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23 Jun 2019 - Podcast #648 - (21:18)
It's Like NPR on the Web
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If you find the information TechByter Worldwide provides useful or interesting, please consider a contribution.
Internet Explorer can still be found on current Windows systems, but it shouldn't be used. The final version of Internet Explorer, IE11, was released 6 years ago in 2013. It has since been replaced by Edge, but because user acceptance of Edge was far below Microsoft's expectations, the next version of Edge will be based on the open source Chromium project.
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The change will leave two primary browser engines, Blink (Chromium's engine, which is used by Chrome and most other browsers) and Geko (used by Firefox and a few others). Webkit is used by Apple's Safari (no longer available on Windows systems) and a few others exist on Linux systems, but the vast majority — 75% or more — use Chromium and around 10% use Geko.
The current iteration of Edge uses Microsoft's proprietary EdgeHTML engine and the Chakra engine. The new version, now available publicly for those who want to work with a browser that's still in development, is fully based on Chromium.
Development is far enough along that it's possible to use the new Chromium-based browser and far enough along that we can see where the browser is going, but not so far along that it would be a good choice as your primary browser. So this seemed like a good time to take a look.
As with other Chromium browsers, the Settings menu is located under ellipses dots in the upper right corner. Some of the default settings in Profiles are not the way I want them to be. This is the area where users can select sync option; password, payment, and address options; and import browser data. These are all important.
Sync can be turned on or off globally. When activated and when the user logs in with a Microsoft account, instances of Edge will be synchronized across multiple machines. Only Favorites and Settings are currently active and I have enabled them. Extensions, History, Open Tabs, Addresses (and more), and Passwords can't be turned on yet. I would enable Extensions, but not any of the others.
Passwords is the section where users can view saved passwords and determine whether site logins should be automatic when passwords are stored. Offer to Save Passwords is turned on by default. I turned it off. It seems that turning the option to save passwords off should also disable the option to sign in automatically. It doesn't, so I turned that off, too, because I feel that browsers shouldn't be used to store passwords. That's what password managers are for.
I also turned off Save and Fill Payment Info in the Payment tab because I don't want the browser to retain credit card information. This is another function that password managers do.
There's also an offer to save addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses. Because password managers can handle these kinds of entries, I turned this feature off, too.
The new Edge can import information from Chrome, Edge (the previous version), and Internet Explorer. If you want to import data from other browsers, you'll need to export the bookmarks or favorites to an HTML file.
The Privacy and Services tab is where the user can clear browsing data and set several privacy settings. By default the option to send Do Not Track requests is on. I turned it off because virtually no websites that track people honor the request. The other options:
Under the Services section, there are options to use a web service to help resolve navigation errors, Microsoft Defender SmartScreen, and Address Bar settings. I left the web service and Microsoft Defender options on and also left the site suggestions option on. Here is also where you specify your preferred search engine. Bing is the default, but you can switch to Yahoo, Google, or DuckDuckGo — or add another search engine and set it as the default.
By default, the page that appears when the browser starts will show sites that you visit frequently, but it's possible to change the default layout: Focused eliminates the background image, Inspirational displays the background image and a comment that leads to Bing, Informational divides the browser window horizontally so that the news feed appears in the lower half, and Custom makes it possible to create other arrangements.
I'm currently using the Inspirational option, which fills the screen with an image, but the news screen, called "My Feed" appears when I scroll down.
Personalizing the news feed is easy and a wide range of topics exist from Money, Top Stories, US News, World News, Travel, and Politics to Health and Fitness, Video, Good News, Movies, Music, and Crime. And a lot more.
I like the Site Permissions tab. Here you can specify on a per-site basis what the browser will allow when a site attempts to interact with installed hardware or software. There are settings for: Cookies, location, camera, microphone, motion or light sensors, notifications, Javascript, Flash, images, pop-ups and redirects, background sync, automatic downloads, unsandboxed plug-in access, handlers, MIDI devices, zoom levels, USB devices, PDF documents, protected content, clipboard, and payment handlers.
Microsoft says that an upcoming feature called Collections will allow users to collect, organize, share, and export content directly to Microsoft Office applications.
The new Edge browser will be exactly like Chrome, but completely different. For starters, Microsoft will replace or disable some 50 Chromium services. Some of these are generic services such as spelling check and speech input, but others such as Google Now and Google Pay are clearly Google specific. There are also plans to enable 4K streaming of content that is protected with digital rights management (DRM) — Netflix, for example. This is a feature that's not yet present, along with many other planned additions.
Microsoft hasn't announced a release date, but has been working on the Chromium-based version since late in 2018. This is the first version of a Microsoft browser that I'm actually expecting to like and use, at least occasionally. Anyone who wants to download and install the new Microsoft Chomium Edge can obtain it from Microsoft. If you want to give it a try, download it from Microsoft Edge Insider.
Anyone who needs to justify the monthly subscription fee for Adobe's photographic offerings would be wise to think about the updates that are rolled out every month or two. In the old days, new features were released as part of major version updates, which meant that you'd have to wait a year and a half or two years to see improvements. Now it's much more frequent.
That's great for users, but it's a challenge for those of us who talk about software because individual updates rarely have blockbuster features. Users who install updates sometimes don't investigate to see what's new and they can miss useful features.
The most recent Lightroom Classic version has several welcome new features.
The first new feature isn't entirely new and it will probably be used by only a tiny percentage of Lightroom users. If that sounds like damning with faint praise, it's not. But I do need to explain. The feature is called Flat-Field Correction.
First, why it's not exactly new: This feature has been available for a while as a free plug-in from Adobe. Now it's in the Library menu of the Library module.
Second, why few photographers will ever use it: The technology behind it is astonishingly complex and much of what Flat-Field Correction can do is included in Lens Corrections.
Every lens made has some known problems. These range from various types of distortion and unwanted vignetting to color fringing and color shifts. Some of the problems are common across all lenses of a particular model from a given manufacturer. Others are specific to each lens. It's those lens-specific deficiencies that Flat-Field Correction is intended to address.
Lightroom knows about an immense number of lenses and can apply corrections for distortion and vignetting because these are common to all copies of a given lens model. Color shifts across the lens's field of view need to be addressed by Flat-Field Correction, but the user needs to create a calibration frame. Although this isn't particularly difficult, it does require time to create the exposure. Because the corrections are subtle, only the most detail-oriented photographers will bother to do it.
An article by Sean Reid explains in detail what Flat-Field Correction does, describes exactly how to use it, illustrates the subtle changes, and explains how to create your own calibration frame.
Lightroom already has (1) Clarity, Dehaze, and (2) Sharpening tools, so you might wonder what's the point of a new (3) Texture slider. It's not like the stereo amplifiers of yesteryear where adding knobs, buttons, dials, and gages (even useless ones) made the unit more appealing to some buyers. In fact, every slider that Lightroom offers has explicit uses.
Consider Vibrance and Saturation, or Exposure, or Highlights and Whites, or Shadows and Blacks. It would be easy to think of these as needless duplications, but that would be wrong. Saturation affects the entire image, while Vibrance is a more nuanced tool that acts primarily on muted colors without accentuating colors that are already fully saturated. Highlights and Shadows are more nuanced than Exposure and apply their effects only in the lighter or darker areas. The White and Black sliders are often used to re-establish the brightest and darkest areas of an image following Highlights and Shadows adjustments.
So Texture is related to Clarity, Dehaze, and Sharpening, but it has its own specific uses. Texture can be applied to an entire image or brushed on. Adding Texture to rocks, tree bark, and other similar surfaces makes them pop; reducing Texture on a portrait shot improves the appearance of the subject's skin. In both of these cases, brushing the adjustment on would have a better effect than applying it to the entire image. This isn't a tool for high-end photo retouching that's usually done in Photoshop, but it's a quick and easy way to add subtle changes that improve an image.
Adobe says that the Auto feature in the basic adjustments section has been improved. Sometimes Auto gets everything right, but even when it doesn't it usually provides an excellent starting point. On occasion, Auto completely misreads an image and the result it hideous, but Ctrl-Z reverses the changes. On balance, it's right (or at least in the ballpark) far more times than it's not and I always start with the Auto adjustment because it saves time.
As camera manufacturers release new models, they make changes to the raw file format. Every new release of Lightroom (and Adobe Camera Raw) includes support for new cameras. The latest release includes support for 16 new cameras and nearly 30 new lenses. Both cameras and lenses include new smart phone cameras.
No matter how fast a computer is, it's always too slow. Computers can be made faster and many of the procedures involved aren't difficult to accomplish.
There's an old joke that editors share: Making a boat fast could mean adding a larger motor or tying it to the pier. Think of this as adding a larger motor. There's the other old joke editors share that starts with the question "How many editors does it take to screw in a light bulb", but we'll not be going there today.
So let's say you have a computer. If you're reading the TechByter website or listening to the podcast, that seems to be a safe assumption. Now let's also say that the computer you're using isn't as fast as you'd like it to be. That's probably also a safe assumption because any time spent waiting for a computer is wasted. And it's an annoyance. But what can you do?
I'm going to assume that you're using a Windows computer, too, although some of the problems Windows users encounter are also seen by Mac users.
If the computer suddenly seems to be too slow and particularly if it crashes at random times, checking for viruses or other malware is a good first step. You probably have some protective software in place, but no protective application catches every threat every time. So start by running two full scans: One with the protective application you use on a daily basis and a second with one of the applications listed by Bleeping Computer. This is an old list, but it's a good starting place.
If either scan finds a problem application, remove it. But assuming nothing is found, take a look at Settings > Apps and Features. Sorting by install date will reveal any recently installed applications and you may want to remove any application that you don't recall installing. Before removing an application, it's a good idea to use a search engine to investigate. Just because you don't recognize the application doesn't mean that it's malware.
The next step involves examining the applications that start with Windows. Every such application slows the computer a bit because it consumes CPU and memory resources. Admittedly, I start a lot of applications when Windows boots even though I know every one of them makes the overall operation slower. Knowing this, I specified a computer with a fast CPU and a lot of memory. The computer would be faster if I didn't start all of these applications at boot time, but it would be slower without the applications because they would be required to load when I need them.
The bottom line here is to eliminate applications that you rarely use and retain only those that you use regularly. If, like me, you want to load a lot of applications at boot time, then invest in a computer with the CPU and memory to support the applications.
Let's say that you've gotten this far and you've found no malware. You've also decided that every application loaded at boot time is essential to what you do. But the computer is still slow. What now?
There are two additional steps you should consider:
Adding RAM and installing an SSD are the two changes that can quickly and easily turbo-charge your computer.
Adobe previewed a new project at the Max conference in 2018. The 2019 Max conference will begin on 4 November in Los Angeles and Fresco will be one of the new features attendees will see. Fresco is the official name for the project that was developed as Gemini.
Fresco was on display this week at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity in France. It is a new painting and drawing app for pen and touch devices. Adobe says that while Fresco is designed for professional-quality, it's easy enough for anyone to use.
Fresco can be used for a wide variety artistic techniques such as "Tiki Hut" by Olivia Bromell (left), "Stranger Things" by Daniel Presedo (center), and "Tony Chopper" by Cindy Xi (right).
Why "Fresco"? The word is Italian and means "fresh". Fresco is a painting technique in which the artist begins by spreading a layer of plaster on a wall or ceiling. With the plaster still wet, the artist uses pigments and water to paint. The pigment binds with the drying plaster and the work must be complete before the plaster has fully dried.
Adobe says that limited time is important even though no plaster is involved in the modern implementation on an IPad or other touch-enabled device. "When inspiration strikes, you have to act before the plaster dries. We’re developing Adobe Fresco to empower spontaneous creativity."
Adobe's development blog explains Fresco's objectives this way: "Live Brushes, which use the artificial intelligence of Adobe Sensei to recreate the behavior of oils and watercolors in an amazingly lifelike way. When you paint with a watercolor Live Brush, you’ll see the color bloom into adjacent areas of the paper. Use red and yellow next to each other and they’ll naturally blend into orange at the border. You can even recreate painting with water to dilute some colors and encourage tints to mix."
Additional details about the project are on the blog, along with information about a private beta program.
I still have some old metal subway tokens around the house even through they haven't been valid since May 2003. That's when the NYCMTA stopped honoring them after installing vending machines for transit cards and card readers on turnstiles and in buses. Now it's time for something new.
OMNY, a system developed by Reflexions will replace the MetroCard used by the system's 8 million daily riders. The old Metro cards had to be swiped through the reader, often more than once. The new "tap and go" system allows riders to pay fares with digital wallets as well as with contactless credit, debit, and reloadable prepaid cards. MTA riders can register for an on-line account, view ride and transaction history, and manage their account preferences.
View ride and transaction history. Hmmm. Yes, that doubtless means what it appears to mean: Ride history will be stored somewhere. This could be helpful if, for example, you're accused of committing a crime in Brighton Beach, but your ride history shows that you were on a 3 train in Harlem at the time.
OMNY was designed by Reflexions and Cubic Transportation Systems handled the installation. The new system was launched at 16 stations on 31 May and will be expanded to all 472 subway stations and 6000 MTA buses by October of next year. The MTA has more information on the transit website.