AskWoody

Temporarily putting the site in maintenance mode

We’re working on the missing replies issue.

Hang loose.

The site is a bit bumpy right now as the indexing is going on in the background so again your patience is appreciated.  

Shhh I think we’re somewhat back to normal.

Tasks for the weekend – February 27, 2021 Check your DNS

Youtube video here

There is one command that I have used for many years. It’s the command ipconfig /all. With that command I can see what network I’m on by reviewing the Internet protocol address that the system has.

It’s also a quick and dirty way of determining what DNS provider I’m using. Often with ISP provided routers you don’t have the ability to adjust your DNS settings. DNS or domain name service settings are how your computer system knows where to  connect to web sites. DNS settings can also better protect your system. Often using something like OpenDNS can automatically protect your system while surfing.

Some of the key DNS settings that you can choose are

Google DNS 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4

Cloudflare 1.1.1.1

OpenDNS 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220

Quad9 9.9.9.9

You can follow the instructions here to manually change the DNS settings on your local machine – or you can make a change up on your router – assuming it allows you to.

So what DNS settings do you use?

MS-DEFCON 4: Install the February updates, skip that Secure boot

More details will be in tomorrow’s newsletter along with a Plus membership only video that discusses my patching recommendations for the month.

I always use the weekend for maintenance tasks, so for those of you that were waiting for the Defcon 4 green light I just flipped the beacon so you can do so anytime this weekend.

As a reminder I am not recommending installing KB4535680 and recommend you to use Wushowhide (or your favorite patching hiding tool).

If you aren’t a plus member, you can sign up now and you’ll get not only the private video but all of the other great newsletter articles coming out tomorrow.  Hope to see you on the Plus side!

Turn off Bing in your start menu

Was reading twitter posts this morning with someone complaining that they block outbound Bing searches on their network but that had a nasty side effect, it made the start menu “pause” while the system realized it had no access to bing.

The thread pointed to this registry edit solution where you can download a registry key and turn off the integration.

It feels like we need a wikipedia on JUST what you can do with the registry!

Try to fix one thing, break another

Long story short we were trying to fix an issue with a duplicating post and ended up causing issues with the replies. You may not see any replies, or you’ll see some of them. <sigh> It’s an indexing issue.

We have someone looking at it overnight (pacific time) so bear with us.

As always thank you for your understanding.

Update, just to assure everyone your posts are all still here it’s just an issue with the indexing which then causes the view to not be correct especially if you are an anonymous viewer. We’ve tested the solution and are just coordinating a time for when the fix will be done on the live site.  (Probably Saturday as that’s when the bbpress expert has time set aside).  At that time we’ll put the site in maintenance mode so you can’t post to it.

Update II:  Indexing fix is scheduled for Sunday morning Pacific time.  Once again thank you for your patience.

Once again thank you for your understanding and patience.

Frys electronics is closing

(USA centric post)

Well the news has it that Frys Electronics, a place that before Amazon came into our lives, was THE place where us geeks on the West Coast would go to check out computer equipment that we really didn’t need, but positively HAD to have. In my various geek conference travels, if there was a Frys in the close vicinity of where I was at, we’d organize a trip to the location. I’ve been to one in Las Vegas, several in the bay area, several in the Los Angeles area and one that was close to Redmond Washington. Yes, I was up in Redmond for a Microsoft conference and we just HAD to go to the local Frys. Imagine a group of geeks from around the world being let loose in what we all considered a near candy store. And unique about the locations, each one had a “theme”.

The smell of the store as you walked in the doors had a…. it’s hard to explain it…… similar to how the Pep Boys had a distinctive rubber smell throughout the store, Frys had a smell of electronics and cardboard boxes.  You’d stop in the doorway and breathe in that geek computer smell.  The smell would make us geeks giddy.

Rumor had it that the stores still listed itself in the Standard Industrial Classification code as a grocery store even though it long got out of the business of groceries. Reportedly that’s how it started out – as a grocery store. We’d always call the checkout line as running the “gauntlet” as there was all sorts of snacks, geek things you just had to have and all sorts of things to entice you as you checked out. And never go into the store wearing black slacks and a white shirt – shoppers would think you worked for the store. Many a fellow geek would talk about how they’d go into Fry’s and help their fellow shoppers out by advising them on what to buy.

I’m positive there are still hard drives, memory chips, and old dvds I have around my house that came from Frys.

Ah, good memories, good times.

How to create a bootable macOS installer

APPLE

By Nathan Parker

Once included with macOS, installers are now available only for download.

In the past, macOS X installers were available on a DVD. This changed with OS X Lion in 2011. The only way to get the installers today is to download them (at no charge) from the Mac App Store.

Despite this minor inconvenience, the process to create an installer is quite simple.

Read the full story in AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.7.0 (2021-02-22).
This story also appears in the AskWoody Free Newsletter 18.7.F (2021-02-22).

Amazon’s new ‘same-day nodes’ will displace postal deliveries

PUBLIC DEFENDER

By Brian Livingston

The market dominance of Amazon in online retail is well known. But what’s less understood is the effect the corporate giant’s expansion into superfast delivery services will have on the US Postal Service and private parcel companies.

Marc Wulfraat has extensively studied Amazon’s plans in the United States and 22 other countries in his role as president of MWPVL International, a logistics consulting service based in Montréal, Québec.

In the past year, Amazon has built eight new “same-day fulfillment centers” in the US.

Read the full story in AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.7.0 (2021-02-22).