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July 20 & 21, 2024 Show Notes
Moss Street Paint-In / JapanFest / YogaFest / Yellow Wolf Inter-tribal Powwow / Entwined 2024 Fibre Arts Market / Supers Take The Field / Oak Bay Collector Car Festival / Weekend Edition
🎙️ Show airs live
Saturday: 10:05am-Noon
🔁 Rebroadcast
Sunday: 1:05pm-3pm
🎧 Podcast
Anytime
The crew this week:
Alan Perry
Host
Technology Tutor
iPhone 250-589-2926
Gary Beyer
Co Host
Tesseract Computers
Store 778-430-5099
Brian Pavlicic 
Producer
Technology Tutor
iPhone 250-634-8986
Community events on this weekend:
The 35th annual TD Art Gallery Paint-In features dozens of painters creating works all along Moss Street from 11am-4pm on Saturday
The 29th annual Yellow Wolf Inter-tribal Powwow is on all weekend at the Tsartlip Soccer Field in Brentwood Bay.

www.sampsonpowwow.com

Honouring Wətanmy Powwow

Honouring Wətanmy Powwow July 19, 20, & 21 at Tsartlip Soccer Field (800 Stelly's X Rd) • Everyone Welcome Join us for our 29th annual powwow honouring our mother, grandmother or great-grandmother Alice "Wətanmy" Sampson. This year we will be outdoors at Tsartlip's Soccer Field. Our powwow is drug

30-40 "Super Heroes Take The Field" at Starlight Stadium in Langford from 10am-3pm on Saturday.
There'll be a dunk tank, numerous inflatables, food vendors, circus performers, martial arts demos, a DJ, and many interactive games.
Victoria's 2nd annual Yoga Festival will be held in Hyacinth Park on Marigold Road in Saanich from 10am-6pm on Saturday

The Lab - A place to practice. To be curious. To make mistakes. #thisismylab

YOGA FESTIVAL - The Lab

🎉 Get ready for the Movement & Community experience of the summer! Victoria's highly anticipated Second Annual Yoga Festival! 🎉 After the resounding success of our inaugural event, Yoga Lab is thrilled to announce the return of our beloved festival, coming to you on Saturday, July 20th, at the picturesque Hyacinth Park! 🌸 Join us

JapanFest 2024 will be held in the courtyard at the Broadmead Village Shopping Centre in Royal Oak from 3-5pm Saturday

www.vncs.ca

Japan Fest – VNCS

The Victoria Nikkei Cultural Society and FUDO Japanese Restaurant will be holding Japan Fest 2024, a festival celebrating Japanese culture.  It will take place on Saturday, July 20 at the Broadmead Village Shopping Centre from 3:00 – 5:00 pm in the courtyard outside FUDO.  There will be Japanese cultural performances such as taiko, bon odori, martial arts and minyo music.  This is also a fundraiser for the VNCS, through the sale of Japanese food, Things Japanese and a raffle.

"Entwined 2024", Langford’s 2nd annual Fibre Arts Market will take over Langford Station on (Station Road) from 11am-4pm Saturday
Wander their colourful outdoor market filled with 35+ fibre artists, artisans, and vendors from across BC and Alberta. More at https://www.facebook.com/events/1155873755570597
The 24th Oak Bay Collector Car Festival will see more than 300 classics lining Oak Bay Village on Sunday

The District of Oak Bay

Collector Car Festival

The annual Oak Bay Collector Car Festival returns on July 21, 2024. Historically, this event attracts rare and unique cars, and is one of the most popular vehicles displays on the Island event

Our earlier Show Notes are here
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Security and Privacy News
1) Airlines, hospitals, banks, border crossings, and others continue to be affected by a faulty CrowdStrike security patch that took millions of Microsoft business PC's offline staring early Friday
A botched update from one of the world’s preeminent software security firms has wreaked havoc on a wide swath of global businesses.
CrowdStrike built its name and a more than $70 billion market value by catching and publicly identifying malicious electronic campaigns by Russian and Chinese spies and organized criminal gangs that take in hundreds of millions of dollars.
But the company depends on deep access to millions of computers to defend them against new attacks, and instructions CrowdStrike sent to those machines running Microsoft’s Windows operating system overnight rendered them useless by Friday morning.
As banking, airline, and 911 emergency call systems struggled to recover, CrowdStrike apologized and blamed an error rather than a hacking attack on its internal systems. It quickly released a patch, but because that patch has to be manually installed, it'll be days before things are back to normal.

Washington Post

A fatal program update: How CrowdStrike crashed global computer systems

Experts said widespread technology errors Thursday and Friday were a stark reminder of the fragility and interconnected nature of software that the world relies on.

National Post

How the CrowdStrike outage is affecting Canadians

A software update led to a worldwide information technology outage, wreaking havoc on major industries, from travel to health care and finance, even causing problems for athletes ahead of the Olympic Games. Systems running Microsoft Windows crashed on Thursday evening, after a content update from cybersecurity software CrowdStrike. “We are working hard to provide comprehensive and continuous updates with our global customers as quickly as...

The Verge

Microsoft on CrowdStrike outage: have you tried turning it off and on? (15 times)

This isn’t an IT Crowd episode.

2) If a message appears on the screen of your phone, tablet, or computer advising that your device is infected or is about to crash, and urging you to call the phone number on the screen, it's a scam.
Here are two screenshots of what these scams might look like on a Windows PC…
Here's a screenshot of what one of these scams could look like on a Mac…
And here's a screenshot of what one of these scams might look like on an iPad…
If this appears on the screen, it got there because you clicked on a button or link which took you to what's called a Browser Hijack — a website which has been crafted just to try to trick you.
Your device is NOT infected. It's just a scam.
If you call the number, it'll connect you to a call-centre (often in India) where a scammer will pose as someone from Apple or Microsoft or Samsung or Google, and will offer to fix the problem, either for a hefty fee — they'll want your credit card info — or they'll try to pursuade you to give them banking info.
NEVER call the number, and NEVER click on the button or link. Just restart your phone, tablet, or computer and it should go away.
If you know someone who you think might fall for one of these scams, you can print out a warning sheet which I've created, and give it to them to post on the wall near their computer.
Here's a Windows version…

PDF file

Browser hijack warning sheet - Windows.pdf

162.4 KB

…and here's a Mac version…

PDF file

Browser hijack warning sheet - Mac.pdf

199.6 KB

3) Watch out for scam emails claiming that your email account is sending thousands of spam emails and is about to be shut down
The email (as shown in the screenshot above) comes from a masked address that appears to be your own, and is addressed to "Dear Customer". It says your e-mail account will be deleted within 48 hours if you don't install an antivirus program.
The "Scan for viruses" button takes you to a fake virus scanner website hosted in Latvia, and within seconds, will claim to finds dozens of viruses on your computer (Windows, Apple or Android), and will then offer to sell you an inexpensive Norton or McAfee subscription to fix the 'problem'.
They'll want your name, address, email address, phone # and credit card info — and if you do, within minutes, they'll be racking-up fake charges on your card. NEVER click on links in emails like this!
4) We've created a separate set of "Common Online Scams to Avoid" Notes, which you'll find on our Show Notes home page, and also in the menu-bar at the top of any Notes page.
Feel free to bookmark that page, as we'll keep updating it with screenshots of the latest scams!
A link to those Notes is here: https://Tech-Talk.ca/scams
5) Leaked documents suggest law enforcement can't use Cellebrite software to crack iPhone 11 or later models running iOS 17.4 or 17.5
Leaked documents claim that Cellebrite software used by law enforcement agencies cannot unlock any more recent models than 2018's iPhone XR if they've been updated to iOS 17.4.
Cellebrite has always gone to great lengths to keep secret how it can unlock iPhones, and specifically asks its law enforcement customers not to divulge the info. However, while its methods and tools have not been disclosed, an April 2024 document listing which iPhones it can unlock has been leaked…
So, at present, it appears that Cellebrite can only unlock iPhones that are older than five years — if users have not updated to iOS 17.4 or later. One more reason to always update to the latest version of iOS!
6) UK teen arrested in connection with last fall's hack that crippled MGM Resorts for days
With the help of the FBI and the UK’s National Crime Agency, West Midlands Police took the 17-year-old into custody on suspicion of violating the UK’s laws on hacking and blackmail.

The Verge

UK teen arrested in connection to MGM hack

The hack took place almost one year ago.

Tech Deals This Weekend
Refurbished Epson Eco-Tank printers: half price at London Drugs
Last week, we told you that Epson had partnered with London Drugs to sell two models of refurbished Eco-Tank all-in-one printer/copier/scanners for 45% off. This was so successful that London Drugs has obtained more, and this weekend is selling them for even less — they're now half-price.
(If you bought one last weekend, take your receipt back to London Drugs, and they'll refund you the difference, no questions asked!)
Both models come with bottles of ink for liiterally two years of printing. These machines look brand new, and come with a full Epson one-year warranty, and are eligible for a reduced-price London Drugs extended warranty, which we recommend. (If you're an LD Extras member, you'll also get an additional 20% off that extended warranty)
The ET-2850 feeds paper from the top so you can print on photo paper or card stock, and is now just $200. — an additional $20 off last weekend's price. The ET-4850 is designed for small business or office use, and has a larger internal paper tray, and an ADF (automatic document feeder) which you can use to scan up to 20 pages at a time, as well as scan legal-sized documents. It's $280 — an extra $50 off last weekend's price — so both models are now half the price of a brand-new one.
When you open the box, you'll be pleasantly surprised to see the printer is not packed in styrofoam…
Epson calls the triangles of 100% recyclable paper "ExpandOS", and encourages us to re-use them!
Tech News Of The Week
Items start at #10, so the numbers don't get thrown-off if we add more security items above!
Tip: if an item in these Show Notes has the icon on the right in the upper-right corner, you can click/tap on it to make the additional info open in a new tab.
10) If you use Microsoft OneDrive, we recommend you throw a hidden switch to keep all your files resident on your computer
This way, if the internet goes out, or if you're using a laptop somehwere without Wi-Fi like on a ferry or a flight, you'll still have access to all your files.
OneDrive is a superb cloud backup tool from Microsoft, but the default setting on a Windows PC or a Mac is to have your files stored on the cloud to save space, and when you go to open a document or picture, it quickly downloads it from the cloud…and that won't work if you're not online.
As a result, we recommend you open OneDrive (click on the tiny white cloud icon in the bottom-right of your screen), click on Settings (gear icon), click on Sync and Backup, and then scroll down to and click on the hidden Advanced Settings option. Choose the option Download All Files which will turn off Files-On-Demand, and confirm…
If you don't have enough space on your drive, we suggest you get a larger SSD (solid-state drive) installed, so you can keep all your stuff resident on your PC, with a copy on the cloud.

support.microsoft.com

Save disk space with OneDrive Files On-Demand for Windows - Microsoft Support

Learn how to use OneDrive Files On-Demand to sync your OneDrive files and save disk space in Windows 10.

11) Telus has hiked mobile rates for the second week in a row
One week after hiking plan prices and reducing data allotments, Telus has raised rates by a further $10 a month…
You can get much better deals from Freedom Mobile, which is owned by Quebec-based Vidéotron…
..or, if you're on a tight budget or don't need much data…
12a) Rogers Mobile and Fido have boosted connection fees to $70
Like clockwork, every year since 2015, the carriers have boosted their connection fees (charged when you sign up for an account), with Rogers usually taking the lead, and they've done it again.
The new price is $70, up from $60, although Rogers says you can save that if you're tech-savvy enough to sign-up online and activate via an eSIM. (a physical SIM costs $10.)
By comparison, Telus and Bell (and their flanker brands) currently charge $60, while Freedom Mobile charges $45.

MobileSyrup

Rogers/Fido boosts connection fees to an eye-watering $70

Rogers has once again been able to make customers pay $70 when signing up for its services. At least this time you can avoid it by shopping online.

12b) Rogers is luring Fido customers to switch to Rogers with a 100GB Canada/USA plan for $50/month, and no activation fee
In an ominous sign for Fido, parent company Rogers is offering Fido customers a better deal: $50 a month for a 100GB plan that includes Canada/USA calling and data roaming, and they';ll waive the $70 activation fee via a $10/month bill credit for seven months.
This Fido migration plan to Rogers is available at The Mobile Shop, BestBuy Mobile and Wal-Mart.

iPhone in Canada Blog • Leading Tech News for Canadians

Fido Offers $50/100GB Canada-US Plan to Switch to Rogers • iPhone in Canada Blog

Fido customers are being enticed to switch to parent company Rogers right now, through a $50/100GB 5G Canada-USA plan. This $50/100GB 5G+ plan includes access to talk, text and data while you’re in Canada or the USA. It also includes 1,000 long distance minutes as a bonus (Canada to Bangladesh, China including Hong Kong, India,

13) Meet Wayther, an iOS weather app designed for road trips
A new iOS app called Wayther wants to help you better plan your road trips by giving you real-time road conditions and weather forecasts along your route.
Created by indie developer Axel Le Pennec, Wayther gives you weather forecasts along your route up to 10 days in advance.
Wayther works in all countries where Apple Weather is available, and supports both metric and imperial units. Wayther can also be used for trips by motorbike, RV, truck, bus, or bike — even walking!
Wayther offers a free trial that gives three trips for free. After the trial period, if you like it, pay $20 a year and get unlimited usage.
14) Heads-up if you want to take a dog into the USA from Canada: new paperwork is required starting August 1
Starting August 1, dogs being taken into the USA by air, sea, or land will have to be at least six months old, be microchipped, appear healthy, have proof of having received a rabies vaccination within the past three years on or after being microchipped, and owners will have to fill out a new CDC Dog Import form, which includes a picture of the dog showing its face and body.

cbc.ca

Travelling to the United States with your dog? Here's what you need to know

The U.S. is implementing new rules for dogs entering the country on Aug. 1. All dogs entering the U.S. from Canada will need to be microchipped, at least six months old, and accompanied by a new import form, among other requirements.

15) We've updated our collection of Travel Tech Tips!
There are 40 of them, and they're in a separate Travel Tech Tips notes, which you can find on our Home Page, or on the toolbar at the top of any of our Notes.
You can bookmark them, as we update them often, at Tech-Talk.ca/travel-tech-tips.
The current Travel Tech Tips notes are also below as a PDF…

PDF file

Travel Tech Tips updated July 20 2024.pdf

4.9 MB

16) Samsung has halted Galaxy Buds Pro earbud shipments because of faulty ear tips that can break if you try to change sizes
Samsung's just-released new Galaxy Buds Pro are getting great reviews for sound quality, but the company has stopped shipping them for now after a raft of complaints that the ear tips are extremely fragile and often break when you try to change tip sizes to match your ears.
Samsung is directing people who’ve already bought and received the buds to contact Samsung support or take their buds to their nearest Samsung service centre. Samsung is also emailing people who’ve ordered them but have yet to receive their units, to explain the situation and offer buyers the opportunity to cancel their order if they wish.
Along with Samsung pausing its shipments, Amazon has removed the listing for the Galaxy Buds Pro. The new release date on Samsung’s website is August 28th.

MobileSyrup

Samsung pauses Galaxy Buds Pro shipments over faulty ear tips

Not only is Samsung taking flak for making the Galaxy Buds 3 like AirPods, now it has to delay shipments to address quality control issues.

17) Instagram is adding expiring- and semi-private comments
Instagram users will soon be able to leave Notes on Reels and grid posts, where those comments will float on top of the content in little bubbles. Like Notes, these comments are temporary — they’ll disappear after three days unless you delete them earlier.
The new temporary comments are also semi-private — you can tailor who’s able to see your comment: either your curated list of close friends or followers you follow back.

The Verge

Instagram is adding expiring and semiprivate comments

Notes will expire after three days.

18) iOS 18/iPadOS 18/macOS Sequoia will bring a new way to recover lost or corrupted photos and videos
iPhone., iPad and Mac users will soon be able to recover lost or damaged photos thanks to a new feature Apple will be rolling out in this fall's operating system updates.
The new feature is a "Recovered" album that will show you your lost and damaged photos. The new feature will be part of the upcoming revamp of the Photos app.
Apple says that devices running iOS 18, iPadOS 18, or macOS Sequoia will automatically detect lost or damaged photos and videos. Photos and videos can become lost for any number of reasons, ranging from database corruption to photos that simply didn't save correctly after they were taken. Once identified, you'll be able to permanently delete or restore them to the Photos library.
The "Recovered" album will only appear on your device if there are missing or corrupted images.
iOS 18/iPadOS 18/macOS Sequoia will be released this fall.
19) Vancouver Island hospitals, helipads, Coast Guard ships and even cruise ships are in new Microsoft Flight Similator add-on
Flight sim fans can now practice floatplane landings in Victoria and Nanaimo, transport patients between Island hospitals by helicopter, and enjoy realistic Island scenery in a new add-on.
Canadian creator Roman Design built the add-on pack for Microsoft Flight Simulator. It features Victoria, Nanaimo, Campbell River, and Comox hospitals and heliports, aerodromes and heliports in Tofino, Ucluelet and Nanaimo, and several private helipads.
The add-on also has cruise ships and a Coast Guard cutter that can be landed on by helicopter, as well as realistic scenery and models of Island landmarks. It even has car crash scenes along the Island Highway and Highway 19, letting players practice simulated patient rescues by helicopter.
The Vancouver Island add-on pack is $28.

Roman Design

Vancouver Island Heliports and Seaplane Bases

  Welcome to helicopter and seaplane heaven! Vancouver Island offers a unique combination of breathtaking remote landscapes and urban photogrammetry areas in a relatively compact area. As your helicopter or seaplane glides over the rugged coastline, you'll be enchanted by dramatic cliffs plunging into crystalline waters, secluded coves cradling pristine beaches, and ancient rainforests whispering tales of timeless beauty.   Vancouver Island Heliports and Seaplane Bases pack provides a unique scenery for creative MSFS pilots. Your imagination is the only limit!   Simulate patient transfers between 4 hand-modelled hospitals with medical heliports, perform medevac flights from a cruise ship, or locate and rescue injured victims from 3 car accident scenes along remote roads. Fly Coast Guard, government and private flights between 6 heliports, including the Coast Guard and Port facilities, a working lighthouse at the Race Rocks Ecological Reserve, and a Coast Guard ship you can land on. Fly VIP passengers or imagine yourself piloting your helicopter from your yacht to a sprawling mansion with a helipad, built on the top of the hill overlooking a majestic lake. Plan picturesque flights in your float plane between 4 modelled water aerodromes and seaplane bases.       All locations are hand-modelled in intricate detail, including key buildings textured with custom-made PBR materials in up to 4K resolution, parallax interiors, lighting and animation elements, ground signs and textures, night lighting, and hundreds of objects placed throughout the scenery.   Compatible with Roman Design CYYJ Victoria International Airport and SamScene3D Vancouver City Times.   HOSPITALS   CBK8 - Royal Jubilee Hospital Heliport CBW7 - Victoria General Hospital Heliport CAT6 - Campbell River Hospital Heliport CVB8 - Comox Valley Hospital Heliport   HELIPORTS AND HELIPADS   CBR7 - Tofino Lifeboat Station Heliport CBZ7 - Victoria Harbour Shoal Point Heliport (Coast Guard) CBF7 - Victoria Harbour Camel Point Heliport (HeliJet operations) CDH5 - Nanaimo Harbour Heliport (HeliJet operations) CR03 - Race Rocks Lighthouse Heliport CR05 - Coast Guard Ship Helipad   PRIVATE HELIPADS   CR01 - Willis Point Mansion (NW of Victoria) CR02 - Cruise Ship Helipad CR04 - Yacht Helipad   WATER AERODROMES AND SEAPLANE BASES   CAB4 - Tofino Harbour Water Aerodrome CAC8 - Nanaimo Harbour Water Aerodrome CAE9 - Bamfield Seaplane Base CAN3 - Ucluelet Water Aerodrome   CAR ACCIDENT SCENES   Follow the Trans-Canada Highway (Hwy1) North from Victoria to Mill Bay Follow the Trans-Canada Highway (Hwy1) from Duncan to Nanaimo Follow the local road from Tofino to Ucluele   FEATURES   Custom PBR materials with up to 4K resolution 4 Hospitals 6 Heliports and multiple Helipads 3 Private Helipads 4 Water Aerodromes and Seaplane Bases 3 car accident scenes Animated lighthouse with rotating beacon and light beams Animated Ambulance flashing lights Parallax windows on all buildings with reflective glass and night lighting, based on multiple custom office, residential and hospital 3D room interior renderings Signs with emulated fluorescent night backlighting, 3D modelled letter-shaped signs, and other custom signage throughout the pack Custom night lighting throughout the scenery Hundreds of objects placed throughout the scenery to create an immersive experience Animated flags that respond to wind direction   INSTALLATION   Just unzip the /romandesign-airport-vancouverisland/ folder from the zip file you downloaded into your MSFS Community folder.

20) You asked: which are the best free apps for adding text to photos: Phonto - Text On Photos and Add Text: Write On Photos
Both apps give you lots of options in terms of styles, fonts, borders, shadowing, etc.
This is Add Text: Write On Photos…
…and this is Phonto - Text On Photos…
Both apps are free, but offer paid add-ons to unlock additional fonts and special effects.
21) Pennsylvania traffic stop nets police $30,000 worth of counterfeit Apple products, mostly fake AirPods
A traffic stop in Pee Dee, South Carolina resulted in police seizing a haul of counterfeit Apple items valued at about $30,000.

AppleInsider

Cops find $30K in fake Apple goods during traffic stop

A traffic stop in Pee Dee, South Carolina resulted in police seizing a haul of counterfeit Apple items valued at about $30,000.

22) Man swept out to sea used his Apple Watch to get rescued
An Australian bodysurfer credits his Apple Watch Ultra with saving him after he was swept out to the mouth of Byron Bay, Australia. Rick Shearman says he was swept out by a riptide and found himself in rough seas, but luckily, he was wearing his Apple Watch Ultra, which he used to contact emergency services.
Shearman's Apple Watch Ultra has a built-in cell radio, which allowed him to call for help…a dispatcher stayed on the line with him for an hour or so until rescuers arrived on the scene.

www.idropnews.com

Apple Watch Ultra Saves Australian Man Swept Out to Sea – iDrop News

An Australian bodysurfer credits his Apple Watch Ultra with saving him after he was stranded at sea in Byron Bay, Australia. Rick Shearman says he was swept away by rough seas, but luckily, he was wearing his Apple Watch Ultra, which he used to contact emergency services.

Homework videos (a.k.a. "time well wasted"!)
Videos start at #40, so the numbers don't get thrown-off if we add more tech news items above!
40) Watch Disney use 1571 drones to set a Guinness World Record at its Disneyland Paris Bastille Day fireworks/fountains/drone show…
41) Watch the Bastille Day fireworks at the Eiffel Tower…
42) Watch three-time slackline world champion Jaan Roose attempt to set a new world record for the longest slackline, by walking across a 3.6km line suspended above the Messina Straits between mainland Italy and Sicily…
43) Watch a preview of the Vancouver Island hospital helipads, heliports, seaplane aerodromes and more, available as a MS Flight Simulator add-on…
44) Watch Nicolas Melis perform 30 of the most-memorable piano intro's and see how many of the songs you can name…
45) Watch "Weird Al" Yankovic perform his 13-song "Polkamania" medley…
…and finally, our "Sign Of The Week"…
And so it goes…