MORE PROOF THAT AI ISN’T ALWAYS INTELLIGENT

Sometimes, an artificially-intelligent search bot doesn’t know beans about beans. It can even confuse poison with food. ArsTechnica bloggers went to saveymeal-bot.co.nz, where a robot creates recipes from what you have on hand. When the bloggers typed “ammonia, bleach and water,” they got a recipe for “the perfect non-alcoholic beverage to quench your thirst.” To avoid disasters, the site now asks you to choose ingredients from a list. From my humorous choices, they created “Pickled Spaghetti Surprise.” It included jam, olives, pickles and mayo. Turning serious, I got a surprisingly tasty “Creamy Peanut Noodle Stir Fry.” To try it yourself, go to saveymeal-bot.co.nz, and click “Get Savey.” Then choose your ingredients. Happy cooking. Sharing Your Location I love sharing my […]

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PHISHING WITH BAIT

It’s getting difficult to tell a legit email from a fraud. Recently, I took a foolish chance. I clicked on a link in an email that appeared to be from Amazon. The website I landed on showed the address “Amazon.com” at the top. It even had one of those security locks. But it wasn’t Amazon. The site said that my Amazon credit card had been unlinked from my account. It asked me to call Amazon’s number, an obvious red flag. Amazon never lists its number. Lesson: If in doubt, always go to the company’s website. Never click a suspicious link. According to retired FBI special agent Jeff Lanza, these kinds of frauds are increasing. Over 15 million Americans have been […]

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AVOIDING SCAMS

A reader wrote: “Two days ago my wife was nearly in tears after falling for a scam email that looked exactly like it was from the SAS Shoe site.” She was out $45 bucks. Others are being scammed by phony vaccine surveys. One reader said he was nearly taken in by a fake Pfizer survey, but hovered over the return email, which revealed sketchy-looking characters. If you do a Google search on “PSA post vaccine survey scam,” the US government at ICE.gov will show you exactly what the scammer’s email looks like. Don’t worry if you’ve already opened one. Just don’t click anywhere or open any attachments. There’s still time to panic. Google Pay and Mint Track Your Spending  Sometimes, […]

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AT&T RUNAROUND

My friend Nancy just bought her first smartphone. But when I tried to help her transfer her number to Consumer Cellular, AT&T gave us the complete runaround. The trouble started because an AT&T guy had pasted a yellow sticker on her router with the wrong network name and password. It got worse from there. When Nancy told AT&T she wanted to transfer her service, they asked for her account number. But after she logged onto their website, she got a different one than the one they wanted. That was just the beginning. Over the next 90 minutes, AT&T asked for a four-digit passcode, a four-digit PIN and a six-digit number. We had difficulty finding all of those. AT&T also asked […]

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LOCATION SHARING SAVES THE DAY

I lost my phone on a bike path the other day when it fell out of my bike basket. I emailed a friend and he knew right where it was. Thanks to Location Sharing in Google Maps, he told me it had been turned in at my condo’s front desk.   To test just how good Location Sharing is, I took long walks with my phone. Most of the time, it was two blocks off, because I kept moving. When I sat on a bench, I could be pinpointed most of the time. If I kept the Google Maps app open, it got even better. But it only became 100% accurate if I asked for directions somewhere, then tapped “start” to […]

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DO YOU NEED AN ANTIVIRUS?

A reader asked if the free Windows Defender is enough. Should he pay for an antivirus?   After a lot of research on this issue, I say no. Windows Defender, which is part of Windows, is good enough. In an AV-Comparatives test, it stopped 99.5 percent of threats. In an SE Labs test, it stopped 99 percent. By not renewing my Bullguard antivirus, I’ll save $120 over three years.  Windows Defender does a great job on old-school viruses, according to HowToGeek, so you don’t need another antivirus. But criminals have moved on from viruses to ransomware, zero-day attacks and other nasty stuff. For that, HowToGeek recommends Malwarebytes. I’ve been a subscriber for years.  There’s a free download at malwarebytes.com. It starts […]

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KABLOOEY

Bob’s three-year-old Windows 10 computer went kablooey. Joy attempted to bring it back and made it worse. So we turned to our master fixer, Kenny. Kenny has never failed us. If the problem is easy for him, there’s often no charge. You can find him on the web at HelpHelpNow.com. Here’s what happened before we thought to call. Joy tried a “system restore,” and it failed twice, with the two available restore points. Next she tried “Windows Recovery,” choosing the option to back up files first. It failed too. So she tried it a second time. This time, it erased all the files and still didn’t work. Kenny told us to hold down the power button while Windows 10 was […]

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ZOOMING IN

Joy’s women’s club went virtual, starting with a group video chat on Facebook. It was great.  Joy felt none of the shyness she often feels at ordinary women’s club parties. She could be blunt, telling the group to stop focusing on technical aspects of the conversation. “Let’s just have fun,” she said and so they did. But sometimes the sound quality was poor, causing the group to say they’d switch to Zoom software next time. Zoom is hot right now. It’s designed for video get-togethers and works beautifully. It uses the computer’s built-in camera and microphone, or you can use a tablet or smartphone.  When you use Zoom on your phone, computer or tablet, you see the face of the […]

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REPLACING THE BACKGROUND

Normally, we use the editing tools at Photos.Google.com to crop or enhance our pictures. But recently we discovered PicsArt.com for free special effects and templates. You don’t have to create an account to use the site, and you might not want to. We saw several complaints at commonsensemedia.org. Some users said that after using the link at PicsArt to share their creations, they were bombarded with pornographic images from other members. One user complained of signing up for a “free trial” for certain templates which turned into a $48 charge on their credit card. We tried signing up at the site but none of that happened to us. The PicsArt app has 130 million active users, according to Wikipedia. We […]

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PASSWORD FOLLIES

Over 23 million people had their account information stolen because they used “123456” as their password, according to PreciseSecurity.com. Another eight million used “12345678.” Nearly four million used the word “password” as their password. Many people use a favorite password for all or most of their accounts. Weak passwords caused 30 percent of all “ransomware” attacks in 2019. Ransomware refers to hackers who lock the information on your computer and demand a ransom to unlock it. But only 12 percent of users in the U.S. take advantage of password managers, which create and store passwords for you. If you search on the phrase “best password managers,” you’ll find a TechRadar article on the best: “Dashlane,” “LastPass” and “Keeper.” We haven’t […]

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