Chrome Privacy Extensions

Reloading my personal machine post clean install of Windows 10. Wanting to secure Chrome (as best as possible). I haven't surveyed browser privacy and security extensions in awhile so I took the opportunity to look around again briefly. Here's what I came up (in no special order):

lastpass
adblock plus
disconnect
do not track me (now "blur")
https everywhere
ghostery
scriptsafe
flashcontrol

Tightening down browser settings and enabling the entire list broke Facebook profoundly (beyond what whitelisting could fix). In the end it was Scriptsafe that I had to really convince to loosen up, but eventually everybody was co-existing, Safe browsing (no, such a thing is not actually possible silly).

Window 7 - figure out what network card you have so you can get the right drivers

I found a great site that helps you figure out what network card your computer has, so that you can get the right drivers:

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/73420-hardware-identification.html 

I was working on an HP laptop, and pulling down drivers from HP's site, that just did not work at all. I found some forum entries that indicated that the drivers listed for that particular machine class were just wrong.Using the link above I was able to get the exact network maker and model, and even a link to download the driver from the manufacturer's website. Worked perfect.I wasted several days trying to guess at drivers etc., until I found that site!

iPhone Phone Extensions from Dial Pad

Everybody knows the trick of putting extensions in the contact record with commas. 

But this is no help when you have to dial the same bridge line but with many different extensions. 

It's a total pain when you've gotten on the bridge like that and you get knocked off and you have to dial the whole thing again. It would be so nice to just hit redial.

Turns out Steve has anticipated our needs once again. You say, "but there is no comma (for pause) or semicolon (for wait) on the interactive dialer!" Ho-ho my friend I suggest you hold down the star or pound key a little longer and see what happens. That's right they become the other keys. How nice. 

So now I just input the bridge, the commas, and the extension, and then let it dial away, secure in the knowledge that I'll be able to easily redial. Yay!

Download Facebook Videos

I was afraid this would happen: there are some family videos on Facebook (if that's not bad enough), that are only on Facebook, the source has been lost, typically because it was on a cell phone, which has a somewhat temporary nature.

What to do? I want to get a copy of those videos, and back it up, even if the quality is bad.

So I googled "download facebook videos". Yikes! Turns out there are two common solutions, both horrible in my opinion: (1) Install a browser helper or download a utility. The problem is all of these seem to be very harmful, and also do not work as advertised. Just read some of the comments about them before you go clicking on them. (2) Get the facebook video URL and plug it at a certain website. As best I can tell that website then has your personal video, and does what it wants with it.

Is there a safer (more secure, more private) third option? You bet! I found the answer here: http://www.wikihow.com/Download-Facebook-Videos-Free . It's in the second section. Basically you get the video going in Chrome's developer mode. Find the video on the network tab, and open the URL in a new window, then you can rightclick on the video to download it. Yay! Problem solved without installing a virus or posting my videos to who knows where.

How to tell USB 3

Ever want to figure out whether your USB3 port or device is operating at true USB 3 speeds?

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/usbcoreblog/archive/2012/06/27/how-to-determine-whether-a-usb-3-0-device-is-operating-at-superspeed.aspx

Sherlock Jr

Working on computers, be it hardware (IT) or software (development) eventually comes down to just one thing, detective work. 

Manually run a virus scan in Windows 8/8.1

It's bugged me since 8 came out that I couldn't "get to" Defender. I knew it was supposed to be there but the task tray icon is gone. Well no more!

Put your mouse in top right corner until the right hand charms pop out.

Click on search.

Type Windows Defender

Choose Windows Defender from the results.

You can change your settings, make sure you have the most updated dats, or run a manual scan, from the interface presented, which resembles the Windows 7 Security Essentials UI.

iPhone Texting Fails

"Error Invalid Number. Please re-send using a valid 10 digit mobile number or valid short code."

This from an iPhone 5 with iOS 8.1. Googling the error shows posts back to 2008 with no clear etiology, workaround, or resolution. 

A combination of the proposed fixes seems to have worked for me to fix it this time. I deleted the contact, deleted the message threads (original and error), and did a double button hot restart. Then I texted the problem number. Then created a new contact with the number. Glad to be past it for now. Not sure what service the other person has but I'm on ATT and it was a text not a message (green). 

iTunes to iPhone: move music without syncing

How do you get music from your PC to an iPhone you don't necessarily want to sync with? Apple makes this impossible, but somebody found a back door!

https://discussions.apple.com/message/19470407

(Go down to the comment by "karissafrey".)

In iTunes create a playlist with the music you want to download, then change the autodownload playlist to your new one, then choose autosync. This worked perfectly for me! Yay! No changes besides the one I wanted. 

Reverse Turing Test

You're probably familiar with the Turing test where a computer (AI) is said to have reached a certain level of advancement when it can fool a human being into thinking that it is a human being. It's more complicated than that but you get the general idea.

Well I came across the opposite problem today. How do I convince human beings that I am not a computer? Specifically I'd like to offer my friends a download but I don't want them to think that it's robotic spam message or a phishing attempt.

How do I assure them that it's really me writing the email? So many facts about us are widely available on the Internet. What piece of information or shared experience do I and my friends have in common that is not known? I honestly can't think of anything.

The best alternative I've been able to come up with so far is to let them see that the download is being offered from my own domain and the URL has not been tampered with.