Techbyter Worldwide (formerly Technology Corner) With Bill Blinn

Of the more than 4700 objects in the Windows System32 directory, around 650 are applications. Some of these are useful tools that that you can use to maintain a clean operating system. But which ones? In Short Circuits: Windows 11 offers organizational techniques that might work better than what you're doing now to find and start applications. • Some Android phones can take a series of photos when they sense motion. This can be helpful, but it can also be confusing. In Twenty Years Ago (only on the website): Compaq, the king of portable computers, was being absorbed into Hewlett-packard in 2002.

Most routers intended for home and small-office use have four ports. If that's not enough, you can add more with a hub or a switch. What's the difference and how much do these things cost? Let's look. In Short Circuits: Password managers are essential and LastPass offers a family plan that gives up to six family members their own separate accounts and the ability to share information between members, when desired. The most difficult part may be convincing people to use it. • The Vivaldi web browser, which is based on Chrome, has added some improved security features that I appreciate, and you may too. Like nearly all modern browsers, Vivaldi gives users control over cookies, trackers, and ads -- but Vivaldi now also reports results. Twenty Years Ago (only on the website): Video subsystems have changed much since 2002. Today's low-end graphics subsystems have two to four gigabytes of memory. In 2002, the top-end systems had much less.

Windows seems to have an infinite number of settings and controls. We all know that the options aren't really infinite, but a lot of them exist. Sometimes making a change can eliminate an annoyance and we'll consider three examples this week. In Short Circuits: When you need to create a CD, DVD, or Blu-ray disc, you can use the Windows Explorer. There's a better choice, though -- ImgBurn has been around since 2005 and was last updated in 2013, but it's still the best way to burn a disc. • If you're annoyed by the screen that appears before the Windows login screen, there's a easy way to make it go away permanently. Twenty Years Ago (only on the website): Few computer users had UPS units to protect their computers in 2002, and some found out the hard way that they could lose all their data in a flash.

The latest version of Microsoft's PowerToys is an ongoing project that receives new features regularly and adds useful functionality to Windows 10 and Windows 11. In Short Circuits: 1980s computers could run one program at a time. Then we got the ability to multitask programs and now it's easy to have so many applications running that we encounter the limit of human multitasking. • It's getting harder to tell truth from lies, but when Russia's former KGB agent and current president is seeing a lot of success in sowing distrust among Americans, searching for truth is important. Twenty Years Ago: Customer service is often the weak point for organizations, and I was encountering a lot of it in 2002.

It's a good thing that automobiles aren't sold like computers. Imagine bringing your new car home only to find that you'll need several aftermarket items just to make it work right. In Short Circuits: Microsoft 365 is what Microsoft wants you to use for word processing, number crunching, database operations, presentations, and email. It's the right choice for most people, but there are other options when it's not. • Being lazy is not a character fault. Laziness may help you find a better way to perform a repetitive task, and I do have a real-world example. Twenty Years Ago: The Federal Communications Commission had just proposed a schedule to convert television broadcasts from analog to digital. It was a seven-year process.

My wife and I both purchased new computers in March. Mine was 7 years old and ineligible for Windows 11. Hers was 5 years old, ineligible for Windows 11, and had a failing keyboard. The computers are both from the same manufacturer, but otherwise substantially different. In Short Circuits: A computer can be secure, but your privacy may still be at risk. You may be surprised by how little information is needed to uniquely identify an individual. • Usually I'm not a fan of percussive maintenance, but sometimes it gets the job done. Twenty Years Ago: VHS players and tapes weren't yet dead, but they were fading fast.

You may have seen articles that claim a 7-character password containing numbers, uppercase and lowercase letters, and symbols "could" be cracked in less than a minute. Longer passwords are better. Using upper- and lower-case letters along with numbers and symbols is also better. But less than a minute? Let's check the logic. In Short Circuits: When it's time to buy a new computer, you probably want it to have all of the programs and data from your old computer on the new one. The easy way to accomplish that is with LapLink's PCmover. • If you're the kind of person who enjoys sifting through population and demographic data, you're going to have fun on the World Population Review website. Twenty Years Ago: If you wanted a Bluetooth enabled device, you might be able to add the technology to an existing device, but it wasn't cheap.

Today we'll revisit the process of converting film negatives to digital images, but this time the main focus (Sorry!) is medium-format film. Even if you don't have any medium-format negatives, there's information that works for 35mm negatives. In Short Circuits: Are you frustrated by Windows 11's inability to display the day on the Task Bar? Well, surprise! You can restore the day name if you want to. • If crooks can associate a SIM card they have access to with your phone, they can drain your bank account. This is a good problem to avoid. Twenty Years Ago: Nobody had a GPS unit in their pocket in 2002, but direction-finding applications were beginning to appear.

Whether you love Microsoft Word or detest it, you probably use it. It's possible to customize Word so that it works the way you want it to, but the settings aren't always obvious or easy to find. In Short Circuits: Just about everyone has seen the "we couldn't deliver your package" email scam that's usually intended to steal your login credentials or to install malware on your computer. There's now a multi-part scam that's intended to clean out your entire bank account. If you fall for it, there's no way to get your money back. • A Danish organization, the Human Library, says its goal is to eliminate stereotypes by making it possible for people to interact with others they might not normally encounter.

Sometimes there's a post or an IM conversation on Facebook that you'd like to save on your own computer. It's not always easy, but it is always possible. Let's see how. In Short Circuits: The DuckDuckGo search engine doesn't collect or sell user information. Maybe you already use it instead of Google, but there's more from from the duck, including an extension that can be installed in any browser to warn about privacy issues. • Using multi-factor authentication is supposed to ensure that crooks can't steal your credentials because logging in requires a user name, a password, and a code that's delivered separately. Crooks have noticed and they're developing ways to defeat the technology. Twenty Years Ago: New media had encountered some bumpy roads. Ezines were failing and ebooks weren't as popular as many thought they should be. That has changed in the past two decades.

A free utility called System Explorer is like a combination of the Windows Task Manager and System Resource Monitor with an application uninstaller, security monitor, startup manager, and more tossed in for good measure. In Short Circuits: Domains housed on shared servers can be added to email blacklists if there's just one bad actor on the server. This can affect people who use their internet service provider's email system, too. There's a way to avoid the problem and it costs nothing to implement. • Four and a half years ago, Equifax suffered the largest data breach in history. Recently victims who signed up for free credit monitoring finally received instructions for how to use it. Twenty Years Ago: The Foveon digital camera sensor was intended to change everything. The technology is still in use, but not as a major player.

Virtual private networks can protect your computer and your data, but they can also lead to a false sense of security. So, do you really need one? In Short Circuits: If you read last week's post, you know how to find out what Amazon knows about you. This week, let's consider what Google knows about you. There's no single form to fill out to ask for the information, but there are lots of places you can look. • What do you think we'll see in 2022 other than more variants of covid? Several technologies that aren't exactly new look like they're bubbling toward general acceptance. Twenty Years Ago: It seemed that just about everyone with a Palm organizer had downloaded Bejeweled.

The pandemic may keep us isolated for a while yet, so if you have old negatives, prints, movies, video tapes, and even audio tapes around the house, now would be a great time to start digitizing and sharing them. In Short Circuits: If you've ever wondered what Amazon knows about you, you can find out by just asking. Beware that you'll be buried under a huge pile of data that's seemingly designed not to be helpful • Changes to the user interface for Microsoft 365 and Office 2021 are minor, but there are some hidden gems. It's also easy to switch between the old interface and the new, so you won't be locked in if you object to the changes. Twenty Years Ago: Speech recognition, which was last week's main topic, was also a topic in 2002. It was primitive by today's standards, but we were beginning to understand how a well-designed automated attendant system could handle routine issues.

Speech recognition is getting better and even the systems that are built in to Windows, the MacOS, and Android do a remarkably good job. I've been wondering if there's a clear winner among the three, so let's look. In Short Circuits: People who make advertisements, entertainment programs, and other media that keep us from going berserk during the pandemic are also affected by the pandemic. What are their attitudes in 2022? • Liker, launched in 2018 to compete with Facebook, was hacked and shut down in early 2021. It's finally back as "Tribel", but it has a long way to go to catch up with Facebook. Twenty Years Ago: In 2002, a 1GB CompactFlash card for professional photographers was exciting, even at $1000. Now you can buy a secure digital card that's more than 100 times larger at one-tenth the price.

The Vivaldi web browser is perhaps the most customizable browser available. If you'd like a browser that can be adjusted to work the way you want it to, take a look. In Short Circuits: When you need to use Safe mode in Windows, getting there can be a challenge. Making a few changes to some settings will provide immediate access at boot time. • If you think IBM invented the business computer, you're wrong. The first business computer was put into service a little over 70 years ago in England, several years ahead of US business usage. Twenty Years Ago: In 2002, tech pundits were saying that WordPerfect 5.1, the best of the DOS-based word processors, couldn't be installed on Windows XP. They were wrong.

Outlook is probably the most used email application other than Google's webmail client, but that doesn't mean it's the one people like the most. A few weeks ago, Outlook created a problem that required me to use Thunderbird temporarily. The temporary change quickly became permanent. In Short Circuits: Other than not using the internet at all, there's no way to eliminate scam phone calls, SMS messages, and emails. Defenses do exist though, and we'll look at some. • If you or someone you know is named Alexa, you might be amused by Amazon's assistant, but you're probably not amused. A Washington Post reporter tells the story. In 20 Years Ago: Apple liked to say that the Macintosh computer, introduced in 1984, was so easy to use that it needed no manual. In 2002, when I was learning to use my first Mac, that seemed inaccurate.

Every modern computer operating system has a built-in way to capture information that's on the screen, but if you need more than a basic screen shot, SnagIt is the right choice. In Short Circuits: Adobe's Creative Cloud Express is free for anyone to use, and it works online via a web browser or with apps on Windows, MacOS, IOS, and Android. • You'll find lots of ways to get information from people who don't suspect that they're giving away the details scammers need to steal one's identity on Facebook. In Twenty Years Ago (only on the website): TechSmith's SnagIt was the lead story in 2002, and the 12-year-old application was already improving every year.

It's not uncommon to think of the VLC media player as a video player. It plays video files, DVDs, and Blu-ray disks, but it can also play internet audio, CDs, and network files. And if you need to convert video or audio from one format to another, it does that, too. In Short Circuits: The 2022 update to Adobe Illustrator has several welcome and worthwhile additions and improvements, but huge improvements to 3D functionality are the big story. • Windows 11 users will find monthly updates are faster because downloaded files are considerably smaller. In Twenty Years Ago (only on the website): I was hearing a lot of questions about whether it would be wise to upgrade to Windows 95 in 2002. I said that it depends, thus proving that some things just never change.

This week's podcast is brief, just 4 minutes long, with some year-end thoughts and a quick look at changes you'll hear starting on 7 Jan 2022.

The most accomplished software developers work hard to improve their skills. Sadly, this is also true of the best scammers. If you want to protect yourself and your data, it's important to update your skills, too. In Short Circuits: People who speak more than one language are often more mentally adept, and the best time to learn a language is during the first few years of life. So a Cleveland company working with Children's Hospital in Columbus is developing a way to give children a boost toward bilingualism in their first year. • Collaboration was big before the Covid pandemic, became more important during the past two years, and is now an essential function for many office workers. In Spare Parts (only on the website): Clippy makes a return to Windows 11, but not an an annoyance. Clippy, whose real name is Clippit, returns only as an emoji. • Electric vehicles are still a hard sell for people worried about how to charge them, but that's beginning to change. • Twenty years ago: At the end of 2001, I noted th