Sunday, October 14, 2018

Be alert on your email account name

For well over 10 years I have been using gmail with Thomas.Traynor and ThomasTraynor without a problem.  If you check how they resolve names link here you can see how it is done.  I have received emails from others in the past who thought they were contacting another Thomas in Ireland, but, after I point out that I am in Canada they found the real email address of the other Thomas rather quickly.

For the last week my inbox has been flooded with on average a dozen emails a day from another Thomas Traynor who has set up accounts with various merchants for buying items online.  I have checked my credit card and there are no weird billings there.  I also checked online and it appears to be a legit mailing destination.  I have been contacting each online store explaining the issue and for them to stop sending emails to my email account.

Two of the emails from the online stores have received requests to change it to another account and part of the note stated that they 'lost' access to 'thomastraynor'.  Thing is that he never had access to that as I have always had that and used it.  Google is quite good when you create an account and won't let you use one that is in use so I am puzzled on how (or if) he got that email name.  I am very good about checking my email account names as I have five different alerts in Google set up to trigger on my name and various other names (online games) are mentioned and never has it shown up being used in the United Kingdom.

Update 2018-11-11

It has quieted down a lot for my email.  So far there is just one company that is still sending me emails for the person who tries to use my email address.  One of the emails had an 'unsubcribe' link which I used.  The other emails there is no such option.  I have had email conversations with them and they told me there is nothing they can do unless I provide the information used to create the account.  I pointed out I own the email address and didn't create that account so I cannot give them what they asked for.  They told me 'sorry nothing we can do' email back, well they will find out what is going to happen when I get the next one.  I have a bookmark for the OFCOM site in the UK and the Scottish privacy site.  I will be doing a mailing to them detailing the fact that the TSP (Telecom Service Provider) refuses to remove my email address and they are sending private and confidential information to a third party even after that fact was pointed out to them.

Update 2018-04-21

The last company finally stopped sending me the email.  I found the link to the ICO and sent them a note.  They replied back if I had copies of the emails for them to start their investigation.  The telco kept telling me there was nothing to do, but, after the ICO finished the ICO told them to stop sending me the mails as it was a privacy violation. So far after two weeks nothing hit my inbox so it may be good now.  The main thing is to keep trying and if they are a regulated industry to send a complaint to the regulator.


Monday, October 08, 2018

Two weeks and counting - we got lucky


Two weeks ago tornadoes touched down in the Ottawa area. A total of six touched down in the region. We were lucky in that the only thing was we lost hydro for over fifty-five hours, but, others were not as lucky and lost everything. We did lose the contents of the fridge and freezer as we couldn’t eat all we had fast enough, but, that is the only thing we lost.

Governments are asking us to be prepared for seventy-two hours and for the most part we were prepared for that other than fresh water. I have to find the other refillable jugs and have them in a spot that is easier for me to find. I always keep containers in the basement ready for using to flush the toilet, but, drinking water (which we didn’t need this time) was not ready.


What we had and worked:


Batteries – two dozen AA rechargeable and eight triple A rechargeable. We also had twelve disposable AA and the same number of AAA. The number was OK, but, I am in the process of adding more AAA batteries that are rechargeable. I am also looking at a solar charging system so that during the day I can recharge a few of the batteries. I am also looking at rechargeable D batteries as one of the LED lamps uses those and I had no rechargeables for that.

Radios – I have several battery (and solar) radios so we were good there. The solar ones are overdue to be replaced as the batteries are built-in and cannot be replaced.

Lights – We have a lot of battery powered lamps and the house has five lamps that are on a remote control or sensors that turn on with movement so we could light the way to the bathroom or bedroom and not run down the batteries. We also have a lot of solar lamps in the back yard that I turned off so that we could use them when needed, again, saving our batteries.

BBQ – We have a propane BBQ and were able to cook meals and prepare hot coffee. I had always kept a spare tank so when one ran out I could replace it and continue on. With the hydro outage it showed me that it worked, but, if we had an extended outage that measured in the days it may not be enough. I bought a third tank so that we should be able to handle a seven day outage and still have hot food three meals a day if needed.

Perishables - We always have enough canned and dried goods to last a minimum of one week.  We also have two manual can openers and several can punches.

Electronics – The first thing we did was to turn off EVERY tablet, laptop and phone to preserve power. I did that so I would have a large reserve of power to charge the cell phone for at least a week. I also turned off the power bars so that if there was a surge when hydro came back there would be a good chance the bars would also survive. When the hydro came back on we waited thirty minutes and slowly started turning on the power bars. TV was the first thing to go back on so we could get updates. Next up were the power bars for the phone, laptop and battery charges to get them topped up in case the power went out again.

Phone – This is the weak spot for all too many people. While I had an old school copper line phone too many people do not have that. The first thing we did when we lost power and knew it was a tornado I called a family member outside the area and let her know we were OK and to put up a note on social media that all was well for us, but, we didn’t have network. Others were not so lucky as the towers here were running for a while, but, on reduced power. They also were slowly dying as I suspect the batteries for those were not enough to run for days.


Medicines – We did good there. I always keeps our medicines in a box and that is always ready to pack up if we need to leave. All of our prescriptions are in electronic and hardcopy format so we know what we have.

Heat – We caught a break here that it was warm.

Auto - We normally keep the gas tank in the vehicle filled and try not to let it go below three quarter of a tank.

Things that needs to be improved.


Phones – This showed everyone that the cellular system is dependant on power and for extended power outages it will slowly die out and no one can be contacted. The CRTC needs to look at this and mandate an absolute minimum that ALL providers must have. The general public is asked to be prepared for seventy-two hours and that should be a minimum that telcos should live up to also. It may not be feasible for every tower to have that (to start with), but, review their tower coverage and then ensure that critical towers that can serve most of the area has enough backup power to operate. People also need to look hard at the fact that if they don’t have a copper wire telephone then they are dependant on their cell phones for long term outages and those phones may not be able to connect to the towers.

Perishables – We had enough canned and dried goods to last over a week, but, drinking water was not enough if we lost water. Time to find all of the small collapsible jugs and have them in an emergency.

Communications – With three radios we were able to have different channels for news updates. The problem is that most of the radio stations in the area were running normal operations and there was almost no information on what happened and what to do. Family outside the region had better information on what happened. It may be an inconvenience, but, the stations licenses need to be modified so that in the event of an emergency they should have broadcast regular updates so that the public affected is aware of what happened and what we need to do.

Heat – It was the summer so we didn’t need wood for the fireplace. We will need to buy wood so that we can have the fireplace with a small fire to keep the place warm.

Sunday, August 05, 2018

Android Google News update - Failure!

Google and their minions may think they know better than most of us, but, at times they do fail.  This failure in my less-than-humble opinion is the update to their 'Google News' app.  The version before was stable (never crashed for me) and allowed me to quickly and easily view news and update my selected sources for offline viewing.  I liked it as I could pull articles for reading on the bus to work.

The latest version isn't as friendly or works well.  It regularly crashes and at times several times in a row.  I had reported it each time, but, it feels they are going into a black hole as nothing has changed.  At times it stalls and gets application not responding, or, rarely it just shuts down.  I have just stopped telling them as I don't see any fixes when they do updates.  That may not be fair, but, it has been a couple of months and when I do feedback I point out the issues that are part of this blog.

The 'for you' and 'headlines' interface really needs to be looked at and fixed.  I am scrolling through the list of articles and it refreshes and takes me back up to the top.  If I am viewing the list it should just stop updates and use an indicator at the top flagging there are updates.  Tap the indicator and it updates the articles.  It is extremely annoying that I get pages down and it refreshes and when I scroll down to find that one article it isn't there any more.

The favourites section isn't all that bad, but, bad choices Google made for their interface on my sources makes it a pain to use.  The version before allowed me to refresh all of my sources I have flagged for downloading.  This one does not.  I don't know if it is supposed to automatically update, but, it does not.  If I don't go into each one and 'pull down' the list to for updating it won't download the articles.  It is a major pain each day as I have 25 sources for downloading.  I like being able to read articles offline on the bus and at work (we don't have public wi-fi where I work).  When they do fix this issue it would be nice if they allow us to pick the number of articles to be downloaded and the number of days.  Not all of us have unlimited internet and while I have a large data cap it would be nice to limit what this app downloads.

Visually it is nice, but, one more suggestion for Google.  How about allowing us to turn off images on the summary?  I am only interested in the text and if that interests me I will click on the article and then you can show me the pretty pictures.

Sunday, May 06, 2018

Looking for a new VPN for my various devices

For some time I have been making use of the Opera VPN software for my Android tablet and phone.  I liked it as it 'just worked' and didn't have a major impact on either device for performance.  However, it has been discontinued and I am now looking for a new VPN for my devices.

I don't use VPN very often, just when I am out and I need to quickly check my mail or do a quick web search.  The various malls I do go to have 'free' WIFI, but, I don't want them to harvest my information and I DON'T want anyone see my passwords for mail, web sites I log on to.  I prefer what I do and where I go is my business and no one else.

What am I looking for in a VPN:

  • Minimal impact on my Android devices.  I don't want something that is a battery hog or uses so much CPU that the machine isn't responsive.
  • Preferably open source.
  • Minimal cost.  Free would be nice as long as the ads are not obtrusive.
  • They don't record much information, preferably nothing about my connection.
  • Reasonable privacy policy.  Too many companies ask you to sign away absolutely everything in the quest to protect themselves no matter how badly they screw things up for you.  They also seem to want all of your information and be able to sell it to anyone.
  • It would be nice that there are Linux and Windows versions.  My netbook and notebook are Linux (I do have openvpn there) and while I don't travel with them often it would be nice to have a good VPN for them that is the same as my Android devices.  My one Windows box never travels with me, but, just in case it would also be nice to have the same VPN running on it.  I prefer just one package so that I know that I get consistent protection and not have to learn multiple packages.
I am not going to rush into getting a new VPN, but, I will take the time to search for my replacement as this isn't a high priority item.  So far a few sites that I will be reading and starting my search with are:

The above sites are only my starting point that I will be using.  Once I pick a few packages I will be downloading them and seeing how they run and the impact on my devices.

Update 2018/06/09:

I installed windscribe as it appears to be free, has a fair limit per month.  I don't need the fastest or most data as I only need it a few times a month.  It works well enough on the tablet and I couldn't tell it was running.

Saturday, March 31, 2018

Ontario elections web site & twitter

Earlier today I saw an ad for the Ontario Elections web site in Twitter.  Being paranoid I didn't click on the link and navigated to the site and started the process to verify that I am registered.  With all of the various groups who can make something like legit there was absolutely no way I would click on that link.

I found the site easily enough at www.elections.on.ca and I was happy to see the HTTPS, but, not all of the site was secure and I didn't get that nice little green lock icon.  When it navigated to the 'E-Registration' it did show the proper lock.  ALL the other pages after the main page showed the proper lock icon so there was something on the initial page that caused the issue.

Main Election Ontario page.

Start of the registration
Disclaimer page


When you click the 'Next' button it takes you to the check voter list page.

Check voter list

Once I filled in the information it presented me a page with my information.  I had an option to go back, confirm or update.

It is nice, fast and in 2 minutes I had confirmed my information and Jane's and we are good to vote in the June 7, 2018 Ontario provincial election.

Wednesday, March 28, 2018

Downloading my Twitter archive

With all of what is happening on Facebook and the privacy I was thinking about Twitter and getting a backup of what I can from that service.  I have downloaded my Google archives and Facebook and started to dig to see how to get Twitter.  It is fairly easy to find! 

I am doing this from my browser and not the app on my tablet or phone so it may be different there.  At the top right hand side this is your 'profile & setting' button to the left of the blue tweet button.  Towards the bottom there is a 'settings and privacy' option.  Once you select that you can scroll down until you see the button labelled 'Request your archive'.  Once you click on that it will pop up a screen that the request was received and you will receive an email with the link.  It will be interesting to see what is in that archive and also to have a backup of all of what I did there.

Main Twitter page where you start

Select Settings and Privacy

Popup when you request your archive

Sunday, March 25, 2018

What are they doing with our data?

With the 'breach' at Facebook they won't get my trust back again.  They can call it anything they want, but, from my point of view it is a 'breach'MY data was taken and used in ways I did not give MY permission for.  It isn't just Facebook, but, anyone who offers services over the internet that we need to be more aware of what they know about us and are willing to share to others.  It doesn't matter that it is 'free' like Facebook or a paid service we need to demand that they treat our personal information like crown jewels and do their best to make sure that it isn't taken without our knowledge and permission.

I don't know what they put into the document for data analysis by that 'researcher', but, here are a few things I can quickly think of for anyone who is thinking about people getting access to our data.


  • Where is the data stored?
  • What is the data you need, why do you need it, and, for how long will you require to keep the data for?
  • How is the machine secured both from a physical access point and software?
  • Does the system which holds the data accessible from your LAN and/or internet?
  • What software tools are being used for data storage and analysis and are they up-to-date for patching?
  • Has your hardware been patched for the latest identified vulnerabilities?
  • How did you test the security of your systems?
  • Who has access to the machine?
    • Do you limit access to 'need-to-know' and only the data required?
  • Do you limit how the data is moved off the system when 3rd parties have access?
    • If so, how?
    • What agreements do you have in place for 3rd party access and what do the agreements say?
  • If law enforcement or government request access to the data what is the process you follow to grant them access?  
    • Do you notify the original owner of the data for such data requests?
  • What is the process you follow when there is a network or physical breach of your system?
  • How are the backups done and secured and who has access to those backups?
  • When you are done with the analysis how is the data deleted?  
    • Does that include all backups?
  • How do you prove that the data was deleted and can never be recovered?
I understand that they need to make money, but, when the data leaves their control then anything can happen and they need to do a better job documenting what was requested, why it was requested, how it was secured and how it was deleted when done.  For myself I have downloaded my Facebook data to see what they have and I am now looking at other services that respect my privacy more.  It will be hard as Facebook has a massive population, but, other communities in the past have fallen (MySpace, AOL come to mind).

Sunday, March 18, 2018

Looking at one Linux Distro for home

At home we use Linux on almost all of our computers.  The only exception right now is one laptop with Windows 10 so I can run my tax software.  Each machine has its own Linux that best works for that device.  That is getting to be a bit of a pain as some packages are not available for some distros (like the Pale Moon browser).

My netbook (Acer Aspire One D255E) I bought years ago as there was a chance I would be traveling and I wanted a light weight computer that would allow me to quickly pick up email, browse, chat with family.  The machine originally had Windows 7 starter and that was quickly replaced with Linux Lubuntu.  I picked that as it was very light weight and quickly launched.  While Lubuntu is a great package there are things I couldn't do easily and I had to write bash scripts to do those tasks (like turn off the touch pad when logging in).  It also would not play one of the browser based games I play (Runescape) as the latest Firefox and Chrome disabled the ability to launch Java which is why I am using Pale Moon.  I normally don't play online with the machine (which is what I am composing this blog entry with), but, it is nice to have if I start to travel again.


My wife's laptop is running Netrunner as that worked on machine as other distros had problems with the video card or the wireless network card.  It is a great distro, and worked well on her machine.

We have a media tower in the living room hooked up so that we can stream shows, plug in USB sticks for picture shows and a quick way to browse the net without having to bring down one of the laptops.  It is running PCLinuxOS and that is also an excellent distro as just about everything is there (including Pale Moon).  It is also what I am running on my HP laptop and it just works and is not too bad on system resource usage.

I wanted to consolidate everything with PCLinux, but, when I tried it on the netbook it would either crash as start or run so slow it was almost useless.  Not a problem as I could always use Lubuntu if I could get PCLinuxOS to work on the wife's machine.  When I did the launch it would crash on the video card that the machine had and I was not willing to play around with settings to make it work in case my wife did something and break the setup.

Next up i tried Linux Mint on the netbook.  I figured if it worked well there it should work well on the other machines.  It did launch and worked very well.  It is a bit slower that Lubuntu, but, not enough to be a deal breaker.  It recognized everything and just worked.  I proceeded to make a complete backup of all my folders and then reimaged the machine with Mint.  A few obervations:
  • Pale moon isn't available, but, their web site does give instructions on how to download & install.  The only quirk I had was when I tried to install with my non-admin account it would accept the password for the admin account (more about that later).  I signed out and then launched the admin account and did the install there without an issue.
  • The first account you define when starting up is by default the ADMIN (root) account so be very aware of that.  That is what I had to log in as when doing the Pale moon installation from.
  • There are a lot of patches so when you launch for the first time do it from admin and get everything patched up.  Once you get that done define a regular account that you will use every day.
  • It is slower than Lubuntu so be patient at times.  When I log in there is about a 15-20 second wait from when I supply my userid and password and when the main screen shows unlike Lubuntu which takes a couple of seconds.  The same is true for logoff.
  • There is a setting for mouse where you can go to the touchpad and click the option to turn it off when it detects an external mouse.  This is much nicer than Lubuntu where I had a custom bash script written to toggle the mouse off.
  • The screen is smaller than a normal laptop and some of the screens do not fit and cannot be resized to fit.  I found a workaround by holding the [ALT] key and holding the left mouse button I can move the window around.
  • Most software you need is automatically installed.  The only thing was the browser I use and then the XSANE package for when I scan documents.  It does come with Scanlite that I may try later on.
Later on I will have to plug in the USB stick with Mint into my wife's machine and see how it all works.  I am hoping that it 'just works' and then I can image her machine to Mint.  I have already done a full backup of all her documents.

Last task will be later in the evening on the media box and re-image that machine to Mint.  I don't have to back up anything there as we don't save files, but, use the Internet for content.

End result is that I should be down to just two distros at most (PCLinuxOS and Mint).

Update 1:

Jane's machine has been updated to Mint.  I still have to finish configuration, but, the system boots up and her account is active.  Next up is to restore the backup of her documents, install Thunderbird for email and a number of games she likes to play.  The only machine left to convert is the media box as I think I will leave my main machine alone (PCLinuxOS).

Android and Facebook app

After a long wait Facebook has finally launched their lite version for Android.  The old app was not too bad, but, massive and slow.  On the tablet it wasn't all that bad, but, on my cell phone it slowed the device so much I logged out, purged the cache and stopped running.  I was running the messenger lite so I could chat with some people when I was away and had only my phone, but, Facebook itself I wouldn't launch.

I installed the lite app on both my tablet and phone and it appears to be running much faster.  The options I use are all there and whatever they took away I don't use and don't miss. The one thing it does is when you click on messages it goes to Messenger (or Messenger lite which I use) and not the internal version.  When it is installed on the phone you need to be patient for a minute as it appears to download some content and may generate a message that it crashed (it didn't).

On my tablet Facebook was using 295 megs of storage space and even when not running it used 38 megs of memory.  The Lite version uses 7.7 megs of storage and 4.3 megs of memory.  On the phone it shows using 6.5 megs of storage and 1.7 megs of memory.

One warning, when you search for 'Facebook lite' in the play store make sure the  author (below the software title) shows 'Facebook' so you get the legit version!

Facebook Lite in Play Store