Category: ‘Whatchamacallit’

The End

March 6, 2021 Posted by Tiny

A Pain in the Whatchamacallit
By Tiny Ruisch

“Welcome to My Ramblings
     In this section you can find my thoughts on many things, mostly computers, consumer electronics and software reviews.
Most of the articles were originally published in the Southwest Louisiana PC Users Group monthly newsletter. The opinions are mine. If you find other writers on the internet that agree with me, they must be pretty smart. If they disagree, I’ll try not to lose any sleep over it.
     A Pain in the Whatchamacallit is a monthly rambling on various topics. Although I occasionally divert, I usually write about computers, the internet, consumer electronics or different ways that technology is used (or abused).
Lagniappe is a Southern Louisiana & Mississippi word that means an extra or unexpected gift or benefit. These Articles are reviews of software that is either open source or freeware. All of the programs have zero cost for home users.
From the Darkside articles are all about Android devices and software.”

The preceding was copied from my website information page.  This article will be the final Pain in the Whatchamacallit.  I sure wish I had used a different word in the title.  Whatchamacallit is a real “pain” to type.  At least, I probably won’t be typing it again.

After thirty‑seven years, the SWLAPCUG Club Newsletter has published its final edition.  I started writing these articles for the newsletter after I moved to Louisiana and joined the club.  Looking back, I’m a little amazed at how many there have been.  I’ve written 133 Whatchamacallits, 65 Lagniappes and 53 Darkside articles.

After each newsletter was published, I posted all of the articles on my personal web site.  I will continue to write the occasional review, rant, observation, etc.  I am also writing articles for another newsletter.  I’ll be posting them on my website in the future.

They say that all good things come to an end.  I hope that “A Pain in the Whatchamacallit” has been considered to be a good thing.

Goodbye and thanks for reading.

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Covid Thoughts

February 7, 2021 Posted by Tiny

A Pain in the Whatchamacallit
By Tiny Ruisch

I just got a voice mail from my doctor.  No, she didn’t want to let me know I was dying.  It was actually good news, I think.  I was informed that they had the Covid vaccine and wanted to know if I wanted to get the shot.  The answer is, “of course I will.”  I’m just not sure if it will be so soon.  This is still new “technology”, developed in a hurry.

There is still a lot I either don’t know or am not sure about.  The first injection outside of clinical trials was administered on December 14, 2020.  As I write this article, that is just a few days more than a month.  With the rush to produce the vaccine, I’m not sure that is enough testing time.

As is typical with all new technologies, there are two variations of the immunogen.  Which is better?  Personally, I don’t have enough information to make a decision.  I see no need to hurry my decision.  My state is still in lockdown and I hardly go out anyway.

I know for sure that I’m not planning to let any of the many Facebook myths influence my thinking.
• The side effects aren’t going to kill me.
• They’re not going insert a microchip with the vaccine.
• I’m pretty sure my DNA won’t change.
• I’m positive that I won’t have a miscarriage.

I don’t know if it means anything, but I’ve noticed that many of the myth spreaders are the same people that tried to convince everyone that the virus was a hoax.

I’m not too concerned about the possible side effects of the vaccine.  I am curious as to why they usually occur after the second shot.  Maybe it is because the effects need a “boost”.  In fact, I think some of the symptoms might be a nice change.
• Injection site pain – sounds like this would be more appropriate for a rear injection.
• Fatigue – nothing new. I’m old and fatigued quite often.
• Headache – easily cured.
• Muscle pain – is the jaw a muscle?
• Chills – my stimulus check can pay for a lot of extra heat.
• Joint pain – I’ve had this symptom for years. Glucosomine helps.
• Fever – finally a symptom to worry about.

That’s enough ranting for this month.  Thanks for reading.

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Goodbye Adobe Flash

January 3, 2021 Posted by Tiny

A Pain in the Whatchamacallit
By Tiny Ruisch

Without any apologies to Shakespeare, I bid farewell to Adobe Flash.

Alas, poor Flash!  I knew it, dear readers: a program
of infinite errors, of most excellent fantasy: it hath
crashed my computer a thousand times; and now, how
scorned in my imagination it is!  my mind rims at
it.  Here hung those updates that I have missed I know
not how oft.  Where be your mockers now?  your
erratic installs?  your songs?  your flashes of merriment,
that were wont to set the monitor on a roar?  Not one
now, to mock your own smirking?  quite chip-fallen?
Now get you to my recycle bin, and tell everyone, let
her paint an inch thick, to this favour she must
come; make her laugh at that.

Last month Adobe retired their multimedia software platform used for production of animations, Rich web applications, desktop applications, mobile apps, mobile games and embedded web browser video players.  Flash got its start as SmartSketch, a vector drawing application.  This was later morphed into a new program, FutureSplash Animator.  This was the software that was used to launch the animated TV series “The Simpsons”.

In 1996, Macromedia purchased FutureSplash and re­‑branded it as the Macromedia Flash Player.  Over the years, there were several improvements to the software.  This led to a period where almost all web sites used Flash in some way.  Many were programmed totally in Flash.

Macromedia was acquired by Adobe in 2005.  The entire Macromedia product line including Flash, Dreamweaver, Director, Shockwave, Fireworks and Authorware were renamed to Adobe.  Many say this is when the Flash Player started its downward trend.  In 2010, Steve Jobs banished it from the iPhone for being too insecure.  In reality, Flash became a prime target for hackers.  Adobe was constantly patching bugs, a process which often created new ones.  In 2017, Adobe announced the End Of Life for Flash would be December 2020.

Adobe Flash had a life of fifteen years.  In technology years, that is a fairly long time.  In “Flash” years, not so much.  The Flash first appeared in comic books in 1940.  He’s been around in movies, television, games and other media since then.  Flash Gordon debuted in 1934.  Although he has spent a lot of time lost in outer space, he has also often been resurrected in movies and TV.  Not too many people remember Flash Thompson.  He was a character in the early years of Spider Man.  He also made several appearances in later years.

As a matter of full disclosure, I must admit that I won’t miss Adobe Flash.  I haven’t allowed it on any of my machines for about four years.  I for one, hope that it never gets a new life

Thanks for reading.

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Santa and Covid

December 11, 2020 Posted by Tiny

A Pain in the Whatchamacallit
By Tiny Ruisch

Could it be that all of this Covid stuff was started by Santa Claus?  I got to wondering about this the other day when I started reading news stories that the little kiddies won’t be allowed to climb up on his lap this year.  After so many years of little monsters pulling his beard and peeing on him, I can see why he might do something drastic to change things.

Could it be that this isn’t the first time Santa has done some evil that has been blamed on something else.  After all, who else do we know that uses red as a primary color?  How do we know that those big, baggy pants aren’t really just needed to hide a tail.  Same way with his hat.  How do we know it isn’t just covering a couple of horns.  Are there any other names that “Santa” anagrams to?  Has anyone ever seen Santa and that other guy together at the same time?

Doesn’t it strike you as odd that “Covid” has the exact same number of letters that “Santa” does?  Even more strange is the fact the Santa’s real name, “Kris Kringle” also has the same amount of letters as Covid’s real name, “coronavirus”.  This is obviously by design.

Want more proof that Santa is the cause of this virus?
• Do an internet search and you will find thousands of articles about people who have proven that the virus isn’t real.  The only people that think Santa Claus is real are young children.
• Santa relies on people to deliver gifts from person to person to spread his evilness.  The virus relies on people to transfer it from person to person.
• As far as I know, the virus is neither a he or a she.  I’ve seen some articles that argue that Santa might be either.
• There’s a lot about the Covid we don’t understand.  The same is true for Santa.
• Santa likes both boys and girls.  He doesn’t care who he infects with Christmas cheer.  The virus also doesn’t care who gets infected.
• There is a lot about the coronavirus we don’t understand.  There’s a lot about Santa we don’t understand.
• Many parents in their leadership roles tell their children that Santa doesn’t exist.  Many politicians have done the same with Covid.
• Both Santa and the virus seem to be everywhere.

I’ve probably bored you enough.  I could go on for pages about how Santa and Covid are the same.  After all, Santa does have a funny looking nose that is eerily similar to the virus shape.  I’m going to start working on an article proving that Santa is a woman.

Thanks for reading.

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Changing My Website Host

November 8, 2020 Posted by Tiny

A Pain in the Whatchamacallit
By Tiny Ruisch

A couple of months ago, I gave a presentation on why I thought everyone should have their own domain, even if they didn’t have a website.  One of the things I stressed was taking care in choosing a web site hosting company.  I told them how hard it was to change to a new web host.  It was a pleasant surprise to find out that I was wrong.

I’ve been using the same web host and domain registrar for twenty years.  I’m not going to name which one because I’ve obviously been satisfied with the service, up‑time stats, support, speed, accessibility, etc.  I currently have three active web plans and about a dozen parked domains.

About a month ago, the hosting contract for tinys-bs.com expired.  For the past year or so, I had been toying with the idea of changing to HostGator.  Both of my computer clubs use the company without any problems.  Why am I changing?  There isn’t any specific reason, but instead a bunch of little ones.  Of course, cost is always a factor.  I’m not going to save a lot, but every nickel counts.  HostGator also makes it much easier to use Let’s Encrypt.  The internet has evolved to the point where SSL is almost mandatory.

I made the change with only one minor glitch.  Before changing hosting services, I transferred my domain names.  This did not go easily.  I believe it was because I tried to transfer both tinys-bs.com and tinysbs.com at the same time.  One change was successful and the second failed.  It took about a week to get it corrected.  In the future, when I move other domain names, I will only do one at a time.

I was dreading having to upload all my web site files and data.  There are almost 38,000 files and more than 2GB of data.  This turned out to be extremely easy.  HostGator has what they call the “Migrations Department”.  This assistance is used to transfer data to your new site.  It is normally a paid service but was free as part of my new customer package.

I decided to give it a try and it worked easily and perfectly.  It was a simple, three step operation.  All I had to do was complete an on‑line form.
1. Select the Destination Hosting Package.  This information was pre‑inserted into the proper areas after I selected my hosting package in a drop down box.
2. Enter Your Old Hosting Information.  There were several items I had to input:
• Account Domain Name
• IP/Hostname
• Control Panel URL
• Previous Hosting Company
• Control Panel Used
• Is there an SSL Certificate?
• Account Username
• Account Password
3. Submit the Transfer Request.  They said it could take up to a week to complete.  I got an e‑mail three days later with a link to check that all my files had completed successfully.

After I checked everything and deleted a few things I no longer used,  I was ready to shift to my new hosting service.  I did this by simply logging in to my hosting panel and changing the DNS Servers to point to my new location.

I wish everything on the internet was so easy to do.
Thanks for reading.

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How Things Have Changed

October 11, 2020 Posted by Tiny

A Pain in the Whatchamacallit
By Tiny Ruisch

I was looking back at the first two Whatchamacallit articles that I wrote back in February and April of 2009.  The subjects were: 1) Setting Up My New Computer; and 2) My Bi‑Weekly Maintenance Routine.

I haven’t purchased any new machines lately; however, I still do my upkeep routines.  I was mildly surprised to find out how much has changed in slightly over ten years.  At least it gave me an idea for an article this month. Most of the changes are in the software.

1) Pc Decrapifier was a program that removed manufacture installed bloatware from new computers.  It has been discontinued.
2) Zone Alarm was my firewall of choice.  I no longer use it.  The built in Windows firewall has been improved and is adequate for my needs.
3) Revo Uninstaller is a great program.  I am still using it and have often thought of purchasing a license.  I never have because the free version suits my needs.
4) Secunia Personal Software Inspector (PSI) was another great program that was discontinued after being purchased by another company.  It scanned you computer and recommended updates that needed to be installed.  I haven’t found an adequate replacement.
5) Avast Anti‑Virus was my program of choice for many years.  I didn’t like many of the business strategies they started using and no longer recommend the company.
6) Wise Registry Cleaner is still around.  I haven’t used any programs of this type for several years.
7) Malwarebytes is still around and doing an excellent job of scanning all of my machines.  Thankfully, my computing practices don’t give it much chance to remove anything.
8) CCleaner is a program that is still in production.  For years it was my goto software for removing unwanted junk from my all my machines.  The company was purchased by Avast.  It wasn’t long before things changed.  I no longer recommend this software.

About the only thing that hasn’t changed is the first program I install.  KeePass Password Manager is the one program I absolutely need on every one of my devices.

Thanks for reading.

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Skool Dayze

September 6, 2020 Posted by Tiny

A Pain in the Whatchamacallit
By Tiny Ruisch

With the COVID-19 pandemic in raging at full speed, there are a lot of changes in everyday activities.  All of my computer clubs and submarine veterans meeting are being held on‑line.  About the only time I ever leave my apartment is to dump the trash and check the mail.  With almost every thing being done electronically, the mail usually increases the amount of trash.  This is just another one of life’s little circles.

One of the biggest changes is in schooling.  Livingston Parish, like many other school districts, has shifted to on‑line instruction.  My youngest grandson is starting his Freshman year.  He is one of the students.  The school has issued him a thirteen inch Dell laptop.  I would describe him has being almost home schooled.

His parents live in the country.  Their internet service is via satellite.  He’s convinced his parents that he should come to Grandpa’s to do his schooling.  After all, he needs fast internet.  That does make sense, doesn’t it?

It only took me a few hours to realize that there was a tiny amount of smoke being blown into the air in the direction of my rear end.  It turns out that it is much more difficult to do farm chores when you aren’t at the farm.

I’ve written before about why he likes to visit.  He doesn’t come to see me.  He likes to play games and comes to visit my desktop computer.  When he is here, I am usually relegated to using my laptop.  It really isn’t a problem, except when I’m writing or coding.  I mostly miss having a full size keyboard.  The extra monitors are also nice.

So far, the typical Grandpa School Day starts with a student drop off around seven in the morning.  This is dependent on whether Mom or Dad is driving the school bus.  The classroom is in a bedroom.  His desk is a fold‑able card table.  His text books are stacked on the clothes dresser.  So far, the school uniform has been t‑shirt and shorts.

Class starts at eight.  So far, I don’t think there as been a lot of actual teacher to student instruction.  Mostly it seems to be assigning worksheets.  To be honest, I haven’t paid a lot of attention.

The first day, I told him that I was going open my router settings and block YouTube during school hours.  That turned out not to be feasible.  Blocking YouTube meant that I couldn’t watch Rawhide, Have Gun Will Travel, The Rifleman and many of my other favorite old time TV shows.

I’ve been attending a lot of Zoom meetings. This has caused an occasional conflict of interests.  I won’t let him use the desktop.  I’m not giving up my good camera and microphone.  Student break to play a game or Grandpa club meetings.  I’ll let you guess who wins in this situation.

So far, the best thing about home schooling at Grandpa’s house is that Grandpa got an idea for an article to write.
Thanks for reading.

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The Twitter Hack

August 9, 2020 Posted by Tiny

A Pain in the Whatchamacallit
By Tiny Ruisch

Darn the bad luck.  All those rich Twitter accounts giving back double Bitcoins and I wasn’t able to join in.  Unfortunately all of my spare money is tied up with helping out a Nigerian Prince that I had met through an e‑mail exchange.

I couldn’t have joined anyway.  I have neither a Bitcoin or Twitter account.  Sorry Jeff, Barack, Joe, Michael, Elon and all the other billionaires.  I’m kind of surprised that President Trump didn’t join the double back offer.  He has obviously been subjected to some kind of hack.  I’ve noticed that he has even been wearing a face mask.

I’ve come to the conclusion that these hackers weren’t very smart.  The only made a little over a hundred thousand dollars.  The break in was noticed almost immediately and Twitter shut down verified accounts.  I would think they could have made much more just by selling account sign in information on the dark web.

Like most scams, a lot of people actually fell for it.  Wouldn’t it have been smarter for the thieves to collect credit card numbers while collecting cash?  After all, there are still many people that don’t have a Bitcoin wallet.  There has to be many other ways they could have scammed more money.  Most of these accounts are big players in the stock market.

As I write this, nobody really knows what happened.  Like all major hacks, I’m sure it will be blamed on one of the standard reasons:
1) North Korea,
2) Russia,
3) China, or
4) A rogue employee.
It won’t be long before we will start seeing conspiracy theories.  It could have been the FBI, NSA, CIA or a myriad of other acronyms.  Could you imagine what we would be reading if the POTUS account had been hacked?

This hack will end up being like every other one?  Twitter will announce that they have figured out what happened.  They will assure us that they are extremely sorry but have fixed all the problems.  Life will go on and eventually there will be another big hack and we will forget about this one.

Ho Hum.  Thanks for reading.

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Zooming 2020-08

July 5, 2020 Posted by Tiny

A Pain in the Whatchamacallit
By Tiny Ruisch

For the last few months, I’ve been doing a lot of something I never thought I would do.  Until the start of the pandemic, I only attended one on-line video conference.  That was about four years ago.  I don’t remember which program I used, but I uninstalled it the following day.

I’m a member of several clubs.  They have all been using Zoom Video Communications.  With reservations, I first installed it on an older laptop with the Linux Mint OS.  It worked perfectly from the first.  Since then, I have installed it on Windows 10 and Android Phone.  It works great on all these systems.  I didn’t even have to update any drivers.

Before I review Zoom, I should make a few comments on security.  Initially, there seemed to be a lot of problems with “video bombing.”  This is when an unexpected appearance (usually obscene) appears in a video feed.  It turned out that most of these were due to sign‑in credentials being posted on YouTube or other places.  I have been attending at least three meetings a week and have not seen this happen.  There have been other problems.  Tom’s Guide has a comprehensive list in Zoom Security Issues. I haven’t noticed any untoward background activity on my computers when I am using the program.

With Microsoft Team, Google Meet, TeamViewer, Skype and so many other options, why has Zoom become so popular?  The answer is simple.  It is easy to use.  You don’t even need to create an account to attend a meeting.  Registration is only required to host the meeting.  You can use Zoom in a web browser, but I’ve found it is much easier when you install the program on your machine.

To join a meeting, you will need both a meeting ID and a password.  Both are provided by the meeting host.  You are then given the choice to sign in with audio and/or video.  Both options can be changed after you join the meeting.  After clicking “join”, you should see a message that says waiting for the host to let you in.  When the host does so, you’re done.

After you have joined a meeting, there are three viewing layouts you can choose.  These are selected with icons on the Zoom Room Controller (usually found in a corner of the screen). The options are:
1.  Speaker displays a large view of the person currently speaking, with a smaller thumbnail of the previous speaker as a picture within picture.
2.  Thumbnail combines the Speaker view with a scaled down version of the Gallery view.  A small strip of thumbnails, showing up to eight participants, displays beneath a relatively larger view of the active speaker.  The thumbnails show the participants who were most recently the active speakers.
3.  Gallery displays up to 25 participants on each screen, with the active speaker highlighted.  For meetings with more than 25 participants, an arrow displays next to the icon.  Tap the right arrow to display the next group of participants on the screen.  Tap the left arrow to display the previous set.

When you are in a meeting room, moving your mouse to the bottom of the screen reveals more icons.  The most important are the two on the left edge.  Clicking on the “microphone” icon mutes or un‑mutes your outgoing sound.  Clicking on the “video” icon starts or stops your outgoing video feed.  Both icons have small up arrows.  These give you more options.

If the meeting host has enabled it, you can share your screen.  Be careful if you do this.  Anything you see on your monitor will be seen by everyone in the meeting.  You don’t want to accidentally share any naughty pictures.

One feature I especially like is the ability for virtual backgrounds.  These are enabled in settings.  There are several built‑in backgrounds or you can upload your own.  I have several that I use, depending on the meeting.

There are several other options that I am not going to explore in the article.  You can find complete information and video tutorials on the Zoom Support Help Center.

Thanks for reading.

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Using the Windows Logo Key – Originally Published June 2020

June 7, 2020 Posted by Tiny

A Pain in the Whatchamacallit
By Tiny Ruisch

I remember back in the last century when the computer mouse was invented.  I resisted buying one because I thought it was useless technology that wasted time.  After all, you had to remove one of your hands from the keyboard to use it.  Back then we could do it all with the CTRL and ALT keys.  Other tasks were easily accomplished with a batch file.

Back then, we were mostly limited to CTRL – cut and paste.  Now, the old saying has come true, “We’ve come a long way baby!”

When the Windows 95 operating system was released, a new key was added to the keyboard. For me, the windows key has always been a “super” key.  It has so many useful functions that I find it hard to believe how many people fail to use the flag key.

Here’s a list of the shortcuts I personally use the most often.  This list works in almost all versions of Windows.  Just hit your windows key and the key(s) in the left column to enable the right column action.  It’s a heck of a lot faster than moving the mouse and clicking.

+ (nothing) Open/Close start menu
+ Home Minimizes all but the current window
+ Left Arrow Tiles the window on the left side of the screen
+ Right Arrow Tiles the window on the right side of the screen
+ T Cycles through the items on the Taskbar
+ # key Switches to a running program on the Taskbar in the position indicated by the number
+ M Minimizes all windows
+ D Show/Hide Desktop (minimizes/restores all windows)
+ L Locks the computer
+ E Open the File Explorer
+ I Open Settings
+ Comma Temporary peek at the desktop
+ Tab Accesses Windows Flip 3D and cycles forward through open programs
+ Plus Key Open the Magnifier
+ Up Arrow Maximizes the current window
+ Down Arrow Minimizes the current window
+ Home Minimizes all but the current window
+ Left Arrow Tiles the window on the left side of the screen
+ Right Arrow Tiles the window on the right side of the screen

In this article, I’ve focused on shortcuts using the Windows Logo Key.  There are many other keyboard shortcuts.  Some are not common and can improve your keyboard skills.  Windows shortcuts can be difficult to use at first.  After you use them a few times, they become a force of habit and you utilize them without thinking about it.

A search of the internet will find many sites with lists of keyboard shortcuts.  I recommend using Microsoft’s Windows Keyboard Shortcuts List.  Not only is it always up to date, but it is complete and easy to use.  Select your operating system in the drop down menu.  Then you will see expandable lists for all shortcuts.

I don’t think that it’s possible for anyone to memorize all the keyboard shortcuts.  I suggest you search the internet and make your own shortcut list.  I’m sure that you’ll enjoy your computer more when you waste less time reaching for the mouse.

That’s about all I’ve got to say this month.  I think that it’s time for me to either ALT+TAB or ALT+F4 away from my word processor.

Thanks for reading.

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