High Sierra OSX– Worth it?

OS 11 for as low as iPhone 6?! Back Down to 10.2.2?

Nothing new only forgotten..

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.

The intro & outro music was by Pentatonix.

Both Glenn and Paul were in the studio.

If you’d like to talk to the guys during a Zen Tech show, call 530-265-9555 or send email to zen at kvmr dot org.

Paul started off by saying how years ago NASA had a problem with ballpoint pens not working in the near-zero gravity of an orbiting spacecraft. Gravity is needed to keep the ink flowing. The Russians solved the problem by using pencils, as he heard the story.

Comparing a video tour of the International Space Station and the Mir Station showed that the Russians tended toward the simplest solutions. Even the Sputnik satellite was set to advertise its success by broadcasting its beeps at 108 FM, so it could be widely heard. And, using tubes for the FM transmitter rather than the newly available transistors reflected the Russian’s reliance on long established technology.

Glenn challenged Pauls recollection of NASA’s solution to the ballpoint pen problem. When Paul was unable to remember, Glenn said it was the pressurized ink cartridge.

Repeating what he said on the last show (9-13-17), Glenn said he helped some friends transfer data from old computers running Windows 7 to more modern Dell hardware. He used Windows Easy Transfer, which worked wonderfully. The applications were not transferred, however, but he got a report of what was left behind. For reasons given in previous shows, Norton 365 was not reinstalled on the new machines. Avast, security software often touted on this show was used instead.

Trying to manually move an application to a different machine is usually unsuccessful because many components are left behind, Paul said. It’s best to reinstall an application from the original media (often a CD). There used to be a program called App Mover, but it didn’t do a good job and the app that was moved often ended up being unstable.

Imaging the drive to back it up may not be a good idea, Paul said. The image may carry the seeds of a problem that may not show up until later, when you’ll need the disk image to solve it. Using something like Easy Transfer is a good option to backup the user profile.

In Windows, most backup strategies rely on the user profile, which is under C:\users (on XP it’s under C:\Documents and Settings). If you manually try to copy the files, you’ll run into trouble because you’ll be copying the files that Windows is using while your trying to copy them. Easy Transfer is designed to avoid this problem.

Glenn said he had all of the machines on a local network when he did the transfers. Paul said using a cable instead of wi-fi is better. With wi-fi you may get interruptions that you may not even notice, after which the transfer may not be resumed.

There are an increasing number of wireless networks, Paul said. 2.4 gigahertz is the standard radio frequency of wi-fi routers, which gives you 11 channels. Most routers aren’t capable of switching channels (frequency hopping) and most devices can’t follow the change if it occurs.

There are some apps that show you what the wi-fi environment is like. For the PC there’s one called Net Snoop. For Android there’s Wi-Fi Survey. The droid app shows you the 11 channels and a graph of the signal strength. It’s unusual to find a channel that’s not being used, so pick one with the least number of users on it.
< Though I didn’t find an app with the exact name Wifisurvey, there are a bunch of similar apps. Google the words: site:play.google.com, and append to that some variation of wifisurvey, wifi survey, wi-fi survey, etc.>

The price of routers has come down a lot. Paul suggested getting a dual band router, which transmits on both 2.4 and 5.8 gigahertz. A lot of the newer equipment can use the 5.8 gigaherts band. There are hundreds of channels available on 5.8. The down side of 5.8 is that higher frequencies are much more line-of-sight and the signal dissipates quicker (a more limited range). But the shorter range also means less interference.

Some modern routers have programmable QoS (quality of service). It allows you to specify a minimum speed for a particular port on your router. So if, for instance, you’re streaming video, you can make sure you don’t get pauses.

Paul mentioned a couple of open source projects that have custom compiled Linux kernels <firmware> to use in your router to give it more functionality than it used to have. He warned that if you’re satisfied with how your router works, don’t mess with it. Paul installed one version of the firmware in a router and the bandwidth actually came down. I turned out that the [old] CPU in the router couldn’t keep up with the demand.
<He named the projects as dd-wrt.org and openwrt.org. dd-wrt.org didn’t seem to go anywhere and I think the correct URL is www.dd-wrt.com>

Over the years, wireless router standards have evolved from the original 802.11 to 802.11b, 802.11g and 802.11n. Paul said he wouldn’t “use any router that didn’t have the letter ‘n’ on it somewhere”. “It’s more resistant to interference and the range is higher”.

The cheapest router Paul has seen is a no-name router from China for $20. “You can’t go wrong with that”, he said. He’s never had to send a no-name router back, which he bought from Amazon.

The guys talked a little about the new operating system for the Mac called OS High Sierra (version 10.1.3). It came out yesterday and Paul just had a chance to read a review of it. It has a new file system called WWDC that’s more suited to solid state drives (SSD). All of the Macs sold now have a solid state drive, which speeds file accesses by about 10%.

Glenn noted that prices have come down on solid state storage. He was looking at an external 3.0 USB drive that also has a micro USB connection so you can plug it into an Android device. It’s a 128 gig duo for $34 from Fry’s. Paul said that its OTG designation means it will appear as storage unit rather than a device (like a camera) when you plug it into an Android.

The Lightning port on the Mac is able to connect to various devices & networks, when you buy the proper adapters, Paul said. And there are docking stations for the Mac that can provide various ports, but he’s not sure how good they are. You can get one for about $99.

Lorraine called. She wanted to know how to transfer calendar data between a Mac and an Android phone. Paul said there’s an app you can put on the droid that lets you sign in to your iCloud account. He looked up one called ‘Sync for iCloud‘.

Paul read that remains of a Viking chieftain had been found in an embellished tomb and it was long assumed it was a male. It turned out to be female. He also noted that, in Celtic culture, the poorer people were often buried in a bog. The bogs tend to preserve the bodies because of their acidity.

Glenn said he downloaded, but didn’t yet install, IOS 11 to his iPad. He’s read about some wonderful features it has — pictures taking up less space and an improved filing system.

Glenn went on to say this is the one time, and he can’t guaranty that tomorrow it won’t go away, that if you backup your iPad or iPhone onto your computer (computer only, not iCloud) prior to upgrading to the new IOS, you will be able to revert to the old IOS if you don’t like the new one. The other condition is that Apple continues to support the older IOS.

Glenn mentioned that people used to jailbreak their iPhones to make them more functional. It’s not being done much now in part because Apple has improved the IOS so there’s less need to. <On a previous show, Paul said the iPhone can’t be jailbroken anymore (after IOS 9.3).> Glenn addedhat those who did jailbreak their iPhones, were not able to restore an older version of the IOS, and they could end up with a useless phone (they ‘brick‘ their phone.) When experimenting, be sure you can go back to your starting point — i.e. undo what you did.

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

Glenn took apart an old iPhone of his, some months back. He’s still not been able to reassemble it. Paul said to be sure you that have the tools you need when you start a project. And there’s a lamp to can get inexpensively from China that has a magnifying lens surrounded by a light to, do work on small items.

Glenn thanked those who have become supporting members of KVMR and reminded listeners that they can become contributing members of KVMR by calling the office number 530-265-9073. Or call the studio when the DJ is not talking on the air at 530-265-9555

Norman called. He has a DVR with a 6 terabyte hard drive for a security system. He wanted to know if was possible to use a flash drive with it. Yes, but it would be very expensive, Paul said. And there would be little advantage because the rate at which the video is written to the drive is pretty low to begin with.

Expanding on his comment above (Nothing new only forgotten), Paul treated us with some items from the past. It has recently been found that [ancient] Greeks probably knew about steam engines, Paul said. There was a Greek called Hero with a rotating steam device and it’s thought he attached it to a carriage about 2000 years ago and “had it go places”. There is a computer called the Antikythera mechanism that calculated planetary motion.

Last Updated 12:17 AM 9-28-2017

Paule In-Studio. Glenn will Call In

It’s Recovery Month – a 12 month a year issue

A Bit About VPN & http://www.purevpn.com

iPhone X and commodity/Consumerism, and why Good Design is Like Pornography!
(you know what it is when you see it but cannot easily define it)
Jony Ive & Dieter Rams, * ‘Originality’ apropos Emulating things.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dieter_Rams

The EquiFax Fiasco & what to (try) to Do
Irma, Harvey and the Red Cross and What to Do– Due Diligence.

Milo Yiannopoulos and the role of agent provocateurs (is that the correct plural form?!)

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.

The intro & outro music was by Pentatonix.

Paul was in the studio. Glenn called in.

Reading from today’s show notes (above), Paul said that this is National Recovery Month, and gave a link to a government website for substance use and mental health disorders.

Since the law has changed to allow internet usage information to be logged and sold, virtual private networks (VPN) are a way to keep your browsing habits private. Normally, a provider such as AT&T or Comcast, for example, can gather the info about what sites you visit. If your connection to a website is secure (the URL starts with https, not http) the content of your transactions will remain private, only the destination information can be logged.

A VPN may be built into an operating system or added as a separate program. It will encrypt the data exchanged between you and the website before sending it over the public internet (Comcast, AT&T, etc.). A drawback is that the VPN company itself can gather & sell your info. <Do some research before picking the company.>

Paul has been experimenting with Pure VPN It’s based in Hong Kong and has about 100+ peer points around the world. You can pick any of those locations and make it appear your connection is originating from there.
<For example, the BBC makes some of its content available only to citizens of the UK. You can use a VPN to make it look like you are located in Britain when trying to access it.>

In checking out Pure VPN, Paul googled the words: purevpn issues. He found some bad reviews, saying that the service doesn’t keep the DNS lookups private. <DNS is domain name service, which converts the name of a website into numbers that are needed to connect to it>. As a consequence, AT&T (if that’s your provider) is able see who you’re connecting to while using Pure VPN. The data itself is still being encrypted and remains private.

Paul said that the iPhone 10 has just come out with IOS version 11. He noted that there is no iPhone 9. He then talked a bit about design.
<Apple Unveils iPhone X and 8 Models as It Upgrades TV Set-Top Box
The Samsung S8 came out recently, too. I don’t think it was ever mentioned on the show…
The Samsung Galaxy S8 has 27 features the iPhone lacks>

Jony Ive has been the iPhone’s designer for a long time. He followed in the tradition of a German designer named Dieter Rams, who also worked for Apple. Rams formulated 10 principles of good design. <See the Wikipedia article link at the top of this page>. Paul listed the principles and made some related remarks.

Equifax had data from about 140 million accounts stolen. You may be in their database even if you think you have nothing to do with them, Paul said. Paul made a connection, which wasn’t clear to me, between Equifax and Milo Yiannopoulos. He said, both Equifax and Milo Yiannopoulos (link above) have appeared on Facebook and elsewhere with basically false and misleading statements.

Paul said he’s seen numerous sites that ask you to fill in your data to get money back from Equifax, but they are really scams. There is a reliable site you can go to, and he posted the link to it at the top of this page.
<An NBC article on the Equifax hack.
A how to freeze your credit: here and here>

Glenn, who had called in, said he was disturbed to learn that Equifax knew about the breach for a month before making it public. In that time, some managers from Equifax divested their company stock.

Glenn also said that if you go to the Equifax to check if your info was compromised, the terms and conditions state that you give up your right to sue them later. <I also heard this, but then later heard Equifax changed their terms to rescind the waiver. Their website seems to reflect this. Paul’s follow-up statement seemed to concur>.

Glenn said you can also freeze your account to prevent anyone from getting credit in your name. In some states it won’t cost you anything, in others it’s $10 at each of the 3 big credit-reporting agencies. You can still continue using the credit card as before.

Paul mentioned Lifelock, which is a service that’s suppose to protect your identity. But they got sued for failing to do that, Paul said.

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

Paul said you’re entitled to an annual review of your credit status. You’ll also be able to see if anyone has made credit inquiries. Also, when your card is stolen or lost, report it right away, because the credit card companies will try to find a way to make you liable for unauthorized charges.

Another solution is not to have a credit card, Paul said. But that doesn’t mean the credit reporting agencies don’t have info about you. They gather the info from all sort of places — bank accounts & cash transactions.

Paul said he’s head that it is possible to change your social security number. But it can be a difficult process. Paul said he has used a fake social security number in those places where it’s only function is to identify him. <Like a password or an optional security question. Obviously, don’t do this where it’s used for things like tax reporting or Medicare etc.>

Glenn found a couple of computers for a friend. They were Windows 7 machines made by Dell with 2 terabyte hard drives, Intel core I5 processors and 8 gig of RAM. They cost less than $230 each from Ebay. They had a 90 day warranty but Ebay offered a 3 year warranty for an additional $21.

He used the transfer facility that comes with Win7 to transfer the data from the old machines. He said to use the Start Button & search for Easy Transfer. There are 3 ways to connect the machines — a local network, a special cable or flash drive.

It took 2 To 3 Hours to do the transfer over the local network. One machine had about 60 gig the other about 90 gig of data to transfer. Applications like Word or Quicken were not transferred. Glenn had trouble finding out how to print some of the reports on what was transferred and what wasn’t. He could see the report on the screen but couldn’t find the file associated with it. He said he’ll do more sleuthing on how to do that.

XP doesn’t have the Easy Transfer software but it can be downloaded and installed, Paul said. The Mac has something similar called Migration Assistant. He seemed to say that it does transfers from a Windows machine to the Mac.

While he was talking, Glenn found how to print the reports he talked about earlier. He had to look at the bottom of Internet Explorer where it says “‘this is blocked content. Do you want to allow it’ went you’re opening appinfo.html.” The file was on the C: drive in a hidden folder.

An .html file on the machine is treated with some suspicion because it’s possible to have some malicious content, more so than what’s on the internet, Paul said. That’s why Glenn was asked to unblock it.

The guys talked briefly about how Microsoft went about getting people to upgrade to Windows 10. It was suggested before that people use the GWX Control Panel to manage their upgrade options. <See the notes for the 5-11-16 show.>

If you want to contact the guys, email at zen at kvmr dot org.

“The Red Cross is not all it should be,” practice due diligence, Paul said. He didn’t say you shouldn’t donate to the Red Cross, but do some research for the best way to help the victums of the recent hurricanes.

Glenn invited people to tune in to the Flea Market show tomorrow at 1pm.

Last Updated 12:55 AM 9-14-2017

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.

The intro & outro music was by Pentatonix.

This time it was Paul with co-host Mikail Graham who were in the studio. Glenn was the one who called in.

Steve Baker came to the mic and talked to Pascal, a reporter from YubaNet about the Ponderosa fire in Butte County. She said officials found and arrested a local guy from Oroville who allegedly started the fire. It started because of carelessness with a campfire. 10 house & 20 outbuildings are lost, more loss is expected. The fire covers 2500 acres. 1200 people have been evacuated and 400 are sheltering in place. An optimistic estimate of containment is on Sep 6, Steve added.

Pascal said there is a new fire of 5 or 6 acres near Placerville. She used satellite pictures to pinpoint its location at Highway 49 &∓ Diamond Springs. The highway hasn’t been closed yet, but that may change if the fire expands.

Listeners were reminded that campfires must never be left unattended and are thoroughly extinguished before leaving. And there are areas where campfires are not permitted, like the South Yuba River Canyon and in state parks. BLM allows only a cooking stove on their lands and only if you have a camping permit. Also, be aware that discharging firearms can set a fire. Bullets carry enough kinetic energy to convert to heat when entering a substance like a tree, or set off sparks when hitting something hard like a rock. The Mariposa fire resulted from target shooting.

Paul noted that drones should not be flown near wildfires. They can interfere with flight operations of the tanker aircraft. And if you’re caught, there is a significant fine and jail time, Pascal added. Paul said his drone just received a software update that’s supposed to keep it from flying in restricted airspace.

Pascal is amazed by the satellite pictures coming from GOES-16, even though it hasn’t been declared fully operational. The pictures are animated and show the progress of the fires. Yubanet has links to the fire news on their home page.

Paul had some equipment set up when he was in Oregon for the solar eclipse. He said he’ll put a link on the Zen Tech site to the video he shot. You can also go to his Facebook page. To find eclipse images, google the words: eclipse 2017, then click on ‘images’

He briefly mentioned the Mavic Pro Quadcopter made by the Chinese company DJI that he got for around $1000. He had a $60 quadcopter before, but the more expensive ones are more stable and easier to fly.

If you’d like to talk to the guys during the show, call 530-265-9555.

On Sep 12 at about 10am, Apple is expected to announce the new iPhone 7S, 7s Plus and the iPhone 8, which is rumored to start at $999 for the base model. <You’ll find little more about it in the 8-23-17 show notes>. It’s rumored that there’s a 4K Apple TV coming, though Apple is having some trouble “getting their movies locked in to be able to show them and sell them”.

Mikail has seen some of the “views” of the AR Kit <actually ARCore> by Google, which is not yet released. One of the apps for it is called Giphfy. It allows you to create a video and overlay on it items in your house. So suppose someone is house sitting for you, you can designate that it’s ok for them to eat the bananas but not the chocolate in your kitchen. Presumably, they will be able to point a smartphone camera at the kitchen and next to the items is a note or a thumbs up/thumbs down indicator, on their screen.

Ikea has an app that lets you measure your room. Then for example, as you shop for a chair using the app, it will place an image of the chair into the image of your room to see how it will look.

While looking up ‘giphfy’, Paul found giphy.com, the largest database of animated GIFs. These are short videos of a few seconds each that usually repeat in a loop. This is an old format dating from the 1990s that are becoming popular again.

Lorraine called to thank the guys for the help she received on a recent show.

Lora called. She has a 2009 iMac whose display got progressively worse and is now showing stripes. She’s talked to some techs who thought it might be the video card or possibly the display.
– Mikail is almost certain the problem is with the graphics processor.
– You may find some people on Ebay who can service it.
– Take a picture of your screen to better communicate your problem with a technician.
– If you send it in for repair you’ll be paying for the shipping and about $149 for the repair.
– Mikail suggested a shop in Sacramento run by Ed Barnes:
Computer Hub on J str
916-441-1880
2612 J St Ste 8
Sacramento, CA 95816-4345
saccityhub.com

Lora was thinking of getting a newer iMac but thought her old version 5 of Adobe Creative Suite won’t run on it. She doesn’t want to get a new version because Adobe only offers it on a rental basis, where you pay for a subscription and run it on the internet. Mikail said version 5 sort of runs on the newer Sierra operating system. It’s a little buggy but there may be some workarounds.

Her other thought is to buy a refurbished 2015 Mac that can run Creative Suite 5. Paul told her to carefully check out what she’s buying with regards to the warranty, and if there is anything at all wrong with it, send it back. Paul suggested powermax.com and macofalltrades.com for refurbished Macs.

And another concern is that the newer Macs don’t have CD drives to read her Creative Suite disk. Mikail said she can get an external CD drive for about $30. Be sure to get one that’s “M disk” compatible. It can take disks that last a 100 years.

Listeners were invited to write to the guys with their questions or comments at zen at kvmr dot org.

Lorraine called again and related her experience at having bought a $200 version of Apple Care at Mikail’s suggestion. When she had to take in her Mac Book Pro for service, which she bought some 3 years ago, she got a new replacement.

Mikail explained that when you buy a new Apple product you can get Apple Care for the computers and Apple Care Plus for the IOS mobile devices. For the computers, you can wait up to 1 year to buy Apple Care for $200 to $300, depending on where you buy it. You can buy it cheaper from a third party than you can from Apple — check Ebay. Apple Care for a Mac Book Pro costs $350 from Apple but about $230 elsewhere.

Mikail told about the experience he had where he needed his laptop serviced and thru Apple Care he got a quick replacement.

Mikail said if you’re buying a used Mac, for example, get the serial number and go to “manage my device” on Apple’s site and you’ll be told if it’s stolen as well as other info.

You can listen to Glenn host the Flea Market tomorrow.

Changelog:
added link to Paul’s Facebook page

Last Updated 5:01 PM 8-31-2017

∓p

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.

The intro & outro music was by Pentatonix.

NOTE: another Zen Tech show is scheduled for 8-30-17, the 5th Wed.

Glenn and co-host Mikail Graham were in the studio. Paul was dodging wildfires in Oregon and was unable to call in today.

Mikail said that nowadays its easy to create music, even on your tablets. The Brass Rail, one of the last of the “old school” bars in the area, is featuring an evening of electronic music. He marveled at how much times have changed that even the Brass Rail is offering a newer genre of music. Glenn asked if such venues have audio equipment (speakers, mic, etc.) that can hook up with the music producing devices. Mikail said that most of them do, all you need is a headphone jack on the device to plug into the audio equipment.
<There are many apps for creating music on the Android. Google the words: site:play.google.com create music>

Glenn has been hearing lot of skips in the audio while listening to the radio (AM & FM), KFBK & KNCO in particular. Mikail said he’s noticed it to but wasn’t sure why. Maybe it has something to do with cosmic phenomena affecting local magnetism, he said.

When Glenn went camping recently, he wasn’t able use his phone to listen to his music collection because it was in the cloud. He asked Mikail for a solution.

First, Mikail explained that the cloud refers to data servers where your data is stored. Companies like Google or Apple have data servers in many different countries and locations in a country. Your data is backed up in many places, not just one location, he said.

If you have an iTunes account, then on an iPhone, iPad and even a Mac there is a cloud symbol next to the name of each audio track. If you click or touch the symbol, that tells the server you want bring the track into your device so you can play it when you no longer have an internet connection. If you delete the track from your device, a copy will still be retained in the cloud. Amazon Prime’s music server works similarly.

There’s an additional feature that comes with using the cloud. If you uploaded a bunch of music and some of it is at a lower quality like 64kbps or 128kbps, the server will replace those tracks with higher quality versions. <Whether you want that or not? He didn’t say if that is an optional choice>. He said this is what iTunes does but Amazon doesn’t and he wasn’t sure about Google.

Mikail mentioned that a few years ago, Apple forced a U2 song (or album) onto people’s iPhones without asking. Many people were angry. What else can Apple put on your iPhone that you don’t know about, he questioned. It started a big conversation that’s still going on today.

Mikail said IOS 11 is coming out next month, Sept 12th he thought. Rumor has it that Apple will unveil the iPhone 7S & 7S+ and an iPhone 8 anniversary model.

If you lock your iPhone with a fingerprint, a cop can force you to unlock it with your finger. The same is not true with a pass code because you can’t be compelled to verbalize the password to the cop. In IOS 11, if you hit the home button 5 times it will disable the fingerprint feature and you can later unlock the phone using a password only.

The disclaimer:
The views expressed on this program are mine, Glenn’s and any guests’ we might have or callers’ and do not reflect those of the board, management or KVMR in general.

Reading from a Jun 28th article at The Verge, Glenn said Google Drive will soon be offering a computer backup service that can backup your entire computer. It will monitor and backup files inside of any folder you point it to. The app will be called Backup and Sync.

The article didn’t mention cost but Glenn thought it will be similar to the way Google Drive is now — free for a limited amount of space and additional space for a fee. As mentioned many times before, backing up is very important, especially in light of all the ransomware going around.
<Apparently it’s not for mobiles, yet. Here are some articles.
Google releases Backup and Sync for Mac and Windows
Now available for download
An earlier article — Google Drive will soon back up your entire computer

>

Mikail said hard drives can be bought rather cheaply from Best Buy or Amazon. A Western Digital My Passport series 4-terabyte drive was selling at $10 more than the 3-terabyte drive, which can be bought in the $110 to $130 range. A 1terabyte drive can be had for about $70. He said if you get a 2-terabyte drive, you won’t have to think about running out of space for quite a while.

The Timemachine backup program on the Mac will warn you when you’re about to run out of space and will let you continue using it by deleting old backups or allow you to switch to another drive.

Mikail’s first drive was 10 megabytes and cost him in the $700 to $800 range. Later, he got a 650-megabyte drive for $2000. He currently has 23 terabytes of storage and he’s looking for more.

Glenn looked up an ad from Best Buy for a 4 gig external USB connected drive on sale for $99.99, and a portable external for $10 more. The portable drive is powered thru the USB rather that an AC wall outlet. <I think he meant 4-terabyte drive>.

Glenn wondered if these drives would be ok as network drives. Mikail thought maybe not. He suggested a NAS drive, instead. He said he bought 2 10 terabyte drives for himself. They came with 3 years of data protection where the drive will be replaced and the data recovered. There are smaller NAS drives in the 4 terabyte range from Seagate.

Mikail reminded listeners that data can still be recovered from a drive after you delete files. <Deletion only tells the system that a previously used area of the drive can be used for new data. It doesn’t actually alter the bits in that area>. You need to use a file shredder to get rid of the data. It will do that by, typically, rewriting random bits over the file you’re deleting. <There is a shredder in Spybot Search and Destroy>.

The other way to destroy the data is to take the drive apart and take a hammer to the disk platters. Glenn likes doing just that because he gets to keep the magnets.

The Seagate drive Mikail mentioned above is the Ironwolf model. There’s the regular version and the Pro. Mikail has the Pro with the 3-year data recovery and a 5-year warranty on the drive itself.
<Seagate IronWolf HDD 10TB Review>

The Samsung SSD drive mentioned on the 8-9-17 show comes with a 10 year warranty for the Eagle Pro model. Amazon has 500 gig EVO drive for $150. Solid state drives (SSD) improve performance massively, as mentioned before. The other improvement you can make is to install the maximum amount of RAM your computer can take.

Using extra drives at home for backups is fine but doesn’t protect the data in case of a fire or burglary. That’s another advantage of using the cloud for backups — you move your data to a completely different location.

Mikail mentioned that the iPhone has a feature called Find My iPhone that lets you locate it in case it’s stolen. He’s actually had to use that function. It also has a option that will erase all of the data if it takes more that 5 or 10 tries to enter the password.

Glenn reminded listeners that they can become contributing members of KVMR by calling the office number 530-265-9073. Or call the studio when the DJ is not talking on the air at 530-265-9555.

Ann called. A friend of hers inherited a PC computer but can’t use it because it’s password protected. She wanted to know how to bypass the password. Both Glenn and Mikail said they weren’t familiar with the process and thought Paul would have an answer. She was asked to email her question to zen at kvmr dot org.

Ellen called. After upgrading her Mac she’s been getting all sorts of ads, mostly for cleaning the Mac. Mikail said it’s malware and a scam that gets on the Mac when you visit websites and click things that say you need to update a program (the Adobe Flash player is a common one). Mikail suggested she do a Google search first. And if she still can’t find a solution, to call him for professional help.

Glenn noted downloads.cnet.com used to be a pretty good site for getting software. But lately, it’s gotten bad because all the ads make it hard to find the right button to click to get the program you’re after.

Dave Barnett, the KVMR engineer, came into the studio with a suggestion for Ann (above) who wanted a way to get into a password protected PC. He said to google the words: password recovery windows xxx. Where you replace the xxx with the version of Windows you have. He said the best ones are based on Linux. You’ll create a Linux CD to boot from, at which point you’ll be running Linux. It will guide you to where the password is stored. You’ll then deleted, not change, the password. You’ll also have the option of copying the files from the Windows drive, to a flash drive for instance.

Another method is to take the hard drive out and put it into another computer as a secondary drive. At that point you can copy data from it.

Mikail remembered getting an email regarding a previous discussion about using solid state drives (SSD) on a Mac. He said he misplaced the email and asked the listener to resend the email.

Joshua called about an old Mac he got from his mother. It has a Hypercard file of family recipes that he and his brother would love to recover. He wanted to know how to read the file. Mikail suggested that he google the words; hypercard import mac xxx. Where the xxx is the version of the Mac OS that’s running on machine you want to import to. As a last resort, call Mikail for professional help

To sum up, Mikail said the Mac operating system called High Sierra is coming in Sept as well as IOS 11. He really likes his iPad Pro, which Apple won’t be updating until about mid 2018. The next iPhones will start with 64 gig of memory and there will be versions with 256 gig and 512 gig. The 128 gig version is no longer made. The new operating systems were tweaked to use smaller files. <There’s more info in the notes from the 8-9-17 show>.

Last Updated 11:34 PM 8-23-2017

a HREF=”http://archive.kvmr.org/mp3/kvmr_170823_130000talkies4.mp3″

Blogging Live– Paule. FROM THE NEVADA COUNTY FAIR

Filament style LED

Search eBay or Amazon. nice. Dimmable, correct color…

TECHNOLOGY OF TRAVEL

animated gifs?

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.

The intro & outro music was by Pentatonix.

Glenn and co-host Mikail Graham did the broadcast from the KVMR boot at the Nevada County Fair and no phone calls were taken. Paul called in from Hastings in England and it’s not likely he’ll get back in time for the next show.

Glenn reminded listeners that they can send email to the guys using the address: zen at kvmr dot org.

Glenn knows someone with a 2011 vintage Mac Book Pro. He hasn’t upgraded beyond version 10.6.8 (the last version of Snow Leopard), even though he can, because he has some older programs that won’t run on a newer version of the operating system. Glenn asked if there is a way to upgrade to Sierra and not have to buy new programs to go with it.

Mikail said he’s helped people do exactly that and explained how. He suggested buying a larger hard drive and partitioning it so one part will have Sierra and the other Snow Leopard. Then when you boot up, you’ll be able to choose which operating you want to use. You’ll need to use a USB installer to achieve this. <Maybe this will help>

Mikail went on tell us, first do a Time Machine backup of your data. Then reformat your drive or get a new drive of about 1 or 2 terabytes, Next, make a small partition for Snow Leopard and a bigger one for Sierra and install the respective operation systems to their partitions. Your backup will be restored to the Snow Leopard partition the way you had it before.

You can use only the programs that are in the Snow Leopard partition when running Snow Leopard, though you’ll be able to access the data on the other partition.

Paul suggested an alternate setup. If there are just a couple of old programs you need to run, You can install Snow Leopard and the old apps onto an external drive, even a USB drive. Mikail said his method means the user wouldn’t have to keep the external drive handy and remember when to plug it in. But he agreed with Paul that it’s another way to do it. You can get a 256 gig flash drive a Costco for about $40, he added.

Also, an older application may run on newer operating systems even though it’s not officially supported, Paul said. You can try “dragging” the application’s folder from the old machine to a machine running a newer OS and see if it works. You can use Google to find out if others have already tried this with a particular old program.

Paul related his experience at Gatwick Airport. He had plans for using Easy Jet, a discount airline, and wanted to find out what platform to use for the train to the airport but there was no staff around and he had to use an phone app. When he came to the Easy Jet check-in, he found it was unmanned and he had to check his bags himself. Furthermore, the boarding pass was produced on the cell phone and he didn’t have a way to print it out — good luck if something happened to the phone. “There is no ability to manually write down your boarding pass number and there is no ability for the operator to manually key the boarding pass in”, he said.

The lesson is to print out your pass if you can, Paul said. Glenn suggested taking a screen shot. Paul said you can also use Apple wallet, which allows you to save all of your boarding passes and tickets.

A similar situation occurred while catching a bus to London. He could have booked the bus online for an extra pound, but he thought he’d buy the ticket it at the station. When he got to the station, the only way to buy the ticket was online. His point was that much of what we do depends on the internet.

The disclaimer:
“The views expressed on this show are those of the individuals and do not represent KVMR management, KVMR staff, board of directors or anything else”

Mikail noted that there is an easy upgrade you can do to older computers of any variety — replace the hard drive with a solid state drive (SSD). It’s the best thing you can do to make your old computer feel like it’s brand new. A Mac that takes 2 to 3 minutes to boot from a 5400 rpm drive will take 12 to 15 sec to boot from a SSD. Apps will run faster too. You can get a 256 gig drive for under $100, 128 gig drive for $60-$70, 500 gig drive under $150 and a 1 terabyte drive for under $230. Mikail said he can refer you to documents and videos to help you make the conversion.

Paul mentioned that he bought an Asus EEEPC computer a few years ago that originally had a SATA hard drive and he installed a SSD in it. He bought a used 128 gig SSD drive that came out of a Mac Book Air for $7. Since the Mac drives use a PCI Express interface, he bought a SATA-to-PCI Express solid state drive interface for $5. He loves the result.

Paul briefly mentioned the tech behind this broadcast. He’s using Skype right now. He said he’s able to send photos while he’s talking. He sent an animated .gif during the show.

The .gif format originated with Netscape 15 to 20 years ago. The format is making a reappearance on Facebook and Facebook Messanger. Mikail noted the correct pronunciation is jif <like the peanut butter> not gif <as in gift>.

Mikail said the new Apple Mac operating system, High Sierra, is coming out this Fall. The disk format is changing as well as the graphic format. The pictures will take up half as much room on the hard drive. If the images get on a machine with an older OS, they show up as .jpg files. He said the beta testing is coming along fine. Once you upgrade, you can’t go back to an older OS.

Paul noted that the iPhone’s OS newer than about 10.2 has a filing system called APFS that’s geared to solid state drives. Spinning hard drives are also being phased out in the Macs, where High Sierra is tailored to the SSD.

Paul’s sister-in-law has Fitbit and her iPhone has an app called Health (with a red heart) that coodinates with it. Paul, not having a Fitbit, wondered how to get the app and asked Siri. He was surprised to learn that the app was already on his phone and has been logging his activity without his knowledge. It was using the phone’s accelerometer to monitor his movement without the need of the Fitbit.

Paul said the Fitbit also tracks your sleeping patterns so you can, hopefully, improve your sleep. Mikail said there are all sorts of self-improvement apps, even ones that track your sexual activity.

Mikail said that IOS 11 for the Apple mobile devices has a mode to disable the phone when it notices you are in a car and moving.

Paul said he’s seen light bulbs with LED filaments inside — LED retro bulbs. It wasn’t clear what he was getting at. I think it’s supposed to make for a warmer (less bluish) light. To find out more, google the words: filament style led.

Mikail said there is the Perseid meteor shower this Saturday night, the later the better. It’s supposed to be spectacular. There’s not going to be another like it for 96 years. And then there’s the lunar eclipse on the morning of the 26th <starts 9:02am, maximum at 10:17am, ends 11:35am Pacific Time, from what I heard>.

Last Updated 10:50 PM 8-9-2017

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