Category: Advice

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Starting to Blog with WordPress.com

I promised a tutorial on how to setup a WordPress account and create your own website. Here it is. It doesn’t cover writing posts and the like, that is covered elsewhere in the WordPress tutorials, where you could start at Lesson 5,  but it does get you to the point when you can begin to be creative. Hope you have some fun!

Step 1 – Go to WordPress.com and click on Start with Free …

Step 2 – The following screen will show …

Step 3 – Click on Get started, and you will be presented with a choice, to setup a WordPress.com account, or create one linked to your Google (Gmail) account. I will do the former …

… and supply an email address (it happens to be a Google one) and then a Password. I will then be asked to supply a Username. A Username can only contain lowercase letters and numbers …

You’ve setup your WordPress.com account – remember those details – UserID and Password (as well as the email address you used).

Step 4 – You are now asked some questions to help set up the website.

I suggest you choose the first option for now …

… and then maybe the last one on the next screen …

… then click on Continue with Free on this last Setup screen …

… before you give your website an address – a URL …

Step 5 – I’m not expecting that you’ll own a domain yourself at this stage, so just click on Continue …

WordPress will then check to see whether it can find a unique URL for you to use. There will be one in the list that is Free – select that one …

… ignore all others. You can see I’m going to grab cardiffu3acg.wordpress.com – which is quite a nice one …

… so I’ll Confirm my choice!

Step 6 – I’ll change the name of the site on the next screen from cardiffu3acg to …

[NB – This website was not created with this URL, it was used purely for demonstration purposes and does not exist.]

That should then be accepted and you’ve got a website. Congratulations! You can then go on to supply a little more information before you start to write your first Post …

… perhaps do the first one which explains a little more what your site is all about, and then start “playing” with the menu bar on the left-hand side of your browser screen …


… or even Add a New Site!

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Settings III (Windows) and Google Assistant – 23rd May 2019

Boot-up
Any progress with websites?? Here’s the Guide I promised to help you set up a blog using WordPress.com. I’m now thinking that it might be a lot easier to get you started using Blogger, and then for you to transfer information across to WordPress if you wanted to, at a later stage.
I showed you last time how to install LibreOffice, an open-source Microsoft Office compatible replacement, but my son said why don’t you just use Google apps, which of course I do – I was just unsure of whether they worked off-line. They do working in partnership with Google Drive which you get with your Google account and which gives you 15Gb of cloud storage.  Go here to find how to use an “offline” version of the Google apps with Google Drive.
John has offered to lead the session on 13th June. Many thanks – what are you doing?
My ideas for the Computer Group/Digital Projects are still fermenting. It looks as though I’ve got a helper for the winter months as Phil Edwards has offered to lead some sessions, Paul has also offered, is there anyone else who’d like to meet-up to discuss how we can best do this. Given there are offers of helpers, I’m looking to keep the Computer Group running as it is, on alternate Thursdays (2nd and 4th of the month) and finding another time for the Digital Projects – possibly a Tuesday afternoon?
Support for General Meeting 9th July, Chris Higley: Maps of Wales and Maps of War. Thanks for the five members who’ve offered to help – we could still do with more; you’ll have seen the guidance sheet hopefully of what’s involved – not much really. I really have to respond to the Committee tomorrow, so please let me know today if you can assist. Many thanks.
Anything else, issues, problems.
News
Things that might be slowing-down your Home WiFi
Samsung brings Apple TV to some of their 2018 and 2019 SMART TVs meaning no need for an Apple TV(2) box, and you then have access to all your iTunes content, plus access to Apple’s streaming service when it’s launched.
Google Assistant and Sonos working together – Paul may be dealing with this one later, as well he might be referencing this link on making your Smart Home more accessible.
Checking a website link to see if it’s pukka.
How to spot a phishing email.
Switching-off auto-correct in your iPad/iPhone.
Windows 10 settings and Google Assistant
I will run through this page with you, run being the operative word for as you know I’m not a Windows user – so help welcomed …
Guide to Windows 10 settings.
Google Assistant – over to Paul.
What is it  ?
A Speech Interfaced artificial intelligence-powered virtual assistant mainly available on mobile and smart home devices.
Here’s Google’s introduction to what Assistant can do for you.
It can also recognise commands:  Next, Pause, Stop ?
Read aloud Text and Email messages
Listen and send Text and Email messages -but NOT edit them, it just deletes and lets you start again
Open an App
Check your Appointments, Flights, Travel
Create a shopping list …
Translate …
Listen to music …
Show my Pictures …
Navigate to …
And MUCH MUCH More …….
Where is it ?
On a Smart phone, Smart Speaker, and other Smart Devices
I shall concentrate on the Smart Phone Application today using Android phone, but it’s also available on the iPhone and this link shows how it can be installed on an iOS device. However it’s functionality on an iPhone/iPad may not be as extensive as on an Android device because of the restrictions Apple places on links to third-party apps. I’ve tried to find a more recent article than this one, but it shows what can be done on an iPhone/iPad. Perhaps if you’re an Apple user you might prefer to look at what Siri can offer instead?
How do I find it?
Usually Hold Down on the Home Screen Button  (Demo)
Basic tips
A quite comprehensive guide to what Google Assistant can do (using an Android phone) is available on this video; you probably don’t want to watch it all in one session, but can come back to it as your confidence in using the app increases
Other things it can do …… Useful or useless, have fun!
Here’s a comprehensive set of tips on things that Google Assistant can do, and if you want to see a whole range of things that Google Assistant can do (again using an Android phone as the platform) then be sure to watch this short video which although it has some “mindless” suggestions for its use, also has some useful ideas as well.
Finally, if you’d like to see a Review Article (admittedly from Macworld) that compares the various speech activation systems including Cortana and Alexa as well, take a look at this.

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GPS jamming exercises – Ofcom

Thought you might be interested in seeing this. Don’t rely on your GPS signal if you’re within 50 miles of Sennybridge at the beginning of April …
The Ministry of Defence conduct occasional tests on military systems which may result in some loss of service to civilian users of the Global Positioning System (GPS) including in-car navigation devices and networks which rely on GPS signals.
— Read on www.ofcom.org.uk/spectrum/information/gps-jamming-exercises

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Digital image editing – Feb 14th 2019

Boot-up
Any follow-up on our Tidying-up Photos session last time?
Phishing quiz – https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/google-quiz-help-spot-phishing-emails/ – any feedback? [Ted was concerned about providing his details at the start of the Quiz. His fears were understandable, but unnecessary – read the Comment beneath this post, from me.] Jim’s keyboard experience
My iMac adventure [Update: Not only did I get a free drive, but a free screen AND a replacement case which had a dent in it – possibly caused by Apple they admitted/offered/suggested.] Any other member issues?
News
Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram to possibly share same messaging infrastucture – BBC report, Cult of Mac article.
Have yourself a digital calling card, or alternatively create an online presence; for instance – this is me.
Keyless cars at risk of theft. [Sianed advised us that VW are apparently the worst and uses a lined purse for her keys, the same as the one she puts her contactless cards in.] Protect your browsing history with a VPN. [We’ll come back to look at VPNs another day.] Facebook in-house developers blocked by Apple, and Google too!
Google+ closing down in April. [Don raised this issue. If you’ve got a Google+ account then it will cease to work after April 1st. Google allow you to “Takeaway” your data – I gave a link to this in the previous notes – I believe you can’t do the same with your Facebook information.] Google launches apps to help the hard of hearing (volunteers?). [Thanks Ted, Martin and Jim for offering to look at this, which is only (I know see) available for Android devices, so you might not be able to do the testing. Apologies if this applies.] How to Back-up your iCloud Photo Library.
Google’s contribution to Internet Safety Week, including Protecting your data wherever you go on the web.
Mesh WiFi router firm bought by Amazon. [Thanks Paul for volunteering to research Mesh WiFi systems for us for the next meeting.] Samsung’s first TV with Apple’s Airplay 2 now on sale (US only?).
Digital Image Editing using Gimp
Gimp stands for GNU Image Manipulation Program and was written originally for the operating system GNU but has been ported to many other platforms including Windows and MacOS; GNU stands for GNU’s Not Unix; it’s open source software; it’s free and it can be trusted.
You can download Gimp for your computer from this link. User documentation is available from this link, and some tutorials are available here.
So first of all you need to Install Gimp.
For today, I’m just going to concentrate on a couple of areas
A simple introduction to Gimp, including changing the size of an image, and cropping an image.
Using curves to improve the quality of the colour in an image
However, I can’t recommend using Gimp. It’s a techies toy, not really a usable photo-editing tool. So what do I suggest for free photo-editing?
For tablet/smartphone users it has to be Snapseed (from Google) which is available for both Android and iOS platforms. A tutorial on what you can do it with Snapseed is provided here. You could also try Adobe Photoshop Express.
For Windows there’s Adobe Photoshop Express, or you could try Microsoft Photos.
For Mac users you really only have their Photos app as Photoshop Express is not available for MacOS, so it’s Gimp or maybe Fotor which you can get from the Apple Appstore – but I don’t have any experience of using it. I don’t think I can recommend using Picasa any longer.
If you want to do your photo-editing online, then apart from Google Photos and editing your photos stored in iCloud (for Mac users), you should look at Pixlr, which has a whole range of free and chargeable offerings that run from your browser and in particular Pixlr X which doesn’t require Flash, looks really good and easy to use, and is probably better investing time and effort in than trying Adobe Photoexpress Online, which is a bit clunky and requires Adobe Flash Player to be installed.
 
 
 
 
 

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Android Keyboards

A couple of meetings ago I mentioned that a Facebook friend of mine had commented that it was odd that most people still used a QWERTY keyboard on their touch-screens, when others are available. The story being that that keyboard layout was deliberately designed to slow typists down, so that the metal letters of old-fashioned typewriters didn’t stick together.
It’s not quite the same thing, but I had a reason to type a dollar sign with my tablet last Monday, only to find that it wasn’t available on the keyboard. Yesterday I worked out how to access a US keyboard with it, without downloading an app. However it wasn’t intuitive.
My Nexus 7 came with the Gboard keyboard already installed. Going to Settings – Language & input – Gboard – Languages, gave me the opportunity to add a keyboard from a large list, which included nine versions of English. What wasn’t explained, and as I’ve said wasn’t intuitive, is that to switch from one keyboard to another I have to hold down the space bar, and then pick one of the options I’ve added.
To go back to my original point, another option is a Dvorak keyboard layout:-
“Dvorak proponents claim the layout requires less finger motion and reduces errors compared to the standard QWERTY keyboard arrangement. It is claimed that the reduction in finger distance traveled permits faster typing while also reducing repetitive strain injuries, although that claim is controversial.” (Wikipedia)
Worth a try?
 

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Organising and tidying-up – Part 3: Email – 10 Jan 2019

Boot-up
Monty Cohen – funeral Jan 25th
DupeGuru -how did it go?
Browser and Google – OK now?
Ways that Google can track you
How to test your PC for failing hardware
News
TV manufacturers play ball with Apple
Google Maps and CarPlay
Email – clients and accounts
Email doesn’t need to be accessed from a URL using your browser, or to a browser via an icon on your desktop, it can be linked to a mail application. Email is the classic example of a client/server application, where the client (the browser, or an application) makes requests of a remote server. Until the request is made, the information remains unread and unseen on the server. When using a mail application (rather than a browser), the act of opening the application usually starts the download of messages.
Popular clients for Windows – probably Mail for Windows, but if you’ve got Office 365 – you could use Outlook – but it’s probably more geared towards business users and provides more features than you really want, or need (a bit like Microsoft Word and Excel are overkill for us “third-agers”). If you don’t want to use a Microsoft product you could try Mailbird, or if you like using Firefox as a browser, you might want to consider using it’s email partner – Thunderbird.
Popular clients for Mac – probably a no-brainer – Apple Mail because it integrates well with your Mac, but if you want to look at alternatives, you could read this review.
Popular clients (apps) for iOS (iPhone and iPad) – well there’s nothing wrong with the Mail app, but you could try the Gmail app, or the Outlook app (particularly if you’re using Outlook on your laptop, or desktop machine)
Popular clients (apps) for Android – they come with their own email app, so there will be a Sony mail app, and Samsung mail etc. etc. But they will also almost certainly come with a Gmail app as well, so there’s probably no real reason to opt for anything different if you’re using Gmail.
There are other alternatives for your mobile device but I will just focus on Mail (iOS) and Gmail (Android and iOS).
Why would you want to use an email app rather than use a browser-based client. Well …

  1. You can easily combine multiple email accounts into one place
  2. You can store all your mail locally for archive purposes
  3. You can setup your mail so that it sends out email from a different email address using different SMTP servers
  4. You can create multiple email boxes for different purposes, easily apply filters to help you organise your mail
  5. … and probably many more.

What do you need to know?
Your email service is usually provided “free” as part of your internet/broadband package from your ISP (Internet Service Provider). This could be VirginMedia, BTinternet, TalkTalk etc. etc. However it is possible to get a free email service from elsewhere and Yahoo! and Google are examples of such service providers.
There are very good reasons to have a Google account and use Gmail, Google Contacts and Google Calendar, but I’ll leave that for another day. There are less good reasons for having Yahoo! mail and if you rely on that for your email service provision, I would suggest you might consider changing, or at least start using an alternative as well.
How does it all work? Well … email is delivered to your client in one of two methods (protocols) – POP3 (where the message is essentially downloaded to your device) and IMAP (where only an index and a header are initially downloaded, and then if you want to read the message it will be recalled from the server.
Essentially with POP3, the message will normally be deleted from the server after you’ve downloaded it – POP stands for Post Office Protocol and you can see why – it’s very like a Sorting Office. With IMAP the reverse happens, the message will be stored on the server and you actively have to mark it for deletion. This can cause confusion because often you feel you’ve deleted the message on your phone or tablet, but it’s still there when you go to look at your mail on your laptop/desktop. You should therefore remember to mark a setting in your mail app on your phone/tablet to delete the message from the server when you delete it from the phone/tablet. Here’s an article that explains the difference between POP3 and IMAP.
Then your outgoing mail is delivered using a different protocol (or method) called SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) which transfers the message back to your mail provider for ongoing transmission to the recipient.
So … to set up a mail client on a device you need to obtain some information about the POP3 or IMAP address to fetch the mail, and the SMTP address to send the mail. You will also need the username (usually your email address) and password for the mail service you are using. Here’s an example from a self-hosted email service that I use for my websites, this would be an example of  the most difficult configuration you’d ever be likely to encounter.


For some services you may need to set up the client in a browser linked to your mail provider service, but most of the common ones have been set up in the client to do the connections automatically.
For BTinternet …… but be careful …
… and when you go to Settings …

I much prefer Gmail which allows you to do so much more …


Live Demonstration!!! 
iPhone (Mail and Gmail), and then Instructions for Windows Mail [which are provided here].

Here is a link describing how to forward Yahoo mail (NOT BTYahoo! unfortunately) using Classic Yahoo mail interface. You have to go back to the older version to do this.
… and here are the POP and IMAP settings for common email systems (from Microsoft) …
To create (or delete) folders in Mail for Windows, look at this article. If you don’t see the + sign against All Folders, go to the Troubleshooting section at the bottom of that page – the advice is to Close Mail, wait 30secs, then re-open!!!

 

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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/
 

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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.

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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.