if you really think you might need it. <By "desktop" I think he meant the tile interface, but I'm not familiar with Win8 so I really shouldn't be second-guessing him.>

Paul said that Homeland Security has been issuing a bulletin for a few years, saying one shouldn't use Internet Explorer because of its flaws. The guys suggested using Firefox or Chrome.

Paul vaguely recalled that Alt + Q will get you to the Control Panel in Win8 where there's an icon for Windows Defender and you can run it from there to do your virus scan. But consider getting Avast or AVG for your anti-virus program.

The disclaimer:
Anything that you hear on this show is the thought or opinion of the speakers only and not necessarily that of KVMR, its staff, management, underwriters, board of directors or volunteers.

Glenn thanked those who've become supporting members of KVMR. If you'd like to become a member, the local number is 530-265-9073 or you can join at kvmr.org.

For people searching for a good anti-virus program Paul suggested they search for the words: compare antivirus. Among the search results, he's more likely to trust well-known publications such as PC Magazine or Cnet. I'm guessing this is the link he found at PC Magazine that rates Norton Anti-virus highest followed by AVG and then others.

Jeff called from Woodland. He said he sympathizes with Sheree because she likes Internet Explorer. However, he recently bought a laptop with Windows 8 and he was advised to remove Explorer. Subsequently, he's been working with Firefox and Chrome. Glenn said he neglected mentioning Safari, which also is a decent browser.

Briefly, Paul said he's discovered the worst program he's ever seen: Outlook 2013. It's much much worse than any previous version. He didn't elaborate.

Sheree called again. While doing the Explorer reset, she got to the point where it says "are you sure you want to reset all settings" it also said "delete personal settings" and she questioned whether she'll lose her 'Favorites'.
– Yes, those will be lost. Don't proceed with the reset.
– Instead, do a Google search for "how to save my Internet Explorer favorites".
– Or, get Firefox first. It has the ability to import the Favorites from IE. (Firefox calls them bookmarks).
– When you have Internet Explorer working again, you'll be able to use it to import Favorites back from Firefox, if you choose.
– Now that she has IE working in safe mode, she should be able to use it to download Firefox.

Last Update 9:50 PM 6/18/2014