I’ve known for a long time – in fact ever since my Librarian colleagues brought it to my attention and advised me to use it with great care – that Wikipedia was, and is, not a reliable source for information. Along with the myth of “just google it” to get information on almost anything … and then not subsequently and consciously make a decision on whether the search results returned were reliable, or even the best, the other myth has been “just look it up on wikipedia”.
I’ve subscribed to this myth – quite literally – donating regularly when asked, thinking that a collective is, and was, a good way to collect and curate information – harnessing the power, enthusiasm and knowledge of the crowd to plant, weed and publish articles. Whilst I realised that it could NEVER be an authoritative reference source, I accepted it as a good, quick and easy way of looking things up. My online dictionary/encyclopedia. Not any more.
I’ve written about why this came to my attention on my other blog – “Just thoughts …” in this article – “Well this is fascinating, and very disturbing …” but I thought it important to bring it to your attention on this blog as well. The issue is that reputable professionals are being targeted by anonymous “editors” on Wikipedia and having entries about them taken down.
As I understand it – and please add to my knowledge if incomplete or incorrect – the way Wikipedia works is that once you’ve established the right to create an entry – a page – that article can be modified through voting up or down proposed changes. Beyond that however it would appear that if you have a privileged position – obtained it would seem solely by virtue of the amount of your activity – you can propose deletion of any other entry, and then it’s up to others to vote to keep an article, or indeed support the deletion. It is therefore very easy to co-ordinate an attack on a Wikipedia page to have it removed. In the case of an individual, if they didn’t create the page for themselves, no reference will be made to the person targeted, they do not have any rights to object, they may not even know the page written about them is under discussion for deletion. They can cease to exist on Wikipedia!!!
So we have an extension to our world of fake news; that is the deletion of truth. What is the world coming to!
Organising and tidying-up – Part 2 – 20 Dec 2018
Boot-up
Google and Browser – OK?
“Short for web browser, a browser is a software application used to locate, retrieve and display content on the World Wide Web, including webpages, images, video and other files. As a client/server model, the browser is the client run on a computer or mobile device that contacts the Web server and requests information. The web server sends the information back to the browser which displays the results on the Internet-enabled device that supports a browser.
Today’s browsers are fully-functional software suites that can interpret and display HTML Web pages, applications, JavaScript, AJAX and other content hosted on web servers – this makes a browser a platform for running web-applications (like your banking application) in its own right. This means that some websites stipulate which browser you must use to access their services. Many browsers offer plug-ins which extend the capabilities of the software so it can display multimedia information (including sound and video), or the browser can be used to perform tasks such as videoconferencing, to design web pages or add anti-phishing filters and other security features to the browser. When used like this it is a fully fledged application environment in much the same way as Microsoft Office, or Adobe Photoshop is.
“The three most popular desktop browsers, according to Net Marketshare, are Chrome, followed by Microsoft Internet Explorer, Firefox and Edge. Other major browsers include Apple Safari and Opera. While most commonly used to access information on the web (or internet), a browser can also be used to access information hosted on Web servers in private networks or intranet.”
I hope that helps. You’ll notice that the word Google isn’t mentioned at all!! However Google does provide us with Chrome. As we discussed (and as I demonstrated) you can decide which search engine to use – this could be Google, or Bing, or Yahoo, or DuckDuckGo – which I am currently using. You decide this in the Settings of your browser.
News
Wikipedia -I won’t be donating to them anymore!
The usual Facebook story – this time about disillusioned journalists employed to fact-check pages …
“They’ve essentially used us for crisis PR,” said Brooke Binkowski, former managing editor of Snopes, a factchecking site that has partnered with Facebook for two years. “They’re not taking anything seriously. They are more interested in making themselves look good and passing the buck … They clearly don’t care.”
Google is above the law – in NZ it seems
Google Lens appears on the iPhone (iOS) – here’s Google’s update report, and Google Maps tells you where to go, not just how to get there.
File Organisation
The problem … duplicates, versions all over the place, unable to find “stuff”. No escape from the problem – it has to be sorted out. However help may be at hand.
Using DupeGuru for both documents and photos – https://lifehacker.com/the-best-duplicate-file-finder-for-windows-1696492476 and https://home.bt.com/tech-gadgets/computing/how-to-find-and-remove-duplicate-files-and-photos-on-your-pc-11363985986930and https://dupeguru.voltaicideas.net/
Organising and tidying-up – Part 1 – 6 Dec 2018
Boot-up
We had a lively discussion at which members raised issues connected to their network falling-out; possible reasons why this might be – for example clashing with a neighbour’s network; solid walls in old houses – but felt that this sounded like a hardware, or CONFIGURATION problem that only the ISP (Internet Service Provider) could fix with an engineer’s visit.
I mentioned my problems with upgrading an iMac and how I decided – having looked at the work involved – that I should take it to Neil’s workshop … We will fix your PC. [Update: I’ve just spoken to him and he’s explained the risk in doing the job and that of course that risk needs to be passed on to me, so I’m going to have to think about it!]
We also through the meeting talked about browsers and search engines. I referred you to the post I wrote a few weeks back – “Just Google it …” – I’ve also researched a couple of sources for a good definition of what a browser does, this is the best I could come up with …
“Short for web browser, a browser is a software application used to locate, retrieve and display content on the World Wide Web, including webpages, images, video and other files. As a client/server model, the browser is the client run on a computer or mobile device that contacts the Web server and requests information. The web server sends the information back to the browser which displays the results on the Internet-enabled device that supports a browser.
Today’s browsers are fully-functional software suites that can interpret and display HTML Web pages, applications, JavaScript, AJAX and other content hosted on web servers – this makes a browser a platform for running web-applications (like your banking application) in its own right. This means that some websites stipulate which browser you must use to access their services. Many browsers offer plug-ins which extend the capabilities of the software so it can display multimedia information (including sound and video), or the browser can be used to perform tasks such as videoconferencing, to design web pages or add anti-phishing filters and other security features to the browser. When used like this it is a fully fledged application environment in much the same way as Microsoft Office, or Adobe Photoshop is.
“The three most popular desktop browsers, according to Net Marketshare, are Chrome, followed by Microsoft Internet Explorer, Firefox and Edge. Other major browsers include Apple Safari and Opera. While most commonly used to access information on the web (or internet), a browser can also be used to access information hosted on Web servers in private networks or intranet.”
I hope that helps. You’ll notice that the word Google isn’t mentioned at all!! However Google does provide us with Chrome. As we discussed (and as I demonstrated) you can decide which search engine to use – this could be Google, or Bing, or Yahoo, or DuckDuckGo – which I am currently using. You decide this in the Settings of your browser.
We also looked briefly at these three posts on the website
Sextortion (Private site)
Subscription services (Public)
Creating an online magazine (Public)
News
Quora gets hacked
… and so does the Marriott
Google Fi brings WiFi to the masses
A change in direction for tumblr
Google’s Wing delivery drones to be tested in Finland
BT begins to take Huawei kit out of it’s forthcoming 5G network
and finally … the trials and tribulations of Facebook continue
Password managers
How do they work – I will just be describing how LastPass works, but others will be similar …
“LastPass is a browser extension that generates, stores, and fills in passwords. It makes practicing good security a little easier, by letting you generate unique, random, very long passwords for each website you go to. If one website is compromised, attackers only have access to your account on that one website, and only until you change the password.
“On the backend, the security of your LastPass vault hinges on the “master password”. When you create your LastPass account, the vault is encrypted with the master password. The master password, thus, is the key to the vault, which is protected by mathematics. For a decent password, it would take longer than the age of the universe to crack your password and enter your vault. On top of this, LastPass artificially makes logging in take *much* more time (on the order of a few seconds, but this adds up to billions of years for a brute force attack) and thus more difficult to attack.
“LastPass never sees the “raw” contents of your vault. When you log in, your master password is scrambled through a one-way hash function, and sent to LastPass. LastPass compares this with the hash they have on file, and if everything checks out, they send your encrypted vault to your computer. Your computer then decrypts your vault using the master password, and stores it for the duration of your session.
“In the unlikely event that LastPass is compromised, or LastPass receives a government request for your information, all LastPass has is your hashed master password, and an encrypted vault. These are both absolutely worthless without the master password itself. The only way around this is to try every possible password to see if it matches the hashed version. This is why resetting your LastPass master password also empties your vault.”
[Source: Quora but see also Guide to getting started with LastPass]
You can increase your security by using two-factor authentication linked to your master password, but if you feel your master password is strong enough that should probably be sufficient.
What do you need to do?
Two approaches – from the browser, or by downloading an application and then installing browser extensions (see article above). The first way is probably the easiest, watch this!
What’s the choice?
Well obviously LastPass, but here is a review of other password managers as well.
Live Demonstration!!!
We didn’t have enough time to get round to looking at email – clients and accounts, so I’ve transferred the content I’ve prepared over to a new post for the first meeting in the new year.
Sextortion, Have I been pwned and Password Managers
We’ve discussed this a couple of times now this term, so I was interested in seeing it pop-up on the BBC website. Here’s the link to a short video …
www.bbc.co.uk/news/stories-46323625
I’ll be looking at password managers next time, but in case you can’t make it, I’ll write-up a post as well. I use LastPass, but there are others. I also pay a small amount for it so that it can be used on more than one device.
Is it time to move to more paid subscription services?
I have to admit, the events of the past few weeks have made me look much more seriously at paying more for the IT services that I’ve taken for free up until now. Of course they’ve never been free, I’ve had to put up with the adverts and the email messages I don’t really want – alerting me to this deal, or that deal, and I’ve willingly put up with that as a price worth paying for the service I’ve been receiving. But two events have changed my mind, and moreover I feel the IT world is actually changing slowly as a consequence of the mistakes (to be exceptionally generous) of Facebook and Google; and the decision of Apple to switch more attention to Services, targeting this as their main income stream for the future, and not relying on Hardware alone.
So what were the earth-shaking events in the Harrison-IT-world? Well the first was Google’s announcement that having hidden the news of a potential security weakness in an API, for several months (presumably to secure their stock-market price at the time Facebook was struggling, and presumably also after ensuring that the potential breach was secured) they used this as an excuse to kill-off (sorry “sunset”) Google+ next August. Now this service was not the success Google hoped it to be, and most definitely has not generated the revenue they hoped it might, but for me, my family and for many communities (particularly of photographers – because of the close linkage to Google Photos) – it was a hugely valuable tool. Now, we have to look for another social media platform. It could be Google Photos – Google may have plans to “enhance” it to take on features from Google+, or it could be another platform, but it’s just a pain in the neck having to move off something we’re used to! Google have real history with “sunsetting” tools that people get used to using [Thanks to @MrSimonWood for this link.]
The second was Flickr’s announcement that they were going to limit their Free account to 1000 images – excluding those that were licensed under Creative Commons, which a lot of mine are. They are encouraging users to take out a Pro subscription to remove restrictions and allow more and larger images to be uploaded. This didn’t meet with the same “horror” feeling. I immediately felt that this was a decision that would secure the future long-term of the service under the new owners – SmugMug. [A feeling that I didn’t have when 500px made changes to their platform which led me to delete my account.] So I immediately subscribed and took advantage of the first-year discount price (still available for a few more days I believe).
So what am I saying. I’m saying that if there’s a service that I really want, and I really need some feeling that it’s going to be around for a while, I should pay for it. I wasn’t given that option by Google – shame on them; it appears I’ll never be given that opportunity by Facebook. Both of them are essentially marketing and advertising platforms. I don’t see either of them being able to develop a hybrid model as Flickr has been able to do.
This all makes Adobe’s Creative Cloud Photography Plan and Microsofts’ Office 365 seem so much more sensible. I’ll continue with the former, but decline the latter as my roots are now firmly planted in the Apple world where I look to see how they will develop their Service offerings in Music, TV, Home and Car fields.
Interesting times.
Getting started with digital photography: Part 3
Finally, and for another day, a few resources I use and can recommend …
DSLR Tips – http://www.dslrtips.com/ and Camera Labs – http://www.cameralabs.com/ – really good for tips, equipment reviews and UK-based too.
DxOMark – http://www.dxomark.com/ – rather technical reviews of equipment and cameras but interesting to look at when you’re considering which lens to buy.
The Photographers’ Ephemeris – http://photoephemeris.com/ – I really ought to use this site, it’s a miscellany of information that advises you on sunrise/sunset at locations, etc etc – so that you can do some planning before you go to a location.
… and the following books …
The Digital Photography Book (parts 1-5), Scott Kelby, Peachpit Press
… and the following books …
The Digital Photography Book (parts 1-5), Scott Kelby, Peachpit Press
"It's getting to be a bit like Christmas" – 22 Nov 2018
Boot-up
These were the suggestions from last time that you came up with …
Password Manager [Aelfryn]
Creating and updating a website [Martin]
Google settings [Paul]
Facebook settings [Me ???]
Windows settings [Don]
Backups (and archiving) [Stella]
Labels (next session) [David]
Photos – organisation and folders (finding) and editing [Toni]
Video-editing [Toni]
Building an internet browsing computer using Linux from an old laptop [David – Digital Projects maybe]
Have I forgotten any? Send me any further suggestions.
Charging your phone overnight
News
Not much …
Facebook execs deny knowing anything!
YouTube video-streaming in Europe may be curtailed due to EU Copyright legislation.
Google runs into “problems” with use of health data.
Black Friday, Voucher Codes, etc. etc.
… anything else???
Labels
You need a printer! If you’re using an iPad/iPhone – you need a printer that supports AirPrint.
Sorry … nothing I could try out for Android tablets, or phones – does anyone want to research this?
Finding a solution that works on every machine is challenging. Using Google suite the best bet – Contacts, Sheets and Docs with an add-on from Avery.
Start with Contacts. If you don’t use gmail for contacts, go to the Contacts in your eMail application – you need to Export chosen Contacts as a .csv file.
So for Google (gmail) – go to contacts.google.com …
You also need to add the Avery Label “add-on” to Google Docs
– docs.google.com
Then in Google Sheets (sheets.google.com), you Import the .csv file
Back to Google Docs and choose new merge from Avery Label Merge Add-on …
Select the Avery Product Code – L7160 – 21 labels is a pretty good starting point …
… and then the .csv file you want to merge …
Select the fields that you want to print from the panel on the right-hand side of the Google Docs screen …
… and then Merge at the bottom of the Panel. A message should appear telling you that a new document Avery_L7160 has been created, and it should look something like this …
… which you should then be able to print – once you’ve loaded the Label Printer Paper!
Also a demo of using Label Printer for iPad/iPhone.
Here’s a good summary of how to do it in Word, Pages (Mac) and Google Docs
Social media – is it worth getting involved? – 8 Nov 2018
Boot-up
Meeting – 25th October. Creating a magazine – any questions or issues arising? Apologies for not writing the article – I will get round to it asap!
What’s a VPN, and should you consider using one? But first – How does the Internet work; how can you confuse it? Or … how to use your mobile phone in Starbucks to access your bank!!!!!!
We discussed split train ticket fare websites. Sites where you can say what your journey is, and you will be given a set of tickets that split the journey into pieces using different tickets. Remember NOT to book seats though, otherwise you’ll need to move your seat, otherwise you just present the correct ticket for the portion of the journey you’re travelling. I used to travel from Cardiff to Paddington with tickets from Cardiff to Swindon and Swindon to Paddington and that saved quite a bit of money.
These are the sites that offer split-ticketing. I can’t give a recommendation, but I think I used the first one – Split Ticketing. Others you could try Split your ticket, Raileasy, SplitMyFare and TicketClever.
What would you like to get out of these sessions; any themes or features you’d like me (or someone else – volunteers welcome) to lead a discussion on.
These were the suggestions you came up with …
Password Manager [Aelfryn]
Creating and updating a website [Martin]
Google settings [Paul]
Facebook settings [Me ???]
Windows settings [Don]
Backups (and archiving) [Stella]
Labels (next session) [David]
Photos – organisation and folders (finding) and editing [Toni]
Video-editing [Toni]
Building an internet browsing computer using Linux from an old laptop [David – Digital Projects maybe]
If I’ve forgotten any, please add as a comment.
News
Flickr goes subscription – let’s have that discussion again about free software. Apple vs Microsoft vs Google. [I’m going to write a Public blogpost on this one.]
Social media
It’s important to remember that almost without exception (WhatsApp and Instagram might have been that exception once) these are advertising, PR and marketing tools. They are not free, you just have to accept an intrusion into your lives for the service they provide. Some are more intrusive than others!!!
Facebook – newsfeed, pages, Messenger – hugely popular but now in disgrace somewhat, attempting a charm-offensive. Just remember to Logout!
A couple more rules for Facebook in addition to
Rule 1 – always logout because if you don’t Fb will track whatever you do away from their site;
Rule 2 – think very hard before you post photos; their terms and conditions allow them to do whatever they like with your images, and what you write;
Rule 3 – don’t use Facebook Identity Services to login to another website when it’s offered as an alternative to creating a login identity with a username and password – see Rule 1 above, for the reason why. [Using Google credentials is probably acceptable.]
WhatsApp – an encrypted messaging app primarily for mobile devices, owned by Facebook. Their previous owners have now left; this may give rise to monetising of the platform – look forward to targeted ads some day soon!
Instagram – can be almost as annoying as twitter for promoting the trivial, eg photos of cute cats which you can like, or comment on. Allows you to easily alter the appearance of your photos with filters. Aimed at mobile devices for upload, but can be viewed on a desktop machine too. A marketing platform for many companies with links to their websites. It is also owned by Facebook and its original owners have also now left the company, so expect similar directed advertising, and tracking of what you’re doing, and where you’re doing it some day soon!
Twitter – simple public chat; announcements; keeping-in-touch with friends, family and colleagues and letting your thoughts be known by all. A private messaging facility is also available. Promotes the trivial, annoying at times, but hugely influential in “breaking stories” quickly (instantly); good that you’re limited to a certain number of words.
YouTube – simply the most popular video-sharing platform owned by Google; it allows you to comment on videos that are publicly shared, or on private ones you’ve been invited to view. You can embed your videos in a website, or share a link to them in an email. If you’re taking videos on your phone, you should at sometime seriously consider uploading them to YouTube
Flickr – now owned by SmugMug, it used to owned by Yahoo! (Oath), is the most popular photo-sharing site – again you have the option for private sharing of images, but the strength of the platform is in the ability to share with like-minded people your passion for photography. There are other sites, such as Google Photos, but they are really more photo storage sites.
LinkedIn – associated with the business and world of work; a marketplace for job-seekers and job-recruiters; a place for you to display your skills as well as keep in touch with former colleagues.
Pinterest – much-liked by those who use it, I gather, but I just don’t see the need (perhaps that’s me). You gather together collections of pins, of your interest, and others add to them, or comment on them. I gather recipes are popular!
Snapchat – introduced for teens and young people, it has the possible strength of reducing their digital footprint as snaps are removed after they’ve been seen by the recipient. The facility to build “Stories” is a recent addition which allow public sharing of snaps which are then permanently displayed (until user-deleted, I presume) rather than just temporarily displayed to named recipients.
Reddit – a place for opinionated people who want to argue their point. It has a nice voting mechanism so that views can be upgraded, or downgraded, bu those that read the posts, or comments. Essentially for commentary on events and news items.
Tumblr – owned by Yahoo! Its death has been forecast for many years, very much a niche-market of specialist users – micro-blogging. Simple publishing of ideas, and views to people of a similar mind who follow your writings.
Blogger – Google blogging platform; had the advantage of its close integration with Google+ (Google’s attempt to rival Facebook), but now beginning to look more than a little dated. Very few options for customisation.
Wordpress – two options available with this blogging/website creation platform – a commercial (but free) offering (this link is a site my daughter built) which is managed for you with more limited customisation and the ability to pay for extended services, eg backup; and a free service which you manage yourself and is almost limitless in what and how you can customise its look and feel through themes, and functionality through plugins, on your own hosted domain.
Here’s a review of the most popular Social Media sites currently (updated Oct 18, 2018)
And here’s a directory of my Internet presence on about.me.
Creating a "magazine" – 25 Oct 2018
Boot-up
Meeting – 11th October. Ted Richards was the Convenor of the Group that day looked at Family History software – any questions or issues arising?
Changes to Thought grazing – https://thoughtgrazing.org
Logging in to Thought grazing – any problems or issues.
Password: Ca3rdyddU3A
Sextortion!!!!
Email scam threatens to show you watching pornography to your friends
An old scam with a new “flavour”
How safe are you online? 10 Questions to ask yourself
Another Facebook security breach
What to do if your Facebook account has been hacked
Google gets itself into trouble too by not telling users of a security hole and kills off Google+
The Brave browser – follow-up
also The best secure browser
News
Apple and Samsung fined for slowing-down older smartphones
Deleting your search history if you use Google
Fake review factories on Facebook
How to spot a fake five-star review on Amazon
Creating a magazine using Feedly, Pocket and Flipboard
Public article will follow – “Creating a Lightroom magazine”
Curating the web
Step 1 – create a Feedly account
Step 2 – select websites you want to get an RSS feed from [What is an RSS feed?]
Step 3 – check periodically to see what has “popped-up” in your feed reader.
[NB You can also download an app for your phone or tablet for Feedly]
Saving for another day, or for off-line reading (bookmarking+)
Step 1 – create a Pocket account
Step 2 – save to Pocket from your browser (perhaps using a browser extension), or from a feedly sharing icon
Step 3 – tag your articles, and read at your leisure, or when you want to
[NB You can also download an app for your phone or tablet for Pocket]
Creating a magazine to share with others
Step 1 – create a Flipboard account
Step 2 – create a Magazine, and decide whether to make it Private or Public
Step 3 – add articles to your magazine from Pocket, or from your web browser
[NB You can also download an app for your phone or tablet for Flipboard]
Starting to Trace your Family Tree (meeting notes from 10th Oct 2018)
Start by writing down what you already know of your family history.
Gather together any birth, death and marriage certificates your already have for the family.
Talk to other family members about their knowledge of the family.
Take copies of any certificates or family pictures they may have.
Then you are ready to start using online resources to help expand that knowledge.
Most important sources of information:
- Births, death & marriages cartificates
- Census information 1841 – 1911
Useful Websites
- Ancestry.com – subscription site / free at library
- Find My Past – subscription site / free at library
- General Register Office – Free – needs registration
- https://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/
- Births up 100 yrs ago, deaths up to 50 yrs ago
- Can order certificates via this site
- FreeBMD – Free
- https://www.freebmd.org.uk up to 1983
- Family Search – registration
- https://www.familysearch.org/
Accessing ‘Find My Past’ and ‘Ancestry’ in Cardiff Libraries
- You will need your library number and a library PIN number.
- Log into one of the computers in the library – note you may have to reserve a computer at busy times. At other times you will be able to walk in and start using one.
- Double-Click on iBistro Library
- Double-click on e-Reference
- Double-click on either Ancestry or Find My Past
Recording your Family Tree
As you build up your family tree you will start to want to record all the information you have. There are various ways of doing this:
The various websites (subscription and free) now enable you to record your family tree e.g. Ancestry.com. You can sometimes choose to share that information with others but sometimes it is the default setting to share the information so take care. Some sites automatically make information on living members confidential, others do not.
Many people purchase a bit of family history software to record their family tree. I personally use Family Historian.
I also sketch out my family tree in Excel.