Communications in the 21st …

The end of the last century was a mere 18 years ago, but much has changed in this relatively short period of time. Back at the turn of the last century the main computing device was a desktop computer, most adults in the U.S. (and I am sure Canada as well) had landline telephones, and if we owned a mobile phone it was only used when away from home, and used sparingly. Since then more people own laptop computers than desktop computers, just about everybody has a mobile phone, and tablet devices, which did not even exist in the year 2000, augment and at times replace computers in the home. This season OnMouseClick will visit how these changes are making an impact on our lives, and how we can enrich our experiences using these devices.

When it comes to mobile phones, a 2017 report by the U.S. Center for Disease Control National Health Information Survey stated that in 2003 less than 3% of households relied on wireless service only. By the time this survey was taken again in 2017, the percentage of wireless service only households jumped to 53.3%. What changed in the fourteen years between 2003 and 2017? One difference is our telephone numbers. For most of the last century, every time you moved you had to get a new telephone number. With the advent of mobile phones, telephone numbers can be easily ported from one service to another. Our son and daughter-in-law got their mobile phone numbers while living in Arizona. They moved to Hawaii, and then Virginia, but their telephone numbers still feature an Arizona area code. For those of us with more than one home, life is made much simpler with one phone number that follows us wherever we go.

The another difference is that mobile phones have gotten smarter — in fact we refer to them as “smart phones.” We all know that mobile phones are much more than telephones. The devices are cameras, address books, personal calendars, notebooks, gaming devices and GPS maps. They stream video content and are our portals to the internet and social media. I, for one, would be lost without my iPhone, but as much as these devices have added to our lives, they are also major distractions.

Our mobile phones are always with us, and while we once had need of a telephone answering system, we can now answer telephone calls anywhere. While we may appreciate the convenience of having our personal phone available, it means everyone else has their phones available too. At times we are surrounded by one sided conversations in public places. Not only telephone calls but other aspects of cell phones  are invading our space. Look around any restaurant and you see diners looking down at their phones instead of conversing with their table mates — and this includes senior citizens as well as younger people. Go to any playground and watch parents busy on their phones while ignoring their children. Texting, checking social media, playing games or talking on the phone seem to be taking the place of face to face, interpersonal interaction.

Eddie and I recently spent a few days at Disney World, and I was surprised to see so many people walking around looking down at their phones. I realized that some of them were using the My Disney Experience app. It is an excellent app that keeps track of dining reservations, fast pass tickets (passes that circumvent long lines at rides), and shows real-time maps of the park, but too many people seemed to be fixated on their phones instead of enjoying the sights and sounds around them.

My first suggestion of the season is for all of us to make an effort to limit our use of mobile phones in public spaces. Wait to make phone call when there are no other people around — and if you must take a call when out in public, keep it short. When dining out ask your dinner companions to keep their phones in their pockets and purses, or place them face down on the table. Use apps when they are needed, but don’t let the phone replace experiencing the real world all around us.

We are happy to be home again at TR and hope all had an enjoyable summer with family and friends — I look forward to sharing my computer related insights with the many wonderful people here. 

How exactly should you be making backups?

If anyone watched the Showtime television series Homeland on Sunday, February 20,  you would have seen the main character, Carrie Mathison, facing a dilemma when she was locked out of her computer and unable to access vital information. Unlocking the computer was a crucial plot line, but as I watched I couldn’t help but think her problem might have been easily solved, if the data on her hard drive had been backed up to an external drive or the “cloud.”

A brief note about the cloud computing, which I have written about in previous columns: The word “cloud” in cloud computing comes from fluffy cloud images used by computer scientist to symbolize the internet in diagrams. All of our devices connect to the internet, and through the internet they can connect to remote computers with the capacity to store our data and send it back to us as needed. We call this “storing information in the cloud.” 

In order to store your computer files in the cloud, you must subscribe to one of the many cloud backup services available, all of which work with both Windows and Mac operating systems. Some of the most popular services are Backblaze, Carbonite, Amazon Drive, iDrive, Google Drive, the web addresses of which are listed at the end of today’s column. All of these services offer several pricing plans, based on the amount of cloud storage included and the number of devices you can use with one account. Some services offer a limited amount of storage for free — Google Drive users receive 15 GB of free storage, the most of any service. 

As Amazon Prime subscribers, Eddie and I are currently using Amazon Drive to backup our computers (we both use Apple’s iCloud for our mobile devices). Amazon offers unlimited photo storage to Prime subscribers and 5 GB for files and videos. An additional 100 GB of storage costs $11.99 a year and 1 TB (terabyte) costs $59.99 a year.

Once you subscribe to a service the backup process begins by downloading an application to your computer, and then selecting the folders you want to back up. Most services feature automatic, hands-free backups which work either on a fixed schedule — for example at the same time everyday or every week – or continuously as soon as changes are made to the selected folders. You can also choose to manually back up your files, but for this method you need to be vigilant in remembering to back up.

Once files are uploaded they are encrypted for security, and only you can access the online data with a password. First time backups usually take a long time, but subsequent backups are relatively fast, as only files that have changed will be uploaded. If your internal computer hard drive fails, or you buy a new computer, it is an easy process to retrieve your data from the cloud.

In addition to cloud backups, it is good practice to backup your data to a removable drive. Once very pricey, portable hard drives have become very affordable, with 2 TB drives selling for under $100. Most such drives come with backup software that works much like the cloud backup solutions and all Apple computers come with a built-in backup application, Time Machine, which creates hourly backups to an external drive. 

Specialized software is also available for both Windows and Mac computers to “clone” your internal computer drive and make an exact, bootable copy for use in an emergency. If your hard drive fails, a bootable clone can be connected to the computer and bring it back to life. For reviews of cloning software visit windowsreport.com/clone-windows-10 for Windows computers and thesweetsetup.com/apps/best-app-for-bootable-backups Mac OS. 

Make backing up your computer data a priority. When disaster strikes you’ll be glad you did.

Backblaze - www.backblaze.com

Carbonite - www.carbonite.com

Amazon Drive - amazon.com/clouddrive

iDrive - www.idrive.com

Google Drive - www.google.com/drive/

PC Magazine 2018 review of Cloud Backup Services - www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2288745,00.asp

Backup Reminders …

Last week I wrote “… technology is great when it works, but so frustrating when it doesn’t. For insurance, always back-up your computer and assorted devices ….” Over the years that I have been writing OnMouseClick, several have included advice on how to back up computer data. Since my husband and I are enjoying this week at Disney World with family, I thought it timely to revisit some of those past columns.

We don’t always think about our smartphones and tablets as computers, but that is what they are. In a 2014 column I wrote about backing up iOS and Android devices.  

• Backing up data — The most important component of any computer its stored data, and a smart phone (or tablet) is nothing more than a small sized computer. If your phone stops working for any reason, or is lost, a backup ensures that your data is safe and can be transferred to a replaced or repaired device. 
• iPhones can be backed by connecting to a computer or remotely to Apple’s iCloud service. To back up on your computer, plug the phone into the computer USB port with the iPhone cable and open iTunes, the free Apple software designed to store and play music as well as interface with iOS devices. Initially, when iTunes detects an iOS device a backup is started automatically. If you prefer, you can change the setting to manual, which will allow you to start backups with the touch of a button. You can also choose to back up your device to iCloud by changing the backup settings in iTunes. 
• Android smart phones are a bit more complicated to back up, as they do not come with a builtin backup procedure. There are several methods that can be used backup the data, and which method you choose will vary depending on the phone manufacturer. If your phone did not come with specific directions for making backups, I suggest a Google search for “Backing up Android Phones.” 

A year earlier I outlined a backup plan for desktop and laptop computers which is still relevant today:

I am a strong proponent of making frequent backups, and I practice what I preach, but even when you backup religiously, things can go wrong. If you have a large amount image files, as I do, one backup location is not enough. I have images scattered across many different drives, and each of those drive needs to be backed up. What follows are some practices you might want to consider to avoid having a similar disaster.

1. Perform backups of your computer hard drive on a regular basis — daily, or at least weekly, depending on how often you make changes to important files.
2. If you keep your financial records on your computer, using Quicken or a similar financial record keeping program, consider backing up just those files to a USB flash drive every time you make changes.
3. One backup copy of your hard drive, or important files is never enough. If you back up your internal drive to an external drive, consider subscribing to a cloud (online) backup service as well.
4. Keep backups of important information in more than location (see number 3, above). If you keep all your backups in your house, and there is a disaster of some kind, you lose everything. 

I hear my granddaughters calling, which brings this week’s column to an end. Next week I will cover updated specifics on how to go about making essential backups of all your data. 

It’s not always me … or you.

A few things happened recently that reminded me how electronic devices can be both extremely sensitive and extremely annoying. As readers of this column know, we recently “cut the cable TV cord”, relying on internet streaming service for our television viewing. On Super Bowl Sunday we had just settled down to watch the game, when there was a momentary power outage. After about a minute, the lights came back on but not the television. Our modem showed power, but DSL and internet lights were out. My immediate thought was that the Centurylink, the service provider, experienced an outage. My husband suggested something more obvious, that the power spike had damaged our modem. I disagreed, insisting that the router could not be the problem since it was powered on. Sure that the problem was with the provider, I contacted Centurylink customer service and spent a very frustrating twenty minutes with an agent who, after asking innumerable questions for security purposes, finally told me there were no reported outages in our area.

Whenever something goes wrong with one of our electronic devices, I try to troubleshoot the cause. The problem with my usual way of thinking is that I rarely follow the sage, philosophical advice of Occam’s razor – the simplest solution is most often the best one. In this case, my husband was right, the problem was with the modem. 

We had replaced our Centurylink modem just after Christmas, because the internet was very slow, even for a DSL connection. The new Netgear modem provided a much faster connection — until Super Bowl Sunday. After the frustrating phone call to Centurylink, I heeded my husband’s suggestion and disconnected the Netgear modem and replaced it with our original modem. Sure enough, we were back online and able watched the rest of the game. Before giving up on our Netgear modem, I tried a hard reset, which returns a device to its original factory settings, and surprisingly that resolved the issue. The modem was not broken, but the power outage must have cause something inside the modem to disconnect.

The answer to another recent problem proved an easier fix. The email software on my computer stopped receiving new mail, even though I could receive email on my iPad. I tried reopening the mail program, and when that didn’t work, I restarted the computer, and once again I was receiving email. I don’t know what  caused the problem, but a restart was the fix.

The third problem we encountered was the most unsettling. My husband’s PC is protected from computer viruses and malware by BitDefender, a program that has been very effective. The other morning the program quit and a message flashed on his screen saying that BitDefender Security Services encountered a critical error. After restarting the computer the message reappeared, and we were concerned about leaving sensitive data unprotected. We visited the BitDefender website, which was not working correctly. I clicked on the HELP link, but it did not go anywhere, Chat was “unavailable,” and the listed phone numbers went unanswered. BitDefender itself appeared to be experiencing a major problem, and we were unsure what to do. The next morning, while my husband worked on activating Microsoft’s built-in firewall and virus protection, I decided to try contacting BitDefender one more time. Sure enough the website displayed a message that an update to the program had gone wrong, affecting users all over the world — followed by directions on how to fix the problem. A few minutes later my husbands computer was once again protected.

The moral of this tale is when a problem exists, try the simplest solutions first. If a piece of software stops working, close it and then open it again. If that doesn’t work, try restarting the device or computer, and as a last resort reset the device to factory settings. It doesn’t matter if you are working on a desktop computer, a laptop, a tablet or a smartphone, technology is great when it works, but so frustrating when it doesn’t. For insurance, you always back-up your computer and assorted devices, a topic I will revisit in next week’s column. 

Constant Connections …

I begin today’s column with some cautionary thoughts on how we use our smartphones. Do you ever recognize an actor on a television show and say, “She is so familiar, what did we see her in?” When that happens at our house, I grab my iPhone, open the IMDb app to look up the show or movie and easily find the answer. I often have the same thoughts when in a movie theater, however I never follow through on that urge. In many ways smartphones have made our lives richer, but they can be both a blessing and a curse, and we should be mindful of how using them affects those around us. 

We recently attended a concert at the Ruth Eckert Concert Hall in Clearwater. At the start of the concert, there were the usual announcements about not taking photographs and videos during the performance, but some members of the audience were not to be deterred. They held their phones up high to get the best view of the stage, marring the view of everyone sitting behind them. What surprised me even more was that none of the ushers appeared to take notice.  

Before the concert began, I noticed numerous people sitting with their heads down looking at their phones and ignoring everyone around them. When we go out to eat, I am amazed at how many diners pay more attention to their phones than to each other — and it’s not just young people who seem to prefer phones to the company of their companions. We have observed many couples our age engrossed in their phones while sitting across from each other at a restaurant, and I often wonder what can be so important that it cannot wait until after dinner? 

At the core of every smartphone is a telephone, and people tend to make calls just about everywhere. I do not enjoy standing on line at the grocery store listening to the loud, one-sided conversation of the person behind me, nor I suspect does the grocery clerk like listening to personal conversations while ringing up orders. My take away from these thoughts is that we all need to pay attention to how and when we use our smartphones, and to make certain we take the time to appreciate and interact with the real life people around us.

While I don’t appreciate being a party to other people’s personal telephone conversations,  I am not opposed to obtaining “crowd sourced” information on my smartphone. “Crowd sourcing” is loosely defined as a form of online activity in which a group of unconnected individuals undertake a task, the most common of which is posting reviews of businesses online. I have found my iPhone invaluable when we are away from home and I turn to the cloud sourced apps to help us find a place to eat.

My go-to “find everything” app is YELP. Crowd sourced Yelp reviews of restaurants tell me what others think of the food and service, often with recommendation on the best items to order. After reading the reviews on Yelp, I often choose to check one or more other apps, such as  TripAdvisior (featuring reviews of restaurants, hotels and airlines) and OpenTable (restaurant reviews only) to confirm my results. I figure that if there are good reviews on more than one app, it is likely to be a good place to eat, and we have enjoyed some very good meals as a result of these searches.

It is worth noting that the premise behind Yelp and similar apps is to post unbiased reviews. In the recent past Yelp was criticized for too many biased reviews posted by friends, relatives and employees of businesses, or even paid reviewers. They have since revamped their policy and cracked down on businesses suspected of unethical behavior. As the popularity of crowd-sourced reviews increased, many business’s have  learned not to do anything that would limit their prospective customer base. 

CES, part 2

At last year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) many exhibiters featured some type of voice interaction with their products, primarily by interfacing with Amazon’s voice assistant, Alexa.This year nearly every exhibitor infused their technology with voice assistants, both Alexa and the new Google Assistant, as well as AI, or artificial intelligence. If you could sum up CES 2018 in one word it would be “smart.” The show featured “smart” cars, “smart” appliances, “smart” clothing, and even “smart” toilets.

Last year at CES, LG introduced the Door-in-Door refrigerator, a line of “smart” refrigerators with Alexa voice integration. In January at CES 2018 LG debuted the InstaView ThinQ Smart Refrigerator, which includes a transparent LCD touch-screen that gives users the ability to look up recipes, keep track of food expiration dates, play music on the hidden Bluetooth speakers, and even show off family photos. Knock twice on the screen and it transforms into a transparent window for peeking inside the refrigerator without opening the door. Voice integration has been enhanced, transforming Alexa into a cook’s assistant. According to LG “…the intelligent refrigerator recommends delicious recipes based on what is on hand …,” and Alexa’s voice guides you through the steps of chosen recipes. Pricing and availability have not been announced.

Kohler, the maker of kitchen and bathroom fixtures, introduced Kohler Konnect, a technology that interfaces your shower, bathtub, toilet and mirror through a smart phone app and voice commands. You can tell the mirror to set the lighting level for applying makeup, set the shower to the temperature you prefer after a workout, command the toilet seat to heat up before you sit down and flush with the wave of a hand. The  fixtures are not-yet ready for the market, and pricing has not been announced.  

Several devices introduced at CES were designed to enhance our night’s sleep. The Philips company showcased the Philips Headband, a wearable mask designed to emit a tone promised to improve slow wave sleep. The Dreamlight Sleep Mask by Indiegogo covers eyes and ears, dims light to match breathing, plays ambient sounds to block out noise and promised to help alleviate jet lag. Somnox is a robot pillow for your chest, equipped with an accelerometer, audio and carbon dioxide sensors. The pillow aims to relax you while you are falling asleep by expanding and contracting as if it were breathing.The Philips Headband sells for $299, pricing for the Dreamlight was not available, and when the Somnox becomes available, it will sell for €589, or approximately $730.

Another device designed for the home, and winner of an CES Innovation award, was Sensio Air from WLab, Ltd. Sensio Air is an app for iOS and Android devices designed to monitor air quality, offer advice on reducing exposure to allergens and send alerts when the air quality degrades in the surrounding area. The free app currently reports the readings of air monitors in 200 cities around the world, but unfortunately the closest city to Travelers Rest is Miami. The company is also taking pre-orders on Sensio Home, an air monitor for the home. The football shaped device promises to constantly monitor the air in your home and warn you of problems that can affect your health. The promotional information for the device does not make any mention of purifying the air and eliminating the problems, which make the $999 price tag difficult to understand.

At least two products introduced at CES are designed specifically for the care of the elderly. Hip’Air from Helitie is a wearable airbag designed to activate and protect us from hip fractures in case of a fall. Developed in French nursing homes, the device is a fanny pack equipped with sensors and two lateral airbags. If the sensors detect a fall, the airbags deploy and hopefully prevent a serious injury. Not yet on the market, it will first sell in Europe for €650 or approximately $810. A date for North American availability has not been announced.

Another French company, E-vone, introduced Smart Shoes with a built-in medical alert feature. The shoes, which come in a variety of sneaker, hiking boot and work boot styles, are equipped with a GPS tracker and sensors in the soles to detect falling and abnormal movement. When a sensor is triggered, an alert message is automatically sent to the wear’s emergency contacts and/or emergency services. No information yet on pricing or when these shoes will be available for purchase.

If CES is truly a harbinger of our future, it won’t be long before we will be emulating the crew of Star Trek’s Enterprise “Computer on” to just about every object in our surroundings. However, sadly the possibility of “beam me up Scotty” is still just a movie prop. 

Computer on …

The annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) has closed up shop for another year, but some of the technologies and gadgets introduced in Las Vegas earlier this month will someday become part of our everyday life. I experienced CES vicariously from TR, and this week and next I will share some of the products introduced at the show. One surprise feature of the show was the number of cool things aimed not at millennials, but baby boomers. Our age demographic is a force to be reckoned with, and notice has been taken by technology companies.

It is alway fun to take a look at products that are considered “concept ideas.” These are products that are not yet ready for the marketplace, but can only be described by one word — cool! Two of these cool products are television sets from LG and Samsung. LG’s 65” TV rolls up into a box and can be raised to different heights to display various aspect ratios. A movie that would typically have black bars on the top and bottom of the picture on a traditional TV can be set to a size that will display only the picture on the roll up TV. 

Samsung’s television of the future is called The Wall, a 146” diagonal screen that hangs on the wall like a picture. While the screen is large, the size and shape of the actual TV picture can be customized to display a wall sized picture, or a smaller picture with the surrounding area set to blend into the wall it is mounted on. No dates were given when either of these two TVs will be available to  purchase.

Another product in the “Cool” category is the FoldiMate. Promised for late 2019 release, it is a robot with the sole purpose of folding your clothes. Feed clothes into the front of the FoldiMate and in minutes they come out folded to your specifications. While this may be cool, I cannot imagine why anyone would buy it for their home, but the company is taking pre-orders on their webpage at foldimate.com, which also features a video of the robot in action.

Robots were everywhere at CES this year, and many of the robots are designed to react to human emotions. Robots are being designed to read and react to a person’s emotional state. The Japanese company SoftBank introduced Pepper, a human shaped  robot that was designed as a companion with the ability to receive emotions and adjust its behavior accordingly. According to cnet.com, it is “capable of interpreting a smile, a frown, your tone of voice . . . and non-verbal language.” Pepper is already being deployed in SoftBank Mobile stores in Japan, and is beginning to be marketed for Japanese homes. One envisioned future use for Pepper is a companion to the elderly in healthcare facilities.

Blue Frog Robotics introduced Buddy, a companion robot designed to be part of the family. It can play with and teach children, offer assistance in the kitchen by suggesting recipes and answering the phone, entertaining the family with music and videos, and keeping track of the family calendar and to-do-list. Buddy, as a one-robot alarm system, can patrol the home when the family is away, can issue an alert when something is amiss and has a temperature sensors to monitor for fires and flooding. It can also function in elder care by reminding when to take medications, issue an alert for falls, and provide companionship. Buddy is expected to be available soon and price should start at around $1500 for the base model.

The surprise winner of the Best of CES 2018 Award was My Special Alflac Duck, a cuddly robot designed by InSproutel in collaboration with the Aflac Cancer Center. The robot  was created to provide comfort to children diagnosed with cancer. The robot duck can mirror the child’s care routines, such as chemotherapy, feeding and bathing. The duck comes with smiley and frown face circular tokens that a child holds to the duck’s chest to express feelings, and it can dance and quack for entertainment. Aflac’s objective was to give a My Special Alflac Duck to every newly diagnosed childhood cancer patient in the US by next winter, at no cost to the families.

In next week’s OnMouseClick I will tell you about some of the products from CES that will be ready for the marketplace in the very near future.

What do you have in your pocket?

As I write this column the annual Consumer Electronics Show, or CES, is taking place in Las Vegas. It is the world’s largest electronics trade show where companies gather to launch products ready for the market place and introduce ideas still on the drawing board. Many of the technological marvels making their debut at the 2018 show will one day become as ubiquitous as our mobile phones, others will quickly fade into oblivion and some will never see the light of day. 

All of us at Travelers Rest are “of a certain age,” and it is mind boggling to think of all the technological advances that have been achieved since the mid-twentieth century. Forty years ago computers filled entire rooms, telephones had dials and math students were still learning to use slide rules. 

Do you remember when you purchased your first handheld calculator? My father was the first in our family to buy a Texas Instrument Calculator to use on his job in the early 1970s. I don’t remember the cost, but I know it was expensive. A few years later calculators became more affordable and I purchased one for myself. It was an amazing device. It fit in my pocket or pocketbook and I took it with me wherever I went.

Fast forward almost fifty years and I still have a handheld device in my pocket, one that is ostensibly a telephone, but it does so much more. These mobile devices are tiny marvels and they have the computational power of a room full of mid-twentieth century computers. With them we can make telephone calls, snap photographs, calculate numbers, keep our calendars and address books and so much more. Used as an interface, our “phones” can monitor our fitness when connected to a wearable fitness monitor, function as a remote control for TVs, turn on and off the lights in our houses, and show live-feed video when someone rings the bell at your front door, even when you are away from home.

Over the next few weeks I will cover some of the technological innovations being introduced this week in Las Vegas, as well as introduce you to ways you can use your smart phones to interface with other devices. Meanwhile, I thought I would update TR Times readers on the ongoing “experiment” of cutting the cable cord at our house. 

As I wrote back in November we are subscribing to Hulu Live TV instead of cable TV, and as such we have the same service in Florida as we have in New York. When we arrived at TR in early November, we had only been using the Live TV feature of Hulu for a few weeks. In New York, where we are connected to the internet with a cable company, our downlink speed are up to 50 Mbps (megabits per second). In comparison, at TR we are limited to our Centurylink DSL, with a maximum downlink speed of 10 Mbps. 

That being said, the plus to our internet based TV is that we have the same service in New York and Florida, and we can even watch TV on our mobile devices when we are on the road. Over 50 broadcast and cable networks are available to watch live, and while CBS, NBC, ABC, and FOX are not available live in all geographic areas, they are available on demand. The service also includes a DVR function to record shows for later viewing, although playback includes commercials.

The drawbacks include the occasional freezing of the picture while watching live TV, which occurs with some frequency here at TR when the downlink speed fluctuates. However, that does not occur up north with our higher internet speed. We don’t have that problem when watching shows that are streamed on Hulu, Netflix or Amazon Prime, only with the live TV, which we watch mainly for news and financial broadcasts.

The other negateve is the DVR functions. It does not include user programmable functions for setting recording times. We record a nightly broadcast on CNBC which often runs a minute or two past the scheduled end time of 6:00 p.m., and invariably we miss those last few minutes on Hulu, as there is no way to set the time for a recording to end. In NY we always set the end of the recording at least a few minutes longer for program overlap and news flashes.  You also cannot fast forward through the commercial on recorded programs, although that feature is available with Hulu’s enhance DVR service for an additional cost.

All in all, switching from cable in New York to Hulu Live TV was a good move. We have more access to programs and networks during our months in Florida, and we are saving a considerable amount of money.

What was that password?

If you read last weeks column, I hope you have begun to change your online passwords and making them more secure. But how are you going to remember all these new passwords? Even following last week’s recommendation, using mnemonics can quickly  become overwhelming. I added up all the passwords that are important to my husband and me, including ones used sporadically and some created for one-time use, and I counted over 200 passwords. Not too many years ago I kept an alphabetized notebook of all our passwords and it was a big relief when I found an alternative – a password manager. But what is a password manager and how does it work? 

Password managers store and retrieve login information for all your online accounts. They utilize a downloaded app on your computer and mobile devices as well as plugin extension browsers. You need only enter a password before using the password manager, and that is the only password you have to remember. All the others will be stored securely in the password manager. Each password manager has its own method for entering credentials, and most of them allow for importing credentials from other sources, such as other password managers and spreadsheet files. 

Once installed, the browser plug-in automatically fills in the username and password associated with the websites you visit. The more sophisticated data managers require a yearly subscription fee, almost all offer a free trial, and some offer a free version with limited features. A key feature to look for in a password manager is the ability to sync passwords across all your devices, regardless of the operating system. Other advanced features include the ability to enter passwords for applications, not just websites, and the inclusion of a password generator that can create long and complicated passwords. 

The password manager we have been using for the past several years is Keeper, from Keeper Security, Inc. (keepersecurity.com). Included is unlimited password storage, syncing across all our devices, secure cloud backup, fingerprint login for newer devices and even password generation. We use the Keeper app on all our devices, making it easy to make additions and updates. Updates made to one device are automatically sync to all the other devices in a matter of seconds. The Keeper plugin on our browsers requires password activation each time the browser is launched, as does the app on our iPhones and iPads. I have the fingerprint option turned on for my devices, and when I open the Keeper app, I hold my finger over the Home button on my iPhone or iPad to effortlessly unlock it.

Another feature I really like about this app is that you can store more than just login information and passwords. Each record allows the creation of multiple, unique fields. As an example, many sites require security questions, and I can create a field for questions and answers as needed. I can easily store customer care phone numbers, the emails we have on file and any other unique information. For us, Keeper  acts as a security vault for vital information. You can also create folders in the app for organizing entries. What would happen if one of my devices fell into the wrong hands? The Keeper Security does not keep a record of master passwords, and only five attempts at entering a password are allowed and then all of the information stored on the device is erased.

While writing this article I came across an excellent 2018 review of password managers on the PC Magazine website, PCmag.com. The review covers ten paid password managers, selecting four as Editors’ Choice. The price of subscriptions for the reviewed password managers are from $12 to $40. The one we use is $30 a year for one user and $59 for up to five users. The article includes a link to free password managers, but the only one that offers advanced features, including syncing across devices, is LastPass (lastpass.com) It can only be used by one user and does not work with applications, but you can upgrade to a paid version for additional features.

A New Year’s Resolution to Keep

It’s that time again … time to make resolutions designed to make us a better person in the New Year. People everywhere are promising to lose weight, get organized, exercise more and eat a healthier diet. However the odds are that by the end of January most resolutions will be nothing but a faded memory. According the the New York Times, “By Jan. 8, some 25 percent of resolutions have fallen by the wayside. And by the end of the year, fewer than 10 percent have been fully kept.”

I have a suggestion for a New Year’s resolution that all of us, including myself, should make and promise to complete in early 2018 – change all our online passwords.  They should all be changed on a regular basis, at least every three to six months, and with all the recent cyberattacks, this advice could not be more relevant. It is very important to use strong passwords, and to use different passwords for every password protected website and app. 

What is a strong password? One that is difficult for another person, or computer, to guess. Characteristics of a strong password are:

• A minimum of 8 characters.
• A mix of uppercase and lowercase letters.
• A mix of letters and numbers.
• The inclusion of at least one special character such as @, #, $, %, ?.
• One that is not written down on a piece of paper. 

A good password needs all of these characteristics plus one more thing. It needs to be easy to remember, and thus you should create passwords that can be remembered with a mnemonic. A mnemonic is a memory tool that aids in remembering information – an example of a mnemonic is ROY G BIV for the colors of the visible spectrum (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet) or the rhyme we all learned to remember the number of days in each month of the year (30 days hath September …).

Before you can create a strong password, you should have an idea of what constitutes a weak password.  Some examples of weak passwords are:

• Single words that can be found in the dictionary, in any language.
• A single word with some of the letters replaced by numbers (e.g., pa33w0rd).
• A repeated character or a series of characters (e.g., AaAa, 12345, abcde).
• The name of a family member, pet, or famous person.
• Numbers based on family members ages and birthdays. 

A few ideas for creating strong passwords are:

• Think of a sentence and use the first letters of each word, substituting numbers for number words, adding a special character and using one or more uppercase letters. (e.g., I am trying to think of a good password and my brain is mud = iaT2T0agp&mbim).
• String together three or more words that do not make any sense together (e.g., bird tractor citizen, adding a number or two, an uppercase letter and a special character = biRd#trActor3ciTizen).
• Add “padding” to make a password longer. Padding is a series of keystrokes that would not in themselves make a good password, but can be added to good passwords and make them better. (e.g., !!!!goOD59road)))!?).

Naturally, you can make a very secure password by stringing together random letters, numbers and special characters, but such a password would be impossible to remember. Even using the mnemonic tricks listed above, remembering all your necessary passwords can be extremely challenging. The solution is to use a password manager, a topic that will be covered in next week’s OnMouseClick.

Wishing everyone a happy, healthy and password protected 2018. The online version of OnMouseClick can be found at onmouseclick.blogspot.com.

Is Print Dead?

All News … All the Time

How do you get your news? Our generation was raised on print newspapers, and as long as I remember, my family subscribed to home delivery of several newspapers every day.  Eddie and I continue this tradition – in both New York and Florida we get two or three newspapers delivered every morning during the week and more on the weekend. Growing up I also remember watching The Huntley-Brinkley Report on the evening news. For an hour each night, these two eminent journalists objectively and insightfully reported events of the day. 

Earlier this month, waiting on line to make a purchase at Barnes & Noble, I overheard a young man behind me say to his companion that he was about to buy a newspaper for the first time ever. I would venture that the same statement could be made by the majority of younger people who are part of the “millennial” generation.

I have to admit that while Eddie reads his morning papers, I read the electronic version on my iPad. However, what sets me apart from the younger generation, is that I choose to get my news from the electronic versions of traditional print media, while the majority of the millennials depend almost exclusively on social media for their news. According to a new survey from the Pew Research Center, as of August 2017, two-thirds (67%) of Americans report that they get at least some of their news on social media, with the largest percentage in the 18 to 49 year old group. The social media outlets used for news include Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Reddit, Snapchat, Tumblr, Instagram, LinkedIn and WhatsApp. 

What is interesting, and more than a little scary, are the reports that more often than not the so called “news” available on these social media site are manipulated to present a particular point of view, if not downright falsehoods. These social media outlets are able to trace the viewing habits of their users, and tailor “news”  delivery to the specific viewpoints of each particular user. I visit Facebook often, and the “news” posts on my Newsfeed are in accord with my political leanings. While I might find this gratifying, it provides a very one-sided view of the world. I also don’t trust the posts on my newsfeed as necessarily true without checking the veracity of the information in other sources. 

As for television news, times have certainly changed since my family watched Huntley and Brinkley after dinner. Television news today is on a 24-hour cycle, and most of the offerings are far from objective. Each of the 24-hour news channels cater to viewers with very specific political viewpoints, and sometimes important news stories are relegated to the background, especially if they run counter to the political leanings of the network. 

What does all this mean to us as senior citizens in this brave new world? This is one of the technology related topics I plan to explore in 2018. Until the new year, I wish everyone a very happy holiday season. The online version of OnMouseClick can be found at onmouseclick.blogspot.com.

All I Want for Christmas

When I began writing OnMouseClick in 2004, I wanted to write a technology column that would help readers feel more comfortable interfacing with their computers. At the time many TR Times readers were novice computer users, and the early columns were designed to make the learning curve a little less steep. Fast forward thirteen years and very few people still need help using a computer. 

Recent columns have focused on the proliferation of electronic devices in our lives, and with Christmas less than a month away, today’s column is a lists some suggested tech devices you might want to add to your list for Santa.

If you enjoy drinking smoothies, the NutriBullet’s Balance Blender is designed to make the process easier. The blender connects to your iOS or Android phone via Bluetooth, and the companion app provides recipes with step-by-step instructions and nutritional information. The blender is available on Amazon for $180.

To fill your home with music, you can ask Santa to bring you a Sonos sound system. The company offers a full range of wireless, internet connected speakers that can all be controlled by a smartphone, tablet or computer app. The speakers offer high quality sound and range in price from $150 to $500.

Wearable devices to monitor your fitness have been hot items for the past several seasons, and each year they get more sophisticated. Fitbit is probably familiar to most of you. The least expensive devices, starting around $50, keep track how many steps you take in a day, while the company’s newest device is a smartwatch that provides personal coaching with on-screen video for $299. Garmin also offers a full range of fitness monitoring devices. The Vivo line of wearable smartwatches are tailored to a specific sports, such as running or cycling, with prices starting around $120. Both Fitbit and Garmin work with Bluetooth connected iOS and Android apps that allow you to keep track of your fitness, compare workout results, and share you stats with others.

The Apple Watch is another option for monitoring fitness. While the watch does much more than monitor fitness — such as answering phone calls, sending text messages, and telling time — it tracks workouts, acts as a GPS, and keeps track of your heart rate, even when not working out. The watches start at $249 for the entry level model.

If you are planning to ask Santa for a video streaming device to attach to your TV, there are several offerings — Apple TV, Amazon Fire, Roku and Chromecast. All interface with apps downloaded to your smartphone or tablet, which can also function as a remote control for the device. Prices start at under $30 for the least expensive devices and top out at $149 for the Apple TV.

Are you dreaming of having a robot clean your house? The iRobot Roomba 690 cleans carpets and hardwood floors, is controlled by an app and can even be controlled from outside the home. When the iRobot finishes its tasks, it returns to its charging port to wait for the next assignment. It is priced under $400.

If foreign travel is in your future, you might want a pair of Google Pixel Buds. The wireless earbuds have the ability to translate 40 different languages in realtime when paired with a iOS or Android device. The headset, which is available for $159 from the Google Store (store.google.com) is a fascinating device and will be featured in more detail in a future OnMouseClick column.

When your smartphone is always with you, and even doubles as your go-to pocket camera, a portable battery charger might be a lifesaver. Anker offers a full line of compact and affordable chargers, priced between $20 and $40, that work with Apple and Samsung products.

And speaking of things that are always with you, do you find yourself wondering where you placed your keys or wallet on a regular basis. I know I do, and Santa can help by bringing you a Bluetooth tracking device like the TrackR Bravo. This tiny, 1 1/2” square device can be attached to anything. Then, instead of searching around for your keys, you open the iOS or Android app on your phone and voila a map shows you their exact location. The TrackR Bravo, one of several similar devices available from Amazon, sells for $29.

I just hope Santa has an app to help him navigate his rounds, keep track of who gets which gift, and when the reindeers need to rest. I wish everyone very Merry Christmas The online version of OnMouseClick can be found at onmouseclick.blogspot.com.