Al Lustie's Tips and Tricks

One of the newsletters I read every day included a link that warns about "Malvertising" -- ads, even on Google, that get your computer involved with Malware.

Here is the Link:

My iPhone is nearly dead.  The WiFi (on which I depend) won't work.  The battery is two years and ten days old and won't hold a charge, even when not being used, for more than three or four hours (or less).  So, even if I had purchased the extended warranty, my phone would not have been under warranty when it began crashing.

I purchased a new iPhone.  It should arrive today.  What was I thinking?

An LG has a better camera.  A Samsung Galaxy is more waterproof (although I don't go swimming with my phone).  Other brands and models have features that I could enjoy.  Heck!  I could even go the Cricket route if all I want is a phone.  It would be a LOT cheaper.

I was thinking all of the above.  But I purchased an iPhone 6 because it will synchronize with my iMac, my MacBook, and my iPads and iPod.  That is worth a lot to me.  A LOT.

It's worth money and aggravation because I get the actual features I use.

How do you choose the technology you purchase?  What kinds of features, pluses and minuses, do you weigh?

Leave a comment and let us know.

I had occasion to help a neighbor recently who had a laptop with Windows 8 on it.  The screen was a touch screen.

In moments I realized that this was what makes the difference.  With a touch screen, which she uses skillfully and well, Windows 8 seemed to be a usable operating system.  Wow!

My conclusion:  If you have to have Windows, and have to have Windows 8 or 8.1, get a computer with a touch screen and learn to swipe left, swipe right, touch icons, and generally use it effectively.

I also had a client ask for help with a different Windows 8 machine.  She has a touch screen but has never used it.  Yeah.  It's a clunky machine without the use of swiping and touching, in my opinion.

What do you think?  What experiences have you had with Windows 8 that you can share.  Please, no profanity.

I waited a few days and upgraded to IOS8 for my iPhone, iPad and iPod.  So did my wife.

She had a new keyboard/case for her iPad and the keyboard kept disconnecting.  She took it back and got another of the same brand.  Same problem.  Was it IOS8?

We took the second keyboard/case back and went to Target and purchased a different brand.  No more problems.  The ZAGG was the problem, not IOS8.  We have updated all the apps that can be updated and are not having problems that we can see.

I LOVE the new way of managing messages in the mail program.  A swipe and it is deleted.  Yeaaa!

I upgraded to IOS8.1 a couple of days ago.  No problems.

I upgraded us to Yosemite (OS X 10.10) and noticed several things.

1. My iMac and my MacBook Air both seem to run faster
2. I don't much like the comic book look of the icons, but they work
3. I haven't tried the Continuity feature, and maybe never will.  No comment, at least not yet.
4. On my wife's iMac with an extra monitor the Dock keeps moving around.  All the various "fixes" we found on the Web failed to work.  Is that a Yosemite thing?  Don't know.  

All in all I recommend staying up to date on the upgrades.  The price is right and they work just fine for us.

Leave your comment and let us know your experience.

We have had IOS 8 on our "i"devices for a short while.  There are some things I like, and some things I don't have any use for.  Each of us differs in our likes, dislikes, and approach to using electronic devices.  So, I would invite you to leave a comment sharing what you most like about IOS 8 on your iDevice (Phone, Pad, Pod).

The most enjoyable thing I find is the ability to swipe left while looking a messages in Mail and delete/Archive them.  No more clicking Edit!  Far less chance of deleting something I didn't want to delete because of a stab of the finger going wrong.

Well, enough of my stuff.  What do you like?  What do you dislike?  Lave a comment and let us know.

I don't always "win".

Last week I was asked to help an employer bypass the password demand on a Windows y computer.  His employee had changed it, and then gotten himself in jail for stealing a car.  Since he stole it from his employer he was not inclined to help. . .

No problem.  I have tools.  I went to work.

Whatever this guy did, it worked.  I failed.  I sent my client to find a "hacker", something I have never aspired to be.  I hope it goes well for him.

If it needs a "tap" don't use a sledgehammer, goes the saying.  Conversely, if it needs a safecracker, don't go to an honest locksmith.

I write this to encourage you who read this to understand several things.

• Keep track of your passwords.
• Create a password recovery disk when you first start up Windows (and a Repair disk and a backup copy of Windows)
• Find the best person for the job you need done.  
• Of course, it's really, really good if you only hire honest people.

Leave a comment if you wish.

My friend, Jim, and I were visiting about this and that, and I mentioned going through thousands of old snapshots my mother had taken and saved, back in the days of film cameras.  I threw most of the away.  Jim said, and I agree, there was something else to do with them.

Scan them and save them.  Annotate the ones you can.  Use the free month you can get from Ancestry.com  to . . .

1. look for the name of someone in the picture
2. upload the picture, with a probable date
3. continue

Why?  In fifty or a hundred years someone may be doing a genealogical search on this person and some kind of picture would be appreciated.  This widens the data pool a lot.

On another note, Evernote Premium recently introduced the ability to scan business cards and organize them.  If I was still working in the business world I would sure pay the premium price and do this.  I may do it anyway.  I'd set up iPod Touch up on the little tripod I bought and scan for a few hours.  Then, using the sync feature I would be able to call up anyone's card from my computer, iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch when I wanted that person's data.

Then there are my own personal artifacts.  I should either scan or photograph them as well.  Diplomas, pictures of note, pictures of my dad in WWII, the program of my mother's violin recital. . . and add them to the ancestry.com data bank as well.

What do you think of these ideas?  Would this kind of thing be useful for you to do?  Leave a comment. . .

I spend too much time with security issues, I think.  Let me share some less terrifying, more enjoyable stuff.

A truly great app for the iPad that you can sync on the iPhone, iMac and iPod Touch is this:

Evernote.  https://evernote.com/evernote/

If I was still in the business world I would pay for the "Premium" version just to have the ability to scan business cards.  I'll get back to scanning in the next article.  That said, I think it worth while to also download Skitch (http://evernote.com/skitch/) as well.  Both are FREE, and they work together.

A couple of games also come to mind for the iPad:

• Threes 
• Spell Tower

Check out this link:

http://www.edudemic.com/microsoft-word-shortcuts/

You will find a list of useful shortcuts that will make you more effective and efficient when using MS Word.

After you try a few, leave a comment and let us know which ones you used and will use again.

Once in awhile I like to share applications (apps) that work for me.  I use Macs and Windows computers, and my iPad, iPod and iPhone every day.  The operative word is "use".  I do not use any application up to its fullest potential.  For instance, I am very, very happy with Evernote.  I use it to keep track of ideas for blogs, for instance.  It synchronized between my devices, so when I get an idea (except when driving) I can jot it down on my iPhone or iPad and when I get to a WiFi spot it shows up on my Mac or Windows machine.

I can sort things, categorized items, tag entries, add sketches, create sticky notes, associate ideas with places.  I can copy from and copy to my entries.  I can delete when something is no longer applicable.

If you have not checked out Evernote, please do.  You will probably figure out many ways to use it I have not even thought about.

Share your experience with us by leaving a comment.  Love to hear from you.

According to Security Watch of PC Magazine, Microsoft rolled out a "fix" for Internet Explorer this morning, May 2nd, 2014.  They are even including Windows XP, although they continue to encourage XP users to "move on" to a newer version of Windows.

I still recommend avoiding Internet Explorer and using Chrome, Firefox, Opera, or Safari.  The nasty hackers attack them all, but Internet Explorer seems to be the prime target and that means IE users bank accounts, identities, and credit cards are prime targets as well.

Be safe.  (Leave a comment if you have experiences you want to share.)

I had an interesting call the other day.  My friend and client wanted to print an email (he uses gmail) and the printer wouldn't print the right hand inch of the text.  But it would print DOWN.  What could he do?

I came up with two solutions which both worked.

One, he could use the little, almost invisible to older eyes, PRINT ICON just to the right of the Subject Sentence in the email.  That seemed to work quite well.

Two, he could move the browser Right Edge to the left, scrunching up the email until it was a lot narrower.  Then hitting File, Print, worked quite well.

As usual, there were more than one solutions.  The trick is always to find the one what works best for you.

Have you solved a little annoying problem like this recently?  Share it with us in your comment.

*******

A tiny rant may be overdue:  The Google folks, the Outlook.com folks, the other big outfits keep tinkering with their user interface.  They make it hard work  for ordinary users to get their work done.  Usually they haven't improved it except (maybe) to make more room for their intrusive advertising.

I try to keep physically and mentally fit.  I suspect you do as well.  An app for my iPhone and iPod Touch that helps is called "Moves".  It tracks my motion during the day, on walks, on bike rides, up and down stairs.  It helps me calculate the calories I burn.

I can recommend it for you in almost every way.  Let me put the caveat here, as do the makers of Moves.

Charge your phone regularly.  Moves stays "on" to capture your moves, and it does use the battery.  If you remember to connect it to the charger, at least each evening, you'll be fine.

A customer service rep at the mobile phone store we use says he has built the habit of always hooking his phone to his car charger when he drives.  He can keep it topped up almost without thinking about it.  That's a great idea.

Moves is, I understand it, also available for Android phones.  Check out https://www.moves-app.com  or the app store.

If you find it helpful, leave a comment and let us know.

Here is an important link:
http://www.howtogeek.com/183642/who-is-making-all-this-malware-and-why/

These Malware distributors are crooks, pure  and simple.  From protection rackets to identity theft, they want OUR money.

Protect yourself.  Resist.  Get help when you need it.

If you seem to have malware, immediately unplug your computer and (f you are close by Littleton, CO) call me.  Otherwise call a trusted PC tech, or take your computer to one, and ensure you are disinfected.

But NOW -- back up your data!  If you have to scrub your hard drive, and reinstall Windows, you can have your data back if you have backed it up often.

Leave your comments below.

All the information we are getting tells us that we have little or no privacy.  I recently began working with duckduckgo.com which is a search engine that does not give up it's information to anyone.  Thus, for the moment at least, you can search with an expectation of privacy.

Give it a try.  They have add-ons for the major browsers.  Click on the link above, and type in a search.  If you type a question, it will try to give you an answer.  No kidding.  Try "Where is Vaughn, WA" or  "Who is the mayor of Seattle, WA?"

Results.  Fast.  Type your own name in.  or, "Who is my name?"

What do you think of it?  Leave a comment below and let us know.

I have had to learn about Cryptolocker, a very nasty form of malware that attcks Windows computers.  Let me give you some information about it.

Try going to:  http://blog.malwarebytes.org/intelligence/2013/10/cryptolocker-ransomware-what-you-need-to-know/

to learn a LOT about it.  It will not tell you how to prevent it.  It will not gell you how to fix your files when they have been encrypted.  It will tell you the following, if you read it carefully:

If you get it, 

1. unplug your computer from the electric outlet
2. unplug your computer from the Internet unless it is connected by WiFi
3. if connected by WiFi, you may want to unplug your router
4. call for help from your competent anti-malware tech

An ounce of prevention is worth everything you can do later.  Here is what you must be doing now:

• Back up your files every day.  If you work for someone else, maybe several times a day.  
•   (see this link for information on backing up files:  http://windowssecrets.com/newsletter/sorting-out-the-revolution-in-pc-backups-part-2/
• Every few days, back up to an Internet site such as Carbonite, or put critical files on a DVD disk where they cannot be encrypted or distorted.  Especially if they are client files with client information!
• When you leave your computers, close your browsers (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, etc.) and close your email client.

Now, you may be finding this hard to read, hard to conceptualize, and you may be thinking, "I don't want to know this stuff, I just want to use my computer."  I understand.

You may not want to know that when you drive a car you can kill people, or kill yourself.

The reality does not change whether we want it to or not.  Take care.  Take precautions.  Become a safe computer and a safe driver.

Leave a comment if you have more to share.  Thanks.

I got a call from my friend.  (Actually, I have more than one friend, but the caller is a friend.)  He had come home from doing errands to find a message on his Windows screen.  It told him that his files had been encrypted and if he wanted to access them he needed to pay $400 within two days.

The malware is called "Cryptolocker" and one web site estimates that it infects 1,000,000 computers per month.  It is really, really, nasty.  It is extortion.  It is an electronic variant on the protection rackets found in poorer sections of major urban areas.  Did I mention that it is really, really nasty?

The second part of why it is nasty is that when you pay, not all your files may be unencrypted.  It is really, really, really nasty.

I was wondering what people think the punishment should be for the authors and distributors of this really, really, really nasty malware.  What do you think?

Imprisonment for twenty-five years at great cost to the taxpayers?  Execution?  Cutting off the coder's hands?  Removing their vocal cords?  Being locked in stocks, set on a flatbed and taken to the front doors of businesses which have been hit by this attack so they can pelt stuff at the perpetrator?

What do you think?  Leave your comment and let us know.

Oh, and BE SURE you are backing up your data at least daily.  The only remedy is to scour your hard disk, reinstall programs, and recover your data from an uninfected source.

For a variety of reasons I learn new software nearly every month.  I'll bet you have new software to learn from time to time as well.  If nothing else, there is that pesky "update" that changes where things are located.  Chrome, Firefox, Google mail,  Internet Explorer and various utilities are all examples of "new", sort-of.  Here are some tips I think will help.

First, look.  Look carefully at the screen.  See what visual clues you can find.
  In the midst of looking, look for specific things.  For instance, in a mail program, look for the "SEND" icon or button.  Look for the "REPLY" icon or button.  Look for the "DELETE" icon or button.  These things may not be where they used to be, but you can find a lot of them.  LOOK>
Second, click the HELP item on the menu, or press the F1 key.  You may have to enter the Search screen to narrow down what you are searching for (like the Delete command) but the help function is one of the best places to provide clues.
Third, look online.  I use Google search, or DuckDuck (which is a search engine that does not track your searches).  I just looked up "Add one clip to another in iMovie" and found pages of tutorials, comments and even videos.

I find it very important to believe that you can learn.  I tutor and teach hundreds of people, and I have never found one who could not learn.  YOU can learn.  Give it a go.

What do you think?  Leave a comment and let us know.

I have written before about the persistent scam that goes like this:
  you get a phone call from someone claiming to be "from Windows" or a subcontractor for Microsoft, or some such thing.  The person claims your computer has reported a number of viruses.

It's a scam.  How-To-Geek has a great report  on an actual call.  Go to this link to read about it.

http://www.howtogeek.com/180514/the-“tech-support”-scammers-called-htg-so-we-had-fun-with-them/

Or, just ignore such calls.

Do NOT pay anyone any money, or give them control of your computer unless you know them or have solid reason to trust them.

What do you think?  Leave a comment and let us know.

Do you like to walk?  or run?  Are you thinking of changing your route, walking in the hills, doing some off road walking?  What what has that got to do with technology, anyway?

I have tried various apps to assist me in my exercise activities.  The one I enjoy the most is "MapMyWalk" for my iPhone (and iPod).  Fitbit requires other equipment.  Runtastic didn't work so well for me.  But MapMyWalk lets me record my walk (or run or bike ride) and gives me the distance and probable calories burned.

Since I usually carry my iPhone when I'm out, it's always there.  It measures by GPS rather than the length of my stride (especially helpful when walking in snow or on ice).  The paid version is only $2.99.

What works for you?  Leave a comment and let us know.