Amazon Smile
I’ve mentioned this a couple of times before (June 2020 and Nov 2019), but I just wanted to remind you again. I’m sure most of you are ordering things from Amazon and by using Amazon Smile, you get exactly the same products and deals, but Amazon donate 0.5% of the net price to a charity of your choice. Through this scheme, Amazon has donated over £12M to UK charities (and £251M worldwide) – and remember, this does not cost you anything!
You can look back at our previous discussion on 10th June 2020:-
https://computerclub100.blogspot.com/2020/06
Or read more at:-
https://smile.amazon.co.uk/charity/smile/about
Millennium Bug – The Sequel!
You may recall the concern back at the turn of the millennium that computers would fail due to the so-called millennium bug (aka Y2K bug). It had been fairly common for software to store dates using just 2 digits for the year, rather than 4. As we rolled over from 1999 to the year 2000, using just “00” for the year could be interpreted by the software as 1900 instead of 2000. However, a lot of work was done ahead of time to update software to use a 4-digit year, so most things worked fine as we arrived at 1st January 2000.
However, it seems some people (Microsoft to be precise!) never learn! As the date moved from December 2021 to January 2022, Microsoft Exchange email servers suddenly stopped delivering email! The problem was caused by Microsoft’s software using a fixed-length store for a version code of the format:-
YYMMDDVVVV
The last four digits are a version number (maybe based on the minute of the day)
The maximum number that will fit into this fixed-length store is 2,147,483,647.
The smallest possible value for 2022 would be 2201010001 which is larger than the store can hold, so the software failed. Microsoft have issued a temporary fix – which is to code 1 January 2022 as 32 December 2021! Presumably, they will just keep adding days to December up to 99 and then move to 2021 month 13 and so on. This is only a version number, so it does not have to use the current date.
This has no effect on your personal computer, but some emails on 1st January may have been late arriving!
See this Bleeping Computer article for more:-
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/microsoft/microsoft-releases-emergency-fix-for-exchange-year-2022-bug/
BlackBerry Phones – End of an Era
The era of the BlackBerry smartphone came to an end on 4th January this year. It was the iconic phone of the early 2000’s, but it has now reached the end of its life as the company ceased to support it. The release of the iPhone in June 2007 kicked off a new era in smartphones which, together with android devices, completely superseded BlackBerry. (In fact, the iPhone was announced on 9th Jan 2007 – that’s almost exactly 15 years ago). The graph on this web page shows the smartphone sales per year for BlackBerry, Apple and Android from 2007 to 2016:-
https://www.vox.com/2017/2/26/14742598/blackberry-sales-market-share-chart
See this Tech Crunch article for more on the end of BlackBerry:-
https://techcrunch.com/2022/01/03/blackberry-phones-once-ruled-the-world-then-the-world-changed/
LastPass in the News
There have been some reports suggesting that LastPass had been hacked. However, this does not appear to be the case. LastPass is an online password manager which we have discussed before. You use a single master password to access your password vault - this is the only password you need to remember. All the data stored online is encrypted using the master password.
It seems some attempts were made to ‘brute force’ LastPass accounts, probably based on email addresses stolen in other data breaches. This triggered warnings to some users of multiple login attempts.
If you use any password manager, I would strongly recommend turning on 2-Factor Authentication (2FA) which we have discussed many times before. Even if an attacker had acquired or even guessed your password, 2FA would still prevent them from accessing your account.
See the article in the Verge for more:-
https://www.theverge.com/2021/12/28/22857485/lastpass-compromised-breach-scare
Tony asked about using fingerprint or face-ID to sign into password managers. This is usually possible when using the app on a particular device. You still have to enter the master password when you set up the app, but you can then open the app by using the system's biometric ID system, if you enable this in the settings.
I now recommend Bitwarden over LastPass for two reasons:-
- LastPass charge a fee if you want to use it on PCs and mobile devices.
- Bitwarden is open-source, so their code is available for security experts to audit.
We had some discussion on the need to use unique passwords and 2FA for the most vital accounts. These would include any financial accounts, primary email accounts and password managers. As John pointed out, you can take a less secure approach to less significant accounts, such as Player or an online newspaper.
Landline Phones
Tony asked about the new approach of landline phones being plugged into a router, rather than into a socket on the wall. This relates to the proposed switch-off of the PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) in 2025 which we discussed at the Club last November:-
https://computerclub100.blogspot.com/2021/09/
Essentially, all phones will use VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol). Many business phones have used this technology for many years. It is more like making a FaceTime or Skype call. While existing 'phone numbers' will continue as a means of ID they won't have the same geographical element - just as you don't have to know where someone is to Skype them. This article from telecoms provider AdEPT describes it quite well, although they are trying to sell VoIP!:-
https://www.adept.co.uk/will-voip-replace-traditional-telephony/
iPhone Repair Kits
We discussed the proposed release of self-service repair kits for some Apple products. Currently, this relates to iPhone 12 and 13. The kits have been released in the States and will be available in the UK and elsewhere in due course.
This is seen as a response to 'right to repair' legislation that is being introduced in a number of countries, including the UK. See the Wired article:-
https://www.wired.co.uk/article/right-to-repair-uk
I should also have mentioned that Ifixit have been providing instructions and repair kits for some time to facilitate repairs across a wide range of technology:-
https://www.ifixit.com/
Recycle Old Phones
Linda asked if there is a way to re-use old phones, etc. I suggested ComputerAid:-
https://www.computeraid.org/
However, I now think they may only recycle PCs.
MoneySuperMarket has this article that suggests using Sellmymobile.com. See their article for more:-
https://www.moneysupermarket.com/mobile-phones/mobile-phones-recycling/
Of course, depending on the age and condition of the phone, you may be able to sell it on eBay, Gumtree, etc, but ensure you have signed out of all accounts and erased the device back to its factory settings. Google for details of how to do that with your particular device.
Protecting Your Data
We had some discussions about data security and cloud storage. It is important that you have multiple copies of your data, particularly documents, photos and any other unique and irreplaceable files. While cloud storage such as Apple's iCloud, Microsoft's OneDrive, Google Drive and Dropbox is very secure, it could still, due to a fault or error, get lost or become inaccessible. You need to have at least two copies of your data, preferably three copies or more.
For example, if you are using an iPhone/iPad to take photos, it will normally copy your photos to iCloud. If you also install the Google Photos app, that can also copy photos to Google Drive. Bear in mind that you need to have the necessary storage space in these cloud services and you may need to pay (and keep paying!) for more storage capacity.
While some cloud services, such as OneDrive, offer an app to sync/backup your data, it might be simpler just to transfer files to/from the cloud as and when you choose. You can do this by going to the cloud service via the web (e.g. onedrive.com, drive.google.com, icloud.com, dropbox.com, etc) and using the file/folder upload or download functions.
You should also store a copy of your data locally, on a USB drive or external hard drive. You can never have too many backups!
Next Session
Wed 9th February 2022 at 2 pm by Skype.
