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 podcast of today’s show will be here. Recent shows are here.

Paul was in the studio. Glenn was in Richmond but didn’t call in.

Over the years, this show has suggested the use of an anti-virus on your PC. However, Paul had proposed that an anti-virus not be used with the Mac. Though Macs do get viruses they are rare and the cost and effort of using an anti-virus is not worth it, Paul said.

Though recommended in the past, Microsoft Security Essentials shouldn’t be used. Its ability to protect has deteriorated in recent years and has been pretty much abandoned by Microsoft. Windows Defender is not very good either, Paul said.

Once your subscription to the anti-virus you’re using has expired, uninstall it and install the currently suggested program called Avast. You don’t double your security if you run 2 anti-virus programs at the same time and they can conflict with each other. There is a free version of Avast, and the licensed version is a reasonable $19. The free version is good for a year. Avast is rated pretty high for catching viruses.

When downloading Avast, as well as other software, look for a button that says something like ‘customize’. Using it will allow you to select what options are included. For Avast, Paul suggested you select file shielding, updating, and browser cleanup. You don’t need anything else.

When installing Avast you’ll be asked to register the program by providing an email address. Paul said he’s not gotten excessive volume of email from the company but this is good occasion to use a throwaway email address: not one you use for serious emails.

A couple of Paul’s clients have recently received warnings from their anti-virus about a program called Open Candy that pops up ads. It’s not strictly a virus but belongs to a category that Avast calls PUP, potentionally unwanted programs. Paul suspects the site freefilesync.org is what sneaks Open Candy onto computers.

It’s a good idea to occasionally open your anti-virus program and do a full system scan, Paul said. You usually have a choice of scanning just the executable files (ones ending in .exe, .com, .bat, etc.), but do a full scan instead.

Just because the anti-virus finds something doesn’t mean that malicious software is running. It could just be something in a ‘temp’ folder that got cached while you were surfing the web and has been there for a couple of years or more. Paul said he’s not seen an well-known anti-virus remove software that it shouldn’t, when you ask it to correct the problems it’s found, but be sure to do regular backups just in case.

In backing up your machine, ideally you’re storing your personal stuff, the files you created, not the programs used to compose those files (Microsoft Office for instance). What you want to backup is what you find in C:\users on a machine running Vista, Win7, Win8 or Win10.

To find out how big a drive you need to backup your data, right click on the folder C:\users and left click on ‘properties’. The hard drive should be at least twice as big as the number you see under ‘properties’, according to Paul. <He never did explain why>.

He mentioned some of the things under ‘Users’ that you don’t need to backup: temporary intenet files, profile for Firefox, the folder under ‘applications data’ called ‘Chrome Temp’ if you use the Chrome browser

Flash drives are very handy for doing backups, but get brand name flash drives like San Disk, the cheap ones are not worth the savings. You can get a 32gig flash drive on Amazon for under $20, Paul said.

Doing a backup is not as simple as dragging the ‘Users’ folder to the backup drive. There are always some files that are open and are being used by an application program or Windows itself. Dragging the Users folder to the flash drive will copy files just fine until it gets to one of the open files, at which point the whole operation stops and you’re back to square one. The solution is to use a backup program.

Some hard drives, like the ones by Seagate, come with reasonably good backup software. And in the past Paul has recommended programs like Syncback, and Cobian. He now suggests using freefilesync (be sure you don’t go to freefilesync.com). It lets you manually configure what gets backed up.

To configure freefilesync look for the red funnel-shaped icon. It’s the filter for selecting what gets backed up. Paul mentioned some files that Windows keeps open all of the time: ntuser.dat and userclass.dat. Set it so the program does not try to back these up.

Not all flash drives are created equal. Paul suggested getting the fastest drive compatible with your computer. Userbenchmark.com has software to test solid-state hard drives; hard drives, USB flash drives, RAM and graphic processors. <They also aggregate data from the public who’ve used their software and make it available on their site. If you’re thinking of buying a certain drive, check its specs first.>

Paul suggested buying 2 flash drives for backups. Label one A and the other B. Then do a complete backup to each and thereafter alternate doing backups to each. Be sure to keep the drives in a secure place <in separate areas of your residence, in my opinion>.

After you do a backup, <or any time you write to a flash drive> don’t just pull the drive out of the USB slot, eject it first. There’s usually an icon for external media in the system tray (lower right) to ‘eject’ a portable drive. Or you can look under ‘computer’ to find the flash drive in question and then right-click it and then click eject. This will make sure all of the files have finished writing and are closed. Shutting off the machine will do the same thing. This is good to know if you keep getting a warning that the drive can’t be ejected due to it being in use and you can’t figure out what’s using the drive.

After the backup, Paul said take the flash drive to another machine and make sure the backed up data can be read from it.

The USB socket is a bit fragile, he said. Don’t keep anything plugged in if it’s avoidable, especially in laptops. They can get banged around, which can result in a broken connector.

Getting back to anti-viruses, Paul said none of them get any better than about 95% and catching malware because the malware keeps changing and they just can’t keep up. Ransomware is especially pernicious. It encrypts the files on your hard drive and makes them unavailable until you pay a ransom to have them decrypted. This is where it’s important to keep backups. Ransomware can’t touch a flash drive that isn’t plugged into your computer. And if it does get to your A drive backup, there’s always the B drive.

Though this will likely be on the Fleamarket show tomorrow, Paul said someone has a jukebox for sale. If interested call 916-215-6230.

Nick called to suggest that USB drive encryption be a topic on a future show. Nick said he buys USB drives that come with encryption software. The drive brand is Cruzer Micro. He said another one is the San Disk Ultra 3.0 flash drive. He thought encryption is a good idea because the small drives can be easily lost. Paul added that the encryption won’t save you from ransomware. Once you plug in the flash drive and type your password to open it, the ransomware can read and write to it just like any program.

Ron called. He has dead iMac and wants to get the hard drive out of it. Paul said he’ll have to pull the face glass off of it. Paul suggest suction cups which you can get at Grocery Outlet as part of towel hangers: the type that you can suction-stick to a wall. They’re not ideal, use a bit of soap to help them stick. Put one on the front face of the iMac and one on the back face and pull at one corner. He also said to go to ifixit.com to get instructions on how to disassemble the computer.

Scott called from Southern California. He has a Macbook Pro that he got in last December. He said the screen sometimes goes a dark gray and he has to do a “hard stop with the power button” to get it working again.
– It a hardware problem not software
– I may have bad memory chips. Take out the chips and put them back in. Check the site ifixit.com on how to do that.
– Reset the PRAM (programmable random access memory).
– Google the words: reset smc. Follow the instruction to reset the System Management Console.
– Disconnect any peripherals that aren’t vital.
– Scott said he has Apple Care (a warranty program). Both guys agreed it’s a good idea to check with Apple before doing anything.
– Google the words: mac video error. On the results screen click the Google tag called ‘images’ and see if any of the images match what you’re getting.
– Take a picture of problem you see on the screen. The picture with a time stamp will prove to Apple that you’re still within the warranty period when the problem happens.
– The other thing to try is to blow out the computer with compressed air. It may be an overheating problem.

Last Updated 12:10 AM 4-14-2016

Paul announced that a dog has been found on Fri 3-25-16 at the South Yuba Club in Nevada City. The dog is a neutered male about 12 to 15 lbs. He’s an older black & gray Chihuahua mix. He has a microchip but “the numbers that are on it aren’t working” and he has no tags or collar. The person to call about this dog is Bill at 530-414-8711

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 limited time, the podcast of today’s show is here. Recent shows are here.

The intro music was by Pentatonix:

Paul was in the studio. We didn’t hear from Glenn.

Paul talked about microchips used to identify animals. This is a type of RFID chip that beams back its stored information when a scanning beam is aimed at it. A good signal can be obtained up to about 6′. There are a few different types of scanners, which aren’t compatible with each other. Most veterinarians have a complete set of scanners.

Older versions of these pet chips only contained a number that you used to query a database to find out who the animal belongs to. Newer chips contain more info such as a phone number. Paul speculated that the Chihuahua had an older chip and the database containing the number may no longer exist.
< Info on microchips.
An FAQ about pet chips.>

Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) applies not only to physical access but also to websites. They’re supposed to be designed to make it easy for screen reading software to convey what’s on the screen in an audible form for people with limited eyesight. Many operating systems now come with the ability to read the screen.

Paul took us thru the steps to activate one of the accessibility options on an Android device. Go to settings -> accessibility -> Talkback. When it’s turned on, it provides spoken feedback to help blind and low-vision users. When it’s on, you can touch a function or application on the Android the first time and be told what it does (a good way to learn about your device). A second touch will perform the operation. Doing it on-air, Paul used an example from his appointment calendar — the voice read out that he had a Zen Tech show to do today.

Paul also noted that you can talk to your Android (for the PC a Mac you can install Dragon Naturally Speaking). There are 2 modes of talking to your machine — commands and data. You can tell it what to do (command) or input data, like dictation.

New Macs have built-in dictation but it’s not turned on by default. Paul thought that it’s under system preferences -> dictation -> speech. He said you can get more info at support.apple.com article ht203085.

Next, Paul spent a lot of time talking about trust on the internet. Can you trust a website that claims it belongs to the IRS or your bank? There is no absolute trust, only relative trust, he said — some things are relatively more trust worthy than others.

The example he used was finding out how to file your taxes for free, and he did a search for the words: irs free tax file. You’d expect to be taken to a an IRS website but he got at least 4 ads to places like Turbo Tax. Most looked legit but there’s only one that looked promising. It began with ‘https’ — meaning it’s a secure website. And the domain was .gov (irs.gov), so it’s supposedly a government website. He said he would trust this website more than the others, but still not completely.

Another issue of trust comes up with a site like Wikipedia. Paul read an entry about origin of the title of Paul Simon’s song ‘Mother And Child Reunion’ and wondered how much to trust it. Wikipedia is a collaborative effort with many people contributing to the various entries, any one of whom may skew the info to suit their agenda.

Paul mentioned an activist group called the Yes Men. They would go to press conferences as representatives of a petroleum company and apologize for the environmental damage ‘their’ company had done, illustrating, again, the issue of trust. Are they really who they claim to be?

Paul noted that even secure websites are only relatively secure. The ‘https’ in a URL means the owner of the website submitted an application for an electronic certificate to be issued for use on the website that would only work if the website was “delivering content according to the domain”. If the certificate was used on different website, the internet user will get a warning that though it’s a good certificate, it’s being used on the wrong website, and it will tell you the name of the site it’s supposed to work on. Sometimes this happens because the server is misconfigured — the domain is right but the host isn’t — e.g. it may be registered to secure.kvmr.org but it was being used on www.kvmr.org. The various companies that can issue a certificate, like Verisign, go to the trouble to verify the organization (e.g. KVMR) it’s being issued to.

Paul reminded us that even if we are using a secure session, malware, like keyloggers, can intercept our activity. And there is special equipment that can sense the variation in the electromagnetic radiation coming from a keyboard or the computer itself as you type, revealing the content.

Paul mentioned a great article by Dennis Ritchie “On Trusting Trust”.
<Maybe he meant – Reflections on Trusting Trust by Ken Thompson>

He also said the information leaked by Edward Snowden revealed it’s possible to subvert the security of a certificate so that a website, run by the NSA, can impersonate another website.

Brian called. He assumes that the internet provider hosting his website is secure. And he says his daughter and wife have their own accounts on the same domain. Also, he’s been careful not to open unknown email <to avoid malware, I assume>. Brian wondered if his account is safe if his daughter is not so judicious and opens malware in her account.
– No, not if she uses the same machine, Paul said. If something like a keystroke logger gets on that machine, then it will affect anyone using the machine.

Brian also asked about the FBI attempting to break into the San Bernardino iPhone. <More info in the 2-24-16 show> Paul said the FBI claimed they had succeeded in breaking in, but can you trust what they said? Brian said he’s heard that 12 companies have tried to break in that and one succeeded — Cellebrite.
<FBI Worked With Israel’s Cellebrite to Crack iPhone
The Apple-FBI Whodunit: Who Is Helping The Feds Crack The Locked iPhone?>

Joshua called. He was in Berkeley recently and opened his iPad in preparation for a conference call. He looked for some documents he had prepared and everything before March 1 2016 was gone. He just upgraded to iOS 9.2.1 at the beginning of March. He wondered if it was just the case of the new iOS not being able to read the older documents.
– Paul thought that’s not likely the case. It’s more likely something happened on iCloud — where the documents are stored online in the cloud.
– Visit iCloud at icloud.com. Login with your Apple ID. See if the documents are there.
– It’s possible Joshua never had the synchronization configured correctly on the iPad.

Ross called. He has a 5.1 unibody MacBook Pro with Snow Leopard. What he wanted to know is that if he wiped his hard drive clean and did a fresh install of the operating system from a disk, can he be sure that no malware survived.
– Paul said the level of assurance would be higher than doing it any other way. It’s a matter of how much you trust the CD is not infected — usually pretty high.

Last Updated 11:34 PM 3-30-2016

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 limited time, the podcast of today’s show is here. Recent shows are here.

NOTE: There’s one more Zentech show scheduled for this month on 3-30-16.

Paul was in the studio. Glenn called in later in the show.

Paul talked about keeping his 7″ Nexus Android tablet updated. Many of the apps in the Google Play Sore are free. They are sometimes supported by sponsorship using Adwords.

One of his favorite apps is Gasbuddy for finding the cheapest gas near his location. It’s a crowdsourced database of gas prices around the nation.

Another free app he likes is for weather and comes from Wunderground. It’s one of many free weather apps.

Using Adwords, many of the free apps provide useful and generally unannoying ads for products in your area. Google knows where you are unless you have locations services turned off.

About once a year Paul goes thru his collection of apps to see if there are better versions. For instance, his previous weather app started giving wrong temperatures, so he switched over to using the Wunderground app.

When using the Play Store app, Paul said you can check for app updates by ‘clicking’ the menu icon in the upper left (the 3 striped lines). He said that though there’s some wisdom to ‘don’t fix what ain’t broke”, he hasn’t seen a case where there wasn’t a marked improvement by upgrading an Android device — including, he said, the Android operating system itself.

Upgrading the Android operating system itself is not done thru the Play Store. Instead, click the settings icon (gray cog wheel) and at the bottom you’ll see either ‘check for updates’ or ‘about the Android’. He said Android has gotten sleeker and faster and it’s usually a good idea to do the upgrade unless you have really old hardware.

Paul noted that to uninstall an app, it’s not enough to delete its icon from the home screen. Instead, click the app icon (circle with the dots inside), find the target app and hold your finger on it. An uninstall option appears at the top to which you drag the app. <Or you can do it thru settings -> apps -> all apps. Click your choice & select ‘uninstall’.>

The show preceding Zentech apparently failed to give out the web address to Animal Place. It’s animalplace.org. Paul got a chicken from them years ago that lived to an incredible age.

Marilyn called. She got an older Dell Optiplex, aka lunch box, and installed Windows 7 on it. She now needs a wi-fi adapter. She wondered why it didn’t come with wi-fi and wanted to know what she should get.
– Laptops do come with wi-fi. An Ethernet cable connection is preferred, if it’s available — the performance is better. Marilyn said that could work for here as her laptop is using an Ethernet cable.
– You can get a Realtek USB wi-fi adapter from Amazon or Ebay, Windows 7 will automatically recognize it because it’s so common. It’s a product of China and is pretty cheap — about $5.

Also, Marilyn tried to install an 2002 version of Microsoft Office and it wouldn’t let her do it.
– Paul wasn’t sure why that was happening but suggested she insert the CD containing Office and immediately stop it from autorunning. <Hold down the left shift key, if I recall correctly>. Then browse the CD looking for a program called setup.exe, startup.exe or install.exe. Right click on the program and change it’s properties to run in compatibility mode.
– Instead of using Office, use the free LibreOffice or OpenOffice suite. Paul doesn’t expect compatibility issues except for something minor like a font being used that’s slightly different from the original document.

Ward called. He wanted to know what phone to buy that’s just for calling. He didn’t want to deal with ads.
– Paul suggested a flip phone — somewhere between a smartphone and a dumb one. You can find them on Ebay. Or you can go to a big box store and get a Trak Phone for about $23/mo for voice & text but no data.
– Many people have stashed away their old flip phones after they’ve upgraded. Check with people you know to see if they have one lying around.
– Ideally, find a phone not made by Verizon. Look for one that can take a SIM card <GSM>. You can then get a SIM card on Ebay and buy airtime as needed.
– If you don’t want ads following you around on the web, you can browse anonymously in incognito mode. Most browsers have the feature.

Pinky called. She has an iPhone 6S. She is no longer able to delete email messages. When she tries to trash it, her only options are to ‘archive’ or ‘cancel’. Paul said ‘archive’ is now the same thing as a recycle bin. First do the archive then find the recycle bin and empty it to completely delete the email messages. And remember, the trash folder an email program uses is usually separate from the system trash.

When Glenn finally called in from the Bay Area, Paul played him a recording of phone call he got the other day purporting to be from his bank. The caller asked Paul to call back to an 800 number regarding his credit card. Paul then asked Glenn what he thought of that. Glenn suggested using the phone number on the credit card, not the one given over the phone. That’s what Paul did and when he called the bank he strongly suggest they not give out a phone number during their calls, but to ask people call the phone number on their credit cards. The bank agent seemed perplexed.

Paul also warned people to be leery of websites that show a secure lock in the browser and/or a Better Business Bureau logo on the webpage. That stuff can be easily faked. And when you get an email from, say, your bank, don’t click on any provided links. Instead, type in the link you definitely know is correct.

Paul went on to warn people that phone numbers of incoming calls, the ones that show up in caller ID, can be faked, too. The FCC imposes a $10,000 fine for faking a phone number.

A related security issue is when a bank, for example, uses caller ID to identify customers when they call in. Since phone numbers can be faked, someone using your phone number can impersonate you. Banks should always use other means to identify you. Paul said.

Glenn said he’ll be in the Bay Area until Sunday and that he may be gone for the next Zen Tech show on 3-30-16, as well. Paul will host the Flea Market tomorrow.

Paul talked a bit about Windows 10. He said he’s not encountered any major issues. As true with previous versions, commonly used functions have been moved around. This will be the last iteration of the operating system <it will just be updated>. It’s somewhat faster as the code has been tightened up. He hasn’t seen it crash yet in the few weeks he’s used it.

The deadline for a free upgrade from Win7, Win8 or Win8.1 is approaching. It’s in April, Paul thought.
– It’s a 2 or 3 gig download.
– Be sure to back up your important files before upgrading.
– The menu system in Win10 is “hokey”, Paul said. It’s just a little better than Win8.
– You can get some of the functionality of Win7 or even make it look like XP by using classicshell.net. It’s supposed to work on a Win8 machine, too.
– Microsoft’s goal is to sell you apps for Win10. That’s part of what’s responsible for the crappy interface.

Glenn asked if the Win10 upgrade will work on his ASUS touch screen laptop. Paul said it would, The touch screen interface is just some drivers similar to a mouse driver.

The only people who aren’t eligible for the free Win10 update are those who currently have anything higher than the pro version of Win7 or Win8 (like the enterprise version). Pirated versions of Win7 or Win8 won’t get the upgrade. Those with versions of 7 or 8 that haven’t been activated may have problems after the upgrade. Paul didn’t give details and just said that it will ask you to activate.

To find out more about your computer click the Start button -> right click on ‘computer’ -> left click on properties. Toward the bottom of the screen it will tell you if it’s been activated. If you have an OEM version of Windows, it may not say that it’s been activated but it will say ‘OEM’ and it should be upgradable.

On the Microsoft site there’s supposed to be a link to a downloadable version of Win10. It’s about 3.5gig for the 32bit & 64bit version or 5.6gig for both. Paul didn’t recommend Win10 for 32bit machines. It will work but will be sluggish. You really should have a 64bit cpu, “2 brains in the machine if you can”, 4gig of memory and about 10gig of hard drive space (100gig or more total hard drive storage).

If you currently have an underpowered computer and you’re running, maybe, XP, you can install a version of Linux called Ubuntu.

In versions of Win7, 8 & 10 that are above the home version have Bitlocker. It’s a way to encrypt the content of a hard drive. It’s hard to tell that it’s running in the background. One of Paul’s clients didn’t even know it was running on their computer as they got it used. So, when the manufacturer (Dell) suggested a firmware upgrade the client went ahead and was locked out the hard drive, The firmware upgrade made Bitlocker think it was suddenly running on a different machine. If the client had the chance to turn off Bitlocker before the upgrade, it would have gone smoothly. Paul said that unless you have a compelling reason to use Bitlocker, don’t. Also make separate backups.

Glenn gave us an update about his health situation. He doesn’t have cancer, as first thought. He does have a problem with his liver, which is being treated. So, he plans to be with us for many years to come.

Last Updated 12:10 AM 3-24-2016

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 limited time, the podcast of today’s show is here. Recent shows are here.

Both Paul & Glenn were in the studio today.

Glenn started off by thanking the loyal listeners & supporters of KVMR. If you’d like to become a supporting member, please visit kvmr.org.

Paul noted Beatles music producer George Martin has died at age 90.

He went on to say that session musicians were hired to add orchestral music to the Beatles albums. These days sampled music can be bought and mixed in as needed. Apparently, copyright issues are worked out for each use, according to Paul.

Paul went on to say that you no longer have to write ‘copyright’ on what you create — you just have to “make sure it’s witnessed in some form”. The law changed some years ago and using the letter c in a circle along with the date doesn’t have the legal weight that it used to.

Paul brought up the question of “who has the right to your face if your picture is taken in public”. Common law says you must reasonably your picture to be taken in public “even if it’s a compromising picture, as long as you’re not doing something illegal”. Paul clarified that if the picture shows you doing something illegal, you’re out of luck. <Sounds to me like you have no rights to your public photo.> Paul disclaimed legal expertise.

Paul talked about Getty Images where webmasters go to obtain images to adorn their websites. The images come with a variety of limitations on their use. In the Free Web Art portion of their website, they have images that are free for you to use.

Paul said there are companies that scour the net looking for images that are used with out permission. A friend of his was caught using such an image and was sent an email trying to impose a penalty of $500. But it’s hard to know if an email like that is legit or a scam. Paul said that on the internet you’re supposed to get cease & desist order first with no threat of a fine, and you’re given a chance to delete the image. <He didn’t say what his friend did next.>

Glenn mentioned a website called Webshots that makes images and screen savers available. Paul said that they were very popular about 10 years ago, and were rated #5 in web traffic. Webshots lets the public submit pictures for a chance to win prizes, but the pictures become the property of Webshots.

The guys speculated that Webshots’ screen saver will work with the latest operating systems Windows 7 and Windows 10. Their program is called webshots.scr. Paul was impressed by the beauty of their images but he doesn’t use it anymore.
<What is webshots.scr?
More info about it here>

Ron called. He’s experienced theft of images from his website by entities in India that pass them off as their own. He wanted to know what he could do short of spending a lot of money on an attorney.
– Paul didn’t think there are readily available resources to deal with this on an international level. If it were just in the U.S., it would still be expensive.
– You can try to find out who is behind the Indian website with a whois search. You can also use domaintools to get similar info.
– The next step is to find out who is hosting the Indian website and complain the he hosting service that one of their clients has copyrighted material.
– You can also ask Google to not display that company in their search results. Do Google search with the words: google dmca take down.
<I found a couple of webpages to get you started.
Removing Content From Google
Legal Removal Requests
How to Remove Copied Content From Google Search using DMCA>

Glenn gave out the contact info for this show.
You can call during the show at 530-265-9555
Or write to zen@kmvr.org
The website is zen.kvmr.org

Originally InterNIC was a government entity that registered domain names. Registering is done to associate the URL <like xyz.com> of a website with an ip address <so, for example, New York Magazine (nymag.com) will have the ip address 23.235.33.204.> Now, there are many companies that can register your website — such as namesheet.com and godaddy.com. Sometimes, as with godaddy.com, the process is complicated.

Paul said that Google is a good choice for registering your domain name. It’s $12 per year and there’s blogging service that comes with it. To check them out, go to googledomains.com or google.com/domains.

In the last 3+ years since he got his iPad & iPhone, Glenn hardly uses a desktop computer anymore, except if he has to do a lot of typing. Paul noted some of the differences between a traditional computer and a tablet…
– Not all applications run the same way on both.
– The tablet has less horsepower because the emphasis is on saving weight and energy.
– The tablet has less storage capacity and fewer choices for external media (like a CDROM drive).
– Some tablets lack an external port, though Android tablets generally come with a USB port. If it’s a OTG (On The Go) USB, you can get an adapter that allows you to plug in a USB memory stick <and other USB devices — keyboard, mouse, etc.>. So the USB, normally used for charging and transferring file, becomes like the familiar USB slot on your desktop computer. <Many Androids come with a microSD memory card slot, too — very handy>.
– The only way to know if a tablet will work for you is to get one.

One problem Paul’s found with iPhones is if people want to synch their contacts and calendar, they generally have to resort to the Outlook program on the PC, which he called a nightmare.

People may not generally be aware that if they have data on iCloud, it can be accessed from any computer.

Paul said Flickr will let you store up to 1 terabyte of photos for free. Be aware that it can take a long time to upload a terabyte of pictures.
– Other services that offer varying amounts of free storage include Skydrive from Microsoft, Google Drive, iCloud from Apple, Dropbox, Evernote and Flickr.
– If you want 1 terabyte on iCloud, it costs $10/mo.
– Paul likes Google Drive, he gets 15gig of free storage and the ability to edit files of different formats — like .pdf.
– Flickr offers you so much storage because it wants to sell you other services — hard copy prints of your photos, Christmas cards with your images, etc.

Microsoft came into the tablet market rather late with their Surface tablets. The RT version of the Windows operating system, which ran on an ARM prcessor, is officially dead, Paul said. The Surface tablets with RT can still be found for sale. You can replace the RT operating system with Linux.

Latest generation of LED flashlights put out a pleasant white light rather than the fluorescent blue light of older models. The truer white light due to the phosphor coating on the lens. The bluish light of the LED source hits the phosphor, which gets excited and reemits a longer, more pleasant wavelength of light.

Paul wondered how dangerous LED lasers are <laser pointers I assume>. His research turned up very few injuries from shining these 35miliwatt lasers directly into eyes (but don’t try it). However, he did discover that there is a chance of eye injury from the LED flashlights because they use a higher wattage. You may want to at least keep them away from children.

Karen called. She tried saving pictures from her iPhone to her PC and ended up with hundreds of folders with a couple of pictures in each. The photos were automatically deleted from the iPhone.
– First, backup the pictures, maybe to a flash drive, before trying to correct the situation.
– Manually go into each folder and drag each photo into one destination folder.
– Or, google for the words: windows utilities. It can automate the copying process.
– When you plug in the iPhone, Windows is supposed to treat it like a camera and offer to import the photos. It may not have done that in her case. Paul suggested she google the words: import pictures and videos using windows, to find out how to configure windows to do it automatically. <See Peter’s tip below>

Neal called. He has a PC and a Mac on a network and a printer directly connected to the Mac. He wants to know how to make the PC use the printer.
– Check to see if the printer can be connected to the router — does it say Ethernet or wi-fi on the front?
– The less preferred method is to share the printer from the Mac. Go to preferences on the Mac (the gray cog) -> printers icon (you should see a printer that says USB interface) -> click on the printer (the name of the one attached to the Mac) -> tick the check box that says “share this printer”
– Then on the PC look for the network printers and you should see it there if it’s been turned on.

Peter called with a tip for Karen (above) to make copying the pictures easier. He said go to the folder that has those hundreds of folder and do a search (control+F or F3 or whatever Vista OS uses). Search for just a ‘*’. That should bring up all of her photo files onto one screen. She can then select and drag a bunch of pictures at a time, instead of going into each folder individually.

Gina called. She got a 2007 iMac from a friend recently and wanted to know how usable it is and if it can be upgraded. She managed to find the serial number and would like to know more about it. Paul suggested she go to appleserialnumberinfo.com. Enter the serial number there and it will tell you all sorts of things, including whether there are any recall notices.

Last Updated 12:01 AM 3-10-2016

/p

There was no show on 1-27-16 due to a membership drive

On 2-10-16 Paul & Glenn were out of town and again there was no show. In its place, an interesting Radiolab show was played. It was about the experience of a woman who had to pay a ransom to have the files on her computer returned to her control. The second half was about how these and similar scammers operate. This segment was about 40 min long. There was an interview at the end to fill out the hour.

The audio to the entire show should be available for about 2 months here. After that, you can go here for the Radiolab segment.

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 limited time, the podcast of today’s show is here. Recent shows are here. For podcasts of other KVMR programs go to archive.kvmr.org.

Paul was in the studio. We didn’t hear from Glenn.

The intro music was “Start Me Up” by The Rolling Stones. It was used by Microsoft for the ad campaign with the rollout of Win95. Paul misremembered when he said it was for Windows 3.1.

Paul talked a bit about the effort of the FBI to gain entry into an iPhone used by a suspect in the San Bernardino mass shooting. A request was made of Apple for help. Given enough time, the FBI can probably break into the phone, Paul said. The FBI wants Apple to replace iOS 9.2, the operating system of the phone, with a version that will allow the FBI to try an unlimited number of passwords until they guess the correct one. The way it works now is that with each guess the time interval between allowed guesses is progressively increased.

Later generations of iPhone & iPad have a fingerprint scanner built into the home button. When a finger is scanned, the print isn’t directly compared to fingerprints stored in some database. Instead, the data from the print is encrypted in such a way that it can be matched up only with another one like it — it’s the uniquely encoded data that’s compared.

Paul related a story about a journalist who dropped his iPhone and caused the home button to come out. He had the button replaced at a 3rd party repair shop with a button from China. He originally got his iPhone 6 with iOS 8 on it. After the repair, when the phone was upgraded to iOS 9, the new operating system noticed that the button was not part of the original hardware and locked the phone. The journalist wasn’t even using his fingerprint to secure the phone. The lesson is, have Apple do such repairs. If you’re interested in how the hardware and software in iPhone’s security works, Paul suggested searching for the words: secure enclave.

Fingerprints are not hard to fake. Ironically, the prints from your handling the phone can be lifted off. Some time back the Mythbusters showed how it can be done. The sensor is not able to tell if the print it’s seeing is part of a finger or fake or even from a dead person.

A caller, who’s name I couldn’t decipher, with a Mac Pro said it has trouble reading CDs.
– The lens may have dust on it. There are CDs made specifically for cleaning, Paul said. The caller said he’s tried that with no improvement.
– You can try a can of compressed air to clean the lens. The caller said he’s tried that, too.
– Buy an external CD drive for about $30 — ideally one that uses a Firewire connection. Be sure to get the correct type — with either a SATA or parallel interface.
– From the caller’s description, he has the older parallel interface. Go to Ebay or Amazon and search for the words: parallel cd rom drive. You may have to settle for a used or refurbished unit, as new ones are no longer made. Try to get one with a warranty.
– If the Mac has a PCI slot, you may be able to find an adapter card that provides a SATA interface. However, you may be pushing your luck with this approach.
– Try to disassemble the errant drive to clean it.

Brian called to say he’s heard that the iPhone in the San Bernardino case will destroy the data it contains after 10 failed attempts to guess the password. He asked Paul if that was true. Paul said he believed it’s true.

Brian’s other question is how does a smartphone lock us out? What actually makes that happen? Paul said, basically, it’s the firmware — the iOS operating system that does it.

Brian than asked if the firmware can be accessed to gain entry. Paul said, the iPhone has a hard-wired interface that can be connected to a computer and can communicate a certain amount of information. This can be exploited. This is what’s used to jailbreak an iPhone.

Paul raised the possibility that the FBI already has the information it needs and that its pursuit of Apple’s cooperation is to hide from the public its ability to crack the iPhones.

Paul talked about steganography. This is a way of hiding information in the data that comprises a picture — gif, jpg, png, etc..

“Fred Flintstone” called. He’s using an XP computer and is ready to go to a new PC. He’s currently using Outlook Express and wants to know how to transfer emails to a new machine, likely running Win10.
– Paul doesn’t recommend using the email programs that come with Win7 or Win10. Use Thunderbird, he suggested
– First download Thunderbird onto the XP machine, Paul said. Fred said he gets an error message when he tries. The message implies his machine is too old.
– Paul said he can get an older version of Thunderbird that still supports XP.
– Once you have Thunderbird installed, it allows you to import emails and contacts from other email programs, like Outlook Express
<Old versions of Thunderbird can be found here.
Article: Go back to an old version of Thunderbird
Support forum posting on how to revert to an earlier version of Thunderbird:
Windows Easy Transfer for transferring from Windows XP (32 bit) to Windows 7:
Transfer files and settings from another computer
>

After you have your emails in Thunderbird the next step is to get folders and settings and a other files from XP onto the new machine by using “Windows Easy Transfer“, This program was not shipped with XP but it is in Win7, Win8 and Win10. Easy Transfer creates a file containing all of the files that can be transferred. You can save this file on a USB drive that you then plug into the new machine. The Easy Transfer on Win7 or Win10 will then populate the new machine with all your old files. Paul also said to double check that all of the Thunderbird mail got transferred — there’s sometimes an issue with that, and you may have to search for other methods to to get the Thunderbird data to the new machine.

Paul noted that when searching for programs like “Windows Easy Transfer”, make sure you end up on a microsoft.com site.

Fred also said he tried using Windows Live some time ago and it pulled email out of Outlook Express — which he didn’t want to happen. Paul didn’t have a solution for that but suggested he switch over to Thunderbird.

Paul admonished those still using XP to avoid using Internet Explorer and to use some sort of anti-virus like Avast or AVG.

Those using Win7 or Win8 may have seen an icon in the lower right that says “upgrade to Windows 10 now”. If you haven’t upgraded yet, Paul suggested you first look at someone’s machine that’s running Win10 to see if you can get along with it. Also, the free Win10 upgrade offer MAY end in April — Paul didn’t know for sure. This upgrade method is not as straight forward as buying a disk with Win10 on it. Paul hasn’t found a reliable way to do the upgrade without following the steps provided by Microsoft. Remember to back up your data before doing the upgrade and to verify the backup by trying to install it on a different machine.

A caller with an Android phone asked how to get Google calendar to set off an alarm when a particular time is reached.
– There are apps to add features to the calendar. The caller said he tried a bunch of them but didn’t find a solution.
– Paul asked listeners for any tips they may have.
<There IS an audible alarm in Google Calendar, Maybe he has the volume set too low to hear it. Or, maybe he’s using a very old version of the program that didn’t have alarms.>

Lee called. He has an older Win7 machine on which he did the Win10 update. It didn’t work out very well. It kept shutting down because it was making the processor work too hard and over heat. He had to revert back to Win7.
– There may be something wrong with the hardware. Paul uses the programs called Speedfan and Crystal Disk Utility from Japan. They tell him about the state of his computer.
<I guess Paul meant CrystalDiskInfo>

Last Updated 11:22 PM 2-24-2016