Posts Tagged: ‘Ranting’

Another Facebook Hack (2021-06)

May 22, 2021 Posted by Tiny

Thoughts From a Clicker
By Tiny Ruisch

I’d like to take a minute to give Facebook a big thank you for giving me a subject for an article for this newsletter.  I often have a problem deciding what to write about.  Facebook made this one a “no‑brainer”.

With less than 50 friends, I’m not a big user of the service.  I usually log on only once day for about 15-20 minutes.  I don’t have any of the mobile apps installed, have never hit a “like” button and seldom post anything.  The only reason I haven’t closed my account is I have many relatives that keep me informed of what is happening.

People that know are aware that I don’t answer my phone for any calls that are not in my contact list.  If I don’t answer for them, I can’t really come to the phone.  Facebook caused me to do some research on calls that have been rejected.  From January 1 through April 5, there were exactly 7 of them.  Things changed for a couple of weeks:

April Date Rejected Calls
06 32
07 18
08 46
09 42
10 6
11 0
12 22
13 8
14 14
15 12
16 14
17 4
18 2

After a two week onslaught of unwanted calls, they have finally started to taper off to around 2-5 per day.  It wasn’t hard to figure out what happened.  In early April, more than half a billion phone numbers from Facebook accounts were posted on hacker forums.  Of course, the company went into “Public Relations” mode and announced that they believed the data was “scraped” from accounts in 2019.  We were assured that everything has been fixed.  Funny thing is, I don’t remember knowing that two years ago.

If you’ve had an increase in spam calls and have a Facebook account, you might now know why.  Once again, thanks Facebook.  You’ve helped me prove what I’ve said for years.  I don’t much care who has my phone number.  I don’t pay much attention to it anyway.  Facebook has also given credo to the fact that the “National Do Not Call Registry” doesn’t work well.

Thanks for reading and keep on clicking.

Coronovirus Thoughts – Originally Published April 2020

April 18, 2020 Posted by Tiny

A Pain in the Whatchamacallit
By Tiny Ruisch

The recent Coronovirus (COVID-19) outbreak has got me to thinking about September 11, 2001.  More specifically, I’ve been recalling the weeks after the awful events that happened.  At that time, I was working at a convenience store in a small town.  It didn’t take long for rumors to start that there would be a nationwide shortage of gasoline.  That weekend, cars were lined up for blocks waiting to fill their tanks.  Stations ran out of fuel, until the tanker trunks arrived with more.

Here we are in 2020 with another national crisis.  Instead of gasoline, people are panic purchasing toilet paper and hand sanitizer.  At least we have plenty of gasoline.  There is one more thing we have an excess of: misinformation on the internet.

I don’t use Facebook a lot, about twenty minutes a day.  According to what I read in my timeline, the Democratic Party released the virus so the President would look ineffective and not be reelected.  Wait!  I’m wrong.  I read another report that said it was the Republican Party was at fault.  They released it so that big companies would make more money selling things.

Isn’t it interesting that both Joe Biden’s son and Donald Trump’s son­‑in‑law own controlling interests in a company that will make the anti‑vaccine medicine?  I will admit that it is nice to read some different exaggerations and lies.  I was getting tired of President Obama being a foreign borne Muslim terrorist.

For me, real life COVID-19 problems have been worse than the Facebook ones.  CYPHACON was canceled.  I’ve been having problems getting a refund for my hotel room that I prepaid for almost a year ago.  Like all other events, computer club activities have all been suspended.  I don’t even get my daily grandson visits as there is no school for me to pick him up from.

On the plus side, I have plenty of time to work on my projects that I never seem to finish.  After I finished the SWLAPCUG club website redesign, I started to work on doing the same for one of my personal sites.  Hopefully, I’ll get that done in the next month or so.

I’ve yet to complete my massive photo sorting, labeling and personal cloud storage project.  I’ve been working on it for several months now.  It is taking longer that when I scanned and uploaded more than thirty years of club newsletters.  Eventually I’ll get it done.

Another thing I want to do is redesign the club newsletter.  I’m planning some new sections and hope to set up an easier to use template.  I will admit that this is one undertaking that has a pretty low priority.

One thing I know for sure is that if I’m going to accomplish anything, I had better spend less time on the internet, especially Facebook.

That’s all for this month.  Thanks for reading.

Rbdigital Reading App – Originally Published February 2020

February 16, 2020 Posted by Tiny

From the Dark Side
by Tiny Ruisch

There are several Android programs that aren’t very good, but I use them anyway.  This is usually because there just aren’t any good alternatives.  Let me give you an few example.

I’ve always been an avid reader and frequent user of the public library.  To check out ebooks and magazines, I am forced to use the Rbdigital app.  I can describe the program with one word: “terrible”.  I quit using the app for audio books and ebooks.  The Hoopla Digital app is supported by the library and is much better.  I do most of my book reading with FBReader (Favorite Book Reader) and Google Play Books.  I have found plenty of great reading within my budget of zero dollars.

I like to go to the Rbdigital website the first of every month and check out new magazines.  There are usually 25‑30.  Then I open the app on my phone and download them to my SD card.  Many times the Rbdigital app just fails to open. I have to go to Android settings and force stop and then restart.  If there isn’t an internet connection, the app often will not allow me to view more than two checked out magazines.  It doesn’t do this all of the time, but enough to be frustrating.  (Once is enough.)  I haven’t found any reasons why sometimes it needs a connection and sometimes it doesn’t.

At least I know I’m not the only frustrated loser.  Although the app has a 4.3 rating for almost 17,000 reviews, there are many comments from other users with the same problem(s).

Thanks for reading.

Facebook Apologizes Again – Originally Published April 2019

April 28, 2019 Posted by Tiny

A Pain in the Whatchamacallit
By Tiny Ruisch

People who know me understand how strongly I feel about some companies in the world of technology.  In the past, Sony has screwed us many times, more than once by compromising personal information.  I can mostly ignore them and not just not give them my data.  This month I’m going to rant about a company that is harder to not use.

What got me thinking about this is Mark Zuckerberg’s recent post about how Facebook is going to reduce the amount of information that third parties can access.  He wrote 3000 words telling the world how important our privacy is.  Sorry Mark. I’ve heard this from you many times and I just don’t believe it.

After all, you’ve been apologizing to users for misusing their data even before Facebook existed.  Way back in 2003, you created your “joke” site Facemash.  After your apology to the Harvard disciplinary panel, you were cleared to continue attending the school.  Even that long ago, you said “Issues about violating people’s privacy don’t seem to be surmountable.”

In 2006, you told your users to “calm down and breathe.”  You went on to assure everyone that their news feed was private.  I wonder why three days later, you said that “we really messed up.”  At least you were nice enough to tell us that you were sorry and that our privacy is important.  After all, Facebook has always been about giving us users control over our own information.

That is why I don’t understand why you created Beacon the following year.  You do remember that service” that told friends about your activities on various third‑party sites.  It didn’t take you long to forget about user control.  Like you said, you made some mistakes while setting it up and even more with they way you handled them.  Of course, I’m assuming that Erick Schonfeld wasn’t lying in his Tech Crunch article.

It looks like 2010 was a pretty rough year for you.  I wonder what your private thoughts might have been when the Wall Street Journal reported that Facebook (and other social networks) divulged unique user IDs to advertisers.  I will admit that your op‑ed in the Washington Post was really interesting.  I especially liked the principles under which you operate.  Then in September you were faced with those 4000 old e‑mails, pictures, addresses and more.  You may have been right when you said that users are “dumb f**ks” for trusting you with their data.

That’s just been ancient Facebook history.  I’m not going to talk about how you denied that Facebook book influenced the 2016 election, followed by your remorse for those statements.  Luckily for you, many of the “dumb f**k” users know little about the Cambridge Analytical Scandal.  For years, you’ve done wrong and then asked for forgiveness while promising to do better.  It’s like I said at the top of the page, Mark, I just don’t believe you.

Thanks for reading.

Sometimes Technology Disappoints Me – Originally Published February 2019

February 3, 2019 Posted by Tiny

A Pain in the Whatchamacallit
By Tiny Ruisch

Sometimes I get really disappointed with technology and technological advances.  For instance, twenty years ago when you purchased software, you would get software that worked from the time you installed it on your machine.  Major bugs were seldom found.  In this modern day, if you are lucky, you will get a product that actually does what you want without doing damage to your files.  Consumers are often reluctant to install updates because they might make it worse.  Since I’ve installed Windows 10 on all of my main production machines, I’ve developed a new habit.  I never check for updates.  I wait for Microsoft to force them on me.  When they do, I keep my fingers crossed that all major bugs have been fixed.

I’m writing this article somewhere out in the ocean.  The only option for internet access is from satellite.  It is a little pricey, but I’ve sold myself on the idea that I can’t live without it.  After all, I’ve got a newsletter to edit, articles to write for two computer clubs, websites to maintain, tech blogs to read, etc.  I do this every year and expect it to be pretty slow.  I’m sorry to report that it is not getting better.  This is the fourth year I’ve done this and I believe that it is the worst one so far.  I will be downloading a file or opening a website and it will be a fairly decent speed.  Then suddenly, it will drop to zero.  It is so slow that I haven’t been able to complete an on line speed test.  It keeps timing out.  This might be due to the ships’ WiFi configuration or lousy satellite service.  Either way, it is disappointing.

For years, I’ve been disappointed with USB cables, power cords and various other connection methods.  So many of these cables are compatible with only one device.  This is usually because manufacturers will change one or two pins and void compatibility with other devices.  I’ve even had phones made by the same company where the cable cannot be used.  The only instance I know of where this is not true is RJ Ethernet cables.  You can use the same cable on any computer with a jack.  Why can’t the other cables be less disappointing?

Speaking of incompatibility, tech companies have always disappointed me with their inability to just get along. Web browsers interpret HTML a little differently and a picture might not display correctly.  Word processors might change the formatting just enough so that your perfect document becomes an Ivory Soap one ‑ 99.9 percent pure.  Just try reading an amazon book on a competitors e‑book reader.  Next thing you know, if you have an iPhone, you’ll have a hard time getting texts from your friends with an Android phone.

I generally find that “Software as a Service” is usually disappointing. I guess I’m just to0 old and curmudgeonly to think that paying a monthly fee is a better deal than paying an up‑front total price.  I would much rather pay full price and know what I’m getting than pay a lower price forever and know that I’ll end up usually spending much more than the value.

It’s disappointing how so many things we purchase want to access my home network.  This is generally known as the Internet of Things (IOT).  Does your toothbrush really need to connect to the internet so that a company can collect data on how often you brush?  Will my life really be easier if the toilet lid automatically opens when I enter the bathroom.  I can see where some IOT tech would be useful.  For instance heat control, lighting, doorbells, etc. might save you some money on your utility bill.  The problem is that they might cost you more if someone uses them to break into your home network.

Speaking of hardware, isn’t it disappointing how tech companies announce the greatest innovations, but never seem to deliver them.  The folding phone is an excellent example.  It seems like we’ve been going to get one for the last five years or so.  I wonder what will be here first, a foldable phone or a roll‑up screen.  Oh well, at least the smart toilet is available.

I’ve had enough disappointment for this month.  Thanks for reading.

My New ISP – Originally Published September 2018

September 9, 2018 Posted by Tiny

A Pain in the Whatchamacallit
By Tiny Ruisch

I miss Suddenlink.  The Mrs. and I are getting settled in our new abode.  There will likely be many future whatchamacallit articles on tech in a new parish.  Of course, that’s assuming I have internet in the future.  I’m not saying it’s bad, but I’ve already made several calls to tech support.  I think that might be as many as I’ve had to make to all other tech companies I’ve dealt with in twenty years.

We moved on Saturday, July 14.  To prepare, the day before I drove to Livingston to set up electricity, water, garbage, etc.  Since I finished early, I decided to also start cable and internet.  I should have paid heed to the fact that it was Friday the 13th.

The apartment leasing office recommended that tenants use EATEL, a company that I had never heard of.  Like many other ISPs, their website advertised a fiber optic network with all of the bells and whistles.  I decided to drive to the business office (about 20 miles) and arrange for service to start.  Aside from an internet plan, I needed TV for the Mrs.  The package had to include the Game Show Network (also not for me).  I’m personally fine with streaming services, but I know that I could never teach the wife to use them.

Of course, I wanted to use my own modem and router but was told that I couldn’t because their network was fiber.  She told me they didn’t have a rental fee.  After being told that no, they couldn’t give me the equipment and let me do the setup, I made arrangements for a service call on Tuesday morning.  That was a tough weekend for me.  The cell phone service here is terrible and I started having internet withdrawal symptoms.  After asking the sales representative to write down my account number, I was on my way back to Livingston to sign a new lease.

July 17: Tuesday morning I was pretty impressed when the installer arrived only about thirty minutes late.  He installed a modem and a router.  The reason he could not use my router is the television box is Wi‑Fi and could only connect to their router.  (At least that was the reason I was given.)  I allowed the setup because I knew I could connect my router later and have my same secure network names and IDs that I had previously used.  I was pretty giddy.  After all, I could get online again.

After he left, I realized that there wasn’t a DVR.  I didn’t think this would be a problem because I was planning to call support anyway and set up an e‑mail account with an @eatel.net address.  I would only be using this account for the off site address for my web hosting service.

July 23: I called support and gave the lady my account number.  She couldn’t find the number in her system.  She searched for my name and couldn’t find it.  She finally found it by an address search.  It turns out that when I signed up for service, I wasn’t given the complete account number.  There should have been a -001 appended to it.  I asked for a recommendation of what DVR I should buy to use with there system.  Tech Support seemed amazed that the installer hadn’t installed a DVR since it came with the plan.  Another service call was scheduled for DVR installation.  She set up my EATEL e‑mail account and gave me a temporary password: Etl‑10981. I repeated it back to her at least four times, making sure of the hyphen and numbers.  I even used my old military training to repeat the letters: Echo – tango – lima.

July 24: We received our first EATEL bill in the mail.  The due date was for July 12.  We had moved into the apartment on July 14.  I told the wife that I was calling them the next day anyway.  The e‑mail password wasn’t working and I also could not sign in to “Light Wave TV”, the service that lets you stream TV stations that you subscribe to.

July 25: I got an e‑mail from EATEL explaining that the due date was incorrect and should have read August 12.  Once again, I called Customer Support.  This gal was really nice and told me that I could easily use other e‑mail services like Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, etc.  She said they might be easier for me to set up.  I calmly explained that I was pretty good at setting up e‑mail addresses as my other 92 of them were all working perfectly.  She transferred my call to Tech Support.  In less than five minutes the problem was solved.  It turned out that the password I so carefully verified was wrong.  It should have been Eatel instead of Etl.

July 26-AUG 1: I went to Yankee land for a reunion of my siblings.  Each day, I expected a call from the wife asking what to do about the internet.  Thankfully, no long distance trouble shooting was required.

After a month of several frustrations, I am finally mostly satisfied.  One day I was so upset that I went to Spectrum.  I was going to change even if I lost the money I had already given to EATEL.  I was surprised to find out that Spectrum couldn’t service my address.  I’m pretty certain that this is because the apartment owners have a deal with EATEL.  I am getting upload speeds of about 290-300 Mbps.  When I use my VPN service, speed drops to about 50 Mbps.  Interestingly, when I go online with a UK address, I get about 90 Mbps. Some day when I have time, I’m going to test all my VPN servers to find best speed.  There are 128 of them (25 in the USA).

One of the reasons for such a drastic speed loss is because I’ve connected my router to the system and am using it for access.  I feel much better knowing that I have control of my local networks.  The biggest difference with my setup here than in Lake Charles is that I am only running four networks instead of seven.  I still miss Suddenlink.

Thanks for reading.

Over-Technologied Redux – Originally Published June 2018

June 10, 2018 Posted by Tiny

A Pain in the Whatchamacallit
By Tiny Ruisch

Way back in November of 2010, I invented a new term.  I can’t believe that it hasn’t caught on.  Over‑technologied is a term that I made up to describe a situation where technology is used either unnecessarily, stupidly, inadequately or in some other silly manner.  I think that people who have the latest, greatest, newest technology and then don’t know how to use it are extremely over‑technologied.  I made up the word, so I guess I can make up the definition.

At the recent Google I/O Show, they announced their updated Google Assistant (with six new voices).  By now everyone has probably heard the call to the hairdresser and the restaurant making an appointment.  Although I don’t know how much was real and how much was made to sound nice for playback, I think this is another case of being over‑technologied.  Making an appointment is one thing.  Can you imagine what it will be like during election season when the politicians call to beg for money?  How about the many other spam call companies?  Personally, I plan to handle those problems by just not answering any calls from unknown telephone numbers.

How many people do you know with so many flash drives, storage cards, disk drives, etc. that cannot find a file because they can’t remember where they stored it?  Do you think they might be over‑technologied?  I’ve got a hint for them.  Cloud storage is cheap.

Every year manufacturers release their new cell phone with higher prices.  They justify having to gouge us by increasing the over‑technology that is installed.  Do we really need two cameras?  Is massive storage required when almost all data is stored in the cloud?  How many people really need sensors to check blood pressure, atmospheric pressure, light intensity, relative humidity, etc.?  How many people do you know that actually use a fingerprint sensor to unlock their phone?  My phone has the ability to fast charge with a special power adapter.  I’ve used it exactly two times.  The first was when I bought the phone and checked to see if it worked.  One other time, I forgot to charge the phone and used quick charge for about ten minutes.  Like almost everyone else, my phone is over‑technologied.

Our homes are definitely becoming over‑technologied.  Do we need refrigerators that keep track of how much milk is left in the jug?  How about those toilets that can warm the seat, automatically lower the lid, etc.?  I haven’t done a search, but I would be willing to bet that you can find one that automatically washes and blow dries when you finish your business.  My DVR is so over‑technologied that when the time changes, it doesn’t.

I’m probably going to get a lot of disagreement when I say that almost every Operating System has become over‑technologied.  Windows has been in such a hurry to add features that almost every time there is an update, there will be complaints about systems becoming inoperable.  If you survey a hundred different Android users, you will be lucky to find ten of them with the same OS.  Linux is about the same except that you would have a hard time finding a hundred users.  Even Apple suffers the same problems as the others.  The technology has advanced so much that they are not able to keep up with the security.  Additionally, you would be hard pressed to find anyone that uses all of the newest features in any OS.

Much of the over‑technology I wrote about eight years ago is still valid today.  Maybe I’ll have to address the subject again in 2026.

Thanks for reading.

More Things I Hate About Technology – Originally Published May 2018

May 13, 2018 Posted by Tiny

A Pain in the Whatchamacallit
By Tiny Ruisch

Way back in October 2009, I wrote an article about things I hate about technology.  I’m not going to regurgitate the whole thing, but I will say that I still hate: 1) having to use several different types of USB cords and connectors; 2) End User License Agreements; 3) SPAM and forwarded e‑mails; and 4) buying a water filter for my refrigerator.

In fact, buying a water filter is what caused this months rant.  I recently went to a popular home store to buy a new filter for my Whirlpool refrigerator.  This is the same one I owned back in 2009.  After that experience, I learned to keep a file in my Evernote account listing serial numbers, product codes, manufacturer information, and most importantly, replacement part numbers.  The only problem, none of the numbers on the filters in the store matched the one I needed.  It turned out that the filter manufacturer had changed the numbering system.  The employee told me I should have brought the old filter in to the store.  I asked why since I had the number.  They were polite, looked up the new number on their fancy computer and promptly sold me the wrong filter.  After another trip the next day, I got the correct filter.  I have noticed this problem on many other items in the past.  I wonder if manufacturers think that people will buy the wrong part and just lose their money?

Maybe hate is to strong of a word, but I’ve always disliked how companies almost always have to use a proprietary document format.  The perfect example is word processing.  Why must each program have a different extension?  Is it good for business to make consumers remember “.doc”. “.odf’, “.wps”, “.docx”, “.odt”, “.txt”, “.rtf”, “.abw”, “.abi” and hundreds of others?  Almost all word processing software has a save as feature to convert files to other formats.  They can’t be that much different.  Why isn’t there a standard where all programs save in a standard format?  After all, this idea seems to work pretty well for HTML internet files.

Have you ever heard how technology brings the world closer together?  Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat and many other social networks supposedly are the main reason.  Personally, I dislike how technology does the opposite.  Have you ever been in a conversation and the other person is busy fiddling with an electronic device?  Did you ever notice that many younger people don’t have simple skills like making change, telling time, following a map, etc.  These and many more are because they rely on technology too much.  I would suggest that we are moving farther apart.

I guess that I’ve done enough complaining for this month.

Thanks for reading.

I Never Click a Facebook Link

December 9, 2017 Posted by Tiny

A Facebook Rant

I’m not the typical Facebook user.  I seldom sign on more than once a day, usually for less than twenty minutes.  I just check the news feed to see what kind of pickles my nieces are eating.  My friends list is about fifty people.  After each session, I log out and delete cookies.  This is to prevent Facebook from tracking me everywhere on the internet.

I don’t make make many posts.  Besides trying not to miss wishing birthday greetings and occasional (usually snide) comments, most of my posts are links to Snopes and other sites refuting many of the untruths posted on Facebook.  Of course, this educational policy of mine doesn’t stop too many people from continuing to share unsafe sites.

I’m not going to write a rant about how Facebook encourages people to share bogus fake prize sites, giveaway scams, fake videos, like farming scams, the ever present can I get 1000 shares or the many other scams.  If you do a search, you can find thousands of articles that other people have written and posted on the internet.

My Facebook policy is simple.  I don’t EVER click any links on Facebook.  If I see something that I’m curious about, I open another browser and do a separate search for it.  I will admit that I often chuckle when somebody posts that something wrong is with their computer, tablet, phone, etc.  It is obvious to me that they don’t follow my advice: DON’T EVER CLICK ON A FACEBOOK LINK.

I’m not even going to talk about how Facebook never posts ads that are false (assuming the Russian ads about our President were true).  Instead I’m going to upload a screenshot I recently made.  I’ve blacked out friends names in my feed.

You can see in my task bar calendar that this happened on December 2, 2017 at 6:33 am.  Do you notice the two sponsored ads in the upper right that are both telling me that Bill Cosby is dead?  The ads are from two different companies.  I checked out both sites.  They are both Spanish language.  One appears to be selling uniforms and the other interior decorations.  I suspect that the two ads urging me to learn more about Bill Cosby’s death might not be real.

Thank you Facebook for keeping me safe.

Screen Shot – Click to Enlarge

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.