Supposedly Simple Answers :-)

Topics of the day:

• Lab Software review continued (Firefox, Chrome, PDF Creator)
• New things in Windows 10, Version 1151, Build 10589
• Some other Simple Answers
• Install the GWX Control Panel if you don't want Windows 10
• Some Reflections on Disney World

I tried to embed some videos in this one, i.e., the Fart Gun.  Did it work?

Good Topics

The Topics of the Day:

• After the Fact Approvals (<grin>  We got some replacement PCs for the Lab)
• Should you change your Password?
• Lab Software:  Audacity, Malware Bytes, WinDirStat, and Windows Live Mail (WLM)
• eMail Clients (like WLM)
• What's RAID? (Bonus topic)

Senior Surfer Overview

For the Newark Senior Center Open Hourse, our President, Helen Browne (with an 'e' <grin>) gave an overview of what the Senior Surfers club has and does.

Security Freeze - ID Protection

Here's section in the Delaware Code (law) about "Security Freeze" as referenced during the "Passwords!" presentation:   http://www.delcode.delaware.gov/title6/c022/index.shtml

As in most law, that's hard to read.  Here is a paper from the Consumers Union that is much easier to understand:  http://consumersunion.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/securityDE.pdf

Each of the three credit bureaus have their own instructions for a security freeze:

• Equifax:  https://help.equifax.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/75/~/security-freeze-fees-and-requirements
• Transunion:  https://www.transunion.com/freeze
• Experian:  https://www.experian.com/consumer/cac/InvalidateSession.do?code=FREEZECENTER

 
 

All About Passwords

Topics:

• Password Types
• Forgotten?
• What’s a good one?
• Saving them
• Password Manager
• SQRL

Check out our Blog for the links about and for Identity Protection!

Beginning Computer Concepts

Today we started at the beginning, "What is a File?"  Then moved on to Folders, then Cut Copy and Past, and finally put them together to do a simple backup.  Lastly, talked about Synctoy for the next time you want to update your backup.


(Yes, that's Dale Junior on the first slide - Jodi got a 'hot pass' and wandered around Dover International Speedway during the NASCAR race.)

Here's the link to the GWX Control panel <link>.  This will suppress the Get Windows 10 nag and stop Windows from downloading Windows 10 in the background.  (Bad Microsoft! Don't download multi-gigabytes to our computer without asking!!  <link>)

The link to download Microsoft's Synctoy:  <link>  It's free.  We like this for beginner's backup, very easy to set-up and use, and it's "stupid simple" to restore files.

Radio Newark

A group of amateurs is establishing a new community radio station in Newark. The radio mast is up and they will be transmitting shortly. WIZU – 99.9 FM. Who are they? Just Google “Science Radio Station” – and they’ll be the second link, http://radionewark.org right behind PBS.

That's a Good Question!

The Pre-Show included a good one from 1999: "George Lucas in Love", the real story of how Star Wars was created.  <link>

First Announcements ...

• Tomorrow only: Amazon Prime for $67 for new Prime Members
• New Amazon Fire Tablet:  Just $50 (We bought two for the Social)
• Membership renewals are due.  If not paid up, after 30 Sep (midnight) you are off the rolls!  No more email notices.  :-(

Today's Topics:

• What about Cookies &  Ad-blockers?
• The 5 “R’s” - Repair, Recovery, Restore, Refresh, & Reset
• How to talk to a Router

My new favorite Browser Add-on, "uBlock Origin." Search for it in your browser add-ons!

Windows 10 Followup ... and more!

Wow.  That hour and a half went quick!

In Club News:

• Please renew your membership if you haven't. If you don't remember (hey, we're seniors!) send an email to akadivamom @ aol.com to ask your status.
• Yes, you do have to fill out a form for renewal.  Among other things, that form confirms your email address and allows you to provide feedback to the club officers.  What do *you* want to hear, learn, and get from membership? 
• Watch for an email with John Bray's info.  He will greatly appreciate any cards and letters you care to send him.
• Lastly, we need a volunteer for the program director's job.  It's simple really, just contact and setup speakers for Thursday's presentation each week - you don't have to present anything yourself.

First the 'more' ...

• 2.5 Hours of Apple Annoucments in 2.5 Minutes!  <link>
• What and when was the first USB Flash Drive?
• Your Yearly Dementia Test

Follow-up on Windows 10:

• Turn off the Windows 10 upgrade nag:  <link>
• When Windows 10 is free, and when it's not
• Should you upgrade to 10?  (Spoiler: From Windows 8 or 8.1 - yes; from Windows 7 -  it depends)
• The Privacy Dilemma.  Or is it just Market Research?
• Windows 10 Privacy Settings - 13 pages worth of them
• WUDO: Windows Update Delivery Optimization
• WiFi Sense: Convenience or a Bad Idea?
• Microsoft Account: "It just works" or Microsoft spying?
• Some Windows 10 Apps need more baking  (especially Mail!)
• David Pogue's 10 Days of Windows 10:  <link>  (good, short helpful videos!)

Next week:  It's more Bob.   Is that good or bad?  :-)

Jodi Presents: Cell Phones

Not just 'smart' phones.  A review of how to compare and select a cell phone plan.


Some good pages to check out
    http://www.whistleout.com/CellPhones
    http://www.wirefly.com/content/phone-plans
    http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2476684,00.asp
    http://www.whistleout.com/CellPhones/Cell-Phone-Plans-Buying-Guide
    http://www.whistleout.com/CellPhones/Guides/a-guide-to-verizons-edge-early-upgrading-plan

Windows 10: Before, During and After

A new record!  We had *87* people attending this presentation.  We apologize for those that that may have got stuck in the back; had we known that so many were coming we would have not set up all the tables to have more room.

This was a presentation on:

1. Getting ready for Windows 10,
2. The process of installing Windows 10, and
3. Some of this things you should look for after installing Windows 10

I had 87 slides in this presentation, and naturally, did not get to show them all.  All are included below, although I'll probably also show them in a future presentation.

Part 1 - Getting ready.  This part was mainly how to make an image backup of your computer using either the built-in Windows 7 or 8 tools, Acronis True Image, or Macrium Reflect free.  Although most of the Windows 10 installs have been error-free, and those that weren't corrected themselves, it's always nice to have a safety net and insurance if all goes bad.  A good image backup is that safety net.

Part 2 - Installing and Configuration.  I've done 4 upgrades so far, one of these live during this presentation.  It took 1 hour, 20 minutes on a 6.5 year old laptop - and completed seemingly without error.  (Give me time to check all the applications before pronouncing it done!)

A News & Q&A Day

Today's Topics:

• Breaking News:  The OPM Hack included Fingerprints, The Hacking Team was Hacked, the Chrysler car Hack, Windows 10 is almost here, and MSE on XP is no longer.
• A follow-up to last week's Phish, find out how it worked
• Part two of Imaging - needed before you take the Windows 10 plunge
• And 10 questions from the audience

Ted Wilks - Audacity

Using Audacity - the music editor:


Bonus:  Here's an excerpt from Bob's presentation of October 2014 with additional details of how to connect things up and what Audacity is doing - converting Analog signals to Digital numbers.  The full presentation, which has more information about turntables and LPs, is here:  <link>


Special bonus:  Here is a PDF from the Audacity class that we teach occasionally:  <link>  In this paper we show how to separate out and save the tracks from recorded LPs using the tools in Audacity.

More Bytes

Topics of the day:

• iTunes Demo - Podcasts (Continuation of last week)
• Internet Music (How to Get and save it)
• Talk to Google (New Feature built-in to Chrome)
• Firefox & Tracking (eliminate tracking and speed up your browsing)
• Windows 10 Demo (finally got it to work)
• Best AntiVirus (ymmv!)

Bob's Bytes

This Week's Topics:

• My Birthday Gifts: a new Laptop and my first ever Smart Phone.  My Experiences and Observations
• More Windows 10: How to reserve a copy, Should you reserve a copy, Should you 'upgrade' at all, and Getting rid of that Windows 10 notification.
• PodCasts & iTunes:  A great combination whether or not you have a Apple device.

Here's a link to the popular John Wayne's "God Bless America" video:  <link>
The 1970 TV special from which that song is from is available at Amazon:  <link>

I made a list of almost all the actors in that video, but I didn't know a couple - can you help?

Lorne Greene ?Forrest Lewis? ?Ross Martin? William Shatner

 ?Hal Williams?  ?Celeste Holm?  ?child?  Dennis Weaver

 ? + ?Edward Faulkner?

That's a Good Question!

"Slightly" more complicated answers.  <grin>  (I think we should eliminate the terms "Beginner" and "Advanced" answers - I'm going to call them 'simple' and 'good.'  No need to remind people of their level of learning!)  Today's topics were:

• Are your files really erased?
• Is it a Phish or not?
• Challenge: What is a Digital Signature?
• What are the New Microsoft Terms of Service?

The first question about erasing files included a surprise: I submitted a question to the "My Hard Drive Died" podcast and it was answered 'on air' by data recovery expert Scott Moulton.  Here's a link to that podcast:  <link>  The actual podcast is almost an hour and a half long - skip to the 36 minute mark to hear how Scott tackles my question about how much can be recovered from a HD after a single pass of zeros is written on it.

For the third question, a member challenged me explain exactly what a Digital Signature was - I think I nailed it!  The short answer is, "a digital signature is a hash of the document being signed encrypted with the signer's private key."  Of course that requires me to also explain what a hash and private key is.  And that requires one to understand .... etc. etc. etc.  <grin>

Social Videos

Short and sweet - Everything I showed at the 11 June Social ... plus a couple were on deck just in case:

#	Video	Link
1	Chicago's Magical Piano	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9BOTXFCpQA
2	Dakuwaqa's Garden - Underwater footage from Fiji & Tonga	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcbHKAWIk3I
3	Google Translate Sings: "I'll Make A Man Out of You" from Mulan	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRLreV7uVy0
4	Hilarious Southwest Airline Safety announcement	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxNrizGdhtY
5	Lost in the Fifties- Another Time, Another Place	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjj9VKKSV2g
6	2015/01/03 Chicago Bulls Kiss Cam Barbershop Hashimoto	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51T3BX4-e60
7	Frozen Fever" - Dueling Piano Siblings "Frozen" Mashup + Backwards Piano	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhJK6CV8oeo
8	Die Maiers Comedy Trapeze	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eor9b_WANEs
9	Big Marble Run Machine: 11000 Marbles!!!	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxcJfaoK5xg
10	Walking on Air	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWz5ltE_I4c
11	The Backwards Brain Bicycle - Smarter Every Day 133	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFzDaBzBlL0
12	Despicable Me 2 | Minions Banana Song (2013) SNSD TTS	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCkerYMffMo
13	Zach King's Best Vines from 2014	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2lNz1LqYyQ
14	Dear Kitten: Regarding The Big Game	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBrSvHPY1NQ
15	Did you know 2015	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gA-ykVMjKKU
16	Bach "Little" Fugue in G Minor, BMV 578 - Saxophone Quartet	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRJqsHBKP1Q
17	Email in Real Life	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTgYHHKs0Zw
18	Captain Jack Sparrow's intro	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7m5Int1hAA
19	Beans	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WoM2bHfr48
20	Elevator Walls Show the Evolution of New York’s Skyline	http://twistedsifter.com/videos/new-york-skyline-evolution-wtc-elevator-ride/
21	Official 11 Year Time-lapse Movie of One World Trade Center	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbA89YbWoL8
22	Best of Just For Laughs Gags - Best Sexy Pranks	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLhZzMgSJJg
23	Your Should Get a Second Cat	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4ECZR5WXNE
24	Las Vegas isn't Las Vegas	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=naDCCW5TSpU
25	God Bless the USA - the Texas Tenors	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daqwGRdRIsk
26	Kitten vs. a Scary thing	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MqHN-4okZ4
27	Funny Dog eats elegant at table	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ub1Dc3NHZ3s
28	Pizza Hut Pizza Box Turns Your Smartphone Into a Movie Projector	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6BhM12KkMI
29	The Song from Outer Space	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqfIEQKnkJU

Handy Free Utilties

My Intro slides:  Club Election Candidates, Upcoming Events, Computer phish fraud, and Windows 10 shipping announced.

Marilyn's Slides:

Topics:

• RealVNC (Virtual Network Computing)  <link>
• Getting the Quick Launch Toolbar back.
• Profile Wizard <link>
• WinKeyFinder <link>
• Dropbox <link>
• Ultimate Boot Disk for Windows <link>

Set Top Boxes

A Set-Top Box (STB) is simply something that connects to a TV and inputs some video signal to it. Technically, a cable box, DVR, game console, DVD player are all STBs, even though usually they are placed under the TV.  :-)
For today's presentation the following STBs were demonstrated:  the Apple TV, a ChromeCast Stick, the  Amazon Fire TV Stick, the Actiontec ScreenBeam Pro, a Roku 2 XD, and a Raspberry Pi.  If your TV is not 'Smart' (i.e., doesn't connect to the Internet and have apps) these things can add that capability.  And, depending on the device, they can mirror, or otherwise copy, the display from a hand-held phone or tablet to the big screen.
With all the possible combinations, this gets confusing.  Here's the handout from the presentation that attempts to lessen that confusion.   <link>

Talking with your Doctor

Links to the handouts from Thursday:

• Talking with Your Doctor handouts <link>
• Topics of Talks <link>

Beginner Stuff

Topics of the day:

• The Bible as a Unit of Measure:  
•     How many Bibles can one store on a Flash drive? HD? 
•     How Bible can you read (transfer) per hour over Dial-up? Cable?  
•     How much information does a Bible hold as compared to a picture?
• How to Update a Windows Computer:  System, AV and Programs
• What's in a Computer and what are they used for?  CPU, RAM, HD, etc.
• Moore's Law Video

Video Links of the day:

• Abby Stokes: "What the F is Facebook?"  <link>
• Moore's Law at 50, from Gordon Moore himself.  <link>

Fun With Photos

Elaine Drain presented ways to have fun with your photos online, and also discussed some photo editing and slideshow applications.

Security Matters

(Matters as a noun ... not adverb.  or verb.  or something like that. <grin>)
Topics for today:

• Is it a Phish or not a Phish, that is the question
• Where is your AV made?
• Who’s at Fault for Malware?
• MITM & SSL Certificate Spoofing
• Weird news:  IE & Google; Facebook and Happy Cloud
• The Great Firewall of China & the Great Chinese Cannon
• Truecrypt revisited

For Beginners

Presentation was divided roughly into thirds:  The Microsoft guy returned to correct the record (no, Microsoft will *not* be charging for Windows 10 yearly); Bob presented how to 'rip' CDs and DVDs (copy content to your computer) and misc discussions.
Best video of the day:  Dogs that fail at being dogs  <link>

Search Engines and Browsers

Elaine Drain presented for Windows systems; Tom Sutor presented for Apple.

Other Links for Learning 

How to Stop Browser Ads

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/lets-put-stop-pop-browser-ads/

The Ultimate Guide to the Invisible Internet http://oedb.org/ilibrarian/invisible-web/

Searching the World Wide Web https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/558/1/

Search the Invisible Web: http://websearch.about.com/od/invisibleweb/ss/Twenty-Online-Sources-You-Can-Use-to-Search-the-Invisible-Web.htm

U.S. Government Web Sites

http://websearch.about.com/od/referencesearch/tp/governmentsites.htm

Time Photography
http://time.com/photography/

Deep Web Search Info
http://deep-web.org/how-to-research/deep-web-search-engines/

The Deeper Web – powered by Google http://deeperweb.com/help/tutorial-howto.php

How to find the invisible internet http://bgr.com/2014/01/20/how-to-access-tor-silk-road-deep-web/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=feed%3a+theboygeniusreport+%28bgr+%7c+boy+genius+report%29

Bob's Bytes

Topics of the Day: Windows 8 Games, Video Panoramas, Microsoft ICE, and Why 'Click to display Images?"

The Cyber-Seniors Documentary:  <trailer> and <Gallery>

Not Just PCs!

A grab bag of topics - 'Not just PCs!'

• Visit our evolving web site:  <link>
• Be sure to checkout our new Veteran's page.  <link>  Do you have any pictures for this?  Spouses, siblings, and offspring in Uniform count!  Send 'em to: specialprojects@nscsurfers.org
• Email Tracing:  http://whatismyipaddress.com/trace-email
• The $35 Raspberry Pi single board computer.  <link>  Just add a mouse & keyboard, power supply and a HDMI monitor for an great project computer.  Or get a kit with accessories like this:  <Amazon Link>
• Ask Leo about the Microsoft Account <link>  or how to go back to a local account <link>
• Good video on Electric Cars: CNet's Top5 Best Selling EVs <link>  

Selected items from the preshow:

• Airpano has really panoramas, here is a video of them:  <link>  I will be talking more about these in a future show.  (Was supposed to be this week, but oh well.)
• Lost in the Fifites <link>
• The must see: Zapatou's Youtube 10th Anniversary <link>  Just under 200 videos in 3:30.
• And if you want to track down that video which was cut to only 1 second in the above, here's the complete playlist: <link>

Questions from the Mailbag

(Actually, topic/questions/points from the clipboard passed around two weeks ago, but 'Questions from the Mailbag' is more catchy than 'Questions from the clipboard passed around two weeks ago.')

Today we talked about:

• VHS tape to DVDs
• Monthly Computer Updating
• Adobe Flash Problems
• Slides to Digital Data
• Facebook Uploading Pictures
• Changing files in Google Groups (drive?)
• Bing Rewards
• Re-instate Hotmail
• Recover files lost from Desktop
• Netflix instead of Cable
• What Computer to buy

A new record - over 90 slides!

(although 30 of them were Cats or Dogs!)

Good links:  
Ninite for Program installs and updates. <link>
Ccleaner for Computer Maintenance actions. <link>
What version of Adobe flash are you running?  And it is up-to-date?  <link>
VueScan for those old scanners without drivers.   <link>
Cable cutter references:
     http://www.wikihow.com/Watch-TV-Without-Cable
     Is it available?  http://www.findinternettv.com
     http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv-movies/dropping-cable-tv-article-1.1758997
     http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2014/jan/29/dont-have-tv-netflix-whole-new-world
     http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/columnist/komando/2013/05/24/cable-bill-netflix-cable-bill/2326245/ 
     http://www.thedenverchannel.com/money/consumer/what-is-the-best-tv-movie-streaming-service-netflix-hulu-plus-amazon-prime-others-reviewed02062014

Pluto and Other Things

Bob's Bytes

Topics of the day:  Optical Disks (CDs/DVDs/BRs - sorry, it's hard to make this stuff exciting), Samsung listening TVs, the Verizon In-Home Agent, David Pogue, the MagicJack, and Google Earth Pro.


Popular links:

• "Strength and Beauty" Acrobats:  <link>
• Funny Chicago Kiss Cam:  <link>
• David Pogue TED talk, 10 tips:  <link>
• Google Earth Pro <link>  (use license: "GEPFREE")
• Bob Rankin's MagicJack review:  <link>
• Verizon's In Home Agent:   <link>

Internet Sites vs. Mobile vs. Apps

What's the Difference?  Jodi tells us ...


Links for further investigation:

• http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/6783-mobile-website-vs-mobile-app.html
• https://www.affordablewebdesign.com/mobile-website-vs-desktop-website/
• http://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2011/03/10-ways-mobile-sites-are-different-from-desktop-web-sites.php
• http://www.adaptistration.com/blog/2013/04/30/understanding-the-difference-between-apps-and-mobile-websites-2013/

That's a Good Question!

Topics of the Day:

• What did Microsoft announce for Windows 10?
• What is “Streaming?”
• What is System Restore?
• Backup to External Devices – which one should I use?

And here's the link to the popular "Dear Kitten - About the big game" video:  <link>

Microsoft Office Overview

By Elaine Drain

The First Q&A of 2015

Topics discussed:

• How to download Videos?
• Our Opinion of “WinCleaner”?
• Free AntiVirus Programs Opinions 
• Free Microsoft Office?
• What’s my Password?
• Should I Install Windows 10?

And from last week

• Some Pointers on backing up System Files
• Are Tablets safe from Crapware?
• How to set Defaults in MS Word

2014 Survey Results

Want to know what your fellow Senior Surfers are using by way of technology?  Check it out!

Videos at the Social

Here's what I showed at the Christmas Social with links if you missed them!

Title  / length / Link
Yosemite HD II / 0:05:20 http://vimeo.com/87701971
Aurora Substorm - Real time motion / 0:04:52 http://vimeo.com/85070976
Norway a time-lapse adventure / 0:05:32 http://vimeo.com/107469289
Ken Block's Gymkhana 7: Wild in the Streets of Los Angeles / 0:12:08 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qanlirrRWs
Beija-Flor Domesticado Humming Bird  / 0:01:57 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOTtP_2PGaY
Stoner Plaza Slow-Mo / 0:02:04 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzhzKrcQ3vM
Best Of Just For Laughs Gags - Producer's Choice 2 /   0:09:02 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iywq1ELe4GM
Penquins / 0:01:24 https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10152332349814245&set=vb.96738939244&type=2&theater
Amazon Unveils its Eighth Generation Fulfilment / 0:02:44 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMpsMt7ETi8
Animator vs. Animation (original) / 0:02:01 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npTC6b5-yvM
Animator vs. Animation II (original) / 0:03:22 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxM1cnphLpw
Animator vs. Animation III (original) / 0:08:22 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCtr04cnx5A
Animator vs. Animation IV (original) / 0:13:36 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VufDd-QL1c0
Angels We Have Heard on High (Christmas w/ 32 fingers and 8 thumbs) - ThePianoGuys  / 0:04:00 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n543eKIdbUI
A Brief History of Santa / 0:03:55 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbUVKXdu4lQ
Wizards in Winter 16 houses / 0:03:15 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXieGSAdj4s
World's Simplest Electric Train / 0:01:47 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9b0J29OzAU
Bob Hope Christmas With The Troops / 0:09:59 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppA4qYF7ARo