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 with co-host Mikail Graham. Paul is still in Europe.

Listeners were invited to call during the show with their questions and comments at 530-265-9555.

The hour was devoted to Apple products. Mikail said he has been using Apple computers since the late 70s when he got an Apple 2, which he still has.

Mikail had a tip for the users of the iMac — a thin all-in-one computer that comes in 20″ to 27″ models. He called attention to the venting system on the bottom, especially those made in 2007 to about 2013 (later models were made so thin that it limited their reparability). They need to be cleaned at least every 3 years, he said.

The vents draw in dust along with the air, which then covers the components and leads to failure from running too hot. It’s not an easy thing to do but you need to disassemble the iMac to clean it properly. There are videos online to help you and technicians (including Mikail) who will do it for you, if you think it challenges your abilities. Don’t keep putting it off or you can lose your data, he said. If a hard drive dies, it can cost $800 to $1000, at minimum, to get the data off of it.

Glenn wondered if blowing air into the iMac, without disassembly, would help, if done periodically. Mikail said no. You just can’t get far enough inside to do any good. Keeping the area around the iMac free of dust can help.

Mikail said that the other thing you can do is “put a maintenance program on there like one from Titanium Software called “Maintenance” and run that at least every couple of weeks”. It takes a few minutes to run and it will tell you if the drive is failing.

Steve baker came to the mic and talked to Pascal, a reporter from YubaNet, about the Rex fire near Grass Valley. Fire crews hit the fire hard from the air and on the ground, “and took the heat out of it”. It’s now looking good. There are still some evacuations in the area but that situation is being reevaluated. There are no reports of injuries. It’s going to take a couple of hours to mop up and determine the cause.

Glenn asked Mikail about synching his iPhone iPad and Mac Mini. The iPhone and Mac Mini seem to synch, but his iPad is missing some contacts. He wants to get away from using the cloud and wondered how to best do that.

Mikail said you can export the contacts from the “master source” by synching with iTunes. And there is a product called Imazing for the Mac or PC (2.3 for the PC is coming out soon) for $29 or $39. It will do automatic backups over wi-fi and is well worth having, he said.

You can also transfer files manually if you don’t want to use iTunes. The advantage of the cloud, when it’s working correctly, is that changes on one device will be quickly propagated to the other devices.

Mikail is also having an synching issue. He has a new MacBook Pro and a new iPad and everything synchs. But on his Mac Pro and iPhone, the text replacement shortcuts aren’t synching. With shortcuts, you can type something like ‘tty’ and it will expand to ‘talk to you later’, for example. On Apple devices you can set shortcuts by going to settings -> general -> keyboard (for Android go to “language & input” -> “Personal Dictionary” -> +ADD). Some websites may prevent usage of shortcuts, often for security reasons.

To mitigate synch problems make sure you’re running the latest version of the operating system. Also, there’s much to be said for doing a clean install rather than a restore. That way you don’t bring back old “junk” that you don’t need anymore and that may make the computer run slower. To do that you’ll need to install from a USB drive. Or you can do a recovery over the internet but it can take days.

Ross called to say that the changes to Net Neutrality proposed by the government are open for comment, until July 17 (he thought). It’s important to keep this administration from rolling back neutrality. Mikail suggested going to the website secure2.convio.net. <Maybe it’s here>
John Oliver explains Net neutrality

Ross also suggested getting a hepa air filter & putting it under the air intake of your computer to minimize dust

Ross said he has a late 2008 MacBook Pro running Snow Leopard. He asked Mikail what’s the best, most stable operating system since Snow Leopard for his machine. Mikail said the things he looks for are security & compatibility and thought El Capitan would be a good choice. His machine probably won’t be able to handle anything newer.

They both agreed Snow Leopard boots up & shuts down very fast. Mikail added that going to a different OS may mean a slow down, but replacing the spinning hard drive with a solid state drive (SSD) will regain much of the speed. You can get a 500 gig SSD Samsung for $150 on Amazon or even cheaper with brands like Adata, Kingston or San Disk.

If you want to replace the MacBook Pro, there are good deals right now on 2015 models that have 16 gig of RAM, HDMI, 2 USB ports, SD card slot and Magsafe connector for under $2000. They are new & under warranty.

Mikail noted that he uses a 34″ Dell monitor that he loves. They go for about $700.

Chris called. He has an old Mac Book running the Lion operating system. He’s afraid of losing his drawing program called Vector Works if he installs a newer OS. Mikail determined that he does Timemachine backups and said it should be no problem to restore all of his programs after doing the update. Chris clarified that the program he has won’t work on the newer operating system.

Chris also wondered which way the air flows thru his machine. Mikail said the air comes in to the side and is blown out the back.

Gary called. He has a Mac Book running operating system 10.6.8 (Snow Leopard), the last version that can run Apple Works, which he has and likes a lot. The Safari browser is having problems and he wanted to know if it’s possible to reinstall it from the original disks. Mikail said, the problem is that it will need to be updated and the updates will be hard to find. You’ll have to search the internet to find the old updates. And it won’t work until it’s updated, Glenn added.

Paul isn’t expected to return for a couple more Zen Tech shows. Mikail said he has a lot more to talk about on the next show, like the new Mac OS called High Sierra and iOS 11.

Lee called to ask if it’s ok to put a keyboard in the dishwasher to clean it…definitely not. Use a light touch when cleaning or you may knock the keycaps off the Mac and won’t be able to put them on again. Use a gentle cleaner like Fantistik or Green Cleaner or a citrus-based cleaner. Put the cleaner on a cloth first and rub gently.

Someone called (off air) asking for a more precise location of the Rex fire. Glenn said it’s on the town side of Highway 20 as you’re going toward Yuba City, at the intersection of Gibson & Butler.

Last Updated 11:53 PM 7-12-2017

Co-Host Mikail Graham with special guest Michael Anderson from Spiral Internet spiral.com to talk about Spiral’s new Gigabit 100% fiber optic internet service. Coming this year.

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.

Glenn was in the studio with co-host Mikail Graham. Paul was away in Croatia.
Michael Anderson from Spiral Internet was a guest.

Listeners were invited to call during the show with their questions and comments at 530-265-9555.

Mikail talked about a new computer virus going around called Petya. It’s a variation of the recent Wannacry virus mentioned during the 5-24-17 show. He said the malware usually gets into your machine when you click on an attachment [to an email].

Glenn said, if you open an email from someone you don’t recognize, don’t click on attachments <or any links>. Even if the email seems to be from someone that you know be careful, the account may have been hijacked and is being used to spread malware, Mikail added. You can sometimes tell if an email is bogus if the wording is not typical of the person that you think it’s from. Double check if the email is good by calling that friend & asking if they sent you the mail. It’s important to backup the files you want to protect.

Michael said the bad guys are increasingly using artificial intelligence to ferret out info about you. They’ll find out who you communicate with and what services you use. If they see you’re a Fedx customer, they may send email from what looks like a legitimate Fedx account, for example.

Michael also mentioned business networks where one computer is running legacy software — maybe because it will cost too much to upgrade. Keep it off the network because if becomes compromised, it can infect the other computers on the network.

Mikail said Petya was derived from NSA spying software that was leaked to the public. And in the last few weeks, 32 terabytes of Microsoft Windows source code was also leaked. It’s not certain what mischief will come from that, he said. Though Microsoft patched Windows for Petya, many people haven’t kept up with their updates. And computers aren’t the only equipment that can be hacked. There are tractors, cars and other internet connected devices that are vulnerable too.
<The cyber attack that knocked out Ukraine this morning is now going global:
Everything you need to know about the Petya, er, NotPetya nasty trashing PCs worldwide:
This looks like a simple fix for Petya, but I can’t vouch for it…
Vaccine, not Killswitch, Found for Petya (NotPetya) Ransomware Outbreak:>

Adobe and several other companies have come out with software that can recreate a person’s voice from a small sample. It’s about 90% accurate, according to Mikail. There’s also software to do something similar with video. An example is George Bush’s face superimpose on a speaker, making it look like it’s really Bush who’s speaking.

Mikail said Amazon’s Echo Show (with Alexa, the personal assistant) is to debut today. He’ll give us a review of the product on the next show. It’s supposed to have a couple of speakers and a video screen that allows you to have video chats with other people. It could be a useful aid for senior citizens. But he has some questions about how privacy issues will be handled.

Michael gave us an overview of project Spiral Internet is starting. In Dec of 2015 the California Advanced Services Fund awarded a grant of over $16 million for the 1st phase. It was finally approved in mid May 2017 after much review of its environmental impact. Spiral is in the design process now. The first phase is to roll out in areas that are currently underserved. The definition of underserved includes those who currently have less than 6 megabits/sec.

Their network operation center is on Providence Mine Road. The optical fiber will be sent up Brunswick and down 174 (highway?) to Mount Olive Road. Then it will go down to Dog Bar and back up Labar(?) Meadows, up Rattlesnake then circles back thru Grass Valley and reconnects at the Nocks(?). That’s the loop. The laterals go out from huts that are on that loop. Service can be provided as far as 30 km from each hut.

There are 2 types of fiber optics. The type commonly deployed in the U.S. is GPON (passive optical network), which is much like the cable network. It has a fixed bandwidth and as more people access it at the same time, the service degrades.

What Sprial will be using is active Ethernet, which is a little more expensive. It’s a “home run” from a hut to each residence and the speed can be controlled for each segment.

If you do a speed test, you should see about 900 megabits/sec with a 1 gig connection, for both uploads and downloads. And if they change the electronics in a hut it can go up to 10 gig, 40 gig, 100 gig or 1 terabits/sec. That’s the advantage of fiber over cable, which has lower top speeds.

After the initial rollout to underserved areas, phase 2 will expand to other areas like Banner, Willow Valley, the town of Washington and microwave will cross South Yuba Canyon. Phase 3 will cover Lake Wild Wood and Penn Valley. The price will be $119 for 1 gigabit/sec of speed. At this time, about 20% of houses in the 174 corridor have signed up, and they haven’t started digging yet.

Michael noted that there could be a cost saving with the fiber service after you get rid of your cable service, satellite service, land line, etc.

On the subject of cord cutting, Mikail said he’s tried the Sling service and didn’t really like it. It seems like a good idea, but it’s slow and had a poor user interface. He dropped it after 2 weeks.

Michael said the Comcast cable service gives you a good speed at a reasonable price but the AT&T DSL service is being slowly phased out. There have been cases where a house with DSL is sold but the new owner can’t get the DSL turned back on.

Mikail said he keeps seeing people who upgrade to the Mac Sierra OS (High Sierra coming this Fall) who miss an important setting. Unless you have a very fast connection, he recommends turning off the option to store your desktop and documents in the cloud. He doesn’t recommend the encryption function either.

Michael talked about Client Works The IT Services For Everyone, his other enterprise. He started it in 1997 after having worked for Grass Valley Group.

They provide managed service like maintenance contracts with business. They monitor systems using a proactive approach to head off problems before they occur.

Michael started to explain the Economic Resource Council the Nevada County Tech Connection. It’s a new initiative funded by Nortech, a group from Chico. It’s what’s called a next generation sector partnership. He didn’t finish before attention turned to an incoming phone call…

Donna called. She has a 2012 Macbook Pro running OSX Yosemite version 10.10.5. Her daughter recently went on a trip to Europe and wanted Donna to install Whatsapp on her iPhone. “And it said that if I did that it was going to put my address book from my phone in the cloud, and that if I got rid of the cloud, I was going to lose my address book”.

Mikail asked her if she’s logged into iCloud on her Mac. She said no, she never uses the cloud. He had her go into system preferences in the upper left corner under the Apple menu, find the item called “iCloud”, click on it and see if there’s an email address. She did that and said there was no email address. He explained that what she’s being told is that the contacts <address book> will be uploaded into Whatsapp when it’s installed. Then if you log out of Whatsapp or delete it, the contacts only in Whatsapp will be deleted, not the contacts in the rest of the phone.

He went on to say, if the iPhone and Mac aren’t synched, she’s missing out on some benefits — the contacts on one device will also be on the other.

Last Updated 12:28 AM 6-29-2017

Again, Microsoft has issued an important patch, which includes older Windows OS. See this article…
Patch Your PC: Yet Another Massive Exploit Discovered

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 6-28-17

A couple of songs were played — Fractal Zoom at the start & Pentatonix near the start and at the end.

Paul was in the studio and Glenn called in from Sacramento

Paul said most of the internet providers have been suffering from a slow down. He speculated it might be due to the heat.

Telephony at KVMR uses VOIP and Paul noticed the poor quality of Glenn’s phone call. He went on to explain that cell service, copper wire telephone service and the internet itself used to be pretty independent. Now, the internet provides the backbone for all these services. So when the internet has a problem, the others can suffer.

Paul said that downdetector.com lists all of the major providers and has an algorithm that checks the major backbones to see how they’re doing. It also takes input from users about problems they’re having.

Paul used speedof.me to check his connection and found he was getting 35 to 40 megabits/sec. But visiting Facebook, Google Drive and some other services resulted in serious problems. He speculated that hopping from one backbone to another caused the inconsistent results.

Glenn remembered that 134 degrees was some kind of heat record and it happened in Death Valley. Looking it up, Paul found that on 7-10-1913 the air temperature was 134 at Furnace Creek, at the bottom of the valley. It’s the hottest atmospheric temperature recorded on anywhere earth.

Paul talked about net neutrality saying there are something like 15 to 30 backbone providers In our area we have Comcast/Xfinity cable and ATT/Uverse DSL. Comcast wants people to buy their movies & content so they prioritize the internet traffic to make it easier for their customers to receive Comcast movies. At some point Comcast had a conflict with the backbone that Netflix resides on, and there was a behind-the-scene deal made between Netflix and Comcast to keep the Netflix video traffic flowing smoothly.

Check out the website battleforthenet.com to see if net neutrality is being observed or not. It’s explained on the webpage that it tests how traffic moves between major provider backbones.

Paul compared net neutrality with interstate commerce where goods can travel across state boundaries without regulation and tariffs. When you pay for 30 megabits/sec, you want to get that speed no matter where you go, no matter what backbone you go thru.

Paul talked about cars having problems with overheating in this hot weather. He’s seen many cars by the side of the road with overheated engines and was reminded of the friend who was struck and killed while standing on the shoulder by his car. He has a couple of rules to go by: the further you can get off the road, the better and never get out of the driver side of the car.

Paul went on to say that American cars have catalytic converts that get very hot. If you pull off onto a grassy area, the grass can catch fire if it comes in contact with the converter.

Additionally, don’t open the radiator cap. Wait for the engine to cool off. And don’t add cool water to the expansion tank while the engine is hot — it can crack the engine block.

Coming back from Sacramento last Monday, Paul had to take a break in Auburn to let his engine cool. He couldn’t decide if he should let his car idle so the coolant would circulate and hopefully cool the engine faster. He wished he had an infrared temperature gauge, which you can get from Home Depot for about $20. With it, he could have measured the temperature of different parts of the engine block to see how quickly it was cooling.

Glenn chimed it with his tip, saying that if you see the temperature gauge climbing, turning off the air conditioner can delay a overheating problem. You can also turn on the heater to take more heat away from the engine.

Should the coolant all boil away, irretrievable damage can be done to the engine within the 1st minute of running without water, Paul noted. You may not notice it at first but problems can show up later. One thing that can happen is the head gasket can be damaged and there may be oil lost into the coolant, coolant into the oil or coolant may enter the cylinders. The lesson is to take care not to let your engine overheat, which can happen very quickly, Glenn said.

After he has a high temperature event, Paul likes to check the coolant hoses as well as his oil. He said, that you don’t get more mileage with synthetic oil than natural oil. The wearing out of oil is due more to combustion products getting into it than something happening to the oil itself.

Program director Steve Baker came to the mic to say that the KVMR radio signal is no longer broadcasting and won’t be until repairs are made. The internet stream is still working. Paul said he’ll archive this show. <I’m not sure what he meant. The show is automatically archived — see the links at the top of this page>.

Paul talked about his Sonoff remote control device. It’s a wi-fi based internet of things (IOT) home automation system that you can get for $5.75 on Ebay or about $10 on Amazon. It’s a small rectangular white block that you can hold in the palm of your hand that has 2 screw terminals on the left and right, a push button and an LED. The push button is used to pair the device with your router.

He then got a common electrical extension cord, which he cut. He then bared the wires and connected them to the screw terminals (observing the polarity).

Next, you need to get an app called ewlink. With the app you create an account somewhere in China to which the device logs in. Since your router has a firewall, you won’t be able to directly communicate with the device when you’re out and about. What happens is your app logs on to the server in China where you created the account. The remote control device logs in to that server too. Now, the server acts as a go between for the device & app, and they can talk to each other.

Now, it’s proper to be suspicious of such a device when you don’t know everything it’s doing. It could be snooping on you, gathering passwords, etc. So you should create a guest network. Most routers are able to do this including Apple Airport routers. Essentially, this creates a separate login for the device so it can’t see the other traffic going thru the router — traffic from your computers, tablets, etc.

Glenn related a question by a listener named Marilyn. Can a cell phone that is not activated on a cellular service still be used to browse the internet using wi-fi? Paul said that it can. Glenn then asked if you take the SIM card out of an iPhone, could you still use the wi-fi. Paul replied that it might be problematic. If it’s a locked phone, it wants to see a SIM card that belongs to the company that originated it. <A locked phone is tied to a cellular company and may still be under contract.>

Paul gave an example. He got a used Sprint iPhone and reloaded the latest version of iOS. He turned it on and it said he needed to active the phone. But he didn’t have the SIM card for the service the phone had on it. He said that there are dead SIM cards (with no service on them) being sold for a couple of bucks. The iPhone just wants to see the cellular provider’s card, it doesn’t care if it works. Paul said if you deactivate your phone to give it to someone else, don’t throw away the SIM card. Also be sure the cellular company won’t be charging you for having the card in the phone, Paul said.

Glenn’s audio was breaking up pretty badly but it sounded like he said there will be another Zen Tech show on 6-28-17. Paul said he won’t be here but will be on the way to Croatia for his niece’s wedding.

Last Updated 12:42 AM 6-22-2017>

Acronis Backup– protects against Ransomware?!

Android Malware– Punch N Judy!!

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 and Paul were in the studio today.

The intro music was Fractal Zoom by Brian Eno. Paul noted that Eno is a contributing member and a major force in the Long Now Foundation.

Listeners were invited to call during the show with their questions and comments at 530-265-9555

Paul revisited the concept of ransomware that was discussed on the last show (5-24-17). He said it has spawned a plethora of copycats. Ransomeware is not new; it’s been around 12 to 15 years. In the wake of the fear it elicits, others have been encouraged to offer solutions claiming to protect you, but not one is guarantied to work. Though PCs are usually targeted, other operating systems are vulnerable, Paul said.

Another form of malware is foistware, which is foisted on you by pretending to be something else, like when you’re prompted to do a Flash, Java or Adobe Acrobat update, for instance.

Paul mentioned Acronis Backup software. He said it does a reasonably good job. <See the link at the top>. There’s a lightweight version for individuals and a version for corporations. Though they claim that 500,000 business trust it, it’s unclear if that number refers to those who just started to download it or completed the download or went ahead and installed the software. Paul said, “there is no security software that you should ever trust, at all”…”behave with total circumspection and total distrust”. <That seems a bit hyperbolic, but I felt the need to include it>.

That said, Paul prefers FreeFileSync for backup. It does require the user to make some decisions about what to backup and what to skip. Generally, you’ll want to backup the content of C:\users (C:\documents and settings for XP users). <This program was mentioned during last week’s show (5-24-17) and on the 10-1-14 show.>
<FreeFileSync is here
The 12.1meg program .exe is here:
More info here>

Although an anti-virus program will prevent viruses from being backed up, there’s nothing to stop files encrypted by ransomware from being copied. There’s no reason to back them up, Paul said.

Glenn reminded listeners that the Zen Tech website is at zen.kvmr.org. And you can email the guys at zen at kvmr dot org at any time.

One of the project of The Long Now Foundation is a “monumental, scale multi-millennial, all mechanical clock as an icon to long term thinking”. Paul has seen one version of the clock at Fort Mason in San Francisco.
<The Clock of the Long Now>

Paul briefly talked about the Egyptian mummies and how recent advances in DNA extraction revealed that their origins were mainly Mediterranean populations rather than those from sub-Sahara.

Glenn has had time to evaluate the new LED headlights he got for his car that he talked about on the last show (5-24-17). He likes the illumination and no one has flashed their lights at him to indicate they were too bright. When Paul stood in front of the car, he found the upper boundary of the low beam lights terminated very precise, which was probably what kept the lights from blinding oncoming drivers. Glenn paid $100 for the kit from Amazon. It’s another $100 for the daytime running lights “and for the high beams”.

Paul said, “in this country, I don’t think, it’s ok to run around with running lights only — they don’t count for daytime use”. Glenn said, “if you use them in an area that isn’t designated for ‘you must use your headlights’, your daytime running lights do not count”.

Paul noted that over the years, safety regulations have reduced auto accidents and fatalities. Though still on the decline, the rates are leveling off due to cell phones and distracted driving.

There’s been discussion to make cell phones with a feature that will disable them when the car is in motion. Paul uses an app on his phone called Gas Buddy that, besides finding cheap gas prices, does detect if a car is in motion and, if so, will naggingly ask if the user is the driver or passenger.

Many radios in cars are Bluetooth enabled and you can get a device that attaches to the steering wheel that you can use to control a radio. The radio has to say it is “Bluetooth steering control enabled”. It is a standard. So even if you get a cheap Chinese knockoff for around $12, it should work. Paul said he’s still tempted to look at it even though you’re supposed to use it without taking your eyes off the road.

One of Paul’s favorite technology site is theregister.co.uk or in the USA it’s theregister.com. Yesterday he noticed an article about advertising fraud malware called Punch ‘n Judy that has targeted Android users. <See the link at the top>. It was found in 41 app in the Google Play Store. They have all been removed.

Version 7 of Android has a way of isolating suspicious activity of an app and notifying Google, which can then either kill the app or stop it from working and issue a warning.

Paul’s not sure what users can do about the Punch ‘n Judy malware. He said to google the words: punch ‘n judy android. And before you download apps, look at the user comments, how many downloads and how many stars (rating) they have.
<As I understand it the app is designed to click on ads in the background in a way the user may not notice. The pay-per-click payments somehow accrue to the malware creators. See here for another article>

Marilyn emailed a picture of a popup she keeps getting in her web browsers. It’s a side bar on the left with a green bar and the items Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google Plus. She hasn’t found a way to get rid of it from her Windows 10 machine.
– Glenn asked the listeners for help.
– Paul suggested right-clicking the side bar to see what come up.
– Glenn did some research the other night but couldn’t remember the details of what he found. It had something to do with setting notifications in Windows.
– Paul thought it might be a browser plugin. In Firefox got to Tools -> Addons. If you don’t recognize something on the list, remove it. Even if you remove all the addons, Firefox will still work.
– An addon can appear in both Firefox and Chrome browsers even though you installed it once.
– In Chrome you can find the addons by going to the triple bar in the upper right -> Settings -> Plugins,
– In Chrome go to the triple bar -> Settings -> About to find out what version it is and to check for updates. This isn’t true for XP users because Chrome is no longer supported.
– In Firefox go to Help -> About Firefox -> Check for Updates.
– With frequent updates over the years, Firefox accumulates a bunch of junk. You can refresh it on a PC by going to Help -> Trouble Shooting Information -> Refresh Firefox. You can also try safe mode & restart. Paul said he’s never lost his bookmarks doing this. And it leaves what it cleaned up in a folder on the desktop called ‘Old Firefox Data’, which Paul has never seen a reason to keep.

Glen 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

Last Updated 11:21 PM 5-31-2017

/p

Microsoft has a patch for the WannaCry ransomware for users of older Windows 8, Vista and even XP. Some of you, and XP users in particular, may have noticed that using Windows Update does not show a patch for WannaCry. You have to go here and get it manually. Once you have the .exe file, just run it and it will install itself.
How to Protect Yourself From Ransomware Attack
Frenchmen claim cure for WannaCry-infected computers. The software is here

There was no show on 5-10-17 due to membership drive

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 < >

Looks like there was a problem with the KVMR archive. I couldn’t find today’s show there. Recent shows are here.

NOTE: There is another show scheduled for next week – 5-31-17

Both Paul and Glenn were in the studio

Listeners were invited to call with their questions and comments during the show at 530-265-9555

Glen reminded listeners that they can become contributing members of KVMR by calling the office number 530-265-9073

Paul talked a bit about ransomware and a version of it called WannaCry. <see the link at the top> Ransomware hijacks your computer by encrypting and locking up your vital data until you pay a ransom. Ransomware is not something new, as it first appeared a few years ago. Some 10 years ago a virus call AIDS emerged and it encrypted databases. Don’t depend on software to defend against ransomware, Paul said, use offline backups of your data.

Glenn said a researcher was able to find a way to decrypt the data and recover from WannaCry, but it requires that you haven’t rebooted your computer since the infection. <See the link to the article at the top.>

Glenn cautioned people about clicking on links in emails. An email may look like it’s from your bank, for instance, but it might be bogus. Use a web address you know is good to go to the bank’s site. <Or call them.> <Also at the top, is an NY Times article with security tips.>

Those still using unsupported versions of Windows (Vista & XP) can find a patch for WannaCry by following the instructions at the top of this page.

Paul noted that makers of anti-virus software or purveyors of security services don’t warranty or guaranty their products. The answer is offline backup, he said. That means keeping the backups separate from the computer or else the backups can be compromised.

He went on to say that it’s desirable to have at least 2 if not more storage media. Flash drives are relatively inexpensive — 128 gig flash drive can be found for under $30. Determine how many gigs of data you have for backing up and get drives that are twice that size.

Rather than dragging your data to the flash drive, use a program like FreeFileSync, Paul said. <It was mentioned on the 10-1-14 show.> To determine how much data will be synched, Go to the C: drive and find the folder called “Users”, right-click on it and then click on “properties”.
<FreeFileSync is here
The 12.1meg program .exe is here
More info here>

Once you’ve done the 1st backup, take out the flash drive and label it ‘A’. Then repeat the process with a 2nd flash drive & label it ‘B’. The drive that’s not currently plugged into the computer is considered secure from malware. <Presumably you should alternate the 2 drives as you continue making backups.>

Should you get hit with ransomware, don’t even consider plugging in the offline backup drive into your computer until you’re sure you’ve cleaned out the infection. Paul said he’s seen viruses working in pairs. You think you’ve eliminated the virus and the other one brings the 1st one back. And when you think you’ve deleted the 2nd one, the 1st one brings it back. So, Paul suggested making a copy of the drive you’re going to use for restoring. <I think he meant having 2 offline copies in case there are still remnants of the virus you missed.>

He went on to suggest occasionally doing a practice run of restoring your data to a completely different computer. A backup won’t do you any good if you can’t restore it. Even a Mac can read a flash drive made on a PC.

Glenn replaced the headlights in his car with LED headlights. When he went shopping for them he found that one issue is the wattage the lights required. Of the ones he saw, each LED bulb had 4 LEDs in it and required 120 watts per bulb instead of the 55 watts of his original H11 bulbs. So Paul did some searching and found, on Amazon, bulbs with 2 LEDs inside, which made the wattage requirement close to what he was already using.

LEDs require a fixed current at whatever voltage it takes but the tungsten type bulbs need a fixed voltage at whatever current it takes. So the guys had to make sure there was a current regulator circuit between the bulb and the rest of the car’s electrical system. It turned out that the LED bulbs are much brighter (3500 lumens) and had a whiter light (6000 K).

Speaking of lumens, Paul mentioned an app for his Android tablet that turns it into a light meter. It’s called Lux. He said the tablet has a light sensitive cell, which normally controls the brightness of the screen based on the amount of ambient light. The app uses this cell to indicate the brightness of the light shining on it. <There are a number of apps that use the word Lux. Do a google search for the words: site:play.google.com lux meter.>

When Paul replaced the lights in his RV with LEDs and found that they don’t put out a uniform spectrum. When he replaced the running light with an LED, he found that the red lens in front of the bulb muted the light more than he liked. The correct solution is to replace the lens rather than finding an LED with a suitable color.

On modern cars there is a system called CAN bus. Its originally a German standard that uses a buss topology. It allows the car’s computer to tell if a light is out by measuring the current going to the bulbs. But since the LEDs use less current, the computer thinks a light is out when it isn’t. Paul didn’t say what or if there’s a solution.

Ralph called. He’s about to buy an replacement headlight for his car but he thinks the LED bulbs are too expensive & piss off people because they are so bright. Glenn said he got 2-year warranty and paid $90 for the pair that he bought.

Paul said the brightness became an issue when the high voltage zenon bulbs came on the market years ago. And misalignment can also cause the headlights of on-coming cars to be blindingly bright. There’s not much regulation, though some East Coast states will ticket drivers if the headlights are not aligned properly. Ralph said he’ll just get an old fashion tungsten headlight this time around. Glenn said he’ll be evaluating the new headlights and will have more to say about them on the next show.

Scott called from Topanga in Southern Calif. He said he flies Cessna aircraft and had light burn out regularly. But since the fleet switched over to LEDs, he’s not seen one burn out. Glenn said the ones he bought are rated for 55,000 hours. Paul said tungsten filament bulbs lose brightness as they age but the LEDs don’t.

Scott asked for opinions about cloud backups, like Carbonite. Paul said that besides Carbonite there’s Google Drive (his favorite), Drop Box as well as others. They will dutifully copy whatever is on your machine. He emphasized ‘whatever’. The point he seemed to make is that the backup happens so frequently and there may not be much time between a virus infection and a backup. So the consequence of an infection will get backed up, too.

The other problem with cloud backups is that there may not be enough bandwidth, if you’re working on a large project. Video editing especially can be problematic because files tend to be big. And when you first start using Carbonite, it can take hours or days to do the initial backup. After that, the backups are incremental where only the changes are backed up. And keep in mind that the upload speed is typically slower than the download — maybe only 4 or 5 megabits/sec. To beat ransomware the best option is local offline storage of your data, like to a flash drive.

Glenn asked if Time Machine on the Mac is susceptible to a ransomware attack. Paul said yes. If you or one of your programs can read and write data, so can the malware. He noted 2 of the big vectors for infection is the Flash player and Java. He said no one should be using Java anymore, Paul said.

Terry called to express her low opinion of bright headlights. She thinks that even if they are pointing down at the ground, they can have a bad effect. She didn’t elaborate but she’s practicing her high pitch singing in hopes of being able to break the glass of those headlights. Paul noted that there is tradeoff between seeing more with bright headlights and blinding on-coming drivers.

Paul briefly mentioned the Cree tactical flashlight, which were also talked about on the 6-29-16 show. Glenn found one for just a few bucks, for the flashlight alone. It uses a proprietary battery, which Paul got from an old laptop that’s 3.7 volts and 3 amp hours. The flashlight packages the guys got were $20 and included, among other things, a charger. At one time Paul tried shining the flashlight into his eyes & couldn’t see anything for 2 or 3 minutes. I think it was an expression of amazement as well as a warning because he followed with a disclaimer — he does not recommend shining them into people’s eyes.

Last Updated 12:15 AM 5-25-2017

/abp