Tinys World of Technology BS

Posts Tagged: ‘Social Networking’

Zoom Workshops (2021-03)

July 24, 2022 Posted by Tiny

Thoughts From a Clicker
By Tiny Ruisch

Like most people, I can’t say a lot of good things about 2020. It was a tough year. Because many of us are getting a little older, we were stuck at home for much of the time. There were some benefits. People got a chance to catch up on reading or binge watching favorite television shows. It was also nice to not have to buy a lot of gasoline for your car.

There is one one other benefit of being stuck at home. I am surprised that more of our club members haven’t taken advantage of it. I’m talking about the many Zoom workshops that are offered on‑line.

Every month our club offers between 20 and 30 of them. The subjects are varied and informative. If you have something in particular you’d like to talk about, the facilitators are almost always amendable to doing so. Unfortunately, the attendance is usually pretty low.

I usually sign up for all the workshops that I can. I’ve found that repeating them often discloses a little tidbit of information that I either didn’t know or forgot about. The discussions among the attendees are also helpful.

Many times I’ve learned about programs, websites, computing techniques that I didn’t know about. I usually keep a notes program open to write myself reminders to check new things.

If that isn’t enough content, the Association of Personal Computer User Groups (APCUG) provides even more workshops. Some examples of recent topics are Drones, Printer Buying Tips, Windows Tips, Using CCleaner, Modems, Routers, and Wi-Fi. These workshops and many more cost the same as our club offerings. They are FREE for all paid club members. Pat forwards the links to register.

So why aren’t members utilizing these free services? I don’t know the answer, but I can speculate and offer some responses.
• Zoom is too hard to use – more than 300 million daily Zoom users might disagree. The program is available for nearly every device and operating system. There are thousands of tutorials to help you.
• I don’t have a web camera – you don’t need one. At most of the meetings I’ve attended, at least half the cameras are usually off.
• I don’t want to sign up for a Zoom account – you only need an account if you’re going to host a meeting. To attend a workshop, all you need is the logon information for the meeting.
• My computer/internet isn’t fast enough – I’m not going to list them all but I’ll just say that system requirements are pretty minimal. They still support Windows 7.

What are you waiting for? Why not make the best of being stuck at home for the pandemic? Sign up now for a workshop.

Keep on clicking and thanks for reading.

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Tags: Miscellaneous, Services, Social Networking
Categories: Clicker

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.

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Tags: Ranting, Security, Social Networking
Categories: Clicker

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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Tags: Android, Linux, Review, Social Networking, Software, Windows
Categories: Whatchamacallit

I Want To Believe – Originally Published March 2020

March 4, 2020 Posted by Tiny

A Pain in the Whatchamacallit
By Tiny Ruisch

I’ve been re‑watching the X‑Files, which has always been one of my favorite television programs. I often think of this show whenever I read another article about people falling for a phishing scam. Almost every day, there are more companies and people that get compromised. I often wonder how many don’t ever get reported.

Why does the X‑Files remind me of scams? Fox Mulder had a poster in his office that said, “I Want To Believe”. I think that is why phishing scams work so well. People want to believe that there is really a Nigerian prince that wants to give them money.

These con games have been around long before there was an internet. Older people will remember getting chain letters. Just send five dollars to the top name(s) on the list and add people you don’t want to keep as friends to the bottom. Send the letter on to them and soon your mail box will be packed with envelopes containing money. I wonder how many readers won the Irish Sweepstakes without even buying a lottery ticket? No, you didn’t really win an all expenses paid vacation that requires a small processing fee.

When governments, companies, school districts, etc. get ransomware installed, it is often because an employee clicked on a link in an e‑mail. They wanted to believe that their boss wanted them to do something, that their schedule had been updated or that there is another important event happening.

I’m knocking on the wood of my computer desk as I tell you that I have never had a virus or malware on any of my many computers. This is despite the fact that I sometimes visit some “shady” web sites. On those rare occasions, you can bet that I’ve opened my browser in a sandbox.

So how do I avoid all the evils? I just follow a few simple rules.

• I almost never click on a link received in an e‑mail. This includes messages that I’m fairly sure are safe. Even my bank doesn’t like me that much.
• When I visit those “risky” web sites I mentioned earlier, I definitely don’t click any links. If anything interests me, I usually open a new tab and do a search.
• I only download programs from the creators website. The same goes for software updates. Only from the program and not a popup on my computer.
• Whenever I install new programs or updates, I carefully check every screen before clicking next. That includes EULAs.
• I never download or install a browser extension, a program or a plug‑in that I didn’t look for. If a website tells me I need to do something special, I do something special. I leave the site.
• I disable auto‑run on all my drives.
• I use a password manager.
• I never, ever click links on social media sites (especially Facebook).

Stay safe on the internet. Use common sense. Try not to believe. Trust no one.
That’s all for this month. Thanks for reading.

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Tags: Internet, Security, Security & Safety, Social Networking
Categories: Whatchamacallit

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.