YMUG Newsletter — for the 3rd of May, 2020 ACV (after Corona virus)
A collection of news and views, rants and raves, and some goofy stories compiled by Jerad Zimmermann, Esq.
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MACS, macOS, ETC
The Desktop & Documents option in iCloud Drive syncs your most important files to the cloud, making them available across all your Apple devices. But it can be tricky to wrap your head around exactly where it stores those files.
https://appletoolbox.com/does-my-mac-store-icloud-drive-desktop-documents-folders-locally/
How to setup & use iCloud Photos on a Mac.
https://osxdaily.com/2020/04/30/how-enable-icloud-photos-mac/
A bug has been discovered in Apple’s macOS Image Capture app that needlessly eats up potentially gigabytes of storage space when transferring photos from an iPhone or iPad to a Mac. I use Image Capture almost every day and have never had this problem. So, either I’m lucky, I’ve changed some setting or . . . I’m special. Actually, reading through the article I may have suffered from this problem but my low volume of photos may have masked the issue. I shall do some checking.
https://www.macrumors.com/2020/04/28/macos-image-capture-bug-eats-storage/
https://www.macrumors.com/2020/05/01/macos-jpg-truncation-bug-widespread/
How to view page source in Safari on a Mac.
https://osxdaily.com/2020/04/27/view-page-source-safari-mac/
How and why to use Mac Recovery Mode. Trust me, you will want to know this.
https://appleinsider.com/articles/20/04/28/how-to-use-mac-recovery-mode
Some advanced Mac users may have noticed that certain shell scripts with cron, cron jobs, and crontab are either not working at all, or not able to function properly in the newest versions of MacOS, notably Mojave 10.14, Catalina 10.15 and later. Depending on the situation, this may be accompanied by a permissions error, an operation not permitted error, or a script or cronjob may simply fail silently in the background. While there are numerous reasons a cronjob may fail, strict security measures in the latest MacOS releases may also be at fault and cause problems for some users.
https://osxdaily.com/2020/04/27/fix-cron-permissions-macos-full-disk-access/
For some years now, you’ve been able to activate services by right-clicking with the mouse. Service Station takes this idea and runs with it. Specifically, you can make a user-customisable contextual menu for each file type.
https://www.macsparky.com/blog/2020/4/service-station
Why did Apple switch back to its keyboard scissor mechanism in 2020?
https://www.appleworld.today/blog/2020/5/1/why-did-apple-switch-back-to-its-keyboard-scissor-mechanism-in-2020
How to buy a monitor in 2020, something I may be doing this year sometime. It’s a long story, don’t ask. Anyway, I’ll be saving this guide.
https://www.engadget.com/how-to-buy-a-monitor-143000069.html
How to check if someone is using your wifi. That is, someone you don’t want to be using your wifi.
https://www.techjunkie.com/check-someone-using-wifi/
Six lessons learned from dealing with an iMac’s dead SSD.
https://tidbits.com/2020/04/27/six-lessons-learned-from-dealing-with-an-imacs-dead-ssd/
PDFelement 7: The best PDF editor for Mac (according to AppleWorld) gets even better.
https://www.appleworld.today/blog/2020/4/28/pdfelement-7-the-best-pdf-editor-for-mac-gets-even-better
Google Meet, Google’s Zoom competitor, is now free for everyone.
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2020/04/google-meet-googles-third-video-chat-service-is-now-free-for-everyone/
A guide to working with Brother printers and your Mac.
https://www.techjunkie.com/brother-printers-compatible-mac/
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iOS, iPADS, iPHONES
Apple finally answered the call many users had asked for with the 2020 iPhone SE. While the device doesn’t come with a flashy new design, or a four-inch form factor, Apple’s budget-friendly offering is an absolute steal.
https://appleinsider.com/articles/20/04/28/despite-an-unassuming-nature-iphone-se-is-the-best-deal-in-tech
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2020/04/iphone-se-review-though-it-be-but-little-it-is-fierce/
Camera comparison: 2020 iPhone SE vs. iPhone 8 and iPhone 11 Pro.
https://www.macrumors.com/2020/04/28/iphone-se-camera-comparison/
iPad Pro diary: I’m keeping the Magic Keyboard for three simple reasons.
https://9to5mac.com/2020/04/29/keeping-the-magic-keyboard/
Which iPad should you buy? Hands-on with the iPad 7, iPad mini 5, iPad Air 3, and iPad Pro. Can I just say, that’s too many choices. But maybe I’m just jealous.
https://9to5mac.com/2020/04/28/which-ipad-should-you-buy-hands-on-with-the-ipad-7-ipad-mini-5-ipad-air-3-and-ipad-pro-2020/
The iPhone is so well-made, stable and reliable that it almost seems like it doesn’t need to be backed up. But you should, and here’s how to backup iPhone.
https://www.macobserver.com/tips/how-to/how-to-backup-iphone/
Why is my iPhone’s backup so large? Maybe you’re just special? Or maybe . . .
https://www.techjunkie.com/tell-why-backup-large-iphone/
Just when you think you’ve seen everything: an eight-year-old has discovered a way to watch YouTube past Apple’s Screen Time limits by using the iMessage App Store.
https://www.inputmag.com/tech/eight-year-old-discovers-screen-time-workaround-to-watch-more-youtube
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EVERYTHING ELSE
It’s about time. After months of leaks and rumours, Intel has pulled back the curtain on its 10th generation “S-series” desktop chips, with the Core i9-10900K leading the pack. For around $500, you’ll get a 10-core processor that can reach up to 5.3GHz, with a base speed of 3.7GHz.
https://www.macrumors.com/2020/04/30/intel-comet-lake-desktop/
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2020/05/intels-comet-lake-desktop-cpus-are-here/
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CORONA VIRUS STUFF — skip if you’re fed up with hearing about this (anyone missing Brexit?)
Apple and Google developed their upcoming COVID-19 contact tracing tool in record time, according to a new report from CNBC that details how the two companies came together to create the API.
https://www.macrumors.com/2020/04/28/apple-google-contact-tracing-api-development/
The National Health Service says it will utilize its own centralised contract-tracing system, rather than deploying the exposure notification technology being developed by Apple and Google. Let’s hope it doesn’t take a couple of years to roll out.
https://www.macrumors.com/2020/04/27/uk-pursues-centralized-coronavirus-tracking-app/
https://www.macobserver.com/news/uk-centralized-contact-tracing/
https://9to5mac.com/2020/04/28/apple-api/
https://www.macobserver.com/news/uk-coronavirus-testing-app-could-be-rolled-out-in-two-three-weeks/
Australia rolls out COVID-19 tracking app with privacy concerns. Germany, meanwhile, is switching to a more private option.
https://www.engadget.com/australia-covid-19-contact-tracing-app-183203946.html?guccounter=1
Germany has changed its stance on Apple and Google’s work to create a contact tracing system for tracking and managing the spread of COVID-19, supporting a privacy-forward decentralised approach instead of using a centralised system.
https://www.macrumors.com/2020/04/27/germany-flips-to-apple-google-contact-tracing/
French telecom company Orange says that it is still in discussions with Apple over allowing its COVID-19 contact tracing app greater access to iOS core features, potentially risking users’ privacy.
https://appleinsider.com/articles/20/04/30/french-carrier-pressing-apple-to-loosen-privacy-protections-for-covid-app
Why is video conferencing so exhausting? Zoom fatigue is a real thing. So it’s good I’m not doing it!!
https://www.engadget.com/online-conferencing-video-chat-fatigue-172357939.html
Students taking examinations during the coronavirus lockdown say they are being subjected to remote proctoring via their webcams, and it’s creeping them out!
https://9to5mac.com/2020/04/29/remote-proctoring-of-exams/
Boost your brainpower in lockdown. One tip: play video games. I got this!!
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/cdbtKdCnNWS5QDfzqTbD6m/boost-your-brainpower-in-lockdown
Frontline health workers in the UK are being given free access to video games by some of the biggest companies in the gaming industry, as a thank you for their efforts during the COVID-19 pandemic. The initiative, Games for Carers, has been backed by the likes of EA, Sega, Xbox and Konami, and will see more than 85,000 games across a range of genres, ratings and platforms available to download for free.
https://www.engadget.com/nhs-staff-in-the-uk-have-been-given-free-access-to-85000-games-140052476.html
Or . . . Trapped indoors? Brain turning to mush? Can’t bear to watch another minute of TV? We’ve got a few suggestions: modern board games well-suited to the most common quarantine scenarios of solo play, two-person gaming, and family time. Save the meetups and conventions for when the world gets back to normal; for now, play with the ones you’re locked up with.
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2020/04/the-best-board-games-to-play-with-your-quarantined-housemates/
With most contact-heavy personal services shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s been hard to get a haircut. But if you live in New Hampshire, don’t you dare cut your own hair: that’s a criminal offense punishable by up to a year in prison. It’s similarly illegal to give someone else, even a family member, a shave. Why? Last year, the state’s Office of Professional Licensure raked in $13.2 million in licensing fees, and most licenses are available only after taking hundreds of hours of classes and a written examination; legislators wanted violations in licensing laws to be punished by much more than a slap on the hand. (RC/Manchester Union-Leader)
“I felt like something needed to be done because they’re moving very quickly to open beaches prematurely,” says Daniel Uhlfelder, an attorney in Santa Rosa Beach, Fla., who worries that the lack of social distancing by beachgoers will spread COVID-19. His plan: dress up as the Grim Reaper and show up at open beaches around the state. To support his “Florida Grim Reaper Tour,” Uhlfelder is asking for donations — to the political campaigns of candidates running against incumbents like Gov. Ron DeSantis and U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz, both Republicans. A woman told Uhlfelder he was “scaring people,” and he’s fine with that. “If people are scared,” he said, “then they’ll leave.” (RC/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
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THE MODERN WORLD AND ‘YOUR’ DATA
Ransomware has emerged as one of the top threats facing large organisations over the past few years, with researchers reporting a more than a fourfold increase in detections last year. A recent infection by a fairly new strain called LockBit explains why: after it ransacked one company’s poorly secured network in a matter of hours, leaders had no viable choice other than to pay the ransom.
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2020/05/lockbit-the-new-ransomware-for-hire-a-sad-and-cautionary-tale/
A narrowly divided US Supreme Court on Monday upheld the right to freely share the official law code of Georgia. The state claimed to own the copyright for the Official Code of Georgia Annotated and sued a nonprofit called Public.Resource.Org for publishing it online. Monday’s ruling is not only a victory for the open-government group, it’s an important precedent that will help secure the right to publish other legally significant public documents.
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2020/04/supreme-court-rules-georgia-cant-put-the-law-behind-a-paywall/
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TODAY IN HISTORY
May 3rd is the 124th day of this leap year and is also international Sun Day and World Press Freedom Day.
Happy Birthday to: Margaret of York (b 1446, d 1503); Golda Meir, Ukrainian-Israeli educator and politician, 4th Prime Minister of Israel (b 1898, d 1978); Bing Crosby, American singer and actor (b 1903, d 1977); Mary Astor, American actress (b 1906, d 1987); Pete Seeger, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and activist (b 1919, d 2014); Sugar Ray Robinson, American boxer (b 1921, d 1989); James Brown, American singer-songwriter, producer, and actor (b 1933, d 2006); Steven Weinberg, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b 1933); Henry Cooper, English boxer and sportscaster (b 1934, d 2011); Frankie Valli, American singer and actor (b 1934); Napoleon XIV, American singer, songwriter and record producer (b 1938); Doug Henning, Canadian magician (b 1947, d 2000); Liam Donaldson, English physician and academic (b 1949); Mary Hopkin, Welsh singer-songwriter (b 1950); Christopher Cross, American singer-songwriter and producer (b 1951); Sandi Toksvig, Danish-English comedian, author, and radio host (b 1958); Ben Elton, English actor, director, and screenwriter (b 1959).
Rest in peace these folks who died on the 3rd of May: Robert Alda, American actor (b 1914, d 1986); Christine Jorgensen, American trans woman (b 1926, d 1989); Jerzy Kosiński, Polish-American novelist and screenwriter (b 1933, d 1991); George Murphy, American actor, dancer, and politician (b 1902, d 1992); Barbara Castle, Baroness Castle of Blackburn, English politician, First Secretary of State (b 1910, d 2002); Wally Schirra, American captain, pilot, and astronaut (b 1923, d 2007); Jackie Cooper, American actor, television director, producer and executive (b 1922, d 2011).
Some notable historic events that took place on May 3rd: Washington, D.C. is incorporated as a city after Congress abolishes the Board of Commissioners, the District’s founding government. The “City of Washington” is given a mayor-council form of government (1802); The Canterbury and Whitstable Railway is opened; it is the first steam-hauled passenger railway to issue season tickets and include a tunnel (1830); The Government of Ireland Act 1920 is passed, dividing Ireland into Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland (1921); The U.S. Supreme Court rules in Shelley v. Kraemer that covenants prohibiting the sale of real estate to blacks and other minorities are legally unenforceable (1948); London’s Royal Festival Hall opens with the Festival of Britain (1951); The Off-Broadway musical comedy The Fantasticks opens in New York City’s Greenwich Village, eventually becoming the longest-running musical of all time (1960); The 108-story Sears Tower in Chicago is topped out at 1,451 feet as the world’s tallest building (1973); The first unsolicited bulk commercial email (which would later become known as “spam”) is sent by a Digital Equipment Corporation marketing representative to every ARPANET address on the west coast of the United States (1978); The sport of geocaching begins, with the first cache placed and the coordinates from a GPS posted on Usenet (2000); The 3-year-old British girl Madeleine McCann disappears in Praia da Luz, Portugal, starting “the most heavily reported missing-person case in modern history” (2007).
April 29, 2010: Steve Jobs pens “Thoughts on Flash,” an open letter to explain why, basically, Adobe Flash kind of sucks. The letter marks the beginning of the end for the once-omnipresent plugin that powered internet browsers for years.
https://www.cultofmac.com/706105/today-in-apple-history-steve-jobs-trashes-flash-in-devastatingly-blunt-open-letter/
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WWW = WEIRD, WONDERFUL AND WHY
You can’t visit museums in person during pandemic lockdowns, but you might not have to for one of the most prestigious institutions. The British Museum has made (via Motherboard) images of more than half its collection (4.5 million objects) available online, with 1.9 million images available through a Creative Commons 4.0 license.
https://www.engadget.com/british-museum-free-artifiact-images-023917176.html
Want your flowers to glow? If you’re OK with GMOs, that’s now an option. I would so do this.
https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/04/want-your-flowers-to-glow-if-youre-ok-with-gmos-its-now-an-option/
Her dance moves are red hot, her style is sizzling. But always one to fan the flames of pop culture, Britney Spears has announced that she accidentally burned down her home gym.
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/04/30/celebrities/britney-spears-home-gym-burned-intl-scli/index.html
People say this wax museum is the worst in the world and here are 19 pictures to prove it. It’s in Great Yarmouth by the way in case you’re looking for something to do.
https://www.boredpanda.com/world-worst-wax-museum-great-yarmouth/
Build one of humanity’s greatest achievements at home with the new International Space Station LEGO set!
https://www.geeksaresexy.net/2020/04/28/build-your-own-international-space-station-at-home-with-legos-wonderful-iss-set/
Kent R.E. Whitney, 38, the pastor of the “Church for the Healthy Self,” which he started in a strip mall in Westminster, Calif., loved to tell parishioners about the church’s “investment arm,” the CHS Trust. In an era of low interest rates, Whitney “guaranteed” at least 12 percent returns, with no risk due to federal insurance. The U.S. Attorney’s Office says it was a classic Ponzi scheme, and Whitney had defrauded his mostly Vietnamese parishioners of at least $33 million. Whitney, who claimed an income of just $17,539 on his 2018 tax return, sports Rolex watches, drives a Bentley, wears Gucci, owns multiple guns, and rents “various” properties in Newport Beach. David Lee Parrish, 47, was the “co-pastor” for the church, the feds say — and had also assisted in Whitney’s previous $96 million fraud: Whitney was only out of prison for two months when he became an “ordained minister” online, and started the “church” a month later. He and Parrish continued to solicit investors even after a court ordered the CHS bank accounts seized; they were down to $4.4 milion. (RC/Orange County Register)
A postman in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, was caught up short by a large envelope marked “vital survival stuff”: the parcel from Sweden was addressed simply to “David Easson, Somewhere in Sheffield England”. Sheffield has about 600,000 residents, so it took the postie, Darrell Gilmour, a “great bit of detective work” to get it to the correct recipient, said the correct recipient, a freelance radio sports reporter. Marten Wedebrand is a listener, Easson said, who “put a rather garbled CV of mine on an envelope” — details he remembered Easson had said on the air, such as “I think his wife’s name is Helen,” and “they have a child, or a dog, or both.” The contents: six packs of Kvikk Lunsj, a popular chocolate treat similar to a Kit Kat, which was invented in North Yorkshire. Easson said it was an awful lot of fuss, considering Wedebrand “really could’ve just asked for my address.” (RC/BBC)
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ABOUT YMUG
Chief Bottle Washer and television reviewer — Tony Crockford: support@ymug.org
Head of Department of Redundancy Department — Chris Brady: ymug@csjbrady.org.uk
with help from: Anzir Boodoo and Tim Pinder.
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Items for the newsletter . . . reviews, rants, raves, revelations and reflections to: Jerad Zimmermann, your participatory social mores editor: news@ymug.org
Thanks to Ian Thomas, Martin Pickering and Brendan Rowland who send me items of interest.
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SPECIAL PRICING FOR MUG MEMBERS
I’ve put the list of discounts up on the intertubes: The Take Control books are always available to MUG members for 30% off by the way.
(The page below is password protected which I can provide upon request. And don’t give the link to non-YMUG members or some of the publishers will get ever so cross about it.)
https://ymug.org/software_discounts
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