Why do you need a second login account on your computer?

So you get a computer, and the first thing you do is to create a login account for yourself on it. This account does not have to be given administrator's privileges, and it probably shouldn't have for security reasons. The second thing you should do is to create a second login account on the computer. This account should have administrator privileges. You can give it any name you like as long as it isn't "Administrator" or "Admin," for security reasons.

The third thing you should do is add an external hard drive to the computer and set it up as the Time Machine backup drive. You will never regret doing this.

So why do you really need two accounts?

Sometimes, like what happened to me today, you will log in to your account and discover that not all is right with your login. Files seem to be missing. Stuff in the Dock is gone. Nothing works.

You log into the other account and find that everything is working. That's good. This means that your personal login account is corrupt.

To fix your personal login account, you have to be logged in to the admin account. The steps to follow are simple:

1. Open System Preferences and go to Users and Groups. 2. Delete your personal login account and select the option to move everything to the trash. 3. Close System Preferences. 4. In Finder, go to the Time Machine drive and see what the date is of the most recent backup. Delete the most recent backup if, and only if, it coincides with today's date. You don't want today's backup because it probably has the problem in it. And now you should understand why it is so important to have a Time Machine backup. 5. Open Migration Assistant. 6. Choose to migrate from the Time Machine backup. It will let you know that it will be restoring from the latest backup. 7. Unselect everything except your personal user account. 8. Let Time Machine restore your account. 9. Log back into your account. It should be okay now.

I know that I overlooked a few minor details in the above instructions, but hopefully you'll be able to see what needs to be done at the time you need to do it.

John Carter

Why You Should NOT Just Walk into the Apple Store to Buy Your Mac

Are you looking for a deal on a new Mac? This article at BradsDeals.com will help you look around. http://www.bradsdeals.com/blog/best-place-to-buy-a-mac-online

A few places that aren't listed are Amazon.com, Costco, and Sam's Club. Used iPhones can be purchased online at Glyde.com.

Don't forget to search for refurbished or used Macs.

John Carter

OLLI: Beginners Workshop--Working with Photos on an iPhone

As seen in the OLLI catalog under Workshops 39) Beginners - Working with Photos on an iPhone Fri, 1/29-2/12, 9-11am Bldg: NAU/PV, Rm: 148

Facilitator: John Carter Limit: 15

Learn how to breeze through taking and editing photos and videos on an iPhone using a variety of apps. Discover the nuances of how the iPhone organizes media and how to create albums to organize media your way. Learn how to transfer media between the iPhone and a Mac or PC laptop using iTunes and other file transfer apps. Share your media using Mail, Dropbox, and other methods. Bring your iPhone (any model) and, optionally, your laptop and iPhone cable. All the above also applies to an iPad. Note: This learning group is meeting at the NAU building in Prescott Valley, 7351 E. Civic Circle.

John R Carter Sr

Please note:  In order to sign up for this learning group, you must be a member of Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI).  The contact information is as follows:  http://yc.edu/v5content/lifelong-learning/olli-prescott/default.htm

Elaborate ATM skimmer

The hackers are getting more sophisticated. Take a look at this short video of what a hacker did at this ATM machine. Amazing. I also read where hackers are opening the box at gas pumps and inserting a device that will capture your credit card number when you insert it into the pump. Impossible for you and I to even know this is happening. Fortunately, our liability is limited to $50 for fraudulent transactions on our credit card, so pay attention to the charges on your credit card.

http://videos.komando.com/watch/4749/kims-picks-you-wont-believe-this-elaborate-atm-skimmer

Jim Hamm

E-waste problem and solution

The headline grabbed Elaine Hardt's attention because her granddaughter, Joy Hardt started an orphanage in Ghana, Africa, in 2007--HardtHaven--so she was interested in  news about Ghana.http://www.cultofmac.com/390495/ghana-global-problem-e-waste-consequences/

At the Cult of Mac website a serious problem and a helpful solution are described, “In the West African nation’s capital of Accra, particularly the slum known as Agbogbloshie, large landfills are strewn with decades’ worth of discarded electronics. It’s one of the most concentrated e-waste sites in the world.

"Enterprising locals have created a booming second-hand market around the (questionably legal) influx of old printers, TVs, computers and whatnot. Upon landing on Ghana’s shores, these devices enter into a vibrant network of repairmen, resellers and middlemen who pass them on to locals, who otherwise wouldn’t have been able to afford such products."

The article goes on to say, “That’s one of the aims of Cult of Mac’s buyback program: By partnering with electronics recycling company MyPhones Unlimited, we’re making it easy (and lucrative) for you to send your old electronics to a service that will refurbish and return the gadgets to the market or properly dispose of them if that’s not possible.” P.S. Joy is an R.N. and has now completed her contract in the Ebola treatment unit in Sierra Leone. At the first of the year she plans on going back home to Spokane where Elaine's son and daughter-in-law live.

Google Drive

If you'd like to try 15 GB of free 'Cloud' storage, you might take a look at Google Drive. Here is a guide that will be helpful.  Personally, I have not used Google Drive yet, but plan to look into it. I do use and appreciate the convenience of Dropbox, which I use a lot. Maybe, for me, Google Drive could be a backup to Dropbox. For any 'Cloud' storage there's always the potential risk the vendor will change their mind and drop the service, or the contents hacked. I never store any sensitive data in the 'Cloud', and keep a full backup of my computer's storage drive to an external drive. A belt and suspender is what I prefer.

Jim Hamm

Hoopla

I was aware that one could download eBooks from the library, but wasn't aware of an app titled "Hoopla". Perhaps you were. Here is a notice I just received from the Scottsdale Library about the streaming of books, movies, music and comics from their library using the program "Hoopla". I read some of the reviews on using the app for an iPad or iPhone, and the reviews were mixed. Here is the Hoopla website. Sent to you FYI, and in case you might want to try it at your library. I plan to do a bit more research on Hoopla myself. The idea, as one thought, of streaming a movie from the library right to my iPad has a certain appeal to it.  Just a thought for consideration.

Jim Hamm

John Carter added:

Hoopla does not seem to have the Prescott public library in its domain. All the libraries it lists are for the Phoenix area. Searching for Prescott returns nothing. So unless one signs up for one of the Phoenix area libraries, I don’t think it is possible to use Hoople up here.

Flash RIP

Perhaps one day we will be rid of Adobe Flash. Read more here. Ironically, the short video on the website doing the announcing is using -- you guessed it -- Flash. It's about time to see the demise of Flash. Hackers love Flash as it is easy to get into for malware. Wonder what Pandora (the music site that requires Flash) is going to do about that? I listen to Pandora frequently.

Jim Hamm

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How to make your iPhone run better

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If your iPhone becomes slow or seems to 'stutter' a bit as you try to open another app, here are two articles on how to quickly clear the memory on an iPhone and improve performance. Both articles tell the same story -- just in a different manner. http://www.iphonetricks.org/trick-to-instantly-clear-iphone-ram-memory/

http://www.cultofmac.com/399976/how-to-make-your-iphone-run-better-in-10-seconds/

Jim Hamm

Electronic Snoops in Email

Here is an article describing a method being used to alert the sender that their email (which they had sent to you) is now being opened by you. Huh? Yep -- read on. How to prevent this, you ask? Well, not easy to prevent, it seems. As an example, since I use Gmail via their web service, there is one setting that I -- or you -- could make that might help: tell Gmail to ask you before opening an image. Is it worth the extra click and decision by you? This doesn't completely block the electronic snoop, as there are other ways to electronically snoop emails.

Don't lose any sleep over this. Just something to be aware of.

Jim Hamm

Chrome has Serious Security Flaw

Elaine Hardt found this on Fox News.  She does not use Chrome but other PMUG members may use it. John Carter commented on this news:  I have been asking Apple users to remove Adobe Flash from their computer. If a site uses Flash to display a graphic image, then Chrome should be used. Chrome has a built-in version of Adobe Flash that is not vulnerable (or at least was not) to the types of attacks that were found in Adobe Flash.

But the game seems to be changing.

Prior to this news, Java (not Javascript) was banned by Apple because it was prone to attacks. Then Adobe Flash was banned by Apple for the same reason. Now Javascript appears to be another way to attack a computer. The more that Apple or Microsoft or Linux has to do to keep an operating system safe, the more code has to be put in, and more code always slows a computer down.

Apple P2P Mobile Payment

Here is an interesting article speculating (rumor) that Apple might be considering getting into the P2P (Peer to Peer) mobile payment service. Of course, Apple has the program "Apple Pay" presently, which links payment to your credit card. This P2P payment system would presumably link payments to your debit card which debits your bank account directly. I'm not a fan of anyone, or business, having direct access to our bank account via a debit. I like the idea of a middlemen -- like a bank -- where my exposure is limited to $50 for fraudulent use. I would need a lot more understanding about this mobile payment service from Apple, if it should come to fruition, before using it.

Nonetheless, technology changes and progresses, and it will be interesting to see if this concept does, in fact, materialize.

Jim Hamm

Pure VPN

For your possible interest, and as a follow-on to my discussion of VPNs (Virtual Private Network) last Wednesday at the Az-Apple meeting, I recently purchased PureVPN for $69 for a "lifetime" subscription. Details here. Although it says "lifetime", the initial subscription is for 5 years; then, presumably, one can renew for another 5 years free. One can use PureVPN on 5 devices. I've installed it on two iPads, a MacBook Air, and a PC running Windows 10. So far it seems to be working fine, and, in theory, will protect me from snoopers when I'm on a public wifi network -- which I use frequently when we travel.

I'm not necessarily recommending PureVPN -- I'm only letting you know about a VPN service that is reasonably priced, and seems to work well -- at least so far. A review of PureVPN can be read here.

Initially I had some difficulty getting it installed on my Mac (first installation) due to a password problem. Ultimately found out that I needed two sets of passwords -- one to get the program and another set (different) to use the program. With this knowledge, installing it on my PC (last installation) was dead simple -- and I'm using PureVPN as I type this on my PC..

The first set will be your email address and a password, and the second set will be a username and password you will need to actually log in and start using the VPN service. Keep this in mind and you should have no problem. PureVPN has a 24/7 live chat service, and from them I found out my password problem. This chat service was helpful.

If you only use wifi at home on a secure network, you probably don't need a VPN service. But, if you use public wifi, the use of a VPN may protect you from snoopers. If you use cellular on your iPad or tablet, then you won't need a VPN as a cellular connection is considered reasonably secure from snooping.

Here's a short video from David Pogue ( Editor for Yahoo Tech) that will show how exposed your computer might be in a coffee shop on public wifi.

Jim Hamm