TechByter Worldwide (formerly Technology Corner) with Bill Blinn

This week's podcast is all about replacing cable television with streaming options, starting with a look at over-the-air options, streaming devices, and streaming services. In Short Circuits: We'll continue by considering what's involved in setting up a streaming device, adding a streaming service to it, and establishing your preferred channels. • Then let's think about the hoops you'll have to jump through to convince you cable provider that you no longer want their television offerings. In Spare Parts (only on the website): There are lots of hidden features that come with video streaming, so I'll mention a few that seem useful. • Trying to avoid what seemed like a difficult project kept me connected to cable television for too long. If you're wary of the work involved, let me refer you to a few websites that can help. • Twenty years ago: Egghead, which closed all of its stores in 1998 and became Egghead.com, went out of business in 2001 and sold assets to Fry's.

Spams and scams have been with us virtually from when the internet became available to the general public, but the threats are more severe than they've ever been and finding a way to reduce the volume has never been more important. In Short Circuits: Like the man who wasn't there (the 1983 film, not the 2001 motion picture of the same name) it's difficult to protect against something you can't detect, and that's a real threat on the internet. • The Windows PowerToys app was introduced with Windows 95, became dormant for more than a decade, and is now back with useful features for Windows 10. In Spare Parts (only on the website): Windows 11 might be released in October, or not. Bleeping Computer tries to read tea leaves in Microsoft messages. • If you ever need to find your Windows product key and can't locate the documentation or a label, there's an easy way to ask the computer for it. • Twenty years ago: High-speed internet without wires wasn't high speed by today's standards. Metricom's Ricochet service was one of the first to try, but it never really got off the ground.

We've heard a lot about spyware recently because it's been found on phones owned by world leaders and journalists, but they're not the only targets. And it's not just phones that are at risk. In Short Circuits: Perhaps you know about medium-format digital cameras and think that you should upgrade to one. There are lots of technical benefits, but you might be surprised by the downsides. • We're drowning in disinformation, lies, misinformation, and deepfake videos. Technological safeguards are being developed, but the best protection is still critical thinking. In Spare Parts (only on the website): Solid-state disk drives are fast and small, but we shouldn't count mechanical drives out just yet. Some gigantic drives are on the horizon. • Those who have monitors and video subsystems that support high dynamic range will enjoy improved brightness, color, and contrast when they enable it in Windows. • Twenty years ago: The internet wasn't in every restaurant, store, and coffee shop, but McDonald's had started introducing it in some stores at $6 per hour.

Right-clicking a file, directory, or disk drive displays what Microsoft calls a context menu that offers actions you might want to take with the object. It's a relatively sparse list initially, but a lot of applications add actions that you might not want. It's possible to shorten an uncomfortably long list. In Short Circuits: The early preview of Windows 11 is now on one of my computers. Considering this is a "Dev Channel" version, it includes a surprisingly small number of nasty bugs. • Much of the promise of 5G cellular technology is based on the presumption that it will be ubiquitous. For that to happen, providers will need to install a huge number of what are called "small cells" -- maybe 45 million of them in the next decade. In Spare Parts (only on the website): Spyware is nasty stuff, but it's here to stay. • In the not too distant future, you might be able to order a hamburger that doesn't require a cow to be slaughtered and yet isn't made from plants. Say hello to "cultured meat". • Twenty years ago: I was introduced to DiskOnKey at Showstoppers, a program that wasn't part of PC Expo but ran one evening during the big show. DiskOnKey was what we would later call a thumb drive, and it was revolutionary.

In June, Microsoft announced that Windows 11 is on the way, and the first preview is out now for those in the Windows Insider Dev Channel. Not all computers that run Windows 10 will be able to run Windows 11, so let's take a look. In Short Circuits: 4G cellular systems became the dominant technology in just a few years, and it looks like adoption of 5G will be even faster. • Should software developers wait until the code is perfect before releasing operating systems or applications? Short answer: No. In Spare Parts (only on the website): An executive order from the president aims to make it easier for consumers to get faulty devices repaired, to re-establish Net Neutrality, and to address several other consumer issues. • If you feel like your company is demanding that you do more in less time, you're not alone. • Twenty years ago: Online grocer Webvan had just announced that it had laid off its remaining 2000 employees, shut down, and would file for bankruptcy. Nobody wanted to buy groceries online back then. What a difference 20 years and a pandemic make!

Perhaps you've used CCleaner for years to clean your computer, but Glary Utilities looks like a better choice. Let's see what it can do. In Short Circuits: Regardless what developers do to protect data on computers, criminals find ways to steal it. Windows 11 will be more security aware, but there may still be a need for other measures. • If asked to name the top cellular providers, you'd probably name Verizon, T-Mobile, and AT and T, but there are others and you might get both lower costs and better service with one you may never have heard of. In Spare Parts (only on the website): A column in the New York Times asks why Microsoft didn't put itself out of business with a series of bad moves. The proposed answer is interesting. • Have you received a "vishing" call or email? Not "phishing", but "vishing". It's just another danger to watch out for. • Twenty years ago: Bluetooth had been in development for a while and it was beginning to take off in 2001. Frost and Sullivan's UK branch said 4.2 million products using Bluetooth technology would be shipped to market by the end of the year. They predicted that number would exceed one billion by 2006. Did it happen?

No matter how carefully you organize files on your computer, there's at least a small chance that someday you won't be able to find a file you need. Fortunately, the free Agent Ransack can find it for you, and do it quickly. In Short Circuits: Scammers are limited in the types of attacks they can use, so they have to keep coming up with new presentations. Airline scams are in. • Most Windows computer users have the Task bar at the bottom of the screen. There are good reasons to put it at the top of the screen, though, even for those who prefer having it at the bottom. In Spare Parts (only on the website): Western Digital My Book Live devices, which haven't been produced for the last six years, are in danger of being compromised. • Upgrading to Windows 11 may require a visit to the computer's BIOS settings and some computers don't have a security chip that will be required for the new version of the operating system. • Twenty years ago: I've always enjoyed the irony that, after spending a week at PC Expo in New York City, I bought a Mac to bring home.

I'm a big fan of little utility programs because they usually do just one job, but do it very well. Windows 10 has a lot of built-in functions that you can use instead of spending time, and possibly money, installing extra applications. I have a few examples. In Short Circuits: Crooks will do anything to mislead us, including making websites that look like sites operated by banks and businesses. Now it's easy for them to create realistic looking domain names by using letters from other languages that look like English letterforms. • In this week's main article, we looked at some built-in Windows 10 functions that perform jobs you might be planning to use a utility for. Not every built-in function is a good choice, though, and I'll describe one. In Spare Parts (only on the website): Microsoft has plans for Windows 11 and the panic among some users is both palpable and silly. • When internet speeds seem slow, your ISP will probably insist that you use their speed text, but getting second, third, and fourth opinions can be helpful. • Twenty years ago: There were predictions that France's Minitel system would soon be replaced by the internet. It was eventually, but not until 2012.

Tracking down problems with a computer is usually a multi-step process of developing conjectures that lead to hypotheses and eventually to a valid theory. The first conjecture is sometimes right, but more often it's not. I'll describe a recent puzzler. In Short Circuits: Ransomware may be less of a threat to individuals than it used to be, but "less of a threat" doesn't mean "no threat". We still have to be cautious. • Firefox's market share has dropped from 30% a decade ago to around 7% now, but the browser still has loyal advocates -- and with good reason. In Spare Parts (only on the website): A global computer chip shortage is creating havoc in the automotive industry and elsewhere, but missteps by car and truck manufacturers have made the problem worse for them. • I found a picture of what was probably my first portable computer from 1988. It's on display. • Twenty years ago: PC Expo had just concluded. The dot-com implosion made the show a lot smaller, but darker times were coming.

There has never been a better time to be an amateur photographer. The ranks of professional photographers have been decimated as this industry becomes another to fall victim to powers that personal computers give ordinary people. In Short Circuits: This week's security section considers drive-by website attacks and how we can avoid having our computers taken over by malware. • Internet Explorer will finally be dead a year from now. You should already be using another browser but as of mid-June 2022 you won't have much choice. In Spare Parts (only on the website):Microsoft seems to be working on "virtual Windows" -- the ability to run Windows on cloud-based computers via a "thin client". It's back to the 1980s for the future of the 2020s. • Cryptomining is lucrative and that's why crooks want to take over your computer and have it work for them. • Twenty years ago: The Degree Confluence Project had just started to capture images from locations where one-degree intersections of latitude and longitude occurred. They're still working on it.