SLOW WEB

Recently, we wrote about websites that hog your computer’s resources and slow down your world. We dug in and found that our own chief culprit was one of our favorite sites, Techlicious.com. Later we found out it was a temporary problem caused by one of their advertisers. The advertiser has since been shut down.

That’s good news. Even better, our Techlicious contact told us about a free plugin for users of Google’s “Chrome” browser, called “OneTab.” It takes all your open tabs (which show the websites you have open) and merges them into one tab. Collapsing all those tabs into one can cut the computer’s load by up to 95 percent. To find OneTab, search on the phrase “OneTab plugin.” Click the button that says “add to Chrome.” Then, whenever you want to make multiple tabs into one tab, click the OneTab icon. We liked the neatness of a having a list instead of a lot of tabs showing at the top of our screen but we didn’t notice a big difference in performance; maybe you will. It also works with Firefox browsers.

Show Watch

A reader asked us if we’d written about the difference between Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime, or had she dreamt it? We hadn’t, so Bob asked her if it was a pleasant dream anyway. “LOL” (laugh out loud), she wrote back.

So we turned our attention to her question. Our attention has a short turning radius, so we were able to note some differences quickly. Netflix costs $10 a month and specializes in TV series, many of which are their own original shows, such as “House of Cards.” You can browse Netflix without joining, or sign up for a free 30-day trial. But if you’re not crazy about it, remember to cancel before the trial period is up or you will find that your credit card is being charged more or less forever.
We have been in an out of Netflix several times. As you browse, you can watch trailers. We tend to have a “Yuck!” reaction to most of these but somebody must like them. For example, their series called “The Santa Clarita Diet” is about a housewife who eats people. It was set in California, so at least the people were organic. The only Netflix original show we’ve ever liked was “Lilyhammer,” a funny crime show set in Norway.
We prefer Amazon Prime, a $99 a year service, which works out to $8.25 a month. Besides lots of free movies and TV shows, you get free shipping on most anything you buy. We loved their “Alpha House,” series about four Republican senators who share a house in Washington. And we got caught up in a CBS series they showed, called “BrainDead.”
Netflix is said to have a bigger selection, but we haven’t found this to be true for our old-fashioned tastes, unless you pay extra for their DVD mail delivery service. Netflix’s streaming service doesn’t have a single James Bond movie, for example, but Amazon has 16 free for Prime members. (There are 26 Bond movies in all; which is a lot of martinis shaken, not stirred.)
If you mainly want a lot of current TV shows, Hulu Plus may be the one to get. Like Netflix, it has a free trial. It airs new episodes just five hours after they’ve appeared on TV. On Amazon, it’s usually about five days later and it’s much longer on Netflix.

The Rise of Planet Chromebook

An insurance company called “Safeware” told us that two years ago only three percent of their policies for school computers were for Chromebooks, a computer designed primarily for web use. Currently 23 percent of policies cover Chromebooks, a 650 percent increase.
A big reason is price: Chromebooks cost $149 to $499 and the software is all free online. But compared to iPads, they get damaged accidentally 60 percent more often. This could be because a large percentage of them are used by small children. However, when damage occurs, Chromebooks cost only half as much iPads to repair. We turn to ours whenever our Windows computer gets so slow we’re tempted to fix it with a hammer.

Email Spoof

We’ve been spoofed! A friend told us an email that appeared to come from us actually came from someone in Russia.
Fortunately our friend read the message carefully and saw that it came from an email address that wasn’t ours. But the part that shows “display name” had ours. Apparently, you can set up an email account and use someone else’s name as the display name. It’s called “spoofing,” and some email services don’t permit it. In our case, the message read that it was coming from “Joy Schwabach” though the sender’s address was not Joy’s. If in doubt, contact your friend by phone or email instead of clicking on the message. It may well be that the action of clicking on anything in the message is what triggers some malware program.

Printer Scam

Our friend Ida had a strange thing happen on the website for Brother Printers. Clicking on a link on the official website led to a fake tech support number. When she called it, the person answering told her they needed control of her computer to fix the problem. She did what they asked (even though she’s not stupid). She could tell they’d done something, because all her familiar desktop icons disappeared.
We went over to her place and showed her how to do a “system restore.” (Type it into the Windows search bar or help section and follow the instructions.) Then we went to the Brother site ourselves. Sure enough, clicking on a legitimate looking link took us to a scammers’ website, this time with a link we could click to start a “fast install” program. (We are very reluctant clickers.) We told Brother tech support about it and they said they would report it to their team. Brother happens to be one of our favorite printer companies, so we have no doubt they got right on the problem. Still, it was a shock to see that kind of thing on the website of a large legitimate company.

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