Hi Net Neighbors! Sorry for the tardiness of this. We had a COVID scare this week and it threw everything for a loop. Look forward to a new one next week.
Author: Mr John
Tech Tuesday – The Address Bar
By John Carter
Hi Net Neighbors! Welcome to another wonderful installment of Tech Tuesday, where we take deep dives into the technology issues plaguing you. Last time we talked a bit about internet browsers but there was still a lot left to be discussed. Today I would like to pick up where I left off by introducing you to the Address Bar. But before we get started, I want to remind you of the metaphor we used last time to talk about browsers. That they are cars on a road that is the internet.
What is the Address Bar?
I’m glad you asked. The Address Bar is a critical part of any browser, it is also the part most people miss when they first open a browser. You are probably reading this in a browser right now, if so look at the top of the screen. See that long bar with hinetneighbor.com followed by what seems like a stream of nonsense? That’s the Address Bar.
What do I do with it?
The Address Bar is used, in modern browsers, for two separate tasks: direct navigation and searching. Let’s take a look at both.
Direct Navigation
When we speak of direct navigation, we are talking about actively visiting a site. You directly navigate to web sites all the time. Ever type in a web address such as Coke.com or NASA.gov? If you have, then you have directly visited a site using your address bar. When we want to go to these locations directly we simply click in the Address Bar and type the address followed by the ENTER key. As soon as you do, you’re there. It might take a minute, it might be an instant, but as soon as you hit that fabled key your computer does the rest, navigating the ‘roads’ of the internet to reach your destination.
Searching
Sometimes though, you don’t know a site’s address, or you don’t know there is even a site for your topic. In those cases, the Address Bar can still be a real asset. Remember how I said under Direct Navigation that, if you know an address you just click on the Address Bar and type it? Well, the same is true for when you are searching for something.
Want to find out how to change a tire? Then type how do I change a tire and hit ENTER. Need to know where the nearest Thai place is, then type that. Gone are the days of complex Boolean logic-based searches, just ask. Ask it like you were asking someone where you might find the nearest gas station.
Is there anything I shouldn’t do with the Address Bar?
Don’t feed it to your cat, it is not that type of bar.
In all seriousness, the one thing you should never do is type your email address into the Address Bar. I know, it sounds counter intuitive. As we’ve previously discussed, an email address is a location on the internet. The reason you cannot use the Address Bar for your email is the same reason you cannot use tell someone your phone number when they ask for your address. Web addresses and email addresses are different things and need to be interacted with differently.
To help you remember the difference, remember this. If you are trying to type an address into the Address Bar and you use the @ sign then you are not typing the right thing. What you should be typing is what comes after the @, the domain. So instead of typing username@domain.com into your Address Bar just type domain.com.
Now what?
Well, if you are asking the Address Bar questions and going to websites then you are off to a great start. Once you get comfortable with that, we are going to talk about Search Engines, which are vital tools in the kit you are building.
Until then, have fun, find adventure, and stay safe.
Tech Tuesday – Browsers
By: John Carter
Hi Net Neighbors! Welcome back to Tech Tuesday where we do deep dives into the tech questions you may have. This week we are looking at a piece of tech you are using right now, your Browser. Now I am sure many of you know what a Browser is but I’ve had enough questions that a review is in order. So let’s take a look.
What the heck is a Browser?
There are a lot of Browsers out there – Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Safari, Dolphin, Opera, to name a few – regardless of what they are called though, all Browsers are programs or apps that let us access and navigate the internet from our computers, phones, and tablets. If it helps, think of a Browser in the same way you might think of a car driving down a road, with the road being the internet itself. When we open a Browser that is us getting into the car and starting the engine. Then, when we go somewhere on the internet that is us ‘driving’ to that location.
But what is the right Browser?
What is the right car? For some people the right car is a Mustang roaring down the street while others get by just fine with a little Nissan hatchback. Browsers are the same way; they will all get you to your destination some might be a little faster or have more buttons but there is no real ‘right’ one. Now there are two I can recommend but not because of how ‘right’ they are but because of their added-on benefits; Chrome and Firefox.
Chrome
Built by Google, Chrome is a very popular Browser. This is partly due to Chrome being installed on most Android phones and tablets by default. Chrome runs on the faster side and there are plenty of add-ons you can install to boost your interactions with it. What I find the most useful feature though is not the add-ons but the cloud syncing of bookmarks across all my devices. Remember we spoke before on the cloud, how it is an online storage place. Well one of the things you can store in the cloud is your bookmarks so you can save a page on your phone for later reading online. Since Chrome is a Google product just sign in your devices into Chrome with the same Gmail address and all your bookmarks are ready to go.
Firefox
If you don’t want big-brother Google watching everything you say and do online, then Firefox from Mozilla might be for you. Like Chrome, Firefox is free and easily downloadable. Firefox also allows you access to a robust number of add-ons. You can also sync your bookmarks across devices via a Firefox account, which is also free. Honestly, the major difference between Firefox and Chrome is that Chrome does track some things for Google that Firefox does not. If you don’t care about that though, use either the one you like.
Is there a wrong Browser?
Yes. Most assuredly yes. Unless you absolutely have to, never use Internet Explorer. For one thing, it is not a Browser. Another mark against it is Microsoft, the people who made it, advise against using Internet Explorer. Microsoft does not update Internet Explorer, leaving it and you vulnerable to attack. And many sites on the internet are no longer keeping IE in their wheelhouse, making it increasingly antiquated.
Now what?
Good question. For now, you know which Browsers there are and which to not use, that’s a big step in the right direction. There are other things you can learn about, Address Bars, Search Engines, Incognito Mode to name a few. Right now though you have a good base upon which to build. Stay tuned for more posts.
Until then, have fun, find adventure, and stay safe.
Tech Tuesday: The Cloud
Hi Net Neighbors! Welcome back to another Tech Tuesday, where we take dives into topics across a host of domains all linked by a common thread and that’s Technology.
Today we are going to look at something we mentioned last week, The Cloud. Now I’ve spoken to many people over the years and this is a topic where many of us get confused. So, let’s take a step out into the Neighborhood and look at The Cloud.
What is The Cloud?
To understand The Cloud let’s look at something a little more mundane, a safety deposit box. Even if you have never used one, you have probably seen them on TV and in movies. All a safety deposit box is, is a place at a location, usually a bank, were you and only you can store your important items. Other people have boxes next to yours, some larger some smaller, but only you can get into your box because you have proof of identity and you have your key. The problem with real safety deposit boxes is that they are only at one bank, you can’t have a box in Jacksonville and go to a bank in San Francisco and ask to open your box. Not very convenient eh?
Well using the safety deposit box metaphor, let’s look at your email. Your email is a secure place where you can store messages. You access it by going to a ‘bank’, in this case your email provider; Gmail.com, Yahoo.com, Outlook.com, Aol.com. Once at your ‘bank’ you need to state your identity with your username and have a key with your password. Only after typing your username and password does the ‘box’ open and you can see the contents. And because all of this is being done on the internet you really can make your email in Jacksonville and access it in San Francisco.
So, what is The Cloud? It is a collection of internet-based services accessible from anywhere on the planet with the use of a username and password.
Does that mean The Cloud is just for email?
Heavens no! The Cloud is so, so much more than just email. Email is just getting your foot in the door. Once the door is open, there are so many options I would not blame you if you were a little scared. But let’s stick with email for the moment. There are many Cloud-based options available thanks to your email.
Let’s look at the domains of Gmail.com and Outlook.com/Hotmail.com.
If you look at the top of either site you will find a square of nine smaller squares, what many call the waffle. You may think it looks like the numbers on a landline phone. When you click on the waffle you are given a wide array of options depending on the domain. And that is key, this is domain specific. Remember last time, we mentioned that the part of your email address after the ‘@’ is your domain. Each domain is owned by a different company so there will be different options attached.
In Gmail.com you have a YouTube account, a place for your contacts, a calendar, a storage box in the form of Drive, along with Docs, Sheets, and Slides, the Google versions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Did I mention that you get all of those for free? Because they are. Not a single cent spent.
Meanwhile, in Outlook.com land, you get OneDrive, Microsoft’s version of a storage box, contacts, a calendar, and honest-to-goodness Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. All also for free.
Contacts and Calendars? I just save those to my phone.
Many people do and if you are one of them that is okay. But I recommend another way. Save your contacts and calendars to the cloud. More than once I have had people come to me with a new phone wondering where all their contacts are. Either they got an upgraded phone or their prior one was damaged. Whatever the cause, the phone store didn’t/couldn’t transfer the information and now they are at square one.
Even if they could have transferred the information, I have seen people sit in a store for hours waiting for their data to move. Not waiting for someone to do it. Waiting for the computer to move their numbers and calendar.
The thing is, this wasn’t necessary. All this hassle didn’t have to happen. If you know one or two username/password combinations you can have access to all that information if you have saved it to a cloud. I personally store my information in Google, mainly because my first smartphone was an Android, but I could have stored it in my iCloud, my Outlook.com or really any other cloud service. Whenever I get a new phone or device where I need all my personal information, all I do is sign into an account or two and everything is there. It may take a few minutes most and then I’m ready to go.
And, because they are being saved to the cloud, when I make a change on one device, it is changing the information on all the devices. This saves a ton of time and ensures that I always have the most up to date information.
Okay, I’m interested. What else can I do with The Cloud?
Good question. Like art or photography? Then you have Adobe’s Creative Cloud which, at 53 dollars a month, gives you Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign and the rest of Adobe’s products along with 100 GB of storage. Although, if you have an email ending in .edu you might be eligible for a student account bringing Adobe down to 20 dollars a month.
If paying that much seems insane to you, then you can still do photo editing thanks to Pixlr.com, one of many free alternatives. Meanwhile Vectr.com is one of several free vector graphic illustration options.
Want to try your hand at 3D design and modeling? Great! You have many options, though I am going to focus on two; Tinkercad.com and Leopoly.com both of which are free. With Tinkercad.com you have a place where you can make complicated replacement parts, toys, and gifts using an easy, intuitive environment. Your work is automatically saved online, so you never have to worry about losing anything. And if you like either Legos or Minecraft then Tinkercad.com has tools which will allow you to plan out your designs before you lay the first brick. Meanwhile, in Leopoly.com, your artistic side can run wild thanks to a robust sculpting system tailor made to make your imagination a reality. Though don’t forget to hit that save button.
With the new year many people want to get into coding but they don’t know what to download. Thankfully Repl.it has you covered there. Repl.it has over twenty different coding languages you can work in and the system will run your code directly in your computer’s browser. And it is completely free.
What about iCloud?
Sigh, okay you got me. I’ve left out iCloud from the discussion on purpose, mainly because its name is really confusing. Brought to you by Apple, iCloud.com is just their version of Gmail.com. If you don’t have an Apple Product, meaning an iPhone, iPad, or a Mac, then you don’t have to worry about iCloud.com. If you do, then you have free access to contacts, calendar, photo and everything else storage, along with Pages, Numbers, and Keynote, the Apple spin on Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Calling it iCloud was just a fancy marketing gimmick.
How safe is the cloud? I hear it’s not very secure.
Not to answer a question with a question, but how safe is your bank? Has a bank ever been robbed? It doesn’t hit the news as much anymore, but it happens, yet we still put our money into them. The Cloud is the same way. People have had their information stolen, though it often happens to people who are higher profile such as movie stars and internet personalities. The good news is that, since your information is not stored on just one computer but a vast network, if one copy is lost others in the chain can replace it.
My advice is to be smart about things, don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Don’t have the same password for every service. Where possible, have your accounts secured to your phone, so bad guys must know your username, password, and phone number. Though remember to keep your phone number if you change phones, otherwise you might lose access to your accounts. And remember, if someone asks you for your username, password, and phone number don’t give it to them. You wouldn’t give a stranger your safety deposit box key, why would you give one the internet equivalent?
So now what?
Go out and explore. You have a huge variety of tools out there just waiting for you, try them out. If you don’t like something, or don’t want to use a service, then don’t. Just remember to be safe, be smart, and keep an eye out. If you do that your browser will treat you well.
What? Your browser? Don’t worry, we’ll get to that soon enough.
Until then, have fun, find adventure, and stay safe.
Hi Net Neighbors! I am back today with a new segment here in the Net Neighborhood, Tech Tuesday. Tech Tuesday is just that, a day to talk about technology that is predictable and has some alliteration, which is great. Some Tech Tuesdays might be longer, some shorter, but I will try to get one out to you every Tuesday.
This week, Tech Tuesday is dedicated to a piece of the Net Neighborhood many of you know and use but may not have thought about; Email. Now many of you probably know a lot about Email and if you do, that’s great. And if you don’t know a lot, or even anything about it, then welcome. Either way, I hope we can have some fun as we take this dive into Email.
So What is Email?
While it may seem obvious to many, I find it is a good idea to start with the basics and work from there. Email is short for electronic mail, meaning mail sent via the internet. Now I have often people get confused when texting and Skyping and other forms of communication are mixed in so let’s take a step back and really drill down to what we mean. Think of a hand-written letter you might send to someone. Take all those rules of conduct you follow in those letters. Everything you are thinking about right now applies, in some shape or form, to Email. Texting and the rest are different and follow their own rules. We’ll talk about them in the coming weeks but for now we’re focusing on Email. And when we look at Email, the most important thing to consider is the Email Address.
What is an Email Address?
Email addresses are in many ways just like our normal, real-world, addresses, they give you a place on the internet from which you can send mail and receive. Now if you have never had an email address before there are A LOT of options out there. The number of choices can be rather overwhelming but that is why we are having this conversation.
Before we talk about those options though, let’s take a look at a generic email address:
USERNAME@DOMAIN.COM
Rather intimidating, isn’t it? Well don’t worry. It only looks scary, in reality it is a paper tiger. As you can see, there are several parts to any email address, each one is important just like the town, state, and zip code is important in your own real-world address. Oh, and like your real-world address, you don’t need to capitalize the whole thing.
Now that we have the basic structure down, let’s take a look at the individual parts.
Username
Usernames are the part of any email address people end up stressing over. At its most basic, the username is you. Or, more exactly, the username represents your unique location within a domain. Think of it as the first part of your regular address. There can only be one building at 1234 Park Place, the same way there can be only one username per domain. If you have ever seen someone whose email address was something similar to CUDDLYMONKEY23@DOMAIN.COM it’s because there were probably 23 other people who wanted to be CUDDLYMONKEY and they got to the domain first. Usernames can be even harder if you want a more professional one that includes your real name. Think how hard it must be for me to get one with a name like John Carter!
@
Now the @ sign might not seem all that important in the grand scheme of things but it is vital. @, or at, tells people where your username can be found. This is important since you can use the same username for multiple different accounts. That new Kindle you just got, well it is going to need an Amazon account on top of your email address and you can use the same username for both. By having the @ sign though people and computers know your username is attached to an email and not an Amazon account.
Domain.com
The domain is, to borrow from our real-world mail metaphor, the ‘city’ where your email is located. There are many domains out there, perhaps you’ve heard of some: Yahoo.com, Gmail.com, Hotmail.com, Outlook.com, Aol.com, Bellsouth.net. I could go on for hours naming more and more, but if you’ve heard of any of those you’ve heard of a domain. Some of us get domains from their cable/phone companies and if you do then that’s great. A word of warning for you though, if you were to ever end your cable account, perhaps because you are moving to somewhere Comcast does not exist, then you would lose the email associated with it. Therefore, even if you have an account already, it is wise to get an account you in no way pay for. Gmail.com and Outlook.com are both good choices for an email account, be it a secondary or your first as they both have added cloud benefits. (Look for that in a later post)
As a side note about domains, do not use one domain to make another. What I mean is this. Let’s say you have your bellsouth.net address and you want a new gmail.com address. One question you are asked is, “What do you want your email address to be,” and some people just put their bellsouth.net address. This is a big, BIG, no no. What you have done is essentially made two different houses in two different cities and gave them both the EXACT same address, even down to the city, state, and zip code. If you think the people at UPS would get confused imagine how bad it can get for computers. If you want to keep the same username then by all means do so but don’t use the same domain when making a new email address. Keep bellsouth.net with bellsouth.net and gmail.com with gmail.com. I know it makes it a little harder to keep track of what is where but trust me, it will save you and those who help you a ton of time.
What about Passwords?
Passwords are the bane of most people, be they newcomers to the digital world or long-time digital citizens. Now most experts will tell you to create a password complicated enough so no one will ever be able to crack it, something like: 7zK45jKbbY812!h&5L. As far as passwords go, at least from a security standpoint, that one is pretty good with a decent mix of numbers, letters, capitalization, and special characters (meaning the ! or the &). But from an ease of remembering standpoint, it is TERRIBLE. Going into the creation of a password by saying, “I am going to make one no one will ever guess,” is you guaranteeing that you will never be able to remember it.
So, what can we do? How can we make a password that will be hard to crack but easy to remember? Well let’s try something. Look at this sentence:
Mary had a little lamb.
Pretty easy right? Most of us know this little nursery rhyme and if you don’t then I am sure there is something from your own childhood that is burned into your memory. But with this one sentence we can do a lot: M4ry_h4d_@_little_l4mb, or MaryHad@L1ttleLamb, or M@ryL1ttl3L@mb. With each of these I took the line and then established a code in my head. In one I replaced every ‘A’ with a 4 because an ‘A’ looks a lot like 4, at least depending on the font. In another I capitalized the first letter of each word and replaced the “i” in little with a 1. There are a lot of ways you can scramble it while still retaining the core thing you need for your memory. The key is consistency. Notice in all three I replaced the ‘a’ between had and little with a @, or just replaced all the instances of ‘a’ with @. Instead of trying to remember where you put a character just have it in the same place every time.
And please, do not feel bad about writing down your passwords in a book. A lot of people do it and there is nothing wrong with it. Just remember to keep it consistent in a way that makes sense to you.
Wait, why is it asking for my phone number?
When you make an email account these days often you will be asked to provide a cell phone number. They do this as an additional safety barrier for you on top of your password. With your phone number if someone, including yourself, is trying to get into your account you will receive a text message with a code. This is code is single-use, so do not hang onto it, and it will let you in. Because of this, bad guys would need your phone number and your username and your password to steal your information.
However, if you do this please remember your email and your phone are now linked. When it comes time to upgrade to a new phone make sure you move your phone number to the new phone, otherwise you will lose access to your email account. Because if you cannot get to your old phone number for the code you CANNOT get in.
Okay, that was scary. Now what?
Well the good news is, you have an email address! Having an email address means you are now a digital citizen. You can communicate with other people, sign up for goods and services, and have access to everything the internet has to offer. Most importantly though, depending on which domain you went with you also have your own personal slice of The Cloud. But for more on that, tune in next time.
Until then, have fun, find adventure, and stay safe.
Hi Net Neighbors! Today I am announcing the start of a new, hopefully, regular segment. Tech Tuesdays will be a time for us to sit down and really dive into a subject. While this week we only have an announcement, next week will be the first official post. I hope you enjoy it as much as I.
Until then, have fun, find adventure, and stay safe!
Hi Net Neighbors!
Welcome to Word Around the Block where we can take a deeper dive into topics. Today’s topic is one many of you may have some reservations about; the COVID-19 vaccine. Now why do I think you may be worried about this, because I was. Vaccines normally take ages to figure out, it took Jonas Sulk seven years to crack the Polio vaccine. To hear them make a vaccine in months or even weeks, well that shook me.
Yet we should not allow a fear to hold us back, that is the whole point of this place. Instead we need to do some research. Don’t worry, I’ll break this down for you.
What is a vaccine?
When we are tackling a big topic it’s good to look at where we’ve been. Knowing the past of something can help us understand it’s present. So we start at what a vaccine is. At its most basic, a vaccine is a thing designed to make your body immune to a particular virus.
Vaccines have been in use, in their modern form, since the 1790s. Their foundations are even older, dating back at least to the 10th century in China. Be it via an injection or inhaled, the result has been the same, expose someone to a less potent version of the disease. This gave their body an idea of what to fight so when a worse version came through it wasn’t surprised.
Since then, we’ve been using variations on that theme, giving people something that causes our body to create a wall of defense.
That brings us to the COVID-19 vaccine.
The technology behind the COVID-19 vaccine has been in development for years, only not for COVID. The technology , known as RNA vaccines, was in development since the 1990s to combat plagues and cancer. Yes, you read that right, the underlying technology was developed, in part, to treat cancer.
Now we’re not talking radiation or anything of the sort. RNA vaccines still make use of your body’s natural immune system. So let’s see how it does this.
RNA vaccines at work
Imagine a ball. Some of you might have pictured a baseball, others a football, and so on. I’m picturing a neon green tennis ball and for this, I want you to imagine it too. Now at any point in life you can be hit by a ball, just as you can get sick from a virus.
Now normally, to get protection from a virus we have to throw a lighter copy of the ball at you. The ball hits, your body goes ow, and it learns to protect you from the next ball. That’s how normal vaccines work.
With an RNA vaccine, scientists can tell your body about the ball you’re going to get hit with without throwing it at you. They can tell your immune cells about the neon green fuzz on the outside. Now that your cells know to look out for it, they can protect you from the moment the ball heads your way.
This gives RNA vaccines a huge advantage over other types, speed. To come up with an effective vaccine with other methods scientists have to make huge amounts of the weaker virus. This slows production time while increases the possibility of accidentally releasing a second virus. An RNA vaccine can be made quickly in huge quantities, the only downside is that needs to stay cold during transport.
So what’s the main point?
That the vaccine is safe. Yes it was developed quickly, but that speed came about because the technology had been in development for years. Think about the smart phone. Mobile phones had been around for years, suddenly Apple makes the iPhone and then everything revolves around these computers in our pockets and purses.
Now to show you that I am more than just talk, I got my first dose of the Pfizer Vaccine today. And while my arm is sore as all get out, I’m glad I got it. That soreness means I’m becoming protected against this thing that has kept us all scared for a year now.
I hope all this has a positive impact on you and your decision to take the vaccine. Now if you have any questions regarding it and YOUR health ask your doctor, they are the best position to know.
Until next time, have fun, find adventure, and stay safe.
Stop Worrying About Your Battery
Hi Net Neighbors!
I am back today with another Quick Tip, this time focused on your devices’ batteries. Over the years I’ve met many a fine soul who was fearful of harming the battery in their phone or their computer. Today I am going to invoke a powerful piece of advice from none other than Douglas Adams, “Don’t Worry.”
Now you may be thinking, “But Mr. John, I’ve heard that we need to be careful with our batteries. That’s why I don’t charge mine until it’s almost dead.” If this is you, that’s okay. A lot of people think the same. But like Mr. Adams said, it’s time to stop worrying about your batteries.
Many of the fears we carry surrounding batteries date back to when many devices ran on NiMH, and NiCd batteries. These had ‘memory’ problems where if you charged it wrong the battery would remember where you were. So if you plugged it in at 90% you might only be able to use 90% of your battery. This is no longer true. Instead we use Lithium Ion batteries which do not have a memory problem. So if you are in your car, and you’re going to be there for a bit, then plug in your phone.
But what about Overcharging the battery? Won’t that hurt it?
Nope! You can’t Overcharge your battery. Do you know what happens when your battery is still plugged in and hits 100%? If you guessed it stops charging you would be correct. The computers governing your battery automatically stop charging and switches to run off the power cord. So plug it in, leave it over night, let it sit on your desk. It’s fine.
Hi Net Neighbors!
Remember, unless you are paying for your email, you don’t need to get a new one when you change your phone.
If you are unsure whether you are paying for your email, here is a quick list of the ones I’m sure you pay for access to through your phone or internet provider:
- Comcast.Net
- Bellsouth.Net
- Att.Net
There may be others but those are the quick ones I can think of. Emails that end with these other ones you can definitely keep between phones:
- Gmail.com
- Yahoo.com
- Mail.com
- Hotmail.com
- Outlook.com
In fact, the number of addresses you keep between phones is much higher than those who don’t. So don’t worry about yours and don’t let someone talk you into another address you don’t need.
Look out for more Quick Tips.
Until then, have fun, find adventure, and stay safe.
Hi Net Neighbors!
Hot on the heels of our Mouse Video, I am sending out another one for those more active in the Net Neighborhood. This time we are looking at Google Analytics, a powerful tool to help you make the most of your website. Check it out!