Sherwood Computer Systems

11/08/2019

The mystery of the 4 a.m. ghost text, solved.

12/14/2017

Thank you Sherwood Computer Systems who came by today to set us up with not only a great laptop, loaded with necessary software but will be working to set up many exciting things for the zoo in the future that we can't wait to tell you about! Thank you Dr. John Myers!

04/26/2017

Smart TVs collect viewing data. Consumer Reports shows you how to shut off TV snooping on Vizio, Samsung, and LG televisions.

03/24/2017

NO! Just, NO! This is the equivalent of the US Postal Service recording the addresses of all your mail, incoming and outgoing, and selling that info. It may even work out to be the equivalent of the USPS opening all your mail, incoming and outgoing, scanning it for buzzwords, then delivering it, while selling the contents to all and sundry.

I can deal with the notion of websites attempting to track me - I can, and do, combat that. They are, after all, providing me a "free" service. However, I PAY for my Internet connection. It is not free, or "free". If they're going to charge me for my connection to their systems, and, through them, the world at large, they may not track my usage, and profit from it.

This one is too important to ignore. Contact your congresscritter and let him/her know that you demand that this not pass. Don't ask. Demand!

The G.O.P. wants to let your Internet service provider sell your browsing history to third parties—without asking first.

03/21/2017

Have you been looking for a new TV, projector or monitor? Has the ever growing jumble of numbers and letters detailing resolutions gotten you confused beyond words? Have I got a couple links for you! The first is a Wikipedia entry detailing what each of those myriad of seemingly random numbers and letters means in practical terms. The second is an article by Geoffrey Morrison over at CNET that is a decent example of reasonable advice and behind-the-curtain info.

https://goo.gl/XW9tIw - Wikipedia (Google condensed link)
https://goo.gl/Ht4561 - CNET (Google condensed link)

A couple decades ago, buying a TV or monitor was simple. You chose a few brands you felt good about, chose a screen size, and likely a price range, then you looked at the remotes and decided which one worked best for you. You flagged down someone wearing a store name badge, pointed at your choice, said something along the lines of, "Want that. Here money.", and you were off to the abode, trunk lid tied down to cover the box, and your mind going through the list of neighbors you may be able to Tom Sawyer into helping you haul that 3.2 ton box into the house, and set it up. Or, you were figuring out a good excuse for calling in on the day of scheduled delivery, so you could stay home and wait for the store's gorillas to do all that grunt work for you.

A 25" console TV was furniture - furniture that set the standard for your entire living room's furnishings. And, you planned on having that TV for life. It was an investment that you could logically expect to last for decades, likely without ever having any maintenance other than dusting, and cleaning the kids PB&J smears off the big tube you stared at.

Then came HDTV. Our standards changed from the been-this-way-forever NTSC analog standard, to digital HD standards. Suddenly, that big hunk of furniture was obsolete, as was every other video device in your household, from the 19" in your bedroom, to the 5" camping model you kept in the garage. Your VCR became useless. Your TiVo became useless. That 12', state-of-the-art satellite system you spent thousands on a couple years ago, useless too. All your "lifetime" investments, useless at the stroke of a pen.

And, we entered the age of commodity rather than investment.

TV manufacturers quickly realized that we were no longer willing to pay the big profit monies they'd previously demanded for their products. The change had caused us all to rethink, and lose all trust in stated standards, as we'd all just suffered through the destruction of the fruits of months, if not years, of our labors.

In response, they created TV's that were cheaper - less robust. They weren't designed to last like the old hunk-o-furniture that had resided in your living room for a couple decades. They weren't designed to be repaired. They were designed to be replaced.

And, to help you make that replacement decision, they pushed for evolving standards. Oh, broadcast TV stayed essentially the same (much of it still operating on the 720p standard), but everything else changed. Regularly. Progressively. Planned obsolescence.

Unfortunately, you don't have the options for TV's that you have for computers. You can't go to a custom builder and get something designed specifically for your needs and desires, built using the best of the best - something that will function indefinitely. You're stuck with the commodity devices. So, find something with the features you want, that looks good to you, take it home, and start saving for the next one.

02/25/2017

The internet's latest security hitch may have exposed you in secret.

07/14/2016

Speaking of privacy concerns... A large group of the advertising companies that essentially pay for all that free stuff you get on the Internet are likely tracking your every move while you're accessing that free stuff, and everything else. If you'd like to tell them not to do that, you can go to http://www.aboutads.info/choices and choose to opt-out of ALL tracking by their systems.

This is cookie based, so it's browser specific.

What that means is they wanted to make it as difficult as possible for you to opt-out of their "services" by making it necessary to use this site to turn off their tracking system in every browser you use, on every device you use.

So, if you have three computers, and you use three browsers on each, you're going to end up doing this nine times.

Worse yet, every time you clear your cookies, it clears these "do-not-track" cookies, requiring you to visit the site, and go through the entire process all over again.

OR...

You can simply install a plugin like Ghostery. Ghostery automagically blocks these things for you. It is configurable, so you can enable a tracker if you find you absolutely must, but most of the time, you can just let it set up there and tell you how many trackers it's blocked at each site you visit.

Gives me the warm fuzzies every time I look up and see a number other than zero.

https://www.ghostery.com/

Welcome to the Digital Advertising Alliance's consumer choice page. The companies participating in this page provide transparency and choice under the DAA Principles.

07/14/2016

Everyone’s stoked about Pokémon Go, but if you’re a privacy conscious player on iOS, you might not like the fact that Pokémon Go (and Ingress, for that matter) has complete access to everything in your Google account. Good news though, you can revoke that access.

07/12/2016

Nothing gets you out of Windows trouble like Safe Mode, which is why it's inexplicable that using Windows 10 you can no longer enter it by pressing F8 or Shift+F8 at boot. It's still available in Windows 10, but you have to boot into Windows first, then either restart holding the left Shift key or via an option within Update & Security in the Settings app. Completely useless if your PC can't boot into Windows in the first place.

You can't get around this, which is why it's helpful to create a boot time Safe Mode option before trouble arrives. Hit Win+x and select Command Prompt (Admin), then type bcdedit /copy {current} /d "Windows 10 Safe Mode" and hit Enter. From the Start Menu type msconfig, run System Configuration in the results, and navigate to the Boot tab. Highlight the Windows 10 Safe Mode option you just created, tick Safe boot and select Minimal under Boot options and set the Timeout value so you won't be inconvenienced - the minimum is three seconds - I'd recommend somewhere between 5 and 10 seconds. Click on Make all boot settings permanent and click OK.

Repeat these steps, using suitable names in quotes at the Command Prompt, to create shortcuts for Safe Mode with Networking (click Network rather than Minimal in System Configuration) and Safe Mode with Command Prompt (Alternate shell).

06/28/2016

Occasionally, you might find Microsoft Security Essentials telling you your virus definitions file is out of date and needs to be updated. You click on update, and it stalls on Searching or Downloading. There are some simple steps to fix this oddball bug.

First, verify that your Date, Time and Time Zone are correct. If it's more than 5 minutes out of spec, many things on the Internet will balk.

Next, try renaming the folder where it stores things. Occasionally, a download legitimately fails, for whatever reason, and stops any additional updates from downloading. It's a bug, and you'd think MS would have found a real fix for it. Anyway...

Click Start
Type:
cmd
Right click on cmd in start menu and select 'Run as Administrator'
Type:
net stop wuauserv
Hit Enter
Type:
ren c:\windows\SoftwareDistribution softwaredistribution.old
Hit Enter
Type:
net start wuauserv
Hit Enter
Type:
exit
Hit Enter
That'll quit the Command window and get you back to your desktop. Now, run Update in the user interface of Security Essentials.

If it still won't/can't update, you can manually download the update and run it. That will usually kick everything and wake it up, so it starts working right again. https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/971606 will drop you onto the support page, where you can download and install the update manually.

And, finally, if all else fails, download and reinstall the whole program.

If that doesn't get it all working, it's time to turn to a pro for some help.

06/18/2016

So, do you have a Macbook that mysteriously puts itself to sleep at random times, or randomly fails to power on through several pushes of the power button? Here's a tip for ya - Move the magnets.

MacBooks use magnets and sensors to know when the clamshell is closed, telling the computer to sleep. Lay your iPhone, or headphones, or some other magnetic source on or under your computer, and it may trigger the sleep function.

So, keep a bit of distance between your computer and any magnets, even the little ones in earbud headphones. They're pretty sensitive sensors.

And, once again, the old warnings of keeping magnets away from your computers have come full circle, only this time it's not to protect your floppies.

03/22/2016

True innovation means considering what happens to a product at every stage of its life cycle. Liam disassembles your iPhone when it’s no longer functioning, ...