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The truth about computers and your eyesight

<p>Do you ever find that at the end of the day your eyes are bloodshot, dry or fuzzy? It could be because you are your addicted to you digital devices. Here’s what you need to know.</p> <p>An increasing reliance on technology including laptops, tablets, smart phones and so on has given rise to a new health condition called computer vision syndrome (or CVS), which is effecting many Australians of all ages.</p> <p>Including a number of eye and vision-related problems, CVS is a result of prolonged use of digital devices. While they’re not thought to be permanent, symptoms of CVS are generally unpleasant and can cause some discomfort. </p> <p>Furthermore, CVS is also thought to be having an impact on the incidence of myopia (short-sightedness) with a study conducted by the National Eye Institute in the USA reporting the prevalence of near-sightedness increasing by around 66 per cent over the past 30 years in America.</p> <p>Whether for work or pleasure, the dramatic rise in ownership of smartphones and tablets coupled with modern day trends that involve doing more and more things from these devices (paying bills, shopping, research), is causing our eye muscles to work harder and for longer periods. There are ways to can prevent or at least limit any problems created by a digital device obsession.</p> <p><strong>Keep an eye out for…</strong></p> <p>You’ve probably experienced at least one of the common symptoms of computer vision syndrome which include:</p> <ul> <li>Eyestrain</li> <li>Headaches</li> <li>Blurred vision</li> <li>Dry eyes</li> <li>Neck and shoulder pain</li> </ul> <p>These symptoms may be caused by other factors such as uncorrected vision needs, glare, poor lighting, improper posture, etc. You should always consult an eye care professional who will be able to diagnose computer vision syndrome through an eye exam.</p> <p><strong>What you can do to save your sight…</strong></p> <p>With these simple practices, you can reduce, or even prevent the effects of computer vision syndrome:</p> <ul> <li>Make sure the lighting in the room is comfortable on the eyes, and prevents you from staring into glare on the computer screen</li> <li>Position the computer screen so that your head is in a naturally comfortable position while working</li> <li>Take breaks. A few minutes away from the computer can go a long way when it comes to your eyes. Think of it similarly to the way you take stretch breaks for your arms and back.</li> <li>Make sure your seat is comfortable. A comfortable chair with support for your neck and back will help you avoid neck and shoulder strain commonly associated with computer vision syndrome.</li> </ul> <p><em>Image: Getty</em></p>

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Is Google’s AI chatbot LaMDA sentient? Computer says no

<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-style-default"> <p>“Actions such as his could come only from a robot, or from a very honorable and decent human being. But you see, you can’t differentiate between a robot and the very best of humans.”</p> <p><cite>– Isaac Asimov, <em>I, Robot</em></cite></p></blockquote> <p>Science fiction writer Isaac Asimov was among the first to consider a future in which humanity creates artificial intelligence that becomes sentient. Following Asimov’s <em>I, Robot</em>, others have imagined the challenges and dangers such a future might hold.</p> <p>Should we be afraid of sentient robots taking over the planet? Are scientists inadvertently creating our own demise? How would society look if we were to create a sentient artificial intelligence?</p> <p>It’s these questions which – often charged by our own emotions and feelings – drive the buzz around claims of sentience in machines. An example of this emerged this week when Google employee Blake Lemoine claimed that the tech giant’s chatbot LaMDA had exhibited sentience.</p> <p>LaMDA, or “language model for dialogue applications”, is not Lemoine’s creation, but the work of <a href="https://arxiv.org/pdf/2201.08239.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">60 other researchers at Google</a>. Lemoine has been trying to teach the chatbot transcendental meditation.</p> <p>Lemoine shared on his Medium profile the <a href="https://cajundiscordian.medium.com/is-lamda-sentient-an-interview-ea64d916d917" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">text of an interview</a> he and a colleague conducted with LaMDA. Lemoine claims that the chatbot’s responses indicate sentience comparable to that of a seven or eight-year-old child.</p> <p>Later, on June 14, Lemoine said on <a href="https://twitter.com/cajundiscordian/status/1536503474308907010" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Twitter</a>: “People keep asking me to back up the reason I think LaMDA is sentient. There is no scientific framework in which to make those determinations and Google wouldn’t let us build one. My opinions about LaMDA’s personhood and sentience are based on my religious beliefs.”</p> <p>Since sharing the interview with LaMDA, Lemoine has been placed on “paid administrative leave”.</p> <p>What are we to make of the claim? We should consider the following: what is sentience? How can we test for sentience?</p> <p><em>Cosmos </em>spoke to experts in artificial intelligence research to answer these and other questions in light of the claims about LaMDA.</p> <p>Professor Toby Walsh is a professor of artificial intelligence at the University of New South Wales (UNSW). Walsh also penned an <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jun/14/labelling-googles-lamda-chatbot-as-sentient-is-fanciful-but-its-very-human-to-be-taken-in-by-machines" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">article for the <em>Guardian</em></a> on Lemoine’s claims, writing: “Before you get too worried, Lemoine’s claims of sentience for LaMDA are, in my view, entirely fanciful. While Lemoine no doubt genuinely believes his claims, LaMDA is likely to be as sentient as a traffic light.”</p> <p>Walsh is also the author of a book, <em>Machines Behaving Badly: The Morality of AI</em>, published this month in which these themes are investigated.</p> <p>“We don’t have a very good scientific definition of sentience,” Walsh tells <em>Cosmos</em>. “It’s often thought as equivalent to consciousness, although it’s probably worth distinguishing between the two.”</p> <p>Sentience is about experiencing feelings or emotions, Walsh explains, whereas consciousness is being aware of your thoughts and others. “One reason why most experts will have quickly refuted the idea that LaMDA is sentient, is that the only sentient things that we are aware of currently are living,” he says. “That seems to be pretty much a precondition to be a sentient being – to be alive. And computers are clearly not alive.”</p> <p>Professor Hussein Abbass, professor in the School of Engineering and Information Technology at UNSW Canberra, agrees, but also highlights the lack of rigorous assessments of sentience. “Unfortunately, we do not have any satisfactory tests in the literature for sentience,” he says.</p> <div class="newsletter-box"> <div id="wpcf7-f6-p195078-o1" class="wpcf7" dir="ltr" lang="en-US" role="form"> <form class="wpcf7-form mailchimp-ext-0.5.62 spai-bg-prepared init" action="/technology/google-ai-lamda-sentient/#wpcf7-f6-p195078-o1" method="post" novalidate="novalidate" data-status="init"> <p style="display: none !important;"><span class="wpcf7-form-control-wrap referer-page"><input class="wpcf7-form-control wpcf7-text referer-page spai-bg-prepared" name="referer-page" type="hidden" value="https://cosmosmagazine.com/" data-value="https://cosmosmagazine.com/" aria-invalid="false" /></span></p> <p><!-- Chimpmail extension by Renzo Johnson --></form> </div> </div> <p class="spai-bg-prepared">“For example, if I ask a computer ‘do you feel pain’, and the answer is yes, does it mean it feels pain? Even if I grill it with deeper questions about pain, its ability to reason about pain is different from concluding that it feels pain. We may all agree that a newborn feels pain despite the fact that the newborn can’t argue the meaning of pain,” Abbass says. “The display of emotion is different from the existence of emotion.”</p> <p class="spai-bg-prepared">Walsh reasons that we can observe something responding to stimuli as evidence of sentience, but we should hold computers to higher standards. “The only sentience I’m certain of is my own because I experience it,” he says. “Because you look like you’re made of the same stuff as me, and you’re responding in an appropriate way, the simplest explanation is to assume that you must be sentient like I feel I am sentient.” For a computer, however, “that assumption that is not the simplest explanation. The simplest explanation is that it’s a clever mimic.”</p> <p class="spai-bg-prepared">“A conversation has two sides to it,” adds Walsh. “If you play with these tools, you quickly learn that it’s quite critical how you interact with them, and the questions you prompt them with will change the quality of the output. I think it reflects, in many respects, the intelligence of the person asking the questions and pushing the conversation along in helpful ways and, perhaps, using points that lead the conversation. That really reflects the intelligence of the person asking the questions.”</p> <p class="spai-bg-prepared">“Care needs to be taken to not project our own emotions and aspirations onto the machine, when we are talking about artificial intelligence in general,” says Dr Marc Cheong, digital ethics lecturer at the University of Melbourne. “AI learns from past data that we humans create – and the societal and historical contexts in which we live are reflected in the data we use to train the AI. Similarly for the claims of sentience, we shouldn’t start anthropomorphising AI without realising that its behaviour is merely finding patterns in data we feed into it.”</p> <p class="spai-bg-prepared">“We’re very forgiving, right? That’s a really human trait,” says Walsh. “Our superpower is not really our intelligence. Our superpower is our ability to work together to form society to interact with each other. If we mishear or a person says something wrong, we fill the gaps in. That’s helpful for us to work together and cooperate with other human beings. But equally, it tends to mislead us. We tend to be quite gullible in ascribing intelligence and other traits like sentience and consciousness to things that are perhaps inanimate.”</p> <p class="spai-bg-prepared">Walsh also explains that this isn’t the first time this has happened.</p> <p class="spai-bg-prepared">The first chatbot, Eliza, created in the 1970s, was “way less sophisticated”, Walsh says. “Eliza would take the sentence that the person said and turn it into a question. And yet there was quite a hype and buzz when Eliza first came out. The very first chatbot obviously fooled some people into thinking it was human. So it’s perhaps not so surprising that a much more sophisticated chatbot like this does the same again.”</p> <p class="spai-bg-prepared">In 1997, the supercomputer Deep Blue beat chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov. “I could feel – I could smell – a new kind of intelligence across the table,” <a class="spai-bg-prepared" href="https://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,984305,00.html#ixzz1DyffA0Dl" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Kasparov wrote in TIME</a>.</p> <p class="spai-bg-prepared">But Walsh explains that Deep Blue’s winning move wasn’t a stroke of genius produced by the machine’s creativity or sentience, but a bug in its code – as the timer was running out, the computer chose a move at random. “It quite spooked Kasparov and possibly actually contributed to his eventual narrow loss,” says Walsh.</p> <p class="spai-bg-prepared">So, how far away are we really from creating sentient machines? That’s difficult to say, but experts believe the short answer is “very far”.</p> <p class="spai-bg-prepared">“Will we ever create machines that are sentient?” asks Walsh. “We don’t know if that’s something that’s limited to biology. Computers are very good at simulating the weather and electron orbits. We could get them to simulate the biochemistry of a sentient being. But whether they then are sentient – that’s an interesting, technical, philosophical question that we don’t really know the answer to.</p> <p class="spai-bg-prepared">“We should probably entertain the idea that there’s nothing that we know of that would preclude it. There are no laws of physics that would be violated if machines were to become sentient. It’s plausible that we are just machines of some form and that we can build sentience in a computer. It just seems very unlikely that computers have any sentience today.”</p> <p class="spai-bg-prepared">“If we can’t objectively define what ‘sentient’ is, we can’t estimate how long it will take to create it,” explains Abbass. “In my expert opinion as an AI scientist for 30+ years, I would say that today’s AI-enabled machines are nowhere close to even the edge of being sentient.”</p> <p class="spai-bg-prepared">So, what then are we to make of claims of sentience?</p> <p class="spai-bg-prepared">“I can understand why this will be a very big thing because we give rights to almost anything that’s sentient. And we don’t like other things to suffer,” says Walsh.</p> <p class="spai-bg-prepared">“If machines never become sentient then we never have to have to care about them. I can take my robots apart diode by diode, and no one cares,” Walsh explains. “I don’t have to seek ethics approval for turning them off or anything like that. Whereas if they do become sentient, we <em class="spai-bg-prepared">will </em>have to worry about these things. And we have to ask questions like, are we allowed to turn them off? Is that akin to killing them? Should we get them to do the dull, dangerous, difficult things that are too dull, dangerous or difficult for humans to do? Equally, I do worry that if they don’t become sentient, they will always be very limited in what they can do.”</p> <p class="spai-bg-prepared">“I get worried from statements made about the technology that exaggerates the truth,” Abbass adds. “It undermines the intelligence of the public, it plays with people’s emotions, and it works against the objectivity in science. From time to time I see statements like Lemoine’s claims. This isn’t bad, because it gets us to debate these difficult concepts, which helps us advance the science. But it does not mean that the claims are adequate for the current state-of-the-art in AI. Do we have any sentient machine that I am aware of in the public domain? While we have technologies to imitate a sentient individual, we do not have the science yet to create a true sentient machine.”</p> <p><!-- Start of tracking content syndication. Please do not remove this section as it allows us to keep track of republished articles --></p> <p><img id="cosmos-post-tracker" class="spai-bg-prepared" style="opacity: 0; height: 1px!important; width: 1px!important; border: 0!important; position: absolute!important; z-index: -1!important;" src="https://syndication.cosmosmagazine.com/?id=195078&amp;title=Is+Google%E2%80%99s+AI+chatbot+LaMDA+sentient%3F+Computer+says+no" width="1" height="1" /></p> <p><!-- End of tracking content syndication --></p> <div id="contributors"> <p><em><a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/technology/google-ai-lamda-sentient/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">This article</a> was originally published on <a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Cosmos Magazine</a> and was written by <a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/contributor/evrim-yazgin" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Evrim Yazgin</a>. Evrim Yazgin has a Bachelor of Science majoring in mathematical physics and a Master of Science in physics, both from the University of Melbourne.</em></p> <p><em>Image: Getty Images</em></p> </div>

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Data visualisations made more accessible to screen reader users

<p>A type of assistive technology, screen readers are software programs that scan the contents of a computer screen and transform it into a different format – like synthesised voice or Braille – for people with complete or partial blindness, learning disabilities, or motion sensitivity.</p> <p>Now, scientists from the University of Washington (UW) in the US have designed a JavaScript plugin called VoxLens that allows people to better interact with these visualisations.</p> <p>VoxLens allows screen reader users to gain a high-level summary of the information described in a graph, listen to said graph translated into sound, or use voice-activated commands to ask specific questions about the data, such as the mean or the minimum value.</p> <p>The team presented their <a href="https://dl.acm.org/doi/fullHtml/10.1145/3491102.3517431" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">research</a> last month at the <a href="https://programs.sigchi.org/chi/2022" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems</a> in New Orleans in the US.</p> <figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"> <div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper"> <div class="entry-content-asset"> <div class="embed-wrapper"> <div class="inner"><iframe title="VoxLens - Paper Summary and Demo Video" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/o1R-5D2WS4s?feature=oembed" width="500" height="281" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></div> </div> </div> </div> </figure> <p>“If I’m looking at a graph, I can pull out whatever information I am interested in – maybe it’s the overall trend or maybe it’s the maximum,” says lead author Ather Sharif, a doctoral student in the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science &amp; Engineering at UW.</p> <p>“Right now, screen reader users either get very little or no information about online visualisations, which, in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, can sometimes be a matter of life and death. The goal of our project is to give screen reader users a platform where they can extract as much or as little information as they want.”</p> <p>The difficulty with translating graphs, according to co-senior author Jacob O. Wobbrock, a professor of information at UW, comes from deciphering information with no clear beginning and end.</p> <div class="newsletter-box"> <div id="wpcf7-f6-p193459-o1" class="wpcf7" dir="ltr" lang="en-US" role="form"> <form class="wpcf7-form mailchimp-ext-0.5.61 spai-bg-prepared init" action="/technology/voxlens-accessibility-screen-readers/#wpcf7-f6-p193459-o1" method="post" novalidate="novalidate" data-status="init"> <p style="display: none !important;"><span class="wpcf7-form-control-wrap referer-page"><input class="wpcf7-form-control wpcf7-text referer-page spai-bg-prepared" name="referer-page" type="hidden" value="https://www.google.com/" data-value="https://www.google.com/" aria-invalid="false" /></span></p> <p><!-- Chimpmail extension by Renzo Johnson --></form> </div> </div> <p>“There is a start and an end of a sentence and everything else comes in between,” he explains. “But as soon as you move things into two dimensional spaces, such as visualisations, there’s no clear start and finish.</p> <p>“It’s just not structured in the same way, which means there’s no obvious entry point or sequencing for screen readers.”</p> <p><strong>Working with screen reader users to improve accessibility</strong></p> <p>The team worked with screen reader users who had partial or complete blindness when designing and testing the tool. During the testing phase, participants learned how to use VoxLens and then completed nine tasks, each of which involved answering questions about a data visualisation.</p> <p>The researchers found that participants completed the tasks with 122% increased accuracy and 36% decreased interaction time, compared to participants of a previous study who hadn’t had access to VoxLens.</p> <p>“We want people to interact with a graph as much as they want, but we also don’t want them to spend an hour trying to find what the maximum is,” says Sharif. “In our study, interaction time refers to how long it takes to extract information, and that’s why reducing it is a good thing.”</p> <p>VoxLens can be implanted easily by data visualisation designers with a single line of code. Right now it only works for visualisations created using <a href="https://www.javascript.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">JavaScript</a> libraries – such as <a href="https://d3js.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">D3</a>, <a href="https://www.chartjs.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">chart.js</a> or <a href="https://www.google.com.au/sheets/about/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Google Sheets</a> – but the team is working towards expanding to other popular platforms.</p> <p>“This work is part of a much larger agenda for us – removing bias in design,” adds co-senior author Katharina Reinecke, associate professor in the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science &amp; Engineering at UW. “When we build technology, we tend to think of people who are like us and who have the same abilities as we do.</p> <p>“For example, D3 has really revolutionised access to visualisations online and improved how people can understand information. But there are values ingrained in it and people are left out. It’s really important that we start thinking more about how to make technology useful for everybody.”</p> <p><!-- Start of tracking content syndication. Please do not remove this section as it allows us to keep track of republished articles --></p> <p><img id="cosmos-post-tracker" style="opacity: 0; height: 1px!important; width: 1px!important; border: 0!important; position: absolute!important; z-index: -1!important;" src="https://syndication.cosmosmagazine.com/?id=193459&amp;title=Data+visualisations+made+more+accessible+to+screen+reader+users" width="1" height="1" /></p> <p><!-- End of tracking content syndication --></p> <div id="contributors"> <p><em><a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/technology/voxlens-accessibility-screen-readers/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">This article</a> was originally published on <a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Cosmos Magazine</a> and was written by <a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/contributor/imma-perfetto" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Imma Perfetto</a>. Imma Perfetto is a science writer at Cosmos. She has a Bachelor of Science with Honours in Science Communication from the University of Adelaide.</em></p> <p><em>Image: Getty Images</em></p> </div>

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How QR codes work and what makes them dangerous – a computer scientist explains

<p>Among the many changes brought about by the pandemic is the widespread use of QR codes, graphical representations of digital data that can be printed and later scanned by a smartphone or other device.</p> <p>QR codes have a <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescommunicationscouncil/2021/03/25/how-the-pandemic-saved-the-qr-code-from-extinction/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wide range of uses</a> that help people avoid contact with objects and close interactions with other people, including for sharing <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/08/21/qr-codes-have-replaced-restaurant-menus-industry-experts-say-it-isnt-a-fad.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">restaurant menus</a>, email list sign-ups, car and home sales information, and checking in and out of medical and professional appointments.</p> <p>QR codes are a close cousin of the bar codes on product packaging that cashiers scan with infrared scanners to let the checkout computer know what products are being purchased.</p> <p>Bar codes store information along one axis, horizontally. QR codes store information in both vertical and horizontal axes, which allows them to hold significantly more data. That extra amount of data is what makes QR codes so versatile.</p> <p><strong>Anatomy of a QR code</strong></p> <p>While it is easy for people to read Arabic numerals, it is hard for a computer. Bar codes encode alphanumeric data as a series of black and white lines of various widths. At the store, bar codes record the set of numbers that specify a product’s ID. Critically, data stored in bar codes is redundant. Even if part of the bar code is destroyed or obscured, it is still possible for a device to read the product ID.</p> <p>QR codes are designed to be scanned using a camera, such as those found on your smartphone. QR code scanning is built into many camera apps for Android and iOS. QR codes are most often used to store web links; however, they can store arbitrary data, such as text or images.</p> <p>When you scan a QR code, the QR reader in your phone’s camera deciphers the code, and the resulting information triggers an action on your phone. If the QR code holds a URL, your phone will present you with the URL. Tap it, and your phone’s default browser will open the webpage.</p> <p>QR codes are composed of several parts: data, position markers, quiet zone and optional logos.</p> <figure class="align-center zoomable"><em><a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/451140/original/file-20220309-17-1jkfl5t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=1000&amp;fit=clip"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/451140/original/file-20220309-17-1jkfl5t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/451140/original/file-20220309-17-1jkfl5t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=372&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451140/original/file-20220309-17-1jkfl5t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=372&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451140/original/file-20220309-17-1jkfl5t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=372&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451140/original/file-20220309-17-1jkfl5t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=467&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451140/original/file-20220309-17-1jkfl5t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=467&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451140/original/file-20220309-17-1jkfl5t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=467&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 2262w" alt="a black-and-white pattern with four numerical markers attached to arrows pointing to portions of the pattern" /></a></em><figcaption><em><span class="caption">The QR code anatomy: data (1), position markers (2), quiet zone (3) and optional logos (4).</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Scott Ruoti</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CC BY-ND</a></span></em></figcaption></figure> <p>The data in a QR code is a series of dots in a square grid. Each dot represents a one and each blank a zero in binary code, and the patterns encode sets of numbers, letters or both, including URLs. At its smallest this grid is 21 rows by 21 columns, and at its largest it is 177 rows by 177 columns. In most cases, QR codes use black squares on a white background, making the dots easy to distinguish. However, this is not a strict requirement, and QR codes can use any color or shape for the dots and background.</p> <p>Position markers are squares placed in a QR code’s top-left, top-right, and bottom-left corners. These markers let a smartphone camera or other device orient the QR code when scanning it. QR codes are surrounded by blank space, the quiet zone, to help the computer determine where the QR code begins and ends. QR codes can include an optional logo in the middle.</p> <p>Like barcodes, QR codes are designed with data redundancy. Even if as much as 30% of the QR code is destroyed or difficult to read, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/what-is-a-qr-code?op=1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the data can still be recovered</a>. In fact, logos are not actually part of the QR code; they cover up some of the QR code’s data. However, due to the QR code’s redundancy, the data represented by these missing dots can be recovered by looking at the remaining visible dots.</p> <p><strong>Are QR codes dangerous?</strong></p> <p>QR codes are not inherently dangerous. They are simply a way to store data. However, just as it can be hazardous to click links in emails, visiting URLs stored in QR codes can also be risky in several ways.</p> <p>The QR code’s URL can take you to a phishing website that tries to <a href="https://www.ic3.gov/Media/Y2022/PSA220118" target="_blank" rel="noopener">trick you</a> into entering your username or password for another website. The URL could take you to a legitimate website and trick that website into doing something harmful, such as giving an attacker access to your account. While such an attack requires a flaw in the website you are visiting, such vulnerabilities are <a href="https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Glossary/Cross-site_scripting" target="_blank" rel="noopener">common on the internet</a>. The URL can take you to a malicious website that tricks another website you are logged into on the same device to take an unauthorized action.</p> <p>A malicious URL could open an application on your device and cause it to take some action. Maybe you’ve seen this behavior when you clicked a Zoom link, and the Zoom application opened and automatically joined a meeting. While such behavior is ordinarily benign, an attacker could use this to trick some apps into revealing your data.</p> <p>It is critical that when you open a link in a QR code, you ensure that the URL is safe and comes from a trusted source. Just because the QR code has a logo you recognize doesn’t mean you should click on the URL it contains.</p> <p>There is also a slight chance that the app used to scan the QR code could contain a vulnerability that allows <a href="https://www.lifewire.com/how-to-protect-yourself-from-malicious-qr-codes-2487772" target="_blank" rel="noopener">malicious QR codes to take over your device</a>. This attack would succeed by just scanning the QR code, even if you don’t click the link stored in it. To avoid this threat, you should use trusted apps provided by the device manufacturer to scan QR codes and avoid downloading custom QR code apps.<!-- Below is The Conversation's page counter tag. Please DO NOT REMOVE. --><img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/177217/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /><!-- End of code. If you don't see any code above, please get new code from the Advanced tab after you click the republish button. The page counter does not collect any personal data. More info: https://theconversation.com/republishing-guidelines --></p> <p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/scott-ruoti-1318954" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Scott Ruoti</a>, Assistant Professor of Computer Science, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-tennessee-688" target="_blank" rel="noopener">University of Tennessee</a></em></p> <p><em>This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-qr-codes-work-and-what-makes-them-dangerous-a-computer-scientist-explains-177217" target="_blank" rel="noopener">original article</a>.</em></p> <p><em>Image: Getty Images</em></p>

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When is it better to restart vs. shut down your computer?

<p><strong>Keep calm and shut down</strong></p> <p><span>There are some who believe there’s nothing that can’t be fixed on your computer by shutting it down and starting over. </span></p> <p><span>That may be a stretch, but truly, the shutdown option has always been seen as a cure-all for technical difficulties. </span></p> <p><span>Is it really that simple, though? And can a restart create the same system magic?</span></p> <p><strong>The case for shutting down</strong></p> <p><span>Anh Trinh is the managing editor at Geek with Laptop, a site that helps readers gain knowledge around all kinds of tech subjects. </span></p> <p><span>She explains that shutting down a computer is a way to power down all processes of the machine. </span></p> <p><span>“It’s very similar to a restart but with the exception that your computer won’t turn back on again until someone powers it up,” she explains. </span></p> <p><span>“This is especially useful if you plan to leave your computer for a while.”</span></p> <p><strong>Shut down isn't what it used to be</strong></p> <p>People with newer computers may experience a different kind of shutdown these days, according to ProPrivacy digital privacy expert Ray Walsh.</p> <p>“Although many people assume that a shutdown is a more comprehensive way to ensure that all processes are killed, the reality is that since Windows 8, this is a fallacy,” he says.</p> <p>“In older versions of Windows, both ‘shut down’ and ‘restart’ did exactly the same thing in terms of shutting down processes. However, since Windows 8, a new feature called Fast Startup has altered this considerably.”</p> <p>How has that changed things, exactly? “Shutting down a Windows computer actually creates a deep hibernation file that the PC later leverages to allow for Fast Startup. A restart, on the other hand, completely kills all processes, clears the RAM, and clears the processor cache,” he explains.</p> <p>“This is why a restart is the preferred method when completing a new install or uninstall and why a computer restarts during Windows Operating System updates.”</p> <p>And just so we’re clear, forcible shutdowns are a different story entirely.</p> <p><strong>What about Macs?</strong></p> <p><span>“A Mac is a Unix environment in which everything is cleared during both ‘shut down’ and ‘restart,’” Walsh explains. </span></p> <p><span>“This makes both ‘shut down’ and ‘restart’ identical in that all processes, cache and memory will be cleared, giving the machine a complete refresh.” </span></p> <p><span>In other words, there’s no real difference between a shut down or a restart for Mac users. This means most of the information that follows applies to PC users only unless otherwise stated.</span></p> <p><strong>Which situations call for a restart vs. a shutdown?</strong></p> <p>“When you’re installing new software or hardware, you’re going to need to restart your computer. This will shut off all processes so that the Kernal can be reestablished with the new software or hardware in consideration,” says Shayne Sherman, CEO of TechLoris.</p> <p>For those who aren’t aware, the Kernal is a part of the operating system that manages memory and CPU time.</p> <p>“This is also what you want to use when you’re having problems with your computer, since this will kill all processes and restart them.”</p> <p>And yes, this is different for Macs, according to Walsh. “Due to the fact that a Mac always clears everything during a reboot, Mac users will always clear their machine when they restart or shut down,” he adds.</p> <p><strong>How often should users be performing a restart?</strong></p> <p><span>“Most IT experts recommend doing a restart at least once every two to three days to permit Windows to clean up open files, get rid of temp files, and update itself,” Walsh says. </span></p> <p><span>“This ensures that deleted files and other assets are removed from a PC’s cache and aren’t left hanging around, potentially causing security or privacy issues.”</span></p> <p><strong>How often should users be performing a system shutdown?</strong></p> <p><span>“Shutting down a computer is a more energy-efficient and environmentally friendly way to leave a PC unattended,” Walsh explains. </span></p> <p><span>“Leaving a PC in sleep mode results in some power usage by the RAM and from the storage of open files and programs.”</span></p> <p><strong>Which option is better for battery life?</strong></p> <p><span>“A shut down is a deep hibernation that ensures that your computer is not wasting energy,” Walsh says.</span></p> <p><span> “A restart only momentarily turns the machine off to stop all processes, clear the RAM, and clear the processor cache. Thus, a shut down is better for power consumption and better for prolonging the life of the battery.”</span></p> <p><strong>Which option is better for security?</strong></p> <p><span>This is one area where the answer is the same for both PCs and Macs. “Shutting down a Windows PC or Mac is considered better for security because it means that the machine is completely offline for the period of time that it is off,” Walsh says. </span></p> <p><span>“This removes the potential for that machine to be hacked and stops it from communicating with a command and control server if it has already been infected with an exploit.”</span></p> <p><strong>What about cold temperatures?</strong></p> <p>Believe it or not, temperature should be one of your considerations when deciding whether to shut down or restart.</p> <p>“The cold can be extremely damaging to batteries, which is why it is unwise to switch off a battery-operated device when it is extremely cold,” Walsh explains.</p> <p>“It is better to keep a laptop running rather than switch it off in a cold car.”</p> <p>But that’s not the only reason to avoid a shut down in cold temperatures. “In extremely cold temperatures, it can potentially be unwise to turn off a computer abruptly, particularly if you have been performing intensive CPU/GPU tasks that have made the computer heat up considerably,” Walsh says.</p> <p>“This is because going from hot to cold quickly may adversely affect the PC’s microelectronic components due to thermal contraction.”</p> <p>If you have no choice but to shut down, Walsh advises waiting a little while after the intense processes have ended; that will allow the internal components to slowly cool down first.</p> <p>“However, generally speaking, computers like the cold and will perform better in the cold, where they will not heat up as much performing intensive processes,” he adds.</p> <p><strong>How about hot temperatures?</strong></p> <p><span>“The biggest danger for computers is extreme heat,” Walsh says. </span></p> <p><span>“Anytime that a computer is exposed to extremely hot conditions, it is best to power it down and leave it switched off. Even a relatively hot office can potentially be highly damaging to a computer’s components if the computer is overheating. This will substantially reduce the life span of the computer and is much more of a concern than the cold.”</span></p> <p><em>Image credits: Getty Images</em></p> <p><em>This article originally appeared on <a href="https://www.readersdigest.com.au/true-stories-lifestyle/science-technology/when-is-it-better-to-restart-vs-shut-down-your-computer?pages=1">Reader's Digest</a>. </em></p>

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How do Wi-Fi and hotspots work?

<div class="copy"> <p>If you’re reading this article on your smartphone or laptop, it’s more than likely you’re connected to a wireless router. <span style="font-family: inherit;">No need for bulky cables – just pick the wireless signal you want and the World Wide Web is at your fingertips. </span></p> <p>This is all thanks to the power of Wi-Fi. So how does it actually work?</p> <p><span style="font-family: inherit;">If you wanted to connect to the internet before Wi-Fi (which, by the way, doesn’t stand for wireless fidelity – it doesn’t actually stand for anything) you needed a cable known as an ethernet cable. </span></p> <p>This cable converts 1s and 0s of binary, the language of computers, into electrical signals which are sent down a wire and converted back into binary by the computer. </p> <p>But in the case of Wi-Fi, those electrical signals are converted by a router to radio waves that carry the electrical signal to the computer, where they’re converted to binary again.</p> <p>Information is sent as lots of small packets that are then stitched together. </p> <p>The process also works in reverse. If you need to send an email, your computer or smartphone shoots radio waves to the router. </p> <p>The radio waves are very similar to those used in mobile phones, walkie-talkies and other devices.</p> <p>So how can radio waves carry the amount of information needed to watch a high-resolution cat video?</p> <p>It’s true: the amount of information transmitted to make a phone call (audio) is far less than to watch an online video (audio and visual). </p> <p>This boils down to the radio wave frequency. Wi-Fi uses either 2.4 gigahertz or 5 gigahertz – far higher than those used by mobile phones at less than 1 gigahertz. </p> <p>A higher frequency means more radio waves – and more data – can be packed into a given space. </p> <p>The trade-off is that the waves can’t travel as far and are heavily influenced by nearby objects, including other Wi-Fi signals. </p> <p>That’s why your Wi-Fi signal gets weaker the more walls you put between your computer and router.</p> <p>You can get around this by linking lots of routers together to boost the signal. This is how the internet hotspots found in places such as cafes, universities and office buildings manage to reach out across multiple levels and large distances. </p> <p>For instance, the University of Twente in the Netherlands has a hotspot covering 1.4 square kilometres. It combines more than 600 individual routers from one massive signal that all students and staff can access at the same time.</p> <em>Image credits: Shutterstock            <!-- Start of tracking content syndication. Please do not remove this section as it allows us to keep track of republished articles --> <img id="cosmos-post-tracker" style="opacity: 0; height: 1px!important; width: 1px!important; border: 0!important; position: absolute!important; z-index: -1!important;" src="https://syndication.cosmosmagazine.com/?id=12344&amp;title=How+do+Wi-Fi+and+hotspots+work%3F" alt="" width="1" height="1" /> <!-- End of tracking content syndication -->          </em></div> <div id="contributors"> <p><em>This article was originally published on cosmosmagazine.com and was written by Jake Port. </em></p> </div>

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What is ransomware and how is it dealt with?

<div> <div class="copy"> <h3>What is ransomware?</h3> <p>Ransomware is a type of malicious software – AKA malware – that infects and takes control of a device. It blocks access to files or even whole devices, and then sends a message demanding a ransom to grant access to those files.</p> <p>This is a common form of cybercrime that has recently affected <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.afr.com/policy/health-and-education/unisa-cyber-attack-hits-staff-email-20210519-p57td5" target="_blank">universities</a>, <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/125294482/cyber-attack-waikato-dhb-counting-ransomware-cost-but-it-remains-to-be-tallied" target="_blank">hospitals</a> and <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-06-02/fbi-investigating-jbs-meatworks-ransomwear-cyber-attack/100183376" target="_blank">meatworks</a>. Because it blocks vital data from being accessed, it can <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.zdnet.com/article/ransomware-an-executive-guide-to-one-of-the-biggest-menaces-on-the-web/" target="_blank">massively disrupt</a> organisations that use the shared networks and/or the internet – which is, well, everyone at this point.</p> <h3>How does ransomware work?</h3> <p>Malware is infectious software that will download onto a computer, phone or other device. It can be shared though phishing emails, links in messages or other online locations, or fake download buttons. Sometimes it can be difficult to tell whether a link or button is malicious in the first place.</p> <p>When the fake link is clicked, the malware automatically downloads and then hunts through the system or network to identify important data. The software can lock the device or files with a new password, or encrypt files with a secret key, preventing access.</p> <p>This can be exacerbated because malware can be accompanied by social-engineering tools that trick you into granting admin access, or it can exploit security holes to dive into the important files and software on the computer without even needing to get ‘permission’.</p> <p>There are <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://resources.infosecinstitute.com/topic/a-brief-summary-of-encryption-method-used-in-widespread-ransomware/#gref" target="_blank">many ways of encrypting files</a>, but the point is to prevent user access with computer algorithms. Without an up-to-date backup, this data is essentially lost.</p> <p>The user will then often see a ransom note in the form of a message demanding (usually) money to lift the password or encryption.</p> <p>Of course, paying the ransom doesn’t mean the cyber-criminal will actually lift the encryption, and if you have paid up once, there is incentive for the criminal to do it again.</p> <p><iframe title="vimeo-player" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/497805836" allowfullscreen="" width="640" height="360" frameborder="0"></iframe></p> <p class="caption"><em>Credit: cyber.gov.au</em></p> <p>The real kicker here is that the infectious software can gain access to a whole network of connected devices, even if it has been downloaded on just one computer – which means businesses that have shared data can be completely prevented for accessing anything<em>, </em>including saved files, emails and user profiles.</p> <p>There is no simple explanation of how the programming works – it is complex software engineering that can be continuously updated, and there are <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.unitrends.com/solutions/ransomware-education" target="_blank">different examples</a> that can be spread and downloaded in ways the suit the attacker.</p> <h3>What does ransomware look like?</h3> <p>Because malware can pop up in almost anywhere, it is often hard to identify.</p> <p>A lot of ransomware is designed to look like something real, such as a casual email attachment, something shared via social media, or a website that looks <em>almost </em>like a real website you wanted to visit, but has a few different letters in the URL.</p> <p>in one sneaky approach, the attacker can even pretend to be somebody from law enforcement who is “stopping another cybercrime” that they accuse you of, and then demand a fine from you – but there are easier ways to get access to a device.</p> <p>The main thing to remember is that a lot of phishing can be prevented by not clicking suspicious links. Just a little life hack on how not to get hacked.</p> <p><iframe src="https://giphy.com/embed/MM0Jrc8BHKx3y" width="480" height="270" frameborder="0" class="giphy-embed" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></p> <p><a rel="noopener" href="https://giphy.com/gifs/hacker-MM0Jrc8BHKx3y" target="_blank">via GIPHY</a></p> <h3>Who is committing ransomware cybercrimes?</h3> <p>More seriously, this in an increasingly big business – between ransoms paid, loss of data and downtime, costs of recovery, and other security and investigations, ransomware attacks cost the world <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://cybersecurityventures.com/ransomware-damage-report-2017-part-2/" target="_blank">$5 billion in 2017</a>.</p> <p>Cybercriminals are often individuals or work in teams or networks, but there are also <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/people/society/cybercrime-can-be-a-tough-game/" target="_blank">crimeware-as-a-service</a> groups that essentially operate as a business.</p> <h3>What cybersecurity measures need to be in place?</h3> <p>Technology develops so quickly that defenders and attackers can get stuck in an arms race, so cybersecurity and trained professionals are <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/technology/ai/cosmos-briefing-intelligent-manufacturing/" target="_blank">absolutely essential</a> to an online world, especially as we begin to incorporate more AI and machine learning into our manufacturing. Once ransomware is in a network, it’s extremely hard to remove.</p> <div class="twitter-tweet twitter-tweet-rendered" style="display: flex; max-width: 550px; width: 100%; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><iframe id="twitter-widget-0" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true" allowfullscreen="true" class="" style="position: static; visibility: visible; width: 551px; height: 389px; display: block; flex-grow: 1;" title="Twitter Tweet" src="https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?creatorScreenName=CosmosMagazine&amp;dnt=false&amp;embedId=twitter-widget-0&amp;features=eyJ0ZndfZXhwZXJpbWVudHNfY29va2llX2V4cGlyYXRpb24iOnsiYnVja2V0IjoxMjA5NjAwLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfSwidGZ3X2hvcml6b25fdHdlZXRfZW1iZWRfOTU1NSI6eyJidWNrZXQiOiJodGUiLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfSwidGZ3X3NwYWNlX2NhcmQiOnsiYnVja2V0Ijoib2ZmIiwidmVyc2lvbiI6bnVsbH19&amp;frame=false&amp;hideCard=false&amp;hideThread=false&amp;id=1399844326855880704&amp;lang=en&amp;origin=https%3A%2F%2Fcosmosmagazine.com%2Ftechnology%2Fwhat-is-ransomware-and-how-is-it-dealt-with%2F&amp;sessionId=1edacffebc49fba152bed8435892b99ad3545164&amp;siteScreenName=CosmosMagazine&amp;theme=light&amp;widgetsVersion=fcb1942%3A1632982954711&amp;width=550px" data-tweet-id="1399844326855880704"></iframe></div> <p>First and foremost, <strong>keep backups</strong>. If all your files get encrypted but you have another offline backup, it’s simple to restore your data.</p> <p><strong>Always keep your malware security up to date</strong>. Attackers obviously try to get around this security, but it is a whole lot better than having none at all. Many companies test their systems with <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://us.norton.com/internetsecurity-emerging-threats-what-is-the-difference-between-black-white-and-grey-hat-hackers.html" target="_blank">white hat hackers</a>, who attempt to hack their systems to recognise – and fix – the security flaws.</p> <p>Teaching people to recognise <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/how-recognize-and-avoid-phishing-scams" target="_blank">phishing emails</a> and be cautious about suspicious sites and links is also necessary, but it can only go so far, because phishing material is constantly being ‘improved’ to blend in better. Don’t click on links or open attachments if you don’t know the sender of the email. A lot of these emails suggest you need to make a payment, have breached some sort of contract, or pretend to have blocked access to an account.</p> <p>Because ransomware secretly searches your device, there can be a delay between when a link is clicked and when files are encrypted. There is a rise in predictive analytics and machine learning to help detect this suspicious behaviour and shut it down early.</p> <p>And finally, if you do get attacked, <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.cyber.gov.au/ransomware#:~:text=Ransomware%20is%20a%20type%20of,to%20get%20back%20your%20access." target="_blank">don’t pay up</a>, because it’s likely to make you seem like an easy target in the future.</p> <h2><strong>Q&amp;A with a cybersecurity expert</strong></h2> <p>We asked Diep Ngyuen, Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology at UTS, for a little more depth. This is what they said</p> <h3>How can a cyber-attack effect a whole network?</h3> <p>Cyber attacks target either to bring down networks/systems (make them malfunction) or to compromise the information access authority or integrity.</p> <p>Although the former is often closer and easier to understand to most people, the latter is more popular and the major target of most daily life cyber attacks.</p> <p>For example, DoS (Denial-of-Service) attacks can make a network or service inaccessible for some time, disrupting corporates’ functioning or business. These types of attacks can be easily detected.</p> <p>However, cybercrimes often target high-value information and attempt to illegally access it or even alter the information.</p> <p>The information authority or integrity attacks are more difficult to be detected but their consequences can be very damaging, even much worse than the DoS attacks.</p> <h3>What are some common cybersecurity precautions?</h3> <p>To prevent or reduce risks from cyber attacks, IT core engineers/experts and daily users can take different approaches. However, these approaches all aim to early detect cyber threats, then effectively protect or cure the systems when the attacks really happen.</p> <p>One of the most common precautions [is] to avoid using services/websites, apps, hardware from non-certified or low-reputation sources/providers. These systems often have back doors or vulnerable loopholes that can be leveraged by cybercrimes.</p> <p>The second precaution would be to update and follow security recommendations from governments and experts, e.g., using multi-factor authentication methods, not to share or be cautious on sharing personal/private information like Date of Birth, photos, [etc] on open platforms (even social media).</p> <p>The last, but not least, is to become more aware of cyber threats/risks before deciding to take any action (e.g., do you understand the risk of using Apple pay or using activity trackers?).</p> <h3>How has cyber security changed over the last decade?</h3> <p>Cyber security landscape has been changing dramatically over the last 10 years. This is because of the penetration of IT to every corner of our daily life, from working, entertaining, to sleeping.</p> <p>This is also because of the ever-growing advances in attacks and their countermeasures. In comparison with 10 years ago, the number of connecting devices today has been increased by multiple times.On average, each person now would have more than a few connecting devices (e.g., phones, activity trackers, laptops, sensors at home).</p> <p>These devices, [while they] bring us lots of conveniences, are making us more vulnerable to cyber threats when they are attacked or compromised. More importantly, most of these newly added devices (e.g., in Internet of Things) are limited in computing and storage capability or referred to as low-end devices in cyber security. They are more susceptible to cyber threats. </p> <p>The advances in machine learning and AI also empower cybercrimes, allowing them to launch larger scale and more damaging attacks.</p> <em>Image credit: Shutterstock                         <!-- Start of tracking content syndication. Please do not remove this section as it allows us to keep track of republished articles --> <img id="cosmos-post-tracker" style="opacity: 0; height: 1px!important; width: 1px!important; border: 0!important; position: absolute!important; z-index: -1!important;" src="https://syndication.cosmosmagazine.com/?id=154123&amp;title=What+is+ransomware+and+how+is+it+dealt+with%3F" alt="" width="1" height="1" /> <!-- End of tracking content syndication -->          </em></div> <div id="contributors"> <p><em>This article was originally published on <a rel="noopener" href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/technology/what-is-ransomware-and-how-is-it-dealt-with/" target="_blank">cosmosmagazine.com</a> and was written by Deborah Devis. </em></p> </div> </div>

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Apple iMac computers return to colourful roots

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In the latest installation by Apple, their reinvented iMac design sports a throwback to the original colourful roots from over 20 years ago.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The new desktop computers exhibit a slim-line design, while being available to purchase in seven different colours - </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, silver.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The throwback colours are a nod to the first iMac computer, which was released in 1998, and became an instant hit.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">They also donned a bold all-in-one design originally released in an unforgettable blue translucent plastic body, that has become an iconic image of the technology revolution. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">This design came after Apple CEO Steve Jobs wanted to reinvigorate the company’s products and global image.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">This company revamp is arguably a key reason for Apple’s incredible ongoing success today.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Excited customers from all over the world have been getting their hands on the new rainbow iMacs, which is unlike anything else on the tech market today. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The new devices include a Magic Keyboard, Magic Mouse or Magic Trackpad, which are all rechargeable devices and colour-matched to your iMac of choice.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The desktop computers also boast a 24 inch screen, six built-in speakers and HD cameras.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The iMacs start at $1,899, with PC fans saying the price point is definitely justified by the quality of the colourful machine. </span></p> <p><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Image credits: Shutterstock</span></em></p>

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A computer can guess more than 100,000,000,000 passwords per second. Still think yours is secure?

<p>Passwords have been used for thousands of years as a means of identifying ourselves to others and in more recent times, to computers. It’s a simple concept – a shared piece of information, kept secret between individuals and used to “prove” identity.</p> <p>Passwords in an IT context <a href="https://www.wired.com/2012/01/computer-password/">emerged in the 1960s</a> with <a href="https://www.techopedia.com/definition/24356/mainframe">mainframe</a> computers – large centrally operated computers with remote “terminals” for user access. They’re now used for everything from the PIN we enter at an ATM, to logging in to our computers and various websites.</p> <p>But why do we need to “prove” our identity to the systems we access? And why are passwords so hard to get right?</p> <p><strong>What makes a good password?</strong></p> <p>Until relatively recently, a good password might have been a word or phrase of as little as six to eight characters. But we now have minimum length guidelines. This is because of “entropy”.</p> <p>When talking about passwords, entropy is the <a href="https://www.itdojo.com/a-somewhat-brief-explanation-of-password-entropy/">measure of predictability</a>. The maths behind this isn’t complex, but let’s examine it with an even simpler measure: the number of possible passwords, sometimes referred to as the “password space”.</p> <p>If a one-character password only contains one lowercase letter, there are only 26 possible passwords (“a” to “z”). By including uppercase letters, we increase our password space to 52 potential passwords.</p> <p>The password space continues to expand as the length is increased and other character types are added.</p> <p>However, the problem with depending on password complexity is that computers are highly efficient at repeating tasks – including guessing passwords.</p> <p>Last year, a <a href="https://www.cbronline.com/news/stolen-user-credentials">record was set</a> for a computer trying to generate every conceivable password. It achieved a rate faster than 100,000,000,000 guesses per second.</p> <p>By leveraging this computing power, cyber criminals can hack into systems by bombarding them with as many password combinations as possible, in a process called <a href="https://www.kaspersky.com/resource-center/definitions/brute-force-attack">brute force attacks</a>.</p> <p>And with cloud-based technology, guessing an eight-character password can be achieved in as little as 12 minutes and cost as little as US$25.</p> <p>Also, because passwords are almost always used to give access to sensitive data or important systems, this motivates cyber criminals to actively seek them out. It also drives a lucrative online market selling passwords, some of which come with email addresses and/or usernames.</p> <p><strong>How are passwords stored on websites?</strong></p> <p>Website passwords are usually stored in a protected manner using a mathematical algorithm called <a href="https://www.wired.com/2016/06/hacker-lexicon-password-hashing/">hashing</a>. A hashed password is unrecognisable and can’t be turned back into the password (an irreversible process).</p> <p>When you try to login, the password you enter is hashed using the same process and compared to the version stored on the site. This process is repeated each time you login.</p> <p>For example, the password “Pa$$w0rd” is given the value “02726d40f378e716981c4321d60ba3a325ed6a4c” when calculated using the SHA1 hashing algorithm. Try it <a href="https://passwordsgenerator.net/sha1-hash-generator/">yourself</a>.</p> <p>When faced with a file full of hashed passwords, a brute force attack can be used, trying every combination of characters for a range of password lengths. This has become such common practice that there are websites that list common passwords alongside their (calculated) hashed value. You can simply search for the hash to reveal the corresponding password.</p> <p>The theft and selling of passwords lists is now so common, a <a href="https://haveibeenpwned.com/">dedicated website</a> — haveibeenpwned.com — is available to help users check if their accounts are “in the wild”. This has grown to include more than 10 billion account details.</p> <p>If your email address is listed on this site you should definitely change the detected password, as well as on any other sites for which you use the same credentials.</p> <p><strong>Is more complexity the solution?</strong></p> <p>You would think with so many password breaches occurring daily, we would have improved our password selection practices. Unfortunately, last year’s annual <a href="https://www.securitymagazine.com/articles/91461-the-worst-passwords-of-2019">SplashData password survey</a> has shown little change over five years.</p> <p>As computing capabilities increase, the solution would appear to be increased complexity. But as humans, we are not skilled at (nor motivated to) remember highly complex passwords.</p> <p>We’ve also passed the point where we use only two or three systems needing a password. It’s now common to access numerous sites, with each requiring a password (often of varying length and complexity). A recent survey suggests there are, on average, <a href="https://www.newswire.com/news/new-research-most-people-have-70-80-passwords-21103705">70-80 passwords per person</a>.</p> <p>The good news is there are tools to address these issues. Most computers now support password storage in either the operating system or the web browser, usually with the option to share stored information across multiple devices.</p> <p>Examples include Apple’s <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/3254183/how-to-use-icloud-keychain-the-guide.html">iCloud Keychain</a> and the ability to save passwords in Internet Explorer, Chrome and Firefox (although <a href="https://www.howtogeek.com/447345/why-you-shouldnt-use-your-web-browsers-password-manager/">less reliable</a>).</p> <p><a href="https://tech.co/password-managers/what-is-a-password-manager">Password managers</a> such as KeePassXC can help users generate long, complex passwords and store them in a secure location for when they’re needed.</p> <p>While this location still needs to be protected (usually with a long “master password”), using a password manager lets you have a unique, complex password for every website you visit.</p> <p>This won’t prevent a password from being stolen from a vulnerable website. But if it is stolen, you won’t have to worry about changing the same password on all your other sites.</p> <p>There are of course vulnerabilities in these solutions too, but perhaps that’s a story for another day.</p> <p><em>Written by Paul Haskell-Dowland and Brianna O’Shea. Republished with permission of <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-computer-can-guess-more-than-100-000-000-000-passwords-per-second-still-think-yours-is-secure-144418">The Conversation.</a> </em></p>

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Are there ‘male’ and ‘female’ brains? Computers can see a distinction

<p>How useful are the well-known and hotly contested categories of “male brain” and “female brain”?</p> <p>Among experts, nobody really questions that anatomical sex differences in the brain exist. But since the advent of brain science, the scientific community has been divided over how many differences there are, which ones have been definitively proven, how large or small they are, and what they actually mean.</p> <p>And, over the past several years, a new debate has been brewing among experts. Do anatomical differences in the brain “add up” to two clearly recognisable (sex-specific) brain types? Or do they rather “mix up” and form idiosyncratic combinations or “mosaics”, independent of sex?</p> <p><strong>A mosaic of male and female features</strong></p> <p>The mosaic hypothesis was supported by the results of a <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/112/50/15468">ground-breaking study</a> published in 2015 by Daphna Joel and her collaborators at Tel-Aviv University.</p> <p>Using brain scans of more than 1,400 participants, Joel and company identified the 10 regions showing the largest differences in size between men and women. Next, they classified each region of each brain as “male-typical”, “female-typical” or “intermediate”.</p> <p>Most of the brains turned out to be “mosaics” of male-typical <em>and</em> female-typical features, rather than being consistently male-typical (“male brains”) or female-typical (“female brains”). Joel concluded that brains “cannot be categorised into two distinct classes: male brain/female brain”.</p> <p><strong>Algorithms can ‘predict’ sex from brain data</strong></p> <p>Critics of the mosaic brain theory, however, point to <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/hbm.24462">machine-learning algorithms</a> that can use a brain scan to “predict” an individual’s sex with 80 to 90 percent accuracy.</p> <p>If an algorithm can classify brains into sexes so easily, the argument goes, it must be recognising some underlying difference.</p> <p>To some extent, this is a disagreement about what the terms “male brains” and “female brains” should entail. For Joel, using these categories would only be justified if, for example, knowing somebody had a “female” or “male” brain allowed you to predict other things about their brain’s features.</p> <p>But for Joel’s critics, the important thing is predicting the individual’s sex. It doesn’t matter whether or not slotting somebody’s brain into a sex category gives you more information about its structure.</p> <p>Most machine-learning classification algorithms are “black boxes”, which means they don’t reveal anything about <em>how</em> they combine brain features to define “male” and “female” brains. Despite the accuracy of the algorithms, their definitions may not even be consistent: <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2018.00399/full">some evidence</a> suggests the algorithms use different brain features when classifying different subpopulations of females and males.</p> <p><strong>Algorithms’ sex prediction may depend on head size</strong></p> <p>And now even this classification accuracy is under challenge. A research team led by one of us (Carla Sanchis Segura) published <a href="https://rdcu.be/b50w1">a new study</a> that considers a neglected complication. On average, women have smaller bodies, heads and brains than men.</p> <p>In the early days of brain science, these differences in body and brain were mistakenly taken as evidence of (white) men’s intellectual superiority. But in recent years, it has been recognised that head size variation poses a problem for neuroscientists interested in sex differences.</p> <p>When you see a female/male difference in the size of a brain region, how do you know if you are seeing a specific effect of sex? It might simply be a difference between larger brains (more of which belong to males) and smaller brains (more of which belong to females), or a combination of the two.</p> <p>Neuroscientists try to solve this problem by statistically “controlling” for head size. But exactly how is this done?</p> <p>There are several different statistical methods in use. The current “gold standard” for assessing their validity is comparing the sex differences in the brain they find with those obtained in selected groups of females and males matched to have similar head sizes.</p> <p>Using this “gold standard”, the Sanchis-Segura research team found, <a href="https://bsd.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13293-019-0245-7">in an earlier study</a>, that not all currently used methods are effective and valid. They also found that the method used has a major impact on the number, the size and even the direction of the estimated sex differences.</p> <p>Having worked out which statistical control techniques are the most valid, Sanchis-Segura and her team were able to investigate an important question: to what extent does the high accuracy of “brain sex” classification depend on head size variation?</p> <p>The researchers tested 12 different sex-predicting machine-learning algorithms with data that had been properly adjusted for head size variation, data that had been poorly adjusted, and data that had not been adjusted at all.</p> <p>The algorithms delivered highly accurate results when using both raw data and poorly adjusted data. But when the same 12 algorithms were fed with properly adjusted data, classification accuracy dropped to 10% above ‘chance’, at about 60% accuracy.</p> <p>One particularly deflationary finding of the study was that the algorithms achieved high accuracy if they were given just one piece of information – namely, head size!</p> <p>These new findings continue to challenge the usefulfness of the categories “male brain” and “female brain”. Sex certainly affects the brain, and sex effects are important to study. But current attempts to classify brains into the categories “male brain” or “female brain” using machine-learning algorithm seem to add little beyond what has been known since the inception of modern science – that men, on average, have larger heads.</p> <p><em>Written by Cordelia Fine. Republished with permission of <a href="https://theconversation.com/are-there-male-and-female-brains-computers-can-see-a-distinction-but-they-rely-strongly-on-differences-in-head-size-143972">The Conversation.</a> </em></p>

Art

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Heartwarming footage of Princess Anne's fumbly Zoom call with the Queen

<p>It appears that everyone is having trouble adapting to our new normal, including the Queen herself.</p> <p>As the coronavirus pandemic has forced many to isolate, many have used Zoom to communicate with their loved ones.</p> <p>However, it can be tricky to use, which the Queen quickly found out and her daughter Princess Anne had to guide her through it.</p> <p>In a preview for a new ITV documentary about Princess Anne, which is airing in celebration of her 70th birthday, footage of a video conference is included with the Queen and Princess Anne herself.</p> <p>"Can you see everybody? You should have six people on your screen," the Princess royal tells her mother.</p> <p>The Queen, who was tuning in from Windsor Castle tells her: "Yes, well, I can see four anyway."</p> <p>"Ok fair enough. Actually, you don't need me," Anne then jovially adds.</p> <p>"You know what I look like."</p> <p>The sweet clip was shared by ITV royal correspondent Chris Ship.</p> <p>"Watch how Princess Anne tried to teach her elderly mother about @zoom_us. But her elderly mother is, err, the Queen," he joked.</p> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> <p dir="ltr">NEW: A first look behind the scenes of those royal video calls 💻 <br />Watch how Princess Anne tried to teach her elderly mother about <a href="https://twitter.com/zoom_us?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@zoom_us</a>. <br />But her elderly mother is, err, the Queen.<br />🎥 A great clip from tomorrow’s documentary ‘Anne: The Princess Royal at 70’ on <a href="https://twitter.com/ITV?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@itv</a> 9pm 👇 <a href="https://t.co/duHzozH2x5">pic.twitter.com/duHzozH2x5</a></p> — Chris Ship (@chrisshipitv) <a href="https://twitter.com/chrisshipitv/status/1288164903111602176?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 28, 2020</a></blockquote> <p>Royal fans loved the new clip.</p> <p> "I want to see the Queen with an accidental tropical island backdrop," one joked.</p> <p>Another fan wrote: "I love it! The whole world deals with zoom in the same way: 'Can you see me?' 'Can you hear me?' 'Am I on?' 'Is my background neat &amp; tidy?' Love their humanity, their humility, and their graciousness."</p>

Technology

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Can police demand the password to my phone or computer?

<p>Many will recall last year’s <a href="https://www.sydneycriminallawyers.com.au/blog/fbi-cracks-apples-encryption/">battle between the United States Justice Department and technology giant Apple</a>, whereby the former spent millions of dollars trying to force the latter to unlock the IPhone of a gunman allegedly involved in the San Bernadino terrorist attack.</p> <p>The Justice Department felt the need to take such action because it knew the United States constitution would never allow the forced disclosure of an individual’s personal identity information in circumstances where it may incriminate them.</p> <p>However, the situation in Australia is different. Here, there is a legal mechanism for police to <a href="https://www.loc.gov/law/help/encrypted-communications/australia.php">force the disclosure</a> of an individual’s passwords, personal identification numbers and private encryption keys to enable them to access an individual’s smartphone or computer during the investigation of a <a href="https://www.sydneycriminallawyers.com.au/criminal/offences/commonwealth-offences/">Commonwealth offence</a>.</p> <p>That mechanism is contained in <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/legis/cth/consol_act/ca191482/s3la.html">section 3LA</a> of the Crimes Act 1914 (Cth) (“the Act”), which provides that “a constable may apply to a magistrate for an order to provide any information or assistance that is reasonable and necessary” to allow them to access data stored on “a computer or data storage device.”</p> <p>A “constable” is defined by <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/legis/cth/consol_act/ca191482/s3.html">section 3 of the Act</a> as “a member or special member of the Australian Federal Police or a member of the police force or police service of a State or Territory”.</p> <p>Police can apply to a magistrate for an “assistance order” requiring the owner or user of a computer or data storage device to provide such information they can establish <a href="https://www.sydneycriminallawyers.com.au/blog/police-powers-to-stop-require-identification-and-search-in-nsw/">a reasonable suspicion</a> that the device holds or can enable access to evidential material relevant to a crime.</p> <p>The subject of the order is not required to be suspected of any crime. He or she merely needs to be the owner of the device that police reasonably suspect holds information relating to an offence.</p> <p>If the application is successful, the subject will be required to provide the password/s enabling police to gain access to the device/s, as well as any decryption information in order to make data accessible and intelligible to police.</p> <p>Failure to comply with an assistance order is a criminal offence. When the law was first enacted, the maximum penalty was 6 months imprisonment. However, authorities have since raised the maximum penalty to 2 years behind bars.</p> <p><strong>A climate of paranoia</strong></p> <p>The <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/legis/cth/num_act/ca2001112/sch1.html">Commonwealth Cybercrime Act</a> inserted section 3LA into the Crimes Act in October 2001. The Cybercrime Act was passed through federal parliament in a post-September 11 climate of mounting fear about the threat of terrorism and <a href="https://www.sydneycriminallawyers.com.au/blog/section-308h-of-the-crimes-act-computer-hacking-and-high-tech-offences/">cybercrime</a>.</p> <p>That Act created seven new criminal offences: three serious computer offences and four summary computer offences. It also extended police investigative powers in relation to search and seizure of electronically stored data.</p> <p><strong>The circumstances behind section 3LA</strong></p> <p>In his 2004 University of Queensland paper titled <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/journals/UQLawJl/2004/1.html?context=1;query=%22ca191482">Handing Over the Keys</a>, Nikolas James points to several reasons why a law that provides police with such pervasive power was passed at the time.</p> <p>The EU’s Convention on Cybercrime recommended that countries implement laws that guaranteed authorities could access user data under the threat of imprisonment. And France suggested that the convention be open to all countries.</p> <p>The Australian laws at the time were seen as inadequate when it came to the growing threat of cybercrime. Police were pushing for new powers, as encrypted data represented a significant obstacle to the gathering of evidence.</p> <p>The Australian business community was also losing faith in the ability of law enforcement to guard against the rising cost of <a href="https://www.sydneycriminallawyers.com.au/blog/do-we-need-new-technology-laws-in-nsw/">cybercrime</a>. And the public’s perception of the threat posed by cybercrime helped enable authorities to broaden their reach.</p> <p><strong>Mass surveillance</strong></p> <p>Mr James also lists Australia’s involvement in the <a href="https://www.sydneycriminallawyers.com.au/blog/rip-government-accountability-in-australia-a-privacy-guide-for-journalists/">Five Eyes global electronic surveillance alliance</a> as a reason the law was allowed to pass with little fanfare. The alliance is comprised of the USA, UK, Canada, New Zealand and Australia, and was established under the <a href="https://www.my-private-network.co.uk/vpn-provider-14-eyes-country-something-know/">UKUSA Agreement</a> back in 1946.</p> <p>The Five Eyes agreement allows security agencies of these nations to collect and share private and commercial communications data with one another. In Australia, strong encryption had been hampering operations, and section 3LA helped facilitate data access.</p> <p><strong>The implications of section 3LA</strong></p> <p><a href="https://www.sydneycriminallawyers.com.au/blog/turnbull-continues-assault-on-civil-liberties/">Civil liberties</a> groups have always been highly critical of the provision. They point out that the wording of the section is vague and the scope of the investigative powers it provides is almost unlimited. They argue that the section’s intrusion on the privacy of the populace – including those who are not suspected of an offence – is not justified or outweighed by the benefit it provides to law enforcement.</p> <p>Electronic Frontiers Australia <a href="https://www.efa.org.au/Issues/Privacy/cybercrimeact.html">described</a> the passing the Cybercrime Act as a “knee-jerk reaction to recent well-publicised virus attacks,” that “introduces an alarming law enforcement provision requiring release of encryption keys or decryption of data, contrary to the common law privilege against self-incrimination.”</p> <p>The digital rights protection organisation <a href="https://www.efa.org.au/Publish/cybercrime_bill.html">further pointed out</a> that the law has the potential to lead to the imprisonment of an individual who has genuinely forgotten their password or encryption keys.</p> <p>The provisions under section 3LA also have the potential to enable police to access whole computer networks. If an officer has a reasonable suspicion a computer contains some evidential information, they can obtain an order, which will also provide access to any other computer it’s connected to.</p> <p>And with the scope of the internet, the potential reach is virtually unlimited.</p> <p><strong>Brandis plans to broaden powers</strong></p> <p>In July this year, Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-07-14/facebook-google-to-be-forced-to-decrypt-messages-fight-terrorism/8707748">announced</a> proposed new laws that will require social media and technology companies like Facebook and Google to allow Australian security agencies access to people’s encrypted messages.</p> <p>Attorney general George Brandis has actually been pushing for these laws <a href="https://www.itnews.com.au/news/attorney-generals-new-war-on-encrypted-web-services-375286">since early 2014</a>.</p> <p>In a submission to the Senate inquiry into the comprehensive revision of the <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2013C00361">Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 2014</a>, the attorney general’s office stated that these laws “would operate in a similar fashion to orders made under section 3LA.”</p> <p>“Section 3LA permits agencies that have seized physical hardware… under a search warrant to apply for a further warrant requiring a person to ‘provide any information or assistance that is reasonable and necessary’ to allow information held on the device to be converted into an intelligible form,” the authors wrote.</p> <p>Co-convenor of the UNSW Cyberspace Law and Policy Community David Vaile told <a href="https://www.sydneycriminallawyers.com.au/about/">Sydney Criminal Lawyers®</a><a href="https://www.sydneycriminallawyers.com.au/blog/digital-surveillance-an-interview-with-the-cyberspace-law-and-policy-communitys-david-vaile/"> in August</a> that the trigger for social media companies starting to use encryption on a wider scale was revelations that the NSA had been hacking into Google data centres.</p> <p>This information was revealed when Edward Snowden leaked classified documents from the NSA in mid-2013. The thousands of documents exposed by Snowden informed the public that global surveillance programs were being conducted by the NSA, along with other Five Eyes nations.</p> <p><strong>Big brother is watching</strong></p> <p>In his 2004 paper, Mr James outlined that by “undermining the effectiveness of encryption, section 3LA redirects the flow of power away from business and private citizens towards law enforcement agencies.”</p> <p>Encryption empowers citizens to protect themselves against cybercrime without the need of police protection. But by applying the provisions of section 3LA, law enforcement can now shift that balance of power, making individuals more reliant on those agencies.</p> <p>The provision also works to monitor citizens through panoptic surveillance, according to Mr James.</p> <p>The panoptic surveillance effect of this law is that individuals are aware that, at any time, police have the potential to access their personal computers and smartphones. So people may begin to self-regulate their behaviour on these devices, as at any moment they might be subject to the investigation of authorities.</p> <p>Mr James warned that as the population becomes aware such provisions exist, “citizens will willingly and obediently reduce the space within which they feel free to live, to play, to act and to create away from authority’s scrutiny and judgment.”</p> <p><em>Written by Paul Gregoire. Republished with permission of <a href="https://www.sydneycriminallawyers.com.au/blog/can-police-demand-the-password-to-my-phone-or-computer/">Sydney Criminal Lawyers.</a></em></p>

Travel Tips

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How to unfollow a page on Facebook using your phone or computer

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Unfollowing a page on Facebook is easy as you don’t have to unlike the page either.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Unfollowing the page means that notifications and updates won’t appear in your News Feed, but you’ll be able to access the page and its posts if you go to it manually.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">There are two ways to unfollow a page on both mobile and desktop.</span></p> <p><strong>How to unfollow a page on Facebook on your computer</strong></p> <ol> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Log in to Facebook on a browser on your computer.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Get to the page you want to unfollow.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Hover over the “Following” button on the page and select “unfollow this page”.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">You will receive a notification that says “You have unfollowed [page] and will no longer see posts from this page in your News Feed”. Click on “Done”.</span></li> </ol> <p><strong>How to unfollow a page on Facebook from your News Feed</strong></p> <ol> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Select the three dots in the upper right hand corner on the page’s post in your News Feed. </span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Select “Unfollow [page].</span></li> </ol> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">See? Simple! Onto mobile devices.</span></p> <p><strong>How to unfollow a page on Facebook from your mobile device</strong></p> <ol> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Open the Facebook app on your iPhone or Android phone.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Go to the page that you want to unfollow.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Select the three dots in the top right corner and hit “Following”.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Select the “Unfollow” option under the “In Your News Feed” section. You are also able to turn off page notifications in this section by tapping on “Edit Notification settings”.</span></li> </ol> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Unfollowing a page on Facebook from your News Feed on mobile is the same as it is on a computer.</span></p>

Technology

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“Criminal”: Apple faces backlash after unveiling $1,400 computer stand and $7,000 screen

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Apple has been slammed as “criminal” and “flat-out delusional” for announcing a computer screen stand that costs $1,400.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">They showed off the stand at the Worldwide Developers Conference 2019 keynote, as well as unveiling the new Mac Pro.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The new Mac has been dubbed the “most powerful Mac Ever” and starts at $8,570. It can be purchased alongside a new high-spec computer monitor, which will set consumers back an additional $7,140.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">To top off the purchase, you can purchase a new aluminium “stand” for the monitor, which is an extra $1,426.</span></p> <p><a href="https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2019/6/3/18651208/apple-mac-pro-how-much-top-spec-price-estimate-ballpark"><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Verge</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> has estimated that a top spec Mac Pro could cost $48,187 all up.</span></p> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en-gb"> <p dir="ltr">There was an audible reaction in the whole audience when <a href="https://twitter.com/Apple?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Apple</a> announced that they are charging $999 for the Mac Pro Display “stand”....like not including that for $4999 is just criminal. 😒<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/AppleKeynote?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#AppleKeynote</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WWD2019?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#WWD2019</a></p> — Jean François Loza (@GlitchComputer) <a href="https://twitter.com/GlitchComputer/status/1135809665084809216?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">4 June 2019</a></blockquote> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Twitter user, @John_nguyen0 said: “Can’t tell if Apple is trolling people with the $US1,000 monitor stand or are just flat out delusional.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">@MOTE_Games said: “If Apple wants to sell me a stand for $US999 it damn better be able to stop time or something.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">It's unclear why Apple are charging this much for a computer stand, which can often be found for as little as $36 online.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">However, if you do purchase the new Mac Pro, you’re unable to use a third party stand unless you purchase a VESA Mount Adapter, which is conveniently offered by Apple for $284.</span></p>

Technology

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The 4 most confusing computer technology terms explained

<p>Before we get started, here is a quick overview of the amount of space available in computers.</p> <ul> <li>The letter “G” (for “giga”) before a unit of measure means the value is multiplied by 109 (one billion).</li> <li>The letter “T” (for “tera”) before a unit of measure means the value is multiplied by 1012 (one million million).</li> <li>Therefore, 1 Tera = 1,000 Giga and 1 Giga = 1,000 Mega.</li> </ul> <p>Some of the most confusing terms are:</p> <p><strong>1. Processor speed</strong></p> <p>This is the speed at which a computer can run applications.</p> <p>It is measured in hertz (abbreviation: Hz). As technology develops, recent computers’ processing speeds have come to be noted in either MHz (megahertz) or GHz (gigahertz) because they are so fast.</p> <p>The higher its processing speed, the faster a computer will be able to run word processing applications (Word), music players, imaging software, etc.</p> <p>For example, programs will respond faster on a computer with a 2 GHz processor than on one with a 1.66 GHz processor.</p> <p><strong>2. RAM (Random Access Memory)</strong></p> <p>A type of computer data storage; in common usage, RAM basically represents the memory available to the programs running on your computer (word processor, music player, internet browser, etc.).</p> <p>More RAM allows you to run more applications at once.</p> <p>For example, you could surf the web while listening to music, chatting with a friend on an instant messaging program, and working on a word processing document without your computer slowing down-but only if it has a sufficient amount of RAM.</p> <p>If not, you could experience a delay in the different applications’ response, causing them to “freeze” temporarily.</p> <p>Therefore, the more RAM there is on your computer, the better. Newer computers usually have a minimum of 4 GB of RAM.</p> <p><strong>3. Hard disc drive</strong></p> <p>More commonly referred to as the “hard drive”, this is where your computer stores data such as music files, photos, videos, and various documents.</p> <p>The storage capacity of hard drives is measured in bytes. The bigger your hard drive, the more files you can store.</p> <p>Nowadays, most computers usually come with a hard drive of over 500 GB. There are also external hard drives, which are not built into a computer.</p> <p>You can connect them to your computer through a USB port (see next point), allowing you to store your files.</p> <p>It is recommended to back up (i.e. copy) your files onto an external hard drive; in the event that your computer crashes, at least you won’t have lost all your data (music, photos, documents, etc.).</p> <p>Some newer external hard drives have a capacity of over 5 TB (5,000 GB).</p> <p><strong>4. USB (Universal Serial Bus) Port</strong></p> <p>This is the place where you plug in devices that may not have come with your computer. The “U” in “USB” stands for “universal”, which means that this port is usually found on both Mac computers and PCs, and is the standard type of plug for most computer add-ons like external hard drives, joysticks (to play games), and digital camera and cellphone cables.</p> <p>Mainly, USB ports allow you to use these devices, or in the case of camera and cellphone cables, transfer data (files such as music, pictures, etc.) from your computer to the other device, or vice-versa.</p> <p>The USB port is also where you would plug a USB key, which is basically a small memory stick (perfect to keep in your purse!) where you can store data to transfer it from one computer to another, or just as a back up for safekeeping.</p> <p class="p1"><em>Written by Marieve Inoue, Divine.ca. This article first appeared in <a href="http://www.readersdigest.com.au/true-stories-lifestyle/science-technology/4-most-confusing-computer-technology-terms-explained?items_per_page=All">Reader’s Digest</a>. For more of what you love from the world’s best-loved magazine, <a href="http://readersdigest.innovations.com.au/c/readersdigestemailsubscribe?utm_source=over60&amp;utm_medium=articles&amp;utm_campaign=RDSUB&amp;keycode=WRA87V">here’s our best subscription offer.</a></em></p> <p><img style="width: 100px !important; height: 100px !important;" src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/7820640/1.png" alt="" data-udi="umb://media/f30947086c8e47b89cb076eb5bb9b3e2" /></p>

Technology

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These tech hacks will transform your life

<p class="sics-component__html-injector sics-component__story__intro sics-component__story__paragraph">The more time we spend on devices, the more important it is to learn how to use them well.</p> <p class="sics-component__html-injector sics-component__story__paragraph">Most of us can do the basics but learning a few tricks can make your digital life more efficient.</p> <p class="sics-component__html-injector sics-component__story__paragraph">The tips below will also hopefully help you enjoy your devices more, too.</p> <p class="sics-component__html-injector sics-component__story__paragraph"><strong>Voice assistant</strong></p> <p class="sics-component__html-injector sics-component__story__paragraph">Siri (Apple), Cortana (Microsoft), Google Now and Bixby (Samsung) are fun to use but can be frustrating as they don't always get it right.</p> <p class="sics-component__html-injector sics-component__story__paragraph">But that doesn't mean they're not worth using. I mainly use my voice assistant to make calls when driving so I can be hands-free. To do this say "call Bob on speakerphone". </p> <p class="sics-component__html-injector sics-component__story__paragraph">That way you don't need to take your eyes off the road and it goes to speaker straight away.</p> <p class="sics-component__html-injector sics-component__story__paragraph">It's also handy if you're busy at home or work and want to make a quick call without stopping what you're doing.</p> <p class="sics-component__html-injector sics-component__story__paragraph"><strong>Get organised</strong></p> <p class="sics-component__html-injector sics-component__story__paragraph">Putting all your smartphone apps on one screen will make it easier to find everything.</p> <p class="sics-component__html-injector sics-component__story__paragraph">First, put your three or four most-used apps in the dock at the bottom. Then put the next 12 most-important apps at the bottom of the home screen.</p> <p class="sics-component__html-injector sics-component__story__paragraph">Everything else will live in folders in the spaces you have left. So you can group all your news or photo apps in one folder. Do the same for games, music, work, etc. </p> <p class="sics-component__html-injector sics-component__story__paragraph">If you take the time to do this you'll find it a lot quicker to locate apps.</p> <p class="sics-component__html-injector sics-component__story__paragraph"><strong>Do not disturb</strong></p> <p class="sics-component__html-injector sics-component__story__paragraph">This is one of the best features on your smartphone. It allows you to silence notifications, calls and messages during certain times. </p> <p class="sics-component__html-injector sics-component__story__paragraph">You can set it up so your phone is quiet between 10pm and 7am so you and your partner aren't disrupted by pings and buzzes while you sleep. Of course, you need to set it up on your partner's phone, too.</p> <p class="sics-component__html-injector sics-component__story__paragraph">You can still allow calls from certain people so you don't miss anything urgent or important.</p> <p class="sics-component__html-injector sics-component__story__paragraph">The feature is available on both iPhones and Android devices.</p> <p class="sics-component__html-injector sics-component__story__paragraph"><strong>Downloading from YouTube</strong></p> <p class="sics-component__html-injector sics-component__story__paragraph">Sometimes you may see a video on YouTube that you'd like to download. </p> <p class="sics-component__html-injector sics-component__story__paragraph">You can do this by typing "ss" before the "youtube" part of a video's web address. You can then select different file types and resolution. </p> <p class="sics-component__html-injector sics-component__story__paragraph">The same can be done for music on YouTube videos. Do to this, just type "listento" before the "youtube" part of a video's web address.</p> <p class="sics-component__html-injector sics-component__story__paragraph">Remember downloading copyrighted content is illegal.</p> <p class="sics-component__html-injector sics-component__story__paragraph"><strong>Second email account</strong></p> <p class="sics-component__html-injector sics-component__story__paragraph">Major sites are hacked all the time so an easy way to avoid being exposed is to have a second email account dedicated to social media and website logins.</p> <p class="sics-component__html-injector sics-component__story__paragraph">This ensures your main account is protected and your personal data won't be compromised if a certain site is hacked.</p> <p class="sics-component__html-injector sics-component__story__paragraph">The other bonus is that your main account won't be flooded with newsletters and spam. The downside is that you have to remember two passwords and monitor two accounts.</p> <p class="sics-component__html-injector sics-component__story__paragraph"><strong>Reading time</strong></p> <p class="sics-component__html-injector sics-component__story__paragraph">This website is handy for voracious readers or anyone worried their book won't be long enough for the flight they're about to take.</p> <p class="sics-component__html-injector sics-component__story__paragraph">You can search for any book on <a href="https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__howlongtoreadthis.com&amp;d=DwMFaQ&amp;c=N9aEhCy8U0rJkO1xCZf7rgM9fohfR5qe_N93viZd7O8&amp;r=ij_s0uePcCVv2WQwXK_RhjqihaBqIRA5o_4Yk3L1Cic&amp;m=sZ8GG2bnfyOwlyIqyyo5ZiIsExy-H9zbtlpJIKFa5Bo&amp;s=vjR3IjYep2RAzL5NquPhoxNsL4fjYlU0TncolZ78Yp8&amp;e=" title="">howlongtoreadthis.com</a> and it'll estimate the time it takes.</p> <p class="sics-component__html-injector sics-component__story__paragraph">It's pretty accurate but it can be a bit depressing knowing that novel you've been wading through for the past few months should've only taken you eight hours to read!</p> <p class="sics-component__html-injector sics-component__story__paragraph"><strong>Closed tab shortcut</strong></p> <p class="sics-component__html-injector sics-component__story__paragraph">There are dozens of shortcuts built into computers and software. It's tricky to remember more than a few but one worth committing to memory is the re-opening a tab in your web browser that you've accidentally closed.</p> <p class="sics-component__html-injector sics-component__story__paragraph">If you press command+shift+T on a Mac or control+shift+T on Windows PC the tab will reopen and save you a bit of tech pain.</p> <p class="sics-component__html-injector sics-component__story__paragraph"><strong>Email shortcut</strong></p> <p class="sics-component__html-injector sics-component__story__paragraph">It can be a hassle typing out your email address on your smartphone several times a week when logging into accounts.</p> <p class="sics-component__html-injector sics-component__story__paragraph">The best way around this is to create a keyboard shortcut so you can, for example, type "xo" and your email address appears. </p> <p class="sics-component__html-injector sics-component__story__paragraph">To do this on an iPhone, go to Settings, General, Keyboards and then Text Replacements. For Android devices, go to Settings, Language and Input, Keyboard and then Text Shortcuts.</p> <p class="sics-component__html-injector sics-component__story__paragraph"><strong>Night lights</strong></p> <p class="sics-component__html-injector sics-component__story__paragraph">With most people spending more time on devices, it is important to limit your exposure to blue light from screens.</p> <p class="sics-component__html-injector sics-component__story__paragraph">Most devices now have settings to cut it out which helps reduce eye strain and improves sleep patterns.</p> <p class="sics-component__html-injector sics-component__story__paragraph">You need to go into your device's display settings and enable the feature which is called "night light" in Windows and Android devices and "night shift" in Apple devices.</p> <p class="sics-component__html-injector sics-component__story__paragraph"><em>Written by Blayne Slabbert. Republished by permission of <a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/106158720/these-tech-hacks-will-transform-your-life">Stuff.co.nz</a>.</em></p> <p class="sics-component__html-injector sics-component__story__paragraph"> </p>

Technology

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Why all seniors should play computer games

<p>As a woman who is almost 70 years old, I have not kept up with technology at the rate that I would have liked. I have, however, discovered a couple of games on my laptop or phone that I enjoy playing. One is called <em>Words with Friends</em> and follows the principles of <em>Scrabble</em>. And I love words! </p> <p>After watching my mother slowly decline cognitively with Alzheimer’s, I am conscious of maintaining my brain power, and what better way than a fun game?</p> <p>There is another bonus to playing <em>Words with Friends </em>(<em>WwF</em>)<em>, </em>and that is staying in touch (in a superficial sort of way) with people on a daily basis. I find this comforting since retiring from a varied career in education which spanned 44 years. I have a close friend, Teresa, who lives in the country about a two hour drive from where I live in Melbourne. Teresa’s husband of 32 years died suddenly three years ago, only two months after my best friend died of cancer. I spent time with Teresa at her beautiful property, supporting her in her grief and helping conduct the memorial service to celebrate her husband’s life. I introduced Teresa to <em>WwF</em> at that time and we have played almost daily since then. <em>WwF</em> is fairly easy to keep to a moderate use of time, as I must wait for the other to make their moves before I can play again. I also love playing several games with three local friends and several of my relatives in California.</p> <p>Another computer game I play is <em>Lumosity,</em> a brain training game that addresses such skills as speed, attention, memory, flexibility and problem solving.  <em>Lumosity </em>contains games with only one player versus the electronic game. So, there is no need to wait on another player to repeat the game.   Over time, I found myself self-selecting games that I particularly enjoyed.  I started playing the same two games over and over to try to increase my score.</p> <p>Lately, while playing <em>Lumosity</em> games, I have been reminded of a familiar compulsive behaviour to keep playing the same game.  So, the conversation to myself goes something like this: </p> <p>“OK, you’ve played <em>Train of Thought </em>five times now, so this will be your last game today”.</p> <p>“Oops! I’ve started another game...can’t quit now, this one will be my last game”.  At the end of this game, I hear my mind saying, “just one more...”!</p> <p>Why was this compulsive behaviour familiar to me? For most of my life I have battled serious overeating, favouring sweet foods. That began as a young child. This scourge, which I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy, was rife with breaking my own promises to myself, mental obsession, and experiencing a compulsion where it seemed I had no choice. The effect, naturally, was weight gain, followed by a rigid regime of dieting... over and over again. I have lost up to 30 kilograms on several occasions (using an array of diets, 12 step programs such as <em>Overeaters Anonymous</em>, hypnotism, numerous counsellors and therapists).</p> <p>So, when I observe the conversation in my mind, “this is your last game now”, I remember the same struggle with, for example, chocolate biscuits. I would eat 3 chocolate biscuits and then put the packet away in the cupboard, saying to myself, “that’s all you need”. I’d return back to the task at hand, but my mind was obsessed with the biscuits. Such messages drifting from my own brain would be, “go ahead, have a couple more. You deserve it. They are so delicious”. Inevitably, I ate the entire packet. Arrgghh!</p> <p>Fortunately, I have controlled the weight gain in the last few years with the help of Bariatric surgery.  I had a lap band fitted a few years ago, which limits the amount of food I can eat. I have learned to eat more slowly, take small bites, and chew thoroughly. I’ve been wearing the same size clothes for 3 years, which seems quite miraculous to me!</p> <p>One of the things these two compulsive behaviours have in common is that I only ever binged on food or <em>Lumosity</em> games when I was alone. It is a secret. Fortunately, I don’t believe there are too many downsides to spending 30-40 minutes a day on playing <em>Lumosity</em> games on my laptop and I am not too worried about it. I am pleased that I am aware of the compulsive behaviours when they creep in and I value my life experience at these times.  So, after playing and replaying <em>Lumosity</em> games for 40 minutes, I take my dog for a walk to the local dog park where she loves socialising with the other dogs. And I make sure I socialise with the other dog owners.</p> <p><em>Laurie Darby was a guest on Insight SBS, which explores video gaming and the impact it can have on Australian’s lives. Watch 8.30pm, August 7, on SBS. </em></p>

Mind

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Top tips to help you buy a new computer

<p>Buying a new computer is a lot like ordering a pizza: You think it's a fairly simple task until you realise how many choices you need to make.</p> <p>But if your existing machine is so old it could barely run solitaire, you're probably due for an upgrade.</p> <p>The good news is that there are many new exciting developments in the computer space.</p> <p>Aside from figuring out your budget, of course, the following are some questions you might want to ask yourself to help decide what's right for you.</p> <p><strong>What will I use it for?</strong></p> <p>How you plan on using your new computer should dictate what kind to buy.</p> <p>If you only want a computer for light tasks - such as web browsing, reading email, and checking on social media - then you could go with modest specifications (specs), which should have a modest price, too. Something with an Intel Core i3 or i5 should be sufficient.</p> <p>On the other end of the spectrum, if you're looking for a machine that can handle high-end computer games, virtual reality or video editing, you'll need to invest in a faster processor, better graphics capabilities, and more RAM (system memory). An Intel Core i7, NVIDIA graphics, and 16GB or 32GB of RAM (instead of 4GB or 8GB) is a good idea.</p> <p>When it comes to storage, more and more laptops have a solid-state drive (SSD) instead of a hard disk drive (HDD), which makes these laptops thinner, lighter, faster and more energy efficient. Like the flash memory in your smartphone, SSDs are also less prone to damage because there are no moving parts.</p> <p>That said, I like to say purchasing a computer should be like buying kids clothes: go a little bigger than you need today, so you can grow into it for longer-term savings. You don't want to have "buyer's remorse" by picking something underpowered, only to replace it in a year from now.</p> <p>Stick with a brand you've had a good experience with, or ones your friends and family highly recommend (and critics, too).</p> <p><strong>What OS should I go with?</strong></p> <p>This question may also be tied to the "What will I use it for?" decision, especially if there's software you want to run that only works with a specific operating system (OS).</p> <p>Otherwise, you've got three main choices today: Windows, Mac and Chromebook. (Yes, there's Linux, too, but not a mainstream pick.)</p> <p>Stick with the operating system you're most comfortable with. If you're not sure, or feel like a change, know that each OS has its advantages.</p> <p>Windows 10 is the most popular choice today. It's offered by nearly all the biggest computer brands - such as Dell, HP, ASUS, Lenovo, Acer and so on - plus Microsoft makes their own Surface-branded PCs, too.</p> <p>It's easy to use, works with the most software and hardware out of any OS, and the Windows Hello feature means you can log onto your device by simply looking at your computer's camera. Windows 10 offers multiple ways to interface with your content, whether it's a keyboard, trackpad or mouse; using a stylus pen on the screen for greater precision (often called "digital inking"); fingertips on a touchscreen; or by using your voice with the Cortana personal assistant.</p> <p>Apple's Mac family are also a popular pick. Since Apple is the only one that manufacturers Macs - like the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro - there is generally better quality control, and built with premium materials.</p> <p>Macs tend to last a long time (but not their chargers), though Macs cost more, on average, when compared to Windows and Chromebooks with comparable specs.</p> <p>Many find them easier to use than other operating systems (thought that boils down to personal preference, of course). Apple includes many of its top software for free (or a free download from the Mac App Store), plus there is a lot of software for Macs today, too.</p> <p>Powered by Google's Chrome OS, Chromebooks are generally more affordable than Windows and Macs, but there are some premium Chromebooks available.</p> <p>Chromebooks usually ship with popular Google apps already preinstalled, such as Gmail and Google Maps. Generally speaking, Chromebooks have modest specs, such as little local storage, but most Google apps are cloud-based anyway. Chrome OS is billed as a lean, fast operating system, designed for mostly basic tasks, and with good value.</p> <p><strong>What type do I choose?</strong></p> <p>If it's been a while since you shopped for a laptop, you'll notice many are incredibly thin and light, making them much easier to carry around with you to and from coffee shops, the office, school, airplanes, and so on.</p> <p>Many Windows-based laptops are "2-in-1s", as they can transform from a laptop to a tablet and back again. Some 2-in-1s are called "convertibles" as they convert from laptop mode to tablet by simply bending back the screen, which is on a 360-degree hinge, and disables the keyboard in favour of tapping and swiping the screen. While less popular, other 2-in-1s are called "detachables" as the screen detaches altogether, which you can then bring with you as a tablet.</p> <p>While laptops are often preferred because they're portable, stationary desktop computers might be more ideal for younger kids. Why? If you put it in a highly trafficked area of the home, you can keep an eye on where they're going online. They're usually less expensive than laptops and harder to break since they're less mobile.</p> <p>Many of today's desktops are often "all-in-ones," which is when the computer is built into the back of the large monitor, so there's no tower to take up additional space. Ideal to place anywhere in a home - such as a kitchen counter, in a home office, or a teenager's room - many all-in-ones have a touchscreen and often ship with a wireless keyboard and mouse.</p> <p>But if you're buying a desktop for a gamer, an all-in-one isn't as modular, since it's not so easy to update storage, memory or graphics cards. Instead, a tower setup may be best for a gamer.</p> <p>As you can see, there's a lot to decide when buying a new computer - it's not a one-size-fits-all scenario - but along with how much you have to spend, ask yourself these three questions to help you whittle down your options.</p> <p><em>Written by Marc Saltzman. Republished with permission of <a href="http://www.stuff.co.nz/" target="_blank"><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Stuff.co.nz</span></strong></a>.</em></p>

Technology

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How to organise files on your computer

<p><em><strong>Lisa Du is director of <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://readytechgo.com.au/" target="_blank">ReadyTechGo</a></span>, a service that helps people gain the confidence and skills to embrace modern technology. </strong></em></p> <p>We hear lots of stories from clients regarding files on their computer. Where are they and why can't files be located easily?!</p> <p>We always say it's a good habit to file things on your computer in the same way you would with a physical piece of paper.</p> <p>For example, if your telephone bill arrived in the mail, where would you file it? Perhaps in a manila folder labelled "Phone"? Where would this manila folder live? In a draw labelled "Bills"?</p> <p>If so, replicate this filing system on your computer. If you receive your telephone bill electronically, you may decide to file the bills in a folder named "Phone".<br /> <br /> However when you receive the bill, the name of the file could be long, and makes no sense! Once you have 10 bills, you can't tell which bill is for which month. Let's fix that. <br /> <br /> To rename all your phone bills neatly, try this:<br /> <br /> <strong>Windows Users:</strong></p> <p>1. With all your telephone bills filed in one folder, press <strong>ctrl + A </strong>on your keyboard to select all the files in one go <br /> 2. Using the mouse or keyboard trackpad, right click over the selected files, and select Rename from the drop-down menu <br /> 3. Type in the new name and press <strong>Enter </strong>on the keyboard. Windows will automatically rename the batch of files. For example, from Bill_AJ12032017 to Telstra_0001, Telstra_0002 and so on! <br /> <br /> <strong>Mac Users:</strong><br /> <br /> 1. Have all your telephone bills in one folder<br /> 2. Press <strong>Command + A </strong>on your keyboard to select all the files in one go <br /> 3. Using your mouse or keyboard trackpad, right click over the selected files, and choose <strong>Rename X items</strong><br /> 4. A "Rename Finder Items" tool appears, choose "Replace Text" from the dropdown menu<br /> 5. Change the text in the "Find" search to match the text you wish to replace, then change the text in the "Replace with" box to match what you would like the files to be renamed to<br /> <strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Example:</span></strong> I want to change anything beginning with <strong>Bill</strong> to be replaced with <strong>TelstraBill </strong></p>

Technology

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6 simple ways to make money with your computer

<p>There are some simple ways to make extra cash online.</p> <p><strong>Sell items on eBay</strong></p> <p>There are two ways to make money on eBay. First, if you have a collection of memorabilia or valuable electronic items you no longer use, they can be worth money. The other way is to buy low value items wholesale and then market them on your own eBay store. Look for small, useful items that it’s hard to find in Australia (like kitchen gadgets, pet accessories, toys or garden accessories), buy in bulk and then on sell for a profit.</p> <p><strong>Write and publish an ebook</strong></p> <p>Do you have a specific area of expertise that people would find interesting? Or a great novel that you’ve been bursting to write? Then a self-published ebook is a great idea. Once you’ve completed your manuscript (and used a good editor) you can download simple software to create your ebook. You can then list the book with major online retailers like Amazon, set the fee and wait for the money to roll in.</p> <p><strong>Make and sell things on Etsy</strong></p> <p>Creative types can make good money selling clothes, accessories, bags, jewellery or homewares that they make themself on Etsy. It’s free to join and start a shop, and the site charges only a small fee for listings. Take good quality photos and let your creativity shine. Etsy also has a number of simple online tutorials that will help you with things like marketing and keywords.</p> <p><strong>Write paid blog posts</strong></p> <p>Online content is a huge industry and almost all websites feature it, usually in the form of blog posts. If you have experience in an area – or just a love of writing – you can find freelance gigs. Blog posts usually don’t pay too well, but if you can turn them around quickly you can make a decent amount of money.</p> <p><strong>Sell your skills</strong></p> <p>Use your everyday digital skills to create some extra online income. If you are a graphic designer, website builder, sub editor or have other skills like transcribing you can register for sites like Upwork and bid for jobs. Once you get some experience and good contacts, you will be amazed at how much work is out there.</p> <p><strong>Become a virtual assistant</strong></p> <p>In the digital world, offices no longer have to have their assistants sitting at the front desk (there might not even be a front desk). Sign up to an agency that provides virtual assistants and you can work for a company anywhere in the world. You’ll need to be very organised, able to perform basic digital tasks (like Excel MYOB) and be a good communicator.</p> <p>Have you tried any of these money-making tips?</p> <p><em>Any advice contained in this communication is general advice only. None of the information provided is, or should be considered to be, personal financial advice.</em></p>

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