Trying out Lubuntu 19.04

This isn't a full review of the distro, just a quick walk-through of a distro I was using  over a few years.  I moved off to AntiX last year as I wanted to cut back  the number of distros I was running at home to make it easier for me to manage my home network.  Lubuntu was OK, but, I was looking for a lighter and faster distro for my eight year old netbook and AntiX worked quite well.

With the latest one I wanted to see what it looked like and how it worked.  The installation went quite well using VirtualBox.  I tweaked the setup a  bit.  I changed from 1 gig to 4 gigs of memory (the netbook has two), 2 CPUs (matching the netbook) and the default screen from 800x600 (netbook) to 1360x768 (making it readable on my WIN10 machine).

The initial profile works quite well and is responsive on the machine as set up.  It feels snappy and doesn't use a lot of system resources. 

As you can see above in a shell and Htop it doesn't use a lot of memory when it starts up and I am fairly sure I can tweak the startup to use less by turning off processes I don't want or need.

One of the first tweaks I made is to change the double-click mouse to single-click.  I have been using that for years and that is what I am comfortable with.

Using the Muon package manager was quite easy and is close enough to working like Synaptic that I didn't notice a big difference.  The only difference is when you search.  In Synaptic you type in the word(s) and press [SEARCH] and in Muon it searches as you type.

I did a 'Check for Updates' after install and installed the few updated packages that were there.  The process was quick even in the VM and while it was doing that I launched Firefox and tweaked the settings there while the system updated.  The one package I hoped was there is PaleMoon.  I use that to play Runescape Old School on my other Linux boxes as it still supports the Java Plugin and Firefox doesn't.  Palemoon does have a Linux download option and that is something I need to explore later on and the JRE.  For that I will look at the netbook for the packages I have installed and mirror that setup in the VM.

My next step is to burn a USB stick with the distro and see how it launches and runs on the netbook and my main Linux box.  If that looks good I may convert the old media box from Vista (shudder) to Linux and the wife's laptop also.  AntiX is good, but, so far Lubuntu looks pretty good too.

Overall if you have an older machine this may be a distro to check out if you don't want to go to AntiX..

A mini-rant on the state of store web pages

Too many stores don't take time to build a web site that is user friendly.  They are probably going with the experts who say it is perfect, but, take it from me they are far from perfect.  There are a few that I have problems with and it is frustrating in the least when I am looking for products.

I check out the online sites to see what products are available, their specs, reviews and prices.  When I see something I am wanting to buy I prefer going to the store to check it out the product before I purchase.

A few not-so-humble suggestions for your online sites:

• Allow us to pick online only.  Many people do order online, but, for those of us who want to be able to go into the store and check out the product so we can make the final decision before buying give us the option of seeing only what is in the store.
• Same goes for your affiliates.  Again, if I am interested I will click on the box to show them.
• If the product is not available allow us select a check box so as NOT TO SEE them.  If they are not available, or sold out, then I don't want to see it.  This is the equivalent of empty shelves in the store.  If it isn't there then I am not interested in seeing a pretty picture. If not available, give an option quickly inform us how long it would take for it to be stocked locally.
• This is a biggie and too many sites do this.  Check boxes are only that, you click on them and there is a check mark or it is empty.  Clicking on it WILL NEVER initiate an update, that is completely against what click boxes are for.  Allow the user to select what they want to see and then have a 'REFRESH SELECTION' button to present the user what they want to see (example below).
• When I tell you NO on my location respect it! There is a site that every page I go to it asks me for my location and I keep telling it no.  The same goes for asking for my postal code and not allowing me to see anything until I do.  When I want to tell you my location (to see if stock is available locally) I will tell you and not until then.
• Keep the scripting and fancy images to a minimum.  Not everyone runs the latest hardware that can handle all of the scripting quickly.  I have a high end machine for development work and pages there renders quickly, however, I have a netbook that I also use for development work and the same page sometimes takes up to a minute to render and that is not acceptable.
• Test your pages for IE, Edge, Chrome and Firefox.  Too often I have to open up another browser so that your pages will properly render.  Again, follow the W3C standards for your pages and thoroughly test your pages.

For those thinking these are small business the answer to that is no.  These are large multi-national corporations who I would expect to be able to afford great web developers with the skills and knowledge to build sites that make it easy for customers to quickly find what they are looking for, confirm that the product is available locally. 

Check out the W3C site for web standards and how to develop a website that should work cross platform and with different browsers. 

It has been a while since I coded web pages, but, if I remember correctly you can use the following as an example of how to do check boxes.  Change the { and } to < and >.  I changed the values so that you can see the code and not the form.

{form}
{div}
   {input type="checkbox" id="In Store" name="instore" value="itisinstore"}
   {label for="In Store"}Show product that is in store?{/label}
   {input type="checkbox" id="Online Store" name="onlinestore" value="itisinonlinestore"}
   {label for="Online Store"}Show product that are in the online only store?{/label}
   {input type="checkbox" id="Out of Stock" name="outofstock" value="outofstock"}
   {label for="Out of Stock"}Show product that are temporarily out of stock?{/label}
{/div}
{div}
   {button type="submit"}Refresh your selection{/button}
{/div}
{/form}

Trying out Open Live Writer for my Blogger sites

I have been using Firefox for Blogger for my creating and editing various blog articles.  While it works I didn’t have any offline tools to compose my blogs unless I was using my Android tablet.  My Android tablet has an app that does the basic work quite well, but, I was looking for a similar tool for my Windows machine.  I am trying out a new package called Open Live Writer that may allow me to compose offline.  If you are familiar with Word or Libre Office you will be comfortable with the editor.  In Windows 10 this application is available in the app store just a click away.

The initial set up was a bit of work as I have multiple blogs, but, it took only about 15 minutes to download the various settings for all of my blogs.  As I go on I also have been adding automatic links.  This is a nice feature as I can use a word/phrase and the package will automatically insert the link the first time I use it in my blog.  The category option is very nice as it is a drop down list and I can click on the tags appropriate to the blog and quickly add new tags.

The tool is basic, but, it does what I need it to do.  There are a couple of things I would like to see in the future.

• Import of past postings so I can see and modify the post;
• Change the default font and size.

Software and Tools - Social

A large part of people being online is the various 'social' applications.  For myself the major ones I use is Twitter and Facebook.  There are others, but, the basics I will cover here should be applicable to the other sites/applications.  I use Twitter mainly to quickly comment and notify about various events and information that I find of use.  I have the account linked to my Facebook so that my friends and family can get the information at the same time.  I like Twitter as it is small enough for my low end smart phone to run without a problem.  Facebook to be blunt, is a pig on resources and when I did have it running on my phone it would take 5-10 seconds at times to do a simple action like posting an update.  Facebook runs well on my tablet and my laptop and that is the main way I socialize electronically with friends and family.  I use both to supplement my contacting friends and family and it does not replace face-2-face.  I like them both as I can quickly set up photo albums of events and quickly share them for those who could not make it to the event.

One of the first things you should do when joining is to read the terms and service.  I know they are extremely long, boring and full of legalese, but, you should be aware of the basics just-in-case there is a problem in the future.

Settings

Next up is to check the settings, especially the privacy settings to make sure you share only what you are comfortable with and turn off the rest.

Facebook Android Client Settings

Facebook Android Client Privacy Settings

Twitter Android Client Settings

Twitter Windows 10 Client Settings

Facebook Windows 10 Client Settings

As you can see above the applications have a similar look-and-feel and the web browser rendering looks very similar.  Take 15-30 minutes and navigate through the various settings and read up on what they do and then set your account to what you want people to know about you and the marketing firms gets to see.

Once you are set up then you can think about what to post.  What ever you post always assume that your employer can see all your postings so exercise some prudence on what you post!  You may have your account locked down so that only friends and family can see what you put up, but, if they re-post or share and they don't exercise good judgement on their privacy settings they can expose what you put up.  I have seen people put up photos of events that to put it kindly was less than a positive image they wanted to project socially and professionally.  When in doubt ask yourself - what would mom think if she sees it?

Security

On the security side of things be careful on what links you click, especially in Facebook.  I have noticed a large increase in what is claimed to be news (or at least what people want to you think is news), but, is at best clickbait or trolling and at worst a link to sites that may contain scripts that can infect your machine.  Best thing I can say is to exercise caution with links to news.  If the articles come from friends and family still exercise caution, but, if it is a promoted article then be very suspicious.  Most of the clickbait sites are there to make money by showing you a lot of ads and the content at best is misleading.  For the fake news sites they tend to show to people articles written in a way to inflame them (or troll them).  Personally when I get unsolicited 'ads' I click the drop down and pick the option telling Twitter/Facebook that they are not interesting.  Before I re-post a tweet or a Facebook news story I check out the article and review it.  If it is clickbait, inflammatory or misleading I just ignore it and not give them additional views by re-posting.

When I am done with my session in Twitter and/or Facebook I log out of the account.  It is a bit of a pain, but, if for some reason some gets access to my phone, tablet of PC they don't get easy access to my accounts.  When I leave the machine I also lock it!  It takes only a few seconds to unlock the machine and then log back in, but, if someone gets access to that device they can destroy my account and credibility in a few seconds.

Another thing I strongly recommend is a good anti-virus package.  It may not stop 100% of the nasty virus/Trojans out there, but, it is another layer of defense to make it harder to get access to your device.  You can read my short blog on this topic to give you an idea of what is out there.

Adding friends/family/businesses

One of the other things I am very careful of is adding people to Twitter or Facebook when I get a request.  It does not matter who it is doing the request!  All friends/family get vetted as to who they are before I add them.  I have received requests from people claiming to be a friend or family, but, when I check with the person directly I find out they didn't make the request.  When that happens I have the friend or family member report it to Twitter or Facebook and I do the same.  On Twitter I regularly get requests to add people and I  review them very carefully before I add them.  For a while the requests were from very questionable accounts and the content and images were not the type I wanted associated with my account.  In the past several months I think Twitter has gotten better nuking the accounts quickly as it is a very rare event when I get such a questionable request.  Every couple of weeks I review who I have linked to and those who link to me and verify that the accounts are still legit and the content is what I want associated with me.  I have found that some Twitter accounts looks legit for a month or two and then the true nature shows itself.

Images

On uploading images I try to be careful of what is uploaded, especially when someone tells me they don't want a particular photo posted.  I also resize the image to around 1024x768 or 2048x1536.  Not everyone has high speed internet and at those resolutions the image is still good enough and is small enough for them to download quickly.  I keep the originals on my machine so if they want the original image I can send them that when requested.

Backups:

Twitter does have the ability to backup your posts.  The link on how to do that is here.  Facebook has a similar facility and the link on how to do that is here.  I strongly recommend that you do this now and then.  If for any reason you lose access to your account you have a backup.  When you backup your accounts you may also want to think about how to backup your phone/tablet/PC at the same time.  Machines do fail and I remember a person calling me to see if I restore their hard drive.  They had thousands of images and a lot of the pictures of their children when they were small was on the failed drive and they had NO backups.  I couldn't restore a lot of images, but, I could restore several thousand images.  They now have an external USB drive they backup their files to on a semi-regular basis now.  External USB hard drives are fairly inexpensive and capacities are in the multi-terabyte range now. 

Software and Tools - Email

This is the fourth blog on various tools that I use.  Email is a personal preference for what works for you.  Most people I suspect are using Outlook as that is preferred corporate email client and it comes as part of Windows.  My personal preference is actually multiple clients.  My main one is Thunderbird.  It works well in Windows and Linux.  For my Android devices I have two.  GMAIL for Google email (backup client for my Android tablet) and mailbox provided by my ISP.  The last client I use is INBOX from Google.  INBOX is only for my main GMAIL account.  I like this client it as it stays out of my way and allows me to quickly organize and process my mail.

Thunderbird, like Outlook, allows you to create mail rules to categorize (or delete) your email based on rules.  Where I work they use Outlook and I have dozens of rules based on the sender.  The screen prints further in this blog shows the screen, but, at this time my Linux client doesn't have rules as the Windows machine is my main work machine for email (mail from the boss is highest priority and flagged to action immediately, projects go into their own folder).  It doesn't matter what client you use, rules allows you to order your work and focus on what is important.  

In Thunderbird I added an extension to link to my Google Calendar.  I find that handy as I can quickly add/change/delete events when something hits my inbox.  Outlook has that built in and it is a handy option no matter what client you use.

The one thing I never do is open attachments in emails when I don't know the sender.  Even when I know the sender I don't open it up (even in Linux) until I ask if they have sent that file.  My personal preference is to create a folder in my Google Drive, give them access and ask them to upload the file there.  I also have auto-load images in Thunderbird turned off.  Most of the times I don't need to see 'pretty' images and focus just on the text of the message.

The one last client I use is the Google web-mail client.  I like this tool as I can be anywhere and as long as I have access to the internet and a browser I can pick up my mail.

For me I have multiple personal email accounts.

• My main Google account (linked to this blog);
• A throwaway account I use for when I am not sure the site will not spam my main Google account.  When it gets too bad I just dump it and create a new throwaway account;
• A Yahoo account.  This is from many years ago when I didn't have Google mail.  I keep it as it is handy like my throwaway Google account;
• A Google account for my online gaming.  Some of the sites asks you to register your email account and excluding one game (Runescape) they all use this account;
• My ISP provides email accounts and I have one set up.  This is for notifications from the ISP and my family usually sends email to this one;

 A few suggestions for your email:

• If you are using the email from your ISP see if they have spam filters.  If they do, turn them on and use them.  It may not be perfect, but, I find that the one I use is over 99% accurate.  The few times it isn't I flag the email as legitimate and the next time it shows up in my inbox without a problem;
• If you have an anti-virus and it can integrate with your email client turn it on!  It is another level of defense and I don't see the impact to my client in Windows; 
• Make use of mail filters.  I use them to categorize my mail and it allows me to focus on what I deem to be important;
• Guard your email account.  Have a main one for friends and family and only a few others.  For everything else create a throwaway.  If the mail is important you can either forward it to your main email, or, have it as an additional account in your mail client (like Thunderbird does);

Other tools:

• For those who want to digitally sign your email or encrypt Thunderbird has a support page for this.  At this time I haven't added one; 

Screen Shots of my mail clients

Google Inbox for Android:

My main folder, I like it clean

Google Email for Android:

Main, again clean inbox

Thunderbird:

Mail

Calendar

Extensions

Mail filers

Rules for mail filters

Software and Tools - Antivirus

The next thing on the list of things to do is a good antivirus package after you install your favourite browser and before you start serious web surfing.  Again, this is a personal preference and it all depends on what you want, need and are willing to pay for.  There are those who say it is all snake oil and useless.  They are welcome to their opinion and in my not so humble opinion it is needed.  It is another level of defense for you that will stop the known nasty software out there.  Why make it easy for hackers to take over your system and use your bandwidth to take down sites, steal your identity?  Will it be 100% effective, maybe not, but if they want to get into my system they will need to work on it and not have an open door.

There are a number of sites that do reviews and I have a list five sites I know.  There are a lot more, but, I don't know them, their methodology and if they got paid to do the reviews. 

• AV Test org
• Consumer Affairs
• PC Advisor
• PC MAG 
• PC World

For myself I was looking for an package that works in

• Windows (I still have a machine left running Windows 10)
• Android for our tablets via the Google Play store.
• Android phone.  This is a low end model with limited resources.
• Linux.

I found one common package that works very well in Windows and Android, but, right now my distro does not offer the Linux version of that product.  It does not slow down my machines, especially the low end phone and did catch crap that tried to get installed when someone sent me an email.  Avast works well enough, has a free version that does most of what I want and need.  The version does show ads, but, they are small and unobtrusive for me and don't slow my systems down.  For Linux I am looking at ClamAV as that is available in the distro of Linux I am using.  UBUNTU community has a good small page of various packages you can check out.

The Android screens looks like the following:

The Windows screens looks like the following:

Please remember, just because you are running an antivirus program you can surf wherever you want, click on anything, install anything and open questionable emails.  Nothing is 100% and safe surfing and email practices are required.  Antivirus software just gives you another level of defense.  You also should be keeping your software up to date and making regular backups (a future blog).

Software and Tools - Browsers

This is the second in a group of blogs on software, tools and repositories.  One of the main tools I use and I suspect the majority of people is a web browser.  There are a number of great browsers out there and the one you use and like depends on your personal preferences (and biases).  For me since I run a Windows laptop (gaming), Android (tablets and phones) and Linux (laptops and netbook) I prefer Firefox and Chrome.  They run equally well on a cell phone right up to the laptop I am composing this blog on.  The Windows laptop (Windows 10) has Edge on, but I don't run it.  I may be biased, but, I don't trust the security on it and how much it is reporting back to MS about my searches and browsing habits.  I know Chrome and Firefox does do some reporting, but, so far they haven't abused my trust there.

This won't be all inclusive, but, a quick tour of my basic setup and hopefully will give you an idea of what they look like and a couple of things I added to assist me and secure my browsing.

If you use Windows click on Firefox if you want to go to the Mozilla site,  click on Chrome if you want to go to the Chrome site.  If you are using Android it is in the Play store and for just about every distribution of Linux it is part of the repositories that you can install (for me that is Synaptic).

For the rest of this blog the screen shots are from my Linux machine, but, Android and Windows have a similar layout and look-and-feel.  For all of the screenshots I used KSnapshot.  Gwenview is used for quick-and-dirty edits (like rotate, resize and rename).  Google Drive is used to store all of my blog images and the GRIVE tool syncs that up for me (with my writing a BASH script front-end, my previous BLOG on that).

Firefox

Once you install Firefox and launch it you will get a screen something like below.

It is a rather plain and simple screen.  This is my personal preference as I don't like or want a lot of clutter.  I have turned off the menu bar, bookmark toolbar and the status bar.

I did add a few extensions (from the Mozilla site) for the status bar and for shutting down those annoying ads.

My Plugins are default to my Linux distro.  When there are bug fixes I use Synaptic to update when they are available.  I still have Flash installed, as much as I hate it for the security holes I still need it for accessing corporate materials when I log into the company site.

To see preferences click on the icon at the top right (looks like a hamburger) and click on the preferences icon (looks like a cog).  You will see a number of options that you can click on and are presented with a variety of settings.  On content I turned off the option to play DRM protected content and to block pop-up windows.  I also changed the font to Arial as I find that easier on my eyes.

For privacy I turned it up to as high as I can go.  I know sites can still snoop, but, I want them to know if they want my information they should ask me first.

For security I also have that set to maximum.

For good measure I use  uBlock Origin to shut down as much of the annoying ads and tracking when I do surf.  I turn it off for sites that respect me and don't flood me with annoying ads.  To see what the dashboard looks like you will need to keep on reading as it is in the Chrome section.

To summarize my settings:

• Check to see if Firefox is my default browser;
• Show blank page at start;
• Search right now defaults to Google, I did disable Bing and Yahoo;
• Disable play DRM;
• Enable pop-up protection;
• Privacy tracking on for private windows;
• Never remember history;
• Security, Warn & block all turned on!
• Sync bookmarks, I have that turned on so it is easy to keep phone, tablet and laptops synced to the same set of bookmarks;
• Downloads, ask me where to save; 
• uBlock Origin, set up to hide as much crap as possible.  Good sites I open up;
• Advanced I left at their defaults. 

Chrome

My other browser is Chrome.  There are times that sites have problems with Firefox and I use that.  It is also set up to link to my personal Google calendar and to use Google Docs.  Part of the time I run it for Facebook to chat with family and post various updates and use Firefox for general web browsing and gaming (Runescape).   Like Firefox I have a minimal screen display, I really don't like clutter.

To go to your settings click the vertical ... on the top right side, then click on settings.

By default the advanced settings are not displayed, scroll down to the bottom and click on +Show advanced settings.  You can see your browsing history, Extensions and Settings.  For privacy you can click on content settings and it pops up a privacy setting screen.

For extensions it will show what you have installed.  At the bottom it has Get more extensions that takes you the Chrome Web Store.  I really suggest you use just that site as you know that Google has done some checks on the quality and security of the extensions.  I know nasty extensions can slip in, but, when found they get yanked PDQ.

Like in Firefox I use uBlock origin.  It is small, light and very configurable.  I used to use Ad-Block, but, when they went to white listing ad sites I dumped it.  I pick what ads are presented to me and I will retain full control of that.

To summarize my settings:

• Show blank page on startup;
• Google is the default search page;
• No 'Guest' browsing;
• Cookies, clears when I shut down Chrome and 3rd party is blocked;
• Let me choose when to run plug-in;
• Do not allow tracking;
• All other content settings at default;
• Downloads, ask me where to save;
• Cloud print is on, I use this only for stuff that isn't sensitive;
• uBlock Origin, set up to hide as much crap as possible.  Good sites I open up;

Summary

Hopefully this is of use and a good starting point for your using either Firefox or Chrome as your main browsers.

Possible ad-malware attempt

For the last several days my Android tablet was opening windows at random.  At first I thought it was me, but, yesterday the following happened and the tablet was sitting on the table untouched:

• Multiple search windows open;
• Over 12 tabs opened in the browser going to a number of sites with the same prefix.  I won't name it as I don't want them to get the ad revenue;
• My BANKING app was opened up.  I don't have auto-sign-in there so no damage done.  I checked the bank account from my Linux machine and no activity to my account (yay!);
• Multiple apps opened up.  Again these had ads so I suspect they were trying to maximize their ad revenues.  Either that or they wanted someone to pay a lot of ad money for spam clicks;

I know what the last app I installed so I suspected that app as they are ad supported.  After I removed the app and let the machine sit for 24 hours I had no more random windows opened so I may have guessed correctly.

I also run AVAST on the machine and I scanned everything and it was clean.  I know if it is very new the scanner may not detect it, but, I wanted to make as sure as possible I wasn't infected with a known virus.

I also sent Google a feedback that the app may have ad-malware and see if there is anything that they could see and do.  May not be much, but, at least I wanted to make them aware of the issue.

Web designers need to follow standards

Web designers need to learn web standards and design their pages to respect them.  Too often it appears the pages are designed for Windows and IE using cookie cutter templates.  The world has evolved and people are using Linux, OS/X, Android and other operating systems with different browsers and the pages work poorly if at all.

These are the web sites of major companies like Best Buy, Staples, Walmart and Canadian Tire.  They have the money to invest in a well designed site, but, many choices they made in their web design break expected functionality of various web elements or have serious errors in their JavaScript code.

Examples:

Check boxes

Just about all of the sites refresh the page when you click on a box even if you want to click several they force a refresh after each click.  Wait until the user picks all of the options and then have a refresh button when they are done.  Best Buy is the worst when I am looking for an item there are refreshes every time I select a box.  this is time consuming as something that takes me several minutes to do should take only seconds.  One other thought on this.  Every time you do a page refresh your server gets hammered multiple times along with the database.  That time used to service every little check box could be used servicing another client.  Throwing more hardware, software and communication pipes only serve to enrich the providers of the same.

Product availability

Best Buy I am looking at you here!  When I finally get through check box hell I see a lot of products are 'not available'.  If it isn't available then don't show it, or, have a checkbox for 'Available locally' or 'Can be shipped to your location'.  Also, allow a check box to remove 'ONLINE ONLY'.  When I am looking I want to know if it is in stock and I can go later to pick it up at the store.

 

Forced page refreshes

Canadian Tire I don't know if you are aware, but, when I select a product it refreshes itself about every 30 seconds and there is nothing I can do to stop that behaviour.  It is highly annoying as I am trying to read product information or reviews and after the refresh I am back up at the top of the page again. This was on my Windows box and Linux box using Firefox and Chrome.  I didn't try IE as that is Windows only.

Forced to provide a location

Look, I am just wanting to check out the product, features and reviews.  If I am interested then I will let you know roughly where I am.  There are sites that ask me to provide a location every time I change a page.  Ask once then remember my choice!

Auto-play videos

Come on, enough already.  I don't need loud commercials that I have to turn off (sometimes they can't be turned off).  I am paying for the bandwidth usage not you and sometimes I am on my tablet or cell phone and those ads brings them to their knees for minutes at a time while trying to play those videos.  If I am interested I will click on it.  Can't take the hint?  Well that is why I am running various blocking ad-ones in my browser and I suspect that is the reason why so many others do so too.  Sites that respect me I turn off the blockers.

Massive scripts

Now and then I look at the code for a given web page and over 80% of it is for scripts and images and very little is for text.  That is a massive overhead for stuff that most of the time isn't needed.  This takes time to download and storage on the servers. Have the developers review the code and if they don't understand what is being done then pull the code until they know what it does.

Review your page before releasing to the public 

Staples is at fault here.  To often the page has issues rendering (sometimes it is a blank page).  Sometimes it is IE that has issues others it is either Firefox or Chrome that have issues.  How about testing your pages before they are released in multiple operating systems and browsers.  Check for error messages!  I checked several times and I had page after page of errors in JavaScript.  Really? A client facing page and you have that many pages of errors?  

What I would like?

Well, how about learning what web standards are?  Learn some of the basics of HTML, forms and other design elements rather than letting the web page designer do the work.  The software may help, but, you really need to know the basics of good page design.  It is like giving a grade one student a calculator to help them learn math.  They may know enough to punch the buttons, but, they don't really learn how to do it and will never know if there is a mistake and if they don't have a calculator they can't do math.

Have ordinary people test out and review your site (or updates).  Ask them to do specific tasks and watch what they do and then ask them what they liked and disliked and what caused them problems.  To keep it real world make sure the machines are not the fastest up-to-date machines and have a slower network connection.  Use multiple operating systems, browsers and devices to make it more like how your customers access your web site.

Where you have feedback pages make sure that the feedback is reviewed and acted upon.  I don't know if senior management is even aware of what feedback is given, but, I suspect it may be just the positive feedback and most of the critical comments are not sent up the food chain.

Finally, KEEP IT SIMPLE.  You are trying to sell a product not fluff web pages.  All of the pretty images, sound, colours are a distraction most of the time and most consumers are tuning it out or using software to shut it down.  Make it 'How may I help you' and steer the consumer to your products, product information and reviews, pricing and availability.

Why do I use ad blockers?

In this blog I will try to explain why I am using ad blocking software.  To quickly summarize use ad blocking software for four simple reasons.

1. I have a bandwidth limit and when I exceed it I pay for every byte sent/received.
2. A number of devices I use are older and slower and most ads will bring them to a complete stop.
3. Ads have now been used to target us with malware.
4. Cookies and other tools are being used to peel back what little privacy we have on-line to track us everywhere and try to target us with 'relevant' ads based on where we go.

For a number of years I have been using ad block software.  Publishers for years also have been complaining that we are stealing.  Frankly that is BULLSHIT, publishers you have been hogging my bandwidth that I pay for when you spew ads at me and try to track every move I make on-line.  I monitored a few sites and 80% of what is sent to me are scripts and images for ads and tracking companies!  That is just the scripts, I wasn't even counting the images and flash pages they were sending.  Since I am the one paying for the bandwidth I want to make sure I get what I pay for.  For the good sites with ads that are tasteful, unobtrusive and doesn't suck up every spare CPU cycle I white-list and allow the ads.  The rest I give them a try now and then and if I find them to be resource hogs I black-list again.

Some will say it isn't that bad, well in my not so humble opinion it is.  I have a number of devices and for all of them I must use ad blocking software or when I go to a site in the browser a number of my devices will stop for minutes at a time while it is trying to render that page and serve ads.  The three devices where I must use ad blocking or they are almost unusable are:

1.  Huawei cell phone.  I use this now and then when i am out shopping.  While resting I may surf Twitter, Facebook and email if the mall has free WI-FI.  Now and then something may catch my eye on-line and I click the link to see more about it. Without ad blockers the browser will take minutes to render a page (looking at you CNN, ABC, CTV and CBC).  At times I just close the window due the scripts running if I don't use ad blockers.
2. Google Nexus 7 tablet.  This is now retired, but, I used it in a similar manner to my cell phone when traveling.  At home it was my main tool for using Twitter, Facebook, blogging and email.  Like the phone I am forced to use ad blockers or even that machine will slow down to a near stop.
3. Acer Aspire Net-book.  This is a more robust machine, albeit a low end laptop.  I upgraded the system to 2 gigs of memory, but, everything else is stock.  Before I moved to Linux I was running Windows 7 then Windows 10.  Like the two  devices before I do run ad blockers.  It isn't as bad as those devices, but, it would take up to a minute for some sites to render a page and I watched the CPU usage hit 100% (I like using GKRELLM to see what my system is doing).  I also modified my HOSTS file to kill a lot of ads and trackers.  

I have two more devices that are more modern and higher powered and even there I use ad blockers as even they have problems at times rendering pages with ads.

1. Samsung Galaxy Tab A.  An android device and works quite well.  Samsung's site is also up-front on their use of cookies!  The browser has an ad blocker.  I can't modify the HOST file as I have not rooted the device.
2. Dell Inspiron 15 7000 Series.  A high end laptop with Windows 10.  Even here I have to use a HOST file and ad blockers as some sites are so bloated they take up to 30 seconds to render.

Now I can hear web sites saying we need the ad revenue to stay in business.  Some have even gone as far as to run scripts to scan for ad blockers and then block their site until we turn off our blockers.  For those companies who actively block me when I run ad blockers I just go elsewhere and a good site gets my 'business' and you get absolutely $0.00 in ads from my visit.

1. When you use third party ad companies to present ads on your behalf you are trusting them to ensure their sites show us legit ads.  Well check out the links here and here for malware issues.  Why should I open up my machine to malware served by YOU?  You can claim that it is the ad company, but, you picked them, you trusted them, you are taking their money for presenting those ads and in my not so humble opinion the buck stops at your desk!
2. Your advertising partners are doing their best to track everything I read and where I go in order to 'serve' me more 'relevant' ads.  Relevant in whose opinion?  When I read an article on diabetes does not mean I want to get flooded with targeted ads on blood meters and related items.
3. I do unblock the good sites.  I understand their need to make money and the ads they serve are good and don't hog my bandwidth or system.  They also respect my privacy and try their best not to track my behavior.

The latest beef I have about ad blockers is that some of them are now white-listing sites and taking the choice out of my hands for what sites can present me ads.  Well that cost them a loyal user as I dropped them from EVERY browser in EVERY device in my house.  When it comes to ads and sites I am the final arbiter and no one else!

For users I have a few things for you to think about.

1. If you are technically inclined check out using a HOST file.  You can then pick the more annoying sites to block. 
2. Virus scanner software.  There are a lot of good ones and many are fairly inexpensive.  Personally I use AVAST as it is cross platform (Windows, Mac and Android), inexpensive, doesn't hog system resources and it just works.  
3. An up-to-date Browser.  This is important and the latest versions have bug fixes to minimize exploits.
4. Ad blocking software that allows you to white-list sites.  You can then tailor your blocking and allow sites that respects you to be able to serve ads and allow them to stay in business.  For me I like UBlock origin and Flashblock.  They work in Windows, Android and Linux for my Firefox browser.

An example white-list from UBlock origin (hmmm, seems like there is only one site there, probably because I don't want to advertise who I white-list).

White-list options, Slashdot is one of the GOOD sites I allow ads.  I hid the others.

Main machine upgraded to windows 10

After a few months of waiting and waiting for the bugs to show up & get fixed I finally upgraded my Dell laptop from Win8.1 to Win10.  Since Windows 8.0 is not being supported the writing is on the wall for Windows 8.1.  I figure this is a good time as the 'free' upgrade is still available and the initial bugs should have had a chance to get fixed.

Before I did the upgrade I did a full backup of every file I had on the laptop just-in-case.  The upgrade itself took about an hour and it looks good so far.  The upgrade preserved my settings, but, there are still a few tweaks to go for privacy.

One of the first things I did was to make Cortana an icon on my desktop bar at the bottom, I just don't want it hogging valuable real estate.  The second was to make Firefox the default browser as I never use IE (now Edge).  My anti-virus (Avast) still runs without issue and no glitches so far.

Over the next few days I will be stress testing the upgrade by playing my favorite on-line game (Old school Runescape), my office suite (LibreOffice), email (Thunderbird) and graphics (GIMP & Irfanview), scanner (older model Epson) and lastly my printers (wired laser & wi-fi inkjet).

Update 2016/02/13

True color doesn't work properly.  It is Windows 8.1 only.  First step is to turn autostart off, then true color off.  If you don't do it that way it can't be turned off at start-up.

Some tools for securing & cleaning your Windows machine

This is not a fancy or pretty article, but, functional.  The following are various tools I use to help secure and clean computers.  This is a list of links I keep on my Google Tablet for when I visit and I can quickly download and install software.  The Windows Defender offline I install on to two USB sticks (32 bit and 64 bit versions).  The rest of the utilities I download and then copy to a USB stick just in case the person does not have a working internet connection.

Autoruns for windows
Technet.Microsoft.com/en-ca/sysinternals

AVAST:

www.avast.com

CCLEANER:
www.piriform.com

Chrome (note this installs only and no download):
www.google.com/Chrome

chrome://extensions
chrome://plugins

Firefox:
www.mozilla.org

To reset all and lose everything:
about:support and click Reset Firefox

safe mode: firefox.exe -safe-mode

Malwarebytes:
www.malwarebytes.org

SlimWare Utilities:

www.slimwareutilities.com

SPYBOT Search and Destroy:
www.safer-networking.org/private

SUPERAntiSpyware:
superantispyware.com

Window defender offline
Windows.Microsoft.com/en-CA/what-is-windows-defender-offline

Cutting Cable and going web for TV

We have cut our cable TV as the prices our cable provider charges keep going up and the quality of what is available in my not-so-humble opinion is going down.  Our cable provider told us they are moving a number of channels to digital and if we want to get them we must rent a digital converter.  The problem is that most of the shows are repeats and in a 30 minute show there is about 10+ minutes of commercials.

I am now in the process of building and testing a Linux box that will replace what cable TV offered us.  I am finding a number of sites that offer streaming movies for free and they are legal!  When I was searching for sites I found a lot of them offering movies, but, seeing the titles I know that they were pirated and I will not support those sites.  I want to find sites that offer legit movies for preferably free (or if they are in Canada a minimal charge).  The sites I did find even offer children show shows so our grandkids will have educational shows when they visit us.

The money I am saving will be used to buy DVDs to build up our movie library.  The bonus is that we pick the day and time of movies and can pause them if we need to restock on munchies or take a break.

The only thing I have had to buy is a wireless network card ( a DLINK USB card).  On my first test using PCLINUX it detected the card, found our network and prompted me to enter our key in to allow access to the network. 

The next test is to move the machine down into the living room, hook it up and run the machine.  I haven't decided if we will be using Firefox or Chrome for the browser stuff, but, I am not picky there as they both worked well in the test.

It does not matter what O/S you use when it comes to malware

Now that the Apple people got a reality check on how secure their O/S really was when they got hit with flashback.  We all may want to think about securing our machines.  It does not matter what O/S you run, we call can have our machine taken over by malware.  A few things that we all should be doing to at least slow down and make the lives of malware authors a bit harder:

• Keep your machines up-to-date by applying patches when they are available.
• Never open attachments from people you don't know and be skeptical about attachments when you get one from someone you know and you didn't ask for that file.  
• Assume that senders are not as vigilant and check with them before opening.
• Assume that the from account name was forged.
• Never believe a popup window in your browser stating your software is out-of-date and install the update via that convenient link.
• Never believe those popups or messages while browsing that they scanned your system and you are (or could be) infected.  
• Never run an account with admin priviliges.  Create a simple user account that cannot add, change or delete programs.
• Do regular backups of your files.  External USB hard drives are inexpensive.  When you are done remove the backup and do not leave it connected all of the time to your machines.  If you do get malware at least you have a chance that the backup is still clean.
• Use a simple firewall on your computer at a minimum.  
• If your router has the option to enable a firewall then use that firewall too.
• Assume that your machine will get taken over and make plans on how you will rebuild your system and recover your documents.
• Install, use and keep up-to-date an anti-virus package and scan on a regular basis.  It really does not matter now what O/S you use, assume malware writers can take over your machine.
• If someone hands you a CD, DVD, USB Memory stick or USB drive scan it before doing anything else.  Never assume that the media is clean.

At home every machine is running A-V software (for windows I like AVG as it gives good protect, fast running and not a resource hog).

I assume that sooner or later one or more of my computers at home will get infected and I will have to wipe and rebuild the system(s).  I do run backups on all of the machines so while I may lose some recent documents or email it won't be a total loss.

PCLinuxos 2011 and Flash Crash

A while ago I upgraded Jane's machine to the latest version of PCLinux and then updated all of the software.  When she was surfing sites with Flash it would crash and nothing would work to enable flash.  I did the update to the latest version and it still didn't work.  I eventually found out that Firefox was pointing to the older version within the add-ons manager section (Tools, ad-ons, and then go to the plugin section).  After I disabled the older version of flash and restarted Firefox the Flash pages started to work.

PCLINUX OS 2010 - Beta 1

The new beta for PCLINUX OS 2010 is now out.  I downloaded the ISO image and burned a DVD (next time I will burn a CD so that all the machines at home can use it).  The prior versions had a problem with my Dell Inspiron 530 desktop, but, this time the machine booted up without a problem.  I am running off the live CD and it seems to be rock solid at this time even though it is a beta version. 

I launched Firefox and went over to Runescape to see how it works.  The Java runtime was not installed by default, but, after adding it via Synaptic the site loaded and I could run the game without a problem.  I have not really tried the HD mode as I don't know if the video card driver from ATI is loaded.  Using safe mode runs and I don't have any lagg issues. 

I will be trying this out for the week and if I don't encounter any problems I will be backing up the three desktops and install this.  I prefer using this distro as it is fairly solid and it is easier to support the machines with one distro rather than with the two I am running now (Mandriva is on the Dell as that works).

I launced the scanner software (XSANE) without any problems and it auto-detected the scanner.  I didn't load DIGIKAM, but, it is on the list of programs that can be installed.  Like all other distros it has a problem with my TV card, but, that is not a major issue for me as I very rarely watch TV while on the machine.

Updating my machine

For the last couple of months I have been looking at the various distros that are out there and how they work on my machine here.  The one I really wanted updated was PCLINUXOS so that all of the machines at home run with the same distro.  The 2009.2 version still won't boot on my machine so I had to look elsewhere.  My current distro was Mint 5.

Mandriva just came out with their latest and I downloaded and burned the ISO and gave it a shot.  It looks very nice visually and it detected most of my hardware without a problem.  The only two things were my palm pilot and the TV card which it didn't detect (like every other distro so far).  I then downloaded Mint 7 KDE and gave it a shot.  It was as visually appealing to me as Mandriva and had the same issues with the palm pilot and TV card.  The area it was ahead was that Java was installed automatically (I have to install that on Mandriva) and the ATI card driver was there for me.  I opted to keep with Mint so far and I upgraded to version 7.

One of the bonuses of this is now I have two more CDs that I can then pass out to friends and family when they have more problems with windows. 

It will take a bit of time to get used to KDE 4, but, so far it has not caused me any problems.  Firefox with Java still plays Runescape in HD mode without a problem.  Digikam works fine along with Thunderbird and XSANE.

When I get some time I will try to dig and see if I can get the palm pilot to work.  I thought I saw something about 'VISOR'.  If that doesn't work I really want to get my TV card to work.  I have a lot of home videos I would like to hook up to the input and make into MPG files and have them transferred to DVD for the family.

Update 2009/11/08:

I have moved off of Mint over to Mandriva.  I have been using Mint for a day and I have noticed a few things that make it a bit less usable for me.

1. Runescape log in flickers wildy and it cannot be stopped unless I take HD mode off.
2. The shutdown function at times (about 50%) does not work and the system locks.
3. I cannot access system services to manually define what I want to run.  This is a critical one for me as I want complete control over what is running.  Mandriva allows me to do this.

The first two items may be something that I did when I configured the system, but, so far Mandriva is not doing those things and I will use that for now.

In Mandriva it didn't auto-detect my printer (SAMSUNG ML-2010), but, after going to WWW.SAMSUNG.COM I found the driver, downloaded it and installed.  It wasn't as smooth as Mint, but, it worked and I now have a printer.

Linux and Runescape HD - Update

When I wrote about using HD in Runscape I didn't give you all of the software and hardware being used.

I am Running Linux Mint - Elyssa KDE Community Edition. I let the system figure out what ATI driver to install and configure. Firefox 3.0.13 and java 6 Update 14 (1.6.0_14_b08). The hardware is a Dell inspiron 530 with an ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT card. The monitor is an Acer AL1717. I applied all of the patches to keep the system up-to-date. So far I have not had any problems with running Runescape in HD mode and I can swap between my desktops and resize the Runescape session without causing any problems or crashes.

The only thing we cannot do now is play various games that are Windows specific and I hope it is only a matter of time before the gaming companies figure out that Linux is a more-than-viable environment for their games. I prefer running Linux as we don't have to worry about trojans and viruses like when we are using windows. Even if there is an exploit the community comes up with fixes/patches much faster than proprietary operating systems.

Linux and Runescape HD mode

I did a minor update this week for Java and the ATI driver to see if the HD mode in Linux works yet. To my surprise it did and it was very stable. I have been running this for the week and I have not had any problems yet. One more item that I can remove from the list that didn't work well (if at all). The only things now are my palm pilot and TV tuner to get working and everything that works in Vista will work in Linux. The other major item is income tax software that will run on Linux. Once I get all three items to work I can then think about removing Vista from my machine.

On a similar note I downloaded LinuxMint 7 KDE RC1 and I will be burning a CD and testing that out to see how it works. I also downloaded and burned PCLinuxOS 2009.2 and burned it on to a CD. I tested it out on my wife's machine and it looks good and solid. After backing up her machine I will be upgrading her and my daughter's machines. The distro still does not boot on my machine and I will need to take an inventory of the hardware and check out PCLinuxOS knowledge base to see why. I would prefer that all of our machines use one distro just to make it easier for me to support and keep up-to-date.

New Phishing scam - CRA

Earlier this week I got a mail from what purported to be the CRA (Canada Revenue Agency). Looking at the email I saw a grammar error and the way the email was addressed made it look like a scam. My ISP also flagged it as a possible scam. I didn't click on the attached link, but, put my mouse over it to see what the link would resolve to. The proper URL for the CRA is WWW.CRA-ARC.GC.CA. This one had that and a bit more, namely the URL went to a '.COM' site. As this was a new scam to me I forwarded the note to RECOL and reported it as a scam/phishing attempt.

It failed on a few areas:

• Subject was 'recalculation of you tax refund'. They used 'you' instead of 'your'
• It was addressed to 'Dear Applicant' rather than my proper name.
• The URL provided did not end in GC.CA, but, to a COM site which the Government of Canada does not use.
• I had already got my tax refund and I know that the CRA does not have my main email address for correspondence as I prefer hard-copy rather than email from them.
  

When I got home I opened the site using Linux as it was fairly safe from trojans and viruses. It asked the following questions:

• Name and Adress
  
• Date of Birth
  
• Mother's maiden name
• Phone number
• email address
  

One of the first things firefox did was to warn me that this was a site reported for web forgery. If you don't have firefox I would advise you to download and install this browser ASAP as it is a second level of defense.

Again, if you get an email that claims to be from the government, bank, insurance company or anyone else asking you to key in personal information do not ever use the attached URL, go to their site yourself (using a link you know is legit).