Last week I wrote about pop-ups that you can’t close and say your computer is infected, Mac or PC, and to call this number for help. Sometimes they say they are Microsoft, sometimes Apple, sometimes they purport to be the IRS or Federal Marshals. One person said there was a picture of them, using the computer’s built-in camera. It can seem scary and real. Especially with the noise the pop-up can make, the dire red screen, or maybe even a picture of you presented in the screen.
 
These pop-ups usually harmless, unless you call the number, or click on the screen, or give them access to your computer. Don’t do any of those things.
 
The best thing to do is end the browser that is causing the pop-up and avoid the site that called up the pop-up. If you are a mad-person, then you can call the number and give the scammer a hard time. I do not have that personality but there are people that do. And apparently, there is a ‘call’ center devoted to giving scammers a hard time. I just learned about this and on YouTube, there is a young woman that is a voice actor and musician that seems to spend an inordinate amount of time pestering these horrible people.
 
If I’m not pretty enough to listen to, then listen to this talented young woman CLICK HERE: 
 
I’m giving several links to her videos so you can watch, and relish, her particular talents. She mimics Siri, Alexa, ‘old lady’, ‘Valley Girl/Karen’ and more. BTW, I have friend’s named Karen, so I don’t like that term. I don’t know any Brandon’s, but I don’t like that either. We need to be more tolerant, but that’s for another day. Boomers. I don’t like that. There’s a theme here.
 
Here’s a ‘granny’ and Siri video: 

Here’s an Alexa video.
 
If you click on her name you can find all her videos and see some of the ones where she’s at a call center, harassing scammers with others. I consider them superheroes, of a sort.

Brian Bondy
​Recently, a friend got a pop-up that took over his screen and pretended to be from Apple, saying he had a virus and to call this number….
​
He did so and was instructed to buy some gift cards and post the numbers for use to the pop-up site as payment for help.
 
This was fake. A pop-up happens in a browser. Normally, it can be a useful tool by a site to open another window to show something, or offer a form to fill out. Sometimes, a malicious entity will create a pop-up that takes up your whole screen and doesn’t offer a way to close it. It may look ominous, say awful, dreadful things are about to happen, even make a lot of noise to sound scary.
 
These are designed to make you think your computer is in danger but it is not.
 
Pop-ups themselves are harmless browser windows which need to be closed manually. It’s not difficult. They usually appear because a person has clicked on something that looks harmless but it’s a link to the pop-up which will try to scare you into giving them money or control of your computer. DO NEITHER OF THOSE THINGS.
 
On Windows you can do CTRL+ALT+DEL and select Task Manager. When that opens, Right click on the offending browser and select to End Task. That will make the pop-up go away and you can continue on.
 
On a Mac, click the Spotlight icon and enter Activity Monitor. Under applications, click on the browser and end it.
 
The point is, the browser is causing the issue, so cancelling it will resolve the problem. Obviously, don’t go back to the thing that caused the pop-up in the first place. Pop-ups do not harm your computer unless you follow along with them. They don’t install anything by themselves, not are they stealing anything. They are meant to cause YOU to do the work by misleading you. Don’t fall for it.
 
The following link has some good info but it also has some mistakes, so don’t take is as gospel. I found it to have a good explanation though, for pop-ups.
 
Read some more about pop-ups and how to prevent them HERE.  How to Avoid Pop-Up Viruses (And How To Remove Them) (comparitech.com)
 
Pop-ups are usually controlled within the browser’s settings. You can Google your particular browser and how to prevent pop-ups. They aren’t all bad though, only the bad ones are. Obvious, I know, but there are reasons why you don’t want to block all pop-ups. 

Courtesy of Rick Rouse
Great Computer Tip Newsletter and seems like a great all round buy

Have you ever accidentally deleted a Gmail contacts that you didn’t intend to delete?

Even worse, have you ever logged into your Gmail account and discovered that all of your contacts had mysteriously disappeared?

Unfortunately, these things happen from time to time, and we often don’t realize it until several days have gone by.

Luckily, it’s very easy to recover any Gmail contacts that were deleted within the last 30 days. 
Gmail has a nifty “Restore Contacts” feature that works much the same way the “System Restore” utility in Microsoft Windows works.

In a nutshell, Gmail creates time-stamped backups of the contact list that we can use later to quickly and easily recover deleted contacts.

Follow these simple instructions to restore your deleted Gmail contact(s):
1 – Log in to your Gmail account, then click here to visit your Google Contacts page.
2 – In the left-hand column, click Trash.
3 – Check the box beside the contact you want to recover.
4 – Scroll back to the top and click Recover.

That’s all there is to it. The next time you accidentally delete a Gmail contact you’ll know how to quickly and easily restore it.
​
And by the way, you can use the procedure above to recover multiple deleted contacts if you need to.
​

We have several cameras at our home. The first one is ancient. It’s a D-Link camera, very low resolution, that I must have set up 12 years or so ago. It still works. It just gives me a live view of what’s outside the front of our house, from inside a second floor window.

Mainly what we like the cameras for is all the wildlife we see. I even set one up at my mom’s house in Phoenix. Every once in a while, we get to see a pack of javalina in her back yard, or a bobcat, sometimes a roadrunner.

At our house we have a camera under the porch to watch the feral cats that live there. Also, the raccoons that stop by for a bite, and occasionally a squirrel. We set up a camera early in the pandemic to watch a bird's nest, and then the 4 eggs hatched, the babies got bigger, and eventually fledged, all caught on Camera.

We use Blink brand cameras. Years ago, it was free storage for the videos, but now they charge. Most cameras require a monthly charge for storage, but not all. The best reason to use cloud storage is because if you use the cameras for security and the videos are locally stored, then the robber needs to steal the storage device for a clean getaway. That happens.

Our Blink cameras are setup via our smartphone, which is fairly standard. There are many camera brands to choose from, with varying capabilities – features. As I buy nearly everything in the world from Amazon, you can certainly look there to get an idea of what is available. I am also including a few links that review cameras, but you know, take it all with a grain of salt.

One review is HERE. 

Another review is HERE. 

For fun, a third review is HERE. 

There is a lot of overlap in the reviews. There are a LOT of cameras. Read up on them and Google any questions you come up with. 

Note: This weeks Scene Around Abiquiu, video of a bear cub, was taken 8/22 on our camera out front.  

Macs are being targeted more and more these days. Anti-malware programs, and anti-virus programs are more important than ever to install on your Mac. What was new to me though, was that installed apps on a Mac, once legitimate, could become malware.

Apparently there was a time when the automatic light and dark mode on a Mac was not provided by Apple, but was done via a third party app. This has become a problem on the older Macs that are still using a product called NightOwl.

According to How To Geek, the original NightOwl program was created to give users the opportunity to switch from light mode to dark mode. Since 2018, this feature has been provided by Apple starting with MacOS Mojave. NightOwl was later sold, however, to another company which injected malicious software into it.

If you have NightOwl on your Mac, it is highly recommended that you remove it ASAP. You can read more about it HERE.