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Show of 05-30-2020

Tech Talk May 30, 2020

Email and Forum Questions

  • Email from Bob in Maryland: Dear Doc and Jim, and the irreplaceable Mr. Big Voice. I do love these special “groundhog day/lockdown editions” of Tech Talk Radio. They have their own special charm about them, and I am sure many others would agree with me. I love to tell everyone to leave me alone and not to bother me on Saturday mornings when I put everything else down, and sit down to listen carefully to my three buddies on Tech Talk Radio, Jim, Doc, and of course, the ever-present and amusing, Mr. Big Voice. Doc might recall that I spent a bit of time at Bell Labs and got to know a few of the people there. And here is a talk from one of the computing guys in the Bell Labs Math Center, Hamming, who left long before I got there. But I knew a lot of the people he mentions in this talk. It is sort of interesting to read it and see his insights, frankly. So I thought Doc might like it. And you never know, there might be an idea or two in here for another “Profiles In IT” person. All the best, Love the show, as ALWAYS. Bob in Maryland
  • Tech Talk Responds: Richard Hamming developed the Hamming Code, which is used for error correction in messages send over the Internet. I will feature him in Profiles in IT in a upcoming show. Thanks for the great feedback and keep listening.
  • Email from Tuc in Virginia Beach. Dear Doc and Jim. We have several computers in our home. Recently, I have seen “Spy PC 7.0 Quick Start Guide” in the home. I do not mind if the owner of this booklet uses it on his/her machine, but not on anyone else’s. Can this be installed on other personal computers (which are usually password locked)? I am worried. Tuc in Virginia Beach, VA.
  • Tech Talk Responds: The short answer is yes, absolutely. I think you are right to be concerned. I also think there is an important lesson here for everyone. If your computer is not physically secure, it’s not secure. If you’re away from the machine for any length of time while you are logged in, the door is wide open. Anyone walking by your machine with a boot disc or bootable USB drive could reboot the machine (by pulling the plug, if necessary), boot from their disc, and get access to everything on your machine. Then, just as if you’d left it unlocked in the first place. They can do anything, including installing spyware, reading your data, messing up your files, and doing whatever else they want.
  • If scenarios like this concern you, these are steps I would consider taking:
    • Keep the machine in a locked cabinet or room when not in use.
    • Consider adding a BIOS password required to boot the machine in any way. (This adds security but does not prevent hard-disk theft.)
    • Consider adding a hard-disk password or using whole-disk encryption restricting access to the hard drive completely without the password.
    • Use encryption of some sort on your sensitive data.
    • In your case specifically, I’d get more trustworthy roommates.
  • Email from Kim in Cleveland: Dear Tech Talk. I am using a well-known IP-changer program. It gives me a different IP address that says I am in the Netherlands, Russia, or the USA. What exactly does my own ISP see when I use this? Can they still tell how much I download, for example? Can my ISP see I am using such a thing? This is an interesting question, particularly when it comes to understanding “IP-changing” services. I need you explain this process. I am somewhat confused. Kim in Cleveland, OH.
  • Tech Talk Responds: Your ISP is your Internet Service Provider. They are the company from which you get access to the internet, and to which you connect your computer and other internet-enabled equipment. Your IP is your Internet Protocol (IP) address. That is the unique number that identifies your specific Internet connection. Your IP address is provided by your ISP when you connect.
  • When you connect to a site or service online — even something as simple as a website such as Tech Talk Online, that site’s servers have access to the IP address from which you connected: your IP address. This is required so the server knows where to send the data you requested. You can use a VPN to make it look like you are coming from a different IP address.
  • This requires that you install or configure a VPN service in your operating system, not just your browser. When you connect to anything on the internet, that request is sent first to the VPN service via an encrypted connection, and from there makes its way to whatever site or service you’re trying to use. To that site or service, you “look like” you’re coming from the VPN’s IP address, not your own.
  • Your ISP can see you’re using a VPN, and what specific VPN service you’re using; that’s all. The site or service you visit can see your data, of course, but will see only the IP address of the VPN. The VPN service can see almost everything: your IP address, who you’re connecting to, and any unencrypted data you’re exchanging.
  • Your ISP can generally see that you are using a VPN. They cannot see what websites or other services you connect to through these services, however. What your ISP can see, however, is how much data you are transferring.
  • Email from Conrad in Philadelphia: Dear Tech Talk: I was recently let go and am looking for a job . I am using LinkedIn to find another job. What is LinkedIn Premium an it is worth it? Conrad in Philadelphia.
  • Tech Talk Responds: LinkedIn is the largest career-focused social media website on the web. While the site is free to use, there are a lot of features that are only available if you subscribe to LinkedIn Premium. It is a paid upgrade you can get for your LinkedIn account. Premium is primarily intended for current job-hunters, recruiters, and those looking to get new clients to their business. Annual pricing ranges from $29.99/month to $99.95/month, with a free 1-month trial available for all LinkedIn members. However, several features are standard across all tiers of the plan:
  • There are four different tiers of LinkedIn Premium, each intended for a different kind of user.
    • Premium Career: The base plan starts at $29.99 a month, and is for people who are currently hunting for jobs and want to connect with hiring managers. 3 InMail Message credits, profile comparisons, and job resources.
    • Premium Business: This plan starts at $47.99 a month, and is for company owners and those in business development to connect with potential partners and promote their brand. 15 InMail message credits and unlimited views of whose browsing you.
    • Sales Navigator: It starts at $64.99 a month, and is for professionals who want to generate sales and build leads on LinkedIn. 20 InMail message credits and lead builder access.
    • Recruiter Lite: The highest-end tier starts at $99.95, and is intended for recruiters and headhunters to find quality talent on the site. 30 InMail messages and unlimited advanced searches.
  • If you’re a recruiter, business owner, or a salesperson, LinkedIn may be an excellent way to connect with potential clients and candidates. If you’re currently in the process of looking for a job, however, it might be a good time to try out the trial.
  • Email from John in Baltimore: Dear Tech Talk. My computer says that I need to be the administrator to perform a task, but I already am! Any ideas as to why is happening? John in Baltimore
  • Tech Talk Responds: You may think you are the administrator. By default, your login account — even if it’s the “administrator” account you created when setting up the machine — doesn’t give the programs you run administrative privileges. The reason is simple: if it did, any program you run could do anything to your machine. That means if you accidentally run malicious software, it could do anything, perhaps even without your knowledge.
  • Instead, when you run a program that needs administrative privileges to work, either you’ll be denied with an error message, or you’ll be presented with the “User Account Control”, or UAC prompt, allowing you to decide whether or not to proceed.
  • The account you set up when you installed Windows 10 is “administrator capable”. For most people at home or in small businesses, that’s the only account they use. You must provide the password or the PIN to execute as administrator. You may also be able to right click on the program and use the “Run as administrator” option.
  • In short, UAC security is there for an important reason, and helps keep your machine safe from many forms of malware and exploits. Use “Run as administrator” with caution, and only when you are sure you need it. Close the program as soon as you no longer need those extra capabilities.


 

Profiles in IT: Martin Dougiamas

  • Martin Dougiamas is the founder and lead developer of the Moodle open source learning management system. Moodle was developed using PHP.
  • Martin Dougiamas was born August 20, 1969 in Perth, Australia.
  • He spent most of his childhood in a deserted area in Western Australia, where, there was no facility for even basic education.
  • He received his primary education at his home and studied from the material dropped from the airplane. He then joined the Kalgoorlie School of the Air, under distance education.
  • He and four or five other youth talked with a teacher who was 600 miles away, and every other week an airplane would stop by with school materials.
  • At the age of ten, he became interested in wireless and internet technologies.
  • After a few years, his family moved back to Perth, where Dougiamas joined West Balcatta Primary School and Balcatta Senior High School.
  • At the age of 17, Dougiamas started working at Curtin University, where he taught the staff about the usage of various web applications.
  • The university installed the newly built learning management WebCT, one of the first learning management systems of that time, at its campus.
  • Dougiamas was asked to improve its functionalities. His experience with the software was not a pleasant one, due to the restriction and software’s intellectual property rights.
  • He served webmaster and system administrator for his school’s WebCT installation.
  • When Dougiamas joined the university as a student, he started working on the development of a set of online tools for distance education, which became part of his PhD thesis.
  • He started Moodle in 1999 out of frustration with WebCT online platform.
  • In 2001 he resigned from his university job in order to take a PhD scholarship, so he could spend more time thinking about e-learning and working on Moodle.
  • Moodle was released to the public as an alpha version in November 2001, and as a more usable 1.0 release on August 20, 2002.
  • The first site developed on Moodle was of Peter Taylor from Curtin University, in 2001.
  • By the end of the year, Moodle was available for downloads. In 2003, Moodle became community-based software, with its first contributed module released on Moodle.org.
  • The name Moodle was originally an acronym for Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment. It has been translated into over 70 languages.
  • He received a BS in CS and a Masters and PhD in Education from Curtin University in Perth.
  • Early in 2003, he launched commercial services at Moodle.com to cope with the many requests for hosting, consulting and other services required by Moodle users.
  • In 2015, Moodle became the most used LMS in the world, with 70,136 registered sites, in 222 territories worldwide, and in 2017, it had over 100 million registered users.
  • Moodle Pty Ltd. HQ has over 45 employees, and it has its branches located in Australia, Spain, Canada, and the UK. The company is financed by network of 80 certified companies.
  • He is still a lead developer of the Moodle.Org (http://moodle.org) community and CEO of Moodle Pty Ltd (http://moodle.com)
  • Martin received the Google-O’Reilly Award 2008 for Best Education Enabler.
  • His personal website is http://dougiamas.com/

Observations from the Bunker

  • Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is widely respected for a number of qualities. Patiently building a company with a juggernaut of a flywheel. Turning an internal initiative into Amazon Web Services, a subsidiary that does over $17.4 billion in revenue. Knowing how to hire the right people. Making smart expansion decisions.
  • But, as Bezos learned as a 10 year-old during a road trip with his grandparents, intelligence alone won’t make you successful.
  • According to Bezos, cleverness is a gift. You can seduce yourself with your gifts if you’re not careful.
  • When you are 80 years old, will your story be one of satisfaction or regret. What choices will make the biggest impact on your life story — and whether you look back on that story with regrets.
  • These are the questions Bezos says to ask yourself:
    • Will inertia be your guide, or will you follow your passions?
    • Will you follow dogma, or will you be original?
    • Will you choose a life of ease, or a life of service and adventure?
    • Will you wilt under criticism, or will you follow your convictions?
    • Will you bluff it out when you are wrong, or will you apologize?
    • Will you guard your heart against rejection, or will you act when you fall in love?
    • Will you play it safe, or will you be a little bit swashbuckling?
    • When it’s tough, will you give up, or will you be relentless?
    • Will you be a cynic, or will you be a builder?
    • Will you be clever at the expense of others, or will you be kind?
  • Like most great lists, it’s also a hard list. Take ignoring criticism and following your convictions. That’s far from easy.
  • If you really want to start a business — which you can do in just a few hours — some people might say you’re crazy, especially now. If you really want to go back to school, some people might think you’re crazy, especially now. If you really want to open a new restaurant, some people will definitely think you’re crazy. Especially now.
  • But if you let the naysayers deter you, you’re much more likely to look back someday and wonder what might have been. Research shows you are most likely to regret thinking you didn’t reach our full potential. You will most regret not becoming the person you feel you could have become, if only you had tried.
  • Because that’s one mistake you can never go back and fix.
  • But if you ask yourself the Bezos questions, that might be one mistake you can stop making. Starting today.


 

How to Look Better on Video Conferencing (like Zoom)

  • More interactions are happening via Zoom and other video-calling apps.
  • It is important to look your best on video calls. Here are a few tips.
  • Get the lighting right.
    • You want to avoid overhead lights because they cast weird shadows and highlights on your face.
    • Backlighting is bad, too. You will appear dark and shadowy.
    • You need even front lighting. The easiest place to find it is in front of a big window.
  • Get the camera angle right.
    • You want your webcam to be at (or just above) eye-level. That’s how people normally see you in person, and it’s what they subconsciously expect.
    • To get your camera up to eye-level, you can invest in a laptop stand or go old-school and stack some books underneath it.
    • You might also want to get an external keyboard and mouse if you’re going to need your computer while you’re on a call.
  • Look at the Camera (and Dim Your Screen)
    • Eye contact is hugely important in Western culture. While you won’t be able to maintain it all the time, if you’re presenting or talking a lot, you want to create the illusion that you’re looking at your audience. So, do look directly at your webcam as much as possible.
    • Hide or minimize the preview of you: I use mine as a mirror, and I know I’m
  • Check your connection speed
    • Video chats require a reasonably fast, very stable internet connection.
    • Zoom, Skype, FaceTime, and all the other video-calling apps dynamically adjust the quality of the video you send and receive to maintain the connection.
    • For one-on-one calls: 1.8 Mbps up/down is required to send and receive 1080p HD video. For group calls: 2.5 Mbps up/down is required to receive 1080p HD video, and 3.0 Mbps up/down is required to send 1080p HD video.
    • To check the speed of your internet connection, use the Speedtest app.

What Is Fast Charging, and How Does It Work?

  • Most major phone releases nowadays come with improved charging speeds. How do fast chargers work, and how are they getting even faster?
  • Nearly every recent flagship phone on the market offers some type of fast charging. Manufacturers often throw out numbers like “80% in 30 minutes” or “a full charge in under an hour” in the marketing of their latest devices.
  • At the most basic level, fast charging is simply increasing the number of watts (W) that are delivered to a phone’s battery. A basic USB port sends 2.5W to the connected device, and faster chargers raise this amount.
  • Current-generation devices typically have 15W power bricks right out of the box. Some manufacturers have 50W, 80W, and 100W chargers available.
  • For the end user, it’s as simple as using a compatible fast-charger for their phone.
  • Wattage, or power, is computed as a result of current (A, or amperes) multiplied by voltage (V, or volts). Current is the amount of electric current being transported, while voltage is the force that drives this current forward. Therefore, 3A/5V charging will deliver 15W of power.
  • The charging process can be divided into three parts.
    • Stage 1 – Constant Current: Voltage increases towards its peak, while current stays constant at a high level. This is the phase where a lot of power is quickly delivered to the device.
    • Stage 2 – Saturation: This is the phase where the voltage has reached its peak and current drops down.
    • Stage 3 – Trickle/Topping: The battery is fully charged. In this phase, the power will either slowly trickle in, or will periodically charge a low “topping” amount as the phone consumes battery.
  • Here are a few of the relevant standards.
    • USB-PD: Because there is a requirement for USB ports to deliver more power, the USB-PD standard was created. USB-PD (Power Delivery) has a maximum output of 100W and is used for a wide array of devices, including most flagship mobile phones. All USB 4 devices will include USB-PD technology. Note that USB 2.0, which has been a common specification for two decades, has a maximum power output of 2.5W.
    • Qualcomm Quick Charge: Qualcomm is the most widely used chipset for flagship Android devices, and their latest processors have built-in compatibility with their proprietary Quick Charge standard. The newest Quick Charge 4+ has a max power output of 100W.
    • Samsung Adaptive Fast Charging: This standard is used by Samsung devices, particularly their Galaxy line. This standard has a maximum power output of 18W and automatically changes charging speeds to preserve the battery’s longevity.
    • OnePlus Warp Charging: OnePlus uses the proprietary Warp Charging standard, which charges their devices up to 30W. Instead of increasing voltage like most other standards.
  • Most companies that don’t have their own charging technology, use USB-PD or Qualcomm Quick Charge. Companies like Apple, LG, Samsung, and Google use these standards for their flagship phones.

SpaceX’s Demo-2 Will Launch Astronauts in Space Today

  • Weather permitting; a Falcon 9 rocket will make another attempt to launch two NASA astronauts to the space station on Saturday at 12:22 p.m. ET.
  • The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will blast off from the launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, carrying two astronauts.
  • It will be the first time in nine years that US astronauts have launched from US soil.
  • SpaceX has a history of cargo and payload launches, but this will be the company’s first time sending humans off this rock.
  • The SpaceX Crew Dragon is the human transportation version of the Dragon 2 capsule that has been used to carry cargo to the ISS. While only two astronauts will be on board at the end of May, the capsule can be configured to carry up to seven passengers.
  • SpaceX’s proven Falcon 9 rocket will escort Crew Dragon through the launch. Falcon 9s have successfully launched dozens of SpaceX missions.
  • The Falcon 9 booster is reusable and will attempt to land on a SpaceX droneship stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.
  • NASA will stream the prelaunch activities and launch through NASA TV starting at 8 a.m. PT/11 a.m. ET on Saturday. The launch timing will depend on good weather conditions both at the launch site and out in the ocean where the crew capsule would splash down in case of an emergency during launch. SpaceX will also provide a launch webcast.

NASA awarded the original Commercial Crew Program contracts to SpaceX and Boeing in 2014 with an eye to launching astronauts in 2017. The program has suffered delay