Category Archives: Make Tech Easier

Make Tech Easier, More

Macs and Antivirus – an opinion

The iPad Guy has also been known as the MaconMacGuy for a “good while now” – and sometimes gets asked about running antivirus software for the Mac.

In general, Macs are less susceptible to getting nailed with a true virus. HOWEVER – we have seen a couple of annoyances on Macs laptops, where the laptop owner visited a site that had been infected. The site ran some code that changed the homepage and search engine settings for the affected machine.

There have also been a few instances in the last several months of Mac attacks being seen “in the wild”. They are generally fairly arcane, but they are still “out there”.

So while the Macs are indeed less susceptible to virus attacks than WIndows machine, they are BY NO MEANS invulnerable.

Here’s an article with more info:

https://blog.macsales.com/40166-tech-101-do-macs-need-antivirus-or-anti-malware-software

Faculty/Staff, iPads, Make Tech Easier, Students

5 helpful Smartphone/Tablet Battery Charging Tips

Some smartphone battery-charging myths die-hard.

  • One of them is that allowing your phone to charge all night is a good idea. It isn’t
    • [The iPad Guy somewhat disagrees with this one!]
  • Frequently charging your phone is also a bad idea, believe it or not.
    • Why? Ions traveling from the electrical outlet to the battery cause wear and tear on the battery, which in the long run reduces your smartphone battery’s lifespan. The New York Times published an article reporting that frequently charging Li-Ion batteries “accelerates corrosion”.
  • Another bad battery-charging charging habit? Using the wrong charger, not meant for that phone model, as it will be delivering electricity in the wrong capacitance or voltage, which, again, is hard on your smartphone’s battery.

The iPad Guy FREQUENTLY sees students using the wrong charger for the iPads. DO NOT use one of those cheapie chargers – they miss significant power circuitry that the iPads need so they’ll charge corrrectly.

Below are some battery-charging tricks that will extend your battery life:

  1. Only charge when your battery gets to 50%. This will cut down on the frequency with which you charge your smartphone battery, and will also keep you from letting it get too low or die, which is equally as bad for it.
  2. Use the correct charger. As already mentioned above, you will want to use the charger that came with your smartphone. Microsoft confirms that using the wrong or faulty hardware for phone charging is a bad idea. [NOTE: Apple says the same thing. No, it’s NOT because they are just trying to make more money. There are excellent engineering reasons behind the statements.]
  3. Turn off unused apps or features to save battery life. A good trick for saving smartphone battery power is to turn off those power-draining apps that aren’t being used. On the iPads/iPhones, you can:
    1. Turn off Background App Refresh
    2. Select a NONdynamic wallpaper.
    3. Swipe out of any apps you aren’t using. [Doublick the home button, and swipe away].
    4. Shutdown your device every once in a while.
  4. Don’t let your phone overheat, i.e. overcharge. Letting your smartphone get overheated due to overcharging it is also a bad idea. One tip on this point is to seek out a less powerful charger for the same model, as that’s a common cause of smartphones overheating. iOS, Android, and Windows devices have lithium ion batteries which can corrode at a rapid rate if they are charged too frequently and/or overheat. For iPads:
    1. ALWAYS use the Apple Charger – do NOT use an el cheapo knockoff.
  5. Restart or reboot your device. Restarting iPhones, in particular, can help to cut down on the battery drain. [Make sure you swipe out of all your running apps first, though.]

Original article is HERE.

Essentials, Google, Make Tech Easier, More

Search the Internet without wasting time

This article will get you started searching the internet, and keep you from wasting time while doing it – assuming you don’t WANT to waste time! It is NOT going to be exhaustive, and will not show even HALF the techniques that MDStech knows. It will, however, get you started.

The Goal:

Find the information you seek in ONE attempt.

First, WHY?

You search the ‘net quite often for information. You actually search a lot more than you think, because EVERY time you look for something – whether its on Amazon, or eBay, Instagram, Facebook, Tunblr, Twitter, or a search engine – you can use these principles EVERYWHERE you search.

Imagine the time you can save.

Second, WHAT?

Let’s stick with Search Engines. Most people use 1 or at most 2. There are literally hundreds of search engines out there – and NONE of them cover the entire internet. [Not even Google].

To keep things simple, let’s group search engines into 2 categories:

  1. Regular
  2. Meta

 

1. Regular search engines – like Google or Bing – take the words you type into the search box [the “keywords”] and try to find webpages that they previously discovered [“crawled”] that matches your words.

They don’t really understand the meaning of words, though – which is why you will get a mixture of results ranging from crossing a river to a car manufacturer if you search for the word “ford”.

2. Meta engines – Click here for a list – search other search engines and combine the results into one list. The advantage of Meta engines is that each of the “regular” engines knows about different parts of the internet. Thus, by searching several engines at the same time, you can cover MORE of the internet to find your information.

Third – HOW? part 1

And,

Or,

Not.

Those three words can be very powerful, and can help you find your info in ONE try – when combined with the tips in part 2, below.

You can tell your search engine to search for

first word AND second word AND third word

This would make the engine look for web pages that HAVE to contain all three words.

You can tell your search engine to search for

first word OR second word OR third word

This would make the engine look web pages that HAVE to contain only ONE of the words

You can tell your search engine to search for

first word NOT second word

This would tell the engine to list any webpages that contain the first word, but only if they do NOT contain the second word.

Examples:

ford and chevy and honda
The results HAVE to have all three car brands

ford OR chevy OR honda
The results must have only ONE of the three words
To be honest, this one is not used much at all

ford NOT car NOT truck NOT vehicle
The results will have the word “ford” in it, but hopefully you won’t get any results relating to Ford Motor Company.

HOW you tell the engine to do this depends on the engine. Check the engine’s help pages.

[Often, just typing the keywords gets you an AND search. Putting a minus sign in front of a keyboard means NOT. Try it and see if it works.]

Fourth – HOW? Part 2

How do you come up with the words to type in that search box? Ah, THERE’s the secret sauce to search.

Step One: The Question

Phrase your search in the form of a question. Write it down until you get the hang of this.

HINT: The more specific the question, the better the chance you’ll get this done in one try.

 

Step Two: Underline

Underline the important words.

Step Three: Keywords

Those underlined words are your keywords. Type them into the search engine.

Step Four: READ the results.

Actually look at the descriptions to see what will LIKELY give you the answer you seek. Doublecheck the web address to see if it looks like a legit source [Hint: Facebook.com probably isn’t a good choice.]

Step Five: Go to Page Two.

Sometimes the answers you seek are on page two or three.

Step Six: Synonyms

If you haven’t found the results, look at your keywords. Is there another way to phrase it? Are there any synonyms you could use?

For example, instead of “rain”, you could use “downpour”, “weather”, “inclement weather”, “precipitation”

HINT:
You have a Thesaurus on your iPad.

AN EXAMPLE

You look at your shoe, and see the shoelace has this little thing on the end of it, and start wondering if that thing has a name,

Step 1: Phrase it in the form of a question.

What is that thing on the end of my shoelace called?

Step 2: Underline the important words

What is that thing on the end of my shoelace called?

Step 3: Type those underlined words into your search engine of choice.

If that doesn’t work, make sure to check page 2 and 3 of the results. Or you could try using a synonym – “name” instead of “called”, for example.