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

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

Both Paul and Glenn were in the studio today.

Glenn thanked the listeners who support KVMR. If you’d like to become a supporting member please visit kvmr.org.

Over the years, Glenn has used many different phone services. He’s still using he got from AT&T with his landline in 1994. In about 1996 the FCC ruled that you can keep your phone number.

He then used that number with a product called Magic Jack. He was able to use his original phone number with it, but, for reasons he didn’t say, he wasn’t satisfied with Magic Jack.

Then he went to Nettalk until they stopped providing customer service.

More recently, he parked his number at RingTo for a couple of years. Initially free, RingTo eventually started to charge for their service (though the original free users were never charged.) Another service Paul mentioned is voip.ms.

At Google Voice you can sign up for a free phone number. Supposedly, you can get a number with a local prefix, but that’s getting to be harder to do. Alternately, you can port your existing phone number to Google Voice. Google will then give you various telephonic services. Google will only port a cellular number, not a landline number.

Glenn said that if you are leaving a service like AT&T, you have to port your number before you terminate your current service (at AT&T, for instance) or you’ll lose that number. Paul added, that you should port the number first, make sure the porting process completed (the new company actually has the number), then close your account at the old company.

So Glenn tried to port his number from RingTo to Google Voice. But Google rejected his attempt, saying it wasn’t a cellular number. This was because the database that Google checks was still showing it as a landline.

Glenn then went to Puretalk, a cellular company, with his phone number, and that made his number a cellular one. After that, it took less than 24hr for Google to complete the port. When porting an existing number, Google charges $20.

Paul said that Puretalk is good service to know about if you have minimal need for a phone. Their cheapest plan is $5 a month for 60 minutes.

Both of the guys have an Obihai VOIP box. A small box, about 2″ square, that provides voice over internet service.
– It can route Google Voice calls.
– You can call anywhere in the country for nothing, Paul said.
– It has 5 volt power lead to supply its power.
– It also has an ethernet port that connects to your home internet router.
– And it has a POTS (plain old telephone service) port which you use to connect a traditional dial telephone.
– The voice quality is better than a regular landline but expect lower reliability because there a more steps (or devices) the phone call goes thru.

Paul got his Obihai for $39 on a special offer. Usually they’re about $59.

<More about porting and parking can be found in the 7-30-14 show notes>

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.

Don called. He wanted to be sure Paul got the email he sent. The two were talking about the Hackintosh project. This is a way of getting the Mac operating system onto a PC, in this case a refurbished Dell that cost about $160.
– This is a hacking project that gets a bit involved and is not intended for the average person or especially a business that depends on reliability.
– The project is in a gray area with regard to the licensing of the Mac operating system. You’ll probably be violating “something somewhere”, Paul said.
– The operating system is normally free to those who have Apple hardware.
– Paul said he’ll update the listeners on the progress they make.

William called about upgrading to Windows 10. He wondered if he can download Win10 and install after the cutoff date for the free upgrade.
– July 29 is the last day to upgrade to Windows 10 for free (free for Win7 and Win8 users.)
– Software developers are no longer supporting Windows 7.
– Microsoft’s support for Windows 7 itself will end at the beginning of 2020.
– Paul thought that, even though you download it now, the validation will take place at the time you install it on your computer. If it’s after July 29, you’ll likely be charged for it.
– Paul is not very fond of Win10 and suggested the continued use of Win7. He said that even XP is “not unusable and not necessarily such a bad idea”.

William had another question regarding Thunderbird, an email program. He has 2 machines and wants to synchronize the Thunderbird data. He’s tried using an addon called Thundersync but it doesn’t do what he wants.
– Paul said he doesn’t have to synchronize if he uses the IMAP protocol. Most mail services, like Google, provide the protocol. Each machine is in synch with the server so both will be alike without any more effort.
– William said he already uses IMAP. The mail itself is synched but not the address book.
– Paul said he uses and addon called Address Book Synch to do that job. Use Thunderbird itself to download Address Book Synch. After installing the addon, while in Thunderbird, go to Tools -> Addons and use the search function. Look for address book synch and follow the instructions.
– After installing Address Book Synch, look under the Tools menu and you should see additional functions.

Michael called. About 2 months ago he got an old laptop and had a friend do some upgrades and he now has Linux Cinnamon 17 for his operating system. He also has an old mp3 player. When he plugs in the player, Linux says “unable to mount Sansa Clip”.
– There might be something wrong with the USB port or the cable that comes out of the computer.
– Or the flash drive (the memory storage) in the player is faulty.
– Try a different cable to connect the player, Paul said. William said he’d done that.
– The other thing that might be bad is the USB port on the computer. It’s a common problem on laptops.
– If the mp3 player is old enough it may not auto-mount. Linux may require a driver. Glenn suggested doing a search with the words: Sansa Clip Linux driver.
– In Linux look for an item called Package Manager (or maybe Installation Interface or Software Repository) somewhere in the menus. Use that facility to search for the words: Sansa Clip. Hopefully, someone has made a ‘package’ for it.
– Glenn suggested going to the Sandisk website to look for the solution. William has tried that but said their customer service website is not very user friendly.
– Since the player used to work on his Windows machine, Glenn suggested he find someone with Windows to get the music off the player so he would a least have a copy.
– Glenn also suggested he call Sandisk or webchat with them.

A self-named “disgruntled caller” noted that many cellular towers have warnings on them saying the following:
Caution: beyond this point radio frequency fields at this site may exceed FCC rules for human exposure. For your safety, obey all signs and site guidelines for working in radio frequency environments in accordance with Federal Communication Commission on radio frequency emissions 47cfr11.1307b. <The caller sounded so belligerent that Glenn disconnected him>.

Paul said that all sort of radio transmitters have that warning, including KVMR’s transmitter and satellite dishes. If you’re close enough to read it, you’re too close, he said. Paul said there will be a special show <didn’t say if it’s a Zen Tech show> that will have the warning as one of the topics.

Len called with a concern about the security of using public wi-fi while traveling. He’ll be going to Europe and has heard about using VPN for privacy. He wanted to know which VPN to use.
– Some people in Nevada County work for companies in San Jose and insure their privacy by using VPN. VPN creates a tunnel for the communication that cannot be traced. And it can make your location appear to be wherever you want it to be. You can watch BBC TV, normally for UK residents only, while in the U.S.
– Paul uses the VPN called TunnelBear. It’s $7 per month for unlimited data or free with a 500meg per month limit.
– With tablets, while not immune to viruses, the odds are low that you’ll encounter problems. Just get an inexpensive tablet to sidestep the issue.
– Open (public) wi-fi is made no more or less secure if it requires a password. It’s made more secure for only the 100 feet or so to the wireless transmitter.
– When you go to an internet site whose address begins with https:// (not http://) you have a secure, encrypted connection. You can trust that connection to the extent you trust the site you connect to (your bank or your Google account, for instance). However, beware of a website being spoofed. Someone may create a site called https://gooogle.com (3 o’s) to trick you into revealing your login/password.
– If you use Thunderbird to pick up your Gmail, it will use a secure connection. Not all webmail services are secure, but Gmail won’t allow a connection that’s not secure.

Last Updated 11:45 PM 7-13-2016

There was no show June 22. Pre empted by special programming.
Homework:
– 3.77v NiMH Battery Lore! iMax B6! Charge! Discharge! Batteries in General.
– Windows 10 “RT” Tablets. It’s  back!?
– Win 10 update Aug 02

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

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

Both Glenn and Paul were in the studio today.

Glenn has a flashlight that has a Cree LED light. He said he paid about $10 for the package that included a battery, an A/C charger and an adapter for using 3 regular AAA batteries in place of the rechargeable battery. The flashlight alone goes for about $5. They are often called tactical flashlights.

A one point the battery wouldn’t charge, so they opened the flashlight and saw the number 18650 printed on it. Using that number in a search query, Paul found the description of the battery — a generic single cell 3.7 volt nickel metal hydride (NiMh) general purpose universal battery. Paul described it as being cylindrical, covered in insulating plastic and looking like a AAA but bigger — about 3/4″ in diameter and about 3″ long. He tried charging it on his Imax charger without success.

Eventually he realized the battery looked familiar. It seemed to be same as a cell inside a laptop battery he had torn apart. The component cell said Samsung ICR18650 on it.

Unlike a car battery, NiMh batteries shouldn’t be charged in series — where the current flows thru one and then thru the next one. This is because, as it charges, one battery changes its resistance differently from the next. This can cause over heating, asymmetric charging or venting (causing it to blow up). When a laptop battery is charged, each cell is monitored and its charging is individually controlled.

Paul used one of the ICR18650 cells in Glenn’s flashlight and it worked fine.

Attributes of NiMh cells:
– You’re not supposed to drain it down below 3.0 volts.
– You’re not supposed to charge it more than 4.2 volts.
– About 90% of its existence is spent delivering about 3.77 volts — called nominal voltage.

Paul flies radio-controlled model aircraft, which use electric motors and batteries. He uses an Imax B6 charger, which he suggested is great for anyone with similar batteries. It costs $60. Clones of this charger from China, which lack some features, are about $19.

The Imax charger has a chip inside that allows you to set the amount of current going into the battery as well is its duration. It also lets you monitor the temperature of the battery as it charges. And it tells you how long it took to charge it. The time it takes to charge the battery is an indication of its health.

The Imax is also able to conditon a battery. You can set it to discharge a battery at 1 amp until it goes down to 3.0 volts and it will tell you how long it took. Paul said this is a great way of testing any off-the-shelf battery. He said he’s in the process of testing some alkaline batteries.

Paul said that, like a car’s lead acid battery, the NiMh batteries are recycleable.

Paul gave a brief history of various battery types. Early types were the zinc carbon batteries, which aren’t rechargeable. Next came nickel cadmium rechargeable batteries, which aren’t used much anymore because they develop a memory condition. If you repeatedly discharged them only 10% before recharging, they would act as if that was all the capacity they had. Also, cadmium is an environmental pollutant.

The disclaimer:
The opinions you hear are those of the speaker and not necessarily those of the station, its staff, our supporters or other folks.

Paul said that these newer flashlights present a greater danger of eye damage than laser pointers, because the light is so intense. He hasn’t seen a health warning, but it should be a consideration, he said.

Pinky called with a correction. Nevada County for Bernie, in the calendar announcement preceding this show, is meeting at 10 not 11. The phone number is 388-0959 (530 area, I presume).

Tom called about junk email. He keeps unsubscribing but it continues to come. His email is at wildblue.net.
– The bad news is that it’s not going away.
– Get a Gmail account. Paul said that Gmail seems to be good at filtering out the spam.
– You can have the mail you normally get at wildblue.net go to the Gmail account. You can set Wildblue to forward the emails to Gmail. Or, in Gmail, go into ‘other account’ in the settings menu and tell it to collect the mail from Wildblue.
– Get a Gmail account and see what you think of it, while still using your Wildblue account.
– Unsubscribing usually doesn’t do any good but it does tell the spammers that yours is a good email address for sending more spam, or to sell to other spammers.

Tom also asked for the name of Glenn’s flashlight. Glenn couldn’t give him the name but implied the cre LED comes in many flashlights. He said, “There is a model number and that seems to ring true with many of them, and that is XML-TC”. Paul said to search for the words: XML-TC flashlight.

Glenn learned a trick for quickly scrolling thru his big collection of emails using his iPhone or iPad. After searching and reading an email from long ago, he would have to use his finger to keep scrolling to get back to the top. From Paul he learned that while he’s still viewing the email he can double click (double touch) in the inbox area and that will take him back to the top.

Paul said that with the iPad/iPhone there is no alternative to the built-in email program unless you use a browser and web-based email. He figured Glenn was not the only one to encounter this problem so he searched for the words: ipad inbox email long scroll.

Another problem Glenn encountered, this time on a PC, was when he was cleaning the keyboard. Somehow he caused the screen to rotate to the right 90 degrees. The solution turned out to be the key combination Control Alt and one of the arrow keys. Doing that brought the screen back to its normal orientation.

Paul noted that on an Android you can turn on or off the auto rotation of the screen. From the top (towards the right) swipe down and you’ll see a setting that switches between <‘Auto Rotate’ and ‘Rotation Locked’, as per version 4.4.2>. Glenn said that on the iPhone you have to swipe from the bottom to get to your settings.

Paul mentioned that Android has a number of status icons to inform you of your settings. These a tiny icons at the top of your screen. There’s one that looks like a dart or paper plane that indicates an app is using your GPS. To learn more, search for the words: android status icons.

Lenn called to ask about some of hazards of downloading apps.
– If you download from Googles Play Store or Amazon’s app store, you’re pretty safe.
– And when you uninstall something on the Android, usually there’s not much garbage left behind.
– The top app Paul uses is called Clean Sweep. <I couldn’t find Clean Sweep but I see some people refer to CleanMaster as Clean Sweep. I suspect that’s what he meant, since he’s mentioned it before>.
– Just because an app is free doesn’t mean there’s something wrong with it. However, some have in-app purchases as in the case of a GPS map program Paul got. It was fine until he wanted to travel beyond a specific area. At that point it prompted him to buy more maps.
– Glenn suggested Lenn do a search using the name of the app to see what others say about it. That’s how Glenn found that one of his iPhone apps was consuming a lot of power.
– The Play Store and Amazon Store apps have star ratings to guide you. Also look at the number of downloads. And read the user reviews. Paul tends not to download brand new apps unless there’s a good reason

Glenn thanked the listeners who support KVMR. If you’d like to become a supporting member please visit kvmr.org

Last Updated 12:02 AM 6-30-2016

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

Paul was in the studio. Glenn was in the Bay Area and didn’t call in.

Paul said that probably 1/3 of websites are using WordPress <a blogging and content management system.>

He said WordPress is a 2 edged sword. It’s a major target for those trying to break in but it also has some 20,000 plugins or addons to extend its function.

One of the things Paul added to the WordPress running the Zen Tech website is Adsense. If you want to advertise your product and have it come up in a Google search page, you bid on <and buy> the words people search for — when someone searches for that word, your ad appears on their screen. For example, a lawyer in a class action suite involving a medical condition called silicosis might want to bid on ‘silicosis’, Someone with that diagnosis will likely be searching for that word and will see the ad.

Paul mentioned some attributes a webpage should aim for if you want Google to view it favorably.
– Craft your page to be friendly using the fewest tricks.
– The longer your domain has been around the better.
– The length of time it’s had useful content on it.
– That it not have too many or too few links and is not obscured by Flash animations or javascript.
– The easy way to have a popular website is to buy a well-established site.

Paul said just the domain names themselves have market value but questioned the wisdom of registering a catchy name. The San Francisco Chronicle initially failed to register sanfranciscochronicle.com but didn’t suffer much for it — the name is really too long, and people have gotten used to its current name: sfgate.com.

He said WordPress is relatively easy to get started with. A simple way to start is to go to wordpress.com and click the button that says ‘create a website’. You can create a blog right from their webpage and experiment with it without suffering the embarrassment of someone seeing it.

If you want a more advanced website running WordPress visit sites like www.1and1.com

He said WordPress is so popular that it’s continually being upgraded and patched. If you use plugins, you may find future version of WordPress may not be compatible with the plugins you’ve chosen to use.

Getting back to the Google Adsense plugin that Paul added to the Zen Tech website, he said the intent was to display some ads (not necessarily related to KVMR). <Paul started to refer to Adwords rather than Adsense without explanation. It became unclear which one he used on the website.>

If you go to zen.kvmr.org you should see a small banner about 2/3 of the way down that says ‘ad choices’. He said he gets a small kickback when an ad is shown. As an example, if an advertiser paid 10 cents to Google to have their ad displayed, Paul gets paid 1/10 of a cent when the ad is displayed on the Zen Tech page and the rest goes to Google.

The Windows 10 upgrade is still free for those using Windows 7, 8 or 8.1. It will be free until the end of July. Microsoft considers the new operating system as a “product enhancement” and it therefore qualifies as an update, so it uses the automatic update facility to send out Win10, whether you want it or not.

Paul recently helped someone who upgraded their laptop to Win10 and started having problems with their wireless connection. They were using WEP as their encryption, Win10 didn’t like WEP and would not connect the router using it. WEP is low-grade encryption that no one should be using, Paul said.

So Paul changed the router settings to use WPA instead. He kept the name of the network and password as before. Although some equipment can deal with such a change, other equipment may have a problem. The problem is that some equipment will remember the MAC address <of the router> and continue to use it even though you changed the router setting. The solution is to make the client equipment (laptop, tablet, etc.) forget the network. Then the client will act as if it’s never seen the wireless connection before and it will make a brand new connection.

Paul said a lot of issues with wireless networks can be solved by keeping your machine updated with the latest drivers and other wireless interfaces. And there’s no good reason to continue using WEP. It’s vulnerable to eavesdropping, especially in an urban environment where there’s an abundance of wireless networks.

Another thing you can do to improve your wireless connectivity is to pick a channel that few people are using. In the U.S. there are 11 available channels in the 2.4 gigaHertz band, the type most people have. In the 5.8 gigaHertz band, which many but not all routers can use, there are a lot more channels. However, the 5.8 band is more limited in range, which, on the plus side, means less interference.

Ty called. She would like to create a webpage about her health care business. She wanted a suggestion of an inexpensive host for her webpage. She was looking at Go Daddy. It used to be free but they’re now charging $7 or $8 per month and there are congestion problems, or so she’s heard.
– There are many free options
– Go Daddy may be charging so much because it includes registering the name of your business as well hosting the webpage.
– Among other hosting services you can try are 1and1.com and bluehost.com.
– Many promise to promote your website. Educate your self before you spend money for a hosting service. Do a google search for the word: seo. It means search engine optimization and it’s a way of making your site friendly so it will more readily turn up in search results.
– Paul knew someone who was spending $500 a month to have his site promoted and who thought it was working fine. Paul did some research and found that the service was no better than some places that charge $25 a month.
– Paul invited listeners to offer suggestions on how they promote their websites without paying a lot.
– Visit websites of businesses similar to yours but rank high in search results, and see what they’re doing right.

Ward called. He’s noticed a warning on cell phone tower about radiation and wondered about how safe they are.
– Paul wondered if the warning label was put on the tower by a prankster. Ward said it looked like a genuine warning by the cell phone company.
– You can get an EMF meter to measure the radiation. Radio frequencies range from 200 kiloHertz up to and beyond 5.8 gigaHertz. Not all meters measure the entire range. Cell phones use frequencies at 900 megaHertz and just above 1 gigaHertz.
– Paul doesn’t think cell tower radiation is dangerous.
– People have been exposed to natural radiation from x-rays, gamma rays and such, since the dawn of humanity. In fact, some people have suggested such radiation was necessary for life to have evolved. <The radiation provided the genetic changes.>
– Ward mentioned a recent study of cell phone radiation, which found a connection to cancer.
< Major Cell Phone Radiation Study Reignites Cancer Questions:
What you should know about a new study
How might cell phone signals cause cancer? >
– The KVMR engineer entered the studio and offered a comment. The signal a cell phone sends is inversely proportional to 1 divided by the square of the distance to the nearest cell phone tower. The further you are from a tower the more energy the cell phone puts out.
– The KVMR science corespondent Alan Stahler also came into the studio to say that the cell phone radiation might be causing harm by the effect it has on the ions in living cells.
– Paul recalled that cell phones generate about 2 watts at peak power. The engineer said the peak power can approach 2 watts but due to modulation the RMS power it typically less than 1/4 watt.
– To mitigate the radiation use a head set, don’t keep the phone in your pocket that’s close to your genitals and use the airplane mode. And stay reasonably close to a tower when you’re on the phone, so it doesn’t have to put out much power.
– The engineer said a spectrum analyzer will let you easily see what radiation is coming from cell towers, even at frequencies not used by a cell phone.
– Alan suggested placing a cell phone in one place and see how long it takes the battery to drain. That should give you a general idea of how strong the cell signal is.

The disclaimer:
All views and opinions expressed on KVMR are those of the speaker only and the guest and not necessarily those of KVMR management, staff or underwriters.

Last Updated 12:13 AM 6-9-2016

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

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