May 9, 2012
There was no show on 4-25-12 — the show Adios Babylon was extended to 2 hours.
Next show is on May 23.
But on May 30 (the 5th Wed) is the membership drive and there will be NO show
CrashPlan.Com Backup free to your own equipment OR pay for their.s
All Platforms!
Google Drive http://drive.google.com and it DOWN sides in End User License.
StuxNet – a virus to attack industrial systems. Cloak & Dagger stuff!
Linux + Andoid? Ubuntu!
Exciting 3 hr video of Logs Burning In Fire . HMMM!
High Dynamic Range (Hypereal?) photographs…
Online Multi Virus Scanner http://virusscan.jotti.org/en
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.
Glenn reminded us that KVMR is a community-supported radio station. You can become a member by following a link on the main page: kvmr.org
Paul mentioned that KVMR has podcasts of some of the broadcasts. Check them out here. "click on the word 'podcast'. They are arranged chronologically.
Glenn said AT&T will now unlock your out-of-contract phone.
– Some of their people don't know about it or know how to do it. <Be persistent, I guess>
– Glenn was able to have AT&T contact the original owner of his second-hand iPhone. They verified that the phone was sold to Glenn and that it was not lost or stolen.
– Eventually, AT&T told him to go to iTunes and his phone will be unlocked with the next update/restore.
– Glenn is now using the unlocked phone with T-Mobile and he's paying $65/mo for unlimited everything.
Paul doesn't have a data plan with his phone so he uses the Tom Tom GPS software, which can be bought for $39. It's a large download of about 1.5gig. <More about it in 12-28-11 show notes>
– With that, you get all of the maps of the USA.
– Unlike Google maps, which entails connecting to the Google server, the Tom Tom software comes up faster and it works in places without a cell connection.
If you can do text (txt) messages, you can send to Google words similar to: directions Nevada City Rocklin. Google will return a text message giving the directions. The number to send it to is the word "Google" represented by the numbers on the keypad.
– First of all, send the word "help" to Google and you'll get a list of commands to use.
– One of the commands is "location". If you send the command location 95945, from then on Google will reference further queries to that location. E.g. you can text "here to Charmichael" and Google knows that 'here' means the zipcode 95945. Or text "Thai restuarant" and it will locate one nearby.
– This only requires the SMS service and not a full data plan.
– Paul said it works pretty well and has saved him the cost of a data plan.
– Don't do this while driving.
The disclaimer:
Any opinions you hear on KVMR and especially this show is that of the speaker and not that of the station, its staff, board, volunteers and underwriters.
Glenn talked about CrashPlan, a backup service. See the above link.
– The paid version allows you to back up your data to their servers. The free plan will back up your data locally: on a USB flash drive, for instance.
– CrashPlan allows you to send your data to a third party via the internet. E.g. you can send it to friend's hard drive for storage, if they give permission.
Paul said that programs like CrashPlan would usually require one to configure their local router & firewall. But CrashPlan uses a proxy server: a computer that intervenes between the source of the data and its destination (your friend's hard drive), so no geeky configuration is required.
– Paul brought this up because there is a privacy issue: a proxy server allows someone to see anything going thru it.
– To insure privacy, he said, store your data on a flash drive and put it in a safe deposit box.
– Glenn added that you can also encrypt the data first. He also said that CrashPlan similar to the Carbonite service.
– What you back up shouldn't be near the machine that has been backed up, so they wouldn't be subject to the same catastrophe.
Google Drive is a new service that gives you 5gig of free storage. Similar to other Google services like docs.google.com, mail.google.com, voice.google.com, calendar.google.com, you get to Google Drive with drive.google.com.
– When you activate the service, you'll be asked to download a piece of software to facilitate its use.
– You can pay for additional storage capacity.
– The downloaded program creates a folder in My Documents and its icon sits in your system tray (the box in the lower right of the screen).
– There is version for the Mac.
– It doesn't just blindly upload files but, instead, synchronizes them (makes sure the local & remote files are the same).
– It's fault tolerant. "If you lose your internet connection, what ever stage you reached, you will have those files"
– There is no essential limit to the number of devices you can login with.
– If you store documents compatible with Google Docs (Word, Excel, etc.), "you'll be able to see them" <see them in Google Docs is implied>.
– Previously you needed a program called CyberDuck to transfer files to & from Google, but no longer while using Google Drive. <More about CyberDuck in the 4-27-11 show notes>
Another Google service is music.google.com. It allows you to store up to 20,000 songs.
– Again, there is a program to download and it synchronizes your music with the service.
– Google doesn't seem to care about the amount of the data, just the number of songs.
The iTunes service was mentioned. If you bought music from iTunes, you can have it stored on the Apple server without actually uploading the songs. It keeps track of what you bought and serves you a fresh copy from its archive whenever you request it. If you want to upload music that you didn't buy from iTunes, Apple has a service called Match which costs $20/yr. With it you can synchronize up to 5 machines.
Bonnie called. She had read an article about smartphone cameras being used surreptitiously to spy on their owners.
– Both the Android & iPhone operating system have poor control over what the various apps do. <be careful about what apps you download>
– At one time, Apple had problems with phone companies leaving keyloggers on the iPhone. The phone companies were able to gather statistics about the phone's usage, ostensibly to improve service.
– Paul thought it's possible to do what Bonnie fears, but Glenn thought it unlikely — he hasn't heard of it happening
– snopes.com is a site where rumors are debunked. <Implied: Bonnie's article was spreading a rumor>
– Use opaque tape, that doesn't leave much residue, over the cameras: electrical or PVC tape might work.
There's an interesting article about the Stuxnet virus. It was specially written to target particular industrial equipment: uranium enrichment equipment in Iran. See the above link
Jim called. He's thought about buying a new phone and unlocking it. He noted how Glenn now uses T-Mobile on his unlocked phone.
– T-Mobile & AT&T use GSM. Glenn's unlocked phone just needed a T-Mobile SIM card to use that service. CDMA phones (using Verizon or Sprint) have to be taken to a retailer if you want to switch providers.
– Jim was warned by a retailer not to unlock a phone or there will be a loss of function. Paul said the word "unlock" was not properly used in this case. A phone that's unlocked by a provider should not have problems.
– To unlock a phone you need to have fulfilled your 18 month or 2 year contract. A used phone (as in Glenn's case) requires contact with the original owner.
– In the UK it's easier to have the phone unlocked as long as your contract is paid up (but not expired). That makes it possible to use the phone abroad by swapping the SIM card, and not have to wait for the contract to end.
– Officially, AT&T is committed to unlock smartphones past their contract but not everybody there is up to speed or even knows about it.
– For a new phone check frys.com. Click at the top where it says 2-day sale. You'll eventually come to a page where new, unlocked phones are sold.
– If you get an unlocked iPhone and put in it your current SIM card <from AT&T>, AT&T will treat you like other iPhone users and reserve the right to charge you for a $20 or $30 a month data plan that's required of iPhone customers.
– Check Ebay & Craigslist for used phones. Just remember to get contact info from the original owner in case you need to have it unlocked.
Jim went on to say that his Mac laptop sometimes makes several "boing" sounds in a row like he's being summoned to a chat room.
– Check the dock at the bottom to see what programs are running. You may have set some app to load at start up time <that's causing the problem>.
– You can disable a program from running at startup by holding down the mouse button while the pointer is over one of the apps. Then click "options" and uncheck "launch at startup".
Jim also suggested blue painters tape for Bonnie (above) to use to cover a camera lens — it leaves little residue.
Paul quickly went thru the remaining items at the top of this page:
– The Linux + Andoid? Ubuntu! link above talks about how Ubuntu 12 (or higher) gives you access to things on your Android device you don't normally have access to.
– He's found a 3-hour video of burning log.
– The Wikipedia article about High Dynamic Range digital photography talks about bracketing your a picture with high, low and normal exposures and then having software combine them in a way that makes the darker areas lighter and lighter areas darker, making it easier to see more of the details.
– The Online Multi Virus Scanner lets you upload a suspected file and it will submit the file to several online virus scanners at once.
Last updated: 5:22 PM 9/24/2012 (fixed bad link to "GSM" definition)