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.

The intro and outro music was by Pentatonix:

Both Glenn & Paul were in the studio today

Glenn said he’s had problems getting the fingerprint scanner to work on his iPhone 6. After an initial setup, it wouldn’t work or worked only sporadically. Earlier models of the iPhone didn’t have the scanner.

As with iPhone, not all Android phones have a fingerprint scanner. Samsung is one brand that does, despite Paul saying it’s not available on Android yet.

According to Glenn, at least 4 fingerprints can be stored on the iPhone, so more than one person can have access to it. Apparently, the scanner needs to see almost the entire print before it’s accepted and Glenn had to try “hundreds” of times to complete the initial setup scans. But after the setup, he couldn’t get the scanner to recognize any of the prints.

Glenn said he uses Otterbox, which is some kind of plastic covering with a harder plastic case that covers the phone. With it comes a screen protector with a membrane that extends over the home button (which has the print scanner built into it).

Paul said Apple made a great effort to make a print sensor that would foil attempts to use a fake fingerprint, and he speculated that the membrane over the scanner might be what’s causing Glenn’s problem. After he said that, Glenn tried removing the membrane, but the scanner still wouldn’t recognize the fingerprints he stored previously.

With the membrane removed he tried storing an additional print. Now, when he tried to unlock the phone with this new print, it worked. <So, the tentative conclusion is that the membrane was the cause of the problem.> Glenn then tried putting the membrane back over the scanner and this print was recognized in a couple of tries.

Paul mentioned the story he told on the 2-24-16 show about a journalist who had problems after having the print scanner in his phone replaced. <See those notes for details.>

Paul wondered how one would get into the phone if the fingerprint wouldn’t work. Glenn said there is a passcode that is used as an alternate form of entry. You can’t have the fingerprint technology turned on without a passcode to go with it.

Glenn has come to the conclusion that it’s a good idea to write down your passwords as a hedge against a bad memory. He highly recommended people do that. <Just be careful where you store your list.>

Paul said, don’t think that the fingerprint mechanism will protect your email or anything else. It’s intended to make Apple your preferred method of payment You can buy theater tickets and goods and services thru your iTunes account where Apple takes a percentage of the transaction.

There is a facility called something like Touch and Go that allows you to pay at checkout counters like at a grocery store. You only need to bring the phone close to the cash register to make the payment.

After a 10-year lag, credit card companies are starting to issue cards with chips on them. However, many retail stores haven’t activated their terminals yet. <I’ve heard that certification of the retail terminals is what’s taking a long time.>

Along with taking chip cards, these terminals are often able to take Apple Pay, Pay Pal, and the industry standard called Touch and Pay (or maybe Touch and Go) which works with Android and other platforms.

Glenn thanked the listeners who support KVMR by volunteering their time or by becoming subscribing members. If you’d like to make a contribution, please visit kvmr.org. And you can contact the hosts of this show by writing to zen at kvmr.org.

Paul mentioned his neighbor who has many gardening implements like weed whackers, chippers and tillers that have small engines in them. Increasingly such engines are being made in China.

Before continuing; Paul issued a disclaimer: “I didn’t tell you to do this”..”I was just giving you information”.

Some of the problems these engines suffer from are from age, defects in design and poor materials they’re made from. Paul recently had to fix some trimmers, chippers and tillers.

One of the best places to get information about your gardening equipment is Google. But Paul also uses Youtube. The instructional videos are great if you want to disassemble and reassemble your equipment. He also suggested taking your own pictures and videos as you disassemble, to remind you how to put it back together. A fishing tackle box — the small type with compartments — is great for holding the small parts as you take things apart.

One of the problems he encountered was gunk in the filter bowl below the carburetor. Rather that do a disassembly, Paul bought an entire replacement carburetor at Amazon that was made in China and cost about $17. Read the reviews at Amazon to guide your decision.

Though the drought is still going on, the ground water still has a way to go to be replenished. “On the surface it looks good”, Glenn jokingly said. That brought Paul to his point, that there is a grant available from State of California Department of Water Resources to replace your turf with drought-tolerant plants. For more info visit www.water.ca.gov/turf.

Before giving you the grant they want to see your water bill. Paul wasn’t sure if the grant is in proportion to your bill, but he suggested waiting until you have a big bill. They also want a photo of your lawn.

Saxon called about his 2 year old Macbook Pro and a 3 year old 1 terabyte “external flash hard drive”. Time Machine is saying the drive is getting full and he should delete some of the old backups. He’d like to partition the drive to store photos in one part and backups in the other. Is that possible to do and where can he get instructions?
– Don’t delete the old files manually, it can really screw things up. Time Machine is supposed to do that by itself. Don’t use the Finder to delete those backups because Time Machine will lose track of things.
– Launch Time Machine itself. And using the timeline on the right side of the screen find the point where you want to delete older files. Then select the icon that looks like the cog you see in Finder and choose delete backup.
– Paul asked if what Time Machine said was a warning or that it couldn’t continue backing up. Saxon said it was just a warning. Paul then said to just ignore it until it says it can’t continue. Time Machine is supposed to take care of deletions automatically.
– Click on the Time Machine icon in the upper right and it will tell you the time of the last backup. You can then see if backups are being made in a timely manner.
– Paul didn’t think it’s a good idea to partition the drive. But you can store files on that drive. Use Finder to look at the drive. You should see 1 folder with a name something like backupcv.backup — that’s where Time Machine is storing the backups. Don’t alter the contents of that folder. Put your files outside that folder.
– Glenn said many stores have inexpensive flash media. He was looking at an ad from Fry’s for a 128 gig Samsung USB 3 flash drive for $29. Paul has seen 64 gig USB 3 drives from Staples for $15. USB 3 is 5 to 10 times faster <than USB 2, I guess>, if your computer USB 3 ports.

Paul quickly mentioned that silver paint pens write on anything indelibly and are great for labeling flash drives. Check Amazon.

Scott called. He wondered about Paul saying not to patron a drive that you use it with Time Machine. He had bought an external hard drive, partitioned it and used part of it for Time Machine and part for a rescue drive and it worked fine. Paul said, “there’s no reason you shouldn’t partition it as long as you ok with the fact that it then divvies up the precious space you’ve got in such a way that you run out space on one side you can’t gain it off the other side”. Time Machine, having less space to work with, will throw away more of your older backups.

Sharon called. She’s had a Western Digital external backup drive that she used with her Dell computer and then she switched over to Macbook Air. It’s been working great for years and then, suddenly, the computer stopped recognizing it. She thinks the drive died.
– Paul also thought it’s dead.
– On the Mac use Disk Utility. You can find it under Application -> Utilities. Or you use Search Light and search for Disk Utility. It’s able to find drives that are not formatted or not visible. In this case it should say it’s a Western Digital drive but can’t tell its size, <indicating it’s dead>.
– The other thing you can do is take the drive into a quiet room and hold it to you ear. A bad drive will make one of a couple of noises — repetitive clicking sound or buzzing. <Listen to the audio of this show to get a better idea, I’m terrible at ‘writing’ what a sound is like.>
– When you go to buy another drive consider a flash drive. Their costs have come down a lot. You can get a 1 terabyte external USB drive for about $55 at Amazon or other shopping sites.
– Be sure the drive is at least twice the size as the data that’s being backed up.
– At about 128 gig a flash drive becomes less economical than a regular hard drive.
– Look for a USB 3 drive <if your computer can use it>. And also, it’s reasonable to find one with a 2 or 3 year waranty, not 1 year.

Marilyn emailed a question. She asked for info about Laplink PC Mover Ultimate.
– You can move your data from a Win7 or XP machine using Laplink for free.
– The paid version has many options to choose from. The free version only moves the home folder, data, and desktop — not the programs.
– The Ultimate version is smart enough to know what programs won’t work in Win10, like Spy Bot.
– With the free version you’ll have to install the programs you want. <It’s an opportunity to strip away the programs you don’t use anymore.>

Last Updated 11:27 PM 5-25-2016

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

The intro music was by Pentatonix:

Both Paul & Glenn were in the studio today

Paul made an observation about the human psyche: “It’s very much the human condition that you’ll never know what you missed if you do things right”. If you backup your computer, it’s a minor matter to recover your files. In a case like this, our behavior doesn’t get reinforced for doing the right thing and the consequences are minor. <So, get into the habit of backing up>.

Glenn was helping a friend who got a new Windows 10 computer. The computer wouldn’t recognize his Canon D340 laser printer/copier/fax and Glenn had trouble finding any info about it until he searched by its full name: imageCLASS D340. Apparently, the appropriate printer driver was missing.

Paul described the Plug and Play technology that was supposed to allow Windows recognize the printer. The Plug ‘n Play consortium makes sure each piece of hardware can uniquely identify itself when it’s plugged into the computer. The identity is a serial number issued by the consortium that incorporates the manufacturer, the make, model, serial number and revision of the equipment. As Paul recalled, it’s a 32bit number that constitutes the identity.

Paul noted that if you have ‘search preview’ turned on in your browser, Firefox for example, Google will display suggestions as you start typing your search terms. The suggestions will appear under the search bar and will show similar searches other people have made recently. <You can then use the down-arrow key to select a suggested query, if you wish>. This is handy if your computer shows you an error code, like “Error 995 administrator on fire, bring water”. If you start typing into Google search “error 995” you’ll often see the rest of the error code “…administrator on fire…” in the search suggestions and you’ll realize you aren’t the first to do this search.

Paul said the Zen Tech website runs WordPress to manage the content, About a quarter of the websites run WordPress, which first came out in 1999. If you are an administrator of the website xyz.com you’d go to xyz.com/wp-admin to login. When you do you’ll see the dashboard, which may contain notices to update your version of WordPress. Don’t ignore them. The website that hosted what later became the Panama Papers was running WordPress that wasn’t updated in a timely manner. Paul was annoyed at seeing so many updates issued for WordPress lately and he felt obligated to install them.

It’s not just some individual sitting at their computer trying to break into your website. There are robots that try to break into hundreds of sites. When a break-in happens, there can be invisible elements placed on your webpage that cause a visitor to your website to download malware.

Paul said the intro music to this show by Pentatonix is a cappella — there are no instruments used other than their voices. He didn’t think that they do much to manipulate the music after recording their songs. Many artists do use postprocessing, often with a vocorder. The vocorder can correct a singer’s voice that’s off key. He said that about 98% of recording artists use a vocorder. He’s not sure if it’s a good thing that technology alters the personal nuances of a singer.

The vocorder can also allow a singer to accompany themselves. There’s a video Paul’s seen of a singer who was over-dubed a few times to achieve something similar to the Pentatonix song.

Winn called with a question about his Pavilon G7 laptop that has a persistent black screen. He’s seen some Youtube videos on how to replace the video chip and wondered how much success he can expect doing it himself. He had taken it to someone who said it’s likely some problem with the motherboard.
– Glenn said try plugging in an external monitor to see if the problem goes away. This should be the first step — determine if it’s a problem with the display. Winn said he doesn’t have a spare monitor.
– Paul said he’s seen some laptops where the backlight for the screen failed. Use a very bright flashlight and shine it transversely at the screen to see if you can detect any kind of image. If so, it’s a backlight problem.
– When you turn it on, can you hear it making noises & does the hard drive light come on? Winn said he doesn’t detect any of that. In that case it’s probably not a video chip problem, Paul said.
– Paul again said to try an external monitor. Use the VGA port on the computer. Or use the HDMI output connected to a TV with an HDMI input.
– If you do detect some activity at bootup and you eventually decided to replace the video chip, as per the Youtube videos, be aware that modern computers are made with high temperature lead-free solder. Repair shops have special equipment to deal with it but, as a last resort, it’s worth a shot to follow the instructions in the Youtube videos.
– If you’re not successful, you can at least get the hard drive out and copy the data off of it.
– The high temperature lead-free solder itself can be a source of problems. Turning the machine on and off can cause temperature stress on the solder causing it to crack.
– If you decide that the video chip is the problem, there are services on Ebay specializing in video chips. Paul said he would hesitate doing it himself — the results can be disappointing. Read the terms for the service regarding shipping and diagnostic costs.

Some steps for tackling a problem like this:
– Check to see if it’s still under warranty? There’s a place on HP’s website where you type in your serial number to find out if it’s still under warranty.
– Check if there’s an extended warranty?
– If you bought it with a credit card, is there a warranty from the credit company?
– Google the words: HP Pavilion G7 recall. Over the years, many laptops had to be recalled because the manufacture’s were forced to admit their laptops were poorly made.

David called. He has old RCA DVD player that has problems playing some disks. It was able to play them on about a year ago. Now when he tries to play them, the player says they are incompatible.
– The disks, though generally robust, may have degraded due to fingerprints. It’s ok to hand wash them. Use cotton and detergent. Wipe them from the center outward, not around in a circle.
– Parts of the drive can wear out or get obstructed with dust.
– There might be some dust on the lens of the reader. Use compressed air on it.
– New players are cheap — under about $30 at Walmart.
|- To analyze the problem, try playing your DVDs in a different player.
– New smart DVD players are in the $60 range.

Pam called. She has a laptop with Windows 8.1. People keep telling her that she should upgrade. She wanted to know what to upgrade to, Windows 10?
– Glenn asked if she’s unhappy with it as it is. She said she’s ok with it but that the free upgrade to Win10 may end soon. <July 29, last I heard>
– Paul thinks it’s ok to skip the upgrade if she’s not having any problems with 8.1. Win8.1 is going to be supported for a number of years.
– Paul suggested she use Classic Shell with her Win8.1 to give it a better user interface. It’s free and easy to uninstall if you don’t like it.
– If you decide to upgrade to Win10, you can uninstall it within 30 days. But it’s not easy and Paul doesn’t trust the process.

Paul warned people who have the upgrade icon on their taskbar that upgrading is irreversible.
– A program called GWX Control Panel gives you options to get rid of the icon, among other things regarding the Win10 upgrade, on your Windows 7 8 and 8.1 machine.
– You can undo the changes you made if you don’t uninstall GWX Control Panel in the mean time — until you’ve made a final decision on the Win10 upgrade.
– Make sure you keep GWX Control Panel updated. Microsoft is playing some kind of cat and mouse game to prevent it from working properly — they keep changing the KB number (knowledge base number on their updates).

Marilyn wrote in. She’s been using a free version of Malware Bytes for over a year without trouble, but it’s now doing scans without being prompted to. She can’t change its behavior in the settings unless she gets the paid version. The problem is that it slows her computer to a crawl.
– There have been suggestions <unclear by whom> to uninstall and reinstall the program.
– Paul said that software makers have some justification trying to get people to buy the paid versions because the rate at which people convert from the free versions has been notoriously low. If the price is reasonable, consider shelling out the money.
– Abandon Malware Bytes and use something like Avast. It deals with viruses and malware. When installing it, carefully observe the installation screens. Click the customize button and install only the file shield and updater. It’s all you need.

Glenn thanked the listeners who support KVMR. <If you’d like to make a contribution, please visit kvmr.org.>

Last Updated 11:29 PM 5-11-2016

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

Both Glenn & Paul were in the studio. Today’s show ran a bit long — about 20 minutes into the following hour.

Glenn thanked the listeners who support KVMR. If you’d like to make a contribution, please visit kvmr.org.

The show started with talk about automobiles. Paul was helping someone whose car’s engine warning light came on along with strange noises and smells.
– Cars made since the 1990s come with onboard diagnostics.
– You need a code reader device to decipher what’s wrong.
– You can take the car to Auto Zone and they’ll loan you a reader
– “The diagnostic system itself tests itself at times”
– When the engine light comes on you should stop as soon as possible and when it’s safe to do so. You should stop and turn the engine off. Don’t wait until an exit ramp.
– When something goes wrong with the automobile you should stop driving it and find out if the check engine light indicates a serious problem.
– Cars of a more recent vintage have more sensors that can cause the check engine light to come on, but the warning systems aren’t yet smart enough to pinpoint the exact problem.

The power steering is designed to work, though with greater effort on your part, when the something goes wrong and the power assist no longer works. As with cars lacking power steering, it’s best to have the car moving, if only slightly, when turning the steering wheel. It then takes much less effort to turn the wheels.

Cars with automatic transmissions aren’t supposed to be towed by simply attaching a rope or chain an pulling. This is mainly because the person in the towed vehicle doesn’t have full control of the car, according to Paul. And with rear-wheel drive cars you’re not supposed to tow it with the front wheels raised from the ground. The car is designed to have the transmission driving the rear wheels, not the wheels driving the transmission. Also, you can’t ‘bump’ start a car with an automatic transmission — you may risk damaging the transmission.

The guys helped someone set up a new Windows 10 computer who then wanted to copy a DVD. It turned out that the process was not so intuitive. There were no instructions. Glenn eventually discovered the method was to highlight the files or folders you want to copy from the first DVD and drag them to a folder on the desktop. Once they’re copied over, remove that DVD and insert a blank DVD into the drive. At that point you’ll be prompted to highlight the files/folders you created on the desktop and then move them to the blank DVD, at which point the files will be burned to the disk. Paul said that most versions of Windows 10 have an ability to burn DVDs and CDs. He said you can also use iTunes to burn a disk in either audio format (like the regular music CDs) or as a data disk (where the files are stored similar to a hard drive).

Some time ago, Paul found free CD/DVD burning software called ImgBurn. As time went on, newer versions of the software tried monetize its popularity by installing affiliated software like various toolbars. It became irritating to have to say no to the installation of each piece of third party software. Even cnet.com stopped hosting IMG Burner because of its foistware.

Paul is now looking for different free burning software. There’s one called ISOburn <this might be it> that copies CD/DVDs track by track. He asked listeners for other suggestions.
<I’ve used Infra Recorder with success:
or you can also get it here (note the .mp3 plugin)
I also found ISO Recorder but haven’t used it.>

The guys talked about an issue with the Chrome browser that occurred a couple of years ago at KVMR and was mentioned on this show at that time. A visitor to KVMR used the Chrome browser at KVMR to log on to their own account (an account unrelated to KVMR) and, apparently, didn’t logout when they were finished. Later, when Glenn used the computer, he noticed he had access to that person’s accounts and, disturbingly, even their home computer. The guys didn’t have a solution when they first encountered the problem, but Paul has some suggestions now.
– Don’t use Chrome if you don’t have to, though it’s otherwise a fine browser.
– Paul goes by the adage: you can’t have security and convenience at the same time.
– Here’s what Paul thinks happens…

When you first install Chrome, which is made by Google, you’re presented with a sign-in page. If you sign in with your Google account there’s an unexpected side effect. If you later try to sign in to Chrome on a different computer, there’s an option to make it forget you used this second computer, but it’s not obvious. And it’s not enough to close Chrome when you’re finished. So, when you start using Chrome on the second computer and you login (at your bank, for instance), it saves the bank login in your Chrome account <at Google>, not locally in the 2nd machine. Now, when you login to Chrome, no matter where you are, the bank login/password is immediately available.

Paul then told us how to get around this ‘feature’ in Chrome. When you use Chrome on an unfamiliar computer, click the menu icon (the one with the 3 horizontal bars, or maybe 3 dots) -> settings -> new incognito window. This mode will not make you anonymous but it will throw away cookies, discard the cache and logins when you’re finished. You can do the same in other browsers like Firefox. <Incognito mode may sometimes go by another name like ‘private’ window.>

Paul said, “you can change the settings in Chrome, by the way, and I recommend doing this. They don’t make it obvious. Again, under the triple bar where it says configurations, again go down to settings, and this is not apparent, instead of on startup opening a new tab page, inviting you to login to Chrome, you could check ‘continue where you left off’, or the third one, which I choose, is ‘open a specific page or set of pages’. And then the word ‘set pages’ follows that.” When you click ‘set pages’ there may be some already set and you can edit them. Paul likes to have https://google.com as one of his set pages.

While you’re there you can set a couple of other things. Paul likes to ‘show home button’. And the other option is to ‘always show bookmarks bar’. Google’s webpages use Ajax that saves things as you go along.

Glenn related a story about an email that he got supposedly from a friend who was stuck in Turkey and couldn’t get help from the embassy. Glenn figured it was a scam because he knew that person wasn’t in Turkey. He warned the listeners not to reply to such emails. Sometimes the reply-to address is a slightly modified version of the actual address belonging to your friend, and the reply will go to the scammers instead. Paul said such bogus emails often originate at Yahoo, Hotmail or AOL. In fact, Apple no longer accepts Apple IDs that are AOL addresses. Paul noted that your security software is usually no help in these situations. Paul noted that if you choose to abandon your email at Yahoo, Hotmail or AOL, be sure you kill it completely,

Paul talked about the possibility of having your Facebook page cloned. It can happen if one of your Facebook friends doesn’t logout of Facebook on a machine where others can grab information from your profile and recreate the content. They then ask your friends to join as friends at the bogus page. “If you get offers of joining a friend that you’re already friends with be very circumspect about it”.

Paul mentioned the Panama Papers. He said there are a number of ways info can be leaked. It could come from a disgruntled employee. Or it could be the theft of a computer — one of the top security breeches, according to the FBI.

Paul offered a tip for remembering your passwords. He suggested using a password composed of the first letters of the words in a familiar phrase. “A stitch in time saves nine” can become the password ‘asits9’. And it’s safer to write the phrase on a piece of paper than the password itself.

Paul said he’s tried using speech recognition software to create a text of a Zen Tech broadcast. It didn’t work out very well because he started with an .mp3 file, he suspects. A .wav file should do better.

Paul mentioned a free audio-editing program that’s been around for years. A new version (2.1.2) of Audacity came out Jan of this year.

Kate called. She switched from Peachtree accounting software on a Windows machine. She wondered if there’s anyone in town that offers instruction on the Mac. She also wanted to know if there’s a simple accounting program for the Mac to do invoicing and reports.
– Apple itself is an option. They have a store in Roseville.
– The guys have discussed putting on classes themselves. They still have to work things out.
– There’s also the Quickbooks software for the Mac at $200. They have a 30-day free trial if you go to quickbooks.com/mac. There’s also an online version that you can subscribe to at $24 month.
– There are online invoicing services. Paul uses Simple Invoices. <this might be it> It’s free but you have to install a program and he doesn’t recommend it “unless you’re a computer person”.
– Paul asked listeners for other suggestions.

Jack called with a suggestion for Kate. He said lynda.com provides instruction, is very inexpensive and you can learn just about anything you want about the Mac. He also suggested she buy a book on the Mac. There’s a lot of software that comes with the Mac that many people aren’t aware of.

Paul noted some conventional wisdom that has turned out to be wrong. He had thought that when pruning tree limbs, one should use some stuff to cover the cuts. Well, he had a chance to talk to someone who services trees and found out that since 1985 it’s been proven by a 10 year long study that it’s the worst thing you can do. Covering the cut blocks the sterilizing UV light from the sun, makes it damp, humid and horrible and prevents it “from being flushed out” and it traps liquid sap underneath as well a bacteria and mold.

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.

A couple more things from the conventional wisdom file:
Don’t cover your sneeze or cough with your hand. You’ll end up spreading germs to what ever you handle. Instead, sneeze into the crook of your elbow. And sugar doesn’t cause diabetes but it does aggravate the condition if you already have diabetes. Life style and heredity are its main cause. Also, removing amalgam fillings in your teeth because you think it’s a health issue just releases the mercury from the filling.

Changelog:
In a comment, added link to CD/DVD burner Infra Recorder and here
In a comment, added link to CD/DVD burner ISO Recorder

Last Updated 2:41 PM 4-29-2016

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 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