The Computer Tutor

I love it when technology actually helps someone in a practical way. Or in this case, it helps a LOT of people, and we all have the opportunity to participate.

There are an estimated 285 million people in the world who are visually impaired. And there are 39 million people who are actually blind. For those of us who are fortunate to have good vision, it’s hard to imagine how it would be to navigate the world without sight.

Think about this. What if you were in a grocery store, shopping for the regular stuff you buy each week. As you walk down the bread aisle, you see a person who is obviously visually impaired who is having trouble figuring out which loaf of bread to buy. You offer to help. The person, holding two loaves of bread, asks which one is wheat and which is white. You point out which is which, and the purchase decision is easily made. This is something that took less than 30 seconds of your time, but was a big help.

Now there’s an app for your phone that enables you to help blind and visually impaired people, anywhere.

The app is called Be My Eyes, and it’s available for Android and iPhones. It uses the power of your phone to make a video call, and you lend your eyes to someone who needs them.

From the website:

For those who need assistance:

For those who wish to volunteer:

Signing up as a volunteer is easy:

I’m still waiting for my first call for assistance but I’m looking forward to it! Here’s a video that also explains how it works:

If you have a website you visit regularly, there’s no easier way to get there than to have a shortcut icon right on your desktop. And Chrome makes it VERY easy to do that!

In the past, I would do this the “manual” way. That’s where you navigate to the website page where you want the shortcut to go to. Then you move Chrome off to the side of the screen so you could see the desktop area. Then you find the little “padlock” up in the address bar, and you click and drag that padlock to the desktop area and drop it. That creates a new icon on the desktop that takes you directly to that web page.

But sometimes people would get confused about how to have Chrome open at the same time you’re viewing the desktop screen so it didn’t work well for everyone.

But Chrome has this feature built in and it’s really easy!

Let’s say you find this great website and you want to be able to get back to it whenever you want, quickly and easily. Of course you would – it’s a web page about a cow who thinks it’s a family pet!

In case you want to look at it, the actual web address for that page is:

So your goal is to have a simple, single icon on your desktop screen that will take you directly to that web page. Here’s how you do it in Chrome:

1. Go to that page in Chrome

2. Click the 3 dots in the top right, go down to “More tools”, then go over and click on “Create shortcut”

All done! Now you can minimize or close any windows you have open, and you’ll see a new icon on your desktop screen. Double clicking that icon will take you directly to that web page whenever you want.

Today’s tip has to do with a weird thing that some users are seeing in Chrome. The text characters are missing some pieces and it just looks all weird (and even unreadable). Here’s how to fix it.

What we’re talking about today falls into a category I call a “niche tip”. This means that some people won’t care about at all, since their computer has not had this particular problem. This tip resolves an issue that’s not even an issue for them.

But for other people, the ones who are experiencing this problem, the solution I’ll provide today is probably a Hallelujah Moment, and they will be overjoyed to finally find the solution.

Here’s what the problem looks like when it shows up:

The first time one of my clients saw this, she assumed it was a virus or some type of malicious software that had gotten into Chrome. She called me immediately and had me remote in and check on it.

But she didn’t have a virus. Actually it would have been very unlikely for her computer to be infected, since she’s on my Managed Service Plan (link).

This is just related to a setting in Chrome called Hardware Acceleration.

Without getting all techy, the Acceleration feature allows Chrome to offload some of the graphics work to the hardware on your computer (meaning the graphics card) rather than forcing the browser (Chrome) to do all the work. Usually this means smoother graphics. But sometimes, on some computers, it just doesn’t work that way – that’s when you see those funky character that don’t make any sense. When that happens, the best solution is to just disable Acceleration.

How to disable Acceleration in Chrome:

1. In Chrome, click the 3 dots in the top right corner:

2. In the menu that drops down, click on Settings.

3. Scroll down to the bottom and click on Advanced

4. Scroll down to the “Systems” section, and find the setting called “Use hardware acceleration when available” and slide that option to the left to turn it off:

Now go back to the website where the weird characters were showing in Chrome, and see if the problem is solved. Chances are things will be back to normal again!

I find it pretty amazing that even after all this time, and all the alerts and warnings, and all the bad things that have happened…the scammers are still able to trick people into opening email attachments. If you follow my guideline about this, you won’t ever have a problem.

There are several ways for your computer to get infected with a virus or malware. But do you know what the #1 most common method still is? Email attachments.

Yes, here we are in 2019, when you’d think everyone in the world knows that a virus can come in via a file attached to an email, and we still see that method of delivery as the most successful one for the scammers and hackers to infect someone’s computer.

As a computer tech, I talk to clients about this pretty regularly. And I often hear the same thing from a lot of different people, who think they have the whole “email attachment safety process” figured out. Here’s what they tell me:

“I don’t open an email attachment,

WRONG. If that’s the policy they go by, they’re probably going to have an infected computer at some point. It is fundamentally flawed.

This is my policy on opening attachments:

That sounds kind of counter-intuitve, right? I mean, someone you know wouldn’t send you an email, would they?

Here’s why this makes sense. Let’s say your best friend is Bob. You trust Bob completely. Bob is the godfather to your children. Bob once rescued you from a burning building. He’s even honest enough to tell you when you have food on your face at dinner. So you know you can trust Bob, and you know that he wouldn’t send you a virus by email.

But then one day Bob opens an email attachment. He wasn’t sure what it was, but when he clicked and opened it, he saw that nothing happened. So he just figured it was some kind of mistake, deleted the email and forgot about it.

What Bob doesn’t know is that his computer is now infected. He didn’t see anything happen on the screen when he clicked that attached file, and that is exactly what he was supposed to see – nothing. That means he did not become suspicious and did not see any reason to investigate it further. That is exactly the response the hacker wants.

But behind the scenes, not visible on the screen, the virus is now working hard to do whatever it was programmed to do. It might be installing a keylogger (to track whatever is typed, such as social security numbers or credit card numbers) or other malicious software.

And the OTHER thing that virus is doing is sending out an email to everyone in Bob’s email contact list. Probably the same email that Bob received, with the virus attached. And Bob does not even know these emails are being sent.

So even though he’s your best friend and you trust Bob with your life, you should not open that email attachment that just got sent to you from his account.

For me, I don’t care who sent it. My own mother could send me an email attachment and I would not open it. Sorry mom!

And of course, here’s the objection: “But sometimes I have to open attachments! It’s stuff I need to see!”

That’s fine. If you need to open an attachment, and you know what it is before opening it, go for it. But that’s the key – knowing what it is ahead of time.

The scammers are very clever about making you THINK you know what it is, when you really don’t know. You might get that email from Bob, and the message says, “Check out this picture I found of us!” but that doesn’t make it safe to open. The virus wrote that message, not Bob.

Or you might get an email that is apparently from Fedex, saying, “We’re trying to deliver your package, but cannot find your address – please check the attached invoice to verify your address.” This one is especially clever, since half the people that get this actually ARE expecting a package delivery, so they just click the attached file without thinking about it – and immediately they are infected. And now their computer is sending out that same email to THEIR contact list. And it goes on and on.

All it takes is a half-second of inattention. You might click and then suddenly realize, you just clicked on something and you don’t REALLY know what it is. Hopefully at that point you have a good strong antivirus, and someone you trust to check out your computer and get rid of the bad stuff.

Today we’re “sort of” veering away from a strictly computer-oriented tip (although what I’ll show you is done on the computer). This has to do with an annoyance I had with Netflix until I figured out how to solve it.

To illustrate the problem, I’ll give you a specific example from my usage.

Here is what my home page on Netflix looks like:

The issue I’m talking about today is that first section at the bottom of the screen, called “Continue watching for Scott”:

Whenever you start watching something, but don’t get all the way to the end, it shows up in that section the next time you open Netflix. This is actually there for convenience, and usually it is convenient.

Recently I’ve been going through The Office again (probably my fourth or fifth time). So it’s nice when it’s there, I just click and it goes right to the next episode waiting for me.

The problem is Kevin Hart, the other entry there. I recently heard Kevin Hart when he was interviewed on the Joe Rogan podcast. I had never really heard much of his stand-up comedy, but on the podcast I was impressed by his conversation and work ethic, and he’s obviously very successful. So I saw his Netflix special “Irresponsible” come up as a suggestion and I figured I would watch that.

Well…I know he is very popular, but I honestly did not find him funny. At all. I got through about 20 minutes, waiting to laugh, and finally gave up on it. That’s okay – he has a big fan base so I’m sure he’ll get along fine without me.

And that’s where the problem comes up. Netflix saw that I watched some of it, and didn’t finish it – so every time I open Netflix, there’s Kevin Hart waiting for me to come back. Even though I’m not coming back. This was okay for a while, but after a couple of weeks I decided I need to figure out how to get it off my main screen.

Here’s how you do it:

First, on your computer go to Netflix.com and log in to your account. As you can see, on my page there’s The Office and Kevin Hart “Irresponsible” under the Continue Watching section:

Now, go to the top right corner where your profile image is located, and in the drop down menu, click on Account:

Now, scroll down to the bottom of the page to the My Profile section, and click on “Viewing Activity”:

Now you’ll see your activity, and you just find the one you want to remove and click the circle with the line through it out at the right side:

All done! Now your Continue Watching section will only display what you want to see there.

I get questions regularly now from people asking, “What happens when Windows 7 expires?” They’re concerned that their computer will stop working, or that they will lose their important files. Fortunately those things won’t happen, but there is still reason for concern. Here’s the bottom line.

The main factor for consideration here is Windows Updates.

Every month, on the second Tuesday, Microsoft sends out Windows Updates. This is called Patch Tuesday, because many of the updates being sent are to “patch” security problems that have been discovered. New issues are always being found and fixed by Microsoft. This is part of their ongoing support of their Windows operating systems.

This coming January is when that support ends. January 14, 2020 will be the final Patch Tuesday for Windows 7. After that, no more updates, no more security fixes.

If you’re still using Windows 7 on January 15, 2020, your computer will still run. In fact, you will probably not notice any difference other than Microsoft might display a pop-up window on your screen at each bootup, reminding you that Windows 7 support has ended. That actually might start even BEFORE it expires. This is the message Windows XP users saw when that operating system was about to retire:

But even though your computer and Windows 7 will still function, don’t be deceived into thinking that all is okay. It’s not okay.

Security holes and flaws will still continue to be found in Windows 7, no different than what’s been happening for years. The difference now is – they won’t be fixed.

So when Microsoft comes out each month with all the new security patches to fix those vulnerabilities, Windows 7 users won’t get them. And guess what – the hackers know about those security problems, and will be hard at work creating ways to exploit them.

For home users, this creates a situation where your computer is not safe to use. For business users, you are exposing yourself (and your clients) to potential legal and liability risks that could be disastrous.

So if you are currently using a computer that runs Windows 7, you have two options:

Some people who have never used Windows 10 are still a bit wary about doing this upgrade. Here’s my take on that: you have nothing to worry about.

When Windows 10 first came out, it had problems. And Microsoft was practically forcing everyone to upgrade, whether you wanted it or not. It was one of the most clumsy and scummy product rollouts I’ve ever seen, and back then I was telling everyone to stay with Windows 7, and actively block that upgrade. Not now.

Windows 10 has been out for almost 4 years now, and a lot of the original problems have been fixed. It still has some “features” baked in that most people would consider privacy invasions, but I disable many of those are part of the setup. And, it’s very intuitive to use. There’s the old reliable Start button where you can see all your programs, and putting a program shortcut on the desktop is even easier than it is in Windows 7 (you just drag and drop it there).

So what are you waiting for? Time to move to Windows 10!

Seems like the only movie people have been talking about lately is Avengers: Endgame. I’ve seen some people saying they’ve been to see it several times. Personally, I haven’t seen it and don’t really have any plans to. I haven’t read comic books since I was a kid, and never got into the whole “super heroes” thing. But congratulations to Marvel for such a huge success.

Today’s tip is for those that love watching movies and/or TV shows. I found a couple of online services that could be pretty handy.

The first one is called Just Watch. You can see it at JustWatch.com.

The premise is simple. You already know what you want to watch. You just don’t know where to get it. Just Watch will tell you where you can find that movie or TV show you’re looking for.

For example – want to binge watch The Office? Just do a quick search, and you’ll see all the places that offer it:

Or maybe you’re looking for something a little more dramatic, like Breaking Bad. No problem:

Even old classics like Gilligan’s Island are still available for streaming:

And the other service is called After Credits. You can see it at AfterCredits.com.

After Credits is more oriented toward movies. Have you ever sat through a movie at a theater, then at the end you’re not sure if you should get up and leave, because you might miss something that comes up during (or even after) the credits? Seems like that’s pretty popular now. And you definitely don’t want to be talking with your co-workers the next day about that movie, and find out you missed something amazing that happened after the credits rolled.

This site tells you if something is there, and you should stay, or if it’s okay to just leave. These special scenes even have a bunch of nicknames – Stinger, Egg, Tag, etc. And there are different TYPES of stingers. From the site:

For example, in the movie Apollo 11, throughout the credits you will see actual NASA footage, including a voiceover of a Walter Cronkite news broadcast.

Or in the 2018 movie Bohemian Rhapsody, during the credits there is footage of the actual band Queen, performing the song “Don’t Stop Me Now”.

And if you know of anything that happens in the credits for a movie and it’s not listed on the site, you can submit that information so it’s added to their database.

Are you aware of any other services like this that help people who want to watch or find out more about TV shows or movies? Let us know in the comments below!

Why do you think audio books are so popular now? I think it’s because people want to read, but they simply don’t have time to sit down and visually read a book. With audio books, you can “read” a book while you’re driving, or biking, or walking the dog.

But here’s the problem. There are lots of blogs and articles on the internet that are full of amazing content – but they are only available as text. Not audio. So you might miss out on a lot of good stuff, just because it takes too long to read and you don’t have time.

Now there’s a solution for that.

I recently discovered a service called Blog Reader. You can get it at blogreader.com.au.

Turns out, this service was created by a guy in Australia, Matt Segal, to solve his own problem. This is what he wrote on the website:

The way it works is pretty simple:

If you’re not into podcasts – you also have the option to download the audio or listen to it right in your web browser.

Unfortunately this is not a completely free service, but it is very affordable. The cost is 2 AUD for each hour of audio (this currently converts to about $1.43 in US dollars). But you are able to try it out for free and see what you think – you get 5 free hours of audio when you create an account.

I tried it by sending it one of Seth Godin’s blog posts. I was actually surprised at the quality of the audio – the narration did not sound robotic, even though the voice was a computer reading it. The quality of computerized voices has really improved recently. You can also listen to a sample right on the website, without sending it any content to convert.

If you try it out, let us know what you think in the comments below!

Something I hear from clients from time to time – “I tried to print this web page, and when it printed it’s all messed up! What’s wrong with my printer?”  However, the problem is not with the printer – it’s working fine. But there is a solution.

Here’s the underlying problem. A web page is designed to look good when viewed in a specific way: on your monitor. Or on your phone (actually, a properly created website will know if it’s being viewed on a computer or on a mobile device, and adapt the content so it gets displayed properly).  A web page is usually not designed to look great on paper. So if you’re looking at a website, and you just click File – Print in your web browser, the results may not be what you expect. What you see on the screen is not necessarily what you’ll get on the printed page.

But regardless of all that, you might still have a need to print content from a website. There are a couple of possible solutions.

The first option would be to see if the website itself offers a printer-friendly version of that content. Some websites do this for each page, if the content is such that people might want to print it. If a website offers this option, it’s usually seen as a little printer icon somewhere near the article to be printed:

If you get your email at the Gmail website, you can print one of your email messages by clicking the printer icon in the top right corner of that email:

But what if the website does not offer this? That brings us to option 2: printfriendly

All you have to do is highlight the website address of the page you want to print and copy it, then go to printfriendly.com and paste it there:

When you click “Preview”, you have the option to print that page, or make it a PDF file, or even send it by email:

And if you find yourself needing this feature regularly, you might consider getting the browser extension to make the whole process even faster. That eliminates the need to copy and paste, and you can use it directly on the web page.

And another bonus – if you have a blog or some other type of website that your visitors might want to print, you can get the Print/PDF/Email button right on your site, to make it easy! And you might notice that the Computer Tutor website now offers that option at the top of each blog post.

What do you think – is this something you will use? Let us know in the comments.

Everyone knows about Audible, the audio book subscription service at audible.com. For $14.95 per month, you get one audiobook and 2 “audible originals”. It’s a great service for people who don’t have time (or don’t want to take the time) to actually read a book. You can listen to a popular or best-selling book while doing something else, just like many people do with podcasts.

But what if you don’t want to pay $14.95 per month? What if you don’t want to pay ANYTHING per month? Turns out there are still some great options for you to get your audiobooks.

Your local library

Learn Out Loud

ThoughtAudio

Storynory

BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation)

Loyal Books

Do you have a favorite site to get free audiobooks that I overlooked in this list? Tell us about it in the comments below!