PATACS Posts Newsletterofthe PotomacAreaTechnology and ComputerSociety July 201 6 www.patacs.org Page 1 Musings of an Apple Tyro 10s File History backup can also be useful for this by Lorrin R. Garson purpose as can some (most?) Cloud storage Potomac Area Technology systems. See http://bit.ly/1sy4MYp and and Computer Society http://bit.ly/1sr6XME. newslettercolumnist (at) patacs.org Dangerous Computer Cords Protection Against Ransomware Do you own a Microsoft Surface Pro, Ransomware is malicious software that blocks Surface Pro 2 or Surface Pro 3 (2013 access to your computer or files, usually by through early 2015)? Microsoft is encryption, until money is paid. This type of replacing about 2 million power cords malevolent software is an increasing threat. for these computers because these Short of paying-up, which is no guarantee of cords can overheat and shock or cause recovery, what can you do if you’re hit with this a fire. For a free replacement, call 855- plight? Of course, the best protection is to 327-7780 or go to http://bit.ly/1XzqiaF. prevent infection by properly using anti- malware software and employing good user Update to OS X practices (ignore email from unknown sources, On May 16th, Apple released an OS X update don’t click on unknown or suspicious links, etc.). (from v. 10.11.4 to 10.11.5). This is probably the Even though ransomware may infect your last release before a major release in October or backup files, if you use versioning backup November. The forthcoming OS, code named software, you have a reasonable chance to Fuji, will likely be revealed at the Worldwide recover from earlier, un-infected backups. I Developer Conference WWDC) on June 13th. suggest you have two or three backup drives and cycle them every week or two, leaving only the Update to iTunes current drive attached to your computer and As part of the OS X update, Apple released iTunes thus the Internet. In the Apple world, Time 12.4 (v. 12.4.0.119). While improvements have Machine provides versioning and there are been made, iTunes still remains a generally numerous backup products in the Windows unloved application. Initial reviews are tepid. See environment such as Acronis True Image 2016, http://bit.ly/1rTF9Rn. StorageCraft ShadowProtect 5 Desktop, Genie Timeline Home, and NTI Backup Now 6. Windows (Continued on page 2) Musings of an Apple Tyro: Fastest Internet, AI Rembrandt..................1 Upcoming Meetings.....................................................................................3 May Fairfax Meeting Recap: Google Docs, FADGI....................................3 Open Source Software: Gargoyle, KeePass, Krita, Lua, Tesseract.........8 Ad/Popup Blockers and the Internet Advertising War........................10 Review: Polaroid Cube...............................................................................12 PATACS Opportunities...............................................................................13 APCUG Resources....................................................................................... 13 JCA SeniorTech Training...........................................................................14 Page 2 PATACS Posts July 201 6 (Continued from page 1) Mac computers, do the following: System Fastest Internet Speed Preferences ➜ Flash Player➜ Updates ➜ Check What country would you think has the fastest Now then follow directions presented. Internet speed? It isn’t the U.S.— it’s Singapore. See http://bit.ly/1OHNv8F for a good description This shouldn’t be a surprise because Singapore is of Flash Player. a very small, rich country. So we’re number two, An AI Rembrandt Painting right? Nope. Table 1 shows the 10 countries with the fastest average peak connection speed (from A deep-learning algorithm, coupled with a 3D http://til.ink/1TYolik). printer, has produced a new “Rembrandt” Table 1 painting that is remarkably like something the Dutch master would produce (see Figure 1). The U.S. is number 24, with an average peak connection speed of 50.4 Mbps, after Bulgaria (51.0 Mbps) and the United Kingdom (50.9 Mbps). Other reports show the U.S. at number 15 (see http://ti.me/23X7aDd) and number 21 (http://bit.ly/1WDYsuu). For detailed information see http://akamai.me/205LeoB. Adobe Flash Player Figure 1 Because of the security risks of Flash Player, you The computer-based painting is based on may want to frequently check for updates. [Ed. computer analysis of 346 known Rembrandt Better yet, uninstall Adobe Flash entirely or paintings. The “painting” was created with a 3D disable browser Flash extensions, as Flash is printer using special paint-based UV ink with 13 rarely needed except by malware and layers of ink—148 million pixels. See advertising.] I suggest a weekly check. Also, this http://bit.ly/1TjIhgb for an explanation. See is one piece of software you may want to set for https://www.nextrembrandt.com for a video automatic updates. For Windows-based describing the project. computers, search Google for “how to check for Aging Mac Pro updates for flash player win” and pick the appropriate version of the operating system. It’s hard to believe that the Mac Pro is aging, but Windows 10 users may find it was introduced in 2013 and now it is http://bit.ly/1rTGV50 of value. For those using (Continued on page 3) www.patacs.org July 201 6 PATACS Posts Page 3 (Continued from page 2) July 27, 2016 (Arlington) competing with Windows desk top machines Technology & PC Help Desk from Lenovo, Dell and HP that are superior. The Extended Question and Answer session; discuss Mac Pro is for the professional computing topics of interest, share knowledge and get help market where users often require very with technology issues. substantial compute power and often demand the latest and greatest. See http://bit.ly/1rTIS1d. August 20, 2016 (Fairfax) Amazon Top Provider of Cloud Services Presentation: Expert Q&A Panel NOTE: Due to parking lot repairs at the OLLI Most of us think of Amazon as the online store facility, the August 20 meeting will be held at the that seemingly sells everything imaginable. Fairfax County Government Center, 12000 However, it is by far the largest provider of Cloud Government Center Parkway. More information services having ten times the computing capacity will be provided in August. than the next 14 largest Cloud companies combined. Amazon’s Cloud is generally used by IfYou Missed It large corporations, but individuals can also use by Geof Goodrum their services. Amazon Prime Members Director, Potomac Area Technology and Computer Society ($99/year) can store an unlimited number of Director1(at)patacs.org photos, videos and files at no extra cost. Not a If you can’t make a meeting in person, remember Prime Member? You can rent 5 GB of storage for that members can participate in meetings $11.99/year or unlimited storage for $59.99/year. remotely and for free via Zoom teleconferencing See pricing at https://www.amazon.com/ (see http://zoom.us/, for Apple® OS X® and iOS, clouddrive/home. Also see http://for.tn/1TjKqs1 GNU/Linux®, Google Android™ and Microsoft® and http://bit.ly/1qtD4tP. Windows®). Details are provided in e-mailed Upcoming Meetings meeting announcements. Remember: you must be physically present at the Refer to the PATACS Event Calendar on the back end of the meeting to be eligible for door prizes. cover or http://patacs.org/mtgdetpat.html for meeting time and location. May 21, 2016 (Fairfax) July 16, 2016 (Fairfax) Although it was a rainy day, we had an excellent Learn 30: Android Apps on Windows PCs turnout with several new OLLI members as Presented by Stan Schretter guests. Stan will demonstrate the Remix tablet, which Gabe Goldberg offered a cautionary tale to keep has a Windows tablet body with an Android an up-to-date backup. He endured a heart. This is just one example of how the neighborhood power outage on May 16th from Android OS and its large base of free and paid which his Microsoft Windows XP [?!] system did apps will be soon coming to you on different not recover due to a failed motherboard. It took hardware platforms. some work to restore his files and he was still Stan Schretter is an OLLI member and has been avidly working on little bits. exploring technology since attaching ham radio antennas Another participant said that her Comcast email to his parents house roof at age 13. service was down, but this appeared to be a local Presentation: [Topic to be Announced] by area problem, as it is working for others. Gabe Cherie Lejeune suggested avoiding the Internet Service Provider’s (ISP’s) email service in favor of alternatives like Google’s Gmail, so you keep your www.patacs.org Page 4 PATACS Posts July 201 6 email address even if you change your ISP. Gabe about PDF from the PATACS Recent Meetings registered his own Internet domain web page (http://patacs.org/pdf/pdf_150718 (gabegold.com) for a nominal cost, which verb_via%20oo.pdf). includes an email address. Another option if you [Ed. Adobe has a product comparison page at are affiliated with a college or university is to https://acrobat.adobe.com/us/en/acrobat/prici check with the alumni relations office whether it ng/compare-versions.html.] can provide you with a free email address (e.g., Learn 30: Google Docs by Geof [email protected]). Goodrum Paul Howard announced that the OLLI facility in Geof unintentionally demonstrated Fairfax will be closed to repave the parking lot the offline capabilities of Google’s web-based during the August Meeting, so the August word processing application. While the wired meeting will move to the Fairfax County Internet connection worked during meeting Government Center. Due to rules for meetings at setup, he was unable to establish a connection the county facility, a sign language interpreter during the demo and therefore could not must be available, if requested. PATACS is demonstrate many of the features.