Fingers Faster Than Your Brain?

All of us have done it.   Perhaps we are distracted by a phone call.  Perhaps we are upset.  Perhaps we just typed the wrong address.  There is nothing like the sinking feeling of sending an inappropriate or inflammatory email to someone and wanting dearly to take it back.   Last week Gmail announced that it will offer a way to cancel the delivery of an email you sent.  When you send an email within Gmail, a large button with the word “UNSEND” will appear on your screen.  If you click on that button within 30 seconds your email delivery will be cancelled.

While this feature is certainly an improvement it may not solve all the issues of errant emails.   I have a few hints for keeping you from embarrassment or even worse when the wrong or inappropriate missive is sent.

Many of us write the address of the person or persons the email is to be sent before we begin writing the actual content.  This makes perfect sense as the address line is most often the first line that appears on your screen.  I suggest that you leave that line blank and don’t fill it in until you are ready to send.  I know that I am often in a hurry and have sent emails with typos, wrong dates and times and other errors by not paying attention and pressing the wrong key.  If there is no name in the header, the email will not be sent.  So write the email, make your corrections and changes and then, and only then, fill in the email address or addresses of the people who are to get the message.

For those times when you are angry or upset, go ahead and write the email but instead of sending it, file it in your drafts and come back to it in an hour or so and re-read it.  You will be surprised how often you decide not to send it.  Of course be sure also to use my other hint and leave the addressee line blank until you really decide to send it.  These hints go for text messages as well.  Because we are often distracted when texting some really strange messages get sent in error.

Be very careful of the “autofill” and “auto correct” functions that are built into many email programs.  You know what you wanted to write but you may not have written what you wanted once the computer decides to “help.”  Read you email out loud before sending.

Finally, when forwarding an email be sure that all the information in the email is appropriate for all who will get the forwarded message.  The email you received may have been forwarded to you by someone else.  Emails, especially in some business settings, tend to be appended to other emails and often the subject of the current iteration has nothing to do with earlier iterations.

So make sure you enlarge your train before dressing “send.” Damn autocorrect!

Just Say “No” To Telemarketers

Many of us still have a traditional land line telephone in our homes.  I don’t know about you, but every time I pay the monthly bill, I ask myself why I am keeping this service.  More and more of our friends and relatives use our mobile numbers or send a text or even email.   There is no doubt in my mind that 75% or more of the calls that come in on the land line are unwanted solicitations for money, votes or windows.

Dinner time at our house is often punctuated with several calls from telemarketers.  Yes, I have placed our names on the “do not call” list, but that seems to have had little impact on the volume of calls.  In recent months the telemarketers have branched out to the cellular networks.

Perhaps there is hope for a peace in our castles.  Last week federal regulators made it more difficult for telemarketers to interrupt our family dinners or jam our mobile phone with unwanted calls or text messages. The FCC in a 3-2 vote passed new rules that will give consumers more ways to opt out or even block unwanted messages and prerecorded, automated robocalls.

These new rules enable consumers to put a stop to unwanted messages simply by telling companies not to call again. They also allow phone companies to offer blocking of robocalls. It is too early to know if this service will be offered by Cincinnati Bell.

Twenty-four years ago Congress passed the Telephone Protection Act, which was supposed to protect us from these unwanted telephone calls. Nevertheless thousands of consumers still complain they are receive unwanted and annoying messages.  The fact is that while we have been able to sign up for a "Do Not Call List" for more than a decade, the calls continue.

So the next time you get an unwanted telemarketing call tell the caller that you do not want to be called again.  According to the new rules, this notification is all you need to do.  Time will tell if these new rules are more effective than the previous ones.  I am hopeful but cautious.

The Sky Didn’t Fall

The internet is back in the news with last week’s Federal Court’s decision not to delay the implementation of the FCC's Net Neutrality rules, which became effective last Friday.  The court was considering the effects of the rule, predicted to be dire by the big cable and telephone companies. Those companies were bridling at the FCC’s decision to regulate internet providers under some of the same regulations currently imposed on telephone companies.

Simply put, Net Neutrality means that internet service providers, or I.S.P.s, can’t give one website an advantage over another, or allow companies to pay extra to have their data placed on a “faster lane” ahead of competitors.

For many internet providers the imposition of regulation on their business is portrayed as nothing short of a disaster.  They maintain that any regulation will stifle competition and innovation.  The proverbial “Digital Clouds” will come crashing to earth.

The arguments seem to dismiss the fact that regulation and innovation seem to coexist in the mobile phone business.  The cell services, options and prices have not been hampered by regulation.  Competition continues among several companies offering different plans, subscription fees and options vying for your business.  Few would contend that the services offered are not getting better all the time.  “Can you hear me now?” is becoming an anachronism.

ISPs may not want you to know that during the previous non-regulated period, the internet speeds that most of us have available at home or at the office are laughable compared to those available in other parts of the world.  Apart from some U.S. communities like Chattanooga, Tennessee; Kansas City; and Ephrata, a tiny burg in Washington State; our internet speeds lag way behind the rest of the world. 

Access to the internet is no longer a luxury.  In many cases open access is more important than having a land line telephone.  Shopping, banking, communicating or just making a living would not be possible in today’s world without the internet.  Because it is so important, it seems to me that some regulation and oversight is a good idea.  Such regulation exists for companies providing electricity and water.  Imagine our interstate highway system without free and open access for all.

The internet service providers are mostly for-profit businesses and I don’t worry that they will cease all innovation and stop improving their networks because of the Net Neutrality rules.  They want to keep us as paying customers and will find ways do so.

Some Tips For Keeping Your Personal Info Secure.

Seems like every day we hear of another security breach opening up millions of bits of private data to miscreants foreign and domestic.  The most recent hack to U.S. federal personnel files is reported to have originated in China, and compromised the social security numbers and employment history of some four million former and current federal workers.  Home Depot, Target, The Gap and several other companies have experienced recent hacks.

The proverbial horse has left the barn.  Today every facet of our lives involves having personal information online.  Some information is stored on our personal computer in our home and some is stored in servers around the globe.  You really can’t opt out.   If you shop, file your taxes, receive social security benefits or just have a bank account, information about you is stored online. The current push to digitize your medical records provides very personal information to both care givers (that’s good) and someone looking to make a quick buck (that’s bad.)

So what are we to do?  Frankly there is little you can do to protect your personal information once it leaves your possession.  We need to strengthen systems used by government and commerce to better safeguard our collective data.  Encouraging our elected officials and leaders to make this a top priority is a good start. The sad truth is that once the data is out of our control it is susceptible to being hacked.  But there are things you can do to keep your personal information stored in your home computer safer.  Here are a few suggestions:

Don’t give out personal information on the phone.  Social Security numbers, bank account numbers and names and birth dates of family members should never be shared on the phone or on line.   If a bank calls and asks for this information it is a scam.  They already have the information they need.  Same for passwords.  Never give your password to anyone. The bank doesn’t need it and the scammer does.

Use credit cards only with a trusted vendor on line or via the telephone.  If you do a lot of online shopping setting up a PayPal account is a good idea.

Don’t use the same password for all your online activity.  If it is compromised all of your accounts from Facebook to your IRA might be open to the world.

Don’t use a default password that came with your account or device.  They are widely known and easy to guess.  A recent study showed that many people never change the password from the one first issued.

Make the password hard to guess.  Your kid’s first name, your birthday or street address area not very hard for someone up to no good to figure out. A password should not be a “word.” but rather a series of letters, numbers and symbols that are random.

Make a habit of looking at your online accounts and regular paper bills.  It is amazing how many people don’t go over line by line their credit card statement or monthly bank statement.  There can be fraudulent items lurking in your phone bill.  The scammers count on the fact that you will not notice small debits on your credit card or mobile phone statement.

At least for now we are not going to stop identity theft completely.  Perhaps with better security systems using voice recognition or finger print sensors, we will be able to better protect our digital lives.  For now just use good common sense and don’t stress over what you can’t change.

Google Photos Worth a Look

Recently I was giving a workshop to a group of middle school science students.  We were discussing magnetism and radio waves.  When we got around to how radio and smartphones are related I asked how many in the group had a smartphone.  Immediately most hands shot up.  I then asked about the most important task for which they used the smartphone.  I was not ready for the answer.  I thought it might be texting or listening to music; everyone knows these kids don’t make phone calls.  Taking pictures was top on the list of smartphone tasks.

I guess I shouldn’t be surprised as more people are taking more pictures than ever before. With quality and ease built into even the most basic mobile device, snapping that cute kid next door or that menacing cloud formation on the horizon is (pardon the pun) a snap.  I am sure that we have all watched while a friend scrolls though hundreds or even thousands of shots stored on his iPhone looking for that cat dressed up like a dog.

For most of us these pictures get stored on our phone or iPad and perhaps in some cloud only to be forgotten either by the sheer volume or the lack of organization.  That is where the new Google Photos App hopes to establish a new market.  This mostly free service is platform agnostic running on Android, Apple IOS and even your Widows computer.   Like many services, it provides free cloud based storage for all your photos.

Once your photos are stored in the cloud you can take advantage of two cool features that set Google Photos apart for most others. The first is a neat search tool. Without having to manually tag people or locations in your photos, you can search your collection for “skyline” or “cars” or “Ohio” or “river.” You can search for “specific color” and the app will bring up all photos with that dominant color.  Search can group photos using face recognition even if the photos are of that person at various ages.

The other innovative feature, the “Assistant” tab, compiles animated GIFs and collages automatically from photos it senses are related—either from a trip, a group of people, or a string of images captured in a row.

For those who have used other Google photo apps you will find the editing and sharing tools with some new upgrades.  Google Photos is not perfect but it is easy to use, mostly free and might put some organization into that digital shoebox posing as a smartphone in your pocket or purse.  More information at http://www.google.com/photos/about/