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Be Informed About Chrome Browser

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        Here's important info from Jim Hamm,  "If you should use Chrome as a browser -- as I do occasionally -- and have guests at your house and they should want to use your computer a bit, you might take a look at this article. Chrome apparently saves your passwords whether you wanted them saved or not. You may not want your guests having access to your passwords saved in Chrome.

      "Out of curiosity, I took a look at which passwords were saved in Chrome on my computer -- a lot, but none of serious consequence. Just to see if Chrome asks me if I want to save a password or not, I tried logging into a couple of sites using a password. Chrome didn't ask me if I wanted to save the password or not -- presumably Chrome just saved it.
      "This is not good if, say, you're on Chrome and logging into your bank account. Keep this in mind if you use Chrome as your browser. Other browsers will ask you if you want a password saved." And here Jim signs off with his customary grin. 
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Before You Sell or Give Away Your Mac

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        Jim Hamm provides this very important information.  Before you sell or give away your Mac there are definite steps to take to protect your information that's now on the computer.  The article here http://macdailynews.com/2013/08/05/apple-explains-what-to-do-before-selling-or-giving-away-your-mac/ also tells how to return your Mac to its original "out-of-the-box" state.  Read this from Apple dated 8-5-13:  http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5189 

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What's Hogging the Bandwidth?

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        "On a Mac forum I participate in a fellow posted a problem he was having, all of a sudden, with excess bandwidth usage," is how Jim Hamm begins.  He explains, "He normally uses about 40GB per month, but in the last 3 days he has downloaded 120GB! So far he has not been able to identify the culprit, but the following information has been provided to him for further analysis.

        "If you should ever have a concern with or want to know more about bandwidth usage, here is an article explaining how you can open the nettop command program in Terminal to see which processes are generating the most network traffic."  
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Calendar Tip

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        "I just solved a problem with a Mac user who was having problems with her Calendar on the iPad," John Carter informs us.  " Every calendar entry suddenly disappeared, but it was all there on her laptop. Every trick I knew was tried to no avail. Ultimately, there was only one trick left. The solution was to delete the iCloud account on the iPad and then recreate it. This deleted all iCloud related information on the iPad when the account was deleted, but it came back again once she signed back on to iCloud on the iPad. I am sure the same applies to laptops and desktops.

        And John signs off with this reassurance, "Unlike dangerous stunts, you can try this on your own."

Welcome to Co-chair PR, Sharon Lampert

        Sharon Lampert will be co-chair for Public Relations for PMUG.  She will serve with Howard Rieder.  
        Let's get acquainted with Sharon.   
        Sharon has been married 39 years and is step-mom to three, one daughter together, and now five grandchildren spread around the country.

        Sharon has worked in Healthcare as RN in the hospital setting, is certified as Lamaze Childbirth Educator, taught classes, attended and assisting in the labor & delivery process (home and hospital births). Returning to school at 50 she completed Women's Health Nurse Practitioner's Program.   In Phoenix she worked in a multi -cultural Women's Clinic.  Besides being certified as a menopause educator, she developed and implemented a holistic program in an OB/GYN Clinic.
     While raising their daughter, she was extensively involved in event planning & fund raising in the school & community. She also founded, developed and implemented the College Career Center at Chaparral High School.
        Sharon enjoys time with her family, knitting, hiking, yoga, reading, photography and women's groups. 
       What about the future?  She retired her medical license in 2012, and hopes to develop a business, doing pregnant belly & newborn photography.
        Thanks to Sharon for volunteering for PMUG.  

Welcome to Co-Chair PR, Howard Rieder

         Howard Rieder will be co-chair for Public Relations for PMUG.  He will serve with Sharon Lampert.  

        Let's get acquainted with Howard.  For fifteen years prior to retirement in 1996, he was Advertising Programs Manager for Nissan Motor Corp.  Prior to that he was Director of Advertising and Public Relations for Revell Toys and Thomas Organ Company.    
        Howard and his wife Kathie moved to Prescott from Los Angeles 17 years ago.  They have three daughters and seven grandchildren.  He holds a B.A. and M.A. Degrees from the University of Southern California.  His Master's Thesis led to inclusion of chapters in two books:  Cinema Examined, and The American Animated Cartoon,  published by E. P. Dutton. And he contributed to a new book, When Magoo Flew.
         Howard's hobbies are audio recording, computers, video editing, reading, and traveling.
        Thanks for volunteering, Howard!
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Hacker Conference Coming

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        "Hackers Reveal Nasty New Car Attacks -- "  is how the title begins.  The story is to appear in the August 12, 2013 issue of Forbes.  See the article posted here http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2013/07/24/hackers-reveal-nasty-new-car-attacks-with-me-behind-the-wheel-video/

        Using the car’s "OnStar-like cellular connection, Bluetooth bugs, a rogue Android app that synched with the car’s network from the driver’s smartphone or even a malicious audio file on a CD in the car’s stereo system" a lot of real trouble is possible.  Read what's up as the Defcon hacker conference is coming in Las Vegas next month. 
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Happy Computer = Happy You

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        Hope it doesn't happen to you!  The latest posting at Tech Tails gives you some remedies for food/water accidental damages. It's a Small Dog Electronics newsletter  http://blog.smalldog.com/techtails/tt879  
         And while you're in the vicinity check out another of their weekly newsletters http://blog.smalldog.com/kibbles/  .  Here's their phrase:  “that spinning data depository in your Mac could suddenly become little more than a good doorstop,”  speaking of your hard drive inside your computer.  Read about the Time Capsule that's on sale.   

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FBI E-Scam

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        Jim Hamm passes along a warning,  "There have been reports of a recent email scam, presumably from the FBI, that threatens to lock up your computer unless you pay a 'ransom.' You can read more about this scam here. The malware comes from a website to your browser via Javascript, and can infect both a Mac and a PC (ie., OS X and Windows).

        "If you're using Safari, you can get rid of this scam by quitting Safari, and hold the shift key down when reopening Safari — this will prevent previous windows or tabs from reopening." 
        Jim winds up this warning to us with this:  "On the FBI website you'll note there is a link wherein one can report email spam: spam@uce.gov. This goes to the Federal trade Commission. Wonder what they will do with it? You don't suppose they enjoy reading spam, do you?...(grin)."

Gmail Full-Screen

        "If you use Gmail on their website -- as I do --" says Jim Hamm,   "soon there will be a change to the 'Compose' format: it will go full-screen. Take a read here. This will be a welcome change. 

        "If you download Gmail emails into your computer's email program, you probably won't notice any change as the formatting will be specific to that particular program, such as Mail, or Thunderbird, or whatever." 
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Adobe Flash Caution

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        This is just in from Jim Hamm,  "FWIW, a few moments ago I got an alert on a web page (a music-listening site) that I needed to update to Flash 12 immediately -- important!  I looked at the website for this notice and it said -- as I recall -- "Quixter", or something like that. Anyway, I didn't click the update link but instead went to Adobe's website and had them check the Flash I had installed on the browser I was using at the time (Opera Next). Flash was up to date.

        "Interesting how creatively the hackers use Adobe Flash to try and get a hook into one's computer. I don't ever click any update link that comes in a pop-up in the browser -- I always go directly to the website."  Jim 
        ( OK, did you know what FWIW means?  Look up www.InternetSlang.com/ )   
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Protect Your Mobile Phone

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       "Protect your mobile phone from an accidental dunking in water? Take a look at this video. https://www.facebook.com/video/embed?video_id=10152954190850201
A demo on how to water-protect the iPhone is towards the end of the video. Although conceptually intriguing, I wouldn't want to use this product, say, on my clothes. How would you wash them? I don't think NeverWet is something I'd want to use. How about you?" asks Jim Hamm.  

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More on Malware

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        "Here's an article on yet another way malware is attempting to infect our computers," says Jim Hamm.  And that gets our attention.
        " The original article was in French, and Google was used to translate it to English. And here is an article from F-Secure Lab (also originally in French) providing further details.

        "I haven't read of any alerts here in the U.S. about this specific malware, so this is just for info and something to be aware of."