NOTE: There will be another Zen Tech show this month on 11-30-16

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 and Paul were in the studio today.

Glenn noticed that when using iMessage over a period of time, sending and receiving messages, the timestamp of each message doesn’t show up until a couple of hours later. But swiping just a little to the left in the iMessage frame will immediately show the time each message was sent.

iPhone 4 is not able to use iOS 10, Paul noted. For a period of time hardware and software makers would leap frog one another, each building features to take advantage of the other’s improvements <implying performance can suffer if hardware doesn’t keep up>. But most iPhones now have a fast processor, an A4, A5 or A6, Paul said. And the newer operating sytems, Android 6 and iOS 10, have algorithms that “slim down the power” each app uses, they “throttle back on the power consumption” of the apps. Going to iOS 10, Paul noticed, actually improved the power consumption.

Glenn said he was never particularly concerned about the power consumption so much as the slowness after upgrading the iOS of his 4-year old iPad 4. He said it has slowed but it still works fine. The battery, he said, lasts quite a long time, 6 or 7 hours using wi-fi. By comparison, his iPhone 6s will go from 100% to 50% in just 1 or 1.5 hours.

Paul said he has a free app called Coconut Battery running on his Mac.
It provides info about the battery and the charger. It tells you how much the battery is charged & its capacity (the total charge it can hold <which goes down over its lifetime>). He said Apple guarantees that for at least 1 year and for at least 1000 charging cycles the battery will maintain at least 80% of its capacity: it will run for 80% of the length of time of when it was new.
<Coconut Battery was talked about on the 9-28-16 show. Charging, and charge cycles were explained too,>

When it’s time to replace the battery in your Mac, you can go to Amazon, for instance, and search for the model of your Mac. Paul said he’s found decent batteries from China for $20. You’ll pay $129 if you buy from Apple. The Apple battery will last you about 4 years. The ones from China might last 2 or 3 years.

When you first install a new battery, the machine will be confused about its capacity. Paul said be patient about warnings of errors in the battery, it may take a couple of charge cycles. <I heard that if you completely discharge and then completely charge the battery, The computer will recalibrate correctly.>

When you shop for batteries, use a reputable site and look at the warranty. Amazon warranty covers the behavior of the vendors selling thru Amazon.

Paul said he hasn’t found an app for iOS that gives a reasonable idea of what’s going on with the battery. But you can use Coconut Battery on the Mac with your iPhone or iPad plugged into the Mac and get a report on the condition the battery in your mobile device.

Glenn said his iPhone 6 is less than a year old and it currently shows 85% capacity after less than 300 cycles. Paul said Apple did a recall of the iPhone 5 because of a battery problem. Search for the words: iphone 5 battery recall. But be careful of ads in the search results, use the links that take you to Apple.

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

If you’d like to talk to the guys during a Zen Tech show, call 530-265-9555. You can send an email to zen at kvmr dot org. And you’re invited to visit the website: zen.kvmr.org.

You (or anyone) can use Youtube to stream a live event so that it can be seen by a large number of people. Paul said Youtube itself will stream the 90th Macy’s parade tomorrow. Go to youtube.com and search for the words; macy’s parade.

Glenn bought a laser light infrared thermometer for Paul. It measures the radiant temperature of the thing at which you’re pointing it. It only measures the surface temperature, so it’s not suitable for knowing when your turkey is done.

Steve called. He’s shopping for a cellular service that includes a phone. He wondered if the Samsung Galaxy S7 is the phone that had a major recall recently because of a battery problem.
– No, it was the Galaxy Note 7, not the S7.
– The ones with the problem aren’t being sold anymore.
– Those who choose never to buy a Samsung again because of the recall are being kind of foolish, Paul said.
– Google-search the words; samsung note 7. You’ll find the Samsung site where they have a safety recall and exchange program.
<Galaxy Note 7 battery problems were discussed on 9-14-16 show.
Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge review: The best smartphones, period
Samsung S7: Rumours & reality
Specs for the S7 – Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge: Everything you need to known about Samsung’s Galaxy Flagship>

Paul asked Glenn his shopping strategies for the upcoming Black Friday. Glenn said he hasn’t been interested in Black Friday the past couple of years but is paying some attention the past couple of weeks because so many deals are happening early this year. He said he’ll be checking tomorrow’s newspaper ads as well as online ads. He’ll be paying special attention to Fry’s, one of his favorite retailers. He said you can preorder on Thursday and avoid the long lines.
<Some good suggestions here: How Not to Overpay on Black Friday? Let the Web Be Your Guide
The ShopSavvy app mentioned in the article is here.>

Robert called. He wanted to know how to get rid of an old desktop computer from the turn of this century.
– Take the hard drive out and destroy it. You can get hex screwdrivers to take it apart or take a hammer to it.
– Look for various recycling events in the local area on the behalf of non-profits.
– Recycling in the local area has slowed because the money being paid has gone down, Paul said.
– McCourtney Road Transfer Station will take any electronics.
– Try Rod’s Computer Service in Grass Valley for recycling service.

The guys wished the listeners a happy Thanksgiving.

Glenn noted that the Flea Market will not be on tomorrow. There will be some special program in its place.

Paul had a 2007 Mac Book with a battery problem. The battery had swollen due to the gases produced inside and was interfering with the trackpad buttons directly above it. He took the battery out, but is it ok to run the computer from just the AC power (from the wall socket). In general is yes, Paul said, but there are a couple of considerations.

A battery in a computer provides a uninterruptible power supply. So if something happens to the AC power you can just keep on working. You don’t lose your work and data being sent to the hard drive doesn’t get interrupted.

The other thing is that the battery keeps the clock running for the correct time of day. Apparently, the Mac doesn’t have a button battery to run the clock like many (but not all) PCs do.

Up to a few years ago it was common to have a user replaceable battery in laptops. But with more efficient LED screens, batteries last longer between charges and the need to pop in a fresh battery has diminished. Modern computers often have non-removable batteries. If you have to replace your battery go to ifixit.com and look up your particular laptop to see what it says about replacing the battery.

Glenn thanked the listeners who support KVMR. <If you’d like to become a supporting member, you can call the KVMR office at 530-265-9073 or visit kvmr.org.>

Pilar (more phonetically: Peelar) called. She has an iPhone 5S that’s a couple of years old. Since upgrading it to iOS 10, it’s been having trouble maintaining a wi-fi connection to her local network. There’s no trouble with her iPad or 2 laptops. She made it forget the network, reset the network preferences, restarted the iPhone and rebooted the [network] modem and even “restored it as new” <Factory reset the iPhone, I think she meant>.
– Make sure to get the latest iOS update. She said she has the latest: 10 1 1.
– Paul said make it forget ALL of the networks it knows. Go to “wi-fi” where you’ll see the list of networks — forget all of them.
– Take it to an Apple store.
– Paul got her to say that it seems to work with other routers, just not hers. He said there might be a compatibility issue and to try using a different router.

Changelog:
Added link to ShopSavvy app here.

Last Updated 1:37 PM 12-1-2016

During the show, Glenn announced a lost female brown and white pitbull who’s 4-years old and about 75lbs with a red collar. She’s missing in the Brownsville area. She has Addisons and needs medication, so may appear sick. She’s been missing for 2 weeks. Call 530-448 2526 and ask for Laura if you have any info.

There was no Zentech show on 10-26-16 due to membership drive

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

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

Both Paul and Glenn were in the studio today.

Glenn thanked those people who continue to support KVMR thru their generous contributions and the new members who joined during the recent membership drive — the drive that preempted the Zen Tech show on 10-28-16.

If you’d like to call in during the show, the number is 530-265-9555.

Glenn said that he and Paul are both using a new cell phone service. Paul is using it to make free international calls to England. They were going to talk about it today but didn’t get around to it.

Paul talked about SMART utilities for hard drives. SATA (Serial ATA) drives going back 10 years have the ability to record the parameters of their activities in non-volatile memory — things like temperature excesses or slow startups or sector reallocations. On 5 recent occasions Paul was able to diagnose hard drive problems using SMART utilities. You won’t necessarily hear the classic clicking noises from a drive indicating a problem, he said.

Paul found 2 SMART utilities, one each for the PC and the Mac. For the PC there’s a free one from Japan that, he assumed, you don’t have to install — you just run it directly. It’s called CrystalDiskInfo. When you click the download link you’ll be offered different versions. The one Paul got was 239 megabytes in size. It should work with Windows XP “all the way up to Windows 10”.

The program uses colored indicators in red yellow and green to tell you the condition of your hard drive. An orange indicator means impending doom. Red means something is wrong and data is being lost.

Paul related his adventure with a hard drive. Most hard drives made by Hgst (Seagate Technology) have a 3-year warranty, some have a 1-year, he said. A SMART utility will give you a serial number. You can then google the words: hgst rma, which means Return Merchandise Authority, and follow the link. Using the serial number you’ll be told if it’s still under warranty <and be given the authorization to return the drive>. Paul was able to get a replacement drive.

The SMART utility can print out the info it generates so you have something to look at while talking to tech support. The SMART utility works with drives connected by Firewire, IDE cable or directly over Serial ATA. It tends not to work on drives connected via USB.

The Macs have, typically, the same hard drive technology. The utility he found is free for 10 days and is called Drivedx. You can find it at binaryfruit.com. Solid state drives (SSD) have their own issues and utilities. Samsung and Intel each have SSD utilities for their own drives.

SSD drives are being used increasingly in laptops but are typically smaller in size than what used to come with laptops because they are more expensive. However, they’re worth it because of the gain in speed, Paul said.

Paul said some Mac hard drives have a temperature sensor on the outside of the drive with wires from it going to the motherboard. But there were some Apple drives made with a built-in sensor and the temp data is sent thru the SATA cable itself — no external sensor or wires. If you have to replace such a drive and want to save money, you can get a generic drive and a sensor that attaches in series with the SATA cable. You can get more information at ifixit.com. Search for the words: 2011 23″ imac, at ifixit.com. You should be able to find pictures of people replacing the hard drive.

You can share your expertise at fixing something. At ifixit you can create your own guide that others can use to repair stuff. It works in a way similar to Wikipedia where others can contribute their knowledge to the guide you’re creating.

There’s a utility available from the terminal on PCs, Macs and Linux called ddrescue. Its a command line utility that you can use to pluck data off a hard drive sector by sector, track by track, cylinder by cylinder or platter by platter. If it has trouble in reading the data at some point, it creates a log file and continues on. You can then have it go back and revisit the bad area. Some drive cloning software will wear the drive out trying to read a bad area and make it unreadable. Ddrescue is smart enough not to do that.

Paul said that on a Mac he uses macports, which gives you access to Unix command line utilities beyond what’s normally available.

Many Unix developers use the terminal screen of a Mac because it’s a perfectly legit version of Unix. It’s pretty well standardized and it will run most of the familiar things from the Linux world including Midnight Commander (named after Norton Commander from the DOS world). More info at macports.org.

Glenn talked about his 2007 iMac that can’t run an OS newer than 10.6.3 (Snow Leopard). He was having trouble copying files an Paul suggested he use a program called Free File Synch, but it wouldn’t run on his machine. The alternate suggestion was Carbon Copy Cloner. Glenn found an older version (ver 3.5.7) that runs on Snow Leopard at bombich.com.

Glenn is going to rely on Pauls knowledge to replace the CPU in his iMac, taking it from an Intel Core Duo to an Intel Core 2 Duo, which Paul says use the same socket. The firmware has to be modified too so the Mac “doesn’t mind” a change of the CPU. That will allow Glenn to install the Lion OS (ver 10.7). This later OS version will allow the use of iCloud and Messenger. Paul said he’s found these CPUs from China for about $4.

Don called. He said that ddrescue can also be used to get data from DVDs that may have gotten scratched up. He said the data extracted is still an encrypted ISO image so you can’t create another playable DVD but you can play the ISO image directly using VLC if you have a particular DVD decoder <css or dss decoder, I could discern what Paul said>. And to avoid copyright problems, VLC can’t play encrypted files & DVDs unless you also get a ‘package’ called lib dvd css 2. Ddrescue can also make backups of flash drives, Don said.

When Paul is recovering data from an iffy hard drive, he’ll often clone the drive and then work with the cloned drive, In case something goes wrong, he’ll still have the original.

Paul said he had a problem with Timemachine because it wouldn’t back up his pictures folder. Timemachine thought there was no need to backup the folder because it was unreadable to Timemachine. He made a clone of it and repaired the clone with “hms repair tools” using Unix. He didn’t use the Mac operating system because its disk utilities are “not nearly comprehensive as you might like”.

Paul said that in Linux most of the useful things you do are with the command line where you end up typing in arcane commands to get things done. However, there are ‘front ends’ to some of the programs where you’re presented with a graphical interface and where you can select the options using check boxes and such. The interface then constructs the command and executes the program in the background without you having to type anything.

Paul mentioned a website that has old versions of software for Windows, Android, Linux and Mac called oldversion.com. For instance version 2.95 of the venerable Winamp is available there. Don’t use old software unless you have a compelling reason, Paul said.

Paul had to leave the show about 10min early for a dental appointment and Glenn handled the last caller.

You can contact the guys by email to zen at kvmr dot org. Or you can visit the Zen Tech website at zen.kvmr.org. And Glenn’s show The Flea Market has special content on the kvmr.org page. Go to the bottom right of the page and click on the ‘for sale’ sign.

Jack called. He started using a tablet to access Facebook and thru his interactions with people on the site he started getting porn involuntarily. He doesn’t know how to stop it. Glenn isn’t familiar with Android but wondered if there is a way to reset the tablet to factory conditions <there is. In Settings look for ‘backup’, as I recall>. He suggested backing up the apps and data to Google first and then restoring after the factory reset. Glenn also suggested he delete the Facebook account and create a new one while being more selective about making friends. Glenn he only seeks out whom to be friends with and not just accept any friending request.

Last Updated 11:43 PM 11-9-2016

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 < >

I had a terrible time capturing the audio from today’s show. I managed to get about 26 min of the show with about 15 min of actual tech talk, after excluding the Community Calendar announcements.

Both Paul was in the studio today. Glenn called in while on the way to Albuquerque for a wedding on Saturday.

Paul had suggested that Glenn turn on “show location” in his iPhone. As a result, when Paul looked at “information” for a text message he got from Glenn, he was able to see his approximate location along highway 40. Paul explained it’s not obvious on the iPhone that you can go to the upper right, while composing a text message, to where it says “information” and set it to share location for the length of time you desire.

Paul said he’s been getting an increasing number of bogus phone calls coming from the local area code. Glenn has too, but he just lets them to go to voice mail if he doesn’t recognize the caller from the caller ID.

Paul said that on cell phones there’s no way to block numbers. Continuing, he said that there are 2 components to caller ID — the calling phone number and the associated caller’s name. The name is optional but modern smart phones will normally display the name too “if you’ve ever dealt with them before” and they are in your contact list. But you can’t block calls from valid caller IDs that you don’t know.

Glenn jumped in with a clarification. He said that when the caller ID number is being displayed, you can click on “information” next to the number and choose “block this caller”. Paul said you can block that particular caller but, though not likely, it’s possible to spoof a known number. The fraudsters can pick a number belonging to someone you know.

Paul went on to say that he has had calls originating from an 800 number that identifies as the IRS — the IRS says it never calls anyone back, you have to do the calling. You can get their phone number at irs.gov. Glenn added, the IRS might contact you with a postal letter. And Paul said, if there is an IRS phone number in that letter, ignore it. Use the number on their website.

Paul said there were 2 recent upgrades issued — iOS 10 for Apple mobiles and Sierra (version 10.12) for the Mac. Paul said he doesn’t like [iOS] 10 though he doesn’t think there’s anything particularly wrong with it. Glenn said he upgraded his 4-year old iPad to iOS 10 and experienced a significant slow down, and that some apps close without reason — e.g. email and the Safari browser.

Last week Glenn upgraded his iPhone 6S to iOS 10 and he says he likes it. Paul said he’s not convinced that particular upgraded is worth it. Furthermore, if you want to go back to the older OS, it’s “not possible in any easy way”, to his knowledge. Generally, the oldest models that qualify for any upgrade tend to suffer performance problems. The iPhone 5S is the oldest model that can use iOS 10. And be sure you have plenty of free memory to do the upgrade. You’ll need about 2 gig of “spare free space”.

Glenn said he was at a Shell station/Subway/Diary Queen with 4 Tesla charging stations with 1 occupied. He wasn’t sure if other types of electric vehicles, besides Tesla, can use that type of charging station, or if each car has its own proprietary plug. He said he’ll do some research on the matter.

Paul noted that in the last 8 to 10 years the average cost of the battery stack for a car has dropped from about $7,000 – $10,000 down to $3,500 – $4,000. The old lead-acid car batteries are 98% recyclable but he’s not sure how recyclable the rechargeable car batteries are. He thinks they last 6 to 7 years. Glenn said the battery in his hybrid car is warranted for 10 years.

<There was more to the show that was lost to the ether >

Last Updated 9:47 PM 10-12-2016

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.

One of the computers at the KVMR office was installed with Windows 10. Paul didn’t think anyone there deliberately initiated the process. The KVMR staff had trouble accessing the community calendar, public service announcements and broadcast schedules, as well as the Firefox browser, after the upgrade. It was speculated that the upgrade happened automatically.

The staff could access the community calendar with the Edge browser, (the new browser that comes with Win10). Paul said Internet Explorer browser is still available with Win10 but you have to use the Run command and type in ‘iexplore’.

Glenn recently talked to someone shopping for a computer who asked if they should get one with Win10 or a Win7. Glenn enthusiastically suggested Windows 7. Glenn said some people with Win7 have expressed concern about being nagged by on-screen notifications to upgrade to Win10.

Paul said that those people who didn’t choose the Win10 upgrade before the free offer expired (at the end of July) shouldn’t be getting the nagging notification. Some people who had the free Win10 downloaded to their computers but not yet installed, pending their approval, will continue being nagged.

The next iteration of Win10, called Windows Anniversary Edition, was released sometime around the middle of August. Two of Paul’s clients had problems after installing it. When you have serious problems after installing Win10, you may have to start up in Safe Mode and then go into Rescue Mode, Paul said. In Rescue Mode there is an option that says, in effect, go back to the version before this latest update. But be careful not to select ‘Recover System’ — that will make it go back to the factory default condition and you will lose EVERYTHING.

Later in the show Paul said that if you paid to have your Win10 machine serviced and the tech said the problem was due to the Windows Anniversary Edition, get it documented on the invoice in case there’s a law suit against Microsoft.

Around the time the Windows Anniversary Edition came out, Microsoft said there were some problems reported by people with solid state drives (SSD). Paul didn’t elaborate.

Both of the guys said they really tried to like Win10. Glenn explicitly said that he doesn’t like it. Paul said you have 30 days to back out of the upgrade, if you don’t like it.
<Here are some articles about upgrading to Win10. There are links to a couple more articles in the 8-10-16 show notes…
So Now You Want Windows 10
Which way with Windows? Here are your options. Among Windows’ bewildering array of versions, builds, rings, updates, branches, and editions, here’s what you should consider.
How to: Properly Prep, then Force Install Windows 10 Anniversary Update
Windows 10 Installation Superguide>

Paul said Apple has issued an update to its Mac operating system. The latest is called Sierra, replacing El Capitan. If you’re wondering whether to do the update, Paul said it won’t make much difference unless you can appriciate the new features. El Capitan and Yosemite were about 10.6 gigs in size, Sierra is 4.5 gigs. If your hardware ran well with the 2 older versions, Sierra won’t run any slower, Paul said. Also, Sierra comes with Siri.

Paul said don’t “try upgrading your machinery to fix a problem”. “If your machine is behaving kind of squirrelly and ratty and rough around the edges and hesitating” an upgrade to the operating system probably won’t help and might make it worse. Try to figure out what’s gone wrong with your machine before upgrading. On the other hand, updates are a good way to resolve problems. Going from El Capitan (latest version 10.11.6) to Sierra is an update.

Sierra doesn’t come to you thru the normal update process. You need to visit the app store and in the upper left corner you’ll see the offer to get Sierra. The updating process shouldn’t slow down network too much but it’s a good idea to wait until you need to walk away from your machine.

Paul talked about a utility for the Mac called coconutBattery. Besides telling you the serial number of your Mac and its age, it tells you the percentage of the battery capacity that is currently available. The percentage displayed on top right of the bar on your Mac only tells you the battery capacity, not the power. If the battery has lost half of its life and the battery indicator says 100%, it means 100% of its diminished capacity. <As I understand it, it may be charged to 100% but it can’t deliver the power it used to>. So, coconutBattery has a graph to tell you “how far gone your battery is”. Use it when you get an error message on your battery icon that says ‘check battery’ or ‘service battery’.

CoconutBattery will also tell you the current rating for the charger that’s connected to your battery. Apple has 45, 60 and 90-watt chargers. If you connect a 45-watt charger to a Mac, like the Power Book Pro, that consumes a lot of power you may end up overheating the charger. It’s ok to go the other way — to connect the 90-watt charger to a Mac, like the Mac Book 13″, that doesn’t require as much power.

According to Apple, after 1000 cycles <charging cycles, as I understand> your battery should have about 80% capacity left. There’s a serial number on the battery and a manufacturer code that indicates its age. Paul’s had some Chinese battery’s fail while under warranty. He sent a printout of the page generated by coconutBattery to the manufacturer along with the failed battery.

Paul said a charge cycle doesn’t mean a going from a 0% charge to 100% charge and back to 0%. And it doesn’t mean the act of pluging and unpluging the charger. In general, it means is “there has been a period when the battery went over at least 80% full and another period when it went below 20%, no matter how often you plugged and unplugged it”.
<A Health Checkup for Your Laptop Battery>

Glenn has a friend with a 3 year old HTC phone that’s worked well for him when he was using Verizon, It has a SIM card and Glenn was thinking he might switch over to H2O Wireless as the cellular provider.

Paul explained that there used to be 2 types of the iPhone 3. The CDMA version worked with Verizon and had no SIM card slot. The GSM model did have the slot. With iPhone 4 Apple started putting both GSM & CDMA on board. This occurred about the time when Verizon went to 4G LTE technology, which requires SIM cards (at least for the date portion of the service — 3G, voice & text don’t require it).

Paul said the chances are good that the HTC phone Glenn was looking at can take a SIM card from an MVNO (Mobile Virtual Network Operator) <which was discussed in the 8-24-16 show>. These companies resell the cellular service provided by the major companies like AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile.

Some of the alternate cellular providers that the guy mentioned were H2O Wireless, Pure Talk and Google-Fi.

Paul said that if you’re ready to replace a phone, try check online for trade-in offers, don’t just throw it in the trash. Samsung and iPhone models have respectable trade-in values. For example, you can go to Ebay and search for ‘sell my phone’.

Paul upgraded his iPhone to IOS 10 last week. Last weekend Glenn upgraded his 4-year-old iPad to IOS 10 and noticed a significant slowdown as well as some other problems. Paul said there doesn’t seem to be a way to go back to a previous version on the Apple products.

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.

5 weeks ago Glenn had cataract surgery on his right eye and 3 weeks ago the same was done on his left eye. The surgery was done in a couple of hours without the use of lasers. He anticipates not having to use glasses eventually.

Paul talked a bit about hard drive failure. Hard drives have onboard electronics that map out a faulty sector so it’s not used anymore, if it no longer can reliably hold the data. As more sectors fail, you eventually get the “spinning wheel of death” on a Mac. Computer problems often result from hard drive failures “approaching critical mass” and also overheating. Laptops are especially prone to overheating problems due to accumulation of dust. Use cans of compressed air to blow out the dust. And use SMART hard drive utilities to check the condition of your hard drive. Many modern hard drives have SMART technology built in that monitors its status.
<Here are someSMART monitoring utilities I found online…
PassMark DiskCheckup
S.M.A.R.T. Monitoring Tools — open source tools from sourceforge. The download page is here
How to See if Your Hard Drive is Dying with S.M.A.R.T. — mentions CrystalDiskInfo and has a tip to use the ‘wmic’ command without downloading anything:>

Gary called. He has a Mac Pro with 4 hard drives in it. He wanted to know if the “spinning wheel of death” only happens with the boot drive. And, he said, he was told that the spinning wheel meant he was running out of RAM memory.
– It could be any of the drives are having a problem, even an external drive.
– It’s true that the wheel can be caused by a low memory condition. But if you have only a web browse running, it’s not a memory problem.
– There’s a program found in the applications folder -> utility folder called something like “Activity Monitor”. It tells you what each program is doing and how much memory is being used. If the running programs aren’t using much processor time and you get the spinning wheel, look for a hard drive problem.
– Use the SMART utilities to check the hard drives first. If it says all is ok, then look for other problems.
– On the PC use Alt + Cntrl + Del to bring up Task Manager to see what’s going on with your running programs and the processor time they’re using. On the Mac the key combination is Command Option Escape.
– On the Mac the Finder may start to act up and may need to be relaunched.
– The Mac has maybe 15 or 20 temperature sensors in various locations. The spinning wheel can appear if any of the sensors indicate overheating. Paul said there’s a utility for that but couldn’t remember the name.

Glenn thanked the listeners who support KVMR. If you’d like to become a supporting member, you can call the KVMR office at 530-265-9073 or visit kvmr.org. If you’d like to talk to the guys during a Zen Tech show, call 530-265-9555

Changelog:
Added link to an article about checking a laptop battery here
Added link to a few articles on upgrading to Windows 10 here

Last Updated 4:29 PM 10-2-2016

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

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

Both Paul & Glenn were in the studio today.

Glenn brought up recent news about lithium battery safety issues affecting both Toshiba and Samsung. Just one model of Samsung is affected, the Samsung Galaxy Note 7, for which a recall has been issued. Of the millions sold, 35 have caught fire. There have been warnings not to use the Note 7.
– If you’re looking online for recall info, be aware of scam sites, Paul said. Ideally, go to the manufacturer’s web site (samsung.com in this case).
– Under a recall, you should not have to pay anything, though you will have to make the effort to contact the company and then return the product.
– Glenn suggested that people contact their cellular provider to find out what to do about the recall and to avoid interruption of their phone service.
– Paul said the warning not to use the phones comes down to indemnity. “They’re not telling you you can’t use it. They’re just saying we’re telling you you can’t use it. Which doesn’t mean don’t use it, it means we told you to not use it. In the same way as on this show, we never tell anybody ever to do anything. We just go — I don’t know, here’s some information.” <I guess he meant the warning is mainly to cover their butts, so to speak>

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.

<For more info about lithium batteries and the Samsung recall check out these two articles…
The Science behind Samsung Phone Battery Fires; How the Galaxy Note 7’s lithium batteries can go awry:
Samsung’s Recall: The Problem With Lithium-Ion Batteries. The type of battery used in smartphones is lightweight and powerful, and it has a troubled history>

Paul said there are a sequence steps to take when you experience an equipment failure.
– Take it back to the store you bought it from, typically within 15 days.
– Most equipment these days has a 1 year warranty. Usually you need to request a RMA, a return merchandise authorization, from the manufacturer before sending it back.
– If it’s out of warranty, check if your credit card offered an extended warranty.
– If the above options don’t apply and you have to pay to get it fixed, there’s a law saying that if you paid more than $100 for the original equipment, spares and reasonable repair service must be provided. If that can’t be provided, the manufacturer has to offer an equivalent or better replacement or refund your money. This comes from automobile lemon laws — parts have to be available for 7 years from when the product first comes into production.
– Paul added Honda or Toyota will replace frayed seatbelts for free, according to a trustworthy source — but don’t quote him on that.

Paul said his old Toyota Corolla is getting close to its end. And he noted that there’s a California program that offers to buy back old cars for up to $1500. Glenn said the program is promoted by the Bureau of Automotive Repair thru the DMV. Paul first thought it was thru the Dept of Consumer Affairs.

Glenn mentioned that gift certificates cannot expire unless the company issuing it goes out of business. Even if the company is bought out, it’s still valid as long as the company retains its name and function. Gift cards, as opposed to certificates, have a different set of rules.

Paul said that you can go to safercar.gov to find out if a particular model of car has been recalled for whatever reason or if it doesn’t meet the standards of merchantability. Just enter the vehicle’s ID number, which you can find by looking thru the front windshield at the driver side of the dash

Safercar.gov started out as nhtsa.gov. That site still exists and offers somewhat different info — it deals more with highway safety and infrastructure (bridges etc.).

A few years ago Toyota had a safety issue with the floormats interfering with the gas pedal. Glenn offered a tip he had learned — if the gas pedal sticks down, shift the car into neutral and then pull off to the side of the road while using your brakes.

Paul warned listeners about something he learned the hard way. One time he wanted to see how far he could go down hill with the engine off. He turned the ignition switch to the fully off position, without realizing that meant the steering wheel would become locked in place and he could no longer steer. <Of course, you can unlock the wheel by turning the key one click away from the full off position>.

Glenn thanked the listeners who support KVMR. If you’d like to become a supporting member, you can call the KVMR office at 530-265-9073 or visit kvmr.org. If you’d like to talk to the guys during a Zen Tech show, call 530-265-9555

Paul said that if you go to a website ending in .gov, you can be reasonably certain that you’re looking at a government website. As with safercar.gov and nhtsa.gov, noaa.gov and weather.gov offer similar but not the same info. He seems to like the weather info at these two sites.

Paul noted that the dept of motor vehicles for California can be found at http://www.dmv.ca.gov <not https…, I’ve noticed>. But if you google for the DMV you may wind up at dmv.org. It’s a privately operated site and has nothing to do with the government. It doesn’t appear to be a scam site but they make money by showing you ads that the government site doesn’t.

Glenn said state government websites typically end in .ca.gov (Oregon would be .or.gov, etc.). Paul noted that the postal service is not strictly a government organization and their website ends in .org. Correcting him, Glenn said it’s usps.com. Paul said that the various branches of the military have websites ending in .mil.

Mesako <my guess at the spelling> called. She’s been having trouble listening to the content at archive.kvmr.org, which is where past KVMR shows can be found. When she tries to listen to something, after a few minutes it stops and she’s taken back to the show on Jul 8 10pm. She uses the Safari browser.
– Paul suggested that she clear the browser’s cache. Glenn looked at his iPad to find how to do that. He said go to Settings -> Safari. Near the bottom, above where it says ‘Advanced’, you’ll find ‘clear history and web data’.
– Paul also suggested she update her iPad’s operating system. The latest is IOS 10.
– Glenn said there was another complaint about the archive, that it timesout after 1 minute.

Erin called with a comment about the post office. On the outside of their building it says post office but when you go in it says postal service. The postal service is a private corporation run out of England, Erin said.

Terry called. She missed some of this show and wanted to know the name & model of the recalled Samsung phones. Glenn said it’s the Galaxy Note 7. Though it’s not the model she has, Glenn suggested she go to the Samsung website to check if hers in under recall.

Paul said that it’s not legal to sell items under recall. This applies even to items that are being sold for parts.

Eddie called to say he’s having a similar problem with the KVMR archive as Mesako, when he uses his iPad. Paul said the iPad can’t use Flash to play the content but uses HTML5, which he speculated may be the problem. He’s going to talk to KVMR’s engineer about it.

Eddy’s other question was about Windows 7 that he has on his Pentium 4 computer. He’s been experiencing severe slowdowns. He wondered if reinstalling Win7 would help.
– Paul said that’s a drastic thing to do but it may help somewhat.
– Glenn suggested Spybot Search and Destroy.
– Paul thought his problem that the Pentium is a single core processor. Win7 doesn’t like single core processors, he said.

Last Updated 10:49 PM 9-14-2016