Honda Civic– Troubleshoot?!

Raspberry PI Computer SOC

IOS 11.. OK?

Drone Fun

 

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Additional notes

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 is here. Recent shows are here.

 

Both Paul and Glenn were in the studio today.

 

Paul was looking at the wrong entry in the list of the shows because of the recent time change over to Standard Time. He went on to explain that the date we move our clocks forward or back has been changed a number of times over the years, and that there are differences between countries in the date that the change occurs. He went on to say that midsummer day and midwinter day occur midway between a solstice & the following equinox. <I believe these are also called cross-quarter day>

The operating systems we use today reference a data base called “tz data” to know when it’s time to change the computer’s clock to comply with the local custom, no matter where you are in the world.

Glenn thanked new and continuing members of KVMR. <If you’re not yet a member, you can call the office number at 530-265-9073 and make a contribution.>

Paul talked about an incident he had with his 1996 Honda Civic while driving back from Yuba City last weekend up highway 20, which involves a significant accent. He heard a hissing sound coming from under the hood and the temperature gauge went to the top — no alarm or warning lights. He pulled over & checked under the hood to find the expansion tank had water in it. The tank is supposed to let the water back into circulation when things cool down, but it didn’t in this case.

There were a couple of clues as to what was going on. The radiator cooling fan wasn’t running because there was likely no water to set off the fan’s thermostat. Second, when he turned on the heater, there was no heat. By some process yet to be discovered, the engine had consumed all of the coolant. He blamed the thermostat and bought another one for $10 and that seemed to solve the problem. The thermostat doesn’t allow the coolant into the radiator when you first start a cold engine. It waits for the coolant to reach the running temperature before opening up. Paul said that, from now on, before venturing out, he will check not only the expansion tank but also the radiator to be sure there’s adequate water.

The guys took several minutes to chat about transportation. There was nothing particularly interesting. The main takeaway is that when you relieve congestion in one place and it shows up in another. And that Google Maps keeps suggesting routes to avoid traffic only to have those routes become congested.

For the past couple of weeks, Glenn said he’s been getting emails from Judicial Watch but the sender address shows they are from zen at kvmr dot org or fleamarket at kvmr dot org. He asked Paul how to get them to stop.

Paul said Google can be set up to deal with this. “You notify google” … “so that Google actually knows who’s supposed to be sending email.” Check out the Wikipedia article about SPF — sender policy framework. “It sets a policy from the places from which you can reasonably expect to get email while excluding everywhere else.” He said he needs to see a copy of the emails to determine what’s going on.

Glenn said the emails enticed him to click on a link and he warned listeners, as he’s done many times before, not to click on such links. Among other possible mischief, it will at least let the spammers know there’s someone reading the emails and they can sell your email address to other spammers.

Glenn said he got a call last week from what the caller ID identified as his own phone number. It was a recording supposedly from AT&T that asked him for the last 4 digits of his social security number. Sensing an obvious scam he hung up. Paul said he would have been tempted to respond with some fake numbers.

Dennis called to comment on traffic congestion. He said he’s worked for the railroad for almost 2 decades. He lamented that our country is dedicated to the auto — an auto economy. He said in only 7 years, the Chinese went to high speed rail system. He said the rail system in Europe is phenomenal. He worked in Southern California where General Motors and the tire companies who wanted to sell diesel buses gutted the rail system. Paul added that it’s the tyranny of convenience that makes us choose the ease of driving somewhere over dealing with train schedules.

Dennis also commented about the spam situation. He said he has 2 emails. One is for personal acquaintances. The other is for subscribing to websites, newsletters and such. He said he routinely unsubscribes to spam and berates them if they ask him to leave a comment.

Paul said he thinks Gmail is the best email service for filtering out spam. And if they get enough people reporting a spam, their algorithm will block it.

Paul talked about using throwaway Gmail addresses. He said to google the words: infinite number of gmail addresses, and you’ll find how to make your single Gmail address act as many addresses. <Later in the show, Paul searched the words: gmail infinite addresses.> It involves using a ‘+’ symbol. If your address is johnsmith@gmail.com you can use mr+johnsmith@gmail.com for a throwaway address. <From what I found, the + should come after, not before the normal name — johnsmith+mr@gmail.com. Check the webpages here and here for more info.>

Paul also said that if you own a domain like finerailroad.com, you can redirect mail that’s sent to something like info@finerailroad.com to a Gmail address and you will inherit the spam proofing provided by Gmail. Similarly, you can get Gmail to pickup your Yahoo mail and it will also be spam filtered. He didn’t go into details.

Paul warned users of Gmail to be sure to set up a backup email address in case you loose access to your account. The backup address could be another email of yours on another system or that of a friend. At Gmail there is no customer service to contact for help; the backup email address is crucial.

Rick called about a problem he has with his 2.5-year old desktop HP computer running Windows 10. One day he tried to get online and it “failed to get into Windows.” He got a blank screen instead of the home screen, only the pointer was working. It happened after he tried to login with the Chrome browser. But it also goes black without running Chrome.
– Paul said Windows 10 makes maintenance a bit more difficult to do than earlier versions of Windows.
– Search for the words: hp windows 10 recovery mode. This is a mode that lets you repair the system.
– Paul suspected that a video driver is the problem and that the machine needs an update or upgrade.
– Paul said he’ll get back to Rick. And if he learns more, he’ll post it to the Zentech website.

Glenn reminded listeners that they can email the guys at zen at kvmr dot org with questions or suggestions.

Last Updated 11:52 PM 11-8-2017