Notifications of new show notes and edits are tweeted at: twitter.com/ddhart.
– They’re tagged with #Zentech.
– When what’s said is unclear to me (or I’m unfamiliar with a topic) I tend to quote (” “) verbatim.
– Editor’s comments are delimited by < >

For a couple of months, the audio of today’s show will be here. Recent shows are here.

 

Paul was in the studio. Glenn was in the Bay Area and didn’t call in.

 

Paul said that probably 1/3 of websites are using WordPress <a blogging and content management system.>

He said WordPress is a 2 edged sword. It’s a major target for those trying to break in but it also has some 20,000 plugins or addons to extend its function.

One of the things Paul added to the WordPress running the Zen Tech website is Adsense. If you want to advertise your product and have it come up in a Google search page, you bid on <and buy> the words people search for — when someone searches for that word, your ad appears on their screen. For example, a lawyer in a class action suite involving a medical condition called silicosis might want to bid on ‘silicosis’, Someone with that diagnosis will likely be searching for that word and will see the ad.

Paul mentioned some attributes a webpage should aim for if you want Google to view it favorably.
– Craft your page to be friendly using the fewest tricks.
– The longer your domain has been around the better.
– The length of time it’s had useful content on it.
– That it not have too many or too few links and is not obscured by Flash animations or javascript.
– The easy way to have a popular website is to buy a well-established site.

Paul said just the domain names themselves have market value but questioned the wisdom of registering a catchy name. The San Francisco Chronicle initially failed to register sanfranciscochronicle.com but didn’t suffer much for it — the name is really too long, and people have gotten used to its current name: sfgate.com.

He said WordPress is relatively easy to get started with. A simple way to start is to go to wordpress.com and click the button that says ‘create a website’. You can create a blog right from their webpage and experiment with it without suffering the embarrassment of someone seeing it.

If you want a more advanced website running WordPress visit sites like www.1and1.com

He said WordPress is so popular that it’s continually being upgraded and patched. If you use plugins, you may find future version of WordPress may not be compatible with the plugins you’ve chosen to use.

Getting back to the Google Adsense plugin that Paul added to the Zen Tech website, he said the intent was to display some ads (not necessarily related to KVMR). <Paul started to refer to Adwords rather than Adsense without explanation. It became unclear which one he used on the website.>

If you go to zen.kvmr.org you should see a small banner about 2/3 of the way down that says ‘ad choices’. He said he gets a small kickback when an ad is shown. As an example, if an advertiser paid 10 cents to Google to have their ad displayed, Paul gets paid 1/10 of a cent when the ad is displayed on the Zen Tech page and the rest goes to Google.

The Windows 10 upgrade is still free for those using Windows 7, 8 or 8.1. It will be free until the end of July. Microsoft considers the new operating system as a “product enhancement” and it therefore qualifies as an update, so it uses the automatic update facility to send out Win10, whether you want it or not.

Paul recently helped someone who upgraded their laptop to Win10 and started having problems with their wireless connection. They were using WEP as their encryption, Win10 didn’t like WEP and would not connect the router using it. WEP is low-grade encryption that no one should be using, Paul said.

So Paul changed the router settings to use WPA instead. He kept the name of the network and password as before. Although some equipment can deal with such a change, other equipment may have a problem. The problem is that some equipment will remember the MAC address <of the router> and continue to use it even though you changed the router setting. The solution is to make the client equipment (laptop, tablet, etc.) forget the network. Then the client will act as if it’s never seen the wireless connection before and it will make a brand new connection.

Paul said a lot of issues with wireless networks can be solved by keeping your machine updated with the latest drivers and other wireless interfaces. And there’s no good reason to continue using WEP. It’s vulnerable to eavesdropping, especially in an urban environment where there’s an abundance of wireless networks.

Another thing you can do to improve your wireless connectivity is to pick a channel that few people are using. In the U.S. there are 11 available channels in the 2.4 gigaHertz band, the type most people have. In the 5.8 gigaHertz band, which many but not all routers can use, there are a lot more channels. However, the 5.8 band is more limited in range, which, on the plus side, means less interference.

Ty called. She would like to create a webpage about her health care business. She wanted a suggestion of an inexpensive host for her webpage. She was looking at Go Daddy. It used to be free but they’re now charging $7 or $8 per month and there are congestion problems, or so she’s heard.
– There are many free options
– Go Daddy may be charging so much because it includes registering the name of your business as well hosting the webpage.
– Among other hosting services you can try are 1and1.com and bluehost.com.
– Many promise to promote your website. Educate your self before you spend money for a hosting service. Do a google search for the word: seo. It means search engine optimization and it’s a way of making your site friendly so it will more readily turn up in search results.
– Paul knew someone who was spending $500 a month to have his site promoted and who thought it was working fine. Paul did some research and found that the service was no better than some places that charge $25 a month.
– Paul invited listeners to offer suggestions on how they promote their websites without paying a lot.
– Visit websites of businesses similar to yours but rank high in search results, and see what they’re doing right.

Ward called. He’s noticed a warning on cell phone tower about radiation and wondered about how safe they are.
– Paul wondered if the warning label was put on the tower by a prankster. Ward said it looked like a genuine warning by the cell phone company.
– You can get an EMF meter to measure the radiation. Radio frequencies range from 200 kiloHertz up to and beyond 5.8 gigaHertz. Not all meters measure the entire range. Cell phones use frequencies at 900 megaHertz and just above 1 gigaHertz.
– Paul doesn’t think cell tower radiation is dangerous.
– People have been exposed to natural radiation from x-rays, gamma rays and such, since the dawn of humanity. In fact, some people have suggested such radiation was necessary for life to have evolved. <The radiation provided the genetic changes.>
– Ward mentioned a recent study of cell phone radiation, which found a connection to cancer.
< Major Cell Phone Radiation Study Reignites Cancer Questions:
What you should know about a new study
How might cell phone signals cause cancer? >
– The KVMR engineer entered the studio and offered a comment. The signal a cell phone sends is inversely proportional to 1 divided by the square of the distance to the nearest cell phone tower. The further you are from a tower the more energy the cell phone puts out.
– The KVMR science corespondent Alan Stahler also came into the studio to say that the cell phone radiation might be causing harm by the effect it has on the ions in living cells.
– Paul recalled that cell phones generate about 2 watts at peak power. The engineer said the peak power can approach 2 watts but due to modulation the RMS power it typically less than 1/4 watt.
– To mitigate the radiation use a head set, don’t keep the phone in your pocket that’s close to your genitals and use the airplane mode. And stay reasonably close to a tower when you’re on the phone, so it doesn’t have to put out much power.
– The engineer said a spectrum analyzer will let you easily see what radiation is coming from cell towers, even at frequencies not used by a cell phone.
– Alan suggested placing a cell phone in one place and see how long it takes the battery to drain. That should give you a general idea of how strong the cell signal is.

The disclaimer:
All views and opinions expressed on KVMR are those of the speaker only and the guest and not necessarily those of KVMR management, staff or underwriters.

Last Updated 12:13 AM 6-9-2016