By Charles Miller

The political editorial that ran in this spot two weeks ago brought me several email responses from readers of Atención. For those who might have missed reading the earlier column, I opined that having the United Nations and its agency the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) take over control of the internet was not a good idea. I am happy to report that all the responses I received agreed that “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it!”

Some of the questions I received from readers wanted to know more about the technical side of how the internet works in order to be able to better understand the political and policy issues. I am glad to return the subject of this column away from politics and back to technical matters just as I believe in 1998 the Clinton administration was glad to divest the governance of the internet from the US Commerce Department.

The Clinton administration made a wise and far-sighted decision when it created The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) as an independent non-government agency responsible for the day-to-day governance of the internet. For the last fifteen years ICANN has done a fair and impartial job of controlling access to the internet, giving equal access to religious organizations and pornographers, law enforcement and terrorists. Until recently ICANN left censorship to the individual nations to control within their own individual borders. The last few years though have seen actions brought by the Obama administration for political reasons to compel ICANN to impose a level of extraterritorial jurisdiction and censorship on internet domains heretofore outside the reach of United States Law.

Continuing with the hypothetical situation posited in the earlier column, let us suppose the Supreme Leader of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, prompted by Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Hosseini Khamenei went to the Revolutionary Court of Iran to get a valid court order to shut down web sites accused of being guilty of blasphemy and other violations of Islamic law. Now suppose they take that valid court order to ICANN headquarters in Los Angeles, California and say “You are hereby ordered by the Revolutionary Court to shut down facebook.com, google.com, jerusalempost.com, match.com, twitter.com…”

ICANN says, “Well, we can’t be hypocritical. We blocked the pro-Cuba sites the Obama administration wanted shut down for political reasons, so I guess we should do the same for all the sites the Ayatollahs want shut down for religious reasons.” So ICANN removes the name facebook.com from the root DNS servers.

Within hours thousands of DNS servers around the world synchronize with the root servers and remove facebook.com from their databases too. That does not mean facebook.com goes out of business, it only means that anyone who tries to go to www.facebook.com gets a message saying the site cannot be found. People who know that the numeric address for facebook.com is 173.152.110.27 still would be able to find it.

Some internet providers would add facebook.com back into their DNS databases, and the word would get around to many people that they could type in http://173.152.110.27 rather than the letters and still get to facebook.com. But for a lot of internet users, facebook.com would simply appear to have gone away.

In this abbreviated explanation, this is how censorship is practiced on the internet. The Facebook company would still be there, but their website would be hard for most people to find, that would be most injurious to their business and could have the effect of actually putting them out of business. This is what the Obama administration has forced ICANN to do to some businesses accused of violating the trade embargo with Cuba, and is what ICANN should not continue to condone.

Charles Miller is a freelance computer consultant, a frequent visitor to San Miguel since 1981 and now practically a full-time resident. He may be contacted at 044-415-101-8528 or email FAQ8 (at) SMAguru.com.

By Charles Miller

No direct phone or email support for Windows Live Hotmail? How come?

A call I receive on a regular basis comes from someone pleading for help in recovering a lost email password. The big three free email providers (Gmail, HotMail and Yahoo) all have established practices governing how a lost password may be recovered, and I am quite familiar with all these procedures. After years of experience I am usually able to make a quick determination as to whether or not a person will be able to recover their email account. Unfortunately, it is often the case that the caller does not know enough information and I can see right away that they will never be able to recover their lost email account. With the right information it is usually possible to recover an account though.

Recently I had my long string of successes broken when I undertook to recover a lost password for a client who had enough information, it should have been possible to recover her password; but I was still unable to do so. What I learned from this last experience that apparently Microsoft is now so completely swamped by the thousands and thousands of Hotmail users with lost passwords that they are no longer make any attempt to respond to requests for help. Obviously this is because criminals are stealing thousands of passwords from users who unwisely use short, easy-to-guess passwords; and there are too many users who continue to believe this cannot happen to them. The fact is that if you use a simple password, some crook somewhere can guess it. If criminals gain access to your account, they can use your email to send spam or to scam your friends. If the crooks change your security information (secret question, date of birth, etc.) then it is very unlikely you will ever recover your email account.

The reason for this is that all the password recovery systems today are automated processes with no live human beings involved, except you. In order to recover a lost password it is necessary to fill out forms and to do so in exactly the way the system expects to find the answers. If you do not have those answers, you do not get your password.

The only way to contact Hotmail is through their Windows Live Help web site. There is no telephone support, and if you do not believe me I will quote from their web site: “We don’t offer any direct phone or email support for Windows Live Hotmail.” I knew this already, and I also have experience filling in the forms to request a review by customer support for a lost password.

I have my own Turing Test which I applied in dealing with Windows Live Help and through this learned there is nothing about this “Live Help” that is alive any longer. No matter how many times I wrote to Windows Live Help, no matter what I wrote to them, the only response I ever received was automated, such as the last message: “We have concluded our review of the information you provided. Our agents were unable to validate that you are the account owner.” The message concludes, “Our final recommendation is to create a new Windows Live ID account.” With that Microsoft canceled my Windows Live Help temporary account making sure I would have no chance to communicate with them further. How rude! HotMail’s automated system provides no means to appeal and no way to ever contact a live human being. You sure do get what you pay for.

Starting over from scratch is inconvenient and can be an extremely expensive proposition for anyone who used a free Gmail, HotMail or Yahoo account for their business, and then was foolish enough to use a simple, easy-to-guess password. All of this is why I constantly rail against using free email accounts for anything important. Your emails, address book, documents, photographs, or anything else you keep stored in the cloud runs the very real risk of being lost forever if you loose access to the account.

Please protect your email account by using a cryptographically strong password and by keeping your account recovery information up to date.

Charles Miller is a freelance computer consultant, a frequent visitor to San Miguel since 1981 and now practically a full-time resident. He may be contacted at 044-415-101-8528 or email FAQ8 (at) SMAguru.com.

By Charles Miller

A reader wrote commenting on an earlier column describing the opposition to having the United Nations and its agency the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) take over control of the internet. I was asked, “Why not let the United Nations take over the internet?”

It is not because UN members Nauru (population 9,945) and Tuvalu (population 10 thousand) would have an equal vote to Mexico (population 112 million) or the United States (population 315,056,000) in decision-making.

It is not because the politicians of the UN member states would have a vote on how to run the internet, but the communications companies, engineers, and technicians who have to actually make things work would have no vote.

It is not because the head of the ITU, Dr. Hamadoun Touré of the Republic of Mali, educated at the Technical Institute of Electronics and Telecommunication of Leningrad and at Moscow Technical University of Communication and Informatics in the pre-glasnost era is quoted as saying, “The internet remains largely [the] rich world’s privilege” and “the ITU wants to change that.”

It is not even because having the UN in charge of the internet finances would surely make the multi-billion dollar graft of the UN’s Iraq Oil for Food program look like pocket change.

No, none of the above. I simply happen to agree with the large number of levelheaded individuals who have said, “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it!” The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has so far done a fair and impartial job of governing the internet.

In 1998 the Clinton administration made a wise and far-sighted decision when it removed the authority for day-to-day governance of the internet from the US Commerce Department and created ICANN as a semi-independent, non-government agency. Critics argue that it is not as independent as it should be, but an overwhelming majority of nations are satisfied enough with the status quo and not willing to risk changes with unknown consequences, such as putting U.N. bureaucrats in charge.

This is not to say the ITU does not have a voice. Since its creation in 1865, the ITU has been making suggestions to its membership of 193 nations and more than 700 associates (companies such as Motorola, and many universities). For more than a century most countries have adopted proposed telecommunications standards from the ITU and for that reason telegraph, radio, telephone, and now internet communications are largely compatible across national boundaries. There is no reason the ITU cannot continue making their suggestions, non-binding suggestions, and when those ideas have merit I am sure ICANN will listen.

I have my own personal suggestion to make, and that is that ICANN should start to show more independence from the government of the United States. With court orders valid in the United States the Obama administration required ICANN to take down a number of web sites for violating US copyright laws and other sites deemed to be in violation of the economic embargo of Cuba, even though those web sites were located outside the US ICANN complied, and in so doing set a very bad precedent. What if now the Supreme Leader of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, presents an order legally issued by the Revolutionary Court of Iran to shut down sites in violation of Islamic law? The list could start with facebook.com, google.com, jerusalempost.com, match.com, twitter.com…

Charles Miller is a freelance computer consultant, a frequent visitor to San Miguel since 1981 and now practically a full-time resident. He may be contacted at 044-415-101-8528 or email FAQ8 (at) SMAguru.com.

By Charles Miller

A story I have retold many times is of my client who told me her keyboard needed to have one more key, a large wide key big enough to be labeled “Whoops, I didn’t mean to do that.” She was pleasantly surprised to learn that her keyboard already had such a key, albeit not labeled exactly as she had suggested.

Many users who do not read their instruction books, and who also do not read Atención are not going to know about this but their computer already has such a key. Microsoft Windows operating systems as well as Mac OS-X include a feature that usually permits reversing or un-doing your last action, and this is what many of us call the “whoops” command. When this is available it is usually found on the “Edit” menu and is usually called “Undo”. There is also a keyboard shortcut I find easier to use.

If you click on Edit/Undo, the computer will try to undo whatever you just did, but since finding the Edit menu is sometimes easier said than done I prefer to use the keyboard. No matter how badly lost I can become on the screen; I never have trouble finding my keyboard. The keyboard shortcut for the “whoops” command is [Ctrl Z]. This means to hold down on the [Ctrl] key while tapping one time on the letter [Z]. Mac users hold down on the [Command] key while tapping [Z].

The undo command is usually quite intuitive about what it does, or rather what it un-does. If you changed the font type or size or color, pressing [Ctrl Z] will put the font back as before. If just deleted a file or a bunch of files to the Recycle Bin then pressing [Ctrl Z] will put all those deleted files back where they were. You can even cheat at some games because in Spider Solitaire, pressing [Ctrl Z] lets you take back your last move. But without a doubt the most useful application of the whoops key is that it can bring back text you just deleted from the screen by accident.

Users of laptops often complain about typing a long email only to have it mysteriously and frustratingly vanish from the screen. In most cases this happens because the user brushes their thumb or a finger across the laptop scratch pad causing the cursor to move and to select the text on the screen. If the next action following this is to press an alphanumeric key then all the selected text is overtyped by the next key and vanishes. The whoops key is often able to correct this so long as you catch your mistake soon enough.

If you have just deleted text from the screen, stop and press [Ctrl Z] to see if this restores the erased text. Many programs, especially more advanced programs such as Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel include several levels of undo. In these as well as some applications, pressing [Ctrl Z] a second time will undo the second change back, and pressing [Ctrl Z] a third time will undo the third change back. Sometimes you are able to only go back one level, and if you have closed down a program it is unfortunately not possible to open it again and use the whoops command.

Once you have discovered the existence of the whoops command you are likely to follow with learning about its utility. There are many actions on your computer, Mac or PC that can be reversed by using this simple command. Delete a file? Press [Ctrl Z] to bring it back from the Recycle Bin. Make almost any mistake in a word processor document or spreadsheet? Press the whoops key to reverse whatever you just did.

The main thing to remember about using the whoops command is that it is ephemeral. If you make some mistake and then try fixing it in your own way and are unsuccessful, by then it is probably too late to use the whoops key. In order to be able to use this undo feature you really need to do so immediately, so the next time you make some mistake try pressing the whoops key first.

Charles Miller is a freelance computer consultant, a frequent visitor to San Miguel since 1981 and now practically a full-time resident. He may be contacted at 044-415-101-8528 or email FAQ8 (at) SMAguru.com.

By Charles Miller

One of the great advantages of using a GUI (Graphical User Interface) is that once you learn some mouse trick or keyboard shortcut, it is often the case you can use those same features in many different places. This is true of Microsoft Windows, Mac OS-X as well as Linux and is often true cross-platform (meaning that some Windows shortcuts work on a Mac and vice-versa).

When using your favorite internet browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, etc.) there are some hidden commands that work on most of them. Pressing [Ctrl +] or [Ctrl -], that is the holding the [Ctrl] key while pressing plus or minus will increase or decrease the size of the screen. Mac users hold down the [Command] key rather than [Ctrl]. Pressing [Ctrl 0] or [Command] and the number zero, will restore the browser screen to normal size. These three keys: zero, minus, and plus are together in the upper row of your keyboard and that can help you remember which three keys to use. If you prefer using your mouse, holding down [Ctrl] while rolling the mouse wheel also changes the text size.

Mozilla Firefox is generally quite good about remembering the magnification level you chose for a particular web site and automatically setting your screen to that same magnification level when you return to that site later. If your computer fails to do this then the reason is very likely because you have your privacy settings cranked up a bit too high for the program to remember the screen settings for individual sites. Click on Tools / Options / Privacy / History and check that you do not have the option to “Never Remember History” selected. If you want to save the screen size you used on a site you cannot use Firefox in a private browsing session because that makes everything a little too private, including your screen size.

Many browsers will expand to full-screen mode if you press [F11]. Pressing [F11] a second time will restore the browser menus and toolbars to normal. This is especially useful when using a very small screen on which the menus and toolbars use too much space.

Over the years the mouse right-click has become so useful in Windows software that it is now showing up in more and more Mac programs and is especially useful when using most internet browsers. Position your mouse on a blank area of the web page you are reading and you will likely be shown a context menu with several options such “Back”/”Forward” (same as clicking the navigation arrows) or “Bookmark the page” or “Print” or “Search” within the page. If the “Search” command is not there, then try [Ctrl F] to “find” your search term on that page.

The right-click behaved quite differently if you point your mouse to different locations on the screen. If you right-click on an image you may find the option to save that image to your computer or perhaps set that picture as your desktop background.

If you first select a word or phrase then right-click on the selected text you will often find that new commands appear such as “Search Google for…” the word you selected. Selecting that option usually opens a new tab or new window to display those search results. Some browsers expand on this further by adding a command to “Look up in Dictionary” the word you selected then right-clicked on.

Not to worry! Mac users who have no right mouse button are not about to be left out in the cold here. If your Mac has no right mouse button you can always hold down on the [Command] key while clicking the only mouse button you have, and that usually simulates a right-click. OS-X recognizes pointing devices with two buttons, so feel free to go to the store and buy an up-to-the-date mouse with both right and left buttons.

Charles Miller is a freelance computer consultant, a frequent visitor to San Miguel since 1981 and now practically a full-time resident. He may be contacted at 044-415-101-8528 or email FAQ8 (at) SMAguru.com.

One look at my email inbox plus a couple of conversations that took place in the Jardín tells me my attempts to explain DNS and DNSSEC in an earlier column left a lot to be desired. Several Atención readers indicated to me they saw no reason to be concerned about what is now going on in the US Congress because they could not understand how any of what was going on up there could have any effect on them here in Mexico.

The truth is there are a lot of reasons to be concerned about the actions of the current administration in Washington because of the possible consequences affecting every internet user on earth. For this reason I am going to make another attempt to describe what is happening and how it might affect all of us online.

Domain Name System (DNS) is a database system that translates a domain name such as gmail.com into its numeric IP address 74.125.227.23. Without this the internet does not work, period. The proposed Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC) is an improved and more tamper-resistant DNS system that would be completely scuttled by several legislative proposals before the US Congress.

If you think this does not matter to you, then please try to understand this analogy: Pretend there are two competing pizza parlors in town and one decides to tamper with the telephone circuits so that when you call in an order to Jiffy Pizza you actually end up talking to Soggy Pizza. When your doorbell rings and you open the door to see the delivery driver from Soggy Pizza rather than Jiffy Pizza you might ask, “What happened to my Jiffy Pizza order?” The Soggy Pizza guy might answer, “Gee whiz, I guess the phone company crossed the wires again.” Then he adds “Ain’t no use your trying to call Jiffy Pizza again because you can’t get through to them, so why don’t you just buy this Soggy Pizza instead?”

This example takes on a more sinister aspect if you dial the phone number for your investment broker and unbeknownst to you your call gets routed to some crooks pretending to be your broker. Or all the calls you try to make from your home phone to any doctor’s office get routed instead to voicemail at your HMO. It would not take much of these shenanigans before a lot of people would have to give up altogether on using the telephone as a method to communicate.

This exemplifies the threat to the internet poised by the actions of the current administration in Washington, DC, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement has already tried to block access to foreign web sites trafficking in pirated goods, thus temporarily censoring access to these web sites to every user of the internet worldwide. That attempt at censorship does not last long because those web sites can un-censor themselves by using an alternate DNS. The more censorship the US government attempts to implement, the more alternate DNS servers will be brought on line to circumvent that censorship, and this situation is tailor-made for criminals. When the U.S. government censors the master DNS, alternative DNS servers to un-censor the blocking are soon advertised, but will they be trustworthy?

Criminal enterprises are guaranteed to take advantage of this confusion. When it is no longer possible to know you are connecting to the intended web site then it will no longer be possible to safely transact any business at all online. Officials in Washington D.C. need to be made to understand that tampering with the internet’s Domain Name System undermines the foundation of the internet resulting in lasting and far-reaching repercussions worldwide.

Charles Miller is a freelance computer consultant, a frequent visitor to San Miguel since 1981 and now practically a full-time resident. He may be contacted at 044-415-101-8528 or email FAQ8 (at) SMAguru.com.

Surface, the new Microsft tablet to compete with the iPad

On June 25 2012, with much fanfare at a media event in Los Angeles, Microsoft succeeded in surprising the Information Technology world with the “Surface.” Hard though it is to do in today’s world, Microsoft kept this project secret for three years without a single leak to the outside world.

In a bold departure from Microsoft’s classic business model, the company announced a new tablet designed to compete with the iPad. For those readers who do not recognize the magnitude of this event let me explain that up until last Monday almost every product sold my Microsoft came on a disk. Microsoft absolutely dominates 90% of the computer software market but their Windows OS and other software have always run on computer hardware manufactured by OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers) such as Compaq, Dell, Gateway, Hewlett-Packard, etc. The “Surface” is Microsoft’s first serious attempt to enter the computer hardware market.

Invited news media representatives who got to put their hands on these new Surface tablets describe them as being “exquisitely engineered” and “drop-dead gorgeous.” The Surface’s magnesium case is one-tenth of a millimeter thinner than the latest iPad, its screen is 10.6 inches making it a whole inch larger than the iPad; and of course being bigger it weighs more… one whole ounce more.

On the theory that bigger is better, Microsoft unveiled two “Surface” models, the second one built around an Intel processor with enough horsepower to run Windows 8. Now all of my complaints last week about how W8 is just not suited for a desktop or laptop computer user are starting to make sense. Microsoft has been planning for years that Windows 8 would be introduced as a competitor in the tablet market. The larger model Surface with Windows 8 is 4 millimeters thicker and a half pound heaver than its lighter cousin.

Not at all obvious to consumers, the most profound message delivered that Monday was heard in corporate boardrooms of Acer, Samsung, Toshiba and all the other OEMs. Microsoft has been telling computer manufacturers for years to pay attention to what users want in a computer and to concentrate on the user experience, excellence in design, and a few really great models… in other words to be more like Mac and iPad! Instead, the OEMs have pushed out hundreds and hundreds of different model laptops and PCs, some good, some mediocre, few really innovative. With the introduction of the “Surface” tablet Microsoft is firing a shot across the bow of the OEM clone makers in effect saying “You wouldn’t build the kinds of computers we want for our Windows software so we’re going to show you the right way to build a tablet.” The message could not be clearer, and the OEMs are now sure to follow with better and less expensive tablets.

Microsoft has yet to announce when Surface will go on sale, but many industry analysts predict the first quarter of 2013 if not this Christmas season. As to the question of pricing, Microsoft’s press release states “Suggested retail pricing will be announced closer to availability and is expected to be competitive…” Both the first and last words in that quote are music to my ears. While Apple’s iPad exists in a closed ecosystem where no price competition is allowed, the fiercely completive OEM computer market has a history of driving prices for consumer electronics lower every year.

The stage has now been set for OEMs to begin producing tablets with lower costs than ever, and Microsoft is positioning itself to be a part of this. The future of tablets looks bright ahead.

Charles Miller is a freelance computer consultant, a frequent visitor to San Miguel since 1981 and now practically a full-time resident. He may be contacted at 044-415-101-8528 or email FAQ8 (at) SMAguru.com.

It’s that time again! Every few years Microsoft offers computer users a new version of their Windows Operating System (OS). After two decades the history of Microsoft Windows has fallen into what is now a predictable pattern. Every successful product is followed by a dud that prompts many users to revert to the previous version until something better comes along.

I am not alone in preferring to forget the first two versions of Windows in 1985 and 1987, which more than being duds were absolutely awful. The Windows OS had reached a usable level of maturity by 1992 and so Windows 3.1 was a success in the market. Windows 95 was the next version Microsoft put on the market; it was not very successful and could be called another disappointment. Next up was Windows 98, the most successful version of Windows up to that time. In 2000 Microsoft release the dud known as Windows Millennium prompting large numbers of users to revert to the previous version of Windows. The next year, 2001, Microsoft released their most successful and longest-lived OS ever, Windows XP. In 2007 came Windows Vista while being a technical improvement over its predecessor was an absolute flop in the market with almost everyone preferring to continue using the previous version of Windows XP.

By now it should be rather obvious there is indeed a pattern here. The current version of Windows 7, which appeared in 2009, has been very well received by users and is predicted by some to possibly have the staying power of Windows XP. This, and the fact that Windows versions now have a long history of alternating back and forth between popular and unpopular public reception does not bode well for the next product release, Windows 8, scheduled to debut this year.

For the last few weeks I have been using the Windows 8 Release Preview, which I downloaded and installed on a test computer at home. I have been trying to give it a fair shake, really I have, but so far the adjectives that come to mind are: awkward, counter-intuitive, but also colorful and cute. Windows 8 is a product not born of need or demand so I am predicting the patterns of the past will continue and that W8 will be another bust with consumers. For the record I will detail the reasons behind my forming this opinion:

First is that Windows 8 does not bring anything significant in the way of improvements or new features needed by laptop or desktop computer users. Windows 8 is strong on new features intended to make Microsoft a player in the tablet and smartphone market. Desktop and laptop computers are not tablets, and vive la difference!

Second is the new Metro interface intended to completely replace the familiar system of menu items, and even the familiar start button is gone. Users do not like being forced into radical change and Metro is as sweeping as change gets.

Lastly, all application software needs to be rewritten for the new Metro interface. Not only does this present a steep learning curve for all users, but recompiling software always introduces new bugs—that is simply the nature of the beast.

Advancements in technology are supposed to provide solutions to problems, and in this Microsoft has a decades-long track record of making things better for the masses. History will judge retrospectively, however; I believe the past gives ample reason to confirm my predictions and reason to believe most computer users will ignore the new Windows 8 and wait for another version that really is better and not just different. Windows 8 is about to show up on tablets though, more on that next week.

Charles Miller is a freelance computer cosultant, a frequent visitor to San Miguel since 1981 and now practically a full-time resident. He may be contacted at 044-415-101-8528 or email FAQ8 (at) SMAguru.com.

Charles Miller is a freelance computer consultant, a frequent visitor to San Miguel since 1981 and now practically a full-time resident. He may be contacted at 044-415-101-8528 or email FAQ8 (at) SMAguru.com.