Windows 10 Forced Upgrade

If you are still running Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 and don't want to upgrade to Windows 10 then you will may be surprised to find out that Microsoft are now pushing Windows 10 onto these systems automatically. Microsoft are forcing this through the Windows updates as a "Recommended" update (which most systems will install automatically). Not only is this a big change for people who are used to their current systems, it also requires 2GB of internet data to download this upgrade. If you are restricted to expensive internet access then this can be a costly upgrade. That being said if you have multiple computers on your network you can enable peer sharing of the update for the other computers on your network, which will save you having to download the upgrade multiple times. The setting can be accessed from the Update menu in Windows 10. Just make sure you select the option to share updates on your network only and not to the internet, otherwise you'll be sharing updates to the rest of the world, which can chew into your bandwidth as well (see link below for details).

Fortunately there is a way to prevent automatically upgrading to Windows 10. A utility called Never 10 is available for free from security researcher GRC.com  (https://www.grc.com/never10.htm). You only need to run this utility once to disable the automatic upgrade to Windows 10.  Despite the name you can choose to upgrade to Windows 10 at a later date if you want to move to Windows 10. Microsoft recommend upgrading as they insist that Windows 7 is getting old (10 years now) and newer devices may not be supported in the future. The reality is that it is cheaper for Microsoft to maintain security updates for 1 operating system rather than 3. Microsoft have committed to providing support for Windows 7 until 2020 so you still have time to get the most of the system until then. If you are looking at alternatives and prefer not to move to Windows 10, then take a look at Linux Mint. This is a free, open source operating system based on Linux. I will provide more details in a future article but if you want further information on this distribution take a look at https://www.linuxmint.com/.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2955491/windows/how-to-stop-windows-10-from-using-your-pcs-bandwidth-to-update-strangers-systems.html

LiFi

Imagine having a wireless connection that can travel at the speed of light. This is the promise of new technology being developed called LiFi. It uses LED lights to transmit data using the visible light spectrum. This means you can easily network any part of your house or office where you have lights installed. The technology is still under development with a prototype showing early promise. It is likely to make an impact over the next few years with smart phones and tablets probably being the first to take up the technology.

The popularity of WiFi means that in highly populated areas wireless networks can compete for bandwidth and can get congested. LiFi provides an alternative to wireless technology and so can avoid this congestion. A weakness and strength is that LiFi requires direct light exposure in order to work. This limits the range as the connection won't work through walls, but can also make it more secure if you live in a dense area and don't want your neighbour siphoning off your internet. This technology can also make it easier to connect household devices, such as toasters, fridges even coffee machines, to the internet (also known as the Internet of Things or IoT). While you may wonder about the usefulness of this trend, with the increasingly connected lifestyle we live in, it will become the norm that we can turn on the coffee machine before we get home to have the perfect coffee waiting for us when we arrive. Another potential use for LiFi is in medical areas, such as hospitals and operating theatres, where electromagnetic interference can cause problems with sensitive medical equipment. LiFi could happily co-exist as it doesn't compete with the WiFi spectrum and poses no risk to the operation of other equipment.

So if the adoption of internet connected devices continues as predicted (50 billion by 2020), there will be a great need for this sort of technology, so watch this space.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-02-24/li-fi-100-times-faster-than-wi-fi-at-shine-of-a-light/7194620

http://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/why-li-fi-light-internet-could-replace-wi-fi-in-10-years/

http://www.techworld.com/big-data/what-is-li-fi-everything-you-need-know-3632764/

DIY Home Security Camera Software

I have been playing around with open source camera software that can turn most webcams or network cameras into security cameras. The software is called iSpy and is free to use and download from ispyconnect.com. 

All the features are available in the base product but if you want to be able to access your camera stream from the internet you will need to pay a subscription, which starts at $8/month. That is not a big deal as you can use it for free on your home network to capture video and images. iSpy can use motion detection to start recording or trigger an alert to email. It can even detect license plate numbers which can be used to identify visiting vehicles. 

iSpy offers many features and as a result can be complicated to configure, but with a bit of tinkering you can fine tune it to your needs. Depending on the features of your camera, you can use it as an intercom and even control the pan-tilt-zoom (PTZ). If your camera has this option then you can enable motion tracking which will follow moving objects (within the range of the camera movement of course). You can also setup a virtual fence so only movement within a certain zone is tracked. This is useful if you are monitoring a high traffic area but only want to detect movement in a certain area (e.g. near you front door which faces a road). 

I have already mentioned license plate recognition but iSpy also has plugins for facial recognition, text overlay and detection and barcode scanning. Additional plugins can be purchased for advanced features from iplugs.eu. One thing to note is that iSpy only runs on Windows PCs. A MacOS video product is available from sighthound.com with a pro option that is chargeable.

https://www.ispyconnect.com

http://www.iplugs.eu/

https://www.sighthound.com

Bushfire Tech Tips

With the holiday and fire season upon us, it is a good time to review what tech options are available for staying safe this time of year. From a fire perspective there is the usual alerts page from DFES (dfes.wa.gov.au) which provides information on larger incidents, these can take a while to become published but are the authoritative source of information on these fires . If you want to get details on what is happening in real time during a fire, the DFES central command radio channel is broadcast on the internet through broadcastify (http://www.broadcastify.com/listen/feed/1432/web). This provides communications between fire fighters and DFES, such as  situation reports, on a regular basis. To keep a watch on weather conditions consult the bureau of meteorology's fire weather forecast at http://www.bom.gov.au/wa/forecasts/fire-southwest.shtml. Landgate Firewatch provides a map of current fires (with a couple of hours delay) as well as lightning strikes. This can be accessed from http://firewatch.landgate.wa.gov.au. It also pays to be aware of  total fire bans and vehicle movement and hot works bans. These can be found on the DFES website and your local shire webpage. It also worth keeping an eye on your regional facebook page, but the reliability of information may not be guaranteed. That being said, it is one of the quickest ways for information to be shared, but it always pays to verify the information before jumping to conclusions. 

If you are concerned about a local fire then keep an eye on the horizon to see if there is a smoke plume and what direction it is travelling in. Being aware of local weather conditions, such as wind speed and direction can help you assess the fire danger. This may be the best way to verify for yourself what is going on. I have setup a personal weather station for this very reason (see my blog for setting up a personal weather station). It also pays to have a bushfire plan in place well before you need it. DFES provide a lot of good resources for preparation of a bushfire plan. 

Lastly, if you really want to know how to deal with a bushfire, join your local bushfire brigade where you can get trained and take part in protecting your local community. Contact your Shire for further details. 

Wearables

I have previously written about activity trackers, devices which you can use to track your fitness and general activity. The market has now moved on to integrate this technology into wearables. These are traditionally watch like devices that have technology embedded in them to communicate with your smart phone. The Apple Watch was released in April this year and has set the trend for fashionable wearable technology. The touch screen face is in a rectangular shape and there is a button and rotary knob on the side.  There are many choices of bands to suit your style and these are easily interchanged. In terms of functionality, the Apple Watch can provide all your smartphone notifications to your wrist, which is convenient as long as you customise the settings so you are not constantly bombarded with irrelevant email notifications. You can also read your messages and emails on your the device. as well as take phone calls Dick Tracy style as the Watch includes speakers and a microphone. You will need to be in bluetooth range of your phone for this functionality to work though. The Apple Watch retails from $799 to over $1600 depending on the model and accessories chosen.

Samsung have released their second iteration of smart watches with the Gear S2. This has a more traditional round watch face which I prefer the look of. It is probably suited to a male wearer as it is sizeable, equivalent to a sports watch. I had a look at one of these when I was passing through Singapore recently. I really liked the way the screen could be flipped though using the rotating bezel on the outside of the watch face. It is an elegant design feature. The screen is also touch operated and shows the usual notifications, much like the Apple Watch. Unlike the Apple Watch the Gear S2 is not able to make or take calls directly but it can notify you who is calling and allow you to reject the call or send a preset text message. The device is IP68 certified which means it is dust and water resistant up to 1.5m, but I would not be taking it for a swim any time soon. Integration with the Samsung fitness app provides a wealth of fitness metrics too. The device charges on a wireless dock which is a neat feature. The Gear S2 retails from $499.
If you want a wearable that is not brand specific you can look at the Android Wear, which is compatible with all Android phones. Traditional watch brands like Tag Heuer are realising that they need to adapt to the changing market and have started to develop smart watches too. There are also a number of cheaper wearables on the market but features will vary along with the price and these may leave a bad impression due to their limitations.

http://www.apple.com/au/watch/
http://www.samsung.com/au/gear-s2/
https://www.android.com/intl/en_au/wear/
http://www.wareable.com/smartwatches/should-you-buy-a-cheap-smartwatch-on-amazon-2008

Travel Tips

If you are planning on travelling and want to be able to keep your apps and data handy, then here are some useful tech tips. You will need a USB 3.0 portable hard drive, VeraCrypt encryption software and the Portable Apps program. 1TB portable drives are available for under $100. You can use this to store your photos and documents and to load the Portable Apps program to access useful programs such as Chrome, Skype etc.

It is a good idea to encrypt your hard drive in case it gets lost or stolen while you are travelling. Encryption is just a means of obscuring the contents of the hard drive. A password is required to make the data visible. VeraCrypt is a free encryption utility that can be used for this purpose. To be able to load VeraCrypt on any computer it is advisable to create a separate partition on the external drive. This creates a 2 logical drives on the external drive so when you plug in the drive it will come up with 2 drive letters (one for the veracrypt files and the other for the encrypted data). You can use PartedMagic to create the new partition. This only has to be a small partition to load the VeraCrypt files. I recommend making it 32GB. The rest of the drive is then free to be used for the encrypted data (on a 1TB drive this will be about 900GB). Load VeraCrypt and create a new volume. Choose Encrypt a non-system partition/drive then choose Standard VeraCrypt volume. Select the data partition you created earlier and then the level of encryption required. VeraCrypt will then prompt for a password that will be used to decrypt the volume. Once this has finished encrypting you can setup the smaller drive with the VeraCrypt files. Go to Tools | Traveler Disk Setup in VeraCrypt. Select the small partition you created (which is unencrypted, in my case the 32GB drive) and then click on Create. This copies the VeraCrypt files to the drive which allows you to load the encrypted volume in any computer. Note that if you login to a computer with a limited user account (i.e. does not have full access to the system) you may not be able to load the encrypted partition. Most home computers won't have this problem though.

Now you can install the Portable Apps software on the encrypted drive. Choose which apps you want to use. Once this is all installed you can dismount the encrypted volume and unplug the portable drive.So what you now have is a drive with your favourite portable apps that is securely encrypted and can be loaded on most computers. For more information follow the links.

http://portableapps.com/

https://veracrypt.codeplex.com/

http://partedmagic.com/

iPad Pro and iOS9

Apple have released their latest version of the iPad. It is called the iPad Pro and it is distinct in that it is has a 12.9 inch screen compared with the iPad Air 2's 9.7 inch screen. This model will be available in Australia in November. Pricing has not yet been released but you can choose from a 128GB wifi and cellular model or a 32GB or 128GB wifi model. I am pleased to see that 16GB is no longer available as this is a very limited capacity and leaves hardly any room for other apps and data once the iOS and updates have been installed. Other than the larger screen size and a newer CPU, the Pro appears to have the same specifications as the iPad Air 2. This is no surprise as Apple like to drip feed features so they have something to market at the next hardware release cycle. For those wanting a larger screen experience the iPad Pro should be a welcome addition to the Apple line up. 

Speaking of iOS, Apple have updated this to version 9. This is to improve features such as multitasking on the larger iPad screen (you can have a split screen with 2 apps running simultaneously). There are supposed improvements to Siri, which include helpful suggestions (paper clip anyone?). In addition battery life should be improved with smart use of sensors that can tell if the phone is facedown and other improvements to the operating system. Apple have also realised that people don't want to download monolithic OS updates and have allowed for smaller updates in the future. 

One feature that people may need to be wary of is the Wifi Assist option. This detects if you are in a marginal wifi area and switches to the cellular (or mobile) network to improve network performance. There have been reports of people using 3 times as much data on the their mobile plans, so it is recommended that this be turned off if you have a limited data quota (let's face it who doesn't at the rate the telco's charge us for mobile data). Lastly it is wise to make sure you have backed up your data before upgrading the operating system. A reboot often helps to clean up any misbehaving apps as well. Better to be safe than find you have to reset your device and start from scratch.