Tehachapi's Online Community News & Entertainment Guide
Tehachapi's Online Community News & Entertainment Guide
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Ransomware – what is it and how to protect yourself from it. Ransomware is malicious software that attackers use to encrypt your pictures, documents, and other files for ransom; demanding payment from you to get them back. The ransomware code encrypts files stored on local and network drives using RSA public-key cryptography, with the private key stored on the attacker’s command and control servers. The ransomware then displays a message which offers to decrypt your files after you pay up. Pay...
We’ve had a Start menu in Windows since Windows 95. It’s changed a bit in every version of Windows until that darn Windows 8 came along. I think some folks at Microsoft took a look at PC and laptop sales and decided we’d all be using tablets or phones, so they created a way more mobile device friendly operating system and figured that’s what people would want. They were wrong In Windows 8.1 Microsoft gave us back a kind-of-sort-of Start menu, but it didn’t make anyone happy. So, lots of people...
We get the word “internet” by combining the first parts of the words interconnected and networks. The internet connects millions of smaller networks, each owned independently, but connected with all the other networks. Arguably, the internet has changed the world more than any other technology in history and has had the fastest adoption curve of any technology in history. Here are the major components of the Internet and what they do: Your computer – Opening your favorite browser and typin...
Microsoft is giving away the latest version of Windows, Windows 10. And they’re getting pretty aggressive about it – even marking it as a Windows Update. The upgrade can happen even if you don’t explicitly ask for it. If you’ve decided Windows 10 isn’t for you, or if you want to have some control over when your computer gets the upgrade, open your favorite browser and search for “Never10.” Never10 is a program from Steve Gibson at Gibson Research Corporation which lets you control when to upgra...
One of your biggest security threats doesn’t come from Internet criminals or online identity thieves. It comes from you and your outof-date software. The folks who write the programs we run on our computers spend more time on how their program works and looks than they do on security. Internet criminals know this and spend lots of time finding security flaws in popular programs. Java, Adobe Flash, and Adobe Reader are programs just about everybody has on their computers, so the criminals look f...
We know that we need to protect our computers from the “bad guys”, but who are they and what do they do? Malware is short for malicious software. Malware refers to any computer program that is designed to do things that are harmful to or unwanted by the computer’s user. Computer viruses, worms, and spyware are examples of malware. Viruses are computer code that is capable of copying itself and typically has a detrimental effect, such as corrupting the system or destroying data. Worms are self-re...
Windows, Google, and phones Here are some Windows shortcuts you may not know about: Press Shift and Delete to delete something without sending it to the Recycle Bin first. If (or when, in my case) you have a gajillion windows open and need to see something on your desktop, pressing the Windows key plus M will minimize all gajillion of your open windows and let you see your desktop. I bet you’ve wished it was easier to read the legalese in those End User License Agreement (EULA) we’re always agr...
No need to clear that RAM Are your apps misbehaving? Is everything on your phone running slowly? Maybe it’s not even good at making phone calls? Both iOS (Apple) and Android (Google) do a good job of managing your phone’s memory. Your phone is designed to use as much memory as possible to keep your applications loaded and ready to work for you. If you ask your friends or Google “why is my phone so slow?” you may get advice to “clear your RAM” in order to speed up your phone. Your phone uses...
Say you’re shopping for ’55 Chevy alternator brackets or something, and a super-scary web page comes up that uses some or all of the below phrases, maybe a Microsoft or Windows logo. The page might even read itself over your speakers. DON’T PANIC. Do NOT call the number on your screen. It’s just a scam. There is NOTHING WRONG with your computer. Just close your browser and shut down your computer. Give it a minute or so to think about what it did, and then turn it back on. See? Everyth...
Keeping an eye on El Niño Home weather centers are more capable and at lower price points than ever. The Netatmo isn’t like other weather centers. Made up of two stylish aluminum tubes and no display, the Netatmo uses a smartphone app to display info from its sensors. Install the batteries, place one sensor inside the house and one sensor outside, set up a one-time USB connection to your computer to configure your location and wireless settings and you’re done. The Netatmo reports indo...
Keeping an eye on Bundleware Sometimes a program you’re installing will sneakily install other software. This ‘other’ software is known as bundleware and can be hard to prevent if you’re not a Marine sniper and can’t uncheck that tiny box way down at the bottom of the screen. There’s a utility called Unchecky that’s great at catching and stopping bundleware. Unchecky runs in the background and keeps watch while you’re installing software. By default Unchecky will not only notify you of bundlewar...
Google is just one of millions of places on the Internet. Think of the Internet as being a big huge giant place and are lots of other places to go once you get there. To get to the Internet on your computer/phone/tablet you have to use a Browser. If you have a PC then your PC came with Internet Explorer as your Browser. If you have a Mac then it came with Safari as your browser. You don't have to use the browser they put on your PC or Mac. Some of the other browsers you can get are Google...
Advertisers and social media companies and others are paying for the ‘free’ Internet by tracking which sites we visit, what we search for, how long we stay on a site, what pages we look at, where we live, who our friends are, and more. How can a normal person maintain any privacy on the Internet? Here are some things you can do. 1) If you don’t want your Internet searches tracked and later influencing the ads you’ll see on the rest of the web sites you visit, consider using DuckDuckGo or IXSt...
WiFi flash drives – What’s a WiFi flash drive and why might I need one? If you have a bunch of photos or music on your tablet or phone, how do you get those files to another phone or tablet? Oh sure, you could get a cable and plug things in and copy your files to your computer and then plug in another device and copy those files from your computer to the new device. You could do that. OR, you could buy a WiFi flash drive. A WiFi flash drive works by having a really small WiFi network built rig...
Maybe you’ll sleep better not knowing… but if you want to be restless tonight, the New York Times has put together a site where you can see a list of companies from which criminals have stolen data. You don’t have to give the site any of your personal information, just push the buttons appropriate to where you might have an account, or have health insurance, or shop. Once you’re on the site, the list on the left shows you the number of times each type of information was exposed. It doesn’t...
These days every site you visit wants a password. We’re not supposed to use the same password everywhere. Each site has different rules for the password they’ll allow you to have. What to do? Use a password manager Many people use good old fashioned paper and pencil to keep track of their passwords. This is probably not a good idea if you work in an office where someone else could get at your password list, but in your own home without anyone nosing around it’s probably OK. Of course, that...
You only need a new computer when you can’t do what you need to do on your current computer. If your computer is broken or too slow or can’t run that new software, you need a new computer. I’m scared, what should I buy? What you use the computer for determines how much computer you need to buy. These are my recommendations for when you go computer shopping: Casual user – Internet, email, streaming music, online games Intel Pentium or AMD Vision A4 processor, 2-4GB of RAM, and a 1 terabyt...
Deleting files – You come in to the office on Monday morning after a great office party, turn on your computer and find, to your horror, that sometime during the party you wrote a tremendously awful love poem to one of your coworkers. What can you do? When you have a document, image, or video on your computer that you really, really want to delete, it takes more than just hitting Delete or dropping it in the trash or recycle bin on your desktop. The trash bin hides the file so you can’t see it...
Antivirus – Viruses are the least of our problems on computers these days. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have antivirus protection, though; I just don’t recommend paying for it any more. The free antivirus products available today (AVG, Avast, SUPERAntispyware, etc.) will do a fine job of protecting you from the viruses that still exist. What we all need to watch out for are Potentially Unwanted Programs (PUPs) also known as malware. Malware spreads when you click on a link on a search...
