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Monday, 10 July 2023
Threads Timeline Control Tips!!! From a proud no-influencer!!
Monday, 7 November 2022
Yes Another Twitter vs Mastodon Blog
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Thursday, 3 January 2019
Force iCloud for Windows to Sync
Just a quick tip: If you are waiting for minutes and minutes for iCloud to sync your files on your (Window) PC. here is a simple trick to get it to go straight away. Three finger salute your PC (i.e., control-alt-delete simultaneously. Then go to the task manager. Select and "terminate" both the iCLoud tasks.
Then re-launch iCloud. Bob's your uncle. Always works for me!!
Could find nothing about this on Google.
Then re-launch iCloud. Bob's your uncle. Always works for me!!
Could find nothing about this on Google.
Wednesday, 22 July 2015
The Physiological Society Benevolent (Financial Hardship) Fund
This not a blog... just a plug for the Physiological Society's hardship fund called the Benevolent Fund (or BenFund for short). If you have an extreme financial crisis and work or study in a Physiology type of discipline, it might be worth checking it out. I am now the Chair.
The link is here
The link is here
Saturday, 6 September 2014
How to back-up your photo albums from your iPhone etc...
It seems the whole world and her brother wants to back-up photos from their iPhone or other Apple IOS device and retain that directory/folder/album structure and yet this is impossible using the standard operating system. This is probably an over long set of instructions, because I have a simple $3 solution below (spoiler: "Photo Transfer App"), but i want to rage against the machine a little first.
Why is this apparently simple task even a problem?
Well you need to be neutral to get this. "Neutral"? Well most people seem to hate Microsoft, they frequently idolise Apple and refuse to accept any short comings. The truth is that Google, Microsoft and Apple are all corporate monsters who provide pretty decent products and services, but always, of course, are seeking to get some tactical advantage over us, the enemy AKA "consumers".
Google want to collect up every last drop of data they can about you; in case they can find a use for it. Microsoft upgrade routinely to force the whole world to purchase their latest software (see here)... Apple... they lock down their software so you are always going to be short of disk space eventually (it keeps viruses down too mind you). You'll love the Apple product, but you are not going to prolong its life with a simple home upgrade.
So here is why Apple do not let you simply drag an album off your phone onto your PC or Mac. Because you could get by with an 8GB iPhone, keep copying the albums into a neat directory system on your PC and deleting them off the camera. The system Apple require us to use means that if you try to permanently retain that organised set of albums you have on your iPhone you will soon run out of space. If you sync it in their iCloud that will need you to keep upping your subscription to accommodate it. They are not so daft. Of course they will give you masses of database blaa blaa blaa on why they do it, but really... they want to fill up your device so you have to buy a bigger one with more memory.
The solution.
Well there are various ways of exporting your whole photo collection to a desktop, if you have a Mac its easy. You just use the Image Capture or iPhoto apps shipped with your new iMac. You find the device easily enough within those apps and then drag them across. ...but you loose the album structure completely. Now if you are a selfie type and have a couple of hundred photos of yourself in various settings then its really no problem, but I have thousands of images, collected from conferences (is that illegal?) and photoshoots where I copied photos from a proper camera to my iPad in the field. They are stored on the iPad by date, by location and by session and all sorts. Drag them to a PC with Image Capture, iPhoto or iTunes and that is all gone. I recommend everyone switches off the Photostream (iPhone settings) it is just a pain and unless you take only a few photos it is no long term help at all.
So I have tried several other "apps" that claim to solve the problem. Can't remember them all, but "Album transfer" etc. etc (OK I only tried 5 apps I think).
...then I found "Photo Transfer App". It costs about $2 or $3 and you need to install it on everything (you just pay once).
(1) So install it on the iMac, iPhone, iPad etc.
(2) Launch it on your device to back-up (e.g., iPhone)
(3) Launch it on your iMac (in my case, but I'm sure there is a "client" for windows too).
(4) Discover the device by clicking the button... and you need to unlock (if you use a passcode on your phone) and hit "trust" or something like that on the iPhone.
(5) Now the secret is to spot the "backup Album" option.
(6) Select the albums you want to backup and off you go.
A couple of caveats:
(a) It hangs occasionally, but if it restarts and can be made to pick up from where it left off.
(b) You will get multiple copies of your photos. I am going to investigate a work around for this, but it would seem that on my iPad some photos appear in multiple albums AND the "camera roll", therefore you will be backing up far more data than you need!! I am sure I'll find a way around this, but not yet!
[Addendum; I am not bothering with this now, but instead using the Mac program PhotoSweeper to delete the duplicates post-hoc; yes it costs approximately $10, but there are free versions available. I have tested this version and it works really well, I ignored all the iPhoto wizardry and simply ran it on my pictures folder].
[Addendum; I am not bothering with this now, but instead using the Mac program PhotoSweeper to delete the duplicates post-hoc; yes it costs approximately $10, but there are free versions available. I have tested this version and it works really well, I ignored all the iPhoto wizardry and simply ran it on my pictures folder].
(c) For me the default locations on an iMac are always rubbish, but if you set it in the Photo Transfer app, you need to do this each session. Safer to just create a Finder shortcut to the default location!! ...you are going to back it up properly onto another storage device anyway right?
Actually, having written this, a nice worked example is given here... with pictures ;-)
Wednesday, 27 February 2013
Twitter Hacking
Twitter Hacking is is becoming an increasing problem. People are being hacked left right and centre. It looks like all of us are going to be done at some stage!
Be very cautious of opening a link with in a Direct Message (DM) even if you think it is from someone you know. It will probably be a trick. I would say have had about 75 "people send me direct messages" about 50 of these are clearly fake hacking attempts of some sort. Some of these "people" have sent 5 or 6 of these hacking messages each. So you have some idea of the scale of the problem. If you think a friend has sent you a link via a DM, get them to re-post it publicly or email it to you!
DM are deadly.
...BUT more commonly now, you can get equally pervasive regular Tweets. We had an out break ourselves and it was simply created by someone clicking on the link within a Tweet (that looked genuine and came, allegedly from a friend).
So in reality these messages are not sent by a Tweep who has turned rogue, but by a "virus" (technically "malware") which has hacked into someone's account and seized control of it.
Never open a message/link that that says:
"Bet you didn't know they were filming you, lol xxxx"
"Hey, this person...."
"What are you doing in this video.... Link"
"When exactly lol ....link"
The latest is: "Have you seen this pic... Link"
(If you have Twitter set up correctly, and it is a "picture" you should just see it anyway).
How do you get Hacked?
So how was it done, and what can you do about it?
(1) If you follow one of these links on Twitter on a PC in a browser... that's it they got you!
(2) If you go to certain malware containing websites whilst you are still logged in to Twitter. Note; even though you have closed the browser unless you specifically logged out you are vulnerable.
(3) Your password may have been stolen, even because you were tricked or because Twitter itself was hacked. Twitter was hacked a while ago and millions of passwords stolen!!
(4) The more complex one. Many people, like myself, do not use Twitter's own apps or website to Tweet. We use "3rd party" applications which actually (usually) work better and include more functions.
So, Twitter do not allow just anyone to write a program to deal with followers and stuff... the "license" companies and we users have to also specifically grant applications permission to work Twitter for us. Sometimes, apparently, although I have not seen it first hand, these applications go rogue. They have presumably been hacked themselves! This "hack" will survive you changing your password! Note that changing your Twitter password does not affect many Twitter applications. If you have granted they seem to retain it even if you change password and don't tell the application!
You have to revoke access and then re authorize it!
What to do about it if you receive spam/phishing/hacking Tweets and direct messages from someone?
(1) Don't follow the link.
(2) Be nice, don't get cross... it's really not their fault.
(3) LET THEM KNOW (NICELY) AS SOON AS POSSIBLE and give them instructions on how to deal with the infection.
What do you do if you have been hacked?
Twitter have some official suggestions here: Twitter security FAQ
...but if you don't trust me now to click on the link (!!)... here's what you do.
(1) Remember every place where you logged on to Twitter (your phone, your PC, your friends PC?, your iPAD etc) and make sure you have logged off on each one NOT just shut it down, but properly logged off. If you are not sure try and send a message... you should now be unable to.
(2) Log back on on one PC/Mac and change your password.
(3) On this PC/Mac You have just logged onto and "revoke access".
(a) Go to the settings "cog" wheel top right.
(b) Select "settings" from the menu.
(c) then select apps on the left hand side menu.
Be very cautious of opening a link with in a Direct Message (DM) even if you think it is from someone you know. It will probably be a trick. I would say have had about 75 "people send me direct messages" about 50 of these are clearly fake hacking attempts of some sort. Some of these "people" have sent 5 or 6 of these hacking messages each. So you have some idea of the scale of the problem. If you think a friend has sent you a link via a DM, get them to re-post it publicly or email it to you!
DM are deadly.
...BUT more commonly now, you can get equally pervasive regular Tweets. We had an out break ourselves and it was simply created by someone clicking on the link within a Tweet (that looked genuine and came, allegedly from a friend).
So in reality these messages are not sent by a Tweep who has turned rogue, but by a "virus" (technically "malware") which has hacked into someone's account and seized control of it.
Never open a message/link that that says:
"Bet you didn't know they were filming you, lol xxxx"
"Hey, this person...."
"What are you doing in this video.... Link"
"When exactly lol ....link"
The latest is: "Have you seen this pic... Link"
(If you have Twitter set up correctly, and it is a "picture" you should just see it anyway).
How do you get Hacked?
So how was it done, and what can you do about it?
(1) If you follow one of these links on Twitter on a PC in a browser... that's it they got you!
(2) If you go to certain malware containing websites whilst you are still logged in to Twitter. Note; even though you have closed the browser unless you specifically logged out you are vulnerable.
(3) Your password may have been stolen, even because you were tricked or because Twitter itself was hacked. Twitter was hacked a while ago and millions of passwords stolen!!
(4) The more complex one. Many people, like myself, do not use Twitter's own apps or website to Tweet. We use "3rd party" applications which actually (usually) work better and include more functions.
So, Twitter do not allow just anyone to write a program to deal with followers and stuff... the "license" companies and we users have to also specifically grant applications permission to work Twitter for us. Sometimes, apparently, although I have not seen it first hand, these applications go rogue. They have presumably been hacked themselves! This "hack" will survive you changing your password! Note that changing your Twitter password does not affect many Twitter applications. If you have granted they seem to retain it even if you change password and don't tell the application!
You have to revoke access and then re authorize it!
What to do about it if you receive spam/phishing/hacking Tweets and direct messages from someone?
(1) Don't follow the link.
(2) Be nice, don't get cross... it's really not their fault.
(3) LET THEM KNOW (NICELY) AS SOON AS POSSIBLE and give them instructions on how to deal with the infection.
What do you do if you have been hacked?
Twitter have some official suggestions here: Twitter security FAQ
...but if you don't trust me now to click on the link (!!)... here's what you do.
(1) Remember every place where you logged on to Twitter (your phone, your PC, your friends PC?, your iPAD etc) and make sure you have logged off on each one NOT just shut it down, but properly logged off. If you are not sure try and send a message... you should now be unable to.
(2) Log back on on one PC/Mac and change your password.
(3) On this PC/Mac You have just logged onto and "revoke access".
(a) Go to the settings "cog" wheel top right.
(b) Select "settings" from the menu.
(c) then select apps on the left hand side menu.
(d) ...And "revoke access" from everything!!
(e) You should now be set. You may want to do all this and then change password of course again, to be really sure!
Hope this helps!!!!
Posted with BlogsyMonday, 14 January 2013
Forcasts of Snow
So anyone noticed why the UK Met Office so routinely predicts
snow and then it doesn't arrive? Really the pattern seems to be this:
They forecast snow in a few days time, as you get closer and closer this
forecast turns progressively, first to sleet... then to snow? OK,
occasionally they are right, but not often (subjectively assessed!).
Why do they get it wrong so often?
They don't. They don't forecast wrong... they tell us wrong!!!
It's all about their use of statistics, and specifically that they don't trust the general public to understand the most rudimentary of statistics.
So their weather models will actually say:
Probability of it remaining dry: 15%
Probability of rain/sleet: 70%
Probability of snow: 15%
But they think is too confusing for us... so they have a call of predicting rain/sleet or snow or dryness. The most likely weather will be rain/sleet but they don't predict that... instead they forecast "snow" even thought it is an outside chance, because they feel that to fail to predict snow will land them in genuine hot water, whereas to predict snow and there be none is, they would argue, no problem for anyone.
So the problem is not their maths or their models... but their lack of confidence in our ability to interpret "15%".
Surely the BBC and the Met Office should get some courage and faith in the general public and give us the actual probabilities that they have: 70% chance or rain/sleet, 15% chance of snow! Dumbing down communications with the public will be a self-fulfilling prophesy.....
Why do they get it wrong so often?
They don't. They don't forecast wrong... they tell us wrong!!!
It's all about their use of statistics, and specifically that they don't trust the general public to understand the most rudimentary of statistics.
So their weather models will actually say:
Probability of it remaining dry: 15%
Probability of rain/sleet: 70%
Probability of snow: 15%
But they think is too confusing for us... so they have a call of predicting rain/sleet or snow or dryness. The most likely weather will be rain/sleet but they don't predict that... instead they forecast "snow" even thought it is an outside chance, because they feel that to fail to predict snow will land them in genuine hot water, whereas to predict snow and there be none is, they would argue, no problem for anyone.
So the problem is not their maths or their models... but their lack of confidence in our ability to interpret "15%".
Surely the BBC and the Met Office should get some courage and faith in the general public and give us the actual probabilities that they have: 70% chance or rain/sleet, 15% chance of snow! Dumbing down communications with the public will be a self-fulfilling prophesy.....
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