FAKE SYSTEM ALERTS VIA WEB ADVERTISEMENT

 I was previewing this blog looking for typos and such when one advertisement caught my attention.  I cannot remember what it was but once I clicked it, the web browser put up a bunch of fake system alerts, with voice, claiming my computer was compromised.  That I should call some phone number and pay some exorbitant amount to get my system corrected.  You cannot just close the web browser, nothing in the web browser is responsive.  Luckily, I've seen this before, here's what you need to do if you ever get into this situation, at least on computers running Windows:

1. Press the three keys Ctrl , Alt , and Delete together
2. On the screen that appears, click Task Manager
3. In the Task Manager window, as shown below, select the web browser that's screaming foul.  In my case, it's Google Chrome
4. Click End Task.

The entire web browser will close.  When you re-open the browser, do not say Yes when asked if you want to re-open all the tabs, because doing so would re-open that offending web site again.

I am disgusted that Google would allow the ads to be placed in the first place.  I will try to complain to Google but with big corporations nowadays I have little faith anything will be done about it.  Maybe complaining about it openly in my blog will get their attention.  Or maybe they will shut me down, a la Jimmy Kimmel, ha ha ha, I am nowhere as influential as Mr. Kimmel, just a thought.

LIBRARYTHING

While I like to read books, I didn't own that many books.  Most of the books I already read were borrowed from public library.  Public library, a great use of taxpayers' money.  For the handful of books I owned at one time, years ago I used Delicious Library, a cataloging software for the Mac, to keep track of them.  Its interface is a book shelf, very elegant.  Perhaps because of some upgrade of the operating system, Delicious Library stopped working, along with many other software.  I hate it when Apple does that.  All of a sudden, a bunch of my software simply stopped working because they rely on codes that Apple decided to drop.

Not long ago, through the NextDoor app, I connected with an elderly woman who needed to gently dispose of her book collection.  She could have just dumped them, but she hated to see books go to waste.  Over a few trips, I brought a large chunk of her collection home.  All of a sudden, I have a lot of books to catalog!  Recently, by chance, in a Facebook group for supporters of Little Free Libraries, I learned about LibraryThing.  A free app for the iPhone, also accessible via a browser.  I don't mind paying for software I really like but the trend of forcing the subscription model stinks.  I get it that developers need money too, months after months, but I don't want to pay for something continuously just to be able to use it.  LibraryThing is great!  Free is good!

Here is a snapshot of what I currently have cataloged:

There are only twenty-four books in my catalog at the moment.  I definitely didn't spend enough time with LibraryThing.  But it got me to complete reading a few.  It's nice to go into the app and add a Completed Reading Date.  The scanning feature is great, but for some reason not all books are in whatever reference database that they use.  For example, the Star Trek book had to be entered manually via its ISBN number.  One minor quibble I have about the software is that when you edit a book, say, to indicate when you finished or started reading it, the Save button appears at the top of the Edit screen but as you scroll to find the field you want to edit, the Save button rolls out of view.  The Close button, however, remains visible the whole time.  A few times, I made the change, but mistakenly tap the Close button instead.  The program gladly close and didn't ask for confirmation that the change(s) was to be abandoned!  Overall it's a good program with a very good price.

GEEK OUT: ACROBAT READER WITHOUT THE SALES PITCH

 PDF is a good portable format and by default Adobe Acrobat Reader is the tool to read PDF files.  Unfortunately, Adobe has ruined the experience by constantly pushing for the purchase of Adobe Acrobat Pro or similar, to allow the users to edit, combine, make changes to PDF files.  Most users are perfectly happy with the reader, at most they need to fill out some forms or sign the document, things the reader fully capable of doing.  Thanks to the following articles, the PDF experience can be made not so unpleasant.

Disable New Interface

Disable Upsell

Hide Tools

The first one is simplest, as it involves using the Acrobat Reader menu.  Just pick the menu item as indicated and you see fewer upsell stuff.

The second link involves adding a key to the registry.  You may need to use an admin account to do it.  As all things with the registry, proceed with caution.  Once you have it done, no more "Try Acrobat Pro!" or such hawking!

The third one involves creating a folder in a critcal spot and moving three files into said folder.  It really provides a clean interface, without all the tools that do not work fully but are constantly shoved into your face.

GEEK OUT: WINDOWS 11 START MENU PINNED ITEMS

 

By default, Windows 11's Pinned Items, shown above in the Start Menu looks very busy.  The items got there because Microsoft thought they would be useful, or whatever.  You don't have to live with it.  I prefer a cleaner list of Pinned Items.  I am just trying to get some work done, I don't need to look at an airplane cockpit full of buttons.  I would remove the icons that I don't need and end up with something like this:

Now it is a lot cleaner, simpler.  But what if I have a bunch of computers to setup and want them all to have the same list of Pinned Items.  Just the useful stuff, nothing to distract the users.  That's where an article like

Backup and Restore Pinned Items on Start Menu in Windows 11

comes in handy.  Technically, when I apply the tip in the article it is not backing up but rather copying settings from one machine to another.  On computer #1, just remove icons to your heart's content, save the file in some place, move on to the computer #2 and replace the file in the same location, done!  Onward to computer #3 etc.  In my case, the file is called start2.bin, so don't follow the article to a tee.  Windows changes all the time, use the article as a guide.