By Rick Rouse
Rick's Daily Tips

​With all the hacking going on these days it’s important to always keep your Apple ID and your devices as secure as possible.

If you want to enable the strongest possible level of security for your iPhone, iPad, Mac and/or other Apple devices, you can do so by generating a Recovery Key for your Apple ID.

What makes a Recovery Key so secure is YOU will be the only person who has access to it as long as you don’t share it with anyone or allow it to fall into someone else’s hands. And without the Recovery Key there is no getting into a device without the passcode. Period.

Once your Recovery Key has been created the Account Recovery tool will no longer work for your Apple ID, and that will prevent a thief, a snoop or anyone else from using one of your “trusted” devices to reset the password to your Apple ID.

Important notice…
Important: While having the Account Recovery tool disabled will greatly enhance the security of your Apple account and your devices, it will also take away one of the tools you could potentially use to reset your Apple ID password should the need ever arise.

All of your account recovery eggs will be in one basket: your Recovery Key.

Therefore, it’s absolutely imperative that you never lose your Recovery Key because without it you’ll be locked out of your Apple account and devices permanently if your passcode ever fails to work for some reason.

In other words, proceed with caution and safeguard your Recovery Key.

In a nutshell, a Recovery Key is a special randomly generated 28-character code that you can use to help reset your password and regain access to your Apple ID if you ever forget it (or if it simply stops working for some reason).

Keep this special code stored away in a safe place (or preferably, in several safe places) and you won’t ever have to worry about getting permanently locked out of your Apple account and/or Apple devices in the future.

Now that the warnings are out of the way, if you want to ensure that your Apple ID and devices have the ultimate in security in place, you can generate a Recovery Key by following the steps on this page.

And now, I’ll just finish up with this…
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Did I mention how important it is that you never lose your Recovery Key, or share it with another person?

As to why, I can tell you that. I sort of did. But here’s a Chat GPT answer from that very question:

reCAPTCHA is a security feature developed by Google that helps to protect websites from spam and abuse. It uses a variety of techniques to verify that a user is a human rather than a bot, such as image recognition and puzzle-solving tasks. reCAPTCHA is commonly used on websites to prevent automated bots from submitting forms or accessing restricted content.
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I had wondered that. It sort of seems obvious, but why it seemed to mistake me as a bot, I do not know. Sometimes I had to do those puzzles 4 or 5 times.
I’m including a YouTube video of that really upbeat science lady that has some great info on all sorts of things, this one is about ReCaptcha:
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/rme6PT7-CRI
 You should watch the video, it's good.
 
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By BD Bondy

Last week, I delved into the world of AI programs in search of the perfect one. After testing several options, my quest led me to ChatboxAI, an Apple-supported tool available on their store for $40 a year. Excited to see its potential, I eagerly began experimenting with it. My initial attempts involved generating different versions of iconic personalities like Betty Boop and Billy Idol, hoping to witness the program's creative prowess. However, my excitement quickly faded as the results fell short of my expectations. Despite my disappointment, this experience emphasized the importance of exploring multiple AI tools to find the one that aligns best with your needs and expectations.

Okay, so those opening paragraphs were AI generated. I entered several sentences as a description, and the AI generated a fairly humorless but flowery re-write of what I entered. It's very interesting to use. I didn't like the 'art' that I attempted, and I'll definitely give that another try. I did enjoy the text based writing. I started by selecting an option to generate kids stories and entered a couple of the stories I actually told my kids when they were small. 

I have to say, it did a very satisfying job. It took my basic stories and re-told them in a more embellished form. It definitely kept my story intact but added some nice flourishes. 

My favorite daughter-in-law, Olivia, actually uses AI at work. She generates content for marketing, mass emails, social media reports, cover letters, etc. Apparently, using AI at the workplace is fairly common these days. I can see how it could be quite a time saver and used as a basis for work, could be very helpful in productivity. 

AI can be used to generate interview questions, most interestingly, AI can be used to generate a 'warmer' set of interview questions. My daughter talked about how some teachers used it to create a curriculum for students, though the STEM teachers decided it was easier to generate a curriculum on their own. Still, it gives an option which can be used as a productivity tool. A tool where the results may be used, adjusted, or tweaked as needed.

She has also used it to create a cover letter for her resume. For example, she will tell AI to create a cover letter for the specific position description, using her existing resume, and her job history. 

One of the app's suggested uses was for students to use it to write papers. While I can see that happening, it seems like a total non-learning process which ultimately would be detrimental to a student. I'm guessing that's a common opinion, certainly an obvious one. 

As to the philosophical and ethical issues of using AI, that isn't what I'll be writing about in this particular article, but I'm certainly thinking about it.

By BD Bondy

It was pointed out that I haven’t written a tech tip in a few weeks. There are all kinds of plausible reasons for that; I was injured in a terrible accident, I got lost in the woods, I forgot. All very possible if you know me. In this case, I just got behind and didn’t make Carol’s deadline so she went and got some tech tips from her ‘tech tip work husband’ Rick Rouse.

We’re in Chicago, in a hotel on a rainy day, and I am neither in an accident, or lost. And she’s right there, so I can’t forget. But what do I write about?

I should ask, are you backing stuff up? Cloud storage is an easy way to do it and you probably even get bugged by some company to buy more storage. It’s a good idea.

Do you have a decent surge protector? I use them but I’m not a believer. I think you should unplug stuff during a thunderstorm, still, it can’t hurt. I have UPS’s, Uninterruptible Power Supplies. They are also surge protectors. They will carry you through the annoying blips in our electric service. Every couple of years or so they will also annoyingly beep at you so you can buy a new battery for them.

How about Social Media? Don’t believe ANYTHING. You should get the news from trustworthy News sites that have paid journalists. Lou Reed said: “Don’t believe anything you hear, and only half of what you see.”  In these days of fake news and AI generated video, it may be impossible to believe any of what you see. It’s best to think for yourself, and question everything.

I was reading a tech article, looking for what to talk about here, and it was suggesting using some of these AI programs, trying them out, testing what you can do with them. I’m afraid that I have been remiss in that area. I have not tried any of them. I will, I promise. Just like the Waymo self driving taxi, I will try out an AI program in some way, and I will report back to you all.

Just not today.
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Rick Daily Tips

Question from Luisa:  I’m hoping you can clear something up for me.
I’ve heard some people say we need to stop using Windows 7 now that Microsoft has stopped updating it because it’s no longer safe.

Others are saying it’s perfectly fine to keep using it as long as the computer has an antivirus on it.

This is really confusing to me.

My HP laptop is old but it still works fine even though it has Windows 7 on it. I really hate the thought of having to replace it, but I will if it’s really unsafe to use.

Rick’s answer:  Luisa, it seems that everyone has an opinion about this, and I certainly have one as well.
My short answer to your question is no, Windows 7 is no longer safe to use.

And yes, that includes machines with high-quality antivirus programs installed on them.
Now, here’s my long answer…

Whether your Windows 7 laptop is safe to use really depends on what you use it for.

If you use your laptop for all the normal everyday things that most people use their computers for (banking, bill paying, online shopping, social media, etc.), then the answer isn’t just no.
It’s a resounding NOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!

The reason I say that is malware is only one of several dangerous threats facing every computer that’s connected to the Internet.

Hackers also seek out and exploit security flaws in a computer’s operating system itself.
And trust me, there are always plenty of flaws to find, and it’s only a matter of time before the next serious one is discovered and exploited by the bad guys.

No antivirus or other type of security app is perfect. The best of the lot routinely miss some malware infections, usually right after a new virus or other exploit is released onto the Internet at large.

What’s more, even if someone were to magically come up with a security app that was indeed perfect and fully capable of detecting and stopping every nasty coming its way that still wouldn’t prevent a hacker from exploiting a serious security flaw in the operating system.
Think of this in terms of a home security plan.

Let’s say a company were to develop a home security/ home monitoring system that’s so good that it would be literally impossible for a burglar to break into your home and steal your stuff without getting caught red-handed. That would be some pretty awesome protection, right?
But here’s the thing.

Even the best security system and home monitoring service in existence wouldn’t be able to protect your home (and possessions) from loss or damage if there was a dangerous flaw in its wiring or the structure happened to be sitting on a fault line that’s prone to frequent earthquakes.

Likewise, even the best antivirus and anti-malware protection can’t prevent a hacker from exploiting a security flaw that’s present in your computer’s software. And since Windows 7 hasn’t been updated with security updates in years, there are plenty of existing security holes for them to sneak into your system through.

Now that I’ve explained why just having a good antivirus program running on a Windows 7 PC won’t make it safe to use for everyday computing activities, I’ll tell you when that same machine would be perfectly safe to use.

You didn’t mention what you use your Windows 7 laptop for so I can’t really give you a definite answer that applies to your specific situation.
I can say this however.

If you use your computer for banking, paying bills, online shopping or accessing any website that require you to enter any type of sensitive information (including usernames, passwords, email addresses and phone numbers) then I would strongly recommend against using that machine as long as Windows 7 was installed on it.

However, if all you do is visit websites anonymously, play games or do most any other activity that doesn’t require you to log in or enter any type of sensitive information, then you can safely use that laptop all day long.

Why? Because if there is no sensitive information for a hacker to steal, you don’t really have to worry about the machine being hacked.

It’s really that simple. And now, one final thought.

Just because it might be unsafe for you to use your laptop with Windows 7 on it (again, depending on what you use it for), that doesn’t mean you necessarily have to buy a new computer with Windows 10 on it.
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You do have a much cheaper to consider: You can replace Windows 7 with Linux (and it won’t cost you a penny).
I hope this helps, Luisa. Good luck!