Posts Tagged: ‘Miscellaneous’

Leaning Towards Linux – Originally Published August 2017

August 8, 2017 Posted by Tiny

From the Dark Side
by Tiny Ruisch

Tom wrote an article for the Newsletter titled “More Microsoft Aggravations”.  I’ll state for the record that I am not in total agreement with him.  I’m leaning towards being much more maddened than he is.  It has been slowly building up for two years now.  I’ll be happy to tell you why.

Windows 10 was released on July 29, 2015.  At that time I was running Windows 7 Professional on my desktop, Windows 7 Home on my laptop, Windows XP on an old desktop that I was using as a server, Windows 8.1 on a tablet, an older laptop with Linux Ubuntu and a laptop with the Windows 10 beta test (the club may remember me demonstrating the new OS with this machine in August 2015).  With the exception of the tablet, I used all the machines almost daily.

I decided that I wasn’t going to upgrade my Windows 7 machines.  This was partly because they were (and still are) both aging and I didn’t think Windows 10 would work well on them.  Besides, I had spent seven years getting my desktop setup just the way I like it.  Being only five years old, my laptop wasn’t quite so ancient.  I still think I made the correct decision as both machines still run fairly well.  In the past, I’ve written several articles on my maintenance and upkeep procedures.

With the release of Windows 10, Microsoft changed their marketing strategies.  It wasn’t long before they released the (in)famous GWX update that attempted to install the new operating system on every computer in the world.  There was a lot of deceit and trickery involved.  Many people had a new OS installed even if they didn’t want it.

In the intervening two years I’ve purchased the Nextbook 11, a convertible tablet.  It runs Windows 10 home and works well for my portability needs.  My Windows 7 desktop and laptop are still my two main productivity machines.  The laptop with the Windows 10 fast ring sits unused waiting for me to put a linux distribution on it.  I’m thinking of turning it into a media server.

I find myself getting more upset with the Microsoft Windows world almost every day.  I can’t say that there is any single, glaring thing, but instead a bunch of small aggravations.

  • Updates install programs that I don’t want or need.
  • Updates remove programs that I use.
  • File associations getting changed.
  • Getting unwanted advertisements (oops! Notifications).
  • Difficulty in navigating Windows settings.
  • Not having control over my hardware drivers.

These are just a few of the most noticeable gripes that I have.  It doesn’t appear that things will improve in the near future.  Maybe I will be surprised, but I’m thinking that things will get worse before they get better.

Linux is looking better every day.

Thanks for reading.

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Missing the Circus and Other Things – Originally Published July 2017

July 5, 2017 Posted by Tiny

A Pain in the Whatchamacallit
By Tiny Ruisch

Everyone knows how much I like technology.  One of the few things I don’t like about new technologies is how it has made many of the other things I like obsolete.  Does anyone still fly a kite?  Every now and then I see kites for sale in one of the local stores.  I can’t remember the last time I actually saw one flying in the air.  Like many other things, technology has largely replaced them with drones or virtual reality simulations. The days of going to the park and watching the kids showing off their kites are history.  These days, they’re playing with their tablets.

I recently lost another of my favorite activities to technology.  Never again will I be able to take my Grandson to a circus.  People are spending their money on other forms of entertainment.  Of course, the entertainment mostly relies on technologies such as fast internet to deliver movies, virtual reality, CGI movies, etc.

When I was younger, it was a treat to ride a train to the city for a day of shopping with my parents.  Although, you can still ride the train in some areas, modern technologies have made it more difficult.  In this modern age, we go everywhere in our high tech automobiles and airplanes.  Passenger train routes are limited in locations and times.  Never again will we routinely see a steam locomotive on the tracks.

My son in law and youngest grandson are X-Box fans.  In their house they have three of them.  I get a laugh when they play a game together.  Each of them is in a different room and they communicate either over headphones or by yelling across the house.  It makes me nostalgic for the old Atari console.  You hooked up your controllers and competed with a player in the same room.  I can’t remember the last time I played a game of cribbage, chess, monopoly, etc. that wasn’t on a computer screen.

I’m writing this column while sitting in a rocking chair on my back porch.  Porches are another thing that technology has largely made obsolete.  When we do sit on the porch, we seldom just sit.  Instead we are looking at our mobile devices.  I remember the days when the back porch was a place to sit, talk and just watch the world go by.

Have you heard that vinyl records are making a comeback among people that take their music seriously?  Today’s younger generation has no idea what a record, cassette tape, reel to reel, 45 RPM, etc is.  Almost all music is listened to online of downloaded as an audio file.  Technology strikes again.

Of course, technology has also replaced a lot of thing that I won’t miss.  I like having a large library on my mobile device.  Automatic transmissions make driving easier.  A computer in your pocket makes lots of things easier.  There is so much good that it almost sounds like a future column.

Thanks for reading.

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Choosing a VPN – Originally Published May 2017

May 4, 2017 Posted by Tiny

A Pain in the Whatchamacallit
By Tiny Ruisch

Should you be using a Virtual Private Network (VPN)?  If you’re connected to a public Wi-Fi network, the answer is definitely yes.  If you’re connected to your home network, you may or may not need to.  Personally, I connect to a VPN almost every time I connect to the internet.

Simply defined, a VPN extends your private network (internet connection) to a public network by creating an encrypted “tunnel”.  In effect, you mask your computer from places you visit when you are online.  A VPN will not make your online connection completely anonymous, but it will increase your privacy and security.

You’ve probably heard that your internet speed will slow down when you are using a VPN.  This is true, but in most cases, the slowdown is so negligible that you will probably not notice it.  Most of the slower VPN services are the “free” ones.  I have used a paid VPN for several years now.  There have only been a few times that I’ve cursed my downloading speed.

Many sites on the internet are restricted to certain locales.  By utilizing a VPN you can easily bypass them and appear to be browsing from a completely different place in the world.  If you do a lot of online shopping, you can often get a lower price by using your VPN.  Many companies offer different prices, depending on where you live.  I’ll let you determine the legality of doing these things.

There are many other reasons you might want to use a VPN.  I won’t bore you by trying to list them all in this article.  An internet search will give you a much more thorough and precise list.  Just remember, all VPNs are not created equal.  If it is free, find out what the real cost is.

Selecting which VPN to use can be the most difficult part of using a service.  Besides cost, some things to check is how many servers the company has and where they are located.  Many VPN providers just buy bandwidth from other companies and resell it.  Should the service go down, you might have a wait.  Another important thing to check is whether or not the provider keeps a log of your internet surfing.  Like many other things, this will vary among companies, so make sure you read the fine print.  If you want privacy, you don’t want a record kept of your internet browsing.  Be careful when reading online reviews.  Many of them are in reality paid for by the VPN service.  The article headline will usually be something like “The Best VPN” and then not do a comparison.  Another giveaway headline is something similar to “Get a Lifetime Subscription to ??? VPN For Only X Dollars.

I have one last suggestion.  Make one of your first search stops That One Privacy Site.  There you can find an excellent tutorial on how to choose your VPN.  The site doesn’t recommend a VPN but instead has an excellent, frequently updated chart of almost 200 services.  There are comparison columns for trustworthiness, affiliates, jurisdiction, logging polices, price and many more.

I’m wishing you some happy and secure online activities.
Thanks for reading.

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April Fools Pranks – Originally Published April 2017

April 7, 2017 Posted by Tiny

A Pain in the Whatchamacallit
By Tiny Ruisch

April is here again.  I won’t make the same mistake I did last year when I wrote an April Fools column about leaving Lake Charles.  I sure got a lot of questions about why I was moving.  I’ve always been an April Fooler type of person.  It all started several years ago when I was almost born on April 1.

In this modern age, April 1 pranks almost beg to be played on someones computer.  Almost every one uses a laser mouse these days.  They can be easily disabled with a small piece of tape or a post it note on the sensor.  Many people won’t notice and will have a hard time figuring out why all of a sudden their mouse isn’t working.  You can confuse them even more by opening mouse properties in the control panel.  Change the mouse speed to the slowest setting will make any mouse activities an ordeal.

Another prank that has been around forever can still confuse even a veteran computer user.  Simply take a screen shot of your victim’s computer.  Then hide all of the desktop icons and replace their wallpaper with the screen shot.  Sit back and watch them click on icons that won’t load a program.

Another quick prank is to open Google’s home page in a browser.  Click on preferences and change the default language.  You’d be surprised at how many people this trick will fool.

All of the following pranks in this article have been tested on Windows computers.  I haven’t done any research to see if they will work on Apple’s Operating System(s).  It shouldn’t be to hard to find out if you’re interested.

Many users don’t know about sticky keys.  Sticky keys will change how the Ctrl, Alt, Shift and Windows Key will function.   When enabled, keys are serialized instead of operating together.  For instance, instead of typing “Shift – a” to capitalize, you would have to type “Shift”, release the key and then type “a”.  This key change will drive an unsuspecting victim crazy.  Sticky keys are enabled easily by pressing the “Shift” key five times in quick succession.

An evil prank that you should only play on someone that won’t beat you up is to cause their computer to shut down.  Right click on one of the icons on your victims desk top.  Type the following in the target box: %windir%\System32\shutdown.exe -s -f -t 100 -c “Your Message Here”.  “Your Message Here” can be replaced with whatever message you like.  I use something like “That does not compute so I am shutting down” or “I’m sleepy.  I think I’ll shut down and rest now.”

Whenever your victim double clicks on that shortcut, their program will not start.  Instead, your message will display for 100 seconds (unless you change the number in the target box.)  Then the computer will shut down.

These computer pranks are all designed for the Windows operating system.  Although they are non-destructive, you run the risk of aggravating the user and making him or her possibly want to harm you.  Use them at your own risk.

Here is one last little April Fools that is easy to implement.  Surprisingly, even though it has been around for a long time, a lot of people don’t know about it.  You can try it out right now.

Press Ctrl-Alt-Down Arrow on your keyboard.

It would be nice if you fix their computer for them afterword, but who am I to tell you what to do?

Thanks for reading.

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Tiny Inventions II – Originally Published March 2017

March 12, 2017 Posted by Tiny

A Pain in the Whatchamacallit
By Tiny Ruisch

Way back in June 2013, I wrote an article describing many of the things that I was going to invent.  Unfortunately, due to time constraints, I never did get around to marketing the tonocle, the T-belt, the CORdrive or the other great ideas I had.  Since then, I’ve thought of more inventions to market.

How many times have you meant to throw something in the trash can and missed it because the darn thing was just out of reach?  That will never happen again when I start selling the TINYtrasher.  This remarkable machine will be a modified trash can on wheels.  It will be WIFI enabled and can be summoned to wherever you are by pushing the trash icon on your phone or other WIFI enabled device.

The TINYlet is going to be a modern day, useful replacement for the toilet in any bathroom.  Seat up or down arguments would be a thing of the past.  The TINYlet seat would always lower itself two minutes after a flush.  When a user enters the bathroom, the seat would always be down.  If it needs to be raised a simple step-lever would change the seat to the proper position.  The super, duper, custom TINYlet will be the only toilet in the world that would never plug up and need to be plunged.  An installed garbage disposal would grind up any blockage.

Tiny’s ClearVue toaster will easily toast your bread with infrared rays.  The traditional metal sides of the toaster would be replaced with a clear acrylic plastic.  The advantage of a ClearVue is simple.  You can see the progress of the toasting bread.  Each slice would be cooked to the perfect shade of brown for each individual user.

Ten years ago, I almost invented the TINoller.  This was going to be a modified baby stroller.  My initial thought was to attach a motorized wheel chair to the back of my grandson’s stroller so that I could easily push him.  Realizing that this idea would prevent me from getting any actual exercise on my daily walk, I thought about attaching a scooter.  This would enable me to push and ride at the same time.  He outgrew the stroller before I could build it, but the idea is still valid.

The TINY Paper Roller is the invention that will ensure that the toilet paper is always placed correctly on the dispenser roller.  The dispenser would have a small lip at the back of the dispenser under the roll.  If the paper is placed on the roll backwards, the paper would catch on the lip and bunch up.  The dispenser would only work if the toilet paper is properly installed so that the paper rolls off the top towards the user.

Don’t you hate it when you’re driving down the road and hit the occasional, rare, pothole, causing your coffee to spill out of the cup and into your car’s cup holder?  If you’re like me and don’t like using lids or only filling your cup half full, you will need to buy the TinyUnSpill cup.  This cup will have a small Geo-sensor embedded in the bottom “spring” plate.  Whenever your vehicle hits something like a speed bump, the sensor will react to the rising cup and automatically open a hydraulic valve which will raise the cup and prevent the liquid from splashing over the side.  Hitting a pot hole will have the opposite effect.  This cup will not spill your beverage, unless you slide sideways.

Remember the Pet Rock craze of years past?  I’ve been thinking of creating the “Tiny Pet Mouse Registry” or TIPEMORE.  Almost everyone in the world has an old computer mouse laying around.  For a small registration fee, people can register their mouse on TIPEMORE.  After their mouse becomes an official pet, they will be able to spend more of their money on buying things like care and feeding instructions, how to play with your pet, showing off your pet, etc.  This could be a great money maker.

I had better quit writing now and go get my Kickstarter applications filled out.  I’m certain that with my great ideas I will have no problem raising millions of dollars in funding.

Thanks for reading.

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Cruising 2017 – Originally Published February 2017

February 5, 2017 Posted by Tiny

A Pain in the Whatchamacallit
By Tiny Ruisch

I hope y’all don’t think I’m getting redundant in this monthly Whatchamacallit article.  Once again, I’m sitting on a cruise ship writing about the consumer technologies of cruising.  After all, this is the third time I’ve written on the topic.  You’d think that in eight years I could write about something new.  Oh well, if you’re bored, just turn the page and see what the other club members have submitted for the newsletter.

Still here?  The past week, I’ve been reflecting on how technology has changed some of ways I cruise.  The Mrs. took me on our first cruise ship in early 1990.  I don’t remember much about it except for some concern that the airplane wouldn’t be able to take off for Miami because of all the snow on the ground and the bad weather.  We finally left late.  Our luggage left even later and didn’t catch up to us until we were on the ship for two days.  There wasn’t a lot of personal tech back then.  A few people were getting desktop computers, laptops were almost unheard of and the internet was in its infancy, mostly restricted to universities, governments, military services, etc.  The World Wide Web and America On Line was still a year or so in the future.

Fast forward to March 2013.  I was on my eighth cruise with the boss (this time, she didn’t have to force me to go).  On this cruise, I didn’t take my laptop.  Instead, I used my new Archos 70IT tablet.  It was running Android 2.2 (Froyo).  Paired with a Bluetooth keyboard it made an excellent machine for shipboard cruising.  I used it to write an article for the club newsletter.  I just recently retired that tablet from my tech arsenal last month.

Two years later, I did basically the same thing for another newsletter article.  Same equipment, except for adding my first “smart” phone.  It was the Galaxy Note II.  I liked that phone, but it had enough quirks that I’ve never gotten another Samsung.  In both of those articles, I discussed the high cost of internet connectivity at sea.  I’ll just mention here that for seventy-five cents a minute, I didn’t have any connectivity.

Now it’s 2017.  What’s new?  This trip, I’m carrying more equipment.  I’ve got my new seven inch tablet (see my review in this newsletter), my year old Moto X and my ten inch Nextbook Windows 10 convertible.  I brought a Bluetooth keyboard for use with the tablet.  I haven’t yet used it and probably won’t.  My reason for taking the extra laptop was that I would be spending a lot of time putting together this newsletter.  I’ve since changed my goal to spending SOME of the time editing it.

The other biggest change is that I bought the Satellite data plan.  Surprisingly, upload speed is faster than download.  Of course, faster is a relative term.  Speeds average between 1-1/2 to 2 mbps.  The good news is that I’ve got plenty of time to watch people and to practice my thumb twiddling.  I’ve mostly been able to download and play the podcasts that I like to listen to.  A few sites are extremely slow.  Unfortunately, the club’s website is one of them, so I haven’t been able to do my daily check.  Although fairly slow, the connection has been mostly reliable.  I haven’t found any area of the ship where I haven’t been able to connect.  You’ve got keep using it though.  If my screen saver comes on, the connection goes off.  The only other aggravation is that you can only go online with one device at a time.  I had to delay downloading a major security update for my phone until I could shut down my laptop for an hour.

The satellite data plan is a little pricey, $120 for the entire cruise.  I justify it by telling myself it is free because I use the cruise credits I get for being a frequent cruiser.  My guess is that is as good a story as any other fairy tale.
Many other things have remained the same.  I’ve had a few discussions with other passengers and showed them ways to make their electronics easier to use.  There are also a few that can’t wait to get back home to check if their local library subscribes to Overdrive, Hoopla, Zinio, etc.  I met one person that thought I was an electronics wizard when I plugged a flash drive into my phones USB to watch a video.  The weirdest thing I saw was a fellow that came to the table where I was writing this article.  I was there because that was where one of the few plugins were.  He plugged his phone in and asked if I would watch it for him.  Then he just walked off and was gone for a half hour or so.  Maybe, I look trustworthy?

Life is good.  Thanks for reading.

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Dumb Predictions? – Originally Published January 2017

January 11, 2017 Posted by Tiny

A Pain in the Whatchamacallit
By Tiny Ruisch

Happy New Year!  It’s that time again for everyone to make their annual predictions about what will happen in the future.  Not me.  You all should know by now how I am usually a little different.  After all, people with much more intelligence than me can probably predict the future with much more accuracy than I could ever hope to achieve.

For instance, the following prediction: “There is not the slightest indication that nuclear energy will ever be obtainable.  It would mean that the atom would have to be shattered at will.”  This prediction was made in 1932 by none other than Albert Einstein.

Is there anyone who hadn’t heard about Steve Jobs predictions on a stylus pen, smaller tablets and larger phones?  That puts him in the same league as Thomas Watson, IBM chairman in 1943, when he said there was a world market for maybe five computers.  IBM predictions improved in 1959 when they told Xerox that the world potential for copying machines was about 5000.

There are many other examples of brilliant people making the same types of accurate predictions.   In 2005 Steve Chen, the co-founder of YouTube claimed that the platform couldn’t survive.  He said, “There’s just not that many videos that people want to watch.”  A year earlier, Bill Gates predicted that SPAM e-mail would be solved within two years.  He also stated that his company, Microsoft, would never make a 32 bit operating system.

I could go on and on for pages about other people who made tech predictions that didn’t quite come true.  How about these other predictions?:
1) Subsidized cell phones will continue to decline and maybe even join floppy disks in the “I remember when” category.
2) Smart watches pass out of the what is it good for stage and replace cell phones the same way that automobiles replaced the horse and buggy.
3) Windows 7 will hang on as long as XP did.
4) Apple will invent wireless charging.
5) 3D television will make a comeback.
In case you might be interested, those are all predictions that I made in my January 2016 column.  You can see that my accuracy isn’t any worse (or better).  I’ll only make one prediction for this year: 2017 will bring some great computer club meetings, a lot of information on the club’s web site and some excellent monthly trips to Texas.

Thanks for reading.

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Brand Loyalty – Originally Published November 2016

November 6, 2016 Posted by Tiny

A Pain in the Whatchamacallit
By Tiny Ruisch

Four years ago, in October of 2012, I wrote an article about companies that I won’t do business with if I can avoid it.  You might recall my vitriol towards the Sony Corporation for the evil they did by installing a root kit on my computer.  I still haven’t forgiven them and likely never will.  I’ll just smirk when they get hacked again.

Instead, I’m going to talk about some other companies that haven’t done a very good job of retaining customer loyalty.  Some have a long track record of errors and I’m surprised that they have stayed in business.  Others probably will not go out of business but probably should.

Yahoo! has recently been sold again (maybe) to Verizon.  This is a company that once was once the most popular website in the U. S.  Once worth over $100 billion dollars, it started to decline about fifteen years ago.  Verizon is reportedly going to purchase it for about $5 billion.  Over the years, Yahoo! Missed out on chances to buy Twitter, Facebook, Google and YouTube.  The latest news is the hack of more than 500 million user accounts.  Rather than inform customers, the company didn’t do anything for two years.  They must be lousy hackers, since Yahoo! has between 2 and 3 billion users.  I think we’ll be hearing more in the future.  I don’t have to worry.  I deleted my account about five years ago.

Another company recently in the news is Samsung.  If you haven’t heard about the Galaxy Note 7 problems, I hope you’re enjoying your vacation on Mars.  I think that Samsung initially did a great job of responding to the exploding battery reports by recalling all of the phones, no questions asked.  Now it appears that the replacement phones are having the same problem.  As I write this article, Samsung has ceased sales of the device.  I don’t think the story is over yet.

I could write several pages on how badly Sony has treated their customers over the years.  If you are interested, feel free to do a search on my website and review my past thoughts.  They haven’t changed.

There are many companies that unfortunately are able to stay in business even though they don’t give a rat’s you know what about their customers.  I’m mainly thinking of communications companies.  Have you heard of any positive customer service stories about ComCast, AT&T, Verizon, etc?  I have.  They almost always get a lot better whenever some competition enters the market.  Often they end up buying the new companies, take a market loss and then return to their past ways.

It is beginning to look like we might soon lose other organizations.  Both of our major political parties are in danger of putting themselves out of business.  Neither bear much resemblance to their roots.  Maybe it is time to resurrect the Whig or Federalist Parties.  We could also turn to the Dixiecrats, the Progressives or the Natural Law Party.  The Know-Nothing Party could be the most appropriate choice.

Thanks for reading.

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Cyber Security Awareness II

October 30, 2016 Posted by Tiny

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TinyJWRinLC
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Thursday, October 20, I attended the Cyber Security Awareness Workshop at Port Arthur, Texas.  This was a follow up to the Cyber Security Awareness Kickoff held earlier in the month.

There were three discussions, each lasting an hour.  All of the speakers were extremely interesting and spoke their entire allotted time.  I took a few notes each session.

1. Real Cybercrimes – Detective Brian Cater, Port Arthur Police Department.

Detective Cater spoke mostly about internet scams that were actual cases in the city.  These were mostly the same scams we hear about nearly every day: phishing, website spoofing, lottery scams, online job listings, etc.  In recent years, victims have generally been older people.  In most cases, funds are lost and never recovered.  If you are a victim, suspect a scam or want to learn more, check the Internet Crime Complaint Center website.

As he ran out of time, his final tip was to create your Social Security Account if you haven’t already.  That way, no one else can create one using your identity.

2. Social Media – Javier Barajas, IT Support, City of Port Arthur.

Mr. Barajas gave an interesting talk on using social media.  The average person uses their cell phone 4.7 hours a day.  He talked about things to watch for and gave some great examples.  My personal favorite was a young lady that posted “guess who got a new credit card” and uploaded a picture of her new card.  One of the responses to her post was from someone that asked what the cvv number on the back of the card was. You can guess what happened.

Advice:
a. Watch what you post, once on the internet, it’s always there.
b. Don’t share your location.
c. Click “like” on Facebook may result in bad things – Many of these sites are data farming.
d. Check your social app privacy settings.  An internet search can prove useful.
e. Use two-step verification when available.
f. Use different e-mail addresses/user names for different sites.
g. Don’t use selfies as your avatar.
h. Don’t enable auto login.
i. Change your passwords frequently.
j. Close old accounts.
k. Think twice before clicking on links.

3. How to Configure Your Home Network – James Cammack, Instructor at Lamar College PA.

Mr. Cammack gave a great presentation on setting up and configuring your router.  He used an excellent analogy of comparing a router to the U.S. Post Office.  One delivers web pages to your computer and the other delivers mail to your house.  Both use addresses.

Advice:
a. Use WPA2 encryption.
b. Change your router password.
c. Hide your SSID.
d. Use guest network (or disable if you don’t want to share).

Mr. Cammack only had time to finish part of his presentation.  Hopefully, he will speak again next year.

I had another great day in Port Arthur and am looking forward to attending next years events.

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Cyber Security Awareness Month

October 8, 2016 Posted by Tiny

On October 6, I attended the 5th Annual Cyber Security Awareness Month Kickoff in Port Arthur, Texas.  There were four seminars, all free to the public.  I thought I would share a few notes and comments on my day.

1. The Internet of Things – was presented by Ira Wilsker of the Lamar Institute of technology.  He gave a presentation on the many home appliances, medical devices, security systems and other things that are all connected to the internet.  One of the many problems is that most of these things have no security and can be used as ingress points into your home network.  He also talked about how they can be used as remote bots for attacking web sites and used the recent Krebs on line site as an example.  I didn’t bother to note all the many items he talked about, but there were a few that I found interesting:

Johnson & Johnson warns insulin pumps can be hacked – many medical devices and systems are vulnerable, maybe even more so than driver less automobiles.

Connected Cattle – a farmer that has tagged all of his cattle with devices that monitor their health, feeding, etc.  It can even tell when the animals get pregnant.

IoT devices being increasingly used for DDoS attacks – a Symantec blog explaining how a Denial of Service attack works.

Sad reality: It’s cheaper to get hacked than build strong IT defenses – an excellent article by Iain Thomson that compares hacking defenses to the Ford Pinto formula.

2. NetSmartz – was presented by Detective Michael Nixon, Beaumont Police Department Special Victims Unit.  He talked about keeping safe from cyberbullying, on social media, etc.  Some notable links were:

Parents & Guardians – a section of the NetSmartz website with tips for caretakers of children.  There are also sections for educators, law enforcement, teens, tweens and kids.

CyberTipline – where you can report cyber crimes.

Suicide of Amanda Todd – a Wikipedia article about a fifteen year old girl who was cyber-bullied.  She posted a You Tube Video, and then committed suicide.

3. Security Today – was a presentation by Dell Computers and Wayport Business Solutions. They spoke about the SonicWALL Advanced Gateway Security Suite which is an advanced firewall.  They also briefly talked about Lightbeam, a web browser extension for keeping track of third party web sites that track your online activities.  (My research after the fact shows that the extension is only available for the Firefox browser.)

4. Cell Phone Forensics – was presented by Elie Van Horn of the Port Arthur Police Department.  He spoke about data found on cell phones and the methods used to find it.  He also spoke at length about how cell phones can be used to track you.  Some interesting links:

TeenSafe – an online service that can be used to put tracking software on phones.

StealthGenie – another tracking app.  My later research revealed that this app is no longer available because the creator has been jailed.

MobilStealth – still another tracking app.

So what did I learn from the seminar?  I had a passing knowledge of most of the items presented.  One thing I found the most interesting of the entire day was a website that was mentioned by the first and third speakers.  The final speaker started his presentation by stating how he was definitely going to check this site when he got home.

SHODAN, The Search Engine for the Internet of Things is exactly what it sounds like.  With it, you can search for things connected to the internet.

I really enjoyed the day and am looking forward to attending again next year.

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