Surprising things

ByBill Scobie August 30, 2013April 6, 2020

Google books NGram Viewer. One of the power houses of book digitizing, Google, has made a fun and instructive tool available. NGram does nothing more than show you how a particular word or phrase has changed in usage popularity over time. Simple sounding but it can lead to a party game of trying to find four words that have similar rising graphs, for example. It is at books.google.com/ngrams/

Some Windows 8 programs come in both app and desktop versions, Skype being a good example. In Windows 8 desktop programs are those with file menus and that familiar red X to quit. So, for the desktop version of Skype, you need to find it lower down on Skype’s downloads page. Or, get used to the Windows 8 app version.

Notifications in Windows 8 and Mountain Lion can be adapted to your needs. Both Windows 8 and in Mountain Lion on the Mac have a centralized notification system that you should learn how to manage. For example, to change how Mail alerts you on the Mac, go into System Preferences, then Notifications, scroll down the left hand list of items to find Mail and change its alert style to none. In Windows 8, only for apps but not desktop programs (which still use the desktop system tray to display alerts), you need to get into PC settings by swiping from the right, click or tap on Settings, then Change PC settings, and finally get into Notifications. Now you can go down the list and turn off or back on notifications for particular Windows 8 apps.

Whose comments are you going to trust? It may not be a surprise but recent research is showing that positive comments made at a review site influence subsequent comments to be more positive. However, negative comments don’t show a similar effect to make following comments to be more negative. This is apart from any gamming of the comment system that may be going on.

Finally, a funny bug in the “internet of things.” Japanese toilets from Satis can be controlled from an Android phone using Bluetooth and, oops, they used the same hard coded Bluetooth PIN in all their toilets, making it very easy for any Android phone with their app to control any of their “smart” toilets within phone range.

If you have a Google account, and you haven’t tried some of the new map-making features, sign in and check them out at maps.google.com.

And, now I have a question for you, what computer problem or question have you been hoping I would answer? Let me know at bill@scobie.net

Wi-Fi Sharing

ByBill Scobie January 2, 2023April 5, 2023

Do friends and guests ask for your Wi-Fi network and password first thing when they visit? You can make it easy for them to sign on by printing a QR code for them to scan. Two options for this are qr-code-generator.com/solutions/wifi-qr-code or qrstuff.com. I always love exploring, and now I can go to the edge…

Advice | Software

In the Heat

ByBill Scobie June 23, 2014

If you have a Google account, Google is using your profile information to target ads to others in your groups of friends and such. It may not sound too bad to learn that your friends find that you “liked” or +1’d that new restaurant down the road when they are searching for hot new places…

Advice | Privacy | Software

Starting Your Year Securely

ByBill Scobie January 6, 2022April 6, 2023

If you’re hearing security tips this time of year, it’s good to realize what you do and don’t have to do. You don’t have to change your passwords frequently, as it often leads to similar passwords. You are allowed to write down your passwords; just don’t put them near or on your computer. Two-factor authentication…

Advice | Privacy

Password advice, Lynda training, router setup pointers

ByBill Scobie October 1, 2016December 1, 2016

Some new rules for passwords come from the US National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST.) As you make new passwords or change existing ones, don’t just go for the minimum you feel is forced on you, go with such improvements as: use more than eight characters in the password as more is harder to…

Advice | Hardware | Networking

iPhone Tips, Wi-Fi Help, and Security Updates

ByBill Scobie September 5, 2022April 5, 2023

iPhone and iPad performance on the web can be improved by clearing your device’s web browser cache. The onlywarning is that clearing the cache will log you out of sites and clear website per- sonalizations. Each browser has its own technique but you can Google something like “iOS chrome clear cache” to get the procedure….

Advice | Privacy

Changes

ByBill Scobie October 13, 2013

Yahoo Mail, the basis for AT&T’s webmail, has changed its look and increased its storage limits. Although it is not truly unlimited, for most people, the inbox is open to keep all your email. This lets smartphone users, who use IMAP to read their ATT email, not worry any more about filling up their inbox….

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