Month: February 2019

When I get a new computer, what can I transfer? What programs or apps must I replace and which ones can I move to the new device? Certainly, all of your documents, photos, and videos can be transferred. Any music which you loaded from your own original media (unless you use Apple Music, in which case you will have to transfer from original again). And, any programs which are licensed to you rather than to the machine may be reloaded on the new machine.

Wait! Programs can be licensed to a machine? Yes, Windows and OSX are generally licensed to a specific machine and use digital serial numbers from the BIOS chips and other hardware identifiers to insure that you do not move them to a new device. Many versions of Microsoft products (office, server modules, etc.) also do this; this is one of the differences between Office 365 and the purchase once versions of Office. There was a short period during which you could uncertify a copy of Microsoft software and then install it on another device; but, that feature seems to have disappeared.

The newer versions of most browsers (Firefox, Chrome, Brave) can synchronize your preferences to the cloud and then be recovered (synchronized) to a new install on the new device. Clear as mud? Programs, unlike documents, require changes to the machine they run on in order to operate correctly. So, productivity suites (like Microsoft Office) and browsers (like Firefox) must be installed rather than transferred. Most applications (those that are not included as part of the operating system) must be installed on the new machine and then your preferences added onto the new device; but, only after the program has been installed.

There are a number of ways to transfer your data (documents, pictures, videos) from an old machine to a new one and each situation may favor a different approach. If the old device no longer is operational, recovery from a backup or synchronized cloud storage may be the best bet though there are ways to extract data directly from an old storage device by removing it from a dead computer and feeding its contents into a newer one.

Whichever technique is appropriate in your situation, it is often helpful to have a practicing consultant assist you with this step.

This week I am rewriting an article from a couple of years back. At issue is what should we save when we buy computers, tablets, phones, computer software, apps, operating systems, etc. First and foremost, save any and all licensing information. This may be a “number” a sticker, or an install code. Should you be concerned when the “things” I recommend aren’t included with your purchase?

The key, from my perspective, is to have everything you will need to reinstall everything when the system or device crashes, or you replace it (new phone every 2 years, new computer every five years?). Perhaps even make a log or list of all the additions you have made to the device. Why do I suggest being so careful with these licenses? Without proof of ownership, you will be put in the position of having to buy it again; very much like paying a second time for something you already have.

Any purchase that includes software should include license information; this may be a number, or code, or a sticker, or certificate that embodies proof of license to use. This is usually the only “thing” that is important to keep (I’ll discuss an exception later) and it is extremely important that this proof be kept. In most cases the media needed to reinstall can be obtained if and when that becomes necessary; but you will need to have that proof of purchase, or license information for the install to succeed.

Fortunately, the license information (whether it is a sticker or a sheet of paper, or a small card) is usually quite small and easily stored (also easily lost); however, this is where many computer owners get in trouble. You really do need to identify and save that original item, or information. If you buy online, it may come in an email (yes print that and save it, yes create a PDF of it and put it with other important documents); such emails really (in my opinion) should be saved as a file on your computer and included in your backups (shove it up to the cloud too). I have also taken the step in some cases of photographing the license certificate and sticking that up in the cloud.
(Important note: just keeping the email is not good enough; it is real common to lose emails over time. Almost guaranteed you will lose the necessary email in the event that you have to reinstall something)

Please note, you don’t own software; at best you own the privilege of limited use of the software you purchase. It is this distinction that leads to what I see as a serious problem currently infecting the computer Industry. What if my purchase did not include any such materials? You buy a computer and there is no sticker attached to it with the license information for Windows or OSX; there is no license information for the productivity suite that came with it (microsoft office for instance), and there are no installation disks included either. Two things; either the software you have acquired is not legitimate or the license information is embedded in the product. Let us assume the latter; in this case you need to immediately make installation or recovery disks (very much like a backup) before there is any opportunity for something to go wrong (if you are lucky, there is a routine for doing this all prepared for you).

One of the ways I choose between computer manufacturers is to look and see if the product comes with restoration media (or original install media) AND license materials; if it doesn’t, I am highly unlikely to make the purchase. In my mind, my having to make the media will cost 3-4 DVD’s and a few hours of my time; a machine that costs $100 more but includes these things may be the better buy.

Even at today’s prices the purchase of a computer, phone, tablet or laptop involves a significant amount of money; please make an informed choice when buying. If in doubt, let Benediktson Computer, Inc. help. It just takes a phone call.

It is Wednesday again and time for my monthly tirade. When did sending an email to someone or not reaching them on the phone constitute legally apprising them of a contractual issue? There is a reason that email systems have a receipt or receipt requested feature (for that one person in the back, you can request notification that someone has received a specific email from you). Successful communication, to me, means you sent a message AND received acknowledgment of receipt and understanding of the message (ACK and NACK in computerese).

As I said last week, this is the time of year when I am renewing contracts with service providers for some of my clients (and some services I use as well). One of my providers claims to have been trying to get word to me all month (January) that the terms of use for some services I use have changed and some of my sites are not in compliance with the new regulations. Now, understand, they have two phone numbers for me plus an emergency contact number, in case of phone problems, and all my phone numbers have voice mail systems that have been continuously up and fully functional all month in addition to being one of a very few that have my private email address and yet they did not actually get any message to me until Monday; after I pointed out to them that some websites were not working correctly.

I dutifully pulled and scanned the transaction logs for all of my email addresses, and sure enough, they had sent me an email last Friday, that immediately went into the junk folder based on its content and NOT from a recognized addressee. It seems that they have hired a third party to negotiate with grandfathered in clients who have long-standing contracts such as mine that no longer fit with their notion of an ideal client. These folks are really good at coding emails and this one was lovely with some nice graphics, 5 or more links to outside sources, a few phone numbers, etc. In short, the spam filter immediately recognized it as spam and dealt with it appropriately.

So, notes about spam and spam rules. most email clients and some of the better webmail clients have a dual verification system for junk mail (sorry, wanted to use both junk mail and spam because the email clients use those words interchangeably). Part 1 is to check and see if the sender is in your address book (this is not your whitelist, but can function as one if you turn this feature on); if the sender is in your address book, you can have the email allowed even if it contains suspicious content. Part 2 is to score the email based on its content; a number of factors come into play, how many people is it sent to (more recipients means more likely spam) does it contain graphics that are not identified (a photo carefully tagged as company logo or mountain cottage is fine, one with no tag adds to the spam likelihood score)(a graphic tagged “get your viagra here” gets a really high score), does it contain links (lots of links means a high spam score), do the links point to known “No No” sites (guaranteed spam). After this and other factors are considered; a high spam score gets the email treated as spam and a low score allows it to pass into your inbox.

In addition, some email clients (Thunderbird, Outlook webmail, Microsoft Outlook, Google mail) have the ability to learn what kind of emails you consider as spam (junk mail). This feature takes some time and effort on the user’s part but can be very helpful; the intelligence in these features can see similarities when a spammer is changing their outgoing address, recognize similar addresses, servers, businesses, etc. It may take a month or more of the user identifying emails as spam (and as not spam) but I have been impressed with the results once you get enough information into the system.

In advertisements on TV and in magazines and in papers it is common to see the word AI used. Far too common in my opinion; there was a time when AI referred to artificial intelligence, the ability to learn and the ability to make distinctions in fashions indistinguishable from humans. There was an accepted test (the Turing test) and an accepted way to apply that test to see if the barrier had been breached and a machine actually had achieved Artificial Intelligence.

It seems that that has now all been forgotten and AI is now used in place of what were once called “expert systems”. I have looked at some of what is being advertised, hopeful that AI was real and we could expect some truly exciting innovations; and I have, thus far, been disappointed. Well, disappointed and heartened because one of the fears I have of AI is that as an AI learns it should develop its own distinctions and criteria for making decisions and left unsupervised who knows what could happen.

So far, all of the AI systems I have looked at lack the ability to learn on their own (in a meaningful sense), yes they can use rules they were programmed with to categorize, identify, and act in a preprogrammed fashion. All of that is fine and convenient; add to that the ability to consider blocks of data (history) far greater than any human consciously considers and the results can be quite impressive. I feel that this is the good side of AI; a small portion of what it will take to establish the first AI system, the safe part.

Too many times in my working career I have been called upon to replace or repair, or just audit systems where the humans relying on some computer system no longer understand the criteria used in that system to perform its analyses. Often this system has become an integral part of the function of some business or industry; but, without knowing how it makes choices, how valuable is the data and choices that it recommends?

I don’t know about you; but, I want to know how choices I rely upon are decided. An expert system may consider far more data than a human, and if the accumulation and consideration of that data present a superior potential for a “best choice”, I am all for that. Just so long as I or some reasonable human is clear on the validity of the criteria and the source data being used in the decision-making process. The other elephant in the room for me has to do with an old computing adage “garbage in leads to garbage out”. If faulty information (data) is used in the decision-making process, the decisions made cannot be trusted.

I am continually amazed at how difficult it is to find what I want (or need to meet a client’s needs) in a regular production computer. Not that I am against building a custom computer; but the cost is often higher than buying a prebuilt and making a few key replacements. I know some of it is simply market pressure; I prefer solid state drives to hard drives (spinning magnet platter type) and they are more expensive in the short run. Similarly, the choice of processors in most retail machines makes little sense to me, combine that with the mediocre performance of Intel integrated video (compare to AMD integrated video or the addition of a video card) and it is easy for me to see why so many machines fail the consumer (fail to meet expectations).

Aside from my general preferences (use SSD’s, use an inexpensive video card instead of Intel integrated video or go with an AMD processor and integrated video), the process of selecting a computer, while straight forward, can require some careful thought and planning. All windows or IOS systems rely on graphics but some applications can really benefit from superior video ability. Photographic retouch, photographic editing, video processing, and gaming, for instance, can bog down without appropriate video power. Many drawing and design applications will bog down with insufficient RAM and processor power. So, it really is important to have a good idea of what the computer is going to be asked to do, which applications will be used and how often.

To make the task of identifying what you need in a computer a tad more difficult, the new browsers can be called upon to perform a lot of video processing (google maps, google earth, and a few other online apps are examples) that can really choke a machine that doesn’t have an appropriate video system. Folks who like to have a lot of active tabs in browsers or who like to have several active applications running that they flip back and forth between may notice some bogging down if they don’t have quite a bit of RAM (8gb – 16gb or even more) when just a few years ago 4gb was the limit for anything short of a server or workstation class machine.

So, once again, it is really helpful to determine what you are going to ask of a computer before you head out to select one. Choosing the right components, that work well together and provide adequate performance and resources will make all the difference in a computer.