It's been a while since I've posted one of my "The Writers Workbench" tech review columns, so tonight we'll jump right back in.  This month it's pretty low-tech at the core -- light bulbs -- though in different incarnations that you might be used to.  The first device is quite low-tech but very versatile and clever, the Luminoodle -- basically a cord with lights embedded in it, though there's more to it than that.  The second is a Smart bulb for those who might be interested in controlling your light bulbs but don't yet want to wire your residence as a Smart Home.

As always, since the column is written for the Writers Guild of America, and they've gone to the effort of formatting it all for their site, I'll provide the link to it there, rather than go through the headache of reformatting it all over again on these pages.

Earlier this week, Facebook made news by tracking down and removing over 30 pages of fake propaganda from accounts on its pages, and a few days earlier removed pages from InfoWars while temporarily suspending the account of its founder Alex Jones due to material of its conspiracy theories that went too far even by their standards.

So, I thought this would be a good time to bring in the fine folks of Bad Lip Reading for them to do what they do so well, this time when Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg testified before Congress.
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My friend Ed Bott has his annual review of Windows 10, as the operating system hits its third anniversary, and as always it's pure Bott:  detailed, thoughtful and surprisingly readable for something that should be filled with techno-geek. But then, that's why he may be the only bott to trust online these days...

My favorite part is probably his discussion about Security, but that's for purely personal reasons.  He writes, in part, about the very positive improvements by concluding, "The net effect is to make it less necessary for consumers and small businesses to spend money on third-party security software. Deciding to ditch those programs gets a little easier when they end up causing more problems than they solve..."  Why this leaps out to me is because last year I have having some glitches with my computer, and after getting nowhere I checked in with Ed.  His second recommendation was -- and I paraphrase -- "Get rid of your third party anti-virus software already and use the built-in Windows Defender!  I keep telling you that those third party software products only risk causing problems because of incompatibility issues.  Just get rid of them.  Now.  Even if that's not the issue here, it will be an issue with something else later.  Uninstall them from your system."  And as I've noted in the past, when Ed Bott gives you a direction of What To Do -- you do it.  So, it was nice, too, seeing him tell that to the world.  Though more softly, describing the benefits, rather than as a "Do it now already, for God's sake!" order.

You can read the full article here.

At the moment, I'm in the middle of reading Al Franken's book, Giant of the Senate.  I put off reading it until I was past the angst and felt up to making it through.  The book is absolutely wonderful.  Serious, hilarious, open, honest and thought.  It's also heart-breaking, knowing that he's no longer in the Senate for what was most-definitely a transgression, but what I don't think should have been a career-ending one.  Especially since it occurred in another part of his lifetime before the Senate as a comic satirist, and was not intended to hurt, but be a joke that went wrong.  And it was wrong.  But there are levels of "wrong," which life should be able to differentiate.  (For instance, the Senate could have voted to censure a member.  Or a party could have stripped a member of valuable committee seats.  Or taken away critical funding for a re-election campaign.  Or...well, you get idea -- depending on one's transgression, there are a lot of options between "Having a Job" and "No Job.")  And it most especially should not have been career-ending most especially when we see who became President of the United States and who almost became a U.S. Senator from Alabama, for starters.  

But that alas is the past, and the book as I said is terrific.  And it's also good timing, because only yesterday, Al Franken posted on Twitter a link to his first public speech since leaving the Senate.  It was given at the Privacy Xchange forum in Lisbon, Portugal, and his talk is on "Privacy, Competition and Russian Election Meddling."  Much of it deals with privacy issues that were exploited on Facebook by Cambridge Analytica.  Don't expect jokes.  It's a serious, thoughtful talk.  And with questions at the end, it lasts almost 50 minutes. 

He starts at around the 18:30 mark.  Even if you don't watch the whole thing, it's worth watching at least some.  And to just see him again dealing so thoughtfully and meaningfully on such an important public issue.

Samsung released a new ad mocking the iPhone for its throttling issue. It's a very valid point - but a very risky one for Samsung, of all companies, to make. That's because it leaves them open for Apple releasing an ad, "At least our phones haven't burst into flame. Or gotten banned on planes"
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How bad is the "fake account" problem on Facebook?  In only the first 3 months of this year, they have already removed 583 million fake accounts!  That's a quarter of all Facebook active monthly users.

If only the company had been this concerned about such things two years ago.  Or...well, even longer than two years ago.  Like, all the time, from the beginning.

You can read the full C/NET article here.

Earlier today, May 11, the following tweet was posted with a brief footnote to history and its connection with subsequent advances in technology.
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That brought about the following reply from Garry Kasparov, the outspoken Russian exile and political activist who is chairman of the Human Rights Foundation.  I burst out laughing the moment I saw it.

You see, among his many accomplishments...he was the World Chess Champion in 1997.
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​I came across a couple of easy-to-follow and very valuable articles with tips on safe browsing from traversing the Internet.  Many are pretty basic, but I find it's often good to just feel comforted that you're doing things properly in a convoluted world.  But there are also good suggestions on things you probably aren't doing and might be wise to consider.  Both articles are from last year -- I'm only getting around to writing about them now -- but though some information in them might be out-of-date, most isn't, and the tips are basically evergreen which are good to be aware of all the time.

The first is "17 Safe Internet Browsing Tips" which covers topics like security settings, password managers (offering suggestions on which are the best), how to come up to secure passwords that are easy to remember, how to avoid phishing emails (the kind that try to trick you into thinking they're from a real business), setting up a VPN for anonymous browsing and more.  You can find it here.

The other is a "Guide to Using Public WiFi Safely and Securely" from the Comparitech site.  It's so standard today to sit down at a coffeehouse, connect to their WiFi without a second thought.  But there are a great many issue to be aware of.  For instance, how to distinguish between secured and unsecured networks, rather than just connecting on the fly.  Also, ways to keep sensitive information protected, setting up VPNs (a popular topic, as you can see...), and importantly a discussion on different ways you can be hacked when using public WiFi (for instance, the restaurant where your sitting can have their name spoofed, and so by mistake you've connected to the wrong one).  You can read the guide here.

Some of the suggestions here, while very smart and valid, might not be things you want to do -- like turning off your mobile phone's WiFi until you're ready to use it.  Smart as that is, it's also more inconvenient than most people tend to want.  But it's still good to at least be aware of the reason for the suggestion so that you are kept apprised of Internet safety and generally on the alert.

It's also a good idea to keep links to articles like these so that you can give yourself refreshers every once in a while.

In my article about this year's Consumer Electronics Show, I noted that the most interesting technology was still a few years off, and mentioned a handful of them including 5G which not only would provide overwhelmingly faster speeds, but so much so that it would help change other technologies.

If you're interested in such things, there's a good update on 5G in today's CNET, which notes:  "That's the hype of 5G, the next-generation wireless technology that promises to be significantly faster and more responsive than anything before it. In some cases -- such as its potential application in self-driving cars, telemedicine, the trend of devices called internet of things -- it can be life-changing."

As they write, 5G is still a ways off.  Most phone companies have limited planes to start building the service in late 2018 in a few cities, but even at that they don't plan to launch 5G or go nationwide until 2019 at the earliest, and even at that it will still take a while to work out the kinks, which are substantial.

Still, it's coming and should be remarkable.  You can read the article here.