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FPCUG Notes for September 2019 Editor: Frank Fota (fotafm@gmail.com)

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS (7:00 PM - Falmouth Firehouse, Butler Road): -- Tues, Sep 3: Technology Workshop (Josh Cockey) – Cancelled -- Tues, Sep 10: Board of Directors (BoD) Meeting (Patty Davis, Presiding) -- Thu, Sep 12: General Meeting. Caroline Family YMCA Executive Director, Maryclaire Osegueda, will speak to the FPCUG about the Caroline Family YMCA, their facilities in the Rappahannock area, programs at the center, and events they host within the community. The public is invited and refreshments will be served. -- Tues, Sep 17: Windows 10 Workshop (Ed Alexander) – Cancelled -- Thu, Sep 15: Experimac Workshop 1865-106 Carl D. Silver Parkway -- Thu, Sep 26: Windows All Workshop (Jim Hopkins) AUGUST GENERAL MEETING RECAP

Mr. Matt Green, Vice President of Product Management for webMethods Business Events at Software AG in Reston, VA. discussed the Internet of Things (IoT), how he has used it, and the evolution of the IoT industry. Mr. Green talked specifically about the technological advancement in Smart devices and Smart Home design [e.g., Apple watches that track your activity (and report to your insurance company to decreases/increase payments) and refrigerators that produce shopping lists]. Other smart home improvements were discussed including sound/entertainment systems, fans, ovens, and lights that turn on at your command (thanks to Alexa). Mr. Green also mentioned smart locks, irrigation systems, and lawnmowers. Looks like the future is here. Thanks for the great talk Matt!

VIDEO SURVEILLANCE CAMERAS I’ve written in the past about video surveillance cameras. Competition has resulted in improved cameras and video surveillance systems at reduced cost. The cost is so reasonable, there is almost no reason not to have at least one. Writing for CNET in an article titled, “The best home security cameras of 2019” Megan Wollerton says, “Whether you're concerned about theft or simply want to check in on a mischievous pet, home security cameras help provide peace of mind.” Reading this article, you may suspect the author has a vested interest in marketing these cameras/systems. I can speak from

experience regarding the Ring outdoor and Wyze indoor cameras. Both stream live HD Video content over Wi-Fi and stream effectively with a good 4G phone connection. Videos are stored on the internet for 2-weeks. Your choice may be based on cost or location (i.e., indoor or outdoor). A Wyze indoor camera with night vision, 2-way audio, and person

detection costs $26. Add $10 for an adjustable wall mount

Matt Green with FPCUG President Patty Davis

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bracket with weatherproof 360° protective plastic housing. Wyze cameras are powered via a miniature USB cable. Options to consider when doing your research include cost, location, mount, power source, storage of videos (e.g., micro SD card vs. Cloud and continuous vs. event-based), monitoring services, 2-way audio, local alarms, and zone detection. Some cameras can detect motion, heat, or identify people using facial recognition. Lastly, you may want to consider whether the camera or video surveillance system can be integrated into your home virtual assistant (e.g., Amazon Alexa, Apple Siri, and the Google Assistant). APCUG SUMMER VIRTUAL TECHNOLOGY CONFERENCE (VTC) I participated in the APCUG Summer VTC on Saturday, August 17. I found the presentations to be timely and informative. Two tracks were offered. I attended Track 2 and the follow-on round table discussion. Stew Bottorf, “Chromebook” and “Cutting the Cable Self-Help” SIG Leader, Tampa Bay Technology Center, Florida kicked off Track 2 with, “How I fired my cable company and still enjoy TV, Internet, and a home phone.” Stew was encouraged when “Cutting the Cable” meetings last year attracted overflow crowds. When comparing costs for cable television versus the cost of an over-the-air antenna, Amazon Firestick, and streaming content packages; Stew did not realize significantly lower costs. Helped by SIG participants, Stew was subsequently able to cut the cable; saving $1,200/year while adding additional TV channels and maintaining Internet and Google home phone service. Dan Douglas, President, Space Coast PCUG, Florida next presented, “The most common issues that need repair from a PC/Mac repair shop perspective.” Dan shared his experiences repairing PCs and dealing with common problems that frustrated PC users presented when visiting his shop. Dan presented his “top ten” issues and his solutions. Dr. Pierre Darmon, President, Westchester PCUG, New York presented, “Going Paperless.” Dr. Darmon noted the advantages and disadvantages of going paperless including: reducing paper clutter, organizing important documents for easy access, and protecting documents from disaster. Dr. Darmon said that paper documents that were not needed in the original form could be shredded and non-sensitive documents recycled.

The follow-on round table discussion was led by APCUG Board of Advisors Chair, Judy Taylour. Judy discussed the problems groups were having attracting new members and retaining existing members. She fielded questioned from participants and received recommendations for improvement. Judy’s “Roundtable Presentation Ideas” (linked at left) were great. The APCUG Summer VTC presentations were recorded and will soon be available on YouTube. Adobe Acrobat versions

of the slide sets are available here. For more information or for copies of the conference videos or presentation slide sets, visit the APCUG YouTube channel and website linked above.

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CRAY TO BUILD EL CAPITAN SUPERCOMPUTER When completed in 2023, the new supercomputer will be among the world’s fastest at 1.5 exaflops (i.e., 1.5 quintillion calculations per second). The supercomputer will help the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) manage the aging United States’ nuclear stockpile. Nuclear weapons do not

age well. Degraded plastic and rubber parts must be replaced and the warhead materials (e.g., radioactive plutonium) decay over time. Writing for CNET, Staff Writer Rae Hodge says, “In 2016, a report from the US government showed it still used a 1970s-era IBM Series/1 mainframe computer with 8-inch floppy drives to control its nuclear forces -- including intercontinental ballistic missiles, nuclear bombers and tanker support aircraft.” My familiarity with floppy disks leads to say without hesitation that relying on floppy drives for storage of nuclear security data is a bad idea. An upgrade is long overdue! In a 2009 NYU’s Scienceline article, Allison Bond says, “The warheads will remain dependable for at least 82 more years, or until the year 2091, according to a 2006 report by JASON, an independent scientific advisory group for the U.S. government. At that point, the warheads' decayed cores could leave the U.S. with an impotent nuclear arsenal.” CBS AND VIACOM REUNITE A merger deal was finalized in early August that will rejoin two television companies that split nearly a decade ago. The new ViacomCBS will join popular television brand names such as CBS, Showtime, Nickelodeon, MTV, BET, Comedy Central, and Paramount. The merger follows similar buyouts of Time Warner by AT&T and Fox by Disney. Major media companies are facing an increased interest in streaming television and a decreasing interest in traditional cable television. Mergers and acquisitions will ensure that television companies won’t be left behind as market share shifts to streaming television services. Writing for CNET, Senior Reporter Joan Solsman says, “During a call with analysts, executives said they hoped to bulk up CBS All Access with kids programming from Viacom, which owns Nickelodeon. Executives added that they continue to like the idea of pricing CBS All Access under $10 a month because they remain interested in driving up subscribers.” The Federal Communications Commission is expected to approve the deal by the end of the year. CYBER COMMAND ATTACKS IRAN PARAMILITARY FORCES Cyberattacks are typically covert operations that we never hear about. One of the exceptions to this rule is a recently disclosed attack (June 2019) by the US Cyber

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Command conducted against Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard. The attack wiped out a database used to plot attacks against oil tankers in the Persian Gulf. Iran has yet to restart some of the affected computer systems (e.g., military communications networks). National security reporter for the New York Times, Julian E. Barnes says, “Senior officials discussed the results of the strike in part to quell doubts within the Trump administration about whether the benefits of the operation outweighed the cost — lost intelligence and lost access to a critical network used by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, Iran’s paramilitary forces.” Cyberoperations is a means to deter future aggression while reducing the risk of open retaliation. Reducing the risk of retaliation requires that the covert nature of the attack is maintained. In this case, the United States apparently wants Iran to know that there are costs associated with their bad behavior. Some in the intelligence community have criticized the Trump Administration for destroying Iran’s computer systems. The thinking is that the intelligence we gained through access to these computer systems was more valuable. The Trump Administration would also be criticized if the public knew we had access to Iran’s computer systems but failed to act. HACK EXPOSES BIOMETRIC DATA OF OVER 1 MILLION PEOPLE The recommended response to a data breach is to change the passwords of affected online accounts. The problem with the hacking of biometric data is that you can’t change your fingerprints or your face (without surgery). Writing for the MIT Technology Review, Cybersecurity Journalist Patrick Howell O’Neil says, “A major leak of data discovered this week in the UK includes fingerprints of over 1 million individuals, face recognition information, unencrypted names and passwords, and other personal info from Suprema, a security company used by UK police, banks, and military contractors, according to a report in the Guardian.” If it can happen in the United Kingdom… This type of data breach plays into the fears of those who oppose using biometric data for identification. The data breach was uncovered by internet privacy researchers Noam Rotem and Ran Locar working for the Israeli cybersecurity firm vpnMentor. An estimated 27.8 million records and 23 gigabytes of data were believed to have been compromised. When informed of the breach, officials were initially uncooperative. However, they apparently verified the breach for themselves and repaired it within a week of being informed. APPLE LAUNCHES INDEPENDENT REPAIR PROVIDER PROGRAM I would not go so far as to say that Apple products are fragile. However, they do break. Perhaps in response to the growing “Electronics Right to Repair” movement, Apple is expanding its authorized service provider network. Over the past 3 years, service for

Apple products has expanded into every Best Buy store in the US. This triples the number of authorized service providers. Writing for betanews, Brian Fagioli says, “…Apple

is finally starting to realize that some folks want to visit a local repair shop. Today, it announces a new Independent Repair Provider Program. This will allow independent repair shops to become authorized to make official repairs using legit Apple parts.” According to Apple, there is no cost to join the independent repair program. A repair facility can qualify if they have an Apple-certified repair technician on staff. The repair

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facility will then be able to order genuine Apple parts, repair manuals, training, tools, and diagnostics at the same cost charged to authorized service providers. Expanding the repair network beyond Best Buy may prove challenging as Apple-certified technicians are in great demand. VERIZON AUTO-ENROLLMENT IN ROBOCALL BLOCKING SERVICE I use a robocall blocking service on my Verizon Android phone (i.e., Nomorobo). Verizon will soon begin to enroll Android phone users in their Call Filter service. I may consider using it. Why? It is free and Nomorobo costs $2 per month. If you are not interested in Verizon’s call filtering service, you will have to visit My Verizon and opt-out.

EVENTS IN COMPUTER HISTORY (Paraphrase and additions to the Iceni Technology Blog by Iceni Technology Contributor Rebecca Coe and historical data from the websites www.computerhope.com/history/, dayintechhistory.com and www.historyorb.com/) -- Sept 1 --

The first TRS-80 Model I computer sold. Radio Shack, with its own factories and distribution network, began shipping TRS-80 (Tandy Radio Shack) computers in September 1977. The TRS-80 cost $399 (or $599 with a 12" monitor and a Radio Shack tape recorder as data-cassette storage).

-- Sept 1 -- The US Library of Congress started the "Virtual Library" Project. The project aimed to convert the ~840 miles of shelved holdings to digital form by the year 2000. The "virtual library" project also served to save rare materials that were degrading or have been vandalized, as well as saving space for the library.

-- Sept 1–2 -- A solar superstorm (i.e., a coronal mass ejection dubbed the “Carrington Event”) affected electrical telegraph services. Named after English astronomer Richard Carrington who documented the event; the “Carrington Event” was the largest geomagnetic storm ever recorded. It caused aurorae to be seen in the northern hemisphere as far south as the Caribbean. Gold miners in the Rockies reportedly began preparing breakfast because they thought it was morning. Those who happened to be awake in the northeastern US could read newspapers by the

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aurora's light! Telegraph systems all over Europe and North America failed, in some cases giving telegraph operators electric shocks and/or starting fires. Telegraph pylons were observed throwing sparks. Some telegraph systems continued to send and receive messages despite having been disconnected from their power supplies!

Fortunately, the Earth was not in the path of a similar coronal mass ejection recorded on July 2012. Researchers from Lloyd's of London and the US Company, Atmospheric and Environmental Research, used data from the Carrington Event to estimate the damages from a similar event to the US at $0.6-$2.6 trillion. See a video of the August 31, 2012, coronal mass ejection at the following link.

-- Sept 3 -- The multi-billion-dollar eBay Inc. auction website was founded in 1995. eBay, originally “Auction Web”, was created by Pierre Omidyar who built the site as a hobby. Pierre had no idea how big the idea would become. The first-ever product sold on Auction Web was a broken laser pointer. Puzzled by the sale, Pierre contacted the buyer to ask why he bought it. The buyer said he collected laser pointers. Pierre then realized that people were buying all sorts of items and the real potential for his business.

-- Sept 4 -- Google Inc. was founded in 1998 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin in Menlo Park, California. Google set out to organize information and make it easily

accessible/useful. The founders had no idea that Google would rapidly become one of the biggest companies in the world. Before Google, the name PageRank was used because the company sorted and analyzed relationships between websites. It then became Backrub as it checked backlinks to estimate the importance of websites. The name "Google" came from a misspelling of “googol” (1.0 E100 or 1 followed by 100 zeroes).

-- Sept 7 -- In 2011, the multi-billion dollar computer hardware company Seagate released the world’s first external 4 terabyte hard disk drive (HDD). Originally known as Shugart Technology, Seagate was established in 1979. 1 terabyte is equivalent to 1 trillion bytes. Seagate recently introduced a 3.5" 10 terabyte drive. The first-ever HDD (1956) was the size of two refrigerators.

-- Sept 8 -- The first episode of Star Trek aired (1966). Star Trek, the science fiction television series, was created by Gene Roddenberry. Set in the 23rd century, the original Star Trek follows the adventures of the starship Enterprise and its crew, led by Captain James T. Kirk (played by William Shatner), his First Officer Mr. Spock (Leonard Nimoy), and his Chief Medical Officer Leonard McCoy (DeForest

Kelley). Star Trek was not an immediate hit (initially broadcast 79 times over 3-seasons). Many of the technologies shown in the series, including the “Tricorder” and personal communicator, influenced a generation of technologists working in portable communications and computing. The last episode aired on September 2, 1969.

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-- Sept 9 – George Stibitz pioneered the first remote operation of a computer. A bronze plaque located in McNutt Hall at Dartmouth College reads, "In this building on September 9, 1940, George Robert Stibitz, then a mathematician with bell telephone laboratories, first demonstrated the remote operation of an electrical digital computer. Stibitz, who conceived the electrical digital computer in 1937 at Bell Labs, described his invention of the "complex number calculator" at a meeting of the Mathematical Association of America held here. Members of the audience transmitted problems to the computer at Bell Labs in New York City, and in seconds received solutions transmitted from the computer to a teletypewriter in this hall."

-- Sept 9 -- The 1st "bug" in a computer program was discovered by Grace Hopper. A Moth found trapped between points at Relay # 70, Panel F, of the Mark II Aiken Relay Calculator while it was being tested at Harvard University on September 9, 1947. The operators affixed the moth to the computer log, with the entry: "First actual case of bug being found". They put out the word that they had "debugged" the machine. The log, with the moth still taped by the entry, is in the Naval Surface Warfare Center Computer Museum in Dahlgren, Virginia.

-- Sep 12 -- Jack Kilby successfully tested the first integrated circuit at Texas Instruments to prove that resistors and capacitors could exist on the same piece of semiconductor material (1958). His circuit consisted of a sliver of germanium with five components linked by wires. Along with Bob Noyce, he is considered the inventor of the integrated circuit (IC).

-- Sep 13 -- The IBM RAMAC 305 was introduced in 1956; the first commercial computer that used magnetic disk storage. The RAMAC 305 was one of the last vacuum tube computers that IBM built. It weighed over a ton. The RAMAC 350 disk storage unit was 16 sq ft in size and stored 5 million 7-bit (6 data bits plus 1 parity bit) alphanumeric characters (5 MB). It had fifty 24-inch-diameter disks. Two independent access arms moved up and down to select disks, and in and out to select recording tracks, all under servo control. The average time to locate a single record was 600 milliseconds.

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-- Sept 14 -- The same day that Microsoft discontinued MS-DOS, they released the Windows Millennium Edition or Windows ME. Windows ME was bundled

with digital media software (e.g., Windows Media Player, DVD Player, and Movie Maker).

-- Sept 14 -- The Bank of America accepted the ERMA (Electronic Recording Method of Accounting) system (1959). This revolutionary system digitized checking by scanning and reading account numbers preprinted on the checks with magnetic ink. The system was developed at the Stanford Research Institute in California. -- Sept 14 -- The Microsoft Disk Operating System (MS-DOS) was discontinued (2000). MS-DOS was originally named 86-DOS as it was made for x86 based computers, but it wasn’t made by Microsoft. It was written by Tim Paterson and Microsoft bought it for $75,000 because it was the only system that ran on the Intel 8086 processor introduced in 1978. Microsoft hired Tim Paterson to improve the 86-DOS but renamed it, "MS-DOS." -- Sept 15 --

The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) was founded (1947). With more than 100,000 members from over 100 countries, ACM organizes conferences and educational workshops to exchange

information on computing technology. ...sounds like a very large PC User's Group

-- Sept 16 -- Rejoining the company he founded in 1975 with childhood friend Steve Wozniak, Steve Jobs returned as interim CEO in 1997. The position became permanent until his death in 2011. Steve Jobs presided over one of the most extraordinary company turnarounds in business

history. See Steve Jobs Resigns as Apple’s CEO Names COO Tim Cook His Successor -- Sept 18 -- The NeXTSTEP operating system was released in 1989. NeXTSTEP was based on the Unix operating system and was very similar in appearance. It was also developed using the C programming language. Although the developer of the UNIX operating system created the C programming language, software developers found it easier to write programs in the C programming language using the NeXTSTEP operating system. The Apple OS X operating system is based on NeXTSTEP.

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-- Sept 20 -- The 1st FORTRAN (Formula Translating) computer program run occurred (1954). The FORTRAN language was born when IBM computer scientists led by John W. Backus were looking for a more practical alternative to assembly language for programming mainframe computers. FORTRAN became the dominant language for engineering and scientific applications. Excerpt from edn.com/electronics-blogs/ -- Sept 22 -- In a decisive victory for the makers of a computer's insides, a federal judge ruled that code used to run computers and other electronic devices could be copyrighted like printed material (1986). -- Sept 23 -- Mozilla released the web browser Firefox in 2002. With over 4 billion users around the world, Firefox has approximately 4.5% of the worldwide web browser market share, just behind Safari with 15%, and Google Chrome with 63.4%. Firefox is especially popular in Indonesia, Germany, and Poland. Originally named Phoenix, it was renamed because of trademark issues with the company Phoenix Technologies. Renamed as Firebird, the company again ran into trademark issues because a database software company shared the same name. Firefox has received awards and recognition as the safest and best-secured web browser. -- Sept 23 --

Google’s Android operating system for mobile phones and tablets was released in 2008. The company initially developed the operating system for smart digital cameras but diverted their efforts to smartphones to compete with Symbian and Windows mobile. To counter Apple's domination of the smartphone market, Google Android teamed up with

many mobile phone companies including Samsung. Samsung now dominates with 64% of the smartphone market. To date, over 900 million android devices have been activated worldwide and 48 billion apps have been installed. -- Sept 24 -- CompuServe Information Service (CIS) began operations (1979). It was the first major commercial computer information service in the United States. It dominated the field during the 1980s and remained a major player through the mid-1990s when it was sidelined by the rise of services such as AOL with monthly subscriptions rather than hourly rates. Since the purchase of CompuServe's Information Services Division by AOL, it has operated as an online service provider and an Internet service provider. The original CompuServe Information Service, later rebranded as CompuServe Classic, was shut down July 1, 2009. The newer version of the service, CompuServe 2000, continues to operate as an internet portal. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CompuServe

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-- Sept 27 – Programmers first demonstrated HotJava to executives at Sun Microsystems (1994). A browser making use of Java technology, HotJava attempted to transfer Sun's new programming platform for use on the World Wide Web. Java was designed to be truly universal, allowing an application written in the language to

be used on with any type of operating system or on the web, televisions or telephones.

Hacker Kevin Mitnick, 33, was indicted on charges resulting from a 2 ½-year hacking spree (1996). Police accused the hacker, who called himself "Condor," of stealing software worth millions of dollars from major computer corporations. The maximum possible sentence for his crimes was 200 years.

-- Sept 30 -- IBM Announced Shipment of 3 Millionth PS/2 Personal Computer (1988). The PS/2 was IBM's follow-on computer to its PC, PC/XT, and PC/AT machines. The PS/2 used the Micro Channel Architecture, a bus format incompatible with IBM's open ISA standard adopted by clone makers. IBM had introduced its PS/2 machines just the year before, making the 3 1/2-inch floppy disk drive and video graphics array standard for IBM computers and compatibles. The PS/2 was the first IBM computers to use Intel's 80386 chip and IBM released a new operating system, OS/2, at the same time, allowing the use of a mouse with IBM computers for the first time.

-- Sept 30 -- The world’s first Apple computer, the Apple I, was released (1977). The Apple I was discontinued just 17 months later. Each Apple I was designed and hand-built by Apple co-founder, Steve Wozniak.

Steve Wozniak and close friend Steve Jobs sold their possessions to fund the project. The computer went on sale in July 1976 for $666.66 because Steve Wozniak liked repeating numbers. The screen capture (above) might cause you to regret trashing the obsolete hardware and software you had laying around the house.

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Who's Who in the FPCUG

Officers

Office Name Email Address President Patrice Davis president@fpcug.org Vice President Roger Schirmer vicepresident@fpcug.org Secretary Frank Fota secretary@fpcug.org Treasurer Rick Neil treasurer@fpcug.org

Directors and Trustees Office Name Email Address

Directors Josh Cockey directors@fpcug.org Ed Alexander Robert Monroe Trustees Johnny Creech trustees_@fpcug.org Kay Pollock

Bill Williams "Agent of Record"

Chairmen & Representatives Office Name Email Address

APCUG Representative Frank Fota apcug_rep@fpcug.org Newsletter Editor Frank Fota newsletter@fpcug.org Webmaster Josh Cockey webmaster@fpcug.org Publicity Representative Carolyn Fota

Special Interest Workshop Leaders Office Name Email Address

Technology Josh Cockey technology_sig_leader@fpcug.org

Windows Jim Hopkins windows_sig_leader@fpcug.org

Windows 10 Ed Alexander windows10_sig_leader@fpcug.org