Suddenly yesterday (March 17, 2020), Joyce’s Dad was gone from us and in a better place. “Dad,” “Grandpa,” “Uncle Joey” was one of the finest men you’d ever want to meet. He loved the Lord, his beloved wife, Sadie, his daughter, Joyce, his grandsons and granddaughters, great-grandchildren, me and all his family. He will be …
Author: John Grubb
I've been working on computers since 1983! I love helping people resolve their computing issues and sharing preventative measures, as well.
Good Guys Score Another One
It seems like the good guys don’t win very often but once in a while, they do. Recently, Microsoft, in conjunction with partners from 35 different countries, interrupted one of the world’s largest botnets, called Necurs. The first question on your mind might be: what is a botnet? Simply put, it’s a network of computers …
Coronavirus News
In my last two posts, I discussed ways of knowing what to believe online. (If you haven’t read those posts, you should do that before finishing this one!) When it comes to the Coronavirus, there’s lots of false information online. This post is a warning so you don’t fall victim to a scam and so …
How Do You Know What To Believe?
This post picks up where the last post stopped! Rule #5 – Don’t rush to broadcast! If you want to be a trustworthy source of information on the Internet, this should be your priority rule. Often times, misinformation spreads over the Net because, in a flurry of emotions, people keep repeating something they haven’t verified. Perfect example: a …
Who Do You Trust?
From 1956 until 1963, there was a television show called “Who Do You Trust?” The original MC was Edgar Bergen but he was replaced by Johnny Carson. The show featured married pairs of contestants who were asked to answer questions, the husband deciding whether he or she would answer. A few weeks ago, at our …
Your Voice/The FBI
The political scene in America has changed so much during my lifetime. From Presidential candidates riding the rails, to visit cities to the Internet and Twitter and other Social Media sites. While the changes have allowed a candidate to reach more people, they have also given other countries the opportunity to attempt to interfere with …
Blocking RFID?
In last week's Question of the Week email, I gave the opportunity for my readers to save $5 on the purchase of a Privacy Kit. I mentioned that I had ordered 100 of them from my distributor and I would ship to anyone who bought one after they arrive. (You can order now if you …
Presidents’ Day
Today, February 17, 2020, is Presidents' Day. For some, it's a break from work. For others, it's just another day to enjoy retirement. For me, and I hope some of you, it's a day to use the Internet to explore the history behind the Federal holiday and to find out how Americans are celebrating the …
Frustrated and Saddened
Frustrated and Saddened I'm frustrated and saddened. For more than three years, I've been preaching and warning my customers about tech support scams. As recently as three days ago, in my blog post entitled "Soapbox," I reiterated how fake pop-ups and unsolicited phone calls trick people into being cheated. I shared the FBI report on …
Velociraptor Attack
Is my ear about to be eaten by a Velociraptor? I hope not! * Apologies to my Mac readers but this post is all about a Windows 10 feature - 3D Viewer. There's also a 3D Builder app you can download for free from the Microsoft Store. But, before you get into the Builder, I …
Stick Or Not?
A number of people have asked me if I thought having and using The Photo Stick was a good idea. From its ad on Amazon, it lists the following information: Fast- find and save 1000 photos in ten minutes. Saves 60,000 average size photos and videos. Works on both Mac and Windows. 128GB of storage.Super …
Explore The Store
If you own and use a smartphone or tablet, you're probably familiar with getting apps for your device. On Androids, you go to the Google Play Store. On Apple devices, you open the App Store. There are tens of thousands of apps in both of these stores and exploring them can sometimes be mind-boggling. Despite …
Smishing & Pharming
In my post, IC3 2019 Report, I shared that the top scam rip-off of 2019 was Phishing/Vishing/Smishing/Pharming. Although I've published posts on Phishing and Vishing, I have yet to cover Smishing and Pharming. I'm going to rectify that today! Smishing - Smishing is just like Phishing except the scam comes through text messaging instead of …
IC3 2019 Report
As I shared in my post, "Soapbox," the FBI has released the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) 2019 Internet Crime Report. While my "Soapbox" post was focused on Tech Support Fraud, I think it's important to share some of the other information found in this compte ren·du. For the record, I'm not passing this information along …
Soapbox
Yes, I've been on my soapbox preaching away for a long time. In fact, three years ago, I published this video: https://youtu.be/RK2i8RtCP60 The IC3 Yesterday, the FBI Released the Internet Crime Complaint Center 2019 Internet Crime Report. This review covers all the financial losses that people and companies incurred in 2019 because of Internet scammers and …
Facebook Emails
Yesterday, a customer logged into Remote Technical Support for a quarterly checkup. Also, she wanted to know if there was a way to stop getting emails from Facebook every time one of her friends posted something. If you have a lot of friends on Facebook, getting an email every time they post or comment or …
#Hashtag
In my post entitled "Safer Internet," I used what we refer to as a "hashtag." In the days before personal computers, this symbol was usually called the "pound sign." In this day of Social Media, the hashtag is an important search tool. Often, on Social Media sites, we search for people. However, many times we'd …
Safer Internet
Today (Tuesday, February 11, 2020) is #SaferInternetDay! This is a world-wide effort to keep kids safe online while they take advantage of all the Internet has to offer. The umbrella platform for this can be found at https://www.saferinternetday.org/. Once you arrive at this page, if you want to see what an individual country is doing …
2019-nCoV
Did you read our Question of the Week email for February 3, 2019? (If not, you should read it now - before you continue with this post. You'll find it HERE.) In addition to what I shared in the email, I wanted to warn you of something scammers/hackers are doing. They are sending emails with …
Waaaa
One of my favorite places to go for a quick sandwich, soft pretzel or drink is Wawa. Their club sandwiches are my favorite and they have great milk shakes, too. Here on Florida's Treasure Coast, we've seen an increased presence from Wawa and that makes it more convenient. Zip in, get what you want, zip …
Why No Black Boxes?
Making sense out of tragedy is never easy and often impossible. So it is with the helicopter crash that killed Gianna and Kobe Bryant and the seven others shown in the photo above. We've heard all kinds of reporting surrounding what happened: perhaps it was the weather, perhaps this or that. However, what struck me …
It Isn’t Always Fun
Late last week, the blog section of our website went down. It happened when one of the plug-ins* performed an automatic update. As soon as the update completed, the blog area wouldn't load. Of course, this had to happen during our busiest time of the year. Finding a few hours (yes, hours) to repair the …
I Remember, Do You?
If you're my age or older, you remember the days of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. If you're too young to have seen him when he was alive, the good news is that the Internet provides you with every opportunity to learn about that time in US history. (As a side note: when I was …
Impeachment Overload?
If you're ready to bang your head against the wall rather than sit through another minute of the impeachment pomposity, let me suggest a healthier alternative. Why not learn a new skill? While people learn differently - some: by reading or by watching or by hearing or by doing - a great place for learning …
For The Life Of Me…
Yes, I have both an Android Smartphone and an iPhone. However, my iPhone is my constant companion. (Only my wife, Joyce, is with me more!) I use it for texting, for Social Media, for the weather, for banking and for traveling. Why, on a rare occasion, I even use it to make phone calls! Generally …
More Chromium Shortcuts
In my post, "It's A Chromium Day," I promised I'd share a few more browser keyboard shortcuts for the new Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome. I also said I'd let you know if the shortcut works in Firefox, too. So, here are a few more. No matter where you are on a web page, if …
Microsoft And The NSA
We've been getting a ton of phone calls and emails about a security issue in Microsoft Windows 10 that was announced this week. It was discovered by the NSA and has really made the news. If you do a Bing search for "Microsoft and the NSA" you'll get a long list of news reports similar …
It's A Chromium Day
With the release of Microsoft's new Edge browser two days ago, I thought we should look at some Chromium keyboard shortcuts that will work in the new Edge as well as in Google Chrome. As a bonus, if the shortcut works in Firefox, we'll tell you that, too. Want to get to your browser history …
Living On The Edge
On Wednesday of this week, Microsoft released the final version of it's new Microsoft Edge browser. The new browser works in Windows 7, 8.1 and Windows 10 along with Mac OS, iOS and Android. (Keep in mind, support for Windows 7 has ended so you really shouldn't be using that operating system.) It will be …
Leap Into Office Training!
A number of people have been asking me about an Office seminar or class. I haven't run one of those for a while so I think this is a good time to do so. On Saturday, February 29, 2020, (Remember, it's Leap Year!) I'm going to conduct a class on Microsoft Office. We'll cover Word, …