Great address book that's free

Tech News and Views

I have used many computer address books over the years, but here's the best one I have ever found, and the amazing thing about this one is that it is free.

Click on the link and then on the Free Edition tab to download the program.

efficientaddressbook.com

One of the great features is the search option.  You can do a search on any terms that have been entered. If, for example, you entered the Oak Run neighborhoods, you could search for a particular one and the names of all of the people in the address book who live in that neighborhood will appear.

FBI Issues Warning To Parents About Smart Toys

The FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) has issued a PSA warning about the potential dangers of smart toys. The bureau encourages parents to consider cyber security before bringing internet-connect toys into the home because they could risk the privacy and safety of children.

The announcement warns of the potential for personal information to be gathered through such toys. The presence of sensors, microphones, cameras, data storage components, speech recognition and GPS, coupled with cloud storage of data, is cited as cause for concern, and parents are urged to check privacy agreements.

The IC3 warns: "Consumers should examine toy company user agreement disclosures and privacy practices, and should know where their family’s personal data is sent and stored, including if it’s sent to third-party services. Security safeguards for these toys can be overlooked in the rush to market them and to make them easy to use. Consumers should perform online research of these products for any known issues that have been identified by security researchers or in consumer reports."

There have already been several incidents around the world where smart toys have been hacked, or they have been banned because of vulnerabilities that could be exploited. The PSA does not hold back in stressing the potential dangers:

The features and functions of different toys vary widely. In some cases, toys with microphones could record and collect conversations within earshot of the device. Information such as the child’s name, school, likes and dislikes, and activities may be disclosed through normal conversation with the toy or in the surrounding environment. The collection of a child’s personal information combined with a toy’s ability to connect to the Internet or other devices raises concerns for privacy and physical safety. Personal information (e.g., name, date of birth, pictures, address) is typically provided when creating user accounts. In addition, companies collect large amounts of additional data, such as voice messages, conversation recordings, past and real-time physical locations, Internet use history, and Internet addresses/IPs. The exposure of such information could create opportunities for child identity fraud. Additionally, the potential misuse of sensitive data such as GPS location information, visual identifiers from pictures or videos, and known interests to garner trust from a child could present exploitation risks.

more of this post ▼

Dangers Of The Internet of Things (IoT)

Technology-filled smart homes have come a long way since Rosie the robot housekeeper catered to the Jetsons' needs. But one thing the Jetsons never seemed to worry about was Rosie turning on them or being used as a surveillance device.

Smart home mishaps can and do happen. Just ask the German computer science professor who rigged up his house so that everything from lights, music, and TV to heating and cooling was connected to the Internet and could be turned on and off remotely. Sounds great, right? Until the house froze up and stopped responding to his commands.

Was a nefarious hacker to blame? No, the culprit was a light fixture that had burned out and was trying to gain the hub's attention by sending continuous requests that overloaded the network, a classic denial-of-service (DOS) attack.

The professor knew his way around a network and was able to diagnose the problem himself, but are all the consumers of smart home technology -- expected to become a $12 billion annual business by 2020 -- so tech savvy?

Not all solutions to smart home snafus are as simple as changing a light bulb. And millions of Internet-connected devices flooding the market and our homes are less secure than a PC or smartphone. As Daniel Buentello said in a Black Hat tech session in which he needed just 15 seconds to break in and gain remote control over a Nest thermostat: "The more convenient or smart something is, the less secure it is. What are we giving up just for me to be lazy on my couch?"

 more of this post ▼

10 Tips For Better And Faster Search Results

The problem with search engines isn't that they don't
find the info you want but that they find too much info.

How do search engines work?
Search engines put together a database of sites by sending "spiders" or "robots" to crawl through the Web, going from link to link. When spiders get to a website, they index most of the words on the available pages. When you use a search engine, the engine scans its database of sites to match your keywords to those same words in page locations of the database.

Search Tip #1:

Be specific. The more narrowed down you can get your searches from the beginning, the more successful your search usually will be. For example, if you were searching for coffee, you'd get way more results back than you could use. However, if you narrowed that down to roasted Arabica coffee in Detroit Michigan, you'd be more successful.

Search Tip #2:

One thing that can save you search time is very simple - put your search phrase in quotes.

When you use quotation marks around a phrase, you are telling the search engine to only bring back pages that include these search terms exactly how you typed them in order, proximity, etc. This tip works in almost every search engine and is very successful in bringing back focused results. If you're looking for an exact phrase, put it in quotes. Otherwise, you'll come back with a huge jumble of results.

Here's an example: "long haired cats". Your search will come back with these three words in proximity to each other and in the order you intended them to be.

Search Tip #3:

Another simple trick is using addition and subtraction to make your search results more relevant.

For example, if you're searching for Tom Ford, but you get lots of results for Ford Motors, just combine a couple of web search basics to get better results: "tom ford" -motors. Now your results will come back without all those pesky car results.

more of this post ▼

Executive Board Minutes

Computer Technology Club, Inc. – Executive Board Minutes
February 8, 2019

Alan Marcus, President, called the meeting to order at 9:00AM. Members in attendance: Bob Leiner, Bill Balch, Jim Trimboli, Don Forgette, Bob Kenlay, Ron Kenyon, Bill Cahill and Alan Marcus.

Secretary’s report read by Bob Kenlay. No corrections or additions necessary.

Jim Trimboli read the Treasurer's Report. The current balance is $1319.39.

Jim Trimboli reported that 39 members paid their dues last month. The Federal annual forms are now complete.

Bill Balch, Jim Trimboli, Don Forgette maned the Club Fair on January 23rd. Bill Balch reported that several people stopped by and had some interest in the club.

Future meeting topics:

Feb 20   "Be Aware of These Scams" by Sgt. Paul Bloom from the Sheriff's Office
Mar 20   "Managing Passwords" by Nick Burke
Apr 17   "Spybot Anti-Beacon, Medical Alerts, & One Drive" by Bob Kenlay

Don Forgette is reviewing the concept of “Cutting the Cord”. He will report on it at a future board meeting as a possible club presentation.

The meeting adjourned at 9:40AM.

Respectfully submitted,
Bob Kenlay, Secretary

Use FaceTime? Here's a fix.

Tech News and Views

Apple has fixed the FaceTime problem.

apple-finally-released-facetime-fix

Stop using Internet Explorer

Tech News and Views

Microsoft asks us to stop using Internet Explorer.

microsoft-stop-using-internet-explorer-browser

GM to go all electric

Tech News and Views

It's hard to believe, but according to CNBC General Motors has announced their entire line-up of cars will go electric.

gm-doesnt-expect-to-make-money-off-electric-cars-until-next-decade