Computer stuff

[dualstow]

Of what value was there to knowing the answer?

Tsk tsk tsk, Vinny, did you not watch G.I. Joe? I guess the cartoon version was after your time, but it imparted great wisdom: Knowing is half the battle.

Also is my memory correct that I used to have Safari also on my Windows computers?

ahem

[vnatale]

Of what value was there to knowing the answer?

Tsk tsk tsk, Vinny, did you not watch G.I. Joe? I guess the cartoon version was after your time, but it imparted great wisdom: Knowing is half the battle.

Of course you did not answer what was the value of knowing in this specific? Seems like there were only two possibilities. Either Safari was no longer or Apple had yet again successfully implemented their planned obsolescence. First case, which I may have bean assuming, meant no Safari. If it was the second case, I'm still Safari-less.

When it makes a difference I make sure I know. I search wide and far.

Also is my memory correct that I used to have Safari also on my Windows computers?

ahem

So do you know or not know that answer? Again doing a search on it is of no value to confirm that it had been something in the past. I do know that it seems like it is not a possibility now. Just checking on whether or not on my memory that I had been using Safari on Windows computers.

[Smith1776]

Of what value was there to knowing the answer?

Tsk tsk tsk, Vinny, did you not watch G.I. Joe? I guess the cartoon version was after your time, but it imparted great wisdom: Knowing is half the battle.

Of course you did not answer what was the value of knowing in this specific? Seems like there were only two possibilities. Either Safari was no longer or Apple had yet again successfully implemented their planned obsolescence. First case, which I may have bean assuming, meant no Safari. If it was the second case, I'm still Safari-less.

When it makes a difference I make sure I know. I search wide and far.

Also is my memory correct that I used to have Safari also on my Windows computers?

ahem

So do you know or not know that answer? Again doing a search on it is of no value to confirm that it had been something in the past. I do know that it seems like it is not a possibility now. Just checking on whether or not on my memory that I had been using Safari on Windows computers.

Yeah it used to be on Windows.

Steve Jobs said it was "like giving a glass of iced water to somebody in hell".

I disagree. Apple software on Windows tended to be terrible.

[dualstow]

Yeah it used to be on Windows.

Steve Jobs said it was "like giving a glass of iced water to somebody in hell".

…

I disagree. Apple software on Windows tended to be terrible.

That’s how I felt about iTunes on Windows XP. Then again, I never much liked it on a Mac, either.

[dualstow]

So do you know or not know that answer?

I do. Because I searched.

IMG_6723.jpeg (357.48 KiB) Viewed 3320 times

Again doing a search on it is of no value to confirm that it had been something in the past. I do know that it seems like it is not a possibility now.

I disagree. That’s why there are history books.

Just checking on whether or not on my memory that I had been using Safari on Windows computers.

That, I don’t know. You could have a false memory parallel to reality and still be accidentally right. Unless you kept a journal, that appears to be truly unsearchable.

However, I don’t know the value of checking whether or not the memory was accurate.

[vnatale]

Yeah it used to be on Windows.

Steve Jobs said it was "like giving a glass of iced water to somebody in hell".

…

I disagree. Apple software on Windows tended to be terrible.

That’s how I felt about iTunes on Windows XP. Then again, I never much liked it on a Mac, either.

I've only used iTunes exclusively on Windows computers and find it to be fine. Except with the way Apple makes it work with Apple devices. It's been so long since I actively connected a device to iTunes but it seemed like each device needed its own specific iTunes. Or, something equally problematic.

[vnatale]

[quote=

[dualstow]

I've only used iTunes exclusively on Windows computers and find it to be fine. Except with the way Apple makes it work with Apple devices. It's been so long since I actively connected a device to iTunes but it seemed like each device needed its own specific iTunes. Or, something equally problematic.

A lot of people dislike iTunes but my main problem was the sync. I wanted to switch from sync to manual drag and drop, and it always gave me a warning message that it was going to first delete content from my Mac or from my ipod. I couldn’t risk it.

I have the same problem with all kinds of software that wants to sync.

[vnatale]

[quote=
[/quote]

Yes. Thanks you. My issues were in syncing devices to iTunes and it seemed like iTunes could had to be synced to one Apple Device?

It was so confusing and time consuming that I don't think I've even tried in well over 10 years so my memory is quite fuzzy on all of this. Even using iTunes to do a backup of the device to somewhere on your Windows computer was not as simple as it seemed it should be.

I think the root cause of that is that Apple devices have no simple, straightforward file system such as we have with File Explorer in Windows?

[dualstow]

FILESYSTEM:
ipods switched to the FAT32 system when Windows compatibility was added.

Now, iphones use…I think it’s called APFS. Is it simple and straightforward? I don’t know.

FILE NAVIGATION:
But, I always feel restricted on Apple devices even though they finally have a “Files” app that looks like the Android original.

For example — apologies if I already wrote this recently — you cannot rename files* on an iPad Pro. But, you can do it on a less powerful MacBook. Apple doesn’t want you to do such a thing on an ipad. I saw someone complaining about this online. (I was actually able to get it done on an ipad mini, but it took 3 attempts).

*Sorry, I mean you cannot change the extension, like from .TXT to .HTML

[dualstow]

RIP John Warnock, creator of the PDF
https://www.adobe.com/content/dam/cc/en ... arnock.pdf

[vnatale]

RIP John Warnock, creator of the PDF
https://www.adobe.com/content/dam/cc/en ... arnock.pdf

Never knew his name until now, the inventor of something so ubiquitous.

[Xan]

I remember my first encounter with PDF. I bought a set that contained two games: Wing Commander 1 and Wing Commander 2. Both games were originally floppies but this compilation had them on a CD. Instead of including both manuals, the manuals were on the CD in PDF format, along with an installer for something called Adobe Reader.

Yes, my first PDF viewing experience was on Adobe Reader for DOS. It wasn't even really clear to me what was happening!

[Xan]

Firefox for everything, because virtually everything else is the same (Chrome) under the hood, and we need browser engine diversity.

I should be more complete and mention that I use a number of privacy-enhancing extensions, primarily Cookie AutoDelete and uMatrix which restricts loading of assets from third-party domains. Privacy on the Internet is basically a complete disaster.

[Smith1776]

Firefox for everything, because virtually everything else is the same (Chrome) under the hood, and we need browser engine diversity.

I should be more complete and mention that I use a number of privacy-enhancing extensions, primarily Cookie AutoDelete and uMatrix which restricts loading of assets from third-party domains. Privacy on the Internet is basically a complete disaster.

I, uh.. am I still okay when I use TOR?

[Xan]

Firefox for everything, because virtually everything else is the same (Chrome) under the hood, and we need browser engine diversity.

I should be more complete and mention that I use a number of privacy-enhancing extensions, primarily Cookie AutoDelete and uMatrix which restricts loading of assets from third-party domains. Privacy on the Internet is basically a complete disaster.

I, uh.. am I still okay when I use TOR?

I believe the Tor browser's default behavior is to delete all cookies at the end of a session, doesn't allow scripts at all (via NoScript) unless you specifically allow them. I believe it also isolates each website so you can't be tracked across them even if you load a spying element. Shoot maybe I should use Tor!

[dualstow]

I don’t know if it does the same thing, but Brave lets you open a new Tor window instead of a regular one if you so desire.

[vnatale]

How does all this online protection affect productivity?

Two things I tolerate but think get in the way of any kind of productivity are keys and passwords.

I do use super strong passwords for anything related to $$$$$$$$.

But all kinds of security come at some cost. Either time taken to log in or slower response times.

So it is weighing all those costs versus the potential dangers, i.e., someone ever actually getting any access to your information and causing you harm.

On the other hand, all my self-generated data and acquired other information (e.g., music files) are incredibly important to me to never risk losing and I've correspondingly spent a lot of $$$$ buying lots and lots of external hard drives and many times during the day backing up to many of them (on top of almost all my important data being inside Business Dropbox).

Currently I have 7 external drives connected to this computer and as I gaze over to a pile of other external drives on this table not connected to this computer I'm thinking I should also get those connected today.

Finally, I need to get some of these external drives out of my house and at other people's houses for further security in case of the worst happening at my house.

[dualstow]

How does all this online protection affect productivity?

Two things I tolerate but think get in the way of any kind of productivity are keys and passwords.

I do use super strong passwords for anything related to $$$$$$$$.
…

I’m not being snarky when I say nothing affects productivity like having your identity stolen and your email wiped out.

I thought that Mac was going to obviate passwords with something called Passkeys but I haven’t really looked into it.
Passwords are a pain but I’m happy with Bitwarden handling most of that and Veracrypt for the really crucial stuff.

Tor is really about not being tracked and I don’t worry about that too much. My main concern is identity theft and .. theft.

[Smith1776]

How does all this online protection affect productivity?

Two things I tolerate but think get in the way of any kind of productivity are keys and passwords.

I do use super strong passwords for anything related to $$$$$$$$.
…

I’m not being snarky when I say nothing affects productivity like having your identity stolen and your email wiped out.

I thought that Mac was going to obviate passwords with something called Passkeys but I haven’t really looked into it.
Passwords are a pain but I’m happy with Bitwarden handling most of that and Veracrypt for the really crucial stuff.

Tor is really about not being tracked and I don’t worry about that too much. My main concern is identity theft and .. theft.

Thanks for the heads up with Bitwarden and Veracrypt. I will look into those now. I noticed that Bitwarden is a paid service. Pretty cheap though, I assume it's worth it.

Does anyone use paid antivirus as an upgrade over the free options available? I currently use AVG Free, and the premium version is like $35 CAD for a year and works on up to 10 machines apparently. It's got all these extra fancy features. The price isn't outrageous like Norton, so I've been thinking about it.

avg.jpg (85.85 KiB) Viewed 3194 times

[vnatale]

How does all this online protection affect productivity?

Two things I tolerate but think get in the way of any kind of productivity are keys and passwords.

I do use super strong passwords for anything related to $$$$$$$$.
…

I’m not being snarky when I say nothing affects productivity like having your identity stolen and your email wiped out.

I thought that Mac was going to obviate passwords with something called Passkeys but I haven’t really looked into it.
Passwords are a pain but I’m happy with Bitwarden handling most of that and Veracrypt for the really crucial stuff.

Tor is really about not being tracked and I don’t worry about that too much. My main concern is identity theft and .. theft.

Again what are the possibilities of what you describe as happening? Regarding email specifically. I'm still using Eudora, which I don't think has been updated since 2006. It's all on this computer, Dropbox, and multiple external hard drives. Therefore, how is anyone going to wipe out my email? I'd never trust my email exclusively to some cloud product. I want 100% control of it, which I do have.

My main point is that what are the probabilities of what you describe happening compared to how often people lose things because they have no backups of any form? It's far more likely that the need for a backup is going to come into play than what you describe happening.

I've discovered that most of my computer issues have been under my control and have never been compromised by anyone from the outside. Therefore I'm concentrating the bulk of my efforts towards protecting myself against me.

[Smith1776]

Firefox for everything, because virtually everything else is the same (Chrome) under the hood, and we need browser engine diversity.

I should be more complete and mention that I use a number of privacy-enhancing extensions, primarily Cookie AutoDelete and uMatrix which restricts loading of assets from third-party domains. Privacy on the Internet is basically a complete disaster.

I, uh.. am I still okay when I use TOR?

I believe the Tor browser's default behavior is to delete all cookies at the end of a session, doesn't allow scripts at all (via NoScript) unless you specifically allow them. I believe it also isolates each website so you can't be tracked across them even if you load a spying element. Shoot maybe I should use Tor!

I've occasionally been intrigued at using it as my daily driver alá Edward Snowden, but the slow speed of the TOR network has always quickly dissuaded me.

[Smith1776]

Therefore I'm concentrating the bulk of my efforts towards protecting myself against me.

This is peak wisdom. For both tech and investing stuff.

[Mountaineer]

I’ve never tried Bitwarden. I tried Lastpass several years ago (before it was hacked) but didn’t like it as much as 1Password which I’ve now used for several years. It’s quite easy and fast and the integration between the MacBook and iPhones is seamless. It is not perfect but plenty good enough. I also use complicated passwords like 1234 or abcd when security is important.

[dualstow]

Smithers: I only use the free version of Bitwarden. It serves all my needs. Btw, i have to jump through some hoops with Veracrypt every time I upgrade the operating system, but luckily I don’t have to do that very often. Constrast with storing things in a Mac sparsebundle which eventually became unopenable for some reason. (Have never had a probem with a Mac DMG file, though. That’s probably what I’ll do more with the next computer).

Vinny: I don’t know the possibilities/probability, but it happened to my father. That’s enough for me.
I agree re: backups. Backups are extremely important and obviously easy to make.