Progressive Web App

As more people access the Internet using web browsers, web browsers have to evolve their sophistication and complexity to adapt to the traditional programs people have been accustomed to, programs that are installed locally on the computers. For example, many people are accustomed to the Microsoft Outlook program that they find the interface for the online web version lackluster. How does Microsoft make the web version of Outlook, accessed with a web browser, to have the look and feel of the desktop version of Outlook? The compromise is to make the web version a progressive web app. 

PWAs are installed using the offline cache of a device's web browser. This is akin to Java applets that have been fallen out of favor because they require the Java virtual machine installed first on the device. PWAs only need a modern web browser to act like this virtual machine. 

When you use a Chromebook, the only program on it is a glorified version of Google Chrome. This is where PWAs shine. You can use traditional programs as PWAs to get better performance. One such program is Zoom. Running Zoom on a web browser is slow and buggy because it has to interface with the computer's microphone, camera, and speaker. As a PWA, Zoom works better at these tasks. 

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-edge/progressive-web-apps-chromium

When you visit a website that offers PWA version of its service, you can install this PWA by going to the Customize and Control of Google Chrome, the 3 vertical dots at the upper right corner of the Chrome browser. Then go to Cast, Save, and Share. If a PWA is available to access the website's service, you should see something like this. I use Outlook as an example.

The first thing you notice when running the Outlook PWA is the removal of browser navigation buttons and the URL address bar. This makes the interface look like the desktop version of Outlook.

One side benefit is the offline nature of PWA can be used to cache an offline version of selected pages in a website so that you can browse these pages when the device is not connected to the Internet. This is basically the web crawler of the past. With PWA, the web crawler feature is built into the PWA so the website's administrator can control what pages can be cached using the PWA controls in the browser. This provides consistency of the caching across multiple web browsers. Imagine your daily routine is to visit a news website. You would casually access the various webpages while inside the PWA. Then you would hop on a bus to go to work. While you are on the bus, you can fire up this reading device and revisit the same web pages offline or only need to fetch the latest info on pages that have been modified since the initial caching, saving Internet bandwidth. Moreover, with PWAs, it is possible to access the same cached pages from different devices. You would cache the pages on a desktop, then the cached pages are synched to the PWA on a second device such as your phone at home over wifi. Then you can revisit the same pages on the phone while riding the bus where Internet connection is spotty.      

 

Tailscale Documentation

Below is a fairly comprehensive knowledge-base for its technology and how-to.

Of particular interest is how to use low-powered AppleTVs as exit nodes and subrouters so you basically can have your own private Internet with multiple hosts and clients inside the public Internet.

https://tailscale.com/kb/1017/install

https://tailscale.com/kb/1280/appletv  

Improve Your Roku Device Wifi Reception and wired network connection

Some Roku streaming devices have a USB port. This port can be used to plug in an Ethernet-to-USB adapter so the Roku device receives its Internet via a wired connection.

https://support.roku.com/article/360058027813

For TVs that have Roku built-in, try these adapters:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6vlHmwFVrQ

Adapters with gigabit 1000mbps don't work. Always try the adapters with 100mbps (aka Fast Ethernet) with USB2. Any adapter that has the ASIX AX88772A chipset in its circuitry seems to play nice with RokuTVs and Roky streaming devices that lack the network jack. It's most likely that a Roku device with a network jack actually uses this chipset. Don't be worry about the "slower" 100mbps speed. It is fast enough even for 4K videos.

The key steps are:

1. Turn the TV USB port to ON so the TV will recognize any USB item plugged in to it. The USB on the RokuTV is meant for a harddrive that has videos and pictures to play from, but when a compatible USB-to-Ethernet adapter is plugged in, the TV will recognize it as wired network.

2. If the TV does not recognize it, Reset the Internet connection in the RokuTV system to refresh it. 

Settings -->System-->Advanced-->Network Reset.

What if a wired connection is not an option? You can still improve on the wifi reception by supplanting the device's wimpy internal wifi antenna with a more powerful external antenna. Roku does not sell its own Ethernet-to-USB adapters, but it does sell this external USB-powered wifi transceiver. 

Power Cable with Long-range Wi-Fi Receiver

https://www.roku.com/products/accessories/usb-power-cable-with-long-range-wifi-receiver-streaming-stick-4k-and-4k-plus?srsltid=AfmBOoo1ImnLQqJl_6UhC_R99xtcLhdrmpHhvLdUOqBJ75J9QfrkJBdM

The larger end USB (USB-A) plugs into your TV USB port. Because this connection is to power the transceiver, if the TV has a USB port meant for power, use that. You can also plug this USB-A end to an actual USB charger that is used to charge your phone.

The smaller USB end (USB-B) goes into your Roku device. Because this transceiver is made by Roku, the Roku device should automatically detect it and disable its own internal antenna in favor of this external one. With this external transceiver, your Roku streaming device should be able to pick up fainter wifi signal from your wifi router. 

This transceiver is compatible with these streaming devices:

Roku Streaming Stick 4K (models 3820X and 3820X2)

Roku Streaming Stick 4K+ (models 3821X and 3821X2)

This makes sense because 4K videos require more data going into the devices, necessitating a more sensitive receiver.  

Share YouTube Playlists

If some people, including yourself, rely heavily on Youtube to work on a project or share an interest, everyone can collaborate more efficiently by sharing playlists. Below is the how-to guide to do this.

https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/6109639?hl=en

Needless to say, unless you are members of the same family group, you cannot share private playlists. The shared playlists must be either Unlisted or Public. 

Retirement of the Zoom Chrome OS App

As of February 1, 2023, the Zoom ChromeOS Apphas been deprecated in favor of Zoom ChromeOS Wed App that can be downloaded by pointing the Chrome browser on ChromeOS to  

https://app.zoom.us/wc

More info can be found here:https://support.zoom.com/hc/en/article?id=zm_kb&sysparm_article=KB0058646

Evaluate VMware Products

VMware Hands-on Learning & Trials 

https://www.vmware.com/trials-test-drives.html

Microphone Plug Types

 The video below is a good start to get information on a bewildering array of microphones. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0rCUohAVws

Below is the plug with a 4-hole interface called TA4F aka TQG aka 4-pin mini XLR. The TA4F end would go to a variety of wireless transmitters. Transmitters are devices that you clip onto your belt. They communicate wirelessly to an audio receiver appliance in an AV cabinet. The other end of this adapter is a microdot that is plugged into a microphone. Notice each hole has a number.

A wireless over the ear microphone that uses this TA4F connector 

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/LizProT4Blk--acacia-liz-pro-headworn-microphone-for-shure-wireless-black

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/LizProT4Blk--acacia-liz-pro-headworn-microphone-for-shure-wireless-black

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/E6OW5T2SL--countryman-e6-omnidirectional-earset-for-shure-speaking-tan-2mm

https://www.shure.com/en-US/products/wireless-systems/qlx-d_digital_wireless/qlxd1?variant=QLXD1%3D-J50A

Use more than one version of macOS and Windows on same Mac

People can dual boot Windows computers for a long time, including with Linux and Windows. However, Mac users don't know they can do the same with having multiple macOS systems running on the same Mac computer. The process is simple.

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/118282#:~:text=This%20%E2%80%9Cdual%20boot%E2%80%9D%20setup%20is,an%20earlier%20macOS%20after%20upgrading.

Dual booting macOS and Windows on Intel-based Macs is also simple. Macs with the newer Apple Silicon chip, this ability is no longer possible without using virtualization.

https://support.apple.com/hr-hr/guide/bootcamp-assistant/bcmp173b3bf2/mac

 

Sync Between Apple Photos App and Google Photos App

If you use Google Photos to back up your photos and videos -- they will be referred to as files from now on -- taken on your iPhones and iPads, you would want to know what happens when you delete something, namely does any automatic task happen in response to the deletions?

I should mention first that the backed up files are not physically stored on the GP app on the mobile device. Only thumbnails are stored there to reduce storage consumption on the these mobile devices which by their nature, usually do not have a lot of storage to accommodate hefty-sized media files.

You can delete files from AP and GP.

When you delete a file from AP, this file will not be deleted on GP. This makes sense because GP acts as a backup. Think about it, if you delete the source file, and this action is replicated automatically to the backup copy, the action defeats the purpose of a backup, doesn't it?

By contrast, when you delete a file from GP, be it on the iPhone or iPad or on the GP website, this file is no longer visible on GP because it is marked as "to be deleted" in GP. In 60 days, this file will be automatically and permanently deleted from GP trash.

If you don't want to wait 60 days for this automatic deletion in AP via GP, you can go to the GP app and tell it to empty the trash. 

https://support.google.com/photos/answer/6128858?hl=en&co=GENIE.Platform%3DiOS&oco=1

Installing Windows 11 on incompatible PCs

Older PCs that do not have TPM 2.0 chip on their motherboard and Secure Boot in the BIOS cannot run Windows 11. However, there is a way for you to bypass the Secure Boot and TPM 2.0 requirements by fusing the more permissible requirements of Windows 10 installation with the core of Windows 11. It's like putting a wolf in sheep clothing where the computer hardware thinks Windows 10 is being installed into it, but in reality, it is Windows 11. With that said, because this trick sidestep the preliminary hardware check done by the tru Windows 11 installer, the Windows 11 drivers that come with the core Windows 11 may not be compatible with one or more components of the PC. Moreover, the unsanctioned Windows 11 installation may be unstable. Basically, while this workaround may let you breath new life into older computers, it is not recommended that you use this on your mission-critical or daily-driver machines.  

First, make sure you have the following things:

• Windows 11 ISO file, downloaded from Microsoft website
• Windows 10 bootable USB drive of at least 8GB. This is the USB that will install "Windows 10" into the computer where the core Windows 11 payload is encapsulated by the preflight Windows 10 installer.
• Computer running Windows 10 to use to put the core Windows 11 (the wolf) into the Windows 10 (sheep clothing)

1. Navigate to the Windows 11 ISO file on the Windows 10 machine.
2. Right click on it and choose Mount.
3. Open the mounted ISO image and open the sources folder inside.
4. Look for the install.wim file, select it, and press Ctrl + C.
5. Connect the bootable Windows 10 USB drive to PC and open it.
6. Also, find and open the sources folder inside.
7. Press Ctrl + V to paste the install.wim file you’ve copied.
8. Click Replace the file in the destination in the pop-up dialog window.
9. Reboot your computer into BIOS and enter the boot menu.
10. Change the boot device order: adjust your bootable USB drive to be the first option.
11. Exit BIOS and save changes.
12. Your computer will restart and you’ll be asked to select and install a Windows 11 version. Remember, the installer from the USB drive thinks it is installing Windows 10, but it is actually installing Windows 11 because the source wim file is Windows 11.

There are two potentially two problems with the preparation. The first is the installer USB drive created by the Microsoft Media Creation tool for Windows 10 may format the drive FAT32. The install.wim file for Windows 11 is over 4GB which cannot be stored in a FAT32 drive. The solution is to create the Windows 10 installer USB drive using Rufus where you tell Rufus to format the USB drive as NTFS. 

The second problem is the installer.wim file in the Windows 10 installer may be in the .esd format. You can delete this file and in its place put in the install.wim file from the Windows 11 iso. The installer routine seems to accept both .wim and .esd format.

During this special Windows 11 installation, the initial process looks like you are installing Windows 10, but after the first restart, it will look like the expected Windows 11 installation. 

The same trick can be used to upgrade an existing Windows 10 incompatible machine to Windows 11 by swapping the WIM file.

Chromeboxes

Every ChromeOS device receives regular updates from Google until it reaches its Auto Update Expiration (AUE) date, based on component manufacturers. When a device reaches AUE, automatic software updates from Google will no longer be provided. Chrome devices last a long time. Therefore, before you buy one, you should check how long Google will release updates for it.

https://support.google.com/chrome/a/answer/6220366?hl=en#zippy=%2Casus

My current favorite Chromebox is the ASUS Chromebox 4. Its AUE is 2028. It also comes in 4 with faster CPU and memory. For basic use, the lowest Chromebox 4 with the Celeron CPU and 4GB of memory should be fine.

https://www.asus.com/displays-desktops/mini-pcs/chrome-os-devices/asus-chromebox-4

https://www.androidauthority.com/asus-chromebox-4-review-1219076

Everything You Need to Know About Multi Monitors Use

 https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/monitors-extended-desktop-3-check/

Cloudflare VPN

If you want the simplest VPN service that is free, super simple to set up, and provided by a well-known mainstream company, there is no service that satisfies all the criteria other than Cloudflare. Its offering is called WARP. You can go to its website at www.cloudflare.com, search for WARP, download and install its WARP program. You don't even need to provide it any names. Once installed, you would simply turn on the WARP service. This will create a VPN tunnel between your computer and its many relay servers on the Internet. When you browse the Internet under this WARP tunnel, the websites you visit see the Cloudflare's relay server instead of your actual computer's network. That's it. Because of its simplicity, this WARP service has one big disadvantage. You cannot control the "exit server" on Cloudflare end. So if you want the website you visit to think you are from a particular country, this is not possible. 

Cloudflare offers much more than this if you want to dig deeper with its Zero Trust network. With this, you can have two computers at two different geographical locations join a virtual network using Cloudflare as the middleman. This service does require 2 things: you have a custom domain such as yourdomain.com and that you use Cloudflare as your domain's DNS server. 

Create Custom Microsoft Office Installers

The majority of us get our Microsoft Office by going to the Microsoft website at www.microsoft.com.

1. Search for Office.
2. Pick the package of our choice.
3. Log in with our Microsoft account.
4. Pay for it.
5. Download and install it.

Do you know you can create customized Office installation packages that have exactly the programs you want. You don't even need to log in first with a Microsoft account. However, once all is done, you still need to activate the program(s) with a Microsoft account or a valid serial number. 

Few people use OneNote, OneDrive, and even PowerPoint. If you just want the installation to have only Word and Excel, you can. These are the steps as explained in this Youtube video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4v1dLC8H7_k&t=21s

The first main step:

Create a configuration with the Microsoft Office Customization Tool. This step creates an XML file (a glorified plain text file) that has the instruction on the programs you want in the installer. You would go to

https://config.office.com/deploymentsettings 

Pick and choose your version of Office.

Office LTSC is the perpetual version of Office for commercial customers, a device-based license available as a one-time, “perpetual” purchase, available on both macOS and Windows. See below for the nitty gritty of this license type:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/office-2021-and-office-ltsc-for-windows-and-mac-faq-d574cf0b-3ebc-42cf-9035-a3b837e0463c

https://office-watch.com/2021/the-good-and-bad-in-office-ltsc 

The second main step:

Using the Office Deployment Tool, you actually download a program that when run, will look into the configuration file to download what is dictated in the file. Make sure that the configuration file and the deployment tool are in the same folder on the computer. Strangely, the deployment tool is not the setup file in its final form. Running the tool will self-extract to create the setup tool. This setup tool is the one that is placed in the same folder as the configuration XML file. To make the next step simpler with less typing, you should put this folder on the root C drive by going to the C drive in File Explorer and put this folder there so that the path to this folder is C:\<folder name>

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=49117 

Because this setup file is in the MSI format, the installation is done with the commandline. Open the commandline, that results in a black window. Type this:

cd c:\<folder name>

setup /configure Configuration.xml

Hit Enter on the keyboard

The setup program will run to go out to the Microsoft server to download just the programs listed in the configuration file. 

Microsoft Support and Recovery Assistant

If you use Microsoft Office long enough, you will eventually run into seemingly intractable problems with it where a simple uninstallation and reinstallion does not fix the problem. Because the Office Suite is complex program, sometimes it needs another program, an insider also made by Microsoft, to fix it. This insider fixer is the Microsoft Support and Recovery Assistant program.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/100607

The Microsoft Support and Recovery Assistant tool, aka SARA, is a scalpel uninstall support tool in the form of SetupProd_OffScrub.exe program.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/uninstall-office-from-a-pc-9dd49b83-264a-477a-8fcc-2fdf5dbf61d8

Strange may it seems, there are different installers for Office as explained by the support article above. The steps to uninstall Microsoft 365 depend on the type of installation you have. The most common installation types are Click-to-Run and Microsoft Windows Installer (MSI). The other type is a Microsoft 365 installation from the Microsoft Store app.

So there are different ways to get Office on your machine. As such, there are different ways to cleanly extricate Office from it. First, you have to know who Office got into your computer.

How to bypass internet connection to install Windows 11

Of all the annoying things Microsoft imposes on its customers, this one ranks near the top. With the latest Windows 11 version, namely 22H2, the computer getting it installed on is required to be connected to the Internet during the installation process so Microsoft can "download latest security updates" to incorporate into the installation. Well, what happens when you install Windows 11 where there is no Internet connection? Are you stuck? Not if you follow the instruction here:

https://pureinfotech.com/bypass-internet-connection-install-windows-11

Basically, on the “Oops, you’ve lost internet connection” or “Let’s connect you to a network” page, use the Shift + F10 keyboard to get out of this bind to bring up a command line window. On some laptops, you need to key in a third function key so the key sequence is Shift + fn + F10 

In Command Prompt, type the OOBE\BYPASSNRO command to bypass the network requirement on Windows 11 and press Enter.

The computer will restart automatically. Then you will see this:

Whew! Now you can proceed with the installation by clicking on "I don't have internet"and curse Microsoft for having to make you go through this step.

How To Back Up The Google Authenticator App

 https://passwordbits.com/how-to-back-up-the-google-authenticator-app

Long story short, you would tell the Google Authenticator app to export the various accounts managed by it. The process will create one or more QR codes, depending on how many 2FA accounts you try to export. Each QR code encompasses up to ten 2FA accounts, meaning if you have 11 accounts, the process will create two QR codes. The resulting QR codes look more "dense" than a typical QR code. I  suspect these QR codes have more complex information. You will scan these QR codes to recreate the 2FA accounts on a different smart phone such as your new replacement phone.

Useful Shortcuts in Managing Windows

There are a few commands that are used often by technicians to manage Windows. Things like creating and deleting user accounts. The following commands would be typed in the Search Bar which can be open by hitting the Windows key + R.

sysdm.cpl





lusrmgr.msc

certmgr.msc

This lists all the certificates used by Windows to authenticate to one online resources. In some cases, certificates are used in lieu of passwords. So if your Windows machine cannot authenticate to some network resource that it could previously, the culprit could simply be a stale, expired, or corrupted certificate. Deleting the existing certificates forces Windows to get new ones from the network resources.

Go to Trusted Root Certification, then Certificates. There, look for any expired certificates and delete them. 

How to Remote Connect to a Windows PC From a Raspberry Pi

Remmina is the program that you would use to do this on the Pi, but it needs some dependencies to be able to work on Raspbian OS. There are a few packages that have these dependencies. The most popular is xrdp because it is built specifically for the RDP protocol. Snap is another but it has a larger footprint that may not be suitable for lower-end Pi devices. So the 3 steps to install Remmina is:Update and upgrade the 

1. Raspbian OS
2. Get the dependencies
3. Install Remmina

https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/remote-connect-windows-pc-raspberry-pi/


https://snapcraft.io/install/remmina/raspbian

You can use this to remote to a Proxmox VE server that hosts multiple Windows guest VMs. This way, you can have an office or a computer lab that does not need to have multiple electricity-sapping full blown Windows stations, but low-cost low-power Raspberry Pi devices including these that have the Pi built into the keyboard.

https://www.raspberrypi.com/products/raspberry-pi-400

HP printer setup (Wi-Fi Direct)

https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/ish_1841315-1637332-16

Expanding Outlook database

https://www.msoutlook.info/question/852

Therefore, we have to go to the registry to increase this limit.

https://www.msoutlook.info/question/increase-pst-file-size-limit 

Directional HDMI Cables

Here is a fruitful article on this type of cable. If price is ok, you should use these directional cables even for shorter distances because once installed, you do not need to replace the cables for a long time. 

https://tinyurl.com/directionalhdmicables

The unruly actual link is:

https://thehometheaterdiy.com/directional-hdmi-cables/#:~:text=Directional%20HDMI%20cables%20are%20more,signals%20in%20only%20one%20direction

Whoever manages this webpage in particular forgot to eliminate the spaces between the words in the web document. How inconsiderate.

PoE on Ubiquiti Edgerouter X

This router is a gem of a network device. It has a lot of the advance networking feature including PoE for a meager price of $60. It's so popular that it is often out of stock on the manufacturer's website:

https://store.ui.com/collections/operator-isp-infrastructure/products/edgerouter-x

https://www.ui.com/download/edgemax/edgerouter-x/er-x

If you want more ports on the router, the next best thing is the EdgeRouter 10X

https://store.ui.com/collections/operator-edgemax-routers/products/edgerouter-10x

https://www.ui.com/download/edgemax/edgerouter-10x/er-10x

Here is the entire family of the EdgeRouters:

https://store.ui.com/collections/operator-edgemax-routers

Used in conjunction with a UniFi6 Lite access point, you will have a basic rock solid wifi system that almost rivals one found in big business. If you want even more features from the access point, have the UniFi6 Lite be managed by a controller by replacing the EdgeRouter with a Dream Router

https://store.ui.com/collections/unifi-network-wireless/products/u6-lite-us 

https://www.ui.com/download/unifi/unifi-6-lite-ap/u6-lite

https://store.ui.com/collections/unifi-network-unifi-os-consoles/products/dream-router

This post focuses on the Power over Ethernet aspect of the EdgeRouter.

The EdgeRouter X comes with a two-prong AC power brick that can output 12V at 0.5A. While this can power the router, there is not enough juice to let you use the eth4 as the source to power a PoE device such as the access point. However, if you use a 24V 0.5A power source -- either a PoE injector on eth0 or a power adapter via the DC barrel jack -- you can enable PoE output on eth4. Be aware that this is 24V passive PoE. As such, it will only work with end devices designed for this particular type of PoE. If passive PoE is enabled and a non-PoE device is connected, this power can potentially damage these devices since this is passive PoE. Unlike 802.3af/at/bt, it does not have an active process to auto-detect/negotiate power delivery before power is sent. This eth4 cannot be made to be 802.3af/at. For that you have to get a different PoE device that has support this technology. Interestingly, the UniFi6 Lite access point can take both 24V passive PoE and 802.3af/at PoE.

You can get this 24V power adapter here:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0194B7ZS0

However, unless you have absolute control over the physical layout of the network, it's best to not use passive PoE at all in favor of 802.3af/at/bt for safety.

https://community.ui.com/questions/I-bought-the-EdgeRouter-X-can-the-power-supply-deliver-24v-PoE-or-need-different-adapter/f7692781-a984-4659-8d1c-e89af19bc8fc

Forgot Mac Admin Password?

 

https://www.switchingtomac.com/macos/forgot-mac-admin-password-heres-how-to-get-back-in

Google Workspace Editions

Google offers a cloud-based service where under a custom domain, you can get various services such as email and website. One of these is Google Drive. However, not all editions of Workspace offer shared drives. These are basically virtual drives where users of the organization can share files in a more centralized manner. They can always share a folder within their respective My Drive, but this manner of sharing is ad-hoc and can be messy if there are many people in the organization who need to share data with each other. Common shared drives that are owned by the organization and not by a particular account so they are more appropriate for this purpose.

https://workspace.google.com

If you want to get your feet wet with this Google service, most likely you will start with the Business Starter plan. Although it says the Business Starter plan cost $6/user account/month, by telling Google that this is for personal use and not to run a business, Google can let you have the Business Starter service for free.  (https://admin.google.com/ac/billing/legacytransition). However, to be able to get team drives, you must get one of these supported editions:

Business Standard $12/user/month
Business Plus $18/user/month

Essentials

https://apps.google.com/supportwidget/articlehome?hl=en&article_url=https%3A%2F%2Fsupport.google.com%2Fa%2Fanswer%2F7681288%3Fhl%3Den&product_context=7681288&product_name=UnuFlow&trigger_context=a

Essentials editions are designed to provide seamless integration with your existing email solution. Use these tables to see exactly which features are included with the following editions: 

Essentials Starter—Collaboration and video conferencing at no cost for teams of up to 25 users.

Essentials—Collaboration and video conferencing, additional security features, pooled storage, and policy controls. Essentials edition is no longer available for new customers.
Enterprise Essentials—Collaboration and video conferencing with more participants and advanced features, more pooled storage, and enterprise-grade security and management.

More info

https://support.google.com/a/users/answer/7681288?fl=1

Enterprise

Education Fundamentals

Education Standard Teaching and Learning Upgrade

Education Plus

Nonprofits

G Suite Business (will be deprecated soon)

More info on the Business Starter plan

https://support.google.com/a/answer/10071876

There is an oddball edition called Google Workspace Individual that is $9.99 a month. It's strange that it costs more than the Business Starter plan that costs $6/month/account.

https://workspace.google.com/individual

Google Drive for Desktop

https://support.google.com/drive/answer/7329379#zippy=%2Cdownload-install-google-drive-for-desktop%2Csystem-requirements%2Copen-google-drive-for-desktop%2Ckeep-files-and-folders-offline%2Csee-whos-editing-microsoft-office-files-in-real-time

Visit the Google Workspace Learning Center

https://support.google.com/a/users#topic=11499463

Recommended Brother and HP Printers for ChromeOS Computers

These computers come in a variety of names, but they all fall into 3 categories based on their hardware configurations.

• Chromebox
• Chromebase
• Chromebook

Chromeboxes are desktops. As such, they need externally attached monitors, keyboards, and mice.

Chromebases are desktops that have the monitor built-in. They need external keyboards and mice.

Chromebooks are laptops. You can still use an external monitor if you need a bigger screen and external keyboard and mouse if you want to close the lid of the laptop during use.

Regardless of what forms these computers come in, they all run the ChromeOS system, created and maintained by Google. Therefore, printer compatibility is the responsibility of Google and the makers of the ChromeOS computers to include the driver software to make use of these printers.

For Brother printers, here is the compatibility list. Warning, while this list is populated with more models, some of the printers do not support Google Native Printing. That means these printers may work with ChromeOS if you are lucky. This applies to not just Brother printers but printers from other brands. If you want maximum compatibility with ChromeOS, you need to get a printer that supports Google ChromeOS Native Printing.

https://support.brother.com/g/b/oscontents.aspx?c=us&lang=en&ossid=2#Prod_7

Here is a list of printers that do support Google Native Printing.

https://help.brother-usa.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/171523/track/AvPOYAqBDv8S~YdgGhIe~yL34E8q8i75Mv_q~zj~PP9j

The least expensive Brother laser on this new list at this writing is the HL-L2325DW as seen on the Brother website. This printer can do duplex printing. It is on sale at Brother website for $109. This is unusually cheaper for its capabilities so when you go to its product page, the price may go up. 

https://www.brother-usa.com/products/hll2325dw 

Youtube has a video on how to set up this HLL2325DW.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBpFwwxXaHc

If you just want a basic inexpensive monochrome laser printer for the home or home office that supports ChromeOS, particularly one that supports Google Native Printing, this HL-L2325DW is the best one. Incidentally, it makes no sense to buy a color inkjet printer if most of your printing is black and white. Using a laser printer will save you money in the long run because a toner can produce more pages. The HL-L2325DW has a USB connector to hook it up to a ChromeOS computer. It has wireless network connectivity, but if you can hook it up with the USB, do so. 

Brother also has the HL-L2350DW which is $50 more. It prints 32ppm as opposed to the HL-L2325DW printing at 26ppm. I am not sure that justifies the extra cost. The HL-L2350DW also supports Google Native Printing. The HL-L2350DW is recommended by the WireCutter website.

https://www.brother-usa.com/products/hll2350dw

https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/best-laser-printer/#best-budget-laser-printer-brother-hl-l2350dw

As far as I know, all Brother printers have a USB connection, but if you want one that can do duplex and has both wired and wireless network connectivity, then the best one is the HL-L2379DW. It was just released by Brother so you can expect a longer support from the company in terms of firmware updates and toner replacements. It might be hard to find until Brother rams up production. It looks like this HL-L2379DW model replaces the HL-L2370DW. The HL-L2370DW has a wired network port and supports Google Native Printing, a claim explicitly listed on the BestBuy website selling it. So if you can't wait for the HL-L2379DW to be available, you should get the HL-L2370DW.

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/brother-hl-l2370dw-wireless-black-and-white-laser-printer-gray/6130042.p?skuId=6130042

You can find a list of Brother printers sellers here:

https://www.brother-usa.com/dealer-locator?ProductSku=HLL2379DW

Below is a playlist of HL-L2379DW on Youtube. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6PSWzC8um4&list=PLSBF478LqZsDRwg52OOUi6Xf4gD5z1z4-

Most printers in the HL family have the dimension of 14" x 14" x 7".  It's not the most compact monochrome laser out there, but it's not too big either. Some of the HL printers have scanner built-in which makes its size bigger. One of these is the HL-L2390DW which has a dimension of 16.1" x 15.7" x 10.7". The HL-L2395DW variant has wired network.

By the way, if you want scanning on a ChromeOS computer, this function is poorly supported by ChromeOS. In fact, the Brother website explicitly says that scanning is not supported in ChromeOS. If you scan often, but use a ChromeOS computer as your main computer, it's best to get a printer/scanner combo computer that can do scan to email. These printers can scan and directly send the resultant scan file to any email addresses, bypassing a computer altogether. Alternatively, you can get a cheap Mac or Windows PC computer to use for scanning. It's overkill, but at least it's more reliable than trying to scan from a ChromeOS computer.

If you want scan to email function, the HL-L2395DW has this feature and a larger color screen to accommodate this. While this article focuses on the HL family of printers that are compatible with ChromeOS, Brother also offers printers meant for high printing volumes found at offices. These printers have scanners that can do both glass and feeders. Feeders are for scanning multiple sheets at the same time. These are the MFC or DCP lines of printers. 

DCP - Digital Copier Printer

MFC - Multi-Function Center

HL - Home Laser for low-volume printing.

L stands for Laser.

C- color

D - duplex

N- wired network (not consistently used)

W - wireless

For scanning, newer ChromeOS versions have a native camera app, implying that scanning is possible when the computer is connected to a dedicated scanner or a MF printer. I have not tested out this feature, but will update this post as soon as I can verify this exciting capability.  

HP has its own compatibility list for Linux and ChromeOS

https://developers.hp.com/hp-linux-imaging-and-printing/supported_devices/index

HP also has a plug-in for the Chrome browser

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/hp-print-for-chrome/bnlhehcgpmfpfceghjccbpmbnfpaedgj

More info: https://support.hp.com/in-en/document/ish_2506940-1986942-16

Useful Websites

Free Stock Video Footage

https://coverr.co

Data Visualization and Storytelling

https://flourish.studio

Tools for better thinking

https://untools.co

Create Engaging Video Content with Automation

https://lumen5.com

GL-iNet Products Comparison

Opal, Slate, Beryl, Brume. Wonder what they do differently?

https://www.gl-inet.com/products/compare

This company makes inexpensive networking devices that are not economical on features.

PowerPoint Slide Timing

A common export of PowerPoint decks that contain voice narration is to make the slideshow into a video. This way, the viewers do not need the PowerPoint program or a (free) app to view the slideshow. The resultant video format is well-supported that any computer can play them. This is how many tutorials are made for Youtube.

You would make the narration directly with PowerPoint with these sound clips embedded onto the slides. The duration of each narration would likely be different. Therefore, you have to tell PowerPoint how long it displays each slide to allow the entire audio clip to play before PowerPoint transitions to the next slide. If you don't set the individual timing of each slide, PowerPoint gives each slide 5 seconds regardless whether the audio has finished playing.

To set custom durations for slides, click on the Transition tab in PowerPoint. 

On the overview column on the left, select any slides that you don't want this default 5 seconds.

Put the cursor over the embedded audio clip. When the playback bar appears, hover the cursor over the end of the clip to get a pop up showing the length the audio clip.

Go to the top to put in the elapsed time before PowerPoint automatically shows the next slide. In this example's case, this slide is set at 53 seconds because the audio clip is 52 seconds.

Repeat this for all the remaining slides. As said, if a custom timing is not set, the slide will be displayed for 5 seconds. 

When the last slide's timing is done, you can export the deck as a movie. It doesn't matter whether you choose MP4 or MOV. 

More Stringent Way to Remove Stuck Print Jobs and Printers in Windows

Sometimes uninstalling the software for a particular printer the easy way is not enough. Sometimes you have to dig deep in the bowels of Windows to track the relevant files and manually remove them. This method almost aways involves the use of the command line. 

Type CMD in the search box at the lower left corner of the screen, right click Command Prompt result to Run as Admin, copy and paste in the following command and press Enter: printui /s /t2 (Note that there is a space before each forward slash).

The Print Server Properties window should pop up.

Remove the printer’s drivers for any problematic or any other printers you don't use anymore.

=========

Another way to clean out printers is the clear the print spool. This method will clean out any stuck print jobs that cannotbe remove the easy way.

Open an elevated command prompt.

Enter the commands below into the elevated command prompt one at a time, and press Enter after each command.

net stop spooler

DEL /F /S /Q %systemroot%\System32\spool\PRINTERS\*

net start spooler

Web Services for Devices

Have you noticed that adding printers on a Windows machine has gotten to be so much easier because of plug-and-play and self-installation? You can connect the printer using a USB cable to one of the computer's USB port, wait a minute or two, and voila, the printer is ready to go. The same applies to adding a printer that is reachable over the network. You would simply click on the Add Printer button and Windows will detect the printer and add it automatically, even without connecting to the Internet to get the driver for that printer. When digging deeper into the magic under the hood, you will most likely see that Windows uses a Microsoft technology called WSD, one that has been adopted by many printer makers, to connect itself to these printers. This works well in most cases, but because Windows uses the generic driver for the device under WSD that should offer basic things like monochrome or color, double sided printing, and the number of pages to print, certain features on the printer may not be available to the computer users, namely things that are unique to the printer or only found in high-end printers. Among these are Secure Print, Store in Mailbox, Department ID Authentication, Booklet Folding, Saddle Stitching, and Hole Punch. Likewise, the scanner on multi-function printers, which are very popular these days, sometimes does not work but the printing portion of the device works just fine. The solution to this problem is simply to add the printer the old fashion way by assigning the printer a static network IP address and telling Windows the IP address of this printer. Once that connection is made, install the driver. Given the automatic nature of WSD, before trying out this manual process, you should go to the printer's management console to turn off WSD for that device. This is usually found under the Network Settings of the printer. With this feature off on the device, the device is not broadcasting itself to be captured by WSD on a Windows machine, forcing you to add the networked printer with its IP address. 

Because of the potential restrictions on advanced features caused by WSD, many high-end printers have WSD disabled by default. Xerox makes high end printers so to turn WSD on, you have to do this:

https://www.support.xerox.com/en-us/article/en/2113363.html

If you want the technical details of WSD, here it is:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/wsdapi/wsd-portal

Microsoft Support and Recovery Assistant

 

Microsoft Support and Recovery Assistant is a Microsoft-made utility to fix a variety of problems associates with Office, OneDrive, and others, particularly Outlook because Outlook is the most complicated program in the Office Suite. 

https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/office/about-the-microsoft-support-and-recovery-assistant-e90bb691-c2a7-4697-a94f-88836856c72f

If you know what the paperclip icon is, you will probably need to use this tool.

SSL vs TLS: Decoding the Difference Between SSL and TLS

Here is a concise article on the differences between SSL and TLS. When configuring an email client like Outlook to access email accounts that offer encryption to protect the data goes between the email client program and the email server, some form of encryption is used to ensure the confidentiality of the data, and that the information has not been tampered with in transit. SSL and TLS are the current industry standards for this protection. The take-home lessons by this article is SSL is older, but it is still useful. TLS, despite the new name, is a just an evolutionary update of SSL, coming about because of politics and not due to some major technological leap. With that, I hope the Internet governing body would dump the TLS name to call it SSL version 4 with all subsequent updates having higher numbers. This would remove the confusion when choosing which protocol to use as with configuring programs like Outlook. 

https://sectigostore.com/blog/ssl-vs-tls-decoding-the-difference-between-ssl-and-tls/#:~:text=SSL%20is%20a%20cryptographic%20protocol,and%20client%20via%20implicit%20connections.

How do I upgrade Office?

 https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/how-do-i-upgrade-office-ee68f6cf-422f-464a-82ec-385f65391350

This page includes how to remove Office license on Mac.

TP-Link EAP225 Guest Network and Portal

If you want to do something extra fancy with your wifi network without spending too much money, then a $60 TP-Link EAP225 is just for you. However, at this price point, don't expect the fancy features to be too fancy.

This access point allows you to create a guest network easily, that one has its own pseudo-VLAN. This means while any devices associated with this guest network have the same subnet as the main network, these guest devices cannot ping or share files with those on the main network. This EAP225 does offer true VLAN, but it must be under the router or switch that supports VLANs. 

There is a portal feature for the EAP225. You can associated a portal with a particular SSID, presumably the guest SSID. The portal page can redirect the clients to another location to be managed. You can put a password on the captive portal page. Once entered, the client would be connected to any SSID. You can make the guest SSID with no encryption, and point the portal to it. You can also make the portal not asking for a password. Just because you can connect to an SSID with a password, it does not automatically mean the data between your computer and the access point is encrypted. This is the difference between authentication and confidentiality. Authentication is what you are allowed to do whereas confidentiality means you can hide what you are doing. Without encryption, there is no confidentiality. Basically, the captive portal is a way to show a splash page with some disclaimer information you want those using the guest network to know. The EAP225 needs to reach out to an external RADIUS server for user and password authentication. 

The EAP225 is an inexpensive way to get your feet wet with more advanced features of Wifi connectivity, but it needs a separate more powerful and feature-rich RADIUS server or router/swicth that supports VLAN to make it more appropriate for any Wifi corporate network.   

Recover Data from Synology Backup Drive Linux Edition

My previous post is on how to recover data that has been backed up by the Hyper Backup program on an external drive attached to a Synology NAS. It is a straight-forward process done in Windows because the file system on that external hardrive is NTFS. However, if the external harddrive is formatted with the popular Linux ext4 file system, you are out of luck because Windows natively cannot read from any storage device formatted with ext4. While you can install some translation program in Windows to enable this, success varies because Windows is forced to do something it is not meant to do at an architectural level. The best solution is simply to use a computer running some flavor of Linux.

When habitual Windows or Mac users are told to use Linux, you will either immediately see a grimace on their faces or a quizzical look because they have never heard of Linux. Linux is "the other" operating system in terms of popularity. It is used extensively on servers, managed by the uber nerds. In general, Linux is not easy to use, but in this tutorial, I will use the popular Ubuntu Desktop version 20.04 computer to do this backup recovery because it is a friendly operating system among the hundreds of Linux variants. If you are a technology enthusiast with some extra time, I highly recommend you get acquainted with Ubuntu Desktop. Unsurprisingly, the Synology NAS operating system is Linux-based. So if you know more about Linux, you will actually understand how the Synology NAS does what it does under the hood.

Instead of wiping out the existing Windows operating system to install Ubuntu just to do one task of accessing the ext4 external drive, you should install the free version of VMWare Player in Windows, then install Ubuntu Desktop on a VMWare virtual machine. There are plenty of instructions on the Internet such as Youtube that show you how to do this without much fuss. Once you have Ubuntu installed in a virtual machine, come back here and see how you can use the Linux version of Synology Hyper Backup Explorer to recover data from an ext4-formatted external drive.

With Ubuntu running, insert the external drive to the physical Windows computer's USB port. VMware Player should ask if you want to mount this external drive to the Windows host or to the Ubuntu virtual machine. Choose the latter.

Click on the USB drive.

You will see the files and folders inside this USB external drive. Open the HBK folder to see the SynologyHyperBackup.bkpi file. This is the file you need to open with the Hyper Backup Explorer program.

Using the Hyper Backup Explorer program

In general, installing programs in Linux can be a trying process. It's not as simple as opening the installer as with Windows and Mac OS. Fortunately, like its Windows counterpart, the Linux version of Hyper Backup Explorer is a portable program that does not require any installation. You just run it as downloaded.

Inside Ubuntu, use Firefox to go to the Synology website and download the Explorer program for Linux under the heading of Desktop Utilities.

The program should be found in the Downloads folder in Ubuntu. Right click on it and choose Extract Here. Open the resultant folder and open the HyperBackupExplorer program. You will see the Welcome screen that looks like the Windows version of this program. Direct the program to the SynologyHyperBackup.bkpi file. The path is Computer/media/<username>/<USB drive>

That's it. You can now copy the backed up files onto the Ubuntu Desktop. From there, drag these recovered files out of the virtual machine onto the Windows side of the computer.

Recover Data from Synology Backup Drive

So you have been using your Synology NAS device all this time without problems. You have even set up Hyper Backup to back up the data from the lone internal drive or the RAID set to an external drive, saving different versions of the files. Everything has been running fine. However as we all know, and the reason why you have set up Hyper Backup, one day the NAS will fail. Today is that dreaded day. Today, you can no longer access the data stored on the internal drive of the NAS. You are not sure what the problem is. It could be a bad drive or it could be the NAS itself. You feel anxious about data loss. All those pictures of your recent trip to Disneyland might be gone. How about those precious pictures of your kids when they were little saplings? Your attention now focuses to the external drive that should have a backup of this data. You shutdown the NAS by whatever means you can, either properly through the NAS's web interface DSM or literally pulling the power cord from the NAS. Gingerly you pull the USB cable that attaches the external drive to the NAS from the NAS. You plug this external drive into your Windows PC. The computer detects the drive. Whew! But the crisis is not over because you still need to access the data on the external drive. In Windows Explorer, you don't see the various files that are on the NAS. No old pictures of your kids or the trip to Disneyland. All you see is this:

When the Hyper Backup task was created on this particular NAS, a folder called ShareOneBackup was created on the external drive. As the name implies, this ShareOneBackup is where all the various versions of files in a share on the internal drive are copied onto.

When you open the ShareOneBackup.hbk folder, you will see the following files and folders layout. Of particular interest is the SynologyHyperBackup.bkpi file. This file is the gateway to all the files stored on this external drive including their various versions pertaining to the sourced ShareOne share on the internal drive. If there is another backup task, there will be another pair of this HBK file under the name of the backup task specified in Hyper Backup. Each HBK file has its own respective SynologyHyperBackup.bkpi gateway file.

So how to open this BKPI file? This is not a format that Windows can understand natively. You need to use a program from Synology called Hyper Backup Explorer. So you download it from the Synology website. The program does not install into Windows. It's a zip file that is extracted into a folder that contains the executable called HyperBackupExplorer.exe. When opened, you see the welcome screen below:

You click on Browse Local Backup and direct it to this SynologyHyperBackup.bkpi file. Once done, you will see something like this. There they are, your data, or at least the backup versions of the data. Click on the calendar icon at the lower left corner to bring up a calendar so you can choose the backup from a particular date. The last step is your simply clicking on the file or folder you want to recover and copy it to any place on the computer.

This way to recover data is practical if you only want to recover a few files and folders. If you want to recover the whole set of data, then the faster way is to rebuild the NAS with a working internal drive or getting a new NAS depending on what is the cause of the breakage. Plug this external drive to the NAS and use the NAS own DSM Hyper Backup to recover the date in bulk.

How to Reset or Refresh Windows 10 without Losing Programs

Last Updated April 8, 2020

The instruction on this page was last accessed on April 18, 2020. Its content was updated March 3rd, 2020. Given that these instructions are based on the latest versions of Windows, the timeliness of the information is important. The article mentions of Windows 10 builds 15002. This build goes back to year 2017, so it is safe to say that your copy of Windows is newer than this and therefore does not have Refresh Windows in Windows Defender. Therefore, you should look for this refresh feature as Reset this PC in Settings. Remember, the Reset feature will remove all your third party programs whereas the 3 methods below do not.

The 3 methods mentioned in the article are:

Method 1. Do a repair upgrade by running the Windows Setup.exe
Method 2. Create a custom refresh image with all programs for resetting
Method 3. A more convenient method to create custom recovery image

If you prefer to watch how these 3 methods are used, there are videos on Youtube that can visually show them.

Take Screenshot of Full Webpages in Chrome

Chrome has a mode called Developer Tools that allows you to basically peek under hood to see how Chrome works to a certain extend. An average person would never need to do wander to this area. However, these are times when you need to do things like capturing an entire webpage. There are add-ons for Chrome that let you do this, but if you don't want to use them, you can do this in Chrome's built-in Developer Tools. The process is pretty straight forward.

On a PC, click on the 3 vertical dots at the upper right corner of Chrome. This is where you go to do customization of Chrome.

Move and hover the mouse cursor over More Tools.

A second box appears. Click on Developer Tools. You can get here with a 3-key keyboard shortcut of ( Control + Shift + I )

The screen will split into 2 columns. The left column is whatever webpage you are on at the moment. The right column shows you what is going on under the hood that tells Chrome to display the webpage on the left. This webpage is not a static picture but a live page. That means you can actually interact with the elements in it. However because of the screen split, the page appears small making any interaction difficult.

Look at the top horizontal menu in the left column. Click on the word Responsive, and you are presented with a list of devices. This allows you to see what this particular webpage looks like on a particular real world device. You can also customize the width of the screen by dragging the 2 parallel bars on the right side of the webpage. The layout of the webpage will change, adapting to the changing widths that you specify. Once you are satisfied with the layout for your desired screenshot, click on another 3 vertical dots on the upper right corner of the left webpage column. (These 3 dots are not the same 3 dots mentioned earlier).

Choose Capture full size screenshot.

Alternatively, click on the 3 dots on the right, next to the window-closing X.

Click “Run Command.”

In the command line, type “Screenshot,” then click “Capture full-size screenshot” from the list of commands available.

Choose Capture Full Size Screen Shot. Chrome will do the capture and save the resulting picture as a download. Note that the dynamic layout of the webpage is not available for all webpages. It all depends on how compliant are the computer codes used to display the webpage. Many webages are so poorly coded that Chrome does not know how to shuffle around the layout as the screensize is changed. Website creators use this feature in Chrome to test their creation to maximize accessibility on various screen sizes. If you don't want to do any customization of the screen size, I find the preset of iPad Pro is the best middle ground that produces the best screenshot for screen and print out.

HEIC Format

Currently, there is no popular image displaying program on Windows to open picture files including the new iPhone-centric HEIC format. However, it's a matter of time when this issue will be resolved either by one such program becoming available due to the sufficient popularity of this file format OR the HEIC never catches on and be deprecated by Apple.

In the meantime, you can tell the iPhone to take pictures in the old JPG or PNG format in the phone's Settings. At the same time, go here to read a bit about this issue including using a utility the article recommends to convert all the existing pictures from the HEIC format to either JPG or PNG.

https://lifehacker.com/how-to-easily-convert-your-iphones-heic-images-in-windo-1826327599
https://imazing.com/heic

I recommend that you convert the HEIC pictures to PNG format and not JPG because the PNG is "lossless" which means its compression algorithm does not throw away any useful visual information in the picture. This is needed when the pictures are printed out, especially with dedicated photo printers, the files have the needed meta data to reproduce accurate colors.

How to download the Windows 10 version 1803 ISO file after version 1809 releases

Updated on March 13, 2019

https://pureinfotech.com/download-windows-10-1803-iso-file-after-1809-releases/

1. Open a new tab on Google Chrome
2. Go here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10ISO
3. Right-click on the page and select Inspect.
4. On the right column, choose iPad Pro from the Emulation or user-agent dropdown list. This basically tricks the webserver into thinking that the computer accessing it is a different computer and browser other than Chrome, resulting in the webserver displays the target webpaged based on the emulation that you want.
5. The full-page mini webpage shown is a live webpage that can be acted upon like a regular webpage so click on it when and where applicable.
6. Refresh the page if the browser doesn’t reload automatically. Remember, it is a live webpage.
7. Using the drop-down menu, select the Windows 10 April 2018 Update option
8. The rest of the steps is self-explanatory.

Dual Boot on Mac

Having a computer with a dual boot is commonly found on Windows PCs and perhaps Linux boxes. Dual boot simply means there are 2 operating systems installed on the same physical computer. Both OSes are on the same harddrive or each OS is on its own drive. During my days of supporting Windows 98, 2000, and XP when computer viruses were a common occurrence that could cause the OS unusable, having a clean second OS can be a life saver because I can boot into that OS and use it to fix the compromised OS. With Windows 10 and its strong security, the need for such an exotic configuration is no longer needed. However, I still recommend a dual boot system if you share your only computer with your kids. Kids have a natural knack for messing up the computer because of their inquisitive nature. They would download and install anything they see on the Internet.

As said, I have done a lot of dual boot systems on Windows machines, but never on a Mac computer, so I decided to give it the old dual boot configuration a try. Again, if your Mac computer must be shared with your kids, I highly recommend that you create a dual boot system for your Mac. Ordinarily, I recommend that they get their own computer, preferably a Chromebook and call it the day. It would take an amazingly clever kid to break a Chromebook -- software wise.

Creating a dual boot system on a Mac is actually very easy. First you need to install the first OS which presumably is already done. Then you would use Disk Utility to split the partition into two with each partition getting the desired free space size. Then you would boot the Mac OS installer from a USB and tell the installer to install the OS into the newly created and blank partition. By default, the Mac will boot into the new OS on the second partition. However, if you want to boot from the first OS, simply hold down the Option key during start up and you are presented with the two partitions. You would use your mouse to pick which partition you want to boot from. If you do not tell the computer which partition to boot from, the next boot up will be booted from the newer second partition. If you want to always boot from the first partition, then from within any OS, go to the System Preference Start Up Disk pane and choose the first partition as the default partition. If you want to move files between the two partitions, use the Shared user account on both the partitions as the depository.

If you want to encrypt the first partition because it has confidential data but not the second partition, then you can boot into the first partition and start the filevault procedure there. Encrypting the first partition also prevents accidental removal or replacement of critical system files on the first partition while the second partition is being used. When the first partition is encrypted, its drive icon is not visible under the OS of the second partition. Therefore, the users of the OS on the second partition cannot even make any changes to the files stored in the first partition by accident. However, you can mount the first partition in Disk Utility after having provided the unlock password of a particular user account on the first partition. Moreover, if the user on the second partition has administrative privileges, he can still do damage to the first partition such as erasing the entire first partition. One more reason to let the person (i.e. your kids or elderly parents) use the OS in the second partition as a limited user.

Let's say something goes wrong with the user accounts including the admin on the first partition. How can you use the system on the second partition to unlock and recover data from the first partition? You cannot unfortunately. However, if you know the long 24-character FileVault decryption key used to encrypt the first partition, you can boot a third system from a USB stick or put the computer in Target Disk mode and use either the password for a user account from the first partition or the FileVault encryption key. If you plan to use FileVault, it is imperative to keep a copy of this long key outside the computer and a copy of the most recent Mac OS installed on an external drive. No matter what the disaster recovery strategy is, nothing beats a real data backup plan. Data should be recovered from this data backup source and not from the primary sources because if the disaster is the harddrive has gone bad, there is nothing to recover from.

Drive Cloning

Drive cloning and its related cousin drive imaging are two of the staples of a computer technician's tool set. In fact, if someone who claims to be a computer technician and has no idea how to clone or image drives, then you might want to have someone else fixing your computer.

When you have a harddrive that has Windows or Mac operating system on it plus all the associated programs that have been installed in it, you want to create a clone of this drive so that when something goes wrong with the system or the drive itself dies, you have the exact duplicate of its former self. This saves many hours of not having to reinstall the operating system and programs. This fact alone makes drive cloning or drive imaging a very attractive task to do to a computer before you start using it. Once you start using the computer, it's on its way to become corrupted with errors and computer viruses and all the things that can and will go wrong with the operating system and the physical deterioration of the physical drive itself. Therefore, it's not a matter of if but when you need to either reinstall the operating system or replace the drive. Knowing that it will happen anyway, you should be proactive with what you have to do when it happens.

My View on Windows 8

Now that Windows 8 has been out since October 2012 and has gone through 2 major updates in the forms of 8.1 and 8.1 Update 1, it's time that I put in a few words on my opinion of it. Before, reading on, please watch this 24-minute rant video so you can get some ideas that I will be saying next. Granted, this video was created when Windows 8 was Windows 8.0. Since then, Microsoft has released two major updates that have addressed some of the complaints mentioned in the videos. So this mini reviews covers the most annoyances that still exist.

Let me start with the most obvious: the Start button. At least Microsoft brought back a half-baked Start button with Windows 8.1. Its initial complete absence drove many people nuts. After almost 20 years of telling people to hit the Start button to do virtually everything in Windows, Microsoft thought no one would cry blood murder when it suddenly took it away? When power users like myself get lost without the Start button, what did Microsoft think the Ludites would feel?

The Start button in Windows 8.1 is still not its full old self. For starter, left clicking on it does not launch the expected start menu of old. Instead you get hit on the face with a jarring experience of looking at the hated tiles. The tiles are the mainstay of the formerly known as Metro interface which is designed for touch screen interface. This is Microsoft's biggest mistake with Windows 8. It tries to merge the two interfaces in one system. The Metro interface is virtually useless without touch interface. Microsoft was hoping that by now, many people would have touch-capable computers. This is not the case. The majority of Windows 8 users do not have such a computer. Even if they do, they still prefer to use the mouse as their primary way to navigate. 

My proposal to Microsoft is to decouple the Metro interface from the desktop interface. At the very least, give people the option to completely disable Metro completely. Having the tiles suddenly show up when the user click on something is a jarring experience. It's like an unwelcome magic trick when the magician pulls off the veil to reveal something unexpected. Unlike a magic trick, computer users do not like a sudden change in interface. How did this pass the focus group testing during Windows 8 testing? Most likely, it didn't. Most likely, the sudden change in interface got negative reactions from testers but Microsoft decided to over-ride that in its zeal to move all Windows users to the touch interface. Evidence of this zeal remains with Windows 8.1 when clicking on the Start button would whisk you away from the desktop mode and drop you onto the tile interface.  

On the related note, the Charms bar is clearly the Metro version of the classic Taskbar. The problem is the Charms bar shows up when you don't want it to show up. This is like left clicking on the Start button. When you move the cursor to the right side of the screen to move or close a window, the Charms bar will suddenly pop out on the right edge. While this is not as jarring as the suddenly switch to Metro mode because the desktop is still visible, this uninvited Charms bar is an annoyance. Fortunately, this behavior can be disabled in Windows 8.1. However, if you use the trackpad, the Charms bar still shows up if Windows  misinterpret your finger movement as a swipe as opposed to a no swip with a mouse. Therefore until Microsoft allows you to completely disable the Charms bar, I recommend that you use a mouse instead of the trackpad.

Even with Windows 8.1 Update 1, I will still not recommend it for the average longtime Windows user. Yes, the Start button is back, sort off, but navigating in the Modern UI formerly known as Metro mode is still confusing.

Secret communications with Comcast X1 TV Setvice

I recently discovered with a confirmation by Comcast tech support that when a customer subscribes to the X1 service on top of the regular TV service, the set top box, commonly known as the cable box or the descrambler box, communicates with the Comcast-issued Internet modem via a secret and invisible wireless signal so that the content of the X1 service can be displayed on the TV. This means if you move or turn off the power to the Internet modem, this X1 service will not work. The regular TV channels should still be there but the interactive guide about the shows will no longer be there.

I don't understand why can't the set top box do the X1 service natively on its own. It gets the TV feed on the same wire that has the Internet signal so why can't it use this same wire for the X1 services? If it can communicate with the Internet modem via this secret wireless signal, it can surely communicate with the X1 server directly. Why bother to hop to the Internet modem to relay the X1 information? When the handheld remote control navigates the X1 menus, does it communicate with the set top box or the Internet modem?

Just because the Comcast tech support person said so, I still think she was mistaken about the necessity of the set top box communicating with the Internet modem via a secret hidden wireless signal. This makes no sense from an engineering perspective. Comcast is not a small company. It surely get this done.