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17 Jan 2020 - Podcast #676 - (23:02)
It's Like NPR on the Web
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Although I'm not always an early adopter, I do generally get around to things. Take smart speakers for example. When Google offered a Nest Mini for free, I accepted the offer. I think that anyone who bought a Google smart phone this year received the offer.
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Google positioned it as a $50 gift, but the Nest Mini is widely available for $35 and it's a gift that encourages the recipient to buy other Nest products. We'll get to that in a bit.
The smart speaker has all but eliminated my need for a radio. Although I could program the speaker to wake me with an alarm and then set a morning sequence to play NPR, I still use a clock radio for that at least for now.
You may think that smart speakers are a relatively recent invention. The first edition of Amazon's Echo Studio started shipping in November 2014. Google Home followed two years later, but we could see what was coming in the late 1990s.
In 1998 or 1999, while attending PC Expo in New York City, a consortium of networking companies invited me to a demonstration house that had been set up to show the connected house concept that I'd been thinking about and occasionally writing about since sometime in the late 1970s. Back then, it seemed to me that the only things keeping homes from being automated with what I thought would be a computer in the basement were cost, size, hardware, and software. In other words, there was a long way to go.
A lot of progress had been made by the late 1990s when I visited the demonstration house in Manhattan. One of the devices in the house looked like a standard radio, but it didn't contain a tuner. Instead, it had a network connection and the promise was that music and news would be delivered via the internet. That's part of what a smart speaker is, but these devices can do much more: Look up information; provide the time, temperature, or forecast; originate phone calls; make and remind you of appointments; and control lights and temperature.
So my 1970s house controller is here, but it's not in the basement. Instead, it takes up about 13 square inches on a desk (it's round with a diameter of about 4 inches).
Smart speakers are selling reasonably well despite some legitimate privacy concerns over hacking risks, worries about a device that's always listening, and thoughts about the potential for government eavesdropping. When compared to smart phones (many of which are also always listening and track our movements), smart speakers have a much lower market penetration.
Even people at or below the poverty line often have smart phones -- nearly 80% of those who earn less than $20,000 per year and rising to 95% or above for those who earn $100,000 or more per year. Smart speakers are owned by about 20% of the population with the highest market penetration (about 29%) in the 30-44 age range. (Research by Zion and Zion.)
It's likely that adoption of smart speakers has been hindered by security concerns even though smart phones are considerably more intrusive. The Google Nest Mini has a physical switch that turns off the microphone, which renders the device useless. It would be possible for a user to turn the mic on only when issuing a command, but few people would probably be willing to do that.
Google Nest Mini is one of a group of products from Google under the banner of Google Home. In November 2016 the first Google Home speaker went on sale. About a year later, Google released the smaller, round Google Home Mini and a larger Google Home Max went on sale. The Google Home Hub, a smart speaker with a 7-inch touchscreen, followed in late 2018. The family was re-branded as Google Nest in mid 2019 when the Google Nest Hub Max went on sale.
Smart speakers are supposed to respond only when the user utters a specific "hot word". For Google devices, the hot word is actually two words, either "OK Google" or "Hey Google" and the Nest Mini seems to comply. Saying just "Google" doesn't wake the speaker, but "Hi Google" does. I tried a lot of other short words and none of them triggered the Nest Mini. That doesn't mean it isn't listening, only that it's not taking any action on what you say.
Google's instructions describes how to use the switch to turn the microphone off entirely and explains that what the smart speaker hears is sent to Google only when the device detects that the user is instructing it to do something or when it's being used for audio calling. Google logs all activity associated with your account ("only you can see it") so you can review what the speaker heard and what it acted on by visiting Google's MyActivity.
Having spent some time in New York City, I like to listen occasionally to WQXR, the classical station that used to be owned by the New York Times. WQXR has a web presence, of course, and I could listen by going to the website and launching the streaming audio. That doesn't help if I want to listen at night after the computer has been shut down. And although I know that I can listen to just about any radio station by finding its website presence, I rarely do that.
I've found that it's much easier to just say "Hey Google, play WQXR."
The number of radio stations is remarkable, including stations from throughout the United States as well as in Canada, England, and Australia. Add a streaming service such as Pandora, Spotify, YouTube Music, or Amazon Music to expand the options. I selected Pandora's $5/month plan, which eliminates annoying ads that always seem to be MUCH LOUDER than the music content. Perhaps that's a used as enticement for listeners to sign up for one of the paid plans. The $10/month plan includes the ability to share playlists, which is something I don't need. There's a slight discount if you choose to pay annually instead of monthly.
Before the paid subscription kicked in, I dropped Pandora and switched to Spotify. It's more expensive, but the interface on both the computer and the phone is far better than what Pandora offers and the audio quality seems better. Both the desktop and smartphone instances of Spotify can play audio or control what's playing on the Nest Mini speaker — one device at a time.
I also seems that I'll have to break my habit of opening a browser window for simple questions. Some examples: What's the temperature in Moscow? (31degrees on the day I worked on this segment.) What's tomorrow's forecast? (Moscow: Cloudy with a high of 33 and a low of 28.) No, I meant the forecast here. (Tooday it'll be mostly cloudy with a high of 60 and a low of 50.) When was the first Ford Model T sold? (1908, with a lot of additional information.) How far is it from Toronto to Victoria, British Columbia? (4388 kilometers) What's 4388 kilometers in miles? (2726.677 miles) What's the temperature at which tin becomes liquid? (unkown) What's the elevation of Columbus, Ohio? (902 feet)
Later I asked about the temperature at which tin becomes liquid using slightly different words? (449.5 degrees Fahrenheit) You'll notice that my Google assistant sounds British. That's one of many options.
I can program the device so that at bedtime it asks when I want to set tomorrow's wake-up alarm and then tells me tomorrow's forecast and the first few items on the schedule. Then it can shut up or plays relaxing sounds. Or I can tell it to play a specific radio station or Pandora selection for the period I specify. For morning activities, I can program it to tell me the forecast, current weather conditions, list the first few items on my schedule, and then either shut down or play music. By "programing" here I mean select a few items from a checklist and specify a few options. No programming knowledge is needed.
And there are many options that I haven't looked at such as connecting to a thermostat or being able to turn lights on and off. There are security functions, too, such as doorbells with cameras, the ability to control some televisions, options to broadcast messages to speakers throughout the house, and devices to expand Wi-Fi coverage throughout the house.
So far I've found only two annoyances, disregarding the privacy issue.
First, when the device is streaming audio, it sometimes just stops. When I check the Home app on a phone or tablet, it tells me that music is still streaming. The solution is easy: Click the Stop Streaming button and then click the Play Music link. Even though it's easy, it's still quite annoying and it's not something that should happen to a system that's been in widespread distribution for three years.
Second, the Home Mini sometimes loses its connection with the Wi-Fi router despite the Mini's close proximity to the router: Less than four feet with nothing but air between them. The problem seems to be less prevalent when using the 2.4GHz signal instead of the 5GHz signal. When the connection breaks, the user must unplug the power connection and plug it back in to reboot the device. When I switched from the 5GHz signal to the 2.4GHz signal, the number of instances dropped from several times a day to once every day or two. That's better, but it's still too often and it's something that users have been complaining about from the beginning.
An hour-long online session with Google technical support ended with the inexplicable recommendation to switch from the main network to the guest network. The technician assured me that would resolve the problem. It didn't. An email the next day told me the support session had been closed, but I could re-open it by replying to the message. I did, but the lack of response from Google tells me that I'll have to start the process again.
The next support session will have to address a new problem. I say "Hey, Google, play KKJZ for 30 minutes." The assistant responds: "OK. Here's K-Jazz 88.1 on iHeart radio. Bedroom speaker will stop playing in 30 minutes." One hour later, KKJZ is still playing. Two hours later, KKJZ is still playing. At 3am, I wake up and say "Hey, Google, SHUT UP!" and silence ensues.
Despite the annoying flaws, the Nest Mini is a handy deviceDespite the potential security concerns, the Nest system is less intrusive than smart phones. The reason I've given the device 3 cats (which is still a good, solid rating) instead of 5 cats is a result of the annoyances that cause the speaker to stop playing and the device to occasionally disconnect from the Wi-Fi router. It's easy enough to experiment with one of these devices: You'll have to spend $35 unless you've recently purchased a Pixel phone and Google offers you a free Nest Mini. Perhaps the most expensive downside is that you'll decide to buy a bunch of other Nest products for locations throughout the house.
Additional details are available on the Google Nest website.
Backup is a topic that I drag out frequently. Maybe too frequently, but in the first week of the new year I received a powerful reminder of why backup is important and not just for those times when a disk drive crashes.
If you've been reading the blog or listening to the podcast for more than a few years, you may recall the time in mid-May 2017 when my older daughter suffered sudden, unexpected, acute liver failure. Her husband found her unconscious on the floor of their home. The diagnosis was made at Fairfield Medical Center and she was transported to University Hospital in Columbus the next day, where she lapsed into a coma. Because the liver failure was acute and immediately life threatening, she was moved to the top of the transplant list.
A donor liver became available a few days later. In the interim, University Hospital gave the families an abbreviated course in organ transplantation so we would know what was happening and what we should expect. I took a few photographs during the process, recorded some discussions with doctors and other medical professionals, and collected a large stack of paper. The transplant was successful, and I stored the audio recordings, photos, and PDF copies of the documents on a cloud-based location where the family could have access to the files.
On 4 January, Elizabeth told me she was having trouble finding the documents. When I checked, the reason was obvious: The directory no longer existed! My local backups replicate deletions, so I knew that the files would no longer be there. Crash Plan from Code 42 retains old versions of files, so I could go back to January 2019 and recover the folder and the 86 files in the folder in just a few minutes.
What happened to the files? As tempting as it is to blame it on the computer, I know that's not the case. Computers don't magically delete files. Files don't evaporate or fall off disk drives. It was clearly an instance of operator error. I had somehow accidentally deleted the directory. Most of the files would have been present on other local disk drives, but the cloud-based location had everything in one central location.
If you think your disk drive will last forever, you're wrong. If you think you won't ever accidentally delete files you want to keep, you're probably wrong. Safe is always better than sorry and that's why backup is so important.
"A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes" is often attributed to Mark Twain by people who want to debunk lies. The only problem with this is that Mark Twain appears not to have said it. Truth and facts are valuable commodities and should be protected.
The Quote Investigator examined the supposed Twain quote and could not find it in any of Twain's books. "A version of this adage was attributed to Mark Twain in 1919, but Twain died in 1910." Niraj Chokshi wrote about this in the New York Times in April 2017.
Urban myths are a plague on society and the situation is made worse by Facebook, Twitter, and the like. Anyone can post anything and lies are rampant. For example: You may see a claim on Facebook that Abraham Lincoln said "As a result of the war, corporations have been enthroned, and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working on the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands, and the republic is destroyed." According to Snopes.com, the claim is false no matter how much we lefties wish he had been so prescient.
Snopes has been around since 1994 and is the oldest and largest online fact-checker. Extremists on the left claim that Snopes is a right-wing tool and extremists on the right say it's a left-wing tool. For more than a quarter century, the organization has been investigating claims and exposing false information, whether accidental (misinformation) or intentional (disinformation).
Facts are invaluable and they're not cheap. Snopes is an organization of just 10 people and paid advertisements on the website have helped to finance the operation. The ads are insufficient, though, and Snopes recently announced a "membership" plan similar to the one used by Wikipedia.org, another essential resource.
That's not to say that either Wikipedia or Snopes is perfect. Neither is, but both are essential resources for those who value facts and truth. When we base our decisions on lies, we no longer control our own destiny. If you can spare a few dollars per month, either of those organizations (or both) will use the money to defend facts and truth.
Microsoft ended all support for Windows 7 this week. That means there is no longer any support for Windows 7. It means that there will be no security updates. Because Microsoft's free upgrade offer for users of Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 ended in July 2016, you may think that you'll have to pay for the upgrade.
Windows 7 users can pay $139 for the Windows 10 upgrade, but maybe you don't have to. You may be able to take advantage of the long-expired free upgrade offer. No guarantees, though.
Start at the Windows 10 download site where you'll see a section titled "Create Windows 10 installation media". This may look familiar if you read last week's section about repairing a Windows installation.
Click the Download Tool Now button. Here you have a choice. Choose "Upgrade this PC now" if you want to run the process on the computer you're using. If you're downloading the tool for use on another computer, click "Create installation media for another PC."
Make sure you have a full backup just in case things go sideways and then follow the steps shown on screen. The computer will reboot several times and when the process is complete, you should be able to navigate to Settings > Updates and Security > Activation and find a license code for Windows 10.
Additional points to be aware of:
If the upgrade doesn't work and you're concerned about running a computer that no longer receives security updates, you can spend $139 to buy an upgrade or consider buying a new computer.
The Manor Independent School District in an Austin suburb says that it has lost $2.3 million to scammers. The Manor police department and the FBI are investigating. The district has about 8000 students.
In November and December the school district made what it believed were three standard transactions. What nobody knew at the time was that scammers, believed to be in Nigeria, had managed to direct the payments to a fraudulent bank account. The loss appears to be the result of a vendor email compromise, a relatively new scam that's expected to defraud many organizations in 2020.
Scammers compromise an email account at the target organization and use it to send emails to the scammers, who can then use the information to submit fraudulent invoices or instruct an accounts-payable employee to "update" an account number, and that appears to be what happened in this case.
If you're keeping track, a $2.3 million loss for a school district with 8000 students is the equivalent of scamming each student for a little under $290.
The MP3 file format is so well entrenched that it's difficult to remember a time when it didn't exist. In 1997 the format was released and not long after that the MP3 player WinAmp was released.
In January 2000, I wrote: The MP3 sound file format is taking off. Everyone seems to want in. Everyone but the music industry, anyway. Now there's a service that works with traditional CD sales outlets to make music available immediately after you purchase it. Back then, a lot of people still bought CDs, but over time the MP3 format revolutionized (or destroyed) the music industry. Today's musicians earn little or no money from distribution of their music and depend on fans coming to their live shows. Competing formats, some of which offer lossless compression, exist now but MP3 is still the leading format 20 years later.