Tehachapi's Online Community News & Entertainment Guide
Tehachapi's Online Community News & Entertainment Guide
Sorted by date Results 101 - 125 of 194
The Universal Serial Bus, or USB. You know, that plug that can only go in one of two ways, but still takes three tries to get it plugged in? Yeah, that one. Where did USB come from, where is it going and why? If you don't know anything about PS/2 connectors, or parallel ports, DIN connectors, SCSI, Firewire, or 9-pin or 25-pin serial ports, you can thank USB. Way, way, back in the early 90s, you could conceivably need some combination of those ports and cables to connect devices to your...
iPhones, from both a hardware and an apps perspective, have gotten so good that many people don't need to use a laptop or a desktop. Social media, email and shopping can all be done right on your phone. But what if you want to see the pictures from your iPhone on a bigger screen? Or work on a document on your phone and your Windows device? Or back up your data to your Windows device? Apple hasn't always been the best at "playing with others," but they're getting better at it. The latest version...
We all use devices (smartphone, tablet, or computer) that contain information we don't want strangers or thieves to access. To protect our privacy, we lock our devices with a username/password combination. Since we're going to be unlocking our device 5, 10, 15, 20 times a day, we use our fingerprints, our faces, passcode or PIN, or a lock screen pattern to unlock our device instead of our username/password. Which is great, but what if you've got bandages on your fingers, your face got stung by b...
What is it? 5G refers to the fifth generation of cellular network. The current king-of-the-hill in cellular networks is 4G. So why do we need 5G? 5G is about speed, bandwidth and low latency. Speed for streaming video and gaming, bandwidth for smart devices, augmented reality and virtual reality, low latency (latency for the time it takes to get a response to information sent – lower is faster and better), which will be critical for self-driving cars and industrial robots. Current speculation a...
Scammers have discovered that Facebook is a good vehicle for tricking people into giving them money, usually through the Facebook Messenger app, but also using some Facebook games. The latest scam tricks people into thinking they gave money to a terrorist group, and now the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is after them. Here's how it works: The scammers contact their victim using Messenger or an in-game message. Then they build up a relationship, usually some form of a romantic...
Catchy headline, right? That's what many tech and consumer-facing sites have been running lately, but it's not quite true. While there IS a major security problem, and it DOES affect Windows 10, the problem doesn't come from Microsoft, it comes from software pre-installed on many new computers. The pre-installed software is called the PC-Doctor Toolbox. While it sounds useful, PC-Doctor Toolbox has a severe security flaw that could let attackers load malicious code while the software runs scans...
The Netflix Terms of Use clearly prohibit you from sharing your Netflix account's password with family members, neighbors or friends. Yet, an estimated 24 million people do just that. That's 24 million people not paying Netflix for their service, but Netflix doesn't seem to care. Why not? Netflix CEO Reed Hastings has said, "password sharing is something you have to learn to live with, because there's so much legitimate password sharing, like you sharing with your spouse." And apparently,...
Windows XP security patch Remember back in 2014, when Microsoft ended support for Windows XP? Meaning no more security patches or Windows Updates for computers running XP? It turns out that Microsoft DOES still issue patches for XP, but only emergency security patches. In 2014, Microsoft issued a patch for vulnerabilities in all versions of Internet Explorer. Next, in 2017, there was another emergency patch to fix a hole used by the WannaCry virus to infect more than 200,000 computers. This...
I know, I know. I can't believe it either, but apparently, those fake tech support scammers are still out there. You know, the one where a window pops up on your computer telling you about a problem with your computer and making it sound so urgent that you call the number on your screen to get technical support. Or, if not a window on your computer, then maybe it's a phone call saying the same thing. If you ever get a pop-up window or a phone call saying there's a problem with your computer,...
Windows 7 nagging Microsoft won't stop supporting Windows 7 (Win7) until January of next year, but Win7 machines will soon start seeing popup messages warning of the end of support. After support ends, Win7 computers will be increasingly vulnerable to security problems. Developers will eventually leave those old PCs behind and stop writing software that works on Win7, as we've seen with Windows XP. The popup window has a nice picture of an old laptop with the Win7 background and the following...
Everybody wants the location data in your smartphone. Your carrier, your phone's operating system, even the apps running on your phone. But why? Why does Verizon, AT&T, Apple, Google or Candy Crush care so much about where you are? You ask the hard questions, don't you? Okay, here we go. The carriers (Verizon, AT&T and the rest) need to know where your phone is so they don't drop your call if you're moving, and they don't need GPS to do this. Instead, carriers use the ID of the cell tower (Cell...
Chrome password checkup Every time we hear about a data breach somewhere, we know that a new bunch of usernames and passwords were just stolen and are about to be used against us. Somehow, and by somebody. But how do you tell if YOUR email address and or password was stolen? You can always check by going to www.haveibeenpwned.com/ and enter your info, but wouldn't it be handy to have something that could check for you, as you log into a website? Google has an extension for the Chrome browser...
Self-driving cars: the media (whether, for you, that means reading web sites, reading physical papers/magazines, or listening to the radio) seems to be telling us that self-driving cars are finally here. Or that those self-driving cars are almost here. Or even that self-driving cars will never be here. So, who's right? Technically, everybody. Newer cars come with many driver-assist technologies like making sure you're in your lane, blind spot detection, adaptive cruise control, parallel parking...
Inkjet vs. lasers You're probably tired of your printer telling you it's out of black, magenta, yellow, or cyan ink. And you're also probably tired of paying the high price of printer cartridges. And once the insatiable thirst for ink is fixed, your inkjet printer is slow, too. Wouldn't it be great if there were some other way to print out stuff at home? The next time your printer tells you it's out of ink, or the print head wears out or gets clogged up, or it won't pick up the paper anymore,...
Windows 7 support ends Microsoft will stop supporting Windows 7 with security updates on Jan. 14, 2020. But don't worry, your trusty Windows 7 computer will still work, it just won't get any more security updates. Eventually none of your browsers will be able to update themselves and you also may not be able to connect to some websites. New programs, and new versions of your old programs, may not work anymore either. When Windows XP support ended back in April 2013, estimates were that about 25...
Sync and backup your iPhone to Windows iPhones used to pretend that Windows didn’t even exist. But since there are more Windows devices than iPhones, Apple has (probably reluctantly) provided tools to access the photos, music and videos from iPhones on our Windows computers, too. By far, the easiest way to get your iPhone talking with your computer is to install iCloud for Windows. iCloud for Windows brings your photos, videos, email, files and bookmarks to your Windows computer. iCloud is an o...
The Windows shutdown process After you click "Shutdown," and before your computer actually turns off, Windows runs a bunch of processes. First, Windows checks where any other users are logged in to your computer. If so, you'll see a "Someone else is still using this PC" message. If you continue, the other user(s) will lose any unsaved data. To prevent that, click "Cancel" and let the other user sign in, save their work and log out before shutting down the computer. If there aren't any other...
I've written before about the great work being done by very smart and talented people on behalf of the City of Tehachapi. It's work that has an everyday positive impact for the community, our citizens and those who simply visit Tehachapi to experience for themselves the wonderful place we've created. That work continues to be recognized regionally and from time to time we'll be awarded for those efforts. This year I'm happy to announce that the Kern Council of Governments has selected the City...
Top passwords of 2018 A company called SplashData analyzed more than 5 million accounts/passwords that have leaked online and compiled a list of the most-used passwords for 2018. For the fifth year in a row, "123456" and "password" retain the number one and two spots on the list. Here's the complete top 15 passwords and the change from last year's list.: 01. 123456 (Unchanged) 02. password (Unchanged) 03. 123456789 (Up 3) 04. 12345678 (Down 1) 05. 12345 (Unchanged) 06. 111111 (New) 07. 1234567...
Fake tech support scams They're still out there, you know. Like chewing gum stuck to the bottom of your galoshes, those fake tech support scam "people" are still out there, stealing people's money. They just won't go away. I know you're smart enough to know that no one from Microsoft (or HP, or Google, or Yahoo, etc.) will ever call you to tell you there's something wrong with your computer. But what about your friends and family? Remind them that those people on the phone are 1) not from Micros...
Internet speed tests Do you know how fast your internet is? Do you know how fast it should be? A quick check of the bill from your Internet Service Provider (ISP) or a phone call to your ISP, will tell you what speed you're paying for. Now for testing. At first, the only way to check your Internet speed was at www.speedtest.net. Over time, their site filled up with ads and wasn't the easiest thing to look at. Then the good folks at Netflix released www.fast.com. No ads and it's easy to use, if...
Useful apps for your computer Microsoft and Apple both pack lots of features and apps into their operating systems. For many people, the included apps are all they need to get things done on their computer. But what if you want or need to do more than what the apps Apple or Microsoft has provided can do? There are thousands of apps and programs for download out there, here are some of the most useful for Windows and macOS. macOS apps Search Spotlight is included in macOS. What, you don't use...
"Ghosting" Facebook Breaking off a relationship suddenly without telling the other person and then ignoring all communications from that person is called "ghosting." If you can't quite delete your Facebook account yet (maybe because you'd miss out on photos from traveling friends or kids and grandkids) you can try ghosting Facebook instead. But why would you want to ghost Facebook? Reason #1 Facebook would like you to use something called Two Factor Authentication (TFA) to help secure your...
Browsers and banking If your computer can't connect to your bank or financial institution anymore, you need to switch your browser. Old Windows and Mac computers become "unsupported," meaning they no longer receive security and bug fixes from Microsoft or Apple. The default browsers (Internet Explorer or Safari) on these computers are also no longer supported. As security on the internet evolves, these old versions of IE and Safari don't know what to make of modern, secure websites. Even if you...
