Paul's Tech Talk

Are you treating your passwords like Underwear?

PaulFebruary 22, 2020

I am perplexed

Saw this meme or poster that I found on Facebook has me thinking about password security. What is good way to tell people about Password security? Is it as simple as this poster says? We could use some really bad passwords over and over again! Let’s explore the really good questions of this. I’ll talk about what might be very well help with your password security. Although these are just a few that stick out in my mind but they do help create a strong password. I know I’ve talked about some of these in the past but sometimes it is good to talk about them again.

Password Manager

Now a days if you don’t have a good password manager than you are really not keeping your passwords safe. Like the poster says we usually write down our passwords on a piece of paper on the desk. Instead we should securely put them in a vault somewhere. Should we use something like Google to hold our passwords? That’s a good start. I’d be willing to bet they do a really good job of it. I personally love Lastpass and have used it for years and years. Even though there is a lot of balancing acts with a password manager and your lifestyle. It can be helpful to keep your passwords safe and away from prying eyes.

Keep away from easy passwords

Easy guessable passwords will make you loose your accounts quicker than anything. So keep away from those weak passwords and passwords that anyone can guess. I did talk about those in the past about the top ten passwords that people use and you can bet most hackers will use them to try to get into yours or other accounts. Using a good password manager plus letting them create a hard password is essential to keeping your accounts safe from hackers.

Two factor Authentication

I’ve always said having two factor authentication can also help you prevent your account from being hacked. It will prevent a hacker from getting instant access to your account and even warn you that you’ve been hacked. You can use something like YubiKey but since most of us have cell phones than I just use sms for verification. I’ve even recommend Google Authentication for this purpose. It is almost like a one time password and can save you money in the long run!

Don’t use same passwords

I have talked about this in the past also, but you should never use the same password twice on any of your really important websites like banking or electricity websites. You can keep up to date on if you need to change your passwords by checking Have I been pwned website and seeing if you might need to change your password. It’s never a bad idea to go and check every year to see if you need to change them.

If you are like me, you are constantly trying to keep your passwords safe and secure. Do you have any recommendations or suggestions. Why not leave a comment? I’d love for you to share and talk about how you keep yourself safe.

Windows 10 is the baby in the corner

PaulFebruary 19, 2020

Windows 10 is a child still

Microsoft has been making great strides with Windows 10, but even now they still need to improve. If you haven’t been paying attention lately. Some of the things that people are having issues are like not being able to shutdown due to permissions. That issue seems to be an issue with Adobe and not really a Microsoft issue, you have to update your Adobe Creative Cloud to the newest version to solve this issue.

Microsoft’s Update Bugs

The update KB4532693 has been making headway after this late update because it is reporting that users are seeing their desktop and files are missing but that isn’t really true. It seems this update was causing problems with removing the temporary user. If you are having issues like not finding your files or desktop. You should try to remove KB4532693 update and restart. If you do that you could very well see everything back to normal. Follow bleeping computers website and how to restore your data if this is has happened to you.

The other update in February seems to be KB4524244 which is also causing issues such as Freezes, boot problems, and installation issues. Microsoft has removed this update. It is an issue with UEFI and third party hardware. This update also breaks the push button reset or Reset this PC in which you will get an error “There is a problem resetting your PC”. To be able to reset your PC you will need to remove KB4524244 update and restart your PC. You can go to Bleeping Computers and follow their instructions on how to solve this but it is a simple fix!

Windows 10 needs to grow some more

This is why I have issues using Windows 10. I always encourage people to use Linux because I haven’t had any issues like I have seen with Microsoft. I am hopeful that Microsoft fixes some of these issues and begins growing Windows 10 into an adult operating system. If you would like to try Linux, I suggest trying these free Operating systems and finding one that is a good fit for you! What do you think about Windows 10? Do you use Linux? Why not leave a comment and tell me what you like to use.

3 Ways to save money for that plane ticket

PaulFebruary 18, 2020

Those Flights are expensive

I’ve flown international and I know how much it can be to buy those tickets to go see your other half. I’ve even talked about how to buy cheap tickets because you don’t have to buy the most expensive. If you have never bought a ticket to another place than you are missing out. People always ask about how to save money to be able to afford that plane ticket. I thought it was high time to discuss it. There are many ways to save money or even earn extra money to be able to afford to buy that one plane ticket, but I am going to talk about at least 3 ways that I have learned to do just that. Each way I am going to talk about is just my way of making or saving money to buy that ticket.

Change Jar!

You would be surprised how much you can save if you keep dropping money into a change jar each night. If you plan this just right you could save the money for the ticket for the following year. It can also be used to for the money you might need while you are there in the other country or place you are visiting. This can be used in conjunction of other ways to save money to buy that ticket.

Side Job or setup a business!

If you are like me, you are constantly trying to find ways to make money to go see your other half. I make it my point to use my business to make money. I work on computers on the side and have customers who need me from time to time and I use that money to buy my plane ticket. It can be kind of hard to find enough work or get enough money from your business but it will also be the easiest way to save even more money to be able to get that ticket.

Sell stuff or give plasma!

Unlike everything else this one seems more like a good way to earn more money for those tickets. I usually go give plasma to get paid by the process. You can sell stuff that you might have or know how to do it. Each way can also help to give you money and give you a chance to buy those tickets. You could sell muffins or other foods that you can easily cook to people who might be hungry. You may need to think outside the box but if you really think about it. You’d be able to make enough money to buy that ticket.

These are just a few ways that I do to be able to buy those tickets. Do you have a way that you use to make money for those causes? Why not leave a comment and tell me what you do to get money? Maybe you can help others by your comment.

Installing a Windows 10 in VirtualBox on Linux!

PaulFebruary 13, 2020

Windows 10

Sometimes I hate to admit this but I need Windows 10 to do stuff with. Like making a multiple bootable USB key or Something like that! If you are like me and need it for a certain app that isn’t available on Linux. This solution seems to work well. It also doesn’t hurt that Microsoft is giving away Free Windows 10 to people. I didn’t have to do anything but put my email address in the system and it activated without a problem. It could just be that I have been in the beta for Windows 10 and it is associated with my account. Either way its a win for me. I decided to install Windows 10 because Windows 7 end of life was January. I’ve never really liked Windows operating system so I tend to use it from time to time. You could possible make it a dual boot also where Windows 10 and Linux Mint boot separately. If that’s an option for you than it will be a whole lot faster.

Install VirtualBox on Linux

The first part of this post is how do you install Virtual Box on your Linux Mint Machine. This might seem hard to understand but once you do it a few times you will understand it.

sudo add-apt-repository “deb [arch=amd64] https://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian <mydist> contrib”

Now to install the right version of Virtual box you will need to know your distro of your Linux Mint. You can easily find that out by doing the “lsb_release -cs” command and it should say Tricia, Tina, Tessa, Tara, Sylvia, Sonya, or Serena”. You’ll put that instead of the <mydist> So like mine it would be:

sudo add-apt-repository “deb [arch=amd64] https://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian tricia contrib”

It would also be a good idea to know if you have a 32 bit or 64 bit system Linux System. You can find that out either through command line or desktop. The command line is “arch“. You might have to change the arch line to 32 but more than likely you are running a 64 bit system.

Now you need to Add the Keys to the repository and that command is easy.

wget -q https://www.virtualbox.org/download/oracle_vbox_2016.asc -O- | sudo apt-key add –
wget -q https://www.virtualbox.org/download/oracle_vbox.asc -O- | sudo apt-key add –

The last step is to install Virtual Box on your Linux Mint system.

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install virtualbox-6.1

A Good tip for those who might want to install an older version is to hit the tab button after you type the app you are wanting to install it will show you all available versions that you can install.

Installing Windows 10

You’ll need an ISO of windows 10. I got mine from Microsoft directly. You can download the ISO from them directly and get the latest version. Once you have the ISO, you’ll want to run Virtualbox and set it up. There are many Tutorials that will show you how to do that. This one was just install Virtualbox on Linux MInt.

5 ways to stream videos in a Long Distance Relationship

PaulFebruary 10, 2020

You want to watch videos or maybe even movies with your other half and you don’t know how. It can be very hard to watch a movie or show together. Most of the time it can be very difficult to schedule a time together to watch a movie or to video chat together. It’s important to do things together. Here are 5 Ways to watch videos together. In the coming months I’ll be talking about how to do it with more effort on one or both persons. Here though is the simple ways you can watch videos together.

Youtube

This is the easiest one of the ways you can watch videos. Most of the times you can find videos or movies that both of you can watch. Some videos will be harder to find or watch because of country restrictions. So you might have a hard time finding the right video to watch or can.

There are plenty of videos or movies that might be copyrighted that you can watch together. Although it will be taken down relatively quickly, so you might need to watch them as you find them just because you never know when it will be removed by Google.

Netflix

I like Netflix because you can watch movies around the world and maybe you can find one that both of you can watch together. There are shows or movies that one of you can’t watch based on where you live. So it might be a little bit difficult but there are good chance that you can find something or some stuff that you can watch simultaneously.

Sometimes you might have to share your account with the other depending on if she/he can afford to do this. You’ll need to know what you can and can’t do with your account and the TOS that Netflix makes clear. Just be weary of the consequences is all I can say!

Tubitv.com

TubiTv is great because it can be streamed on any device or region. The main problem with this service is that you will have advertisements and it might be a time difference in movies. I’ve not really tried this service but I have looked at it and thought to try it out. You don’t have to share your passwords or account because both of you can have your own account. Some of the content is sexual in nature and are rated R but you can both view it them at your discretion.

Twitch.tv

Twitch.tv is great for gamer’s and if you like to game together this is great way to watch videos together. I enjoy watching people play Minecraft and this just is kind of nice to see what people are playing. Some are playing Fortnight and other games that you can enjoy together. I know some of you are gamer, this is why i suggested this service. It depends on what you do with your other half.

This service can be used around the world so you don’t have to worry about regional selections.

Amazon Prime

Amazon Prime is something I like because you can use it around the world but again you have problems like Netflix where you will either have to pay for the service and give out your account information to the other person. I’m not sure about the TOS for Amazon Prime. So you will have to search thoroughly and see if it will work for you. The good news is that you if you are married or getting married you might not have to worry about the TOS. The Bad news is that you pay $12.99 per month or 119$ per Year in the US and it can be a different price in other regions. So it can be very expensive for some people who are struggling to pay bills.

Each one of these services might require you to sign up for their services or pay for their service. So there is that issue as well as what you might need to do to watch videos. This is however a common problem with streaming services and as such you will have to figure out which service is best for your situation.

Got a streaming service that works for you? Why not drop a comment and tell others? Please feel free to share this post and help others with their streaming problems.