Linux Mint is what I would recommend to someone who wants to Learn Linux.

I got into a conversation before dawn.  I do this frequently since I am up at stupid o'clock most mornings.  Rainy morning, wash out for my workout, so I was considering my options.

My friend was telling me about someone she knew who was thrashing around with some technology.  I have seen this happen before, but this time he was rattling my cage with something I had done myself.

The process of learning Linux.

The normal response is "Just install it and use it" but that is way too oversimplified.

I don't use windows.  I have a Mac and don't use it either.  I would welcome a Mac but I would install Linux on it and be frustrated because the keys are "non standard" and the mouse or trackpad only has one button.  

Meh, I'd adapt.  Got one gathering dust?  I can haz Mac?  Oooh! Gimme! K Thx Bai!

:)

While I love new hardware and pretty machines, my newest computer is 5 years old and counting and I don't "need" one.  But, thanks for asking!

He got deep into Raspberry Pi and is frustrated by the limitations of the platform.  Size/Performance/Add-On Prices.  And so forth.

I suggested what I suggest all the time.  At this point in history you probably have an "Old Computer" gathering dust in the closet.  Many people don't know what to do with it because it has "old data" on it and don't know how to destroy that data.

Use Your Old Computer.

That old computer, unless it is truly old, should be enough to learn on.  Let's say 10 years old or newer.  i3/i5/i7 with 4GB memory and at least 50GB of disk space.  Pretty modest specifications right?  

Windows has a lot of "phone home" issues that take up some of that processor.  There are also a lot of machines that are at "end of life" according to Microsoft.  You can't install Windows 11 on it because of "reasons".  Nobody wants ads anywhere, let alone in a start menu that you are forced to use because some dolt decided "It's Betterer!".

Basically "reasons" are something called TPM that is a low level piece of firmware in the computer.  I won't go into details, it just flags the computer of not being worthy of upgrade because it doesn't have the latest version.

So with that old computer why not try Linux on that?

There is another way to do this.

Use A Live Version Of Linux.

I'm easing into the bits and bytes of how to go about this because I'm being conversational, why not, it's my blog and I have the space to do so.

But.

A Live Version of Linux is something you probably don't have a lot of experience with if you are a Windows or Mac user.

It basically is a clean and complete version of the operating system that will run on your computer without using the disc drive.  A Live Version will allow you to "look around" your computer.  If you can't use this computer with this Live Version, you will find out quickly.  

Some live distributions even have something called persistence that will allow you to take your computer with you on a USB Stick and create data permanently.  Tails is one that is specifically designed for this purpose but I do not recommend this for a learner.  Tails is also for the more paranoid of us out there or who are traveling in places where they may lose their computer hardware.

Most of the software you will need to do your daily tasks will be available.  Most of the drivers for your older hardware will be available.  If you find something missing, it is on you to find a version that works.

However, the one I would recommend is a Distribution of Linux Mint.  

Let me unpack that a little.  Linux comes as a free download from a group who supports and puts the operating system together so that you can use it, freely.  That would be a basic and hopefully not vague description of a "Linux Distribution".  We typically call that a "Distro" but that's jargon, even if I do use that word myself.

Linux Mint is a specific Distribution.  It's well supported.  If it works with your computer, it will be a well prepared software suite.  It should talk to your hardware, give you a browser, have an office suite, and look familiar enough for you to at least get your toes wet.

Importantly that this is geared for ease of use.  It is designed to be familiar enough to anyone who uses a computer at all to be able to stumble around and do real work on it with very minimal help.  It also has a huge library of software that you can explore.

Remember, Linux is Free and Open Source, so you can do what you like with it, generally.  Office Productivity, Gaming, Internet, surfing, all the "normal stuff".

Another thing to consider is that there are different looks that you can have with Linux.  If you are coming from Mac or Windows, there is one look.  Mac looks very similar to the way it has for years and has evolved but kept that look.  Windows is more variable from version to version.  

Linux has many looks from the old command line, to some that look like Mac, others like Windows.  It all depends on how much "shine" and "Eye Candy" you want in your computing experience.

Since this discussion is about basics and getting a look into this thing on old computers, I suggest what I use.  It's called XFCE.  Everything is "there", and it is one of the quicker software suites.  Everything you need to do what you really need to get done and I haven't found much missing.

There is also KDE but since Linux Mint does not have a Distro bundled with it directly, that discussion is for a different time.

XFCE looks familiar and is designed to be fast and "light".  It also is a bit dated in the default look but can be dressed up greatly.  I have seen it modified to look like Windows 7 and otherwise to look like a Mac.  I use it lightly modified and have for about 20 years as such.  It looks "Comfortable to me".

The general process is for you to grab a large downloaded file called an ISO and place it on a suitable USB stick with specific software, then start your computer (or Boot it) from that.  

In order to boot my computer from a USB stick, I have to hit "F12" when I turn the computer on, but there are other keys to hit at power up such as enter or "F1".  

While that is a list of the general process, you need a few things.

A USB Stick that is clear of data and of a reasonable size of 8GB or more.

The file that you downloaded.  That is something that ends with a .ISO extension and will be fairly large.  This page is for the current download list of sites that have the current version of Linux Mint XFCE.  You will need to choose the location of one that is appropriate for where you live.

The link here will start the download directly.  The file was called linuxmint-22.3-xfce-64bit.iso and was 2.8 GB.

Finally a piece of software to get all that data onto that USB Stick correctly.  The software will write out to the USB Stick in a way to create it as a "Bootable Drive".  In other words, it will make it so that you can run that USB Stick as your computer's operating system and not disturb what sits on the hard drive currently.

I tested the process on a machine that I would prefer it not destroy the data, and it did not harm my installed software - it was live.

But you do have to get software.

Linux Mint suggests a program called "Etcher" but there are others such as "unetbootin".  Both are free, and will run on Windows/Mac/Linux.  Pick one. 

Etcher will burn or copy any ISO to either a USB Stick or a DVD/CD.  I haven't used a DVD or a CD in years, so stick with the USB Stick.

unetbootin is a little more specific.  If you have an ISO it will burn or copy the file out to your USB Stick.  If you don't have the ISO, it will fetch one from a list for you and burn it to the USB Stick.  

Slightly different, both work on Windows/Mac/Linux.

Once it is on your stick, boot from that stick and wait for your operating system to show up.  Mine took a little bit longer than expected because my laptop battery was dead.  I think the battery needs to be replaced.  

Linux Mint has some documentation on how to do the entire process, and while it is complete, it is implying that you are going to install on the actual hard drive.  In my case I'm not going quite that far.

At this point, you have burned your USB Stick, and booted from it.  You should see the Linux Mint Desktop with the green LM Logo in the middle.  You are now in a Live Linux session.  Poke around and familiarize yourself with what you have been presented with.  

At the lower left is your start menu of applications to explore.  The only icon on the desktop at this point was an icon to "Install To Computer".  If you are happy with the way everything works, go for it.  The steps to install are not too complex.  This will erase your hard drive and place a fresh copy of Linux Mint on your hardware.

It does look like Windows 7 doesn't it?  I rather like what they did with the default look of XFCE which can be a bit too much like Windows XP sometimes.

During the time that I install any copy of Linux I do a few things.

I create a swap partition equal to the size of my memory.  This will allow me to hibernate the computer.  There may or may not be extra steps to enable this, different distributions will enable hibernate, others do not.

I always encrypt the hard drive.  Always.  Using a complex password.  If someone breaks in and steals your computer, they will not steal your data.  Up yours, thief!

I set the computer up to log in as myself directly once the encryption password has been given.  In an environment where more than one person are using the computer, this is not for the best.  Linux assumes more than one will be able to use the computer if you set it up later for it.  This all is a part of the installation process but can be added later.

At any case, Linux Mint will allow you to get exposed to Linux as a rule.  It is based on Ubuntu or Debian depending on the version.  As such there is a huge amount of help available on the subject.  

Debian is known to be one of the most stable versions of Linux available.  It is what I use, but for someone getting exposed to Linux, it is a bit advanced.

Ubuntu is not my first choice because it is subject to Corporate Realities.  They come along with some things like Snap, which adds complexities to the operating system and slow it down.  

Whichever Linux you have, it is compatible with your goals and has a lot of opportunities for learning.

Now, if someone would make an affordable Linux Phone and show me how to get my sports stats off of my sport watch, I would be very interested.  The integration is the problem there, and I am way too active not to have them.

Technology and I are Fighting. The Story of Why I Have Two Microwave Ovens.

Technology and I are going through a rough patch lately.

I have always got on well with things that way.  I'm the kind of person who took the old war time ethos of "Make Do And Mend" to heart.  

In that way, I've been able to learn quite a lot.  Replaced my own Oxygen Sensors on the Jeep when I needed to, for example.  Oil Changes are simple, and I do most of the maintenance on the car.  23 years old and runs like a "Swiss Watch".

>I was a Financial Project Manager for a major university on the East Coast.  "Req To Check" was my thing.  Requisitions through the posting of the Purchase Orders against the accounts on the General Ledger.  I was the strongest programmer in the department, the "Programmer of Last Resort" and the one who got the "meatiest problems".

My own favorite computer is about 6 years old.  It started out in corporate life as a Windows computer, and when it got to me, I immediately opened it up and upgraded the components.  One of the upgrades was to install Debian Linux, again, immediately.

To say that I am a Do It Yourself kind of tech guy is minimizing things here.

But lately, I'm about to toss most of it out the window.

You see, touch screens are the bane of my existence.  The things are everywhere.

Smart phones have them.  Cars have them.  Even my oven has a touch screen.

I don't see that they are being used properly.  I mean an oven?  With a Touch Screen?  Give me a break!

So as I am riding along, happily playing music, something happens and I need to control the phone.

Have I said yet that I hate iPhone for this sort of thing?  

Ok, I despise the little gadgets.  My big hands reach down to work on the phone and I almost always have to stop moving and pay attention.  It would be like a smaller person using the phone with their elbow and throwing it into traffic in disgust.

I don't know which tiny person designed these things but whoever you are, I hate you.

The latest thing to become "quirky" was my microwave oven.  Of all things to flake out, a microwave.  

In the kitchen there is very little with food that I won't attempt.  I have churned butter in the food processor - that takes about 5 minutes.  I also make the dog's food from scratch.  The ingredients that are raw have to be cooked to a minimum of 165F/74C so that the bacteria is killed.  Frozen Peas and Fresh Carrots are the two ingredients that go into the microwave.  I demand that they are cooked at full power uninterrupted.

Lately the microwave has decided that at random moments it will cycle, go to low power mode.  When it does that, the cooking cycle is ruined and I have to throw out what I am doing and restart the process.  There is no pattern with this, and I believe that an internal part is overheating.

Since I demand the thing to work without interruption, the microwave is useless to me.  This one is going into the trash.  But I have a second one.  That is a story in itself.

About 6 or more years ago, someone left a perfectly good microwave on the curb of my block.  It was left in the box, sealed.  Taped up from the factory.  Sitting pretty under a street lamp.  I walked Rack The McNab SuperDog past the box at the 5PM walk.  I walked him past it at 9PM.  The next morning, the box was still sitting there.  5AM.  Under the street lamp.

Yoink!  You are mine.

At that point the older microwave was still working well and I didn't believe that I needed this new one so I put it in the shed.  

This week I had had enough of flaky kitchen appliances.  I went to my shed, got the box, cutting my left wrist in the process.  Opening the box I brought the new microwave in and put it on the kitchen counter.  Doing so I said to the old microwave "If you fail again, I'm stripping you for parts, and you go out in the trash!".

Yes, I threatened my old microwave with a new microwave.

It has only been a few days and the old microwave is working correctly.  I think it took the hint.  

Cross me, and out you go old microwave!  

I have done that with iPhones as well.  I have a very good friend who hands me down old electronic hardware.  This computer that I put Linux on is not the first, and I have taken broken computers and recycled and up-cycled them into working useful equipment before.  I get old iPhones and have never bought one.  

But those iPhones?  I hate them and hate the entire ecosystem.  The idea that Apple has a walled garden to keep you safe has been dis-proven, and they are harvesting information for nefarious purposes, or so it has been said in the last few years.

Personally I think that Apple's Walled Garden has poison ivy in it.  I don't want to use their hardware the way that they want me to.  If I want to put music on the blasted thing, I should be able to plug it in and move data back and forth at will.  Pictures, and Documents as well.    I should be able to do a backup of the stupid thing to a network drive or attached memory stick but I have not found a way to do that.  On top of it all, that screen is too small.  Tiny for me.  I have to jump through hoops in order to get any of that done.

Pretty hardware that is dumbed down for some pointless exercise in minimalism.

So when I look at videos with "Shiny New Objects" with sparkly touch screens, I lose interest.  I'll stick with my 23 year old Jeep Wrangler, and my 6 year old laptop as much as possible.  

How exactly will I be able to use a touch screen on a car to adjust the air conditioning in traffic at 60 MPH with my elbow, again?

I am forced to use that confounded iPhone since I am a competition class dual sport athlete and my sport watch requires it.  Sport watch with a touch screen and Bluetooth.  To talk to the iPhone.  

It has a sealed battery in it that I have to recharge every 10 days too.  Eventually it will get flaky and I'll have to buy a new watch because nobody repairs things any longer.

Can someone please, find me a Tube Tester and a set of All American Five tubes?  I have a radio from 1956 that could use some refreshing.  I hear they have this new music called Rock and or Roll that might be fun, but R&B is much more my style.  Meanwhile, I will find a swing music or classical orchestral program.  Just to relax to.

Oh and Apple should get off my damn lawn.  I think they're drunk anyway.

If You Require An App To Use Your Gadget, I Will Reject Your Product.

I would say that having dry eye issues pushed me this way but really I'm finding it hard to say I am missing anything.

There are a few, a very scant few, apps I use on the phone.  If your product requires me to use an app to use it, thanks but no thanks.

How I do things is a bit old school.  I use a browser.  On a laptop.  A rather nice 15 inch screen.  It keeps my lap warm.  

I have a love hate relationship with the pharmacy.  I won't name and shame them but the nearest one to me.  That one with three letters.  They try to pretend they care by slapping a valentines heart on everything.

Yeah, that one.

They text me frequently.  I groan and wait until I get home.  Then I type that Random Scrabble Tile nonsense into the browser and hope I got it right.  The message tells me that I have to go to the store and pick up a bottle of something and so forth.

Blah. You should see what I go through with Doctors Offices.  Three Hospital networks with their coterie of doctors.

Sure I could click on the link and try to see it but the Lasik I had years ago means that I am learning my own limitations.  My eyesight is better than 20/20.  That is down from where it was shortly after the operation.  I was the guy in the car who was reading street signs for miles down the road.

Yeah, I am amazed at that too.

Not any more, I'm like everyone else.  I got Lasik because my astigmatism got so bad that I could not get stronger contacts and as active as I am I did not want to wear "Coke Bottle Glasses".  I mean, come on, can you imagine getting on inline skates and skating 30 miles in a workout with those things balancing on your nose?

Me either.

My training in IT and computers taught me how to limit my exposure to ads and other waste of time things on the web.  My laptop is so locked down that when I see an ad on a website, I laugh and do a search and destroy.

My next step is to block certain large websites and surf in a virtual machine but that is a long term goal.  Remember, Fellow Babies, a well tuned Hosts File is your friend as well as a strong ad blocker.

When I look at videos of electric cars with an app to get a refueling I cringe.  One for each network.  Multiple networks both here and in Europe.  The car has it's own app.  

I'll stick with my 23 year old Jeep Wrangler for now, thanks.  It's not perfect, and the check engine light has been on since before 2010, but I know what the code is and... Meh.  Not worried.  Gas Cap, indeed!

Each of those apps has a part that runs in background and almost all of you leave that part running.  The app is phoning home and telling them what you are doing but I really have to ask Why?  Getting served ads for what you were talking about "in private"?  CBC is doing a podcast about that one, the presenter was talking about "Pickleball" and later getting served all sorts of ads about Pickles, Balls, and Pickleball.

It seems like spyware is not too picky.  

Yes, this is what I listen to at 5 AM staring at the dog across the pool wearing nothing more than my boxer shorts, shivering in the pre-dawn coolness.  

"Come on, Rack!  Get your business done and water the Mango Tree!"

So for now, keep your apps.  The one that I have that controls my headphones wants an update that I think I will ignore.  A-Couple-Hundred-Megs so I can translate speech into English.  

Yeah, so how do you do that without listening in on what I am doing here?  No wonder why they want you to use Bluetooth for headphones.

No. Thank. You.   I turned off auto-update on the phone ages ago and my laptop is Linux so it only updates when I tell it to. Remember what that was like, Windows users?  Did your Mac take a powder last time you did an update?  I don't.

Yes. I do enjoy controlling my own experiences.  Don't you?  Since I can't limit my exposure to that sort of spyware and nasty program by removing it from the phone, I limit my time using the phone.  They are hard for me to read anyway even on the "big boy" sized phone I am using.

Being as big as I am, even using the app is problematic.  Don't get me started with trying to use a touch screen with the tiny little buttons on a glass screen.  Just does not work well.  Like typing with your elbow.

Since I have problems using the touch screen in every case, even on my oven to set the timer, I think I'll skip it all.  Give me physical buttons and skip the app.  

Yes, all of this is a bit of a rant.  It takes a significant amount of discipline.  But every journey begins with a single step.  Strap on your Big Boy shoes and begin your own trip.

A bus station is where a bus stops. A train station is where a train stops. On my desk, I have a work station.

Ok, so you don't have to "Know Computers" for this one, but it does fit my own skewed mindset.

I have been using Linux since "The Mid 90s".  It was a curiosity, then, but I found it quite useful.  Later, I had the good fortune to be given an "Off Lease" laptop, so I installed Red Hat Linux on the machine and made it my own.  

When I found that the bad "Mains" power here in South Florida murdered my desktop machines, I was able to recover the data but had nothing to install Windows on so I used Linux full time.

Now, a good 10 to 15 years after that, I have a solid "contempt" for corporate computing.  I will say that the original install of Linux I did on a Pentium 3 laptop was working as I left it when I retired the machine without a software problem, due to bad batteries and a frayed power supply.  Great little machine though.

Reading the tech sites I understand that Windows 10 has reached "End of Life" - they killed it.  There has been a spike in downloads of Linux for these machines, and while there is a learning curve, trust me, you can make it work for you.



 
 Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella, walks into a coffee shop and sees a young man feverishly working on his laptop. He walks over to the him and asks, "Whatchya workin' on, young man?"

The young man looks up and says, "Welp, I'm making a custom Windows 11 operating system."

Satya replies, "Oh? And how do you do that?"

The young man replies, "I take the Windows kernel, add my custom GUI, add some bloatware and then a ton of spyware!"

Satya gets angry and has him kicked out of the shop.

The following week, Satya Nadella strolls into another coffee shop and sees the same young man feverishly working on his laptop again. Again he walks over to the young man and asks in a stern voice, "Still working on your custom Windows 11?"

The young man looks up and proudly says, "Nope, today I'm making a custom Ubuntu Linux operating system! I call it Ubuntu Loaded."

Satya asks, "Oh? And how do you do that?"

The young man replies, "Welp, I take the Linux kernel, add my custom GUI, and finally I add the usual bloatware and then some more bloatware on top of that."

Satya replies, "I see. But no spyware?"

The young man looks up and replies, "Naw, that would just make it Windows 11."

I haven't bought a new cell phone since day one, but a New To Me phone needs a parallel test.

I'm fine with having somewhat old, or at least "older" electronics.

My long time friends might be surprised about that.  At one point I had to have the newest items.

I came to the realization that these things are tools.  I simply need them to "just work".

I am fortunate that I have a ready supply of these "older" electronics come through my sticky little fingers.

I am using 5 year old laptops running Debian Linux and they just work.  As in Super Fast.

I giggle at the people standing in a line at the gadget stores before dawn.  Sure, that's a bit rude but... come on.  It is manufactured demand.  Perhaps "manufacturing demand" might be the point.

I am using a phone that is 4 versions old right now.  I hate the thing because the Apple Walled Garden concept is faulty.  At least it is faulty to me.

I resent being told that I must back my phone up, and pay them for the privilege because they are giving me a "generous" 5GB of space, while the phone has 128GB on it.  Let me back the damn thing up to my own computers, or somewhere else, and step the hell off.

Every time I try to get something off the phone, I have to start a third party program to get my photos off the thing.  It is a computer.  If I plug it into another computer, it should come up reliably as a drive.  It does not every time, and it gets confused.

Anti-Apple rant aside, the newer versions are evolutionary and not revolutionary.

Slightly better camera, slightly better speakers, slightly more spyware I assume. 

I don't trust them.

More important I use the thing for a few very important, to me, items.

Photography.  Most of the pictures on this blog are taken by me, for my own entertainment.  Occasionally I'll grab something from elsewhere.  I try to remember to attribute the original person but I do forget.  Those pictures get big fast.  I have to get the third party software started, bring them into a browser, cut, paste, annotate them with a title and my URL and post them.  The camera does get better, but it tends to be a few steps behind the state of the art for the time the phone was put out.

Athletics.  Once upon a time, I was "Picked Last" for sports.  I was kid who had no clue about "ball sports".  I still am not good at those.  Doesn't matter, I had a resting heart rate of 50 yesterday and I regularly bicycle and inline skate at a heart rate above my theoretical maximum for my age.  My personal motto is "Lead, Follow, or Get Out Of The Way".  I will help you along, and give you information on nutrition and training to get to my level.  For my age bracket, I am in the 99% percentile for inline skating - my goal is 25,000 miles in my career and at 24645 miles, I am very close.  Once around the world on Inline Skates.

So I monitor my heart rate, distance, and speed.  Assertively.  The phone does help.  In order for it to help I measure out the trail on the phone via GPS.  It tells me the trail is 4.5 miles.  I verify that aggressively via mapping software and obsessively measure that out.

Entertainment.  Music.  I have a data plan that lets me listen to international music for unlimited time.  I am also using it to watch video internationally in two languages.  News as well.  I see nothing wrong with walking the dog an hour and a half before dawn listening to the CBC for news bulletins and switching to BBC for in depth coverage.

When I was given a New To Me phone, it was because my old one had a battery in it that was wearing out.  I could have had the battery replaced, but the New To Me phone had a brand spanking new battery with "96% health".  More importantly it is slightly larger and a number of generations newer.  Faster processor, although frankly, I did not notice that.  Once upon a time I had an android phone that I could snap the battery in and out, and repaired the daylights out of it.  Tech is not getting better, it's getting more annoying to maintain.

I am in the process of migrating onto that phone.  It means I have to proofread the thing and make sure that everything I depend on works.

I listened to my preferred music which is surprisingly diverse.  Classical, Classic Disco, Happy Hardcore, and EDM as well as Norteño from Mexico, and news outlets in 5 different countries.  I could do that from my chair, and did.

Then I had to workout "in parallel".  I had once been given a New To Me phone that had a bad GPS.  It told me that the 2 mile walk I had with the dog was actually 1.9 miles, roughly.  I knew better.  But I also knew that phone was damaged. 

Tuesday I had a workout on the bike.  Along with the GPS enabled sport watch, the GPS enabled bike computer, and the GPS enabled phone, I had the second phone with me telling me where I was in a woman's voice to let me know it wasn't the main phone which was in a man's voice.

The differences were .01 mile over a basis of 27.18 miles.  52 feet or less than the distance across the front of the house, and I can live with that.

Good workout Tuesday as well, but I won't strain my shoulder patting myself on the back.

So the New To Me phone seems to pass the athletics test.  The only thing I need to do is try a different sport and see how the walk is with Mr Dog. 

Some folks are less demanding, they just slide it out of the box, charge it up, and shrug because it works.  Me... nothing is simple.

Mind you, yesterday?  I was taking my old daily driver laptop with a bad USB C power port apart.  I used the monitor to repair a laptop that was dropped and shattered the screen, the hard drive was swapped, and it was tested to be completely functional. 

Yes, Ramblingmoose runs on old stuff. 

Now! Let me tell you about my 23 year old car!

If you want my business, don't require an app.

 Oh now don't go all OK Boomer on us.  I don't mean don't HAVE an app.  I mean don't REQUIRE an app.

There is a fine line there and I got my tail dragged all over it.

Yes, this is a little rant-y so bear with me.

I was doing some online shopping.  In this case I was happily looking at things I could justify either way.  Buy or not buy.  I am not exactly floating in money these days, oh I get by but floating in the stuff?  No.

Every time I clicked on a link there was a helpful hopeful link explaining how you can have an app sit on your phone to do all this work.

No.  From a Security Standpoint, No, Just No.

I have a friend up in New Jersey.  She won't do anything with an app and I think she may be onto something. 

So you download their helpful little app and it sits on your phone listening to what you are doing and where you are going as well as assisting you on its intended purpose.  You now have what the gov'mint says  is a vector for attack.  You have to create a signon, give the thing credentials.  It now has a privileged place.  It lives in your pocket or your purse.  When you start the thing, it is going to serve you ads.  The FBI already says if you can block an ad to do so.

I absolutely agree.  Block any and all ads aggressively.  I do so on my laptop with a hosts file and on the phone with a VPN to an ad blocking DNS.  If I see an ad, it is a surprise.

Now while this is shaping into an anti advertising rant, it's probably not the main reason that I give people why I refuse their apps.  It's the size of the things. 

I'm a big dude.  Athletic, 193cm or 6'4".  A fit 85 Kilos, 190 pounds this morning.  Oh sure I could go onto a cutting diet and tune that all down a bit more towards the lean side, but with a BMI of 23.5 I don't have to.  As much cardio as I get in a day, even on the bench as I have been since the last sports injury, I don't pass that dessert cart.

Being a big dude, I have big hands.  Now don't get wild with that parallel, ladies.  I find it difficult to operate a cell phone.  Tablet perhaps is more my size, laptop I am great with.

Linux, Hosts file, Firefox, and ublock origin.  Like I said no ads.

But a cell phone?  Damn things are too small for me.

Went from the general purpose site to a specialized one to do some purchasing.  I'm expecting the economy to "tank" next year and a world wide depression happen.  So I am stocking up on things.  If I had the tools to do so, I'd be lowering the gas tank on the Jeep and repairing it.  That check engine light is not going away on its own.

Repairing things is a good way to live anyway.  The Brits used to say Make Do And Mend, and I like mending my 23 year old Jeep.

So I went on with my purchase. 

Lo and behold the site REQUIRED me to download an app in order to deal with the purchase. 

No. Just no.

And who the site is is not important.  There's this shift to the smart phone that I avoid where possible.

Of course there was a problem with the app.  It simply did not download and there was a subsequent problem with the order.  I missed a tick box and it required me to pay an extra $1.55 for some nonsense called ShipTection.   Insurance on your shipping.

I wrote back telling them to reverse that charge or I will cancel the sale with my credit card.  I also fired off a comment saying that if you insist on charging what sounded like a "Protection Racket" because your method of shipping is so bad, I'll go elsewhere next time.

I'll go elsewhere anyway, I don't like being forced to jump through hoops.

I got everything cleared up, which is why I am not naming names, but damnit no thank you I will not be downloading your sketchy app.

I have quite enough of those sketchy apps anyway, we all do.  ThankYouVeryMuch.

Replacing the iPod Video Battery

First of all, if you are still using one of these things and are not using Rockbox, look into it.  It turns your iPod from an annoying exercise of futility to an external hard drive that happens to play media like your MP3.

Second, this is the second time I did this.  It works.  But, I have to give you the official Internet Warranty:

Ramblingmoose.com does not warrant any missteps or broken hardware.  You do this procedure at your own risk.  If you are unsure of your own capability of this repair, don't do it.  It really is a simple repair but it is possible to do wrong.

Step 1:  Get the battery from online.  (Package is unopened in the left of the picture above)  This is the second time I did this with a 650mAh battery and it is now a 18 year old device.

Step 2: Tools needed are a Spudger.  Basically it's a guitar pick that will allow you to pull the back off your iPod.  These are scattered all over the picture above.

Step 3: Use the Spudger to pry the back off the iPod.  The long side where the headphone jack is connected is where I was able to break the seal and get the back off.  I used light pressure and twisted the Spudger back and forth until the steel back comes loose. 

However... the first time I did this years ago, I used the Spudger on the bottom as there is a plastic support piece that will hold the back to the iPod.  Be Flexible as to where you are working on the iPod.

Step 4: Warning: there are fragile wires and ribbon cables connecting the battery and the headphone jack and both are glued to back of the iPod.

Step 5: At the bottom of the ipod, and on the opposite corner of the earplug connector is the battery connector.  This is at the lower left of the picture.  The wire is routed to the board via a connector that has a lock on it.  The lock needs to be released toward the bottom of the unit.  It can be clicked down with the Spudger.  Once released, you can gently flick the wire out of the connector.

Step 6: The battery itself can be removed at this point.   It is held in place with some double sided tape.  Lift it out of place. 

Step 7: Remove the cover on the double sided tape from bottom of the new battery, if tape exists.  Set the battery in place so that the wire is free. Attach the wire into the connector and flip the lock in place to hold the wire in place. The wires have metal colored connectors on one side.  Those are to be inserted in to the connector and locked in place with those connectors pointing toward the hard drive.

Step 8: Place the steel back in place and close up your iPod.  You are done.  Charge the battery before use, it took me 3 hours to get a full charge.  Rockbox reports that I have 12 hours of play time on the iPod after a charge.

This is why I will never actually BUY a new Apple product.

Strap yourselves in, it's going to be a rant.

I am fortunate in that I have someone who occasionally gives me fairly current, but not new, iPhones.   They are still quite usable but not brand spanking new.

Mind you, had they been Androids, I would have rooted them and neutered the "google spying" on me with a hosts file but that's besides the point. 

I prefer to be in control of my own technology devices and not have to trust in a walled garden whether it be iOS or Android or Mac or god forbid, Windows.

A Walled Garden from any manufacturer does not benefit you, the end user, eventually.  It starts as a curated set of experiences that are for "your best experience" and eventually get corrupted into a spyware or commercial nightmare, or both (See Windows).

This is being written on a Debian Linux based computer that just purrs and does what I want. 

My current "daily driver" is an iPhone 12.  The problem is that the battery has faded to 81% health.  Whatever the blazes that is supposed to mean.  The end result is now that I wake up and the phone that was at 100% battery at 8:30 at night before the dog walk and sleep, is at 56% at 5:15 AM. 

Who are you talking to while I am asleep?  I don't know, I don't know why you are using battery other than to poll my sport watch.

At 56% at 5:15 in the morning, when I have to immediately top off the battery to be able to take Rack the McNab SuperDog (TM) for a first walk of the day gets very complex because I need this blasted phone to count my steps.

Levels of crap happen around me, usually sports related.

Bottom line is that the phone is "old" and failing to hold a charge.

So I went into the drawer that holds my "Inventory" of new-to-me phones and stumbled across the last phone that I moved off of before.  It was actually at a newer battery strength than the one that I am trying to move off of but I have others that are better.  Newer, with a stronger battery.

That means that my old-old phone is a candidate for "Erase and Remove" any trace of my self from it.

Here is where Apple truly earned my anger.

I told the phone that I did not want it. 
It immediately began a backup.
I hit "Skip backup".
It refused and demanded me to enter in a password for iCloud.
"Why?!?!?"
I typed in that password that I have on a spreadsheet and it rejected it.
FOUR TIMES.

Mind you, any other NORMAL operating system would have a little eye that would show you what you typed in clear characters but this being Apple, no.

"Hey Apple, you are Stoopid!" you may have heard me yell, or "similar".  Instead of it immediately giving me some sort of notification that it "got" what I was trying to do with it, the software simply sat there as if it were continuing on with its task.  No feedback, no way to verify what was happening.  Why would I need feedback?

After the fourth time, I used a normal laptop, this one, and a normal browser, Firefox, and logged in to iCloud with my password of record from the spreadsheet I keep.

So here I am an hour into this process.
iCloud logs me in and demands that I consider upgrading the account. 

No.  I am free, it gives me a whopping 5GB of storage.  Never mind that the phone has 256GB of storage on it that I can't access except by jumping through hoops, it wants me to spend more.  NO!. 

Nonsensical way of doing business, nag your customer until they go to the competition. 

Seeing that I have a rooted android phone on the desk, I am considering it.

The entire time that I am proving to this stupidly small, underpowered, and fragile device that I am using the correct password but it refuses to accept it, I'm feeling myself get more and more angry.

I simply wanted to get off the phone.  I did not care what was on it.  I did not want to save anything from it. 

It would not allow me to do it gracefully so what did I do?

With an evil grin I did what many technology users would love to do.

Still wanna know?

I took it to my porch.
I put it on the porch where it was concrete.
I went back into the house in a fit of pique and...
I got the sledge hammer.

It felt great to pound the damn thing.
In fact it felt so good to do that, I did it a second time.

Why on the porch?  Because I was able to get the garden hose and saturate the phone.  It was now bent on a jaunty angle, and I saw that it was starting to smoke.

Good.

I hosed the thing down and it made many sad Apple noises as it released the magic smoke.

In case you think I should have sent it off to be destroyed, securely, I will.  There is an electronics recycling event that I will take the accursed device to in the future along with some other old iPhones so old that they were orphaned by the accursed Apple.  Iphone 5 was the oldest, the newest being an 8 that is going to go to a new home in another state.

So if you have a Mac Book Pro?  I can fix it for you by installing Debian Linux on it.  In the case of the iPhones?  I hate them myself, find yourself an e-recycler and go for it.

As for Apple?  You will never see a penny from me, your practices seem to be designed for me to need blood pressure medications, and your websites are crap.

Add a button to enter passwords in the clear.  If I click on it, it's because I am feeling safe.

As Red Forman says in That 70s Show... Dumbass.
As Red Forman says in That 90s Show... Dumbass.

I'm not moving but I wonder if it isn't time to change my area code to somewhere really random

I have been through this before.

My phone number has 8 of 9 numbers either repeating or in sequence.  It is a popular one to use.

That's the problem.  More people than I are using it.

I end up going through "fusillades" of wrong numbers.

If you are presented with a form that wants you to fill in name, address, and phone number, and it is a legitimate use, you enter your own correct information.

But you want to sign up for a discount card and you don't want the company of the day calling you and emailing you and harassing you for a measly dollar off coupon what do you do?

Many people use my phone number.

Mind you, sometimes I never hear it.

The last really big problem ended up with my blocking every single car dealer in South Florida.  Some clown, and I have stronger names for those people, used my number on an intake form at a car dealership.

I don't know, maybe they were giving away a set of CDs or some such nonsense that this person really wanted.

Good luck getting that number removed.

Over the span of about 2 weeks I had to have had about 100 phone calls from multiple people at specific dealers talking to a potential customer about what great deals they have.

Except.

That wasn't me, it was my phone, and I am quite happy with my Classic-Car-Almost-Antique 2002 Jeep  Wrangler.

I'd be a fool to give that car up. 
It has the 4 Liter inline six cylinder motor for crying out loud. 
Designed by AMC for crying out loud!
For crying out loud!

Why would I want some junky Volkswagen?  (aren't they all?  Dieselgate anyone?)

Every time I got a call, I'd block the number. 

I installed Mr Number to do the heavy lifting for me.
I block any "Unknown" or "Spam Suspected" calls.
Area Code 732 is blocked completely.

Ok, that last one is because it's chock full of Indian Recruiters from Edison NJ.  I have zero connections in that area code.  If you are a recruiter, be from where I am at, or be from where the company is at, and have a signed contract to represent that company.

Anyway...

I get a wrong number about twice a day since the US is so abysmal in protecting the rights of customers.  I guess a Congressman has to allow us to be abused because they are being paid by the lobbyists to allow them to spam people.

The other day, coming back from the park and a workout, they struck.

I was stuck in traffic waiting for the light and construction at Federal Highway and Commercial Blvd in Fort Lauderdale.  My phone rang. 

Random person identified with a name I didn't know.

I did what I do with "Rand-o's"  I picked up and said nothing.
Neither did they.

They tried back three times.
In FIVE minutes.

After that it was someone else.  BangBangBangBang.

Today it was someone asking about real estate in Sarasota.   Then they texted me with the same question.

"When can I talk to you about property in the Sarasota Florida Area?"

I texted back "Never.  Someone gave you my wrong number so they could sign up for a give away".

People, don't ever do that.  Almost all numbers in the US in most urbanized areas are used.  You are only shifting your problem onto someone else.

So I'm debating where I want my phone to live.

Not me, just the phone number.

Somewhere I have never been, and never intend to be.

Idaho?  Rural Montana?  Some terrible place like Mississippi?

Mississippi is the place in the US that almost everyone can look down at due to the obvious things like low scores on education, civil rights, and economy.  And more!

Think of Norfolk UK and all those jokes about the people there.

So I am debating. 

I have had this number here in Fort Lauderdale since 2003.  I got it when we decided we were going to move here, and we did three years later.  Family and friends have this number.

So having some weirdly random area code like an area in a rural area means I have to give it out, explain it isn't local because "Reasons", and then block any calls from that area code.  If I do that, the robocallers won't get through and it will be quiet again.

I hear that Mobile Alabama can be nice in the winter, but Alabama?  It's only one state better than Mississippi!

At least I would be able to drive home from the park and not be asked to buy a condo in Sarasota, no matter how nice it would be there.

Windows 10 New Feature - You Are Sharing Windows Updates Files With Others

There are a lot of things that I am uncomfortable with in the new Windows 10. 

Oh sure, it's shiny! and new! and free!

But wait, haven't you heard the old line "If you aren't the customer, you are the product"?

Microsoft is using that logic on your new free version of Windows 10 Home.

With all the privacy holes that Microsoft created with Windows 10 I really do feel like I'm watching the movie 1984 where the TVs are watching you - and can never be turned off.

Same thing with the book Fahrenheit 451, but I never saw a movie version of the book that did it justice.

You made the choice to go to Windows 10 because Windows 8.1 bleah.  I know, I said the same thing about 8 and 8.1 but I am not at this time going to windows 10 unless I can figure out how to make myself comfortable with it.

I'll let the bugs get worked out, let the hackers figure out how to stop Cortana from watching over my shoulder, and so forth.  Maybe when the free year is up, I may take advantage of the Free! Windows 10! Upgrade!

But honestly, probably not.   This is being written from Linux and frankly it does everything I need and about twice as fast as Windows 8.1 ever did - on the same machine.  Yes, you can do both.  I am, but if you are an "end user" or "Mom just surfs the web" user, you probably won't.

Never mind all that.  You made your choice.  Here's what is happening.

With "old" windows you got windows updates directly from the mothership - Microsoft.  It would go out in the middle of the night, download patches, restart your computer, and you wouldn't really know what all happened.

Every so often it would glitch and you'd have to talk to your neighbor's 13 year old who "lives in the basement" to get it fixed, and you'd go back on your way after tossing him a $20.

Now Windows 10 Home goes out, grabs the updates from something called a torrent.  Basically it's like the old Napster was - grab things from who ever has a piece of it.

Mind you, Torrents can be amazing things.   I grabbed my copy of Debian Linux using a torrent.

But.

Here is why you don't want that happening.

It can either slow your computer down (especially if you have an older one) or it can easily slow down your network connection. 

Windows Updates now looks on your network for other computers that have Windows 10 and will grab what it needs to assemble the Update, then send it to whoever requests it.

Yeah, I thought it was a bit odd, perhaps heavy handed, too.

So if you made the jump and are happy with Windows 10, Great, but here is how to stop that behavior.

Go to the not-actually-very-obvious Settings → Updates and Security → Advanced options → Choose how you download updates → Get updates from more than one place.

Your choices are:

1. Off. Your computer calls home to Microsoft, and gets updates only from there.
2. PCs on my local network. WUDO (Windows Update) will "torrent-share" files, but only between computers on your own LAN.
3. PCs on my local network and on the internet. You'll potentially get files from, and offer file uploads to, computers anywhere in the world. 

The best one for you at home will be the second selection - PC's On My Local Network.   It saves you from having all of your PCs using your connection to talk to Microsoft for their updates.

This was adapted from this article at the rather excellent site:

Naked Security from Sophos.

Sophos is well worth an occasional read or a like on Facebook if that's your sort of thing.

Firefox Now Blocks Flash As Default Until Next Version Of Flash

If you are using Firefox, I have a question:  Is your browser acting up on you?

What happened is that Mozilla pushed through a well intentioned update.  It now blocks Flash as a default, and while you can turn it on if you like through the settings, I'm thinking I got into a chain of weirdness here that ended up with my having to do some tweaks.

Flash is that piece of software who has its origins back before the dawn of time, or rather 1999 or so that serves up videos, games, and the worst of all features of the modern web, advertisements.

You've got it on your computer unless you took steps to avoid having it.  I'd be willing to bet on it.  If I lost that particular bet go outside and enjoy the great outdoors since you Win One Internetz you 733t D00D!


For the rest of us, Flash is a bit of an annoyance.  Use is something you may not have thought about, an it's starting to fade away.  Personally, I won't miss it but I do keep it up to date and protect myself by only allowing it to run when I tell it to.

Back to that Flash thing.  I am now getting a black stripe at the top of my browser when Flash wants to be activated on any specific website.  In my case, that is exactly how I want it to act.  I want it to nag me when I hit a webpage that wants to use Flash so I know if I'm about to get a virus.

The reality is that when Facebook's head of security, that time sink of a website that mines what you are doing to serve it back to the advertisers that are paying for the site, says that it is Time For Flash To Die, you are witnessing the beginning of the end of an era.

In my own specific case, it locked my Firefox into "Safe Mode" and refused to let me out.  I had to "Refresh" the browser which meant I lost all my configurations and settings.  It took me the better part of an hour to get them back.  I also lost "Adblock Edge" and am having to retrain myself on something called uBlock Origin which is nowhere near as user friendly as the one I was using.

In order to re-enable Flash, and I do not recommend you turn it on for everyone but leave it nag you when it wants to be on:

Go to your Plug In Check Page
Click the scary "Update Now" button

The midsized scary red button will open a webpage for you to download the latest version of Flash, Manually.  Make certain that you clear the check box for their latest crapware download of McAfee Security software.

In my own opinion, there really isn't any reason to download anything from McAfee but that's my opinion.

Once you have done the install, it will force you to restart your browser.

Bad form, Adobe, Bad form.  Then again, it's always been this bad form so we are used to it by now.

So after you restart the browser, Windows Update had a fix for Flash as well.  After applying that update, and a final reboot, the resulting "about:addons" page that allows you to activate or disable your addons was no longer scary red.

The Plugin Status page still had the scary red big button, but the update now button was green and happy.

Lather, Rinse, and Repeat as necessary for all your computers.  Every IT person will be going through this sort of thought process for a bit, or have someone do it for them.

Police Use Selfie To Return Phone and the Importance of ICE

Being That Guy who is out walking his dog at stupid hours of the morning, I see a lot of weirdness.

Oh sure, I live in a tourist town in South Florida.  That could be redundant in itself, but its true. 

So I see a lot of weirdness.  Wait, I said that once already.

Some of that weirdness is best that I keep to myself.  Let me just say I see what you do out there and Shame.  Trust me some of that is truly bizarre. 

Luckily, most of what happens here is people from outside coming in and enjoying things a bit too much and therefore creating problems.

You lot party a bit too hearty.  No, really you do.  Have a little moderation.  A little goes a long way.  You wander down our streets using the wall to steady yourself.  Even my dog sees it and he is smart enough to know when to stay away.

So as you use that wall to steady yourself, you reach into your pocket for your keys.   What you were going to do with those keys scare me, but you have dropped them instead.

This is where I come in handy.  You see, I have found more sets of keys than I care to count.  I do tend to find a lot of things and since City Hall is on my normal walk, I tend to leave things there.  Just ask the Police Department. 

Really.  It gets to be a bit repetitious.  Keep a better handle on things.

So when the Police Department gets them they ask me where I found it and I tell them.  They also ask me a lot of random questions about myself that makes me think that it would be a lot easier if I just left your things sitting where I saw them in the grass next to that shoe.

This story doesn't seem to be that impaired. 

It also has the benefit of some really great Aussie Sense Of Humour.  Love the way the Australians think, even if they are upside down.

They don't like that joke either, but hey...

You see a lady lost her phone.  It was found by someone in Albury, New South Wales, Australia.  They took it to the police department, being good people who do that sort of thing.  Lo and Behold they were able to get into the phone.  There was no passcode.  I am assuming they couldn't find the person's own personal information but they were able to get onto her Facebook software and post a selfie.

Of the police.  Told her that she should come and get her phone because it's safe.  They also said that she should use a passcode to lock the phone. 

Of course if there was a passcode and no personal information on the phone, the police would just have to hope that this person came to them and asked.  Small bit of circular logic.

What I do is I have a passcode, however I also have some ICE on the phone. 

ICE stands for "In Case Of Emergency".  All the first responders know to look for that sort of information, although it is a bit vague where they look for it. 

I made it easy.  On my lock screen in Android, you can go into the settings and personalize it.  I added a message "ICE 954-xxx-xxxx".  Yes, a phone number, No, you may not have it.

Someone presses the button to check to see if they can get in to the phone and if they're honest, I'll get my phone back. 

Honest people do still exist.

So add a little ICE to your phone if you can, I can't tell you if your shiny iPhone has this feature or not.  You could always use the Find My iPhone Feature, and Android has a similar service, but this is easy.

It also might make things easier if you need a wall to hold yourself up.

What is Foistware or Crapware, and Simple Tips To Avoid It

With five different operating systems running here on far too many computers, I see it all the time.

I'm That Guy.  I'll say it this way:  Yes, I can fix your computer, but I won't do it for free.  I'm done with that free stuff.

On the other hand, I hear this too many times.  Someone went out and got a new computer because it's too slow.

The "new-to-me" computer I am using to write this on is a 5 year old.  It's running Windows 8.1 and it's running it quite well.  The one I do most of my professional work on is a 7 year old beast running Linux or/and Windows 7.  My file server is a 12 year old laptop running Windows 7.  That runs well too.  Laptops consume less power and space and do the same job as that beast of a desktop I used to love to build back in the day.

You say "Sure, but you know how to make it go faster".

Yep.  It's simple.  I don't allow software foisted on me.  Crapware.  Foistware.

I was giving someone an old computer once who was staying for a few days.  Recently.  The day after he got the computer he had two pieces of Foistware already installed.

He got it when he went to install Skype.  I guess he wanted to be spied on, but he also wanted to talk to people in his family that was scattered all over the globe.  So I told him to go find the download and install.

Wrong person to do that to.  He went to a "Partnered Download Site" I was told.  Red lights and fire engine sirens went off in my head.  He ended up with a toolbar on the browser and a redirected home page.  I growled at him, fixed it, then sent him on his way.

Two very simple rules to avoid this kind of garbage.

First, make certain you are going to the software vendor's approved site for downloads.  That means it's going to require you, and not someone else, to do the research for you.  Skype is pretty simple, it's a Microsoft product, so go to Microsoft to find it.  That takes care of the honest software producers.

Second, always, and I do mean ALWAYS, when you are installing the software use the Advanced install.  When you are installing, actually read the page that is presented.  Don't simply click "Next".  That's how you get the crap installed in the first place.  That helps to take care of most of the dishonest software producers.


You don't ever need a toolbar on your browser.  If you get one, remove it through your control panel's "Programs and Features" list of programs.  There are way too many programs to list here, but you will then be able to remove the "feature" by double clicking on the name of the program.  Other more evil toolbars are actually more like a virus, and you will need to do research on how to get rid of them. 

If it truly is a virus, it gets much more complex, but here's one way of fixing all that garbage.

That is the same place you can go to when you find yourself with a program needs to be removed, such as anything is riding along and doing "useful" things like presenting you with ads or anything by McAfee.

Why do I mention McAfee specifically?  Adobe Flash.  If you aren't careful, when you do a security update for them, you will end up with the helpfully named "McAfee Security Scan Plus". 

You don't need it.  More "Foistware".  All this "Foistware" slows you down.  You can get rid of it, or you could get a new PC and start over.  One requires less time than the other.  Since many computer stores that you can actually visit have a nasty habit of trying to upsell you to a more expensive model, you should try to delay that particular task as long as possible.

Basically be careful and watch what you're doing.  It is, after all, your computer.  Just because a particular NEW! and shiny piece of software is "suggested" to you by something you actually want, doesn't mean that you need the blasted thing.

In return, you may be able to skip a new computer next year.

How great would that be?  An extra couple hundred bucks in your pocket?  Or Pounds, or Euro?

You'll thank me later.

Weirded Out By Your Neighbor's Drone? Create a NoFlyZone.org

I'm amused at this and haven't decided whether to put my address in the database or not.

What the website noflyzone.org does is ask your name and address and email address and it will look it up and create a "Geofence".

While I'm not too happy about having my email address used, I have a gmail account for that sort of thing, it seems pretty simple.

The theory behind it is as well, but of course, it will only protect you from the honest neighbor.  Dishonest folks will bypass that sort of thing, or at least they can at this point.

What happens is that a Drone has software to guide it.  You can't go over a certain height.  You can't fly over an airport.  You can't fly over a military base.

That sort of thing.

How does it do that?  There is a database of excluded areas in the software that lets your shiny little toy go up and spy on the neighbors.

Now to be fair, there are good uses for these things.  Exploring your own property, taking footage of a festival, and other public events.

Here's little Johnny's little league practice from 40 feet up!  Ok, here's little Johnny's little league practice until that pop fly took the drone out.

Anyway, it all looks at the GPS data, the same data that your phone tells you to turn down that blue road on the map that is really a river, and says that this particular area is not allowed.

The theory is great, but if you have someone who is frustrated by the limitations, there's nothing to say that they can't take the time to reverse engineer the database, select all the data, and hit the delete key.

Oops, no more limitations.

So like I said, it's just for the honest, like you and me.

Well, maybe you.  I don't have a drone.  Although I can think of some amazing video to be shot like the fireworks display that got videoed a while back up in West Palm Beach from the middle of the display.

And if you didn't get anything else out of my blather, have a look at the video.  It's truly beautiful and gives you even more Ooohs and Aaahs than a normal fireworks display!

Like the video says, make sure you watch it in HD!

Getting Your SMS Texts Back on Android After Leaving the IPhone

This is something I usually don't do.  A Reblog.

I'm doing it so I have the info later on and will have to repeat it.  Now you know why I have so many recipes on here - so I can bake and not have to go digging through the "Recipe Box of Doom"!

The backstory is that when Kevin went to The Isle Of Man, I borrowed a shiny old or "new to me" iPhone 4s for two weeks.  The reason is that iMessage on the iPhone will do what passes for an international text for free.  Google's Hangouts works that way too.  But either way you have to have two people on the same hardware.  Either Android or iPhone - but not mixed.  Both systems are proprietary, and I believe that both will not play well with each other.

Since he had the loaner, I went off my beloved Samsung Galaxy S4 for two weeks.   I came back to the S4 because I use the phone like a computer and create content on it like pictures and videos mainly for my own entertainment and use here.   The camera on that iPhone has thankfully been improved in later versions, it was too saturated and too poor and grainy in low light situations.  The software was rubbish since HDR didn't work well at all, but this is also iOS 6 when the current phones get iOS 8.

Got all that?

Anyway, here are the steps - and if you're coming here and want the original, here is the direct link.  I have no pictures here since I followed the steps and it worked first time immediately.  The steps were beyond annoying when I got to iCloud since Apple wants you to stay on their services.  Removing the phone number from iCloud required hunting around in every nook and cranny of the site in order to delete the number from wherever you find it.

Steps:

1)  Before you leave your iPhone, turn off iMessage.  This is done by going into the Settings app, selecting Message, then flicking the slider to off on iMessage.

2)  Remove yourself from iCloud.  On the Mac, there is (or was) an iCloud app that you could do this from.  Since I am normally using Linux or Windows (in that order) I had to go to the website for iCloud.  Start on the settings link (icon) and go through every single aspect, link, and sublink on there.  If you see a phone number, delete it.  It also argued with me to disable "Find My iPhone" in order to proceed with some of this.  I did and chased my tail around until complete and I was dizzy.

I'm sorry I can't be more specific.  I had to go through all of the account details manually myself.

3)  Have all your iPhone friends delete and readd your contacts.   Good luck.  As annoying as the iCloud step was, this one may simply be impossible.  Luckily for me, I had few people iMessage me during the two weeks.  If your contact used iMessage to talk to you, they will not be able to recontact you until Apple's servers all realize that you have dropped off of iMessage - that could be as much as 45 days, however with me it was instant.

4)  Ask your readded friends to "Send Message as Text Message" on their iPhone.  Yes, seriously.  They're going to wonder if they really want you as friends at this point.  Hopefully you don't lose too many as a result.

5)  Wait 45 days before using your new non iPhone on this number.  I had to ask myself whether they were serious about this one, but apparently either I was lucky or this particular bullet is old news.  It was in my case.

6)  Text "STOP" to 48369 .  That's the Apple support guy's hint.  It worked for me immediately.

After running through all of this, my S4 is working fine.  I SMS Text everywhere, I am not using iMessage anywhere. 

I have read that some people on iPhones hate green text bubbles, and SMS is green while iMessage is blue.  All I have to say to that is grow up since there are worse things to hate.

First world problems, really!

Youtube Prefers HTML5 Video to Flash - But What About All That Old Stuff?

Flash is one of those necessary evils.  It was like Java, reflexively installed onto computers that weren't really quite up to the task of running it. Just checked, nope, I don't have Java - and you should not either.

The computer would bog down, act cranky, and even crash when Flash was running.  Flash also has persistent cookies that you had to remember to delete.  Some people would have those cookies for years.  Security is a bear.

But there is one more nail is in Flash Player's coffin.  Youtube is now preferring HTML5 over Flash when you watch videos there.

Why is that important?

More and more Flash had been the target of people wanting to hijack passwords, insert viruses, and track your movements with those persistent cookies.  Adobe had put more and more patches into it and it became a joke.  Start the computer, patch Flash, restart the computer and do your work - every single day. 

Worse, some people that I supported would simply tell the update check to go away and never come back.

You are getting closer to the day you can do that for good. Many of us already have.

My Linux computer, currently Xubuntu, is not even supported on current Flash Player, and I did an uninstall of it a couple weeks back.  I didn't see the value of keeping an old piece of software on something that was running well without it and I almost never used.

My windows computer will get the same treatment.

About the only thing I ever do with Flash is to watch videos on Youtube.  The few games that I have kept over the years will get deleted.

That's about the only problem that I see with this.  Videos can be streamed using "native tools" but the content that was created in Flash will simply go away.  Quite a lot has been created in Flash over the years, even a few Broadcast TV Programs, and many commercials as well.

After all, when was the last time you played a video tape?  Beta?  VHS?  Vinyl Records?

That is the kind of problem that Librarians have.  Content on a platform that is unsupported.  Music on Cylinder Beeswax Records from the Edison era.  78 RPM records.  Heck, I even have a few 45s floating around here.  Silly looking 7 inch donuts.

For most of us, it's simply easier to find the track elsewhere and save it on something new.  But for librarians, especially archival libraries, they have to worry about that sort of thing every day.

Anyone still have and use a zip disc?  Nope?  Didn't think so!

So the net result to you is that if you are running one of the four major browsers in one of the top four major operating systems on the desktop/laptop you're fine.  Just make sure your browser is up to date.  Firefox, Internet Explorer, Chrome, and Opera all work with HTML5.

See, that's easy!

The iPhone and Android based phones will typically use the Youtube client or the browser will take care of it.

One aside though, with Android, it's usually recommended that you do not use the base browser and go out and grab either Firefox or Chrome.  The reason is that if you are on an older version of Android, Google is not going to support the old "Browser" browser.

So it's just safer that way.  Listen to big brother even if it is a bother.

Ok?

Windows 7 - You Have Five Years Left

Start the drum beating.

Microsoft reminded us that yesterday, January 13, 2015, that they stop all support for Windows 7 on January 14, 2020.

Now for most people they will yawn and move on.  After all they will wear out the cheap $250 laptop they are using now and move onto another cheap $250 laptop by then, sliding it under the bed or into the closet and forgetting about it until cleaning day.

"Hey!  I need to do something about that old computer!".

For large businesses who haven't even migrated onto Windows 8, they will look at the notices and hopefully begin to plan.  It is five years in the future, and while you still can get Windows 7 today, the machines they buy today will still be in use in three years, and possibly five.

Most people just shrug and accept the operating system that comes with the computer anyway.  It's easier and you don't have to worry about it until it gets too many viruses and you start looking for an answer.  At $200 per "In Store" virus removal at a big box store's "Squad", it is probably cheaper to just "move on" and get new at the low end.

It's not one of those doom and gloom things, after all.  You have five years.  The machine you are using to read this blather will most likely be "recycled" but it is something to consider.

If you are one of those poor folks who has soldiered on with Windows Vista, you have until April 11, 2017 - a mere two years and a bit.  Then the most hated operating system since Windows 8.0 will be completely unsupported, just like the dearly departed Windows XP.

To be fair, once you get all the Service Packs, Bug Fixes, and Additional Changes installed in Windows Vista, it works fairly well.  It's just bloated, slow, and you'll be better off on Windows 8.1 as well.

But for Windows 7, this means that you will still get patches, just no new features.  Virus updates, bug fixes, and any other patches will get sent along as usual, but nothing really new.

Oh, and about that old computer?  If it runs Windows 7, it probably can run Windows 8.  If it runs Windows 7, I am certain it can run some variation of Linux, and if you really are nervous about support, some of those server versions of Linux are supported for another 15 years while others get another 5 with easy upgrade paths.

After all, that is what this blog is written on - Linux on a hand me down computer.  But Linux isn't for everyone, even if I did train a 69 year old lady and her 35 year old son how to use it. 

Great story for an interview, though!

Microsoft Discontinuing Their Advanced Notification Service for Patches

Not the best news to come out of Redmond in a while. 

For Mom and Pop, they'll get the news the way they always had, their machine will restart on a Tuesday or Wednesday, they'll ask someone what is going on, and they'll hear "Patch Tuesday" out of their grand kids or their children, shrug and go on.  It's all automatic, isn't it?

For Businesses and IT support people, this Advanced Notification Service is more important. 

What happened was that it gave someone in the know the advanced notice that Microsoft was going to push a patch to their computers at some level on Patch Tuesday, typically the Second Tuesday of the Month.  It would tell them what the patch would do, and let them know some more background info on the patch.

Great.  It would also warn these people that if your computer is broken when it forces a restart, you may have to back out the patch and restore to an earlier time.  It may allow them a cushion of time to test their servers, create extra backups, revisit whether their computer security policies are up to date.

That Good Computer Hygene is a part of Information Technology.  They're made by people, people sometimes have an oops.  Best to let them know what's up and give advanced warning.

The reason you need this information is that it's entirely possible your entire business sits on "That Computer In The Corner".  They may not know what it does, but they do know it's an important box.  They may call it The Server in hushed tones, and give it offerings of tapes from time to time.

They hopefully have backed the machine up, made sure that they could gracefully reverse changes and so forth.

For my own sanity, I turned off automatic updates years ago, and keep turning it off every time I get a new machine or upgrade one.  I then make it a point to manually go to Windows Update and get "up to date" a couple days later.

The reasoning I have behind that is that while Microsoft is diligent in making sure that things work, their tests don't involve the machine that is in my lap in this exact moment.  That patch may be great on the box sitting three timezones away, but it may break when it gets to me, specifically. 

I tend to be on the trailing edge with Windows Update for that reason.

The blog posting that Microsoft made did say that the service will be available for a fee so their largest customers can manage their server farms with the information that isn't getting out so widely.

Information leaks, it's like carrying water in a leaky bucket.  Information will get all over your shoes and water the grass on the way in from the well.

But it does make things a bit less secure since Information is best used when it is widely spread.  It also puts the onus back on the individual or the person in the business who is charged with maintaining them.

Hopefully everyone has their Backups and their Restore Points set, right?

Oops. Caught myself there. It has been a week or three since I have done a proper backup.  Happens to the best of us and the rest of us.

While Manually updating Windows Update is what I personally do, it is a bit annoying and it is something you have to remember to do.  On the other hand, Automatic Updates is a bit like flying in an airplane without a seatbelt.  It is safer to fly than drive, but once in a long time something happens and you hit some turbulence.

It's all up to you and that is what I think Microsoft is telling us - Security through updates are up to you, after all it is your data and your computer.  Just be aware best practices and of what is going on around you.