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3 Sep 2021 - Podcast #759 - (18:19)
It's Like NPR on the Web
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Antonio Lucio Vivaldi was an Italian composer who lived from 1678 to 1741. He was one of the greatest Baroque composers, and his music was well known throughout Europe. Today we have a web browser called Vivaldi. You may wonder why it's called Vivaldi, and there's a story about that. So of course I'll have to tell it.
The Vivaldi browser is based on Chromium, but it has a lot of extra features. Jon Stephenson von Tetzchner, the co-founder and CEO of Opera Software, was unhappy with Opera's development and founded Vivaldi with Tatsuki Tomita in 2016. If you want the longer backstory that involves a bit of intrigue, see the Wikipedia article about Vivaldi (the browser, not the composer). To learn more about the composer, try this one.
Vivaldi doesn't have a large market share, but it's worth looking at. In mid-August I was frustrated by the major browsers:
Both Opera and Vivaldi are installed on my primary computer and I've used each occasionally. Previously I had tried Brave and some of the other browsers, nearly all of which are based on Chrome, but the best options seemed to be Opera and Vivaldi. I flipped a coin and Vivaldi won.
Opera is also based on Chrome, but Vivaldi offers an enormous number of customization options. You can customize the start page, choose one of Vivaldi's themes or create your own, set prepared or custom backgrounds, and put the tab bar in whichever location you like. That's just the start.
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I like the ability to position Bookmarks on the left and to have page tabs appear in a vertical list at the right of Bookmarks. The furthest left column can also contain Downloads, History, Windows Lists, Email, RSS Feeds, Contacts, Calendar, Vivaldi Help, and Wikipedia links. There's an option to add even more.
Users may be concerned about the lack of an option to add extensions, but this is a browser that's based on Chrome. There was no option to add LastPass, the password manager I cannot be without, directly from Vivaldi. No problem! The Chrome Web Store's Extensions page provides access to the LastPass extension and hundreds of others. That's one advantage of basing the browser on Chrome.
So the results have been good so far. I've been able to install Adblock Plus, Alexa Traffic Rank, Colorzilla, LastPass, Pocket, and Social Fixer. Those are my must-have extensions. Vivaldi has 61 processes open, but typically uses only half of one percent of the CPU and 3.5GB of system memory. In 1995 that would be an obscene use of resources. Today it's well within norms.
The ability to modify Vivaldi is possibly the most important feature. The user who opens the Settings panel (Tools > Settings) will find 21 panels of settings, many of which contain more than a few options. These range from General and Appearance to Feeds and Mail, from Start Page and Tabs to Search and Privacy. Fortunately, Vivaldi provides some guidance about what users will find in those many customization screens.
Vivaldi's Speed Dial page, while not unique, is helpful for sites that you visit regularly, but not so much that you want them to load when the browser loads. For me, this includes sites such as Wikkipedia, an internet speed test site, some media resources, Amazon, Snopes, and a variety of hardware and software support sites.
Vivaldi places four icons in the lower left corner of the window: Show or hide the left panel, take a break, synchronization status, and email. Hiding the left panel is helpful when you need more horizontal space to view a website. Vivaldi can synchronize settings on multiple machines and the status icon will confirm that everything is up to date. Email is helpful only if you've connected an email account to the browser.
The Take a Break icon, which looks like a pause button, is a clever feature. When you don't want to be bothered by any website, click it. Vivaldi will pause any playing media and blank the browser window so you can concentrate on something else. All of the tabs remain open though, and clicking the play button in the middle of the screen (or pressing Ctrl-period) immediately restores the content. This is helpful if you want to eliminate sounds from browser-based applications, when you're recording a podcast for example, but you don't want to close the browser.
Firefox has been my default browser since about 2002 when it was released. It has had problems, including massive memory leaks that persisted year after year, but the feature set was always enough to bring me back after trying other browsers. The current version of Firefox is so slow and crash prone that I needed to find an alternative. Nearly every browser but Firefox is based on Chrome, even Microsoft's new Edge browser and Vivaldi. Chrome is Chrome, but each developer adds functions and features that are intended to appeal to users. In this regard, Vivaldi has done a remarkably good job.
There is one notable downside to Vivaldi, though. You won't find a version for IOS. You can install Vivaldi on a Windows computer, a MacOS computer, and an Android smart phone, but not on an Ipad or Iphone. There are rumors that an IOS version might be in the works sometime, but nothing about when.
Download Vivaldi for Windows or MacOS from the Vivaldi website. For Android phones, check the Google Play Store.
No matter how many protective applications are installed on your computer, the final line of defense is still you. Knowing when not to click something, when not to call a phone number, and when to simply delete a message is essential. Sometimes the scam is obvious; sometimes it’s well crafted. And sometimes it’s somewhere in the middle, with a clever trick or two on a heap of nonsense.
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Consider a message “from” PayPal. It’s clearly a scam, so let’s examine the obvious clues: Although the message claims to be a PayPal message, my name is shown as the sender and the displayed address is somebody else’s Gmail account. There’s no need to look further, but much remains to be found.
Merchants, not PayPal, send purchase confirmations. The message says that the unidentified $520 purchase will be delivered tomorrow, but that I can cancel the order within 24 hours. An unsubscribe link at the bottom of the message goes to Google. The phone number offered to cancel the order goes to a location in Mississippi. The text was written by someone with a minimal understanding of English. An advertisement is combined with a phony Better Business Bureau graphic.
So the person who created this scam is an idiot, but many scammers are intelligent, and even this scam displays a bit of advanced thinking. Except for the unsubscribe link, there’s nothing click. Those who are sufficiently well informed to know that email links can be hazardous might not attach the same concerns to the phone number.
PayPal would almost certainly provide a toll-free number and any standard number would be in a California area code. PayPal’s primary office is in San Jose, but the street address shown on the email as being in San Diego doesn’t exist.
What happens if you call the phone number? You’ll probably be told that someone has apparently used your credit card to place a phony order, and that you should cancel it. Of course, they will need your credit card number, your name as it appears on the card, your billing postal code, and the card’s security number to cancel the order.
Give them that information and, although your credit card hasn’t yet been used by crooks, it soon will be.
Users of Android and IOS devices have had Google Drive for quite some time and users of desktop Windows or MacOS systems have had Backup & Sync from Google. Google will be eliminating Backup & Sync after deploying Drive for Desktop.
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The new app is available now and it seamlessly updates Backup & Sync to the new interface. Beware, though: Drive for Desktop provides several new features, but it also modifies or eliminates some capabilities.
There is a second option, one that seems to be less used. Google Drive File Stream will continue to exist. Users who have a lot of files on Google's servers but have limited space on a computer may want to consider using Drive File Stream instead.
Drive for Desktop provides access to files stored in Google Drive from your computer. Any changes you make to files are synced across all devices. The primary choice is between file streaming and file syncing (mirroring).
If you're using Backup & Sync: Your files are not affected because Drive for Desktop is an update to the Backup and Sync and Drive File Stream tools, not your stored files.
If you're using Drive File Stream: You will see few differences. The primary change is that the app's name will change from Drive File Stream to Drive for Desktop. Additionally, users will have new features from Backup and Sync.
The installation process is a bit more complex on a Mac because users have to approve Drive's access permissions for folders such as the Desktop, Documents, and Downloads, and for devices such as removable and network volumes, and the Photos library.
Those who use the streaming function will find that files are downloaded by default to the C drive on a Windows computer, specifically C:\Users\{UserName}\AppData\Local\Google\DriveFS. If the computer has more than one disk drive and drive C has limited available space, moving the local cache directory to another disk drive will help.
Drive for Desktop will back up folders stored on removable devices such as a thumb drive or an external hard drive. If you've set up Backup & Sync to synchronize these devices, they need to be attached to the computer during the migration process. Even so, Google warns "USB devices won’t be migrated."
This is an important update for MacOS users. A recent operating system update broke Backup & Sync on Mac Computers (Thanks, Apple!) Drive for Desktop fixes the problem, so Mac users who want to sync files with other computers shouldn't wait to be forced to install the new app.
Users can download the new Drive for Desktop now. The installation process moves accounts and settings from Backup and Sync to Google Drive for Desktop. During the process, users review and confirm the settings for the folders on the computer that are being backed up with Backup and Sync. When the process is complete, Backup and Sync will be automatically uninstalled.
Details about less common use cases and functions are provided on Google's website.
Those who have been conscientious and are now vaccinated might like to carry proof of vaccination with them. There's the CDC vaccination record, of course, but it has to be folded to fit in a wallet. There's also a concern that it could be lost.
There are ways to carry the proof without having to carry the card.
The easiest option is to take a picture of the card with your phone using an app such as Microsoft Lens and then storing the photo on your phone.
Clear, an application that's used to provide identification at airports (for a fee) has a free version for uploading proof of vaccination.
The free version is sufficient unless you need the paid version because you travel a lot.
Install the Clear app on your phone and scroll down and complete the process of creating the vaccination record. During the process, Clear will require that you use the phone's camera to take a picture of yourself.
When you need to display the vaccination certificate, you'll open the application again and click the Digital Vaccine Card button. Clear will take a new picture and compare it to the existing photo. The process takes just a few seconds and then your ID will be displayed.
Every company we do business with wants our address, our phone number, our age, and more. Sometimes a lot more. This trend is increasing worry among consumers as business managers strive to collect even more information.
A KPMG survey shows a disconnect between corporate data practices and the general population's expectations. Seventy percent of the business leaders surveyed say their companies have increased collection of consumer personal data over the last year. But 86% of consumers say data privacy is a growing concern. According to KPMG U.S. Privacy Services leader Orson Lucas, "Failure to bridge this divide could present a real risk of losing access to the valuable data and insights that drive business growth."
General population respondents are worried about how their data is being used by organizations, and many of these concerns are grounded in a fundamental lack of trust. The survey found that:
At some point, consumers may say enough is enough and push back hard enough to attract the attention of regulators and legislators. Lucas says that businesses need to consider ways to be more explicit and transparent about how consumer data will be used. Most general population respondents (76%) say they want more transparency about how their personal data is being used by companies, and 40% say they would willingly share their personal data if they knew exactly who would use it and how it would be used. Right now, only 53% of business leaders say their company shows how such data will be used.
Would the "new media" be primarily the "old media"? In 2001 people were getting more of their news online, but often from old media sources. At the time, Jupiter Media Metrix said that we were choosing sources such as NYTimes.com (#3 according to Media Metrix), WashingtonPost.com (#5), or LATimes.com (#8). The Post and the Times sites, for example, both showed more than a 50% increase over the last year. CNN.com was up 83% in the past year. Only MSNBC was lagging in growth — about 14%.
The trouble is that, except for major newspapers, publishers weren't able to monetize the content. In the past twenty years, newspapers have become much smaller, fewer reporters are employed, and many newspapers have gone out of business. New sources have been created, some of which offer only opinions and lies as news and fact.
Twenty years ago, I said the old media dinosaurs still have a few tricks. Most of those tricks didn't work.