#300 - 22 Dec 2022

My 300th presentation to the Computer Technology Club!

Topics of the Day:

• Dementia Test (From 2015!)
• Rocket Nozzles
• Video Downloaders & VideoProc Demo
• Clipchamp vs. WLMM Demos
• Microsoft’s Bitlocker
• Updating to Windows 10 (in 2015)
• The Elephant in the Room (Mastodon)
• DNT vs GPT & Browser Fingerprinting

1 Dec - Another Bob Bytes Kitchen Sink Presentation

Yeah, I had lots left over from the last presentation.  Cleared the desktop for this one!  I had lots of video in this show - links to them are at the end of this post.

Topics of the day:

• Social Prizes - talking about each for next week
  
• What’s this song? - This section went in different directions than expected, I hope you enjoyed the ride
  
• OneDrive Prompt - don't ignore it, it will come back and haunt you.
  
• Windows Disk Management - the techie talk of the day, "What's in your computer?"
  
• Dwarf Planets - Ceres, Pluto, and Eris, oh my!
  
• Microsoft 365 - I found the 'editor' fun
  
• ClipChamp - And this "Video Editor for Beginners" wasn't at all what I expected, or wanted. More on this topic later.
  

 

Links to videos I found interesting and fun:

• The US Army band, "Pershing's Own," play the Mandalorian theme.  I've never seen a masked band play.  I think this could make a good Space Force theme:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoQtcgNSfNw
• An Ode to Pickleball, a Wrecking Ball parody: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95_HeEELzYU&t=147s.  You may want to start with this one: "The five stages of Pickleball" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYX5l6js01U
• The 4 Hornsmen of the Apocalypse: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Sf4TMfMS08
• This is the piece for "What is this Song?" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAYKIEGSbjs
• Sam Stept's: “The Army’s Always There”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWdwREJ2K80
• But Stept's song sounded too much like this:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nf670orHKcA Who is the singer?
  
• The Official Song of the US Space Force, "Sempra Supra" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Br7H9Nji_tU 
• 2 Years ago, the Voices of Freedom proposed this song:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHzd35ElwuU and here's version with better video clips, cal it the "Anthem" of the US Space Force: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQ1mY-_gU9g
  

17 Nov - Bob's Bytes, "The Kitchen Sink"

 The Kitchen Sink was a good title for this one.  Lots of things talked about:

• “No Service” on AT&T phone
• $30 phone and printer
• Almost freebie Laptop
• How fast is that computer?
• How fast is graphics on this computer?
• Unbelievable play in NASCAR
• Space News:  Artemis, Falcon Heavy, Chinese Space Station, & more
• Bitcoin collapsing?  (Crypto is not)
• Tesla car chargers
• New NSC Computer Network
• Windows v22H2
• What to do with Windows Prompts on startup?

 

For those that were interested in the pre-show videos:

• The Drone flight over the Sigiriya, "Lion's Rock" of Sri Lanka: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ty_Wx_VfL-s
• Want to walk to the top of the Lion's Rock?  That's here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gppSOcL5mCw.  (A long one, 33 minutes, up and down)
• A very weird, but interesting Oom-Pah band version of the heavy metal AC/DC's "Highway to Hell"  Ya gotta see it to believe your ears:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_gtGfAail4
• Follow pop music?  Here's Taylor Swift's newest, "Bejeweled"  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7QlX3yR2xs (She won 4 awards at the 2022 AMA yesterday.)
  

11 Nov 2022, Carl Stewart

As it says ... Passwords and Password Managers:

20 Oct - Judy Provencal & the JWST

Dr. Provencal is in the University of Delaware Department of Physics and Astronomy and a frequent presenter to the Senior Surfers.

Today's presentation was on the James Web (or "Just Wonderful") Space Telescope:

13 Oct 2022 - Bob's Bytes Bits & Pieces

 Topics of the Day:

• News and Comment - freebie, scam, hacked accounts
  
• Microsoft Office - Plans and options, from $250, subscriptions, or free
  
• Windows Verbose Mode - Want to know when it's doing something?
  
• Windows Start-up Programs - You don't have to allow everything that wants it
  
• Start-up Boost - ok for Edge, otherwise no
  
• Bloom’s Vacation - Google tracked me and I liked it.
• 18 Days, 5,336 miles
• 127.6 gals of gas, $420, 41.82 mpg (Rav4 Prime)
• $3.65/gal (Illinois) -- $2.84/gal (Houston)
  
• DASEF Auction - Open now! https://www.32auctions.com/dasef2022
  
• Lttlteapot Designs - https://www.facebook.com/LttlteapotDesigns
• Star Trek Wines - https://startrekwines.com/
  
• A Personal (computer) Problem
• "He's Dead Jim."
• Trouble sending GMail
• Terrible upload rate by Google speed tests, everywhere else fine
• Things I tried to fix it - 30+ ways and counting, no joy
  
• Even a clean install of Windows 11 <sigh> still no joy
• Ding-Ding-Ding ... disabled IPV6
• What that was & aftermath; who's fault was it?
  
• Proxy vs VPN
• What they are, what they do

8 Oct - Senior Planet Orientation

Every heard of "Senior Planet?"  If not, it's a good place to go for information

https://seniorplanet.org/

Sponsored in part by AARP, it is a space for anyone over 60 for "Aging with Attitude!"

8 Sep Updated Website Rollout

 Our Website at www.nscsurfers.org is now live!

1 Sep - Another Bob's Bytes

Today's Topics: 

• News and Comment
• Today’s Freebie, 
• Business Email Compromise, 
• Last day for COVID kits, 
• Getting rid of the Edge Bar, 
• Getting rid of Bing Search in Windows search, 
• The Human Brain is not a computer!
  
• Microsoft OneDrive
• What it is, how to access, how to sync
• Controlling syncing
• Sharing Files
  
• File History in Windows 10 - free, easy and good
  
• File History in Windows 11 - Microsoft messed everything up
  
• Save backup Images to the Cloud
• Best programs to do that

A note on the new HP desktop I bought for Lynne, I'm even more impressed on it's performance.  It's the fastest computer I've ever owned.  The AMD Ryzen price performance ratio is unbeatable.  It's not what I'd buy for myself because of limited expansion capabilities, but perfect for almost anything else.

 

18 August 2022 - Protecting your Digital Assets

Presentation:

 

 Article:

 

11 August 2022 - Bob's Bytes

This was originally a Windows "Tips and Tricks" but it morphed into "Tech Things you should know" and then "Technology Things to Know Featuring OneDrive" since that kinda took over the discussion.  And I didn't quite finish it all, saved to next time!

Topics of the Day:

• News and Comment - "AOL Update" Fraud, PTL Scratch&Match mailed card fraud, Patch Tuesday actions to take, Malwarebytes change.
  
• Technology things:
  
• Cut-Copy-Paste: What's the Clipboard, ways to invoke, Windows Clipboard History
  
• Windows Screen Shots: 3 ways to do; screen shot programs
  
• Lock your Phone!: We have too much stuff on our phone not to protect them
• Saving Phone Pictures: Us a cable to connect it to your computer
  
• Files & folders: How they are organized on every computer with every operating system; where are your files; Microsoft confuses things for the sake of ease of use.
  
• Microsoft OneDrive: It's optional; 2 locations; set-up and syncing

I've left slides in that I didn't get to in the presentation, we will talk about these at my next one:

 

Till next time - enjoy your tech!  It's there to help, education, entertain and support you!

21 July 2022: Climate Change

A presentation from Carl Nelson-Poteet.  

Bottom line up front: It’s real, it’s us, experts agree it’s bad, but there’s hope ...

• Climate Change is real and human: the only debate is political
• Climate Change is here now: it is actively hurting people here and abroad
• Climate Change is not good: the small benefits are greatly outweighed by the costs
• We get to decide how the story ends: mostly by voting and vocally supporting “green politicians” (and not the fake ones!)

There are notes embedded in the presentation, download it to see those notes.  On the request of several that could not attend, we recorded the presentation, click <here> to download the video mp3 file.  The recording starts with slide 3.

 

One of the chat comments was, "You speak as if the earth is a static system.  I remind you that dinosaurs no longer exist.  Perhaps the best thing to the earth is for the human species to disappear."  I was surprised that this is actually a thing - it's called VHEMT, the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement. Per their website, "Phasing out the human species by voluntarily ceasing to breed will allow Earth’s biosphere to return to good health. Crowded conditions and resource shortages will improve as we become less dense."

14July TV Connections

A Re-do from May 27, 2010 with commentary of how things have changed since then.  Yes, we wanted and got 'Moar!'  No links, all content.

23June Self Management Programs

This was a presentation of Self-Management workshops by Cathy Holloway & Ingrid Hansen.  Cathy talked on Chronic Disease, Diabetes and Cancer workshops and Ingrid promotes the Chronic Pain workshops.  Some of these are held at the NSC, check the newsletter for dates and times.

9June - Monthly PC Maintenance Part 2

Because I didn't get all done the first time.

Topics covered: 

• PDFs, where they came found, what they are, which program to use to view, how and when to edit them
• How to use an extra monitor
• Maintenance Priorities (BUCPP)
• Priority 5: "Polishing"
• Defrag, Registry cleaning, Driver & BIOS updates, AV scanning, & more
• Ultimate cleaning: 'wipe & reload' ... or ... buy a new computer

2 June - "How it all Ends"

Dr. Matt Shultz, of the UD Physics & Astronomy Dept, gave a talk on how the Universe ends.  (Originally given at Mt Cuba, one of our members that heard it there suggested we get it also.  She was right, he was great.) 

19 May 2022 - Cutting the Cable

Joyce Hayes

Links of Note:

• NSC computer Club officers were finalized for 2022-2023.  As all are unopposed, there will be no need for an 'election.'  Complete board of directors will be posted here.  <link>
• The Boeing Starliner finally was launched to space today.  <link>  It's scheduled to dock with the ISS on Friday.
  
• Elon Musk talks to the Everyday Astronaut about Starship.  <link>  This is Elon the Engineer - very different than the Twitter Elon or the Billionaire Elon.

12 May 2022 - Bob's Bytes Monthy PC Maintenance Part 1

Sorry, my intent was to get all of this in on one presentation.  There will be a part 2.

Links:

• A overview video of the"Miniatur Wunderland" model railroad, the largest in the world, is <here>. (There are lots more - Google it!)  What I showed in the pre-show were parts from a 1 hour, 360 video from a train traveling through the 7 lands of the layout.  <link>  Works with the Chrome browser.
  
• The article on James Webb Space Telescope <link>
• The Confessions of Marcus Hutchins, Wired<link> <link>
• DASEF Family Day, May 21 <link>
  
• Thunder over Dover, May 21-22 <link>
• Today I learned that CDs, DVDs and Blu-Ray disk all have just one 'groove' on each side <link>
• US Offers $10M for Conti Ransomware conspirators <link> <link>
• Best Free Image Backup: Macrium Reflect Free <link>
• Install or Update all your free software with PatchMyPC <link>

14 April 2022 - A Q&A #2

Bob's Bytes - More of your Q's, this time with a bit of prep work.

Topics of the Day:

• News and Comment
• Buying a TV
• When to replace a PC
• Photo editing
• Best backup software
• Best tech podcasts
• Wiping a cell phone
• Proxy vs. VPN
• Experian Spam

 Links:

• Where is the JWST? https://webb.nasa.gov/content/webbLaunch/whereIsWebb.html
• Why SpaceX's Raptor may be the best rocket engine https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbH1ZDImaI8
• "We Are Legion (We are Bob)" book recommendation  https://www.amazon.com/Are-Legion-Bob-Bobiverse-Book-ebook/dp/B01LWAESYQ  Yes, Bob likes it!  Only $5
  
• Look for the best TVs: https://www.google.com/search?q=best+tvs
• "Rota" quickly, losslessly, rotate your JPGs.  https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PMMstQsZkC7FvwpmE3vEF8DBRVpNqrsv/view?usp=sharing  (An old program, no longer available on host, but great for what it does.  The link is to our OneDrive)
• How to create an Image backup with Macrium Reflect video, everything you need:  https://askleo.com/how-to-create-an-image-backup/
• External Portable USB3 Hard Drive, recommended for backups like shown above by LeoN: https://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-Elements-Portable-External/dp/B06W55K9N6
• MailChimp, a mailing list manager, has a free tier that's really good:  https://mailchimp.com/
• No, your Facebook account wasn't hacked, it was "cloned" https://ltnow.com/blog/duplicate-facebook-account/ and https://askleo.com/no-your-facebook-account-has-not-been-hacked/

 

7 April 2022 - A Q&A #1

A Bob's Bytes - Your Q's, Bob's A's.

What's Windows Device Encryption?  It works in Windows 10 *Home*!  You don't need Windows Pro for this like you do for Bitlocker, though there are additional hardware requirements.

24 March 2022 - What's in the Computer Lab?

Topics of the Day

• Quickie News and Comment
• Car Efficiency, & Electricity Details
• Computer Lab Resources
• What's the QR code?
  
• Is it a Phish, Spam or Legit?

 Bob Likes "Start11" - a Windows 10 -like start menu for Windows 11.

17 March 2022 - "Cars and Routers"

Sorry about going overtime, but I was in a groove!  Lots of good content today.

Topics of the Day:

• News & Comment
• “Smart” Cars Continuation – Q&A
• Car Efficiency - How much does it really cost?
  
• Should I buy a new Router? - And what's a Router?
  

 

Links:

• Unsubscribing from AOL email:  https://marketingpreferences.aol.com/ 
• "InControl" - Make sure your computer is not updated to Windows 11 without your consent https://www.grc.com/incontrol.htm
• Who it Bill Burr?  https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-40875534
• Where is the James Webb Space Telescope?  https://webb.nasa.gov/content/webbLaunch/whereIsWebb.html  (Doing quite well apparently!)
• Come to the Delaware Aerospace Academy: https://dasef.org/aerospace/aerospace.htm
• The legal case that could be a nightmare for automakers:  https://www.roadandtrack.com/car-culture/a39357147/the-legal-case-that-could-be-a-nightmare-for-automakers/
• Is it time to throw away your old router?  https://www.howtogeek.com/784731/its-time-to-throw-away-your-old-router/
• Really good new routers: https://www.reviewgeek.com/101387/tp-link-archer-ax50-review-an-affordable-router-with-wi-fi-6-speeds/
• Check for open ports: GRC’s ShieldsUP! https://www.grc.com/x/ne.dll?bh0bkyd2
• Ask Bob Rankin: https://askbobrankin.com/router_security_close_unnecessary_ports.html
• Steve Gibson's Security Now: Inside the NetUSB Hack https://www.grc.com/sn/sn-855.htm
• That nice USB3 Wi-Fi Adapter: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B093H16DG1 

And you really have to see these again to appreciate them!

17 Feb: "Deed Search"

James Jones--How to Research Property Deeds

Because we had a request for it and with Mr. Jones permission, we recorded this session.  Here are links that you may use:

• Presentation Slides: https://1drv.ms/b/s!AnjSwOmsFbmGtj6nNiekCRq2mTzk?e=eFDLRI
  
• Video: https://1drv.ms/v/s!AnjSwOmsFbmGtj_-vt82qXCKHsi0?e=k01SgT
  
• Audio only: https://1drv.ms/u/s!AnjSwOmsFbmGtj3xpVznb9k93BYf?e=wHhxjg
  
• Closed Captioning text: https://1drv.ms/t/s!AnjSwOmsFbmGtjhPA5I6u3CsHqyx?e=nffxAM

The closed captioning is a bit rough, but it's Zoom's best guess of what was said.

Bob's Bytes - "Random Stuff"

 From 10 Feb 2022

Topics of the Day ...

• News & Comment
• The Streaming Video "You can't connect" Scam
• Why do streaming services keep getting more expensive?
• The SpaceX Falcon9 Rocket "Suicide Burn"
• Acronis jumps the shark
• What's the opposite of "Jumping the Shark?"
• Did you know ...
• Click and drag a URL from browser to desktop to create a shortcut
• Muting "Suggested" tweets from Twitter
  
• <Win>-<PrnScn> saves a screenshot in the Pictures folder 
• It's just cool - oversize, RGB light-up, mouse pad
  
• Saving Web Pages - 5 different ways
  
• Ripping CDs with Windows Media Player
  

Mouse pad: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08T18DQTJ 

Only here for the headline:  "Alleged crypto launderer Heather Morgan led a second life as the world's worst rapper"  (and yes she was)

PC Don has some old music for you:  http://www.pcdon.com/page90.html

The First of 2022

Topics of the Day ...

• News & Comment
• Don't worry about Log4j - except if you run server
• The JWST is fully deployed, now on to calibration, 6 months to do that
  
• A new robot in the Bloom household, smarter than I expected
  
• Facebook & Verizon Tracking
• Is Facebook tracking you, short answer - Yes, whether you have an account or not
• Oh, and Verizon wants to really, really track everything you do too
  
• What is 2FA?
• Two Factor Authorization, now required for GMail and AOL
• Has not be a problem so far
• A Stupid State Governor
• And I don't use 'stupid' lightly here
  
• A Epic Rick-Roll
• A good thing he wasn't in Missouri!
  
• A Win11 FYI
• Yes, it's free ... if you meet the requirements
  
• Excel Pivot Tables
• "Greatest thing since sliced bread"
• Did you know Betty White is older than sliced bread?
  
• A Virus (?) report and Question
• How to diagnose problems (no it wasn't a virus) 
• It was a 'Potentially Unwanted Program' (PUP)
  

What doesn't kill you mutates and tries again.  :-)

Spot the Scam

23 Dec 2021 - A Quickie before Brian takes over and talks Tax changes

Can you tell what's a phish and what's legitimate?