Kudos for last week’s guests and project about “Screen Dependency” (not “Addiction” as I might have Said)

– there was enough material for several hours of programming, but there is a Town Hall hosted by KVMR in April in person about this and I mean to be there  in the Audience with Questions:
– So Kindles Count? Is a Kindle a Book? Weren’t book once dreaded as an alienator of storytelling traditions?
After all it’s always Books that get Burned when Trouble Starts, right?
– Does each new generation tax the previous with progressions like these?

BBC article on newly scrapped internet privacy laws So what does this mean to Anonymous Browsing? how about SSL pages (which are increasingly prevalent).. In general your Destinations can be tracked, but what exactly you are looking at, less so. IE I can tell you are visiting parts of San Francisco but not what you are looking at there….
Backlash will hopefully kill this. Can you Subvert it? TOR Browser is a Risky Proposition
So that was what the “Do Not Track” Cookie Setting was about?
Now companies can legally ignore it (as it was only an Advisory) which they likely did anyway

Next wil likely be the Do NOT CALL Telephone listing: http://www.donotcall.gov (another Program covered Spoofed Caller ID’s-)

TAILS is an Internet Browser on a Stick to sidestep untrustworthy operating systems using Debian Linux

IOS 10.3 now out using a NEW Filing System called APFS better geared to flash memory, etc. Thought to only activate on newer devices like iPhone 6 & above. Protracted Update

WhatsApp now prominently does Video very well, circumventing possible FaceTime Blocking by cell phone company. Works Across Platforms and uses Encryption as the attack on Westminster Bridge in London showed (the attacker used WhatsSapp)

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 was in the studio. Paul called in from the Salton Sea in Southern California

If you’d like to call in to the show during the broadcast, call 530-265-9555. Or you can email the guys anytime: zen at kvmr dot org

Instead of using the regular studio lines, Paul called in using WhatsApp. The quality was much better this time.

Referring to last week’s show, Paul reminded listeners that George Lynn will be at a local town hall meeting at the Nevada Theater April 18 6pm to 9pm, adding that the event will be broadcast on KVMR. The topic will be screen dependencies (dependency we have on our gadgets).

Paul said he was intrigued by the subject of last week’s show and wondered if a Kindle ebook reader leads to screen dependency. He’s read many books with his Kindle while on his RV excursions and he asked “do I have screen dependency? I don’t know”.

He has a Paperwhite Kindle, an Amazon product that sells for $120. The screen looks like paper — a white screen and very sharp text for which you can select fonts of different sizes. It’s a welcome feature for Paul’s problematic eyesight.

The Kindle screen is not very responsive, but it’s not intended to show animation or even webpages. It was specifically designed for reading. Paul finds it easier to read than a book, even in bright sunlight. He loves it.

Because of his attraction to bargains, Paul got a collection of Dickens’s classics for 99 cents. They were cheap because their copyright has expired, he said. There’s free material available for the Kindle, too. And you can put your own documents on it, with some fiddling. However, there is no way to edit something on the Kindle; it’s for reading only.

There’s a link to a BBC article at the top of this page about a coming change to internet privacy laws. If it gets signed into law, your ISP (internet provider) will be permitted to keep a log of where you go. Although pages whose addresses start with https (not http) are encrypted and the ISP won’t see what you send or receive, they can tell that you used, for instance, Facebook to post an article. They “may even, in some circumstances be able to read back the URL“.
<Congress Moves to Overturn Obama-Era Online Privacy Rules>

It won’t help to anonymize your web surfing by using the incognito mode of your browser, as in Firefox. This mode only prevents the local machine (your laptop/desktop) from storing browsing information. The ISP can still tell where you go. And using the Tor browser (link at the top) makes you stand out as someone trying to hide something.

If you don’t trust your operating system <or suspect you have malware>, Tails (link at the top) is a browser on an memory stick. From the way Paul described it, it comes with the Linux operating system as well as the browser. You can then boot your computer from the stick (flash memory) to run Linux & the browser. Tails uses the Tor network.

Don called to describe his efforts to stay anonymous. He bought a computer & cell phone with cash. He then went to Microsoft Live and got an email account. “Now I never use this device with my home wi-fi”, he said. He only gets on the internet when he’s at a library or a coffee shop. “I don’t think they can catch up with me”, he said. At this point Glenn accidentally dropped Don’s call.

Paul responded by saying “I tend to avoid anything except a local login”. Microsoft tends to badger you to login with Microsoft Live. But during the setup process there’s tiny option at the bottom that says “create a local account”. “You authenticate the account name like Don with possibly a password, but you don’t need to be online to do it. And, in fact, there’s no other reason to have an online Live account for Windows 10 or 8 or 7. There’s no other reason to do it than that Microsoft wants to sell you stuff and they want to track you”. Using access points away from home “won’t help much with the fact that Microsoft actually knows where he is”.

Paul said if you’re already set up, you can convert to a local account without losing your data. Paul said to google the words: revert windows 10 account to local. The instructions he found are at HowToGeek.
<Possibly this>

Mark called. His Firefox browser is notifying him to upgrade and he wanted to know if that’s a safe thing to do. Paul said it’s probably legitimate, but to find out, first dismiss any warning about updates. Then go to the help menu -> About. That will tell you what version of the browser you have, and you’ll know if you’re due for an update. In the same menu there’s an option to “update now”. Use that to do your update.

Paul said there’s an update to the IOS (operating system) on the iPhone 6. It’s now up to version 10.3. In this version there’s a substantial change to the underlying file system, the first change in 30 years. It used to be HPFS+ (High Performance File System). It’s now APFS (Apple filing system), which is more suited for flash drives. When Paul did his update, it took a while because it had to rewrite the entire file system. He said it freed up some memory and it runs a bit faster.
<A ZFS developer’s analysis of the good and bad in Apple’s new APFS file system>

Pilar called in from Sacramento. Her family has Mac computers and she’s looking to use a VPN (Virtual Private Network). She’s read a review of The Best VPN Services of 2017 in PC Magazine. She asked for suggestions.

Paul said that a VPN will keep an ISP from tracking you, but “the other end of a VPN now knows where you are”. What a VPN does is take the outbound data, “crams it inside the packet that goes thru the phone company with encryption, scuttles it thru the internet, god know where, it will pop somewhere completely different”. “But the place where it comes out is no longer AT&Ts IP address. It could now be somebody else’s IP address”. The point of a VPN is to look like you are in a different location, even a different country. You can make it seem your IP address is in Britain so you can get to content that’s only available to people living in Britain, for instance.

In the end, the VPN company itself can sell your information. Paul suggested a VPN called TunnelBear. He said it’s pretty easy to use. It gives you the 1st .5gig/mo of data for free. PCs & Macs have VPN built-in, but it takes some persistence to get it working. Most VPNs cost about $5/mo. A VPN will slow things down, no way around that. Some content providers can tell if you’re using a VPN. So, for instance, the BBC might deny you access after all.
<Help file for TunnelBear
Tunnelbear for Android here>

Don called back. He said his strategy for anonymity involves using a fake ID when signing up at Microsoft Live email. Then he can use that account to sign up at, say, Facebook. Paul countered by saying you’ll be followed around the internet by the cookies placed on your machine, despite having a fake email account.

Glenn read a question by Andy who said he has a 2011 iMac with OS version 10.7.5. He needs to go up to at least 10.9 to install some tax software. An Apple rep told him versions 10.8 & 10.9 are no longer available to download but can take his 10.7 directly to 10.11.

Paul said, if he has 10.7, that probably has the application called “app store” which should offer an upgrade. Click the banner at the top of the “app store” and it says get Sierra (10.12) now, but it may not allow an older machine to upgrade. So “look up in the search window 10.11 and low and behold there will be a not very prominent icon that does allow you to download 10.11, if 10.12 is too new for your machine”. It will be a free download. Also, Paul has seen someone selling flash drives with the operating system on them for about $19.

Ralph called. He has a fairly new Windows 10 machine. And about 10 days ago he could no longer connect to the internet. He tried Ethernet & wi-fi. He just gets a spinning icon that says “waiting for…(whatever your homepage is)”
– one of the Microsoft patches broke DHCP — the ability of your machine to get an address from your router.
– You have to go into Windows 10 and hard code an IP address into your Ethernet interface to get the internet working so you can then get the updates to fix the problem.
– Try unplugging then plugging in the Ethernet cable.
<This was mentioned during the 12-14-16 show>

Last Updated 12:09 AM 3-30-2017 now prominently does Video very well, circumventing possible FaceTime Blocking by cell phone company. Works Across Platforms and uses Encryption as the attack on Westminster Bridge in London showed (the attacker used WhatsSapp)

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.

NOTE: There is another Zen Tech show scheduled next Wednesday 3-29-17

Glenn was joined in the studio by author Jordan Fisher Smith (twitter: @JordanFSmith). Paul called in from Southern California. Jordan interviewed two guests by phone.

The entire show, including the callers toward the end, focused on addiction to the internet and to electronic gadgets. Jordan led the interview of George Lynn & Cynthia Johnson authors of the book “Breaking The Trance. A Practical Guide For Parenting The Screen-Dependent Child”. I’ll just outline the highlights of the show. For details please listen to the audio.

George Lynn is a mental health counselor from Bellevue Washington who pioneered the use of psychotherapy for people with neropsychological issues and who authored 5 books on parenting children with behavioral problems.

Cynthia Johnson is the founding director of The Venture Program at Bellevue College, the nation’s first degree program for student with learning & intellectual disabilities. She’s also a therapeutic tutor of challenged students in pre-kindergarten, elementary and secondary school.

George will be at a local town hall meeting at the Nevada Theater April 18 6pm to 9pm. Parents, teachers and mental health professionals should make an effort to attend, Jordan said.

Jordan asked Cynthia to name some typical behavioral or learning challenges that are the marks of screen dependence in children.
– High disorganization
– Apathy toward school
– Failure or low performance in school
– Sleep deprivation
– Memory issues
– Reading & writing issues
– Issues in problem solving & critical thinking skills

George was asked to describe the nature of screen dependence. He said that games are designed to create a dependence. They are created to have what he called compulsion loops to give kid the feeling of not wanting to break away but to stay engaged. He said that once the kid is hooked into playing a game, the brain releases adrenaline — the neurochemical of excitement that’s also perceived as pleasure. Eventually, the brain expresses dopamine that locks in the need to stay engaged with the activity. Adrenaline goes up, dopamine goes up, pleasure goes up and then, as the compulsion loops kick in, frustration begins, bringing on the need to master the game. The kid can spend up to 8 hours with recreational screen media, which includes social media.

Cynthia said kids are a great marketing target for these electronic baby sitters. George said he’s talked to some Microsoft people who told him that the child’s brain normally thinks at about 600 words per minute, but the games are designed to overclock the brain, in terms of stimulus response, to about 1000 words per minute. In the long run that creates brain exhaustion and a whole variety of psychiatric symptoms that go along with that. He said that kids need to learn self control, with the help of the parents.

Cynthia said that some students find school boring because it doesn’t provide the stimulus the screen-dependent child had gotten used to.

Glenn asked if the adoption of digital devices in schools contributes to the problem. Cynthia said it does and some parents produce printed material for their kids so they won’t focus on using a device. She said that there are other workarounds.

Cynthia said that kid with autistic spectrum disorder may be more at risk for screen dependence. These kid tend to be more socially isolated and the parents think the kid’s screen time is better than no social contact at all, so they tend to let their kids indulge.

Paul asked what a parent should do to limit or block the use of screen media. George said there should be a plan. There should be rules as to content and times of access. There are some good apps to monitor the usage of screen media. <He didn’t mention specific ones.>

Jordan brought up the issue, and Cynthia confirmed, that kids get manipulative and parents don’t know what to do. Having a plan for screen time does much to mitigate the situation, Cynthia said.

Parents sometimes feel a sense of guilt that they have a problem with a screen-dependent child at home and they are reluctant to communicate with other parents. George said this is a huge problem. He said support groups could help. Many parents themselves use electronic devices to work after hours and that makes it hard to set an example for the kids.

Rick called. He has 2 15-yearolds and has had battles over the use of electronic devices. He wondered if there are subliminal messages embedded in the screen images that contribute to screen addiction. George said that the media itself is what’s addictive. And also, the blue tint of screens tends to keep people awake and interferes with sleep. He’s not aware of any subliminal messages. They’re not needed to make the applications a huge hit.

Clay called. He has no TV, no cell phone and no computer. He confirmed what was said earlier, the kids seem to be in charge.

George reiterated that self-control takes a while to develop and the parents can help their kids by setting limits.

George said that too much recreational screen media sabotages identity development. Kids go thru predictable stages of maturity to adulthood. You don’t want a kid to get stuck at a particular stage because they don’t get out enough in the real world.

Don called. He’s taught <sp> at CSU in Sacramento for 17 years and in the last 10 years he’s noticed more inattention and distraction in his classes. He thinks the factors discussed today have contributed to the situation where students are incapable of 15 minutes of sustained critical thinking. He characterized it as a disaster.

George concluded by saying that parents can take back the authority and that they shouldn’t give up.

Last Updated 9:54 PM 3-22-2017

TODAY!

Claim Misplaced Fund from the California State Controller– (Check URL Carefully) but
WATCH FOR SCAMS! .. Usually done state by state but use
Caution Throughout! Other States

Hey Look– POWERPOINT  (.pptx) files can be taken to bits! They are actually ZIP files,
so rename them that way (Slideshow.pptx -> Slideshow.zip) & open ’em up with the likes of free IZARC (Windows) to extract all that lovely Content from the Archive

TRAVEL! Yea!!
Icelandic Airlines? WOW! !s that Low Cost? Or Not.. Actual Cost of Living? accomodations: AirBNB? Couchsurfing? Sleep inthe jungle- it’s free. Further north like oh say Iceland… not so easy… Then: Is the Airline Trustworthy? Remeber ICEBANK?

Home Automation & the Woes of the Internet of Things— Internet connected Gadgets with backdoors and schemy schemes. How about going Open Source? Strictly Hackers!

Superwonderful YOuTube Documentaries about the Apollo 11 computers and here about Linux Opensource

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 & Glenn were in the studio today.

A link at the top of this page goes to a California government page where, if you enter your name, it will tell you if you have unclaimed property.

If you’re going to use the site, Glenn suggested entering your name in various ways — 1st name then last name, last name then 1st name, with or without middle initial, etc.

Glenn also mentioned a couple other websites where you might find forgotten or missing assets — unclaimed.org and missingmoney.com.

Paul cautioned listeners about fake websites, saying you can be more (but not entirely) confident about a website if the address ends in .gov. “Even having a secure certificate, that you can click up on the left, even having that secure certificate is not an absolute guaranty you are at the right place.”

Using the website, Glenn said he found $20 of a rebate he never received. Paul figured the state will hold on to unclaimed property for 6 or 7 years before it goes into the general fund.

Paul had a couple of other warnings. Don’t enter any personal information unless you’re sure you’re on the right site. There no need for a third party to get involved to reclaim the property.

Glenn told of a time he had an inheritance coming from a cousin. The information made it into the media and some companies got in touch with him saying they could help claim the inheritance for a 25% to 35% cut of the proceeds. Glenn contacted the a county office that handles these situations and got a resolution without the help of a third party.

Paul said that when something goes to probate it’s supposed to be published. When you’re contacted by someone offering to help you, assume it is a scam and don’t give away any personal information. Take the time to track down the sources of the information.

You can email the guys with your questions at any time using the address zen at kvmr dot org.

Paul said he added unclaimedmoney.org to the notes above <I don’t see it there>. One of the purported government sites Paul saw was virginiagovernment.org and he said he doesn’t trust that address. Glenn added that state websites that don’t end in .gov should be suspected. An address may have .gov in it, but if there is anything after that (like xxx.gov.org) you may be dealing with a scam site.

Paul said that later versions of Microsoft Word or Powerpoint use the file extensions .docx & .pptx, which are a modified XML format. Paul looked at the raw data in a .pptx file and found it started with the letters ‘PK’. That reminded him of a .zip file, which also begins with ‘PK’. So, he renamed a .pptx file to .zip and had Windows open as if it were a .zip file. To his surprise, he found all of the components (the text, graphics, movies, etc.) that make up the Powerpoint file. You can try the same thing with .docx files. Paul said the utility Izarc enhances your Windows machine “to do more things with more archives.” <The link to it is at the top of this page>.

Related to this are files resulting from pictures that you take with a phone. They will have exif data inside. The data will contain such info as the latitude & longitude of where the pictures was taken. Usually, you can change the phone settings to exclude this extra data from pictures you take.

Glen threw out the quote “oh, I wasn’t naked. I had the radio on”. He asked listeners to call if they know who said it. The answer is at the bottom of this page.

The guys talked about budget airlines. Glenn mentioned an airfare he saw for $65 from a out-of-the-way airfield in New York to Edinburgh. Paul found that the Icelandic airline named Wow has cheap fares. <Link at the top of this page>. The airfare Paul saw to Iceland restricted your baggage to 1 bag that you have to carry and must be smaller than what you can stuff into the overhead bin.

And he warned that nothing is cheap in Iceland. The cost of living is high, which Paul found from another website, which gives you the cost of living in every country in the world. <Link at the top of this page>

Paul mentioned a couchsurfing website that works by referral of both guests and hosts. <Link at the top of this page>. Similar to AirBNB, the idea is to put up travelers for a short time to avoid the cost of more traditional accommodations such as hotels.

Paul said that though HDMI cables are all the same type, DVI comes in different flavors. Be careful to get the right kind when you order one online. Some current displays are 2HD, which require cables to carry 4 times the data rate of HD. Some DVI cables may not handle the higher rate.

Glenn updated us on the Mac Mini he bought recently. As mentioned on the on 2-8-17 show, he found out the RAM was not upgradable. He exchanged the one he bought for the next higher model for $200 more. It has 8gigs of RAM, a 1 terabyte hard drive and an iris video card.

Paul again talked about home automation and internet of things <IOT>. He expressed concern about security. Firewalls are supposed to keep your home devices from being reached from the internet. But all bets are off if the devices are reaching out to a proxy server on the internet. If you buy devices from China, the proxy servers are in China. The data the device sends would normally be what’s required to get the expected service from the device, but who know what else it’s sending.

There are open source projects to perform home automation. But there’s is no guaranty of safety and they’re strictly for hackers. Paul listed a few links at the top of this page. Paul named some of the projects: Calaos, Domoticz, Home Assistant, OpenHAB and OpenMotics. The intention of the open source projects is to avoid having the device communicate with Chinese servers. <Paul talked about home automation on the 1-11-17 show>

Paul likes the documentaries he finds on Youtube from AME, Discovery and National Geographic. One in particular he liked talked about the computer subsystems that helped send Apollo 11 to the Moon. Some of those early computers had only 76K of memory.

The answer to the quote puzzler is Marilyn Monroe. Paul said wikiquote.com is a good place to look up quotes.

It was noted that today is Women’s Day. In that regard, both the guys said they enjoyed the movie ‘Hidden Figures’, which was about women who did, by hand, the math for the Apollo projects. The women themselves were called computers.

Last Updated 12:25 AM 3-9-2017

TODAY!

• Slide Scanners– Any Good?
• Cheap Cine Film Converters– any good? Consider Provenance AND “ICE”
• See: Chinese company WOLVERINE
  

  ---

  iPhone pList Hacking- for Tethering AND to Allow FaceTime over Cell!

• Glenn return a non upgradeable Mac Mini.
• Google Drive App as backup??

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 Glenn & Paul were in the studio today.

If you want to contact the guys by email use zen at kvmr dot org. Glenn said he’s not sure the email issue mentioned on the last show has been resolved. <I think they’ll get the mail eventually>.

Glenn reminded listeners that there’s a KVMR app for both Android & Apple devices that lets you listen to the live broadcasts <and offers additonal features.>

Glenn thanked those who support KVMR. There was a membership drive last week that was a great success.

Paul warned listeners about popups or even audio recordings in their webpage warning them that their computer has been compromised and that they should call an 800 number. When you call, they might say they’re from a well-known company like Microsoft, but they can be anywhere in the world. They tell you that you can’t continue until you give them access to your computer to fix it, for a price. Paul said, Mac users are more likely to fall for the scam because they don’t encounter these types of scams as often as PC users, who have learned to be more suspicious.

When asked what he would do in such a situation, Glenn said he would call his computer technician. Glenn went on to say no major company would call you to say they’ve detected a problem with your computer. It’s always a scam. You might get a similar scam in an email. Paul said that webpages themselves might be subverted as was the case with the Zen Tech site 2 weeks ago when someone broke in because Paul didn’t do a timely update of WordPress. <See last week’s show for more details>

Paul went on to say that LexisNexis & the New York Times web sites have been broken into in the past. You might not notice it right away but eventually a malicious page would popup that might be hard to close of because it won’t have a close button. He said Firefox had tried to deal with such pages but it reduced usability.

When you don’t see a way to close the offending webpage, try the following. On the Mac use the key combination Option + Apple + Escape and kill the browser you were using. On the PC you can do essentially the same thing, but use the keys Control + Alt + Delete to bring up the task manager. You can even shut down your computer, “in a orderly way”, Paul said. <You might try closing just the tab in your browser that has the bad webpage>. 99% of the time your machine is not infected, it’s just displaying a scam page, he said.

Glenn suggested to talk to a computer technician and discuss the situation, if you are already paying someone who initiated this ploy. Remember you might have 60 to 90 days to dispute credit card payments you’ve already made to the scammers.

Paul said Ublock Origin, mentioned on last show, will help prevent these popups. It uses a database of places that originate ads & popups. But the database, by its nature, is always a little behind so it won’t include the newest popups. It works in Chrome, Safari, Firefox and, with a bit of work, in Explorer.

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

On the 1-25-17 show Glenn talked about the Android smart watch he bought, At that time, he forgot to say he paid $14.99 for it. He bought it off a Chinese website called newfrog.com.

He said it’s pretty useless. About all he can do is use Bluethooth he can answer his iPhone, but it has to be so close he might as well just pick up the iPhone. Everything else requires a data source. But without built-in wi-fi, he’ll need a SIM card and cellular service to go online and get apps. <Last week’s show mentioned a cheap cellular plan>.

Paul noted that these sorts of devices get such wide distribution that communities form to hack them <to add functionality>.

Paul mentioned that the internet of things (IOT) devices, which includes watches, have been used to launch denial of service (DDOS) attacks. But, he noted, if you can’t get on the internet, the problem doesn’t occur. <There was some discussion about IOT on the 1-11-17 show.>

Paul bought a knockoff of the Fitbit device for about $15 and it works pretty well, he said. It has an has accelerometer to detect movement and keep track of his sleep/wake cycles and count his foot steps. Some of these devices (but not his) can record heart rate and other “activity”. At the end of the day, it can send the data it’s recorded to an Android or Apple device for further inspection.

Tony called. He said Siri can tell you what planes are now flying over head. The guys tried it in the studio and Siri came back with the website www.rsvlts.com. <Maybe this> The search site used by Siri to find the website was bing.com.

Paul said he doesn’t like Bing. He said he discovered how get Siri to use Google instead — put the word google in front of your search terms.

Paul said the tail numbers on an aircraft can be looked up to get info about it. You can find out the history of the plane you’re about to board.

Tony said a friend of his had to upgrade to the Sierra operating system to get the latest version of Final Cut to work. When he did that he was also required to buy a $9.95 iCloud account for more drive space that Sierra required. Normally, you get 5 gig on iCloud for free. Paul’s solution was to use the properties (the cog icon) to find the iCloud settings. There are check boxes you can set to specify what gets synched. You can uncheck what you don’t want to be backed up. With fewer things to back up, Sierra won’t require the upgraded iCloud account.

Paul said it’s ok to buy the extra storage but be aware of how it’s being used. It may be unnecessary and, if you don’t keep track of what’s going on, you may eventually need even more storage space. Consider storing your data locally, not on iCloud. To see how much of iCloud you’re using, on the iPhone go to setting -> iCloud -> manage.

Glenn went online to get more details about the extra iCloud storage and found it’s 99 cents a month for 50 gig.

Glenn also suggested looking at the settings in Final Cut and seeing if it can be set to store its data locally and not on iCloud.

Paul had encountered the problem of not having enough free memory on his iPhone when trying to install the 1.6 gigs of the IOS 10 upgrade. He removed about 2 gig of data to gain back some space but the free space only changed from .5 gig to about .75 gig. He discovered he had to do a factory reset of the phone to gain back the space he thought he should have. The steps are…
1) Back up the phone. Plug the iPhone into iTunes and choose the option to “back up to this machine”.
2) Do a cleaning of unwanted data & apps and back up again.
3) Reset the phone completely by going to settings -> general -> reset and pick “erase all content and settings”. It will then ask you for your Apple ID and password.
4) Plug it back into iTunes and choose the option to “restore it from a backup”.

Glenn said not everything is backed/restored. Personal preferences like font size & accessibility have to be set again.

Paul said he avoids using iCloud for backing up pictures thru Photo Stream because they won’t be deleted from the phone. Instead, he plugs it into a Mac to pull the pictures off. The Mac itself has a Time Machine backup. <I assume he then deletes the photos from the phone>.

Donna called. She bought a Mac to replace and older one and is having problems she hasn’t encountered before. When she has her mouse cursor over a link, the link will open without being clicked. She’s used to clicking on links.
– Glenn vaguely recalled that there is a setting in Safari to tell it to open a link if the mouse is over it for a specified amount of time
– Be sure the Mac is up to date. Go to the Apple logo and check for updates. You may have to go to the Apple logo -> About -> updates.
– You can also go to the app store and get the Sierra operating system.

Donna uses a trackpad and Paul thought there might be a problem with it. He suggested trying an external mouse and see if the problem persists. Or go to preferences and reset the trackpad settings or maybe experiment with different settings. Paul said command + shift + 3 on the Mac will take a screenshot of what you’re looking at, <Presumably to keep track of your settings so you can put them back>.

Paul also mentioned a $99 slide scanner and a cine film scanner for $200 from Wolverine. The link is at the top of this page

Last Updated 12:10 AM 2-23-2017

http://www.gotenna.com/ For when there’s No Cell Signal- Range up to 2 miles.. BlueTooth Plus VHF

We Got Hacked:
WordPress 4.7.1 Retained Vulnerability How we found out and how it happened
WordPress Security …

Thanks Ryan for: the Ublock Origin Plugin for FireFox, Chrome, Safari and why these things are Free.

Two more: AdBlockPlus (Banners, Animations)
VideoDownload Helper  ..Use this last in combination with VLC Media Player for great results

Cable Modem Lore.Background here and what to expect

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_cable

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.

Paul was in the studio. Glenn called in from Davis.

Paul keeps all of the music he likes on his iPod and a long time ago he sent his entire collection to Google Music. You can send, over a period of days, 140 gigs of music from an iPod classic up to the cloud, Paul said. He previously talked about it on the 11-25-15 show.

Once Google has your music, it looks thru your collection and will “offer you things which are more of what you like”. But the problem with that is “it makes you more like what you are” <the so-called filter bubble> and you’re less likely to explore other genres of music.

The Zen Tech web site was hacked on 2-6-17. They changed the page for today’s show notes by posting the flag of the Peshmerga and a profane word followed by “death to ISIS”. Paul fixed the site yesterday.

The Zen Tech site runs on a content management system called WordPress. Something like 40% of websites run WordPress, Paul said. Such a large proportion makes it a low hanging fruit for those intent on mischief.

The attack was done by a “script” <essentially, a program> which can originate anywhere. The hackers can send out a “crawler” that purports to be, for example, Google and the Zen Tech site can’t tell that it’s not Google except maybe by the IP address.

Being an automated process, the script tries breaking into many websites. The script doesn’t care if the WordPress is an older and more vulnerable version; it tries an exploit and moves on — like a burglar trying doorknobs until one opens.

It turns out that Paul was just 10 days behind in updating WordPress from version 4.71 to 4.72. After fixing the site, he installed a plugin that automatically checks the other WordPress plugins and WordPress itself to be sure they’re up to date.

There are 3 ways to compromise WordPress.
– WordPress itself, which is bunch of software with a data base running behind the scenes, which is usually MySQL.
– The themes
– The 3rd, and most likely way, are feature plugins, which are enhancements to improve the functionality of the website. The plugins are developed by individuals who may make money (but usually don’t) and the plugins are abandoned. With no security updates they become vulnerable.

Glenn called in and told us that he’s used Xfinity wi-fi for the first time <while away from home, I guess>. Apparently he’s recently subscribed to Xfinity’s internet service (internet only). He can now use any the nation-wide Xfinity Wi-fi Security Recommendation hotspots <access points>. Paul asked if one needs a valid cable account to have the access and Glenn confirmed that it’s true. Glenn said he just chooses the Xfinity network in the wi-fi settings and logs in with his name and password.

Both Glenn and Paul got an ad for the [Xfinity] cable service offering a 1 year contract for $30/mo and an optional $10/mo for the cable modem, if you don’t have your own. It’s strictly for internet service, not TV. You can add a TV package that includes your local channels and HBO or Showtime.

The guys bought their own modems from Amazon. Paul just did a search for the words: comcast compatible modem. The thing to look for in a modem is that it decodes a number of channels. The old modem Paul had would decode only 1 channel, which was good up to 30 megabits/sec. If you buy a modem, make sure it says 8 by 4 — 8 channels down and 4 up, for a total capacity of 350 megabits/sec. Though you won’t use the full bandwidth, you get better performance when other people using some channels. The Aris modem/router costs $69 and comes with a 2 year warranty. Note that some credit cards add an additional year to the warranty.

Paul offered a tip for those looking for wi-fi service. He said to look at wi-fi signals in your area, using the network menu of whatever device you have. Find a neighbor whose connection shows up in the menu and offer to share and split the cost of their service.

Paul was sent a link to the free Ublock Origin Plugin that works in the 3 major browsers — Firefox, Chrome and Safari. <See the link at the top of this page> It keeps a table of places that are known to farm out banner ads and Flash ads. It keeps track by address and domain names. It blocks ads based on where the ad comes from rather than the type of ad. If you hover the mouse over the Ublock tool bar item, it tells you what sites are blocked and the sites you’ve visited. Ublock allows you to unblock banners at a particular site, if you want to see them.

Ublock collects statistics on how you use your browser. They aggregate the data but don’t identify you specifically. Also it’s open source software so the code is available for all to see. Many eyes make for better security.

Paul went on to mention Adblock Plus, which blocks Flash animations from running automatically, If you want to see the animation, you can start it with a click.

Then there’s Video Download Helper, which allows you to download Youtube and other videos.

And finally, VLC Media Player (Video Lan Converter) that runs on PC, Mac, Android (but not iPhone). It’s a multi-standard video player that will play just about anything including video, audio and Flash .flv files, which you might get from Youtube.

Paul talked about gotenna.com. When you want to communicate but don’t have a cellular signal, e.g. in the wilderness, you can use this VHF transmitter/receiver box. It uses FRS BRS frequencies, which don’t require a license. These frequencies are also used by walkie-talkie products, which have a similar range and may actually be more practical to use. You use your phone to connect to this box via Bluetooth and you can send encrypted text (txt) messages and make voice calls.

.

Glenn invited listeners to visit the Zen Tech website at zen.kvmr.org. You can also send email to zen at kvmr dot org, He thought email might be having problems right now, but the mail will eventually get thru.

Glenn mentioned the Mac Mini he bought recently with 4gig RAM, 500 gig hard drive and an I5 processor. He had thoughts of boosting the RAM to 8 gig but found out the RAM is soldered onto the motherboard and can’t be upgraded. He’s thinking about getting a version that comes with 8 gigs, instead. He noted that the newer versions of the Mac operating system come with Siri, which requires 8 gig to avoid serious slowdowns.

Paul noted that some Apple products can’t be upgraded. The iPhone comes with a fixed amount of memory and the Mac Book Air has a solid state drive that’s soldered-in. Reliability may be the reason they’re made that way, but it may be that Apple wants you to buy an upgrade. Paul also speculated that this latest version of the Mac Mini will be the last one made with a spinning hard drive. He expects a move to solid state drives (SSD).

Glenn said there is a version of the Mac Mini with a 1 terabyte fusion drive. He thought it might be a combination solid state drive and spinning platters. Paul mentioned some advantages of such a drive. <See show notes from 11-30-16 & 1-25-17 for a better discussion>.

Paul said more about the Zen Tech website. There are over 1,000 links from 10 year of use. Some of the links aren’t valid anymore. Though there is a plugin that checks for outdated links, Paul said he doesn’t have the time to go back and correct them.

Paul mentioned that archive.kvmr.org has the audio to recent KVMR broadcasts. The audio for music content is no older than 2 weeks, for copyright reasons. Talk shows are up to 2 months old <and are usually downloadable>. Also, there is a “subscription system” at audio.kvmr.org/podhawk.

The broadcasters at KVMR use Spinitron to log the music that’s played, for the purpose of paying royalties to the artists. Some other stations are automated and keep track of what’s played with their own equipment. <You can see for yourself what’s been played at kvmr.org/playlists>

Last Updated 11:55 PM 2-8-2017