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 < >

Paul was in the studio. Glenn called in from San Francisco.

Glenn called while on BART. The connection was dropped a couple of times during the show and the audio was poor.

Podcast of recent Zentech show are here.

When this show started some 15 years ago, the majority of people had desktop computers and a minority had laptops. That statistic eventually reversed. And then, roughly a few years ago, mobile phones and, more recently, tablets took the lead.

Now, you can find all sort apps for the mobiles. One of them is MonkeyParking. Developed by an Italian company, it allows you to publicize a parking spot you're about to vacate so others can bid for that information and thereby more easily acquire the parking place. <Alternately, of course, you can use the app if you're the one looking for a parking spot>. MonkeyParking uses the GPS chip in the phone to determine the location of the parking spot.
<Looks like MonkeyParking is only for the iPhone>

There has been controversy about the app. San Francisco claims it's illegal because it's selling a parking place. Apple has been cautious and pulled the app from its store, as far as Paul could tell. He speculated that other apps would take its place.

The other app he mentioned was Airbnb, which allows people to easily rent out a spare room and such. The problem with it is that municipalities like to charge tax on these types of transactions, which is not easy to do with Airbnb because it's essentially a private transaction. As on Ebay, Airbnb rates, thru feedback, the reputation of both the buyer and seller. Paul had a good experience using the app during a trip to Mexico.
<mobile devices can download here.>

Marilyn called. She uses Outlook 2002 for email and one of her mail services would only allow her to receive but not send email. She uses AT&T as her internet provider and AccessBee.com for the mail service. She paid $50 to get AT&T to solve the problem but now she periodically gets the message: "The server you are connected to is using a security certificate that could not be verified. The certificate CN name does not match the past value. Do you want to continue using this server?" She wanted to ask Paul what it means before she goes back to AT&T tech support.
– The warning did not say what the name was that did not match.
– Paul has low opinion of Outlook. He expects such a program to provide the needed info in its warnings: the 'name' in this case.
– CN stands for Certificate Name, Certificates are issued to the exact name of the place where the webpage (or mail service) resides. Certificates certify the authenticity of whom you are connecting to.
– AccessBee may not have a certificate. Or the setting in Outlook may be using the wrong name for the mail server.
– She's already answered yes to the "do you want to continue" question but worried she may be circumventing some protection. Paul thought that probably it's OK.
– Certificates are being used more now than ever — more sites are using the https:// in their URL. They were never used for mail, until recently.
– Sites are implementing encryption (https) even though the chance of intercepting the information is relatively low. <This due in part to recent revelations of government spying.>
– If you ignore the certificate warning you could be connecting to some place that's impersonating the site you think you're connecting to. In the end, "I wouldn't worry about it too much", Paul said.
– Marilyn said AT&T determined the correct settings for AccessBee, requiring that the check box for using a 'secure server' be unchecked for incoming mail but checked for outgoing mail.
– Paul gets a bit concerned about using software more than a few years old. He suggest Marilyn get a newer version of Outlook, if she must use Outlook at all. He said don't use anything newer that 2011 because it depends on Office 365. <I think Office 365 works in conjunction with a Microsoft cloud server>

Marilyn mentioned that she's using Windows XP and Paul warned her…
– Do not use the Internet Explorer browser.
– Don't use Microsoft Security Essentials. Use some other anti-virus program.

Paul gave some quick tips in diagnosing the cause of problems…
– Odds are high it's the internet
– If it's not the internet it may be a virus, especially if you're using Windows.
– Your children…<may be messing with your computer>

Glenn finally called in, while on a BART train in the East Bay. Paul thought cellular signals work in some BART tunnels, even under the bay. Glenn confirmed that they do.

Glenn uses Pure Talk for his phone service. Pure Talk uses the AT&T infrastructure. He pays month to month — no contract. It used to be $43.95 a month but is now $40.95. The price change was due to competition, Glenn assumed. He pays for it online with a credit card. He thought they don't take payments by mail. He said that the younger generation uses lot of data might not like Pure Talk. His account has a data cap of 1gig, but the voice and text (txt) are unlimited. He doesn't need more data because he uses wi-fi a lot.

Glenn's connection dropped out and we heard distortion that Paul said was caused by the cell service trying to compress the data. When there are less and less data packets <when the cell tower doesn't receive a good signal> it "substitutes little bursts of noise". He remembered when cell phones used analog rather than digital. Analog meant the radio frequencies were modulated by the audio (voice).
– Analog was eventually replaced by digital because it used too much bandwidth.
– Analog tended to have better range because it didn't compress the signal. You might get some noise during the call, but you still could get intelligible audio. <Similar to analog TVs, which were better at receiving weak signals>

Paul noted that cellular (phone) communications also use certificates for validation. Certification is different than encryption, he said.

Paul said he tried to establish a Google Hangout for today's show but failed. One of these weeks we'll actually succeed, he said.

Glenn was on BART because he was going back to where he parked his car to pay for parking, which he initially forgot to do. That got Paul talking about how London handles traffic congestion around the city. You can prepay for your trip into the city using your car's registration. Then when you enter a zone where there is toll, cameras recognize your license plate and they deduct the fee from your prepayment. If you didn't prepay you are sent a huge ticket.

Paul talked a bit about recognition software. He mentioned that Dragon Naturally Speaking works remarkably well. It takes words spoken into a microphone and converts it to text. It works on mobile devices as well as desktops.

He said there's OCR (optical character recognition) that takes a scanned image of words and converts it to text. Some of these programs will take the scan of a grid of numbers and convert it to a spreadsheet.

Then there's the Leafsnap app. You take a picture of a leaf and it gets sent off to a server that recognizes it and tells you what plant it came.
<Looks like it's only for iPhone>
<Similar programs for Android:
(NOTE: I can't vouch for these programs nor do I claim they are safe to use)
http://www.appszoom.com/android_applications/leaf+snap
http://www.appszoom.com/android_applications/lifestyle/mister-smarty-plants_hcgfl.html
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.anymals.anymallog&hl=en>

The guys talked a bit more about MonkeyParking. It's not illegal to have the app but if you're caught using it you may be in trouble, It's like years ago when CB radios were illegal in England but it wasn't illegal to sell them — just to use them.

Along the same thought, two of the proprietors of Pirate Bay, a peer-to-peer network, are in jail not because of copyright infringement but because of a type of conspiracy call 'facilitating copyright infringement'. You can read more about what's happening at the top of their page.

John in Citrus Heights called. He wondered if Paul's warning about not using Microsoft Security Essentials applied only to those using Windows XP.
– It's not being updated for XP.
– It's not recommended for anyone. It's effectiveness has gotten so bad it no longer qualifies to be on the list of those who rate anti-virus programs. It's only about 75% secure.
– Remember, no anti-virus is 100% effective.

Changelog:
added link to podcasts
added disclaimer for the Android apps

Last updated 9:15 PM 8/14/2014

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 < >

Both Glenn & Paul were in the studio for today's show

If Glenn gets around to posting the podcast of this show, it should be here.

During the show Glenn mentioned that the music they've been using at the start and end of the show is from Pentatonix.

Paul noted that the technological theme of this show covers a broad spectrum. He invited listeners to call in, even if it's about levers and pulleys.

Paul talked about what's often called the "one off problem" (though he didn't use that phrase), which deals with how we count things — in particular, where we start and end. When they want to count to 10,000, computer programmers start at 0 and stop at 9,999. So when processing an array of 10,000 characters the programmer has to be careful to make the program access each character and not 1 too many or 1 too few. A more common example is a person's birthday — someone who's 57 has actually lived into their 58th year.
<The problem often shows up in programming when the wrong type of looping structure is used. One type increments the counter at the beginning of a loop; the other at the end>

And consider that 1 mile is 1760 yards or 8 furlongs. In the UK it's normal to place power poles every furlong, so how many poles in a mile? You have to be careful of the spot you start counting. If you start at the midpoint of a pole then you have 7 poles and 2 half poles (one at each end).

"But if you move the 1st pole up a little bit you only get 7 in because the 8th one is outside of the boundary", Paul said.
<His example seemed specious, unless I totally missed the point (it's 8 either way). Just remember to consider where you start and stop counting.>

Paul also talked about the expansion & contraction of the wires between electrical poles. The slack in the catenary curve of the wires has to be enough to prevent excess tension on the poles during winter to prevent snapping the poles.

On the theme of expansion & contraction, he also mentioned that there is a telescope set in concrete along the path leading to Fort Mason in San Francisco. The scope's site points at the bottom of the Golden Gate Bridge. Looking thru the scope you can see the rise and fall of the bridge as the temperature changes over time.

When the bridge was being built, the roadbed, as it was being built from both ends, was inclined upward. So when the ends were joined on completion, the road sagged slightly under the combined weight.

The other bit of trivia about the bridge is that the two vertical pillars are not parallel. The earth's curvature causes the tops of the towers to be slightly further apart than the bottoms.

There was a brief astronomical discussion.
– The Earth and Moon actually orbit each other.
– The Earth precesses — wobbles like a spinning top.
– The precession has other motions superimposed on it — nutation is one.
– The point made was that nothing is as perfect as you might think.
– Even the motions in the solar system vary over time.

Paul said he is currently getting a message from the newly installed version of Win7 on his computer — "A logon session cannot be created. You need to restart your computer".
– This has been happening to some people since 2011.
– Microsoft has issued a provisional patch.
– He installed the patch. It made no difference.
– He complained that they tend not fix the root of a problem but just put a band aid on it.
– However, Win7 seems more stable than XP.
– He didn't say if and how he fixed the problem.

Glenn talked about alternative phone services. He speculated that 80% to 90% of folks in the Nevada City area are using a copper wire connection.
– He wondered how many companies provide plain old telephone serve (POTS) and how many provide an internet service with voice over IP (VOIP).
– Spiral Internet provides the internet connection with long distance phone service.
– The original intention behind AT&T's U-verse product was to provide the internet and VOIP, but not the standard (dialtone) phone service.
– The companies like to bundle various services (TV, internet, phone) and give you just one bill. Just one ripoff, according to Paul.

Paul asked Glenn what his ideas were about that. Glenn said he uses Comcast for internet, TV, video on demand (streaming video) and gets one large bill.
– They charge rental fees on the equipment and they don't always tell you.
– If you unbundle one of the services, they charge you more for the remaining ones.
– On the plus side, Comcast, in his area, delivers the fastest internet.

Paul said the technical (internet) service from Comcast is great but the billing service are atrocious. The pricing structure makes it difficult to find out something as simple as why the monthly fee went up. It's hidden in the price of the bundle. Glenn agreed and said the customer service of all these big companies is bad, judging by his personal experience.

The disclaimer:
The views and opinions expressed on this show are those of the speakers only and not necessarily those of KVMR, its board, management, staff or contributors.

There are at least 4 companies in the local area that provide internet service. Spiral Internet, Smarter Broadband, Digital Path (the service Glenn uses, but VOIP doesn't work well in his case), they didn't mention the 4th service.

Glenn noted that he had continual problems with NetTalk. They've been resolved, He got a new unit and his account was extended until Feb. At that time he's going some place else.

Paul talked about your right to port your phone number when you switch providers. There was some initial resistance by the phone companies and the government had to pass some laws to make it easier.
– They cannot take longer than a week to port a number, if Paul remembered correctly.
– The downtime cannot be longer than an hour.
– Paul has ported his number a few times — to PhonePower, to BroadVoice, to NetTalk, he currently has VOIP.ms. <I think this might be it>

Paul now uses the Obihai device, which Glenn found at Fry's for about $32. It's a VOIP device. Obihai is run by the guy who originally developed Sipura, one of the best internet routers for phone calls. Sipura was eventually sold to Cisco.
– Glenn returned the Obihai he bought for himself when he found out that Google Voice is dropping support. Though support stopped, Glenn said it supposedly still "works".
– It's small 2 to 3 inches by 1 to 2 inches and runs off USB power.
– It has a phone plug (RG11) and plugs into your Ethernet router (the router you have at home for your internet connection).
– A 2-phone line version is between $50 & $60.
– The Obihai device is just a one-time purchase, not a rental, and you have to arrange for the actual phone service separately. Obihai has some partners to provide the phone service.

If you buy a Comcast bundle with the internet and VOIP, the box (router) that comes with it is special. If you buy the same box on Ebay, for instance, and try to use it, Comcast won't allow it and claim that the box can only be leased from them. Paul didn't think that was legal and, indeed, discovered there is a class action law suit about the issue.

Other things to know about porting your phone number.
– Be sure to port the number before canceling the service from your old phone provider (AT&T or whoever). Otherwise you lose control over the number.
– Tell your new phone provider your phone number and tell them you want it ported. They will then work with your old provider and you don't have to do anything else.
– You can use a service called something like Ring Through or Ring Back (Paul wasn't sure of the name).  You can port your number to them for free and they provide a "parking spot" for your phone number, so you don't lose control over it. You can then use their web site to tell them where to forward a call that comes to that number.
– Many companies advertise that you can port your number to them for free. But there is no regulatory reason that you can't be charged by the company you're porting FROM.
<I couldn't find a free place to park your phone number (especially not with call forwarding) but this article mentions a couple of pay services and also talks about putting your number on vacation.
You can also port your number to Google Voice for a one-time fee of $20>

Glenn said he once had Magic Jack, another VOIP device. He hasn't heard of anyone having particular problems with that company.

The Vonage service was mentioned. Nothing particularly bad was said about them except they're not the cheapest.

James called. He'd been on hold while Glenn talked about Magic Jack and he wanted to know if it was a good choice.
– Glenn remembered the reason he left the service was that his unit stopped working and they wouldn't warranty it, even though he had it for less than 1 year. It was $30 to get another unit or $30 to port his phone number away from them.
– They don't have customer service. You cannot call them.
– Magic Jack & Net Talk are cheap but their devices are proprietary. When they break, you have to get another one. Broad Voice or Phone Power can use a generic unit.
– Phone Power is $8.33 per month for 1-year contract. With taxes it's about $150/yr. <Seems like a lot of tax, not sure I heard that right> It's not the cheapest in the business but Glenn had some good customer service from them.
– You can try Magic Jack free for 30 days to be sure it works for you. Not all VOIP units work well with all internet connections.
– Most VOIP companies have a trial period. Phone Power does.

Glenn mentioned California Lifeline for low-income people. You can get subsidized for your AT&T land line service end up paying only $8 to $12 per month. <You can get cheap cell phone service too, as I recall. Visit them here or here>

Brian called to ask Paul how to make Google understand the Queens English.
– Try google.co.uk. You can see what Google looks like in other countries. Use the country top level domain as in google.es for Spain or google.se for Sweden.
– On his Android device Brian can experiment using his voice at google.co.uk.

Bob called. He wants to switch to a different email address. He wants an easy way to notify his contacts of the change. He has about 800 contacts. He's switching from a small provider, CWnet to Comcast.
– Don't switch to an internet provider's mail system (Comcast). Instead get an address that lives on the internet like Gmail or me.com.
– You can't just send out 800 emails, your provider will think it's spam and not allow it. Send out the emails in small batches.
– Put multiple email address on the BCC: line, don't use the CC: line.
– Don't send the emails from the old account (CWnet), use the new account (Gmail or what ever).

Last updated 11:01 PM 8/7/2014

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 < >

Paul was in the studio by himself today.
Intro & outro music was by. Pentatonix

If Glenn gets around to posting the podcast of this show, it should be here.

Paul thanked Richard Hurley for being on last week's show, when the talked about Apple products from the user's perspective. Paul had some additional info…
– The next iteration of the Apple's iOS, the operating system for their mobile devices, is due to arrive in Sept.
– Users of Macs made since about 2007 will have the option of getting the new operating system called Yosemite.
– The two operating systems are not converging much due, in part, to the Mac not having a touch screen.
– You can get a device he called "The Glass Interface", a large trackpad, for about $49. It allows you to use gestures on its touch sensitive surface — approximating the multi-touch found on the mobile devices.
– If your Mac is new enough, you can find out what features are available with Glass by going to "System Preferences" & clicking on "Mouse". He said there is a demo, near the settings, that illustrates the features.
– He doesn't expect Apple to come out with Macs that have a touch sensitive screen, any time soon.
– Windows users with a trackpad that has enhanced gestures can find setting for it under the "Control Panel" -> "Mouse".
<I didn't find The Glass Interface but I did find the Magic Trackpad for the Mac>

 Paul then talked about "creeping featuritis", where better hardware inspires more capable software. As the software adds more features, the demand for faster, better hardware increases, inviting even more features in the software. Unlike Microsoft, Apple doesn't seem to be subject to that, he said.

Rob called. He's using a Mac with OS version 10.68 as well as a laptop (a Mac Book Pro). Occasionally, some gestures he does on his trackpad causes most of his keyboard not to work. He has to reboot to restore function, on both machines.
– Plug in a USB keyboard (doesn't have to be a Mac keyboard) but continue using the normal keyboard until the failure occurs again. At that point, see if the USB keyboard is working OK. Paul thought it likely a hardware problem with the original keyboard.
– Your laptop might have an "embedded number keyboard" — the numbers share the same keys with some of the letters. You may be activating the number keys, preventing the use of the letters. There's usually a special key to do that.
– You can use a PC keyboard as a replacement on the Mac but you'll have to get used to its Control Start, Alt, keys, which correspond to the Option, Command, Apple keys on the Mac.

Fixing the laptop is more problematic. On some laptops you may have to replace the "whole upper deck" not just the keyboard. Be careful not to break the ribbon cable, the direction you should pull to disconnect it may be different than it looks. Check places like Ebay for a used keyboard from a disassembled (parted) machine.

Jeff from Woodland called. He sometimes has trouble positioning the pointer using his laptop's trackpad — it's like it has epileptic seizures, it doesn't stay put.
– Go to the Control Panel -> Mouse Settings. Check the acceleration setting. If it's too high, it can be difficult to control the pointer. Pull the slider control to make it slower. Be sure to click the "Apply" button for the change to take effect.
– Wear & tear on the trackpad may eventually cause a problem. As with the keyboard problem above, try an external USB mouse to see if the problem persists.
– Try cleaning the trackpad with isopropyl alcohol.
– His machine is about 3 months old and may still be under warranty — call the manufacturer.

Paul mentioned the Facebook page he set up for Zentech. It hasn't been used much yet.

Paul has been thinking about getting a car DVR (digital video recorder). He was inspired by all of the videos of the meteor that fell in Chelyabinsk Russia. Many people in Russia have DVRs in their cars to document an altercation or a claim of damage from an accident. Their courts look favorably on video evidence.
– Typically they cost less then $100.
– Typically they weigh less that a few ounces.
– They're smaller than a regular camera.
– They're intended to be attached to the car and run on the car's 12-volt electrical system.
– The lens tends to have a relatively wide angle of view.
– Typically they record in full HD 1080p making it easy to zoom in on details.
– They contain a GPS chip and record the location of the video.
– They typically contain an accelerometer (G sensor) to make the camera start recording if there is an impact — even if it's just a window being broken.
– The one Paul got is small enough to be hidden behind the rear-view mirror and facing out the window. It cost him $69.
– His DVR can accept a flash memory card of up to 32gig, which can cost about $24. That's about 6 hours of video at the high resolution.
– After the 6 hours, the DVR will start recording over the oldest part of the video — "circular recording".
– There's free Russian software that works with openstreetmaps.org that takes the video from the DVR and shows you, on a map, "where you were going and what you were doing". Paul is an independent consultant and he finds this feature useful for recording the mileage.

Hazel called. She uses an app that came with her Mac called Stickies v7.0 (mimics Post-It Notes). The sticky notes populate the entire desktop every time she turns on the machine.
– Paul thought it was designed to work that way.
– She said it didn't do that before, and Paul thought it has something to do with amount of information in each sticky. The app may have changed its behavior when she typed in a lot of text.
– To lean more about Stickies, go to Youtube and search for the words: stickies tutorial. As mentioned before, it's a great resource for tutorials of all sorts.

Scott called with some help for Hazel.
– If you select a sticky and double click on the bar at the top, the sticky shrinks down.
– Clicking on the square on the left will delete the sticky, after confirmation from you.
– There's something on the right <I couldn't make out the word> that if you click on it, the sticky goes to the left corner of the screen.
– Upon quitting the app, the Stickies are automatically saved.

Paul reminded people that iCloud gives you 5gig of storage to backup data from your Apple device. If you have data on iCloud, it can be accessed with a PC using your Apple ID. Hazel can use it to backup her Stickies.

iCloud can also help you locate your phone <iPhone presumably> within several hundred feet. And you can lock your lost phone or delete all of the data on it.

Paul said he's thinking about using his DVR for Kite Aerial Photography (KAP). It's small and robust enough to hang on the tail of kite. He didn't mention it earlier but his DVR has a small battery on board that will run the unit for 10 or 15 minutes.

Last updated 10:29 PM 7/23/2014

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 < >

Glenn posted the audio for this show here.
Richard prepared some notes about todays show, a PDF file here.
I also appended his notes below . Not as pretty as his PDF but HTML makes it searchable.

Both Glenn & Paul were in the studio. The guest, Richard Hurley, talked about the Apple products and its operating systems — including the forthcoming iOS8 for the iPhone & iPad.

Contact Richard at:
rich@learnipadcourses.com
Find his courses at:
http://learnipadcourses.com/

Richard started teaching Mac OS about 5 years ago, when Snow Leopard was current, at Placer School For Adults. To help the overworked iPad instructor, he soon moved on to teaching that unit too. He deals a lot with multimedia on the iPad.

About iOS 8…
– iOS 8 will not work on the very first iPad made.
– It will work on the 2nd iPad model but you'll be limited to the hardware features of that model — no Facetime, for example.
– Count the number of cameras your iPad has. If it has 2, you can use iOS8

About the iPad screen…
– It has a Retina display. There are 2048 pixels from one side of the screen to the other. It's similar to high quality magazine print.
– Retina is a patented term. The number of pixels is more than can be discriminated by the rods & cones in the eye. You'd have to use a magnifying glass to see them.
– All those pixels means better color control and control over shapes in the images. That makes reading much easier.

Glenn took a moment to acknowledge the members who support KVMR. If you'd like to become a member, please visit kvmr.org. Or you can call 530-265-9073 during music programs.

For a long time now Apple has been giving away their operating system upgrades for free, Paul said. He asked why that is. Richard said Apple makes its money on the hardware not the operating system. It's in Apple's interest to keep the developers happy when they create apps. The operating system acts as a catalyst for the production of apps when developers don't have to keep buying the latest operating system.
– Apple takes a cut — roughly 20% — from the apps sold at the Apple Store.
– The apps themselves "are cheap and represent an incredible value".
– At last count, 170 million iPads "are floating around the world". If just a modest percentage of those bought apps, that generates a lot of money.
– The apps force you to buy updates thru the Apple Store. A lot of people don't care for the monopolistic practice.
– Apple vets the apps for malware. So far that's worked out pretty well.
– There are many apps to choose from. You have to be persistent in searching for the app that meets your needs.

Richard mentioned a multimedia format Apple developed called iBooks. At first it was only available on the iPad. Apple has now incorporated it in their computers running the OSX operating system starting at Mountain Lion. He said iBooks is handy for running instructional multimedia for using the iPad directly on the iPad itself.

For a long time, Paul has heard that Apple has been trying to converge iOS and the Mac OS. He asked if they are any closer. Richard said they've made some progress and that iOS8 will bring them closer still. The "Launch Pad" feature gives the Mac OS an appearance similar to that of the iPad. And iOS8 is supposed to make the iPad & iPhone "sing" with the Mac (connect better with each other). With the forthcoming Yosemite OS for the Mac, you can take a phone call on your Mac that originally came to your iPhone, for instance. Yosemite is version 10.10 of the Mac OS that's expected to come out in the Fall.

Paul asked if Apple is working on a touch screen interface for the Mac. Richard said they already have the Magic Mouse, which has the swiping capability, but that doesn't involve directly touching on the screen like Microsoft's Windows 8. He hasn't heard of any attempt to bring the touch interface to the Mac. Glenn questioned the need for a touch screen on a desktop machine, if it already has a mouse & keyboard connected.

Paul asked Richard how the older folks are taking to his instructions. He said the older student seem to do well in class. His oldest student so far was 92. The iPad has accessibility features for those with disabilities (poor vision, etc.).

Paul asked how easy it is to get an iPad to drive a big screen.
– It's a piece of cake using the HDMI interface, Richard said.
– During his lectures, Richard uses an iPad to connect wirelessly to an Apple TV. What's on his iPad screen appears on the TV.

iCloud has expanded to store "anything and everything", in response to competition like Dropbox. It was implied that you'll need iOS8 or Yosemite to take full advantage. Currently you get 5gigs of storage for free on iCloud.

The other thing iCloud does is it allows your iPad to synch with your computer — Mac or PC (with the iCloud control panel).

Photo Stream works well with iCloud though it can be confusing to use. It provides a means for the pictures you take as you roam around, to appear on your computer at home. Richard is looking forward to Apple making it easier to use. He thought it would find a place in a Real Estate office where agents can take pictures of houses that will be stored on a centrally located server for others to access.

Paul asked how easy it is for photographers to work with the iPad. Richard said "you wouldn't want edit on the tablet". Professional photographers would likely use Photoshop for their editing because it can do so much and it runs on desktop computers. The iPad has some simple photo editing tools meant for the casual user but not for professionals.

Richard mentioned that the iPad has HDR (High Dynamic Range) built in. This is where the very bright & very dark areas of a photo are adjusted so you can see more details.

Paul asked why the iTunes program that runs on an iPad or iPhone is different from the version that's on the Mac.
– The versions for the Mac and the PC are similar.
– Originally iTunes was designed just to load an iPod music player with music.
– Since then, iTunes has been tasked to do so much more, including handling different types of data.
– Glenn said you cannot find "iTunes" on your iPad because it's called "Music". He thinks it's not intuitive and he's not very thrilled with it.

Paul then asked why not have Photoshop run on the tablet like it does on a Mac. Richard said it's because of the lack of memory — Photoshop is a resource hog. Also, the screen is too small.

Richard talked about Health Kit from Apple. It's a programming framework that will allow development of software for people who have health monitoring devices. It "will have the ability to turn their Apple into the monitor". Your Apple device will collect the data from the monitor and send it to your healthcare provider. Glenn said he's heard speculation that clothing will be made with electronics built in that can monitor bodily functions.

Looks like Apple is gearing up to enter the gaming market with the iPad, Richard said. They plan to improve the graphic efficiency of the iPad without any changes to the hardware. They want to do 3-D animation at high speed.

Glenn was impressed with the keyboard on Android devices. They have special keys for ".com" and ".org" but Apple doesn't. Richard said Apple did have that — it's appeared then disappeared. In iOS8, developers will be able to create specialty keyboards.

Also in iOS8 the keyboard will give you predictive text — it will predict what you want to type based on what you've typed so far. For instance, if you are writing to your boss, the language should be more formal than when you write to a friend and it will suggest words more suited to the situation.

Richard's Notes for Zen Tech radio show 7/9/14

[ The following notes were compiled by Richard Hurley for an interview with Paule and Glenn on their Zen Tech show of 7/9/14. The opinions expressed here are Richard’s, except at noted in the text.]

New OS releases generally have two audiences in mind: developers and the general public. Sometimes one audience gets more attention than the other. IOS 8 looks to me like a developer’s release. Not a lot of sexy stuff here for the public, but plenty for the development community. And ultimately, it is the development community that turns the iOS devices into useful tools.

iOS releases are free, so Apple doesn’t have to woo the public with flashy new features. Apple can feed its newest technologies to its installed base and let developers make what they can of it. This is a good model that Mac OSX has adopted with its Mavericks and Yosemite releases. Excellent news for consumers!

New Features by the pound

The iOS 8 SDK is supposed to include "over 4000" new developer APIs (Application Programming Interfaces). This doesn’t mean much, in itself – consider it Apple’s way of telling developers, "we care." It is when Apple starts discussing details that the shape of the iOS’s future begins to emerge.

Touch ID API opened up to 3rd-party developers (source 9TO5Mac)

Touch ID is a sensor on the iPhone 5S that stores fingerprint info on the phone’s A7 chip (not iCloud). This info may be used in lieu of password, though there is not a lot of enthusiasm at present. Probably will gain traction as part of 2-step ID process (password and fingerprint). Conceptually interesting, being combination of something you know and something you have. Should dramatically increase security, if public adopts.

3rd-party widgets now okay for the Notification Center

Notification technology has been important in Mac OSX since Mountain Lion (Mac OSX 10.8). Apple apps like Reminders and Calendar notify you of upcoming events and relay the messages, via iCloud, to your iOS devices. Now, 3rd-party developers can get into the notification game, too. Imagine eBay telling you that you just got a new bid on something you want to sell. Or your doctor’s office reminding you that you’re due for a checkup. Or Facebook notifying you that someone has commented on your comments. Under iOS 8, you will be able to reply by double-clicking your notification.

If you ask me on-air if this is progress, I will say rude things. Then, I will remember that notifications can be strangled in your Settings app – and regain my composure.

3rd-party keyboards (source iOS 8 UK)

Apple’s keyboard is pretty good. Now we’re going to see if 3rd-party developers can do better. I don’t see a downside, here. Everybody gets to jump in. Meanwhile, Apple is rev’ing its own keyboard to include a new "predictive text" system"

"The technology suggests what word you're likely to type next based on past conversations. It also takes into account how you write to different people – so iOS 8 will understand that when talking to your boss you use formal language but when talking to your friend you use informal language. Apple said the predictive text technology would allow people to compose messages and emails ‘with a few taps." (Quote from www.expertreviews.co.uk)

Most of us old fogeys will find this feature annoying…until we learn to use it. For a generation raised on texting, this is just another step in technologicallyassisted communication – a journey that began with the stylus. What is genuinely interesting about it is that Apple’s hardware and software can now track and respond to language in real time. Human language is extremely complex. That Apple has analyzed it to a depth to allow instantaneous interaction is truly remarkable.

HealthKit (framework)

This new programming framework allows health and fitness apps to communicate with each other. This is a joint venture with Mayo clinic. Example: allows your blood pressure app to share data with a physician app. Apple says they can "securely pair devices throughout the house." We’ll see. Given the highpowered partnership, I think we are looking at the birth of a new model of home-based health monitoring, with doctors’ office getting a steady data stream from people who need special care. And yes, the security issues are formidable.

Data that can be collected: "heart rate, calories burned, blood sugar, cholesterol, sleep patterns and more…"

Ability to easily control individual or groups of devices throughout the house including integration with Siri. For example, you can tell Siri you are "going to bed" and it could dim the lights, lock your doors, close the garage door and set the thermostat. This kind of technology has been around in rudimentary form for ages, but its adoption by Apple may give it a big boost.

Swift (new programming language)

Apple’s online hype says, "Swift is a powerful new programming language for iOS and OS X that makes it easier than ever for developers to create incredible apps. Designed for Cocoa® and Cocoa Touch®, Swift combines the performance and efficiency of compiled languages with the simplicity and interactivity of popular scripting languages." I can’t comment on this except to say that the hype is meaningless. The idea of compiling scripting languages has been around since the Flood. I mean, what else are you supposed to do with them?

Cocoa is the native development environment of Mac OSX. Cocoa Touch is the equivalent for iOS.

"Metal" (a new graphics technology for gaming)

"Maximizes performance on the A7 chip." Apple claims 10 x improvement in draw call speed.

SceneKit (a new graphics technology for gaming)

"Making it easy to create fun 3D games."

Major improvement to SpriteKit (gaming)

Includes field force modeling, "per-pixel physics," and inverse kinematics (or IK). (IK is a set of math formulas used in 3D modeling. It lets you simulate the motion of complex skeletons based on stopping and starting points.)

============

iOS 8 to Mac OSX "Continuity"

Owners of Mac computers can use Handoff, a service that allows you to start an email on your Mac and finish it on your iPad (and vice-versa). This functionality is available throughout the whole Apple software suite (Mail, Safari, Pages, Numbers, Keynote, Maps, Messages, Reminders, Calendar and Contacts). Developers can build the feature into their apps as well.

Continuity also turns your Mac into an iPhone. When your iPhone rings, your

Mac or iPad will start ringing as well. (The call answering feature requires your iPhone on iOS 8 to be connected to the same Wi-Fi network as your Mac.)

Fun factoids picked up while researching:

There are, according to Apple, more than 800 million iOS devices sold. This is odd, because I’ve heard that there are ≈ 170 million iPads floating around out there. Are there really 630 million iPhones and iPod Touches loose on the planet?

Again from Apple: "iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch customers have access to the revolutionary App Store, which offers more than 1.2 million apps in 155 countries around the world. The App Store receives more than 300 million visitors each week and iOS users have downloaded more than 75 billion apps."

Somebody is playing with numbers here, because the last I heard, there were something like a half million apps for the iPad. Do we really have nearly 3/4 of a million separate apps for iPhones and iPod Touches?

In any event, there are indeed a lot of apps. I don’t think even Steve Jobs could have imagined the localization of apps that this implies. Lucky us! Every tiresome little TV news department now has its own app to annoy us with, first thing in the morning. I guess that is progress…

Yosemite notes

New Mac OSX release is free, like Mavericks. Does this represent a new model of OS releases? iOS releases are free. So was Mavericks, the last Mac OSX release. So will be Yosemite, the next OSX release. Apple seems to have given up the idea of raising money with it OS’s – unlike MicroSoft.

This makes sense. If you charge $$ for an OS upgrade, you have to woo the consumer with a bunch of features. "Here are all the reasons you should stop using Windows 7 and switch to Windows 8!" We all saw how that worked.

By giving away its OS’s, Mac is giving its developers assurance of a substantial base of adoptees, which means that developers have more incentive to go for the Next Feature Set. It’s a great model.

In the Windows world, by contrast, developers are facing large islands of users who settle in on a particular version and don’t upgrade. Win 7 is still dominant, was released in 2009. That’s the equivalent of Mac OSX 10.6, Snow Leopard.

Adopts iOS look ’n’ feel

Flat fields of color, semi-transparent backdrops are evidently here to stay. This represents continuing effort by Apple to get OSX users familiar with iOS. (Formerly, iOS had a toehold in LaunchPad (the Mac app-launcher). One rather obscure, out-of-the way play for Mac users to get a taste of iOS drag & drop folder creation.

ICloud Drive

Apple’s iCloud storage implementation was weak compared to Dropbox. Icloud was formerly accessible only through apps. (Apple was trying to restrict doc types.) Now open to any kind of document. Don’t know if new iCloud can be accessed from Finder. If it is, it will be much easier to manage than old.

Handoff

Mac and iOS devices can pick up on last open item and resume work. So, if you are banging along in Pages and take off for Starbucks, you can complete your work on you iPad. File this under so-what. In the past, all you had to do was save your work to iCloud, and you could resume at will.

Phone and SMS

If your iPhone is within Wi-Fi range of your Mac, you can now make and receive iPhone calls on your Yosemite Mac. Ditto text messages, both SMS and iMessage. All your iPhone traffic can be handled on your Mac.

Widgets for Notification Center

This is going to be big for 3rd-party developers. People who want to be connected to specific info sources can now have them wired into their Notification Centers. As it is, Mac users can get notices from info services (like 9to5 Mac). Under the new scheme, 3rd-party apps take up permanent residence in your Notifications.

Custom Actions

This is a sleeper that isn’t getting much press. Here’s the blurb from Apple: "Apply an effect from a photo-retouching app to an image you’ve opened in Preview. Or get a quick language translation from one app while you’re writing in another. With Actions, developers can give you access to the capabilities of their apps from anywhere in OS X — without having to launch the app." This sounds a bit like the old OpenDoc idea, or perhaps more like the Services feature of Finder. I haven’t found much use for Services, yet, but I can imagine other people might. Keep an eye on this one. It’s all in the implementation.

Share Menu Extensions

App developers now have access to the "Share" menu, which is the catch-all menu that Apple doesn’t know what to do with by way of naming convention. Sometimes it’s a Share menu, sometimes its an Action menu. The former term is too specific, the latter is too vague. In any case, the icon looks like this:

As a graphic and interface design fan, I’ve got to feel for the Apple engineers here. There is no right answer. It’s horrible to see them thrash.

Gaming

Apple is making all the right noises about making a good game environment: SpriteKit (enhancement of 2D gaming), SceneKit (3D), and integration of iPhone game controllers. ("Simply connect your iPhone or iPod touch to the controller and it’s ready for use with any supported Mac game.") File under increased integration of iOS & Mac OSX.

Developer tools

New items include Swift (new programming language), Xcode 6, CloudKit. I need to look at all of these before I comment. Most interesting Apple blurb followed these in Apple’s online info:

"Shared Frameworks Between OS X and iOS

The days of wishing an app for your iOS device were available on your Mac — and vice versa — are numbered. Now it will be easier than ever for developers to share more code across the two platforms, while still building customized experiences for each one." Interestingly, clicking on this announcement sent me straight over to the iOS hype about their 4000 new APIs for iOS developers. I take it from this that Apple isn’t ready to step forward with details here. I’ll be curious to see what develops here. Apple itself had to re-write the iWork suite from the ground up to sync its desktop versions to iOS offerings. Is Apple now claiming that this will be easier for others to do? Stay tuned.

 Last Updated 8:50 PM 7/12/2014

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 < >

Both Paul & Glenn were in the studio

If Glenn is true to form, the audio for this show should be posted here, eventually.

Glenn briefly talked about an item from the last show. On that show it was suggested Sheree get a different browser and move her bookmarks and such into it from Internet Explorer. This was in preparation to resetting IE to the factory default condition. He's heard from Sheree since then and she's managed to move the data, but today he asked her to call the show and let us know if the resetting procedure solved the problem with IE. <She didn't call during the show>. Paul noted that it's important to determine and eliminate the original cause of her problem. In her case, it was tentatively determined to be a browser helper object (plugin) for IE.

Over the years the guys have suggested various anti-virus programs, starting with Norton Anti-virus, then AVG followed by Microsoft Security Essentials. Lately, the guys and the KVMR station have been using the free version of Avast. Paul said Avast has the ability to check for malicious browser helper objects and "tends to remove them" — "no other anti-virus does that"
<Windows Defender and Microsoft Essentials are no longer recommended.>

Paul said that iOS 8, the operating system for Apple's mobile devices. is expected to come out in Aug or Sep. "It promises to come closer to the Mac software". He said the two are converging (mobile & desktop).

Glenn let us know that the intro music for this show was by Pentatonix.

That got Paul talking about music royalties for mashups. <Music derived from combining & editing of existing songs> He said royalty has to be paid to authors of all the songs used, except for "fair usage".

He went on to say that it's amazing what music editing software can do. Songs with 2 different keys & 2 different tempos can be combined — pitch in one song can remain unchanged as the tempo is varied to match the other song.

Paul then talked about a protocol used in the Mac world called Bonjour (formerly Rendezvous). Apple introduced Rendezvous with version 10.2 of its operating system. It lets devices on the local network in your house send messages to each other to "indicate the presence of things that can be shared or printed to". For instance, iTunes announces itself using Bonjour, so if you share your music in iTunes on machine #1, whether Mac or PC, you can use iTunes on machine #2, that's on the same local network (not the internet), to play music from machine #1. You'll only be able to play but not copy the music.

The protocol also exits in the PC world, where it's known as Zeroconf (zero configuration). One feature of Zeroconf is that "if you turn on a computer that's accustomed to being connected to a network and it's not connected to a network. it will get a Zeroconf IP address for itself" beginning with 169 "in the hopes that when it does join a network, that doesn't have host configuration protocol, at least the other fellow will be in the same subnet because it does use what they call LAN packets — local area network packets". <I think he meant the devices would be able to find each other on the network>

Today Paul noticed on news.google.com a Supreme Court ruling that Police need warrants to search cell phone data. He wondered, what if you lose the phone or just leave it lying around? He thought they would still need a warrant.
<In Landmark Case, High Court Issues Limits To Cellphone Searches — by NPR's Nina Totenberg.>

Bongo called. He has an iPhone 4 and an iPad 4. He had read an article about the password managers Dashlane & Lastpass. It said Dashlane is more attractive & easier to use but Lastpass was less intrusive. He asked the guys for their opinions.
– A manager needs just one password to access, and then the manager will enter any of the passwords stored in it, as needed, as you surf the web.
– Some will also automatically fill in forms that ask for your name, address, phone, etc.
– Paul said security & convenience are mutually exclusive. "If its too convenient then it can't possibly be secure because it's too easy to slip up".
– These mangers will not be of use if you have a keylogger (malware) on your machine. <Keyloggers record what you type, including a master password, and send it on to the hackers (crackers).>
– Glenn noted that the iPad & iPhone come with a password manger. He thought it came with an iOS update in the last year or so. Glenn couldn't remember its name. Look under Settngs -> Passwords Security

Paul talked about an article that referred back to the days he did programming in C in the 1980s. C was created by the same person(s) who created the Unix operating system <which is now mimicked by the Linux operating system>. The authors of C were Ken Thompson & Dennis Richie.

Thompson wrote an article in 1984 called "Reflections on trusting trust". One of the things it talks about is "to what extent should one trust a statement that a program is free of undisclosed behavior. Perhaps it's more important to trust the people who wrote the software" — if you personally trust the people then you can trust the programs they write. However, the people who write programs will be using software to do so — software they personally can't vouch for. The article comes under 2 titles: "On Trusting Trust" and "Reflections on trusting trust".

Julie called because this talk about trust reminded her of Wimpy (of the Popeye cartoons) who famously said, I'll gladly pay you Tuesday for two hamburgers today.

More on trust, Glenn reminded us to distrust the links you find in emails, even if it's from someone you know. You can open the email but don't click on the links in it.

Paul recalled the "I Love You" malware, which came as an email attachment. He said it was the first to use social engineering to spread itself. The guy who wrote it left his name inside the code. When the police finally caught up with him, he claimed "I never knew it would do that".

Paul talked about how, years ago, some "nanny" software that was put on students' computers to keep them from visiting inappropriate sites. The students eventually figured out how, using the approved browser, to go to Netscape and download the Netscape browser. Then using the Netscape browser, they had unfettered access to the web.

Next, Paul talked about problems encountered when electrical conductors, made of different metals, are connected. They tend develop a resistive layer between them thus reducing current and producing heat. Headphone jacks or battery contacts are examples of dissimilar metals making a connection that can fail. To restore function, use a pencil eraser or emery board to abrade the contact points.

Paul bought a battery tester for about $5 from Amazon. He used to use a cheap multimeter to test batteries, but doing that only measures volts, and doesn't take current into account. It may read a high voltage when the demand for current is low. As soon as the need for current increase, a bad battery will drop to a low voltage. So its best to measure the voltage when there's a load on the battery. A resistor of about 100 ohms across the terminals should do it, or just get a battery tester.

A caller told of someone he knew who bought a new machine, and when it arrived, it had all of her data on it. <He left out a lot of details that would explain it. Paul assumed the retailer performed the data transfer with her permission.> Paul noted that Mac users can use iCloud to help with this type of data transfer. Similarly, when PC users of Windows 8 sign in with an online Microsoft ID, "supposedly a number of their apps will store your data for you" <which you can then download to a new machine>.

Paul has been looking for an operating system that would serve as a replacement for XP. He's looked at Lubuntu, but he's not satisfied with it. He'll keep on looking.

Last Updated 10:43 PM 6/25/2014