Vision Pro

I just tried Apple's first spatial computer, and here's what I think - 9to5Mac.

Should you have an interest in reading it, the following article discusses one person’s impressions after wearing Apple’s new VisionPro, which was introduced yesterday. It will be interesting  to see how this sells at a price point of $3500.

Jim Hamm



https://flip.it/xzKTCm

Understanding AI

Would you like to understand more about AI (artificial intelligence)? Well, for starters, take a look at the following link wherein NPR has a series of podcasts on AI. To start with, I just finished listening to the last podcast first, wherein the "godfather" of AI gives his thoughts on AI now and in the future. About 10 minutes in length, and quite interesting. I'll eventually listen to all of them..

Jim Hamm


https://www.npr.org/2023/05/25/1177700852/ai-future-dangers-benefits

AI Coming to Windows 11

According to the following article from the Post, an AI chatbot (Copilot) is coming to Windows 11 next month. The intent is to help you get help with understanding and using your PC. But, on further reflection, I'm a bit dubious of having an AI program running around in my computer. While MS says the program won't go proactively searching around your files, I don't hold a lot of faith in that statement.

While this step is for Windows, I can't help but wonder when Apple will come out with something similar for the Mac? This is yet another example of how diverse the use of AI is becoming. Read the following article and see what you think.

Jim Hamm

Once upon a time, a tiny paper clip with eyes would ask whether you needed help writing letters in Microsoft Word. Decades later, in an age when innovations such as Apple’s Siri became a big deal, Microsoft built a software assistant called Cortana for its ill-fated Windows phones, and then for Windows 10.

Microsoft has long had a soft spot for “assistants,” seemingly approachable bits of software meant to help you get more out of your Windows devices. And now that the company is leaning into its position as a major AI player, it’s gearing up to bring a new kind of assistant, called Copilot, to Windows 11 PCs later this year.

It’s not cute like Clippy, and it can’t speak back to you the way Cortana could. But it could make working on a Windows computer — and figuring out how to take full advantage of Windows tools and settings — a little easier.

Microsoft unveiled the feature at its Build developer conference this week, where much of the conversation around Copilot centered around helping professionals and software creators be more productive. Maybe more important, though, is how Copilot might be able to help demystify Windows for regular people.

“It would be a way to command your device to do what it should have always done,” said Shilpa Ranganathan, Microsoft’s corporate vice president of Windows. In other words, the days of wading through a sea of endless (and sometimes arcane) PC settings may soon be over.

If you’re feeling up to it, Microsoft is opening access to a preview version of Copilot for Windows 11 in June. You’ll be able to try it out for yourself free if you’re a member of the company’s Windows Insider program, but here’s what you should know about Copilot before you take the plunge.

A tech support agent that doesn’t judge you. You can ask Copilot the usual AI chatbot things — it'll unpack complex topics and try to handle factual questions when prompted. And with the help of plug-ins some companies have designed, Copilot can also do things like fire up Spotify playlists.

Unlike the last time Microsoft talked up an AI integration for Windows, though, Copilot hooks more deeply into your computer. That means — among other things — it can more easily interact with some of your files. If you dragged and dropped an audio file into the sidebar Copilot lives in, it’ll offer to transcribe the contents. Trying the same with, say, a document yields an option to summarize it.

Unless you’re a power user, there’s also a pretty good chance Copilot knows the ins and outs of Windows better than you do. Through written messages, for example, you can prompt it to set a focus timer — an oft-overlooked Windows feature I rely on — or switch your PC's visual theme to dark mode. Ask it to organize the many open windows on your desktop, and it'll offer to walk you through using virtual desktops, or Windows 11's Snap Windows feature.

That's right: If there's something you need your Windows PC to do and you don't know how to make that happen, you can ask Copilot. And while Ranganathan concedes Copilot may not always get the answer right, this still feels like a step toward computing clarity that some users could really benefit from.

“Let’s face it, traditional help functionality in Windows has been deficient,” said J.P. Gownder, vice president and principal analyst at Forrester. “Windows Copilot appears to smooth out the connections, linking users to troubleshooting and Windows functionality faster.”

If Copilot is capable of even more, Microsoft isn’t talking about it yet. Part of that may be because the company itself doesn’t know exactly what users will try to do with the feature. During a Build keynote address Microsoft held Wednesday, chief product officer Panos Panay urged people in the audience to test Copilot for themselves so they and the company could “learn together.”

“I say that from a true point of humility,” he added. “We don’t understand everything yet.”

Ambitious but unproven. Because Windows Copilot hasn’t been released to the public — and because all Microsoft has officially shown off is a short sizzle reel — the finer points of how it works aren’t fully clear. But Ranganathan did clarify a few things that could make using Copilot a bit more palatable to some.

By default, ChatGPT — created and operated by OpenAI, Microsoft’s partner in AI — saves what you say to it to further train the large language models that make the chatbot so eloquent. Ranganathan says Microsoft has “not gone down that path” so far, and that it hasn’t been planning to specifically save your interactions with Copilot. That could change, though, and if it does, Ranganathan says “you deserve to know.”

Copilot won’t proactively go snooping around in your files, either. While some of its features — like the ability to transcribe the contents of audio recordings — require Copilot to interact with files on your computer, Ranganathan says any situation like that would require a user’s explicit consent.

“We’re going to actively look for permission and consent,” she said. “I’m not a big believer in doing things with people’s data without their knowledge.”

For now, though, there’s not much more to do beyond take Microsoft’s word for it — it’ll be a few weeks at least before we get the chance to test Windows 11′s new Copilot for ourselves. Still, despite Microsoft’s somewhat rocky history with software “assistants,” some industry observers feel cautiously optimistic.

“We have to be careful about making sweeping claims right now about any of this stuff,” said Forrester’s Gownder. “Based on the limited demos I saw, I think Windows Copilot has a lot of promise.”

Delete These Apps

Tech blogger Kim Komando suggests that people delete the following apps off any phone, computer, or electronic tablet now, as they may be spying for the Chinese Government. Of these, the only one I have is the Opera Browser, which I haven't used in a long time, but will delete it  off my computer.

Jim Hamm

 Delete these apps now. Here’s a (certainly not exhaustive) list of apps with ties to the Chinese government, along with their parent companies:

    TikTok — Bytedance
    Lemon8 — Bytedance
    CapCut — Bytedance
    Pinduoduo — PDD Holdings
    Temu — PDD Holdings
    CamScanner — Intsig Information
    Shein — Roadget Business
    TurboVPN — Innovative Connecting
    WeChat — Tencent
    UC Browser — Alibaba Group
    SHAREit — SHAREit Technologies

Opera Browser -- Golden Brick Capital Private Equity Fund I Limited Partnership

OpenAI

Just received this article from a friend, read it, and it sure is an eye opener. Good or bad, artificial intelligence (AI) seems to be growing by leaps and bounds:

https://www.inc.com/jason-aten/the-chatgpt-iphone-app-from-openai-has-a-glaring-privacy-problem-company-is-reading-your-conversations.html

Here's the opening paragraphs, which will get your attention.

Jim Hamm

"OpenAI's privacy policy says that when you "use our Services, we may collect Personal Information that is included in the input, file uploads, or feedback that you provide." Specifically, that means that if you ask ChatGPT questions that contain personal information, that information will be sent to OpenAI. That's a big deal when you realize your chat may be read by a human reviewer.

The company says it anonymizes conversations before they are seen by a human, but that just means that it removes identifying information from the metadata of the file--not the content of your prompt. If you include personal information, that information will still be included.

The company isn't clear on whether it reviews the audio files to determine the effectiveness of its speech-to-text transcription, but the privacy policy certainly gives it the right to do so. That means that humans at OpenAI could listen to what you say, not just read what you type. It also means that they would have access to whatever other sound is going on in the background while you're using the feature."

Ransomware

According to the following article, it seems we may have to live with ransomware attacks forever. And the following statement from the article is a bit disconcerting, to say the least: "Many ransomware operators are based in Russia, where the Kremlin tends to turn a blind eye to cyber criminals targeting Western countries." And what if, say, countries like Russia, China, Iran, et al, decide to 'attack' a country using ransomware? Not good! 

One solution to prevent a ransomware attack on you becoming a complete disaster is to do a full backup of your data and photos, whether to the 'cloud' or an external hard drive. 

Here's the article..

Jim Hamm

Ransomware — a novelty just a few years ago — is now endemic, like COVID.

We'll have to learn to live with the malicious file-encrypting code, even as we struggle to limit it.
Why it matters: Ransomware attacks, which take an organization's data hostage and shut down its systems until the hackers receive payment, have exacted an escalating price on law enforcement, policymaking and financial resources around the world.

It remains the top threat on the minds of cyber defenders at this week's RSA Conference in San Francisco, the cybersecurity industry's highest-profile annual gathering.
What's happening: Rob Joyce, the NSA's director of cybersecurity, told reporters during a briefing at RSA that Russian hackers are now weaponizing ransomware in attempted attacks against Ukrainian logistics supply chain companies, as well as organizations in Western-allied countries.

Cybersecurity firm Sophos said in a report released Tuesday that 68% of cyberattacks last year involved ransomware.
A panel on the last day of RSA acted out what the federal response to a hypothetical, Iran-backed ransomware attack on U.S. banks in 2025 might look like.
How it works: A ransomware attack typically starts with malicious hackers installing file-encrypting malware onto an organization's networks and then displaying a ransom note on every screen.

To unlock the networks and prevent a leak of any stolen data, ransomware gangs demand payment, often in the form of cryptocurrency.
In recent years, ransomware has infected schools, hospitals, small businesses and more.
Between the lines: Conversations about ransomware at RSA have shifted from viewing it as an easily squashed nuisance to seeing it as a persistent threat.

Following the ransomware attack on Colonial Pipeline in May 2021, U.S. officials were quick to make ransomware a national priority. President Biden even started engaging with Vladimir Putin to try to get him to crack down.
Ransomware now is treated like any other crime that's not expected to be easily solved or to vanish after a couple of key arrests, experts told Axios.
Zoom out: Many ransomware operators are based in Russia, where the Kremlin tends to turn a blind eye to cyber criminals targeting Western countries.

Ransomware gangs are well-organized, making them adept at rebranding and reshuffling in the face of law enforcement heat, John Dwyer, head of research at IBM's X-Force, told Axios.
Organizations still struggle with basic cyber hygiene to protect themselves.
🥊 Reality check: Government sanctions, internet server takedowns and criminal arrests have slowly but steadily reduced businesses' willingness to pay ransomware gangs, Tom Hofmann, chief intelligence officer at Flashpoint, told Axios.

The number of ransomware attacks dropped 15% between 2021 and 2022, according to recent data from Google-owned threat intelligence firm Mandiant. But that came after they skyrocketed the year before.

Using an iPad With a Keyboard

If you want to use an external keyboard with an iPad, there are two Accessibility settings to be aware of.

I suggest that you disable “Accessibility -> Keyboards -> Full Keyboard Access” and enable “Accessibility -> Keyboards -> Key Repeat”.

If “Full Keyboard Access” is enabled, some pretty strange stuff will happen when you are trying to use the keyboard arrow keys to move the text cursor around.

If “Key Repeat” is disabled, you have to manually repress a key to repeat it, and this is undesirable when using the arrow keys to move the text cursor around.

John Carter Sr

Is Your iPad Not Charging?

A 2018 11” iPad Pro was left on a charger overnight. The next morning the charge had not increased from the 4% it started at. The iPad would not even connect to a Mac. Tried a different charger to no avail. By then, the charge had reduced to 3%. Argosy West in Prescott said that the iPad was a sealed unit and only Apple could do any repairs, which might come to $350.

Thinking that the best thing to do was destroy it, the iPad was erased and was ready to toss in the trash. On a hunch, it was connected to power again. After less than an hour it was charged to 15%. An hour later, it had charged to over 90%. The iPad was successfully restored from an iPhone backup via iCloud (which took a few hours).

By erasing the iPad, it is guessed that the system settings were cleared enabling the iPad to again take a charge.


John R. Carter, Sr.