Ten Ways to Protect Your Accounts with Strong Passwords

Recently, many of us have been receiving messages that some of our passwords have been compromised. I have written about passwords before but I want to give you another dose of rules, tools, and suggestions to keep you as digitally safe as possible. I have been sitting down with friends and relatives recently and asking them to evaluate both their passwords and how they store and create them. 

Here are some suggestions, rules, and tools:

1. Don’t use the same password for more than one login. If one of those sites has a breach, someone now has your email (or user name) and password. You can be sure they will try it on other sites! 

2. Make passwords long and complex. Use numbers, capital and small letters, and symbols (if the site allows). 

3. Do not, do not, do not, do not keep a list of your passwords on a post-it note on your computer. While a piece of paper in a file might have some degree of security and practicality there are better ways to do this. On Apple products, you can create a password protected note, which is better than having a slip in your wallet – but there are better methods. 

4. I recommend everyone use a password manager. I use 1Password, but there are many others. Apple offers Keychain built into the Apple ecosystem. The main benefit of a password manager is that it stores all your passwords securely and you don’t have to remember all of them. All you have to remember is how to get into the manager (thus the one I use is called 1Password because I only have to remember the password that lets me into my password manager). I STRONGLY suggest looking at a dedicated password manager that is not a locked note, Keychain, or the password saver built into your web browser. 

5. Another benefit of a password manager is that it can autofill your usernames and passwords when you go to a website. It will also remember your password when you use it on a new website (and even offer to create a strong and complex password for you). 

6. A side benefit of this is that, if my password manager does NOT offer me my password on a website that LOOKS LIKE it is my bank, for instances, it is a warning that I might be on a fake website and about to give away my username and password to a hacker! If my password manager doesn’t recognize the website, I need to find out why. 

7. Consider trying passkeys instead of passwords. Passkeys are when you use another device instead of a password. You might use your fingerprint or other biometrics. A website might ping your phone, watch, or other device. You can even purchase an actual digital key that plugs into your computer and lets websites know that it is really you! 

8. Many websites now use one-time password codes instead of passwords. You log in with your email and they send you a code. This is great – as long as you have control over the means of getting that code. If a hacker gets control of your email or phone number, you will be unable to receive these one-time password codes.

9. For this reason (and others), it is critical that you use secure passwords with your high-priority assets: your email account, financial institutions, any website where you have stored a credit card (Amazon), social media accounts (Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, etc), and of course, work-related websites. All of these should be protected with long, complex, and unique passwords – so long and complex that you could never ever remember them. Thus, storing them using a secure password manager would be a good idea (there is a theme here – get it?). 

10. Always, always, always take advantage of two-part authentication when it is available. This is when you get a code sent via text or email or through an authenticator app when you log on to a site for the first time on a new device or browser. This is not foolproof. If someone has your phone, they might be able to use this to reset a password. However, if you receive a message with a code when you haven’t logged in to that website, you know someone else is trying to. 

The scammers are getting more and more clever and devious, as I have written about before. We have to help each other stay safe and protected! While a warning that you have a compromised password may or may not be true, we all could improve our password security. Be safe out there! 

Privacy Protections Not TikTok Bans

When I was in the classroom (I’m retired), I wanted to keep up with my students’ technology trends. I wanted to know what interested and engaged my students. I was aware of social media when My Space, Friendster, and eventually, Facebook came out. However, it wasn’t until I signed up for an account on Facebook that I really understood what all the fuss was about. Reading about teen culture is one thing, diving in is very different. 

When TikTok came out, I didn’t hear kids talking about it. I had an account on Instagram and I found the “stories” slow and often duplicates of images and ideas from other posts. My students seemed more involved in other platforms like Snapchat.

Two years ago, on vacation, my twenty-something daughter (our family trailblazer) showed me the TikTok videos she was watching. We spent an hour or more laughing together. It was delightful. 

She showed me that TikTok was more than comedy videos. She was learning about smart homes, cooking, and other do-it-yourself skills. So, I signed up. I found TikTok the most entertaining of my social media sources. I like Facebook for personal connections, but TikTok was way more engaging and thus time-consuming. 

There, I said it. Despite the controversy, the fear of foreign manipulation, or the theft of my personal data, I like TikTok because it is the most entertaining, edifying, and enjoyable social media site I have found - and I have tried almost all of them. 

I like TikTok’s variety of content. I am following folks reviewing and talking about books, science fiction, Star Trek, theatre, education, religion, health, social issues – and, of course, politics. I hear about people’s perspectives and experiences. I learn about music, linguistics, science, education, and technology. 

While our lawmakers are worried about espionage, misinformation, and unethical use of my information, my concern is more about the way kids may be using social media (on any of its platforms). I am told that kids are using TikTok instead of search engines and it has become a mediator of the internet for them. Yet, this is a problem with many social media platforms, not just TikTok. Kids must be taught both critical thinking skills and how to seek and evaluate information they find online. 

And yes, I have Marshall McLuhan in my head at times asking something like, does viewing short, clever, and easy to digest videos about such important topics as race, religion, and the culture wars minimize and trivialize these complex issues? Is it also possible that this medium has made messages both more available and powerful to a new audience? 

Yet, when some legislators seem to want people to go to sleep rather than confront anything that might kick their complacency, worrying about quick videos seems the least of our troubles. The issue is not the form or the ownership. The issue is that social media can foment hate and violence. The issue is that kids can learn wonderful and wholesome lessons as well as destructive and dangerous ones. But that is a problem with all social media platforms, not just TikTok. In fact, that is an issue on and off the internet. 

Should we be concerned about privacy? Of course. At this point, it is more than a cliché statement that if you don’t pay for a service, you are the product. TikTok is getting my attention. But that, too, happens with every social media platform. 

Do I make purchasing decisions based on TikTok, Facebook or other online ads: not consciously. Will I? Perhaps. I am thinking about buying some of the products that the home automation guy on TikTok has been demonstrating (but I haven’t done it yet). I do go to some of the websites that I learn about from the people who demonstrate “useful websites I’ll bet you didn’t know about.” 

I know I am leaving digital footprints. They are far deeper than my use of TikTok. I find Facebook’s targeted ads creepy. But the use of my data is the price I am paying for this service. Should the government make sure that Facebook, TikTok, and others use my data ethically? Absolutely!  

Burying our heads in analog sand (or staying asleep) is not going to help either. Our world is now, at least in part, online. We must be informed and connected. TikTok has, on several occasions, informed me about important issues long before they appeared in my news feeds. Snapchat doesn’t work for me. I find Instagram slow and self-indulgent. Facebook is a way to stay connected to distant folks. I don’t go to social media to be angry or argue. I don’t go to feel good about myself or look down at others. I go to learn, connect, explore, and laugh. I hear authentic voices that I might not hear in real life (IRL). 

Banning TikTok doesn’t make us personally or communally safer. Creating legislation that protects users against inappropriate and unethical use of their data might. Like other industries, social media, and perhaps the internet in general, could use some consumer protections – in order to do this, lawmakers need to become much more knowledgeable about today’s technology! 

Reading for Treasure: Protecting Your Information and Privacy

Reading for Treasure is my list of articles (and other readings) that are worth your attention. Click here for an introduction.

Once again, here are some articles to keep you safe as you use your technology. Specifically, how to thwart being tracked or scammed by devices, websites, advertisers, and others. 

This video from CNN includes a password tip that is genius and I have never heard of before. I am not going to list it here, but listen for the word “salt” in the video: "Here's how to keep your passwords safe, according to a hacker.” 

Wired provided a simple and common sense list of “6 Things You Need to Do to Prevent Getting Hacked.” Read the article, but I’ll list them here: Use multifactor authentication, get a password manager, learn how to spot a phishing attack, update everything, encrypt everything, and wipe your digital footprint. If any of those terms are foreign to you, take it as a sign you need this article. 

A great compliment to the above article, Propublica’s article, “A Former Hacker’s Guide to Boosting Your Online Security.” provides a straight forward and simple list of ten things to preventing stolen data, identity theft, and other online hazards. Again, I’ll list them here, but read the article for more: stop reusing passwords, delete unused accounts, use multifactor authentication, manage your privacy settings, think before you click, keep your software up to date, limit what you’re sharing online, security your SIM, freeze your credit reports, and back up your data! 

Lifehacker is also a great source for digital safety. Here a short and simple article that lets you know “How to Tell Which Apps Can See Your Private iPhone Data.” It is an older article, but still worth reading. 

This somewhat scary article from The Conversation via Inverse is a good overview of how your use of technology may put your privacy at risk: “Here’s exactly how tech companies and apps conspire to track you 24/7.”

Yes, emails can snitch on you. Many emails report back to their senders if you opened them, when you opened them, and even for how long you engaged with them. Want to stop this? Read this article from Wired: “How to Tell Which Emails Quietly Track You.” If you use Apple devices, this Lifehacker article, “How to Stop Email Trackers on Your iPhone, iPad, and Mac” will help you with this issue and more. 

A new form of hacking is to use free USB charging stations. Apple Insider discusses, “What juicejacking and trustjacking are, and how to protect yourself.” The basic piece of advice here is, if your phone asks you “Do you trust this computer?” or “Allow this device to access.. and you are not connected to your home computer, say, NO! 

How many of us have lost our phones or have had our phones stolen?  We may feel safe because our phone is locked with a passcode, fingerprint, or our face. Lifehacker says, “Your iPhone Is Still Vulnerable When It Is Locked” and then helps you secure it! 

And it is worse than that: Lifehacker provides instructions on how to use screen time on the iPhone to prevent a stolen phone from becoming a stolen Apple account or worse: "How Screen Time Can Save You When Your iPhone is Stolen." 

I am currently reading The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories by Ken Liu

RSS: The Easiest Way to Stay Current On Your Favorite Websites

Do you go to the same websites on a regular basis? Do you check news, sports, entertainment, or other blogs or information sites? What if, instead of going to them, they came to you in a neat, simple, and easy-to-read format. 

People rarely understand what I mean when I say I am addicted to my RSS feeds. Only the geekiest of tech nerds will nod and then ask what reader I use. While some people like Apple News or the home page on Yahoo (or some other service), using RSS (real simple syndication) provides a personalized view of what is new on the websites I most want to read. 

I follow a variety of news sources. I follow news sources specific to cities that interest me (for example, because my children live there) and local or niche websites. In addition, I think it is important that I follow sources that are designed for demographics that do not include me so I can get different perspectives on what is happening in the world. In addition, I am interested in technology, science fiction, word games, and a multitude of highly niche blogs, zines, and literary news. 

Like the old-fashioned dad at breakfast, I open my iPad to my RSS reader (I use Feedly) and get a list of what is new on the web sources to which I have subscribed. I see a long list of headlines with a few short sentences after each to give me a flavor of that article. 

I have grouped my list into sections like in a newspaper. These sections make it easier to manage - feeds. Like the newspaper, I have a news feed as well as feeds on technology, literature, education, shopping, and one for articles that don’t fit into any of my categories. I also have a favorites feed so, if I am in a hurry, I only look at the articles that come from the sources with which I am most engaged. 

I read some of the articles. Some I save for later. My reader, Feedly, has a means of saving content, but I use another web app called Instapaper. Instapaper allows me to save an article to read not only later, but offline when I don’t have an internet connection – perfect for reading on airplanes or while waiting somewhere where there is no wifi. 

Here is how you start. Start with an RSS reader. Here is an article describing several. 

Here is a step-by-step video to help you set up feeds and websites in Feedly. 

Enjoy! 

The Tone of Gesture

Did anyone in your family watch the old PBS children’s show, Barney- the show with the purple dinosaur who said he loved you and you loved him? Whatever you thought of the costumed title character, few people fondly remember the children on the show. There is a good reason. They were horrible over-actors. Their behavior was exaggerated and overblown. If my children brought a friend home who acted like these children, I would have been extremely concerned about their wellbeing. When I taught theatre class, I used these Barney children as examples of overacting. 

However, in the past three years, we have all become overacting Barney kids. When I am on Zoom, I find that I am often moving my arms and head to complement my words. When I speak, I gesture even more than I normally do (and I am a very expressive and physical speaker). I use Zoom backgrounds to communicate as well. Similarly, when I am wearing a mask, I compensate with the rest of my body. I work hard to “smize” and use my eyes to convey my emotions. Again, I find that I am using broad and exaggerated arm and hand gestures. My entire body tries to complement my eyes and communicate more than the semantic definitions of my words but their emotional meaning. 

While the pandemic has not turned many of us into over-emoters like those kids on children’s television, it has also given us insight into their motives. I have been placed in this tiny box and all you can see is a piece of me. Half my face is covered and you don’t know if I am being sarcastic, simple, or mean. So I need to supplement my language with large gestures. 

Our tone of voice often communicates a layer of meaning that our words alone cannot express. A mask muffles and obscures this. Zoom shrinks this. Thus, we need physical gestures to make sure that the most important meanings, the ones that are more powerful than mere denotation, to make it through these COVID-created barriers. 

Has this turned us all into cheerleaders, spelling out each affirmation and encouragement? Not quite. Has this made us more aware of the limits of language and how easy it is to misinterpret and confuse? Certainly! 

I’ll bet that most of us aren’t even aware that we are compensating this way. Like players of Charades, we are acting out the words and ideas in order to leap the linguistic, technological, and safety barriers. We want to be understood – really understood – in a way we took for granted just a few years ago.  

Bring understood means clearly communicating through not only what we say, but also how we say it. We all know that people can say things that are complementary and positive if we read them, but can be brutal and cruel when spoken in a certain tone of voice. The reverse is also true. Some of us struggle to make sense of this kind of sarcasm. Gestures, facial expressions, and vocal tone are the keys to communicating it. 

Communication that is only typed text lacks this context. There is no gesture or voice to a text or email. We add emojis or initialized shortcuts to indicate that we are just kidding (JK), rolling on the floor laughing (ROFL), or shaking our head (SMH). We instinctively know that our written words inadequately communicate important parts of our message and our reader needs help to comprehend all the levels of our meaning. 

This is also why we can find emails or text messages so problematic when the sender fails to recognize their tone and context. People take offense at texts that the sender thought were merely informational. Emails make the recipient feel horrible when the sender thought they were just being factual. 

How we communicate is at the very least as important as what we communicate –probably it is more important. We cannot help but embed our emotions as we connect with each other, even if it is accidentally. 

I do not like wearing a mask. I prefer to share a room IRL (in real life) with people rather than be placed in a Brady Bunch box on the screen. However, over the past three years, COVID has forced us to be more thoughtful about our communication, hone our nonverbal skills, and heightened our awareness of the meanings behind the words: the tone created by the intersection of our words and the physical gestures that accompany them. 

Reading for Treasure: Dating

Reading for Treasure is my list of articles (and other readings) that are worth your attention. Click here for an introduction.

Lifehacker recently had an interesting series on dating. I had two other articles that related to that and a theme for this month’s reading for treasure was born. 

Dating in the twenty-first century is far more complicated and technological than it was when I was looking for a partner. Lifehacker’s articles deal with the apps, researching dates, and other nuances that I never had to think about: 

“13 of the Best Dating Apps to Find Love or Mess Around”

“All the Ways You're Being Rude on Dating Apps Without Realizing It”

“This Is How Much Online ‘Stalking’ You Should Do Before a Date”

“How Long Should You Chat on a Dating App Before Meeting Up?”

I haven’t repeated an article before, but this gem from The Atlantic that I included two months ago seems like required reading if you want an egalitarian relationship: “If You Want a Marriage of Equals, Then Date as Equals.” 

Finally, a crystal clear statement from Tim Wise:  “Refusing to Date Trump Voters Isn’t Intolerance — It’s Good Taste”

I am currently reading The Parable of the Talents by Octavia Butler 

Reading For Treasure: Winter Break Reading

Reading for Treasure is my list of articles (and other readings) that are worth your attention. Click here for an introduction.

I started creating lists of articles because what I really wanted to do was either to email them to my teacher friends or post them on social media – but I didn’t want to be that retired guy who is always sending me articles I don’t have time (or desire) to read. I often do a short description of the article, but today I am trying only providing a quotation to whet your appetite. Let me know if that matters at all. Perhaps all we need is the title? Nonetheless, these are six good education-related articles worth your attention. 

“Trust the Teachers” by David W. Blight, The Atlantic 
 “What American teachers most need is autonomy, community respect, the right to some creativity within their craft, time to read, and, perhaps above all, support for their intellectual lives. Most would not mind a pay raise.” 

“When parents scream at school board meetings, how can I teach their children?” by Jennifer Wolfe, CNN
“My students know that to move forward toward understanding and engagement, we have to be willing to talk about the hard stuff….Our country deserves people willing to have difficult conversations and solve problems together. We need to turn toward each other, not away from each other into spaces where uncomfortable discussions are treated like a crime. Without civil discourse, we risk tumbling toward civil unrest.” 

“Parents slam state board’s proposal to triple number of annual standardized assessments for students: ‘We must keep testing at the absolute minimum’” by Karen Ann Cullotta, Chicago Tribune
“A state plan that could triple the number of federally mandated tests Illinois students must take in the coming years is being slammed by some educators and parents who say after the recent loss of classroom learning during the COVID-19 pandemic, the last thing kids need is more testing.” 

“Voice, Chat and DM: Remote Learning Tools That Make Sense In Person” by Caroline Smith, KQED Mindshift
"But Cohn discovered advantages to her students typing some of their assignments during virtual education. Watching her students’ writing appear on their respective Google Docs in real time meant she could provide simultaneous feedback. The process of editing on the computer — liberated from the messiness of revising on a piece of paper — made the process less burdensome and more enjoyable for her students."

“College Admissions Are Still Unfair” by James S. Murphy, The Atlantic
“There is also an important component of racial justice in dropping legacy preferences. The practice overwhelmingly benefits white applicants and harms first-generation, immigrant, low-income, and nonwhite students. A 2018 lawsuit against Harvard revealed that 77 percent of legacy admits were white, while just 5 percent were Black and 7 percent were Hispanic. At Notre Dame, the class of 2024 had five times as many legacies as Black students.” 

“School Stumbles Upon Chalkboards From 1917 During Renovation, Perfectly Preserved Lessons Provide Rare Look Into Past” Dusty Old Thing
“Construction workers were removing chalkboards– taking them down to replace them with new Smart Boards– when they stumbled upon some older chalkboards underneath. Luckily, they stopped to examine the chalkboards before destroying them, and they quickly realized that the boards were from 1917… Nearly 100 years ago! Stuck underneath layers of other boards, these antique chalkboards had been preserved with the chalk still on them, providing an amazing view of life in a mid-20th-century classroom.”

I am currently rereading The Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler  

Will We Still Zoom?

Slowly, things are opening up. I got a haircut, ate inside a restaurant, and shopped at Costco! Life is in person again (somewhat), and, slowly, it is feeling more normal. 

Yet the digital adaptations we made during this pandemic had advantages, too. The commute was fantastic. I loved being able to attend events wearing whatever I wanted. And those events were not restricted by geography.  

What parts of the digital quarantine will we keep? How will our immersion in Zoom and other video chat systems change now that it is safe to come together inside again (provided we are vaccinated)? 

We may see that many, if not most, events are hybrid. Some will merely stream so those who are not in the room can witness them. Others may go further and create ways that allow distant participants to be actively engaged. 

However, telepresence is not always an adequate substitute for physical presence; often, if you were on a screen and some of the other attendees are in person, you can become a second-class participant. Getting a word in is difficult when everyone is on Zoom. When some are sitting in a room and some are on Zoom, it is even harder for the Zoomers to cut into the conversation. While some meetings can be replaced this way, sometimes, traveling to be in person is going to be necessary. 

One of the most wonderful parts of Zoom culture was that participation was not hindered by geography or disability. I participate in a book club that now has members from all over the country. In addition, we have members who have physical difficulties that make attending in-person too challenging. Zoom lets everyone be together without the travails of travel. 

I attended a few virtual conventions. While I missed the social aspects, I thought the panels were great! Some of my pet peeves about panels vanish when they are on Zoom. My biggest pet peeve is that sometimes audience members think they are part of the panel. They speak up without being acknowledged by the moderator, comment freely, and often dominate discussion. Not on Zoom, they don’t! Audience members only get to participate when the moderator allows. I loved that. 

I also loved the commentary that went on in the chat during panels and events. I was used to sitting with my friends and whispering or texting each other occasionally. With Zoom, there is another layer of conversation that does not intrude on the primary event but can interact with it. I loved hearing, “Someone in the chat said…” or “An example of this was provided in the chat…” The audio/video was complemented by the text in the chat. It was a good outlet for that person who might be tempted to become the intrusive self-appointed panelist. 

Certainly, schools and colleges were changed by Zoom. While some may have liked learning online, getting back to “normal” school has been a primary goal. But might classes be streamed, especially large lecture-based classes in universities?  Since we can have remote and asynchronous learning days, does this mean school never needs to be canceled for snow or weather again? Could homebound students be connected to school resources through the computer?   

The fact that events could be recorded was also a benefit and one that we certainly could retain. Recently, I watched an interview from the Art Institute of Chicago that was streamed live during a time when I was unavailable. Since I was watching a recording, I couldn’t ask questions, but I am not sure I would have anyway. If not for the recording, I would have missed the event, but now I got to see it when it worked for my schedule. 

Accessing doctors and other medical resources by video was just starting to be offered before the pandemic. Now it has become a standard option for receiving services. For the same reason I noted above, telemedicine may not replace in-person examinations or consultations, but it certainly could help those who are too far away or for whom getting to the doctor is extremely challenging. And no one is sitting in a waiting room with sick people!  

I haven’t even begun to discuss how Zoom and its kin have facilitated the ability to work distantly for some. Zoom meetings, conferences, and calls are not perfect equivalents of the old normal, and they have both advantages and issues, but the option of working from home will be on the table far more than we ever imagined before the pandemic. 

Video engagement will now be an option for more and more of the activities that we used to assume had to be done in person. However, including disabled or distant participants, creating hybrid meeting structures, and navigating in-person events with both live and distant participants is going to take creativity and flexibility. 

We are not going back to the old normal. Our new routine will reflect the changes and innovations of the pandemic.  

Computer Wimp Forever!

I started saving for my first computer when I was a freshman in high school in 1978. My friend introduced me to playing simple Star Trek games on the school VAX. He taught me BASIC so we could go to our local Radio Shack and torture the salesmen by programming infinite loops into the TRS (we called them trash)-80s. 

I was hooked. When my school purchased Apple IIe computers, I started playing with simple programs to create animations and do simple data processing. I wanted one of these! 

By the time I got to college, I was still saving for my own computer. No one in my dorm had a personal computer. My first programming courses made me use cards and sent me to the sub-basement of the tech building to run them. I knew there were other approaches. 

Finally, a friend gave me the first issue of MacWorld and suggested that, instead of an Apple IIe, I might want to buy the brand new Macintosh. Almost simultaneously, our college made an agreement with Apple and student prices for the tiny personal computer made it time to spend my savings. Of course, there was an eight-month wait. I plunked down my savings and bought my first Mac in 1984! 

In some ways, I was quite different than who I am today. However, my desire to research the hell out of everything was already in place before I turned twenty. So even before I had my computer, I was reading books about personal computing, programs (not yet called “applications”), and the still infant concept of communicating with other computers via a telephonic connection called a modem. 

My favorite guide and the book that became my bible was called Computer Wimp by John Bear. The subtitle was “166 things I wish I had known before I bought my first COMPUTER!” I would quote Dr. Bear to my parents, friends, and family when they questioned me about this “computer business.” 

Bear introduced me to the idea of buying a computer based on the software rather than the hardware. He talked me out of my “but wait” paralysis that some better and cheaper computer or program would appear on the market as soon as I purchased something. 

Bear’s writing style was accessible and his tone was light. The book didn’t take the heavy technical approach that many people used when they learned the amount of money and time I was spending on my computer. 

Computer Wimp made me a backup fanatic. This lesson has saved me, my grade, my work, my class, my students, and my sanity. I became a back-up-alholic! Recently, my computer crashed and my multilayered backups made the recovery nearly painless! 

More than the list of lessons, the book suggested that computers were not going to be the exclusive domain of engineers. Communications majors like me could make good use of them. Bear didn’t get everything exactly right. He thought that, “The free standing computer may fade away as small computers are built into various household tools and appliances.” He was partly correct. He didn’t predict the rise of the Internet, but he gave me the tools to find it myself. 

Computer Wimp was my starting point. It was the beginning of a lifelong computer connection. My little Mac followed me through college. By the time I got to senior year, I had an account on both Compuserve and America Online. One winter break, I blew the lid off my roommates’ and my phone bill with all of my online time. Going online at that time meant tying up the phone line and being charged by the phone company by the minute. It was easy to overspend. Who knew that I’d spend so much discussing Star Trek with people all over the world! 

I became a personal computer person. I became the computer wimp! I upgraded that old Mac and moved on to the MacPlus and to a PowerBook (which I still have), eMacs, iMacs, Macbooks, and Macbook Airs. I have used other types of personal computers both at home and at school, but I have found PCs (I call them pieces of c) far less human-friendly to this computer wimp than my Macs. 

Computer Wimp introduced me to the questions, issues, and attitudes that have shaped me as a computer user. Although I did not become an engineer or programmer (yet), my computers have been an integral piece of my teaching and my life. I can’t imagine working without them. 

Call me a nerd, a geek, or some other fine term of endearment, my love for computers can be traced back to my dear high school friend’s intervention and the wonderful writing of John Bear. I will forever be a computer wimp!

Reading for Treasure: Scamdemic!

Reading for Treasure is my list of articles (and other readings) that are worth your attention. Click here for an introduction!

I have written about scams before and my most recent post deals with some thinking strategies to help us sift through the overwhelming mounds of information (and disinformation) in order to evaluate them well. However, the evil fraudsters are taking advantage of the current crisis to trick people into giving away their money, information, or more; thus here are some articles to help you protect yourself and your loved ones from the evildoers who would trick you. 

CNN’s article, “6 coronavirus vaccine scams that target your money and personal information - and what to do about them” is a short and very clear listing of possible scenarios. It is worth sharing with family-  especially elders! 

Wired has a good review of “How to Avoid Phishing Emails and Scams.” I have also written about this issue, but the fraudsters are getting more and more sophisticated. I also want to note that this article recommends the use of a password manager – and so do I (see below). 

Scamming can pop up in all sorts of places. Lifehacker’s article “Beware of These Creative Online Dating Scams” reminds us that people are trying to trick you even when love is what you are searching for! 

Another way to foil scammers is to improve your security. You must have a password manager if you are going to use complex effective passwords. Since LassPass changed its options, Bitwarden is a good choice if you want a free option. Lifehacker’s article about Bitwarden is worth a read if you want to taste test a password manager: “Bitwarden is Now the Best Free Alternative to LassPass.”

One more Lifehacker article reminds us, “Don't Trust Phone Calls From 'Venmo' or Any Other Service.” When your bank, utility, or other service calls, hang up and call back using the number you would regularly use to reach them – not the number from which the possible fraudster called you! 

Google has created a new feature to help you figure out if the sources that appears in your search are credible and trustworthy. Engadget lays out how to use this feature so you can evaluate sources and be sure you are getting the best information possible: “Google search results can tell you more about a site before you visit it.”

Currently, I am rereading Foundation by Isaac Asimov

The Pandemic Proceeds: Looking Back at 2020, Part 2- April and May

February and March introduced us to COVID-19. In April, it moved in. I was living in a state of heightened anxiety. After each walk outside, trip to the gas station, store, or anywhere, I scrubbed my hands. I felt like I was being hunted by an invisible foe. 

April felt like the month of cancelations. We canceled our plans to visit our daughter in D.C. I co-teach the Confirmation Class at our congregation. and we canceled the service and prepared to move it online. We had planned a special family trip to Norway and we began taking it apart. We canceled all service people coming into our home. We canceled our plans to attend weddings, which were then canceled. It was a very different version of cancel culture. 

Meanwhile, my book club chose to read The Doomsday Book by Connie Willis. Strangely, a story of duel pandemics was comforting. 

My friends at Deerfield High School were struggling to teach students online. Students were distracted, upset, and often absent. Teachers were trying to balance their own families’ needs and take care of students. Teaching in an online environment was new to everyone! I helped a few teachers map routes through Deerfield so they could drop off gifts, goodies, and greetings at their students’ homes. 

May years ago, I recorded A Tale of Two Cities on audio as a teaching text. I read and taught it. My colleagues were teaching this way all the time, but it only seemed like the worst of times. 

We made trips to grocery stores wearing gloves. We brought my parents groceries and they brought us food, too. Every time we saw toilet paper, we grabbed it! Our prescriptions arrived by mail. 

It looked like we might want masks, so I ordered some from a DHS alumnus whose business made bed linens and was now making masks. I ordered a lot: some for us, some for the rest of the family. 

I set my parents up on Zoom and helped them use it. I found an old lamp in the basement that would give me more face light when I was on a video call. 

We began to meet people on our patio, outside, masked and distanced. We still called, texted, emailed, and video chatted regularly too. We continued our effort to stay in touch and reach out to friends and family. 

I started a group sourced poem called “When This is Over” on Facebook and published it here. The end of this time felt far closer then than it does now.  

My anxiety kept rising. My emotions were very close to the surface and I had to remind myself frequently about what I could or could not control. 

Many of the appliances in the house were running far more than in the past. My wife needed ice on her back several times a day. We ran the dishwasher constantly and it was spitting out strange melted pieces of plastic. I didn’t even want to think about what would occur if the computer broke or we lost our internet connection! 

Before the pandemic, we spent a great deal of time with my parents, and now we feared that these visits might kill them. We met on patios, but it wasn’t enough. They were still not in the same place about the gravity of the situation. My mother would mock my precautions and tell me to hide in the basement when she was coming over. We would call daily and see each other at least once a week outdoors. 

My wife recovered from her surgery, but she was in the same condition as she was before the surgery. We had unsatisfying telehealth visits with the surgeon. My wife tried shots in her spine. No help. New meds. Didn’t work. Her MRIs looked exactly like the ones from January! She started physical therapy. We looked for a new surgeon and talked about a second surgery! 

We were concerned about our daughter who was working long hours on the Federal Government’s response to COVID in D.C. Our public health expert was going to work herself sick. How do you help someone who is 600 miles away? 

I signed up for an online service that alerted me when disinfecting wipes became available. I was able to buy some once or twice. We shared them with everyone! 

Passover was online. I wondered if it was safe to go to doctor or dental appointments. I was hesitant to go into a building for anything! Although the weather was getting better, the list of people who had died grew longer. Several friends on social media talked about their experience wrestling with COVID. I attended more Zoom funerals and saw postings about the loss of loved ones. 

Throughout the spring, we brought in the mail wearing gloves and then left it on the dining room table for three days before opening it; then we washed our hands. 

Restaurants started doing curbside pick up and we began to order out more. I made signs for the cars that said, “Order for Hirsch, please” on one side and “Thank you” on the other. I participated in a birthday car parade for a friend’s sixtieth. 

The pull of college was still strong for our son. His a capella group wanted to make a video of the concert they planned for the spring. That would mean traveling back to Ohio for several days and staying somewhere – and then singing, an activity that was highly problematic. While he knew it was too dangerous, it was yet another loss. He recorded at home and sent his work in, but it was far from satisfying. 

School was still online. I made a montage for my senior homeroom with the photos I had taken over the years. I sent my former Freshman English students the letters they wrote to themselves on their first day of high school. I emailed my other former students wishing them well. 

Anxiety was growing in the pit of my stomach. I found that tears welled up at surprising times. Our daughter called often. She was working very hard both at her job and with her new puppy. 

My son’s college glee club held a virtual concert using submitted recordings, old video, and recorded material. It was wonderful. It was the first time I sat next to my singer son during one of his concerts. 

My Sunday school students were struggling with Zoom fatigue. Our classes were shorter, so we needed more of them to get ready for an online Confirmation service. 

I continued to be tech support for my parents. They received more than their share of phish and scam emails. We talked, at length, about how to recognize a fraudulent email or text. 

In May, we finally made plans for our daughter to come home. Once her puppy had all his shots, she could make the trek. A long car ride with a four-month-old puppy would not be easy. 

My book clubs met online. I wondered if they would ever meet in person again. I had a reunion with some college friends via Zoom. A friend and her husband did a chamber music concert from their home in Israel via Zoom. The DHS retirees, who usually gathered for lunch in town, had an online get together. All functions of our congregation were on Zoom. The choir met on Zoom to talk about what we would do since we couldn’t sing at High Holiday services. I attended funerals and weddings online. While I have always spent a good deal of time in front of the computer, I was now spending much more time staring into a screen! 

I was still working hard to stay in touch and support my teacher friends. They were barely keeping their eyeballs above water! Yet, the school board berated teachers calling them lazy and said they were shirking their responsibilities. It was shocking and disrespectful. Teachers were working harder than ever! My wife and I wrote a letter to the board expressing our disappointment and outrage. We were not alone. The board apologized. 

I wondered if I had this disease if I coughed or sneezed or caught my breath. Was it my allergies or was it something far worse? 

We became Instacart experts. Many houses were on sale in the neighborhood and they were selling quickly. We waved at people on our walks but crossed the street to avoid them. Not everyone understood the idea of distancing, especially cyclists. Friends started to lose their jobs, get furloughed or reduced. 

At the end of May, my son graduated from college via an online ceremony. There was even a virtual reality component where he was given an avatar and could walk around a virtual campus. It was Minecraft meets Legos. He tried it for a few minutes and then joined us watching the polished video presentation that featured video of my son’s musical groups! I think he liked graduating this way better than all the hubbub of being in a big stadium. The concerts, however, were deeply missed. 

Once he was done with college, the job search began in earnest. He started reaching out to people for informational interviews. By the end of the summer, he had spoken to more than one hundred people in dozens of organizations. He was a networker! 

We had Mother’s Day distanced on my folks’ patio. They still needed quite a bit of technical support but were becoming good Zoomers. I signed them up for Instagram so they could hear a concert by my brother’s daughter. We had several family gatherings in backyards. Thank goodness for nice weather. 

For my birthday, I got Star Trek masks and a tin of Garrett’s caramel corn! I ate it. All of it. I read the nominees for the Hugo awards. All of them. 

Our daughter trekked west over Memorial Day weekend. My son and I met her in Ohio and helped drive her home. We rented a car, sanitized it, planned the logistics, and drove my daughter and her dog to Illinois in the pouring rain. 

Finally, all of us were home and safe. For the first time since this started, I could breathe easier. For the first time, I slept well. We would face the summer together. 

Reading For Treasure: An End of the Year Digital Grab Bag!

Reading for Treasure is my list of articles (and other readings) that are worth your attention. Click here for an introduction!

Since we are all sending so much time on our digital devices, here is a grab bag of articles to make both your online and offline life safer, healthier, and better.

If you use an iPhone, it is time to retire those old “in case of emergency” designations in favor of the phone’s built-in emergency contacts. You can make any contact an emergency contact by editing it and selecting “emergency contact.” In addition, this article from Apple World goes one step further and explains “How to Send Your Medical ID to First Responders in an iPhone Emergency Call.” During a pandemic, this seems like a feature to activate. 

Many of us are spending hours and hours on our devices. If these devices break or lose our data, we may have significant problems. That is why it is critical to back up everything – and I mean everything. Wired Magazine has a good overview of this: “How to Back Up Your Digital Life.” If your answer to “what would happen if your computer crashed?” Is that you would be up the creek, consider reading this and backing up everything! Remember, you probably want to back up your phone, too! 

Often the weakest link in your digital armor is your password. Some of us use the same password all the time. Some of our passwords are easy to guess, even if you don’t know us well. Some of us have answered quizzes or done those Facebook questionnaires and shared the answers to every possible security question with the world. The key to good passwords is making them long and complex, but that means they are difficult to remember (and to crack). The key to making long passwords usable is a good password manager. I use 1Password, but there are many to choose from. Here is an Engadget article to get help you start using one: “It’s time to start using a password manager: Here’s how”

Finally, two good pieces from one of my favorites, Lifehacker. First and most important, “Never Email Your Social Security Number, I Am Begging You.” The title says it all, but I will add this: please think of any unencrypted email (which is probably all of our emails) as a postcard, not a letter. There is no envelope and anyone on all the systems it passes through (and there are many) could look at it. 

Finally, since we are sitting in front of screens all the time, we need to protect our necks, backs, wrists, eyes, and the rest of our bodies. Lifehacker also provided a good guide to make sure that you are not making yourself sick by the way you are using your computer: “How to Ergonomically Optimize Your Workspace”

I am currently reading The Peripheral by William Gibson

VHS Time Capsule

Staying at home during the time of COVID has provided me with time to start to clean out all those old things stored in the basement. My family and I have thrown things away, packed up things for donations, and done a ton of recycling. 

Recently, we pulled four huge bins of VHS tapes out of the crawl space. In them were hundreds of recordings of Star Trek and other television shows I adore. I remember watching the first run of each series with a remote in my hand to edit out the commercials. I was certain that these tapes were going to be the way I got to watch these shows again. 

I had carefully labeled every tape. Each one had a list of the episodes inside the cover. I really felt like I was preparing my future viewing. I did not predict streaming services or DVDs. I no longer even own a video cassette player of any kind. 

So why is it so difficult to part with these tapes? 

It is not as if I am going to sit down and use the tapes, even though I do continue to watch much of the content that is on them. I don’t need old grainy analog tapes to do it. For several of the series, I have purchased DVDs that include closed captions and special features. 

The eldest of the tapes date back to the early 80s. My family was one of the last to purchase a VHS machine. I had been recording Star Trek on audiocassettes because listening was the only way I had to experience an episode other than when it was broadcast. So when that first VHS deck came into my house, there was no doubt what I was recording. 

I knew that the episodes I was recording were edited. I was aware that they had a few minutes cut from them for additional commercials, but at the time, there was no alternative. Even when I could purchase store-bought tapes of the episodes (which I did), they were expensive and I bought them slowly and savored each one. 

As I got older, these became my exercise tapes. I would watch them to make working out interesting and take my mind from the sweat and discomfort of riding a stationary bicycle at 5 in the morning. I still watch Star Trek while working out! 

I bought my own VHS recorder as a gift to myself for my college graduation. Star Trek: The Next Generation was being made and I recorded entertainment shows and tried to find any clip or glimpse of information about this new Trek. 

When the show finally premiered, I made sure that I was in front of the TV, remote in hand, for every episode. I recorded each one twice: once with commercials edited out and one with them left in. I am a big believer in backups. 

I did this for a very long time. 

I recorded The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, The Original Series, and the Animated Series on these tapes. By the time Voyager and Enterprise premiered, my life had become too complex to edit them live. But now I had a host of other shows: Babylon Five, Earth Final Conflict, Farscape, Alien Nation, and even some I had forgotten (remember Seven Days?).  I have not rewatched all of these series, although as I write about them, I am eager to find the services that stream them, even if I don’t know when I will have time to watch all I would want to. 

I know that these tapes are not the way I will now see these shows. I know that there is no problem with throwing them away or recycling them. But doing so feels like losing something special; something that feels both far away and very dear and important. They are a kind of time portal into a distant past which I don’t want to lose. 

The technology may be obsolete, but the feelings and attachments are not. These tapes are mementos of watching these shows broadcast for the very first time. They are relics of a distant time, heavy relics that are taking up lots of space in my basement. Unlike my affections for these shows, basement space is not infinite. I am going to have to come to terms with letting go of these tapes and being content with the feelings they engender when I watch what was on them. 

The tapes did not record my wonder, joy, and delight in these stories and sagas. Those can never be lost! 

What If Your Computer Crashed And You Could Not Recover What Was On It?

Last Sunday, my computer froze and showed me nothing but a beach ball. I waited. I restarted the computer. I looked online and tried several techniques to boot in safe mode, recovery, and off an external disk. Nothing worked. I called Apple and we spent several hours trying to reinstall the operating system, repair disks, and get the machine to start. It refused.

I eventually took the very large computer to the Apple Store, and I await a repair. Yet, as you can see I am still writing this blog. In fact, using my work computer, an old computer at home, and my iPad, I can do almost everything. My solution is imperfect; for some important functions, I am waiting for my computer to come back from the shop.

One thing I am not worried about is the recovery of my data. My photos, music, documents, home records, and other valuable files are backed up to both an external hard drive and through a backup cloud service.  I am confident that, when I get my computer back, I will be able to restore it such that I will be able to function as I did before it broke.

That wasn’t always the case. This is not the first time a computer has crashed on me. Since that first painful lesson, I have instituted a system by which I back up files in multiple ways to different sources.

What if your computer were to crash, be stolen, or destroyed? What would you lose? What might make life more difficult for you? What would be irreplaceable?

The easiest way to back up your computer is to automate it. I use the Apple Time Machine system, but almost every hard drive has a program to create backups on a schedule. Every platform has a variety of options to backup once a day, hour, week, or whatever makes sense for your needs. You can purchase an external drive and use the program that comes on it or one that is connected to your computer’s operating system.

My children have laptops. They do not leave their computers on desks connected to external drives. For that reason, I subscribe to a cloud backup service that backs up automatically from the cloud. There are several companies offering this service. If you are interested in which one I use and why, reach out to me and I’m happy to tell you about it. I don’t want this to be a commercial.

Unfortunately, the service I used for many years just ended their consumer backup plan and I have recently moved to a new service. Thus my children are not protected by this way right now. That is an issue.

Another solution to the laptop problem is to purchase a micro SD card. These cards are small memory cards that can hold as many files as some phones, tablets, or computers. Most computers have a slot to read them. You can purchase cards in many sizes. My plan is to purchase 200-gigabyte cards and let my kids either automate or manually copy their important files as they see fit. I use a similar method with my school computer. Once a week, I copy all my important files to a flash drive.

Of course, for many of us, much of our digital life is online anyway. Between Google Drive, DropBox, iCloud, and other services, we can keep a great deal of our important data online. I don’t do that with the scans of my tax returns or old photos. My financial files are on an old version of Quicken that I have intentionally prevented from connecting to the internet. And I have a ton of music and videos that would take up far too much space to store online. Thus, I back them up on a drive that sits next to my computer. 

I am hopeful that when I get my computer back (which I am assured will be any day now) that I will be able to reload my digital life and be back to normal quickly and painlessly. Thinking about backing up is not fun, but it is far better than the problem of losing everything that was on your computer.

So again, I ask: what have you done to protect yourself if your computer were no longer functional? What will you do now?

Little Camera is Watching

Recently, I purchase a dash-cam. I bought it because I had several near accidents with vehicles running red lights and stop signs, and because I was curious – and because it was on sale. It was easy to install and I have only twice looked at any of the videos that it has recorded. For the most part, I forget about it while I am driving. I remember it, however, when I see poor driving.

I think about how my driving is being captured on other people’s dash-cams. While this has changed my driving and, for the most part, I consider myself a conservative and safe driver, I wonder if people would drive differently if they thought that recordings of their driving might turn up online, at the police department, or in other ways. Would some of us slow down?  Would some of us put on a show?

Google introduced Google Glass in 2013 and more recently Google Clip. Both are, for lack of a better term, person cams. They serve the same basic function as my dash-cam, but for human beings. They are a civilian version of the body cams that some police wear.

As you move through your day, people with whom you interact might be recording everything you do and say. The ubiquity of cell phones has that potential as well. Does that change anything?

Let’s try a thought experiment: what if people at your work were recording you? What if, as you dealt with co-workers, clients, customers, and others, someone was secretly recording? How would that affect you? Would it change your behavior?

There are two questions here: one is obvious: how would the chance of being recorded affect one’s behavior? The second is what happens to that recording?

We act differently when there is a camera watching us. Our awareness that our actions will be seen by others, be more “permanent, ” and perhaps be critiqued makes us self-conscious. Our audience changes from known to unknown.

In the world of George Orwell’s 1984, Big Brother looked into the lives of his citizens through a kind of television set. Privacy was almost impossible. The state watched, judged, and punished. While we have no centralized eye in the sky, the idea that an audience is viewing what you are doing in your car, job, or anywhere is unnerving and increasingly likely.

The obvious retort is that, if you have nothing to hide, what is the big deal? Who cares if my actions go viral on Twitter? While there is value in this debate, it is moot. Video of people from cameras meant for security and all manner of personal cams are now out there. It doesn’t matter if you are behaving well or not. The world may see you and that, by itself may be a punishment.

Because the audience may not have context for your actions. The world may not know what your co-worker said to you just a few minutes before you lost your temper. The world may not see the crying person just off the screen. The world may only see the bad lane change, but may not the sick child in the backseat.

Pulling out your cell phone to record an incident is a way to both deescalate and intensify a situation. If you are going to cut in line, I am going to record you doing it and post it. You parked badly; I am going to shame you online. Just like in 1984, fear and shaming do not make a caring community. They do keep people in line.

So how do we deal with the proliferation of cameras and the recordings they produce? First, we increase our civility in public. There is nothing wrong with that. Beating people is wrong regardless of context. Second, we increase our awareness of the presence of cameras. We point them out and notice them wherever we are. If we are being watched, we should be aware of it. Third, we ask questions. Why are cameras here? Who sees the recordings? What is done with those recordings? Who has access to them and for what purposes? We add context wherever possible. If a camera appears, I may need to explain what is going on in more detail. I may need to directly address the camera. I need to think about my new audiences.

I never want to be on a reality TV show, but now we all may have our fifteen minutes of shame and blame. The camera genie is not going back into the bottle. But we must remember that the view into the bottle is often incomplete.