A few headlines of (possible) interest

Here are a few items of interest, for your consideration.

* THE FLABBY ERA How Far Fitness Has Fallen

“You’re pathetic. Really. According to the latest research, human fitness has decreased so dramatically in recent years that even the strongest of us would consider ancient men to be, well, monsters.” Read more..

* Heartbleed Havoc: 10 Passwords You Need To Change Right Now

“Facebook, Google Gmail and Amazon Web Services, among other services, are urging users to change their passwords in response to the Heartbleed bug.” Read more..

* Americans Can’t Pass Their Own Citizenship Test

“An impressive 91% of immigrants who seek to take an American citizenship test pass it. A sampling of Miami residents — all of whom were naturalized American citizens — didn’t fare as well. And by not faring so well, we mean only 1 in 15 passed. U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!” Read more..

* 10 Ways Hackers Will Get The Best Of You

“CRN pulled together some top ways, identified in the Verizon Data Breach Report, that hackers can get the best of you and your business.” Read more..

* U.S. search warrant can acquire foreign cloud, email data, judge rules

“Comments made by Verizon’s chief lawyer (and heavily disputed by legal experts and academics at the time) have been proven false.” Read more..

[ What are the big picture implications here??? ]

* Wallpaper apps on Google Play contain mobile Bitcoin-mining malware
Dendroid RAT slips into Google Play

“Five wallpaper apps in the Google Play store – that are now no longer available – did deliver on the background images that were promised, but also delivered a new piece of mobile Bitcoin-mining malware known as BadLepricon.” Read more..

Yippee yahoo.

Not so bad.. Nissan Shows Off Self-Cleaning Car

“Nissan is testing a new “super-hydrophobic” paint that will repel dirt, water, and oil.” Read more..

I want that! ( hmmm… I wonder if a can of silicon spray.. )

*     *     *

Bonus: (I know at least one reader will like this..)  Eckhart Tolle speaks at Google Fireside: “Living with Meaning, Purpose and Wisdom in the Digital Age.”

Today’s quote: “Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.” ~ Dr. Seuss

Copyright 2007-2014 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved.

---

>> Folks, don’t miss an article! To get Tech – for Everyone articles delivered to your e-mail Inbox, click here, or to subscribe in your RSS reader, click here. <<

---

All we really have, in the end, are our stories.
Make yours great ones. Ones to be proud of.
And please, never forget – one person can make a difference.
Find a way to make someone’s day today.
(Best advice I ever heard? Don’t sweat the small stuff.)

Music streaming, the FCC, and other stuff too

Yay. The weekend is here. Here are a few items for your consideration.

* Comparison: The 8 best music streaming services to use at work

“In case you left your portable radio in 1998, here are some more modern options for picking the music to pass your workday.” Read more..

* I’ve often said that the best predictor of future technology was to look at Star Trek. While we don’t yet have hand phasers, or “transporters”, other “sci fi” items are now a routine part of our lives. One of the ‘quantum leaps’ in man’s evolution is going to be “replicators”; and guess what? They’re here. 3D ‘bioprinting’: 10 things you should know about how it works

“Using living cells to 3D print organs may sound far-fetched, but it’s happening. Bioprinting is quickly gaining traction. Here’s how it works.” Read more..

[related: How 3D bioprinting is changing the world: Photos of 10 great projects ]

Beam me up, Scotty.

* About the FCC proposal: Net Neutrality: What’s Really Happening?

“Is net neutrality really dead? Here are some of the top questions about the FCC’s plan, and what we know so far.” Read more..

* Sunday Beauty #155 Here’s another interesting image for your weekend.

Click on image to see more by this artist (reco’d)

“end of the day” by paul bica, courtesy of Flickr Commons

Today’s quote: “In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks.” ~  John Muir

Copyright 2007-2014 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved.

---

>> Folks, don’t miss an article! To get Tech – for Everyone articles delivered to your e-mail Inbox, click here, or to subscribe in your RSS reader, click here. <<

---

All we really have, in the end, are our stories.
Make yours great ones. Ones to be proud of.
And please, never forget – one person can make a difference.
Find a way to make someone’s day today.
(Best advice I ever heard? Don’t sweat the small stuff.)

Things Change (And Heartbleed)

The fact that “tech” has changed our lives is patently obvious. And talking with people, it’s pretty clear that the rate of that change has not always been .. a comfortable thing.
(The “Average Joe” really doesn’t understand geometric growth, and/or Moore’s Law.)

I came of age back in the days when there were only 4 – 6 television stations (which were tuned in by moving “rabbit ears” antennas); before there were ATM machines or cell phones, and a bicycle with TEN speeds was kinda a new idea, so, yeah, I know. Things change.

So the following items do not surprise me, really.

* Aereo signals cloudy future for broadcast TV

“Whether the New York-based streaming remote DVR service lives or dies at the hand of the Supreme Court, the future for television programming is firmly seated in the Cloud.” Read more..

No more (free) over-the-air TV?

Maybe not a bad thing.. they’re called “idiot boxes” for a reason.

* The price of popularity: Cloud security threats near on-premise levels

“Hackers are now targeting cloud-based apps and systems almost as much as on-premise environments, particularly with so-called brute force attacks and vulnerability scans.” Read more..

[The line I found most interesting.. “found that 14 percent of malware collected through the honeypots was considered “undetectable” by 51 percent of the leading antivirus software providers“.. Not good.]

What can you do about Heartbleed? By now, the Poindexters in the basement should have ‘patched’ their ‘servers’. So we can now do the one thing to try to protect our ‘identities’ – change our login passwords at the sites that collect PII (Social networking sites, ecommerce sites, and online banking sites, for example.)
But first, verify the patches have been applied by visiting safeweb.norton.com/heartbleed and enter the URL of the website in question.

Today’s quote: “We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.” ~ Winston Churchill

Copyright 2007-2014 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved.

---

>> Folks, don’t miss an article! To get Tech – for Everyone articles delivered to your e-mail Inbox, click here, or to subscribe in your RSS reader, click here. <<

---

All we really have, in the end, are our stories.
Make yours great ones. Ones to be proud of.
And please, never forget – one person can make a difference.
Find a way to make someone’s day today.
(Best advice I ever heard? Don’t sweat the small stuff.)

Happy Easter

Source: SF Chronicle Online

Thank you for stopping by, Dear Reader, and I wish you all a very happy Easter Holiday!

Today’s quote: “Don’t give up. Don’t lose hope. Don’t sell out.” ~ Christopher Reeve

An accident? This crossed my path today..

Copyright 2007-2014 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved.

---

>> Folks, don’t miss an article! To get Tech – for Everyone articles delivered to your e-mail Inbox, click here, or to subscribe in your RSS reader, click here. <<

---

All we really have, in the end, are our stories.
Make yours great ones. Ones to be proud of.
And please, never forget – one person can make a difference.
Find a way to make someone’s day today.
(Best advice I ever heard? Don’t sweat the small stuff.)

Can we be serious for a minute?

Personally, I don’t find this “humorous image” funny at all..

as I could tell you stories. (And, when you think on it, the reason “personal computers” became so popular in the first place [back in the Beginning] was because they did away with White Out correcting fluid, and/or whole-document retyping [Some of you may remember. I sure do!]. PC’s have come a long way since they were the next generation of [IBM] electric typewriters..)

And I don’t find this funny either..

Though the idea of someone thinking the “Ask toolbar” is something they might find helpful is rather absurd.. Again I say, shame on you, Oracle!

And, I don’t find this funny at all either. (I know. I usually post a Friday Fun video.. but not today.)

It is said that laughter is the best medicine, and I won’t argue the veracity of that, but I will suggest the second best is performing an act of kindness. And I hope you all know, I’m very serious when I say, let’s all have a terrific weekend, okay?

Today’s quote: “For beautiful eyes, look for the good in others; for beautiful lips, speak only words of kindness; and for poise, walk with the knowledge that you are never alone.” ~ Audrey Hepburn

Copyright 2007-2014 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved.

---

>> Folks, don’t miss an article! To get Tech – for Everyone articles delivered to your e-mail Inbox, click here, or to subscribe in your RSS reader, click here. <<

---

All we really have, in the end, are our stories.
Make yours great ones. Ones to be proud of.
And please, never forget – one person can make a difference.
Find a way to make someone’s day today.
(Best advice I ever heard? Don’t sweat the small stuff.)

Due Tuesday, and Sunday Beauty

IRS Program Lets Taxpayers Use Popular Tax Preparation Software Free, and e-File For Free

(* Reposting) I am like many Americans in that I have become somewhat reliant on my computer to help me do my Federal taxes. It all started (ages ago, now) with a CD I received in the mail — a free copy of H&R Block’s TaxCut. I tried it. And I found it just a wee bit easier to use and figure out than the 1040A user manual our government provides.

Nowadays to access the free version of TaxCut (or TurboTax), I have to first go to to the IRS website.

On the IRS site, there is a page called “FreeFile”, and here you will find the “partnership links” to the free versions of 19 accepted tax prep programs — of which TaxCut (and also TurboTax) is one.
To qualify, you must have an Adjusted Gross Income of $56,000 or less.

Today’s free link: FreeFile at the IRS
Note: there are two buttons on the page; “I will choose” and “help me choose”. Though all of the programs there are accepted by the IRS, I would recommend clicking the “I will choose”, and then selecting either TaxCut or TurboTax.

Today’s Pretty Picture:

Click on image to see more by this artist (highly reco’d)

“golden waterfall” by paul bica, courtesy of Flickr Commons

Today’s quote: “Sometimes letting things go is an act of far greater power than defending or hanging on.”  ~ Eckhart Tolle

Copyright 2007-2014 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved.

---

>> Folks, don’t miss an article! To get Tech – for Everyone articles delivered to your e-mail Inbox, click here, or to subscribe in your RSS reader, click here. <<

---

All we really have, in the end, are our stories.
Make yours great ones. Ones to be proud of.
And please, never forget – one person can make a difference.
Find a way to make someone’s day today.
(Best advice I ever heard? Don’t sweat the small stuff.)

The Hemmingway App, and the Week’s News

I have received several emails asking about my thoughts on the ‘big” news items – the “Heartbleed” vulnerability, and the end of XP support.

In short:

* Heartbleed: There’s not much to say, except this is just a rather clear example of why the Internet, as we now have it, is a fundamentally flawed system, and (why I think) it’s pure folly to use it for what we’re using it for. What can you do about Heartbleed? Well.. jack-doodly, really. But in a few days, I would change my online passwords.
But loyal readers know I recommend changing them every quarter as a matter of policy (but, who does that?)

The best read inre: “Heartbleed” I saw was in the NYT. The Internet’s Telltale Heartbleed

“Heartbleed is as bad as it is possible for a security flaw to be. It can be easily exploited by anyone on the Internet without leaving a trace, and it can be used to obtain login names, passwords, credit-card information, and even the keys that keep our encrypted communications safe from eavesdroppers.” Read more..

Windows XP’s “End-of-Support”. Well, I’ve been telling readers to get off of XP for more than 2 years now – the equivalent of 14 years in Tech Time. I would not, repeat, not, connect a XP machine to the Internet. (I have a few I’ll use offline.. mainly to play old games.)

* I really enjoyed this article: Do we really need Hemingway App? (as it’s not really about some app.. or Hemmingway..)

“Digital evangelists are fond of telling us that antiquated activities like savoring a good book need to get with the times. “Reading is inherently time-consuming,” say the people at Spritz, who have invented a technology that supposedly lets you choke down 600 words per minute. They’re so dedicated to optimizing this slow, cumbersome practice for a digital age that they’ve even trademarked the phrase “Reading Reimagined.“” Read more..

*      *      *

Today’s quote: “In our age there is no such thing as ‘keeping out of politics.’ All issues are political issues, and politics itself is a mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred and schizophrenia.” ~ George Orwell

Copyright 2007-2014 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved.

---

>> Folks, don’t miss an article! To get Tech – for Everyone articles delivered to your e-mail Inbox, click here, or to subscribe in your RSS reader, click here. <<

---

All we really have, in the end, are our stories.
Make yours great ones. Ones to be proud of.
And please, never forget – one person can make a difference.
Find a way to make someone’s day today.
(Best advice I ever heard? Don’t sweat the small stuff.)