Info Tech for Non-Profits

John Wesley Hyatt and Michael Phelan, two unsung heroes in elephant conservation who helped reduce the ivory trade

I just recently learned the story of John Wesley Hyatt, an American engineer and inventor who is credited with creating the first true commercially viable plastic: celluloid. He was inspired to do so by Michael Phelan, an Irish immigrant who became “the father of American billiards”.  Mr. Phelan created a $10,000 prize awarded to whomever could come up with a replacement for ivory for billiard balls. (This also is a great example of the power of an inducement prize contest.)

While Mr. Hyatt’s invention didn’t have the desired properties to replace ivory in billiard balls, it did kick off the age of plastics. And it found a use in places where ivory had also typically been used previously: combs, buttons, collars and other fashion products. And it led other inventors to experiment with plastic materials, including Leo Baekeland who developed Bakelite in 1907, which was a superior material (cheaper, more consistent, and higher quality) and finally supplanted ivory as the preferred material in billiard balls.

A promotional pamphlet for the new material by the Albany Billiard Ball Company proclaimed (and rightfully so), “As petroleum came to the relief of the whale, so too has celluloid given the elephant, the tortoise, and the coral insect a respite in their native haunts; and it will no longer be necessary to ransack the earth in pursuit of substances which are constantly growing scarcer.”

Updating a Windows 10 PC using the Update Assistant and the Media Creation Tool

So the Windows 10 built in software update seems to do well getting smaller updates, but it doesn't always pull down and install the big ones (like the most recent Windows 181o update from October 2018. Hence the numbering scheme they use.)

What you'll want to do is download the Windows 10 Update Assistant. That tool will force the latest big version of Windows to be downloaded and then installed on your PC.

If you are going into a place where there isn't fast internet, or if you just have several PCs you need to update, I recommend creating a USB installer using the Windows Media Creation Tool, which is available on Microsoft's Windows 10 disc image (ISO) download page.

Finally I encourage you to go into the installed apps page in Settings and uninstall pretty much all of the junk that you can from there. Both Windows and the PC manufacturer have put a lot of crap on the computer by default (OneDrive, games, bloatware from the manufacturer etc). The only thing I strongly encourage you not to remove is any WiFi/wireless driver you see in the list. Anything else is ok to uninstall as the computer will reinstall it if it is truly necessary for your computer.

Conditioned Taste Aversion to dissuade wild carnivores from killing livestock

OK, I know this is pretty far afield from IT, but it does qualify as technology that can seriously help wildlife conservation groups out there.

One common scenario in human-wildlife conflict (HWC) ocurs in livestock-herding communities living at the edges or even amongst wild carnivore ranges. If the livestock are not managed well, wild carnivores can take advantage of an easy meal of a domesticated goat, sheep, or even calf. Sometimes it's just a one-time act of convenience; after all, wild carnivores do have a preference for the taste of their particular prey animal. But sometimes the wild carnivore can get in the habit of taking livestock. Once this happens, options are limited. Relocation isn't that effective: 50% success at best. And of course sometimes the community will take things into their own hands and kill the predators.

But another solution is conditioned taste aversion. It involves chasing the predator(s) off the animal they killed and lacing the carcass with a compound such as thiabendazole, levamisole, or lithium chloride. If the predator comes back to eat the animal, the compound will make them nauseous and immediately condition them to avoid that particular animal in the future. 

RSS feed for Wildlife Conservation Network is https://wildnet.org/feed/

Wildlife Conservation Network—my previous non-profit employer—updated their web site last year. I only just noticed that they also changed the URL for their RSS news feed. Now I realize I’m one of less than a dozen people who probably still use a news reader to consume WCN news, but just in case anyone is searching the web for this info, the new URL is:

https://wildnet.org/feed/

Giving Assistant allows online shoppers to generate funds for your non-profit

A friend of mine who is on the board of The Greater Sum recommends Giving Assistant over Amazon Smile. It works with thousands of online stores including eBay, Macys, and Home Depot, and it generates on average about 3% (vs ½% for Amazon Smile). Granted, ½% is better than nothing so I don't see a reason to give up Amazon Smile. But definitely get your most passionate supporters to sign up for Giving Assistant. The downside is that it requires all ad blockers be disabled. 😕

Check it out!

Cash back from Amazon: Smile vs. affiliate links

Amazon Smile is a program that allows Amazon shoppers to designate a certain 501(c)(3) non-profit and have ½% of their purchases go to that org. It’s certainly a nice sentiment, but there are a few things wrong with it:

1. People need to remember to go to smile.amazon.com in order for it to work. If they forget and order on the regular Amazon site, the non-profit won't get the money.
2. They only pay out ½% to non-profits vs. ~4–6% for affiliates.
3. Amazon is the entity making the donation, so they get the tax credit for it and the non-profit only sees Amazon as the donor. No matter how much a particular person generates through Smile, the non-profit will never know their name or magnitude of their contribution.

The savvy non-profit is a member of the Amazon Affiliate program, and they encourage their supporters to use their affiliate ID rather than Smile. It will generate nearly 10✕ the money for your org.

To be sure that every single order they make benefits you, you should create a help page that shows them exactly how to install an Amazon affiliate extension for their browser (like these for Google Chrome, Firefox and Safari) and add your org’s affiliate code.

Update: I’ve learned that if Amazon feels you are earning "too much" from your affiliate link, or if you are marketing it too heavily, Amazon can cancel your affiliate account. Best bet is to judiciously reach out to a few donors and get them to use your affiliate link, but for the masses push the Smile program. 

Also, don't forget that you can get 5% back for your org by getting a Prime credit card.

Inyenyeri, the clean-burning cooking stove that aims to replace charcoal and firewood

Many have tried to fix the problem of dirty, unhealthy, and unsustainable cooking fires used by so many people around the world. This article does a good job of summarizing the efforts to date as either too expensive to be sustainable, or too cheap to be reliable.

Inyenyeri—a company in Rwanda—is trying to change that by moving to the razor/blades model of giving away a high-quality stove (the mimi moto) and charging for the fuel it burns. It's a much better model for their market as it requires no large initial capital expenditure to get started. And they even have a firewood trade-in program, and the wood they receive can then be turned into pellets that burn with 2–3✕ efficiency compared to firewood.

There are still growing pains, the biggest of which is getting a large, reliable supply chain going for the pellets. I hope they have enough capital runway to get there. I'd love to seem them succeed in Rwanda so they can expand to other countries. 

Alternative livelihoods for indigenous people to help support local conservation efforts

Most of the community-based conservation orgs I help out have some sort of alternative livelihood program to help establish businesses that bring money into the community that don't involve exploiting the local environment or wildlife.

The most obvious one is by hiring them as staff to help with the project. Every single person earning a salary helps support a whole family of people in that area, so the effect of simply employing local works is amplified.

Another common program is arts and crafts like the felti figures/ornaments for spectacled bears, the snare wire sculptures for painted dogs, or the Eco-Mochila bags for cotton-top tamarins. Or more simply just selling traditional arts and artifacts from the region.

Participating in tourism is also another option, whether as a guide, helping to run a lodge or other tourist establishment, or through performance of traditional music or dance.

One idea I just had after reviewing my photos I took with the San bushmen of the Kalahari in Botswana: life coach. I actually took a course several years back on posture and movement that is based on the fact that we spend so much time sitting, lying, slouching, leaning etc that we have essentially forgotten how to do it the way our bodies were designed. It's one thing to have Westerners who learn these techies teach them. But it might be even more impactful if people who actually spend their whole lives doing it the proper way do it. Plus since there really isn't any cost of goods, there would be higher margins. I also think there are opportunities to teach being present and mindful and connecting meaningfully and emotionally with others.

Of course there are challenges, not the least of which is connecting the people with a customer base. But maybe these could even be online courses.

I'm just brainstorming here, and haven't thought the details through. But having recently done a lot of personal explorations on true happiness, fulfillment and healthy living, I do believe that these indigenous people have a lot to teach us that we have forgotten over the generations after we began large scale agriculture, had the industrial revolution and just generally created a society quite different than the one our relatively ancestors lived in.

Amazon price tracker CamelCamelCamel will alert you to sales and price drops of desired items

A couple of years ago I wrote a long, detailed post about procurement in general. I want to highlight one tool here, because it definitely can and will save you money. The strangely-named but very useful price tracker site CamelCamelCamel. If there is any particular thing you buy with regularity, or even just have your eye on and don't need immediately but wouldn't mind picking up on sale, these are all great candidates for setting up a price tracker.

Personally I've used it successfully for shoes (I go through a pair of volleyball shoes every year, and dress shoes every 2–3). I also use it for dog food. The 28 lb bag I get for my dog is normally $52, but it drops below $45 on occasion.

I also picked up an Oontz bluetooth speaker and a Pelican high-efficiency cooler for ~30–40% off each by setting up price alerts and then buying then when they were on sale via Amazon’s Gold Box / Deal of the Day.

CamelCamelCamel Amazon price drop alerts

Make sure your showerhead has silicone rubber self-cleaning nozzles

OK, I realize this is a weird post for an IT blog. But I support wildlife conservationists who work in very remote areas. The water they use is from boreholes or wells and the quality of the water is, well, whatever it is. As long as it's not noxious, they will use it untreated. And more likely than not, the water is hard.

Hard water contains dissolved minerals (usually calcium or magnesium carbonate). Whenever the water is used (bathroom, kitchen, wherever), water droplets are invariably left behind. And when they evaporate the minerals that were in them remain.

Showerhead nozzles are usually fine enough that they will become restricted or clog after only a few weeks of use. You can dissolve the minerals with vinegar. But it is much easier to have the flexible silicone rubber nozzles that can simply be wiggled back and forth to break off any build up.

It looks like most of the top-rated showerheads at Amazon qualify. But if you are buying elsewhere, be sure this is one of the features! It will make your life (or the life of whomever is cleaning the shower) much easier!

Get silicone nozzle showerheads from Amazon

In some extreme cases you may want to get silicone rubber nozzles for your kitchen and bathroom sinks too.

Scott's Cheap Flights now tracks a ton of international departure airports, including Africa

Most of the wildlife conservationists I work with are based internationally, and the majority of them are in Africa. I have previously recommended Scott's Cheap Flights as a way to save some serious money on airfares (especially if you can be flexible with the dates). Just within the last couple of weeks they added departure cities from most of the bigger cities in Africa including Johannesburg, Nairobi, Gaborone, and Windhoek. I have the premium subscription, and I am tracking the cities where I know people who use them as departure points. At only $40/year, I do recommend that any org sign up for the premium subscription. Even if you only use it once  year, it will more than pay for itself.

Scott's Cheap Flights

Forwarding email tip: always be sure to delete the "manage your account" and "unsubscribe" links at the bottom

I often forward on emails such as Google Alerts or newsletters. But a problem with this is many senders try to make things easier for you, so they have one-click unsubscribe links, or auto-sign-in links for managing your account. This is great for the primary recipient, but can result in serious trouble should a forwardee decide to click one of those links. (And I'm sure it's not with malicious intent. It's easy for someone to get confused by such links in a forwarded email and think they apply to you and not the original recipient.)

So before hitting send, I make a point of always scrolling down to the footer of the message and deleting any manage and unsubscribe links there to avoid any inadvertent settings changes.

I learned this the hard way with Google Alerts, where a forwardee ended up unsubscribing me from my own alert. 😛

5% cash back with Amazon Prime Rewards credit card

Like a lot of non-profits, the ones I support order many things through Amazon. If your have Amazon Prime (and you probably should if you are ordering more than a few items per year) then you should absolutely get the Amazon Prime Rewards credit card.

This card gives you 5% back on all purchases you make at Amazon or Whole Foods. And if you are buying a lot of gear through them, it adds up. For example a solid $1000 laptop will net you $20 back. Most cash back credit cards are 1–2%, so it’s worth it to have this card, even if you only use it at Amazon and Whole Foods.

Note: Be sure to get the Prime Rewards card. A friend of mine—who was also a Prime member—had only the standard rewards card and so was getting only 3% back.

Apply for an Amazon Prime Rewards credit card

Extend your wifi to a large area with an outdoor access point

I just visited my friend Jen who owns a horse ranch in Washington state. She has 15 acres including the main house, horse barn, lower barn, extra auxiliary barn, workshop, tack room, arena, back cottage… you get the idea. She was just using the default wifi router that her ISP had provided, which only reached about 3 feet into the horse barn (the closest building to the house). And of course cell coverage is spotty there.

I did a bit of research and then purchased a TP Link directional outdoor wifi access point plus 100' of weatherproof ethernet cable. I was hoping to set it up as a wifi repeater, but since I couldn't get admin access to the DHCP server, I just gave it a static IP and set it up as a separate access point. It's a bit more hassle since people will have to join both networks separately. Warning: you will have to have access to a computer with an ethernet port to do the initial setup. We had to dig up an old-school MacBook Pro from 10 years ago since I forgot my ethernet adapter at home.

But boy does it work great! When I ran the first test by simply placing it facing out a first floor window, it easily reached over 100m down to the workshop and arena. Mounted outdoors and on the second story, I'm sure it will reach twice as far covering that whole side of the property. For less than $100, this setup is a super cost-effective way to extend wifi. You could get an omni-directional one, but the range will be reduced. It might even be better for some applications to simply get two of these and point them in different directions.

Endless Computers grant opportunity—up to 30 computers for non-profits

Endless OS makes an inexpensive Linux computer targeted at families and education. If you have an education program where you do computer-based learning, this might be a great opportunity to outfit your classroom with their hardware.

Apply for an Endless Computers grant

Disclaimer: I have no firsthand knowledge of Endless OS or their computers, so I can't say how well they would work.

ReviewMeta is my new go-to service for checking Amazon products for fake reviews (was FakeSpot)

I used to use FakeSpot to check Amazon products for fake reviews, and it's still a solid service that I recommend. However I like ReviewMeta. It looks like a more transparent system to me and I think they have been doing it longer, so I feel like I can trust them a bit more.

But the primary reason is because they have a Chrome browser extension. It makes it so much easier to check the corrected review score (which shows up on the extension button) or to generate a score for products not previously analyzed (just click the button).

YouTube video downloader Y2mate works for audio/music files too

I previously blogged about a site for downloading videos from YouTube for offline viewing, which is essential for embedding in a presentation. (Never ever rely on the internet for critical pieces your presentation.) That site no longer works, but after a brief search I found one that does.

Y2mate.com YouTube video/music downloader

Prevent Windows 10 system updates from eating up all of your data (Internet network bandwidth issue)

If you live and work in a place where you don't have unlimited data, Windows 10 is problematic. It is always downloading massive updating in the background. Even worse it downloads the same updates for each computer on the network, eating up even more bandwidth.

But there is a solution. First, make sure all of your Windows 10 computers are set to share updates with other computers on the network. I believe the current versions of Windows 10 have this turned on by default, but you should definitely go verify for each.

Second—and most importantly—tell Windows that you are on a metered connection. This will prevent the computer from downloading updates from the internet, and instead they will look for the updates only on the local network.

Someone really needs to create a router/gateway that will itself download the updates and then serve them to the computers on the network behind it. If something like that exists, please leave a comment. Thanks!

$100–$200 Windows laptop for running backups

If you are looking for an inexpensive Windows 10 laptop you can use as a dedicated backup computer (as I mentioned in my previous post regarding a cheap, reliable backup system) then check out the open box and refurbished ones available on Blinq.

$100–$200 laptop deals at Blinq

In this price range, you are likely to get 4GB of RAM and 32GB of flash storage. So be sure to get a 32GB USB 3.1 flash drive (or bigger) to supplement the meager internal storage. It will be necessary to install some of the larger Windows updates.

And if you want a laptop with better specs that can be used as an everyday computer by someone, look for something in the $300 range with 8GB of RAM and 1TB hard drive (like this ASUS).

If you are putting together a backup system, you can get a discount on 4TB portable hard drives too if you shop Amazon Warehouse for returned items. I just picked up a couple WD one for $85. So total cost of a 4TB redundant backup system is less than $300; not bad.

Note: I updated this post that was originally about a specific deal on a specific laptop to be more generic and therefore more valuable going forward.

The best cost-effective, reliable and resilient 3-2-1 backup system

Here’s all the gear you need:

• An inexpensive Windows laptop (ideally with an Ethernet port and 64GB internal storage) such as an ASUS E402 or a HP Stream (~$200–300)
• A USB flash drive if the laptop internal storage is small (~$20)
• 2 ✕ 4TB portable USB external hard drives (~$100 each)
• Resilio Sync app (free!)
• Optional: A fireproof safe to securely store the inactive backup drive (~$50+)

How to set it up

To keep this article relatively short, I'm going to leave out some of the details. 

Configure the backup laptop

First do the basic configuration for the Windows OS on the backup laptop. This involves uninstalling all of the bloatware that comes with it (pretty much anything that can be uninstalled should be, aside from required device drivers such as those from RealTek or Intel), and applying all of the latest system updates. I also advise you compress the internal hard drive, remove older versions of the system files, and use the USB flash drive as additional storage when applying system updates. While you are at it, install Resilio Sync on the backup laptop. I do not recommend installing any other 3rd party software, even things like Chrome or 7-Zip. Keep the system completely bare bones for simplicity.

Configure each computer that needs to be backed up

For each of the computers that you want to back up, install Resilio Sync and then add the folders you want backed up to Resilio. I recommend the 3 Ds: Documents, Desktop and Downloads. If you keep specialized files elsewhere (photos, videos, music, fonts etc.), be sure to add those folders as well. As you do this, copy the key (I use the read only key to prevent accidental modifications or overwrites. You may also want to use an encrypted key for security.) for each folder and paste it into a text document. Label each key with the computer/user name and the folder name. I save this document out to a file on a USB drive and take the drive with me to each computer I'm working on, but it could also be stored in a secure cloud service like LastPass or Google Drive.

Link the org computers to the backup laptop

Once you are done setting up Resilio Sync on each of the org's computers and you have a key for every folder on every computer you want backed up, it's time to link them to the backup laptop. On the backup laptop, format both portable external drives to ExFAT. I named them 4TB backup #1 and 4TB backup #2. Create a folder structure that will organize your backups. I recommend a top level folder for each computer, and inside a folder for each folder that is being backed up in Resilio Sync.

In Resilio Sync on the backup laptop, click + and choose Enter key or link. Paste in the key for each folder and link it to the appropriate folder on the portable external drive. It might take a bit of time for the folder and file structure to be read in and indexed by Resilio Sync, but after that the sync should start. If you can, plug one or both computers into the Ethernet network. This isn't essential but I find it tends to make things go a lot more quickly.

Once the first drive has finished syncing, quit Resilio Sync on the backup laptop, safely eject the external hard drive, and then plug in the second one. You may need to use the Disk Manager to remap it to the same drive letter as the first drive (usually D:). Now start Resilio Sync and let it do its thing once again on the second drive. In the meantime, take the first drive and put it somewhere safe. Ideally off-site (the further removed geographically the better, but keeping in mind you should be swapping the drives every week or so) or in a fireproof and waterproof safe locally.

Restore from the back up

Definitely check to make sure you can restore from the backup before you actually need to. One of the great things about Resilio Sync is that it stores the backup in the same file structure as the original files. You can just browse through the folders and files and open a few select ones to ensure everything looks good.

The other thing that is great about Resilio Sync is that it keeps a 30 day archive of older versions of files. So if there is an accidental delete or modification of a file, you can right-click the folder in Resilio sync, open the archive, and pull out an older version of the file from there.

My personal backup laptop with one of the backup drives mounted to the back using 3M dual lock fastener tape

Reasoning behind this setup

I've been helping nonprofits with IT for almost 5 years now, and I've tried a bunch of different systems. While there is no one-size-fits-all solution, I think this works best for a lot of SOHO (small office/home office) orgs, and especially those where cloud isn't a viable option (where cheap and fast internet is not available).

You always have to worry about power outages. I have previously used a dedicated UPS. But having a laptop and USB bus-powered hard drives obviates the need for this extra item, and keeps things simpler.

Resilio Sync is hands down the best backup app I've found. I used to recommend CrashPlan, and it's still a good app. But I like Resilio because it backs up continuously and you can easily add other devices to create even more redundancy if you wish. It has the  archive feature for accessing older versions. And most importantly it keeps it's files in a readable form so even if you lose both the original computer and the backup computer completely, as long as you have one of the backup drives, it's easy to get back up and running.

Definitely let me know if you end up doing this and what your experience is with it.

My personal backup laptop running Resilio Sync to keep my MacBook Pro backed up

Extend a weak WiFi to your mobile phone using macOS Internet Sharing

I'm currently staying at place that has a central WiFi access point at the main building, and my room is the furthest. I can get reasonable signal on my laptop, but my phone—which has a weaker antenna—cannot reliably sustain a connection.

My solution is to use the Internet Sharing feature in macOS to use my laptop as a bridge between the WiFi and my phone.

1. Connect your phone to your laptop using a lightning USB cable
2. Swipe up from the bottom of the screen to bring up the Control Center
3. Turn off WiFi and the mobile data network
4. Open System Preferences in the Apple menu.
5. Click Sharing
6. Check Internet Sharing
7. Check iPhone USB

1. 

Images of wild animals in marketing leads people to believe those animals are thriving in nature

I thought this was an insightful and super important message when it comes to helping save wild animals.

[Marketers have] created highly visible “virtual populations” of these [threatened] animals, which had led us to believe the animals were much more common than they actually are.

Because of this misperception, there is less urgent public pressure to conserve these animals…

[C]ompanies should compensate for this by paying money towards wildlife conservation when they use images of endangered species to promote their brands.

On eBay, beware of “Seller Refurbished”; you want “Manufacturer Refurbished”

Refurbished items are a great way to get a discount on something that will look and work like brand new. It makes a lot of sense for gear I buy that will be used overseas. A longer warranty doesn't make sense if there's not a convenient way to get the item back to the US for repairs. And we nearly always unbox items for travel to save on space, so the packaging is irrelevant.

I do a lot of shopping on eBay, if only to get an idea of the market. eBay’s size and low overheads for sellers make it a great resource for finding out how much things are really worth (at least for things with reasonable liquidity). Check a Flip (which uses eBay current and historical prices) is a fantastic resource for getting a rough average of a particular item. Be sure to weed out broken items sold for parts, or actual replacement parts for an item!

On eBay there used to be just 3 options for condition: new, refurbished, or used. But savvy sellers started listing used items as “refurbished” to command a higher sale price. And sure, some sellers do go the extra mile to clean up a used item. But unless you are truly restoring it to "like new" condition (for example replacing the battery in a laptop so it has no power cycles), then it's not really refurbished, it’s just used.

eBay now has values for “Seller Refurbished” and “Manufacturer Refurbished” to distinguish these two cases. I always filter out the Seller Refurbished items, unless I am looking for something used (and even then I often do because I think anyone who uses “Seller Refurbished” is arrogantly trying to get more money than something is really worth). I recommend you do as well.

 

Get a dash cam for your car, truck, vehicle to document any traffic incidents and accidents

 

The technology of dash cams is progressing so quickly, the four-year-old one I have is pretty dated at this point. I did upgrade to a newer model about a year later and moved the original to the rear of my car, so I now have front and back views. You can get a really good one for about $100 now, and an adequate one (probably even better than mine!) for even less. For a really great price on one, daily deal site meh.com has them for sale every couple of months if you want to wait. Essentially, it's to the point where I think everyone should have at least one in the car.

Mine have already paid for themselves. I was sideswiped by a guy who was illegally passing me on the right on a 2 lane, 25 MPH residential street. I was initially getting push back from his insurance company about wanting to get both sides of the story. But after I sent them video of what happened, they promptly paid for the damage.

I also recorded a collision where a speeding car goes out of control, crosses the center line and smashes into an SUV (by far my most popular published video to date!). The police actually contacted me and thanked me for posting it as it helped them with their investigation.

And of course if you search youtube for popular dashcam videos, you can see some pretty amazing stuff. Who knows what yours might capture?

Get a Top-Rated Dash Cam from Amazon

Enhance resolution of blurry, low res photos with neural network machine learning tools

I have digital photos from the late 90s and early 00s that just aren't very high resolution. In fact I have my first-ever selfie that was taken on an Apple QuickTake 100 back in 1994 at 640✕480 pixels; ⅓ of a megapixel.

But neural networks and machine learning are making it possible to add detail and resolution to photos like this. It's basically making an "educated guess" about what detail was there and "restoring" it. But it does a pretty good job, and I think it gives a better overall effect to older, smaller, or noisier photos. Science fiction becomes reality. 😊

There are some open-sourced tools out there that you can use for free. But they certainly aren't the easiest to use. I'm sure more user-friendly tools will be coming out in the next year or two. In the meantime, the one I've been using is a site called Let’s Enhance. It’s a paid service, but they do give you 5 free conversions when you sign up. And if you are really strapped for cash, I’m sure you can create multiple accounts to extend your number of free conversions.

Let’s Enhance high resolution image upscaling

 

 

No More Ransom site publishes known keys for ransomware so you can unlock files without paying

If you have been the victim of ransomware, before you pay for the key, definitely check No More Ransom first. They are publishing known keys, so you may be able to unlock your files without having to pay.

No More Ransom

Ethnographic photos of people, homes and artifacts at every income level all over the world

I just watched this TED talk which was a fantastic introduction to the web site Dollar Street. It is a massive database of images taken from all over the world of people, homes, and the artifacts it their life. Anyone who is thinking about problems or opportunities in a particular area of the world or in a given community would do well to start here and get a rudimentary understanding of how those people live. That is going to provide a lot of valuable context.

An interesting point that seems obvious in retrospect: images don't vary by country but by income level.

To pee or not to pee: female urination devices for travel, hiking and backpacking

When you are involved in wildlife conservation, you spend a lot of time traveling in undeveloped areas. That's sort of the point, right? Keep wild areas wild.

As a guy, I'm lucky that I can relieve myself pretty much anywhere there is a bit of privacy and not too much wind. But unfortunately the same cannot be said for my female cohorts.

Thankfully there are inexpensive and cheap solutions. I obviously don't have first-hand experience with any of these, so I encourage you to do your own research. However I generally trust Cool Tools, and they recommend the pStyle. This article in Backpacker recommends the Pibella first and SheWee second, with pStyle coming in third.

Get a pStyle female urination device from Amazon

Calibre is a great free app for managing eBooks on your Kindle or other reader

If you travel a lot, like most of the wildlife conservationists I support, then you will likely want a Kindle or other eBook reader. Amazon makes its easy to manage books purchased on the Kindle or at amazon.com, but not so much for books you aquire outside their ecosystem (like a PDF for example).

That's where Calibre comes in. It's great at converting between formats, and for pushing eBooks from your computer onto your Kindle. It's free (yay!) and looks to be a passion project by programmer Kovid Goyal. If you like it and find it useful, I recommend donating to him to thank him and encourage him to continue supporting it going forward.

Get Calibre—eBook management app

Mobius: an inexpensive and rugged SUV designed and built in Africa specifically for the African market

I just watched this TED talk by Joel Jackson about his company Mobius. The concept is simple and brilliant: design a vehicle specifically for the rough roads in Africa, leave out all non-essentials to keep costs low, and build it locally (in Kenya) to avoid import duties. There's also an important side benefit of investing in the local community and creating jobs.

The web site says the base model starts at KES 1.3 million (~$13,000 USD). The second version—which incorporates customer feedback from the original that was launched in 2015—comes out later this year (2018).

Mobius Motors: SUV designed for Africa

FreedomPop freemium business model offers free cell service

My previous non-profit supports dozens of international wildlife conservationists, who come to the states 1–4 times each year for about 1–2 weeks each. As we all know, it is super useful to have a working mobile phone with data plan, especially for on-the-go logistics planning.

FreedomPop is a good solution to this problem. I just signed up myself and—while the process was a bit cumbersome—I now have a working SIM card in my backup phone that does basic voice, text and data. And I only had to pay a nominal set up fee. Oh, and you will need a US credit card with a US billing address to sign up for an account, so in the case of my org, the US-based program manager would be the one to do it on behalf of the partner. But it will ultimately be in the name of the program manger.

Keep in mind that their business model is to use the free plan to get people to sign up, and then try to keep them on a recurring paid plan. They do this by initially assigning a premium plan to your account with one month free, and hoping you never bother to call in to downgrade to the free plan.

The other thing they do is try to send you additional SIM cards on your account which are also assigned a premium plan and will start charging your credit card after a month. Every time you call in, there is a voice menu option that makes you choose “Yes” or “No” to another SIM card. You can say no to these, andI suggest you do unless you have a specific use in mind. I’ve no doubt if you ever want to add another line to your account, they would be happy to do so at any time.

I had technical problems signing up using their web site (despite trying a VPN and several different browsers including private/incognito windows), so I ended up buying the SIM card from Best Buy (they are also at Target and probably other brick&mortar stores) and then calling their Sales dept to activate it.

The card itself cost $1, and the activation was $11, which I think is a pretty good deal. If you can get the online order working, be sure to look around on DealNews, RetailMeNot, or just a web search. They often run promos for 1¢ (and maybe this link is always live).

While I didn't try it, you might be able to request that they downgrade your service plan to the free one immediately when signing up. If not, just be sure to call back before the 30 days are up and get through to tech support, who will do this for you. There is no way to do it online, and the wait to get through to support will probably be 20–30 minutes. Use a headset and multitask on your computer while you wait. This is the cost of “free”. 😊

Finally, make sure your mobile phone is unlocked and will work on a US network. If not, FreedomPop also has some decent deals on phone/SIM bundles. (Their current deal is for a refurbished Huawie Union for $20.)

As always, I’d appreciate hearing if any readers use this and how it worked out.

Free basic mobile plan from FreedomPop

Invest in responding to followers on Facebook to boost your posts in their feed

One of my favorite comedians is Myq Kaplan. He recently posted on Facebook asking his fans to comment on a memory of meeting him or hearing his material. He made the point of responding to each comment, including mine. And now I see his posts all throughout my feed.

So I can only conclude that the Facebook Algorithm™ will give a higher weight to posts from people/pages that you've had a conversation with. Which makes sense. And it also means this is a great way to get more exposure of your content in Facebook without spending money on ads.

Create a post that encourages people to post a comment about something, and then—this is key—respond to each and every one of those comments. Even if it's a simple "thanks!". It will take some time and effort, but I believe you will see an increase in exposure and engagement on subsequent posts.

Send me a note and share your experience if you do this. Thanks!

Scott’s Cheap Flights email for great deals to international destinations

Since the non-profit I worked for helped wildlife conservation worldwide, finding cheap international fares was important. I found Scott’s Cheap Flights to be a great resource. They look for flights to pretty much all destinations. But at least every week or two a deal will crop up for one of the relevant locations.

They have a free version that everyone should sign up for. I paid the $40/year for premium, and I think it’s well worth it. It will more than pay for itself after the first discounted fare you purchase.

Sign up for Scott’s Cheap Flights (free)

Buy Pixelmator for $15 (½ off); it's the best Mac Photoshop alternative replacement

Just like last year, Pixelmator is on sale for ½ price for black Friday. It will be this price through December 6. If you don’t have it yet, get it now. Even at full price, it’s an amazing deal for a full featured photo editing app. Here’s my original post recommending it.

Get Pixelmator for Mac

TaskRabbit for handy man

If you don't know about it, Task Rabbit is an on-demand handyman service. We used it extensively at my workplace to set up and move furniture (desks, shelving units, etc), to mount TVs and wifi access points to the walls, and other assorted tasks. I recommend it.

Task Rabbit

Online security techniques for avoiding phishing, spoofing, and other email scams

Yet another org that I volunteer with has had a hacker try to scam them out of money by spoofing an email that appeared to come from the executive director sent to the finance guy. 

What many people don’t realize is that it is very easy to spoof an email. They don’t even need to have your password to sign in as you. Most email systems will let you create a separate “send only” account with a custom display name and email address. This is useful if you want an email to come from Marketing <marketing@yourorg.org>. Of course you don’t have to use marketing. You can use anything, even Drumpf <president@whitehouse.gov>. And that’s what these hackers do.

Some emails (like the one that this particular org received) try to get you to wire money to a bank account. Others are designed to look like a security message from Google, Microsoft, or Apple in an attempt to get you to go to a page that looks like an official password reset form, but is actually a forgery that looks legit on the surface. If you fall for it and type in your username and password, the bad guys will now have access to your account and will use it to do bad things. This is what happened to John Podesta. And also to the staff of the Reply All podcast.

So what can you do to protect yourself from spoofed emails? In a nutshell: be cautious. If this is someone you know well, you will notice if the wording or request in the email is out of the ordinary. And when in doubt—and especially when there are costly ramifications to getting it wrong—verify the email with the person using a different communication channel. This part is essential, as it is practically impossible for a hacker to have access to multiple communication channels of their target. I recommend talking to them in-person or over video chat if possible. A phone call or audio chat is next safest. And text message will suffice if the first two aren’t possible.

And for all unsolicited “please reset you password” emails you receive, go directly to the site by opening a new tab and typing the site into the address bar. Never, ever click a link in the message and then enter the password into that page. To help with this, I highly recommend using a password manager. It will never auto-fill your password into a site it doesn’t recognize. Just don’t defeat this protection by copying and pasting the password manually. 😉

If you would like an online training option for your employees so that they can learn best practices of online safety, I’ve heard good things about KnowBe4 (although I’ve never used it personally).

Need a VoIP phone service provider? I recommend Jive, AirCall, 8x8, or Dialpad. Avoid RingCentral

I spent 3½ years administering a RingCentral VoIP system of 15–20 lines. I would say they are ok. They are definitely feature-rich, with a decent mobile client and a partnership with Zoom for video conferencing. Coupled with the non-profit discount we negotiated, it was reasonably priced. However ease-of-use—both for the administration and the end users—was mediocre at best. And I spent far too long trying to work out all of the quality of service (QoS) issues with the network to ensure that calls were rock solid. Their technical support was underwhelming when it came to helping me troubleshoot and fix that.

But the number one reason why I recommend you go with another vendor* is because they are purposefully deceitful with their billing. Granted I had billing issues that I needed to contact them to resolve, including overcharges and fraudulent long distance. Unfortunately that seems to be par for the course with telecom companies. But they take it to the next level.

RingCentral adds an item to the bill called Compliance and Administrative Cost Recovery Fee. It is placed in the list of charges that include Emergency 911 Service Fee, Federal Universal Service Recovery Fee and State and Local Taxes. So you’d be forgiven for presuming this was of that ilk. However if you dig into the fine print, they make it quite clear: “The CRF is not a tax, nor is it mandated by any level of government or government agency.”

Now granted, this additional charge is not a lot of money. However just the fact that a company would deceive it’s customers by boosting profits by burying standard costs of doing business in with the mandated fees shows just what they think about their customers and acceptable business practices. This puts them squarely in the realm of telcom companies like Comcast, Charter, AT&T and Verizon. Comcast does this sort of thing and they are routinely crowned the Worst Company in America.

Unfortunately switching costs for your phone service are high, so unless they do something truly awful, my org will likely be locked into using them. But if you haven’t made the decision yet, or if you are small enough that you can switch without much pain, definitely check out Jive or a few other alternatives.

* I’ll say up front that this might just be a pet peeve overreaction on my part; use your own judgement.

Narrow you search results with precision using logic operators minus, AND, OR parentheses and quotes

Using a search engine is a pretty important skill to have these days. So much so that this should probably be a core requirement in high school and college these days.

Google has a page devoted to their advanced search operators. But there are a few that I use most often, and these are the most important to know.

The “minus” operator—which excludes results that have the word after the minus character—is useful when there are several different domains that use a particular keyword. For example Apple was using big cat species for it’s operating system versions, so a search of snow leopard -apple -mac helped narrow the results down to just pages about the animal.

Google presumes an AND between search terms. But if you want to use OR, the AND clarifies the specific Boolean logic you want. For example, I have several Google Alerts set up for news about particular species, and this is the general template I use:

giraffe AND (conservation OR endangered OR threatened OR poached OR bushmeat)

Finally, you can put a phrase in quotes to get even more specific. This is especially when each of the the terms separately are generic. That said, Google has been getting better and better about surmising what you mean, so"African wild dog" doesn’t even need to be in quotes to get to the same set of results.

Option shift plus brightness or volume to increase or decrease in smaller increments on Mac

On my MacBook Pro, there are dedicated keys at the top of the keyboard for changing the brightness of the screen or volume of the audio. However there are only 16 discreet values, plus a 17th one for “off”. Sometimes you want a bit more granularity.

 Hold down the option and the shift keys simultaneously, and then press the brightness or volume keys to adjust in ¼ increments instead (giving you 64 total settings).

(Also, if you hold down just the option key while pressing brightness or volume, it will bring up the appropriate system preference panel.)

Off the grid light options when you don’t have working power outlets

The wildlife conservationists I help work in very remote areas where there either is no electrical grid, or the one that is there is unreliable. In these scenarios, it’s important to have your own powered light source.

MPOWERD Luci solar lights are a favorite. They are reasonably inexpensive and perform well. They also have several variants to choose from.

If you find you need more light than the solar charge can provide, a gravity light is another viable option.

These days a USB power bank is a common tool for the field. So just pick up some inexpensive USB LED lights—or better yet a super bright multi-LED light—and plug them into the power bank.

Or you could go big and bring along a portable generator, which could be gasoline / natural gas powered or even solar / wind powered.

Use the Trim feature in QuickTime Movie Player app for quick and easy video editing on Mac

These days it is super-easy to capture quick video clips that you want to post to social media or embed in a blog post. For quick and easy editing, I use the QuickTime Player app on the Mac.

Open the clip in QuickTime, then click Trim… in the Edit menu (or press Cmd T). Drag the yellow handles from the left and right to narrow down to the start and end frames respectively, then click the Trim button to finish the edit. The newly edited clip will open in a new window, and you will have to save that out to a new video file.

Pro Tip: If your video file is in a format that QuickTime doesn't recognize (like MKV), use Handbrake to convert it to H.264.

Create PowerPoint presentation from photos / videos; auto layout photos / videos in an existing presentation

I’ve been wanting to create an automation for these tasks ever since I first did presentation wrangling for all of the 18 or so presenters at the 2014 Wildlife Expo. The best presentations are the ones where the slides are a simple as possible, and presentation is carried by the storytelling ability of the presenter. For these presentations, most slides are simply a single image or video.

The problem with PowerPoint is that when you drop an image onto a default slide, it is put in the same bounding box with the same margins as bulleted text. Now text absolutely needs some margins to make it more readable. However with an image, the visual margins are already part of the image. The image should be maximized to fill the entire slide (and of course centered and cropped as required). Same goes for videos.

So I created two AppleScript apps. The first one—Create PowerPoint slides from photos or videos —lets you drop a folder containing photos and/or videos onto it (or even just a selection of files directly), and uses those files to create a new presentation from them, one slide per file.†

The second one—Resize and align PowerPoint photos or videos on selected slides—operates on the frontmost open presentation in PowerPoint. It will center, scale, and crop the photo / video on each slide that is selected in the slide pane. You can hold down the Command key or the Shift key to select multiple slides at once. Or Cmd A to select all of the slides.

If you are holding down the Shift key when you run the second script, instead of filling the slide with the entire media (which will crop off the wider dimension), instead it will scale the media down so that if fully fits on the slide, leaving black bars to the sides (or possibly above and below depending on the aspect ratio). It’s hard to describe well, so I suggest you just play around with it both ways so you can see the difference.

Caveats: I didn’t do a ton of testing on these, so it might not work in all scenarios. There aren’t any destructive commands in there (like delete), but even so I recommend you always use these on a copy of your files. Also since it’s in AppleScript, they only works on the Mac. I would love to port them to VisualBasic or JavaScript so it can work cross platform, but I would need access to a Windows box, and I don’t have one just now. If anyone wants to take this on, please do so! I’m happy to help answer questions.

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* Since I am not registered as a trusted developer with Apple, if I distribute the exported applications you won’t be able to run them without lowering the security permissions on your Mac. So instead, I have provided the AppleScript source code files. You can open them in the Script Editor app yourself, then Export out as an Application.

† For security, Apple has recently added an annoying “Grant Access” dialog box that you need to respond to for each and every image / video file. Here is a good overview of the issue, and also a workaround on where to place your files so you don't have this dialog box coming up all the time.

Expand the storage space of a MacBook Pro (or 13" Air) with a high-capcity micro SD card and short SD adapter

The biggest downside of the most recent line of MacBooks is that they are unable to be upgraded. The memory and storage chips are all soldered directly to the logic board.

However at least with the MacBooks (both Pro and Air) made 2012–2016, there is a workaround. You can use the SD card slot to add more space. If you use a standard SD card, it will stick out from the edge. But you can get a micro SD card and a short SD card adapter, which will sit flush with the case (or at least close enough for practical purposes).

It's my photos, videos and music files that are eating up all my space. So I bought this 200GB micro SD card to use as and expansion to store my media files. (I looked into the 256GB ones, but they were nearly double the price for only 28% more storage.)

There are several different short SD card adapters out there. I tried the one by Adafruit designed for the Raspberry Pi, but unfortunately it doesn't work on the Mac. Or at least it is intermittent so I can't count on it. I ended up going with a BaseQi adapter. It's more expensive, but the review are good and it is designed specifically for this purpose. Be sure to get the right one! There are several different sizes, each designed for a particular year and model of MacBook. There are also some by 8mobility that look reasonable too.

Non-electronic tech gear for the field: design and materials tech

When people talk about tech, they often mean electric devices that need a power source and usually have an on/off switch. However there are at least a couple of different kind of tech that can be just as (or even more) useful: design tech and materials tech. OXO products—especially their measuring cups and can opener—are good examples of design tech. And the items below use innovative materials to better solve problems.

Gorilla Tape - this stuff is far superior to duct tape for field-based repairs. I keep a roll in my car and at home.

 

Blue Monster Compression Seal tape
This stuff is amazing for repairing small plumbing leaks. You can apply it even while the water is still leaking out. (There is a generic version out now for a lot cheaper, although I haven't tried it so I can't vouch for the quality.)

 

Goo Gone
Great for getting stickers, tape residue, and other sticky/gooey residues off pretty much anything.

 

Fix-a-Flat or a tire puncture repair kit
The conservationists we support work in pretty harsh and remote conditions. Getting a puncture in a tire is inevitable, and being able to repair it in the field is invaluable.

Windshield chip repair kit
Same as above, glass chips and cracks are just a fact of life for vehicles driven in such conditions.

Add your Facebook events to your Google, Apple, Outlook or other calendar app

I just double-booked myself because and event I had committed to on Facebook wasn’t in my personal Google calendar. So I decided to fix things to prevent it from happening in the future.

I did find articles on the web about how to do this, but since Facebook updates the UX so often, they were of course out of date. Here is the current way (as of Oct 2017):

1. Go to the Facebook Events page (or the Calendar page; it’s there too).
2. Look in the right column. The second module has links for your iCal feeds.
3. Right click on the one you want (in my case, Upcoming Events) and click Copy Link Address
4. For Google Calendar: click the arrow button to the right of Other Calendars
5. Click Add by URL
6. Paste in the URL
7. Click the Add Calendar button
8. Now that the calendar is added, you'll want to rename it.
9. Click the arrow button the right of the Facebook calendar that was just added
10. Click Calendar Settings
11. Change Calendar Name to something like Facebook Events
12. Click the Save button

Donations of appreciated stock (securities) held for over a year are the best way to give to charity; tell your donors

It’s coming up on the end of the year giving season, and you are planning to donate $1000 to your favorite charity. You could just give it via cash / check /credit card like most people do, and they will happily take it. And of course you can then deduct $1000 from your taxable income for the year which will save you $373. But there is a better way if you have appreciated stock.

Rather than me walking through the math here (and risk getting it wrong), I’ll just link to this donation tax calculator that will show you the difference. For a $500 investment that appreciated to $1000, by donating the stock rather than cash, you reduce your taxes by an extra $96 and the charity receives an additional $75.*

One of the charities I donate to and occasionally help with consulting recently sent out an email to donors that simply included a paragraph describing this. They immediately received 2 stock gifts along with several other commitments to donate stock at the end of the year.

Donors already want to help you, and if you give them a way to have it be a win-win for both of you, it will result in more donations. So I recommend making this a regular message in your donor communications.

* For simplicity, I assume that the yearly income is in the 28% federal, 9.3% California state and 15% capital gains tax brackets.

Windows Sysinternals apps are essential tools for managing Windows systems

Since I primarily manage Mac and iOS systems, I haven’t blogged much about Windows. However if you are a Windows admin, then you absolutely need to know about Microsoft’s Sysinternals toolset.

I use Process Explorer as a much more powerful replacement to the standard Windows Task Manager. And Autoruns is a great tool for managing which processes start up with Windows. This is essential when cleaning up all the crap that installers add under the covers to “phone home” or even arguably malware add-ons that get installed with some other driver or utility.

More recently I used SDelete to clean up a system that was being decommissioned. Really hard drive destruction is the best way to ensure data cannot be recovered. But barring that, SDelete is a the next best thing. And best of all, they are all free. Thanks, Mark!

Projector, stand, screen and other gear to use for powerpoint presentations

The folks I support often do presentations in whatever venue they can book for cheap or free. Sometimes it’s just a large living room in a supporters house. So having the right gear is important.

For the projector, I highly recommend one with a “short throw”. That allows you to place the projector just 2 or 3 feet from the screen so it isn’t in the way of the audience or the presenter. I also recommend 1080p resolution, and a reasonably high brightness (at least 2000–3000 lumens) so the image will stand out even with ambient light in the room.

When I researched one for my org, I ended up with an Optoma. I don't remember the exact model, but this Optoma GT1080 looks very similar to it.

I also recommend you get a projector stand to make setting it up super-easy. And definitely get a quality case (like a Pelican)* for storage and transportation.

Finally, if you have the room to transport it, a roll-up screen like this is the best. But if you just need a cheap, portable surface to project onto, get this cloth and some cord and clamps to mount it.

Since this info isn’t readily available, here are all of the small-ish Pelican cases that most projectors will fit in, and their internal dimensions. I recommend at least 1" more that the dimension of the projector to leave enough room for padding.

Case	Interior Dimensions (inches)
Pelican 1120	7.25	✕	4.75	✕	3.06
Pelican 1150	8.18	✕	5.68	✕	3.62
Pelican 1170	10.54	✕	6.04	✕	3.16
Pelican 1200	9.25	✕	7.12	✕	4.12
Pelican 1400	11.81	✕	8.87	✕	5.18

80,000 hours web site and book are great career resources for people who want to make a positive difference

The Centre for Effective Altruism in the UK runs a great website called 80000hours.org. I only just signed up a couple of weeks ago on the recommendation of a respected advisor, and so far it looks really great. Sign up for their weekly email series to get it pushed to your inbox in bite-sized chunks. You can also just read the articles and watch the videos on the site. And if you want the content in book form, they have that too (it's only $4 for the eBook).

YouTube keyboard shortcuts for play/pause, jump back, and jump forward: K · J · L

I always tried to use the space bar to play and pause YouTube videos, but if the focus isn't in the video player itself, it always scrolls the page down. Well no more! I now use the k key to play/pause, and j to jump back 10 seconds. l also jumps forward 10 seconds, but I rarely need that (unless you overshoot jumping back).

There are also others, like shift n and shift p to go to the next or previous video in a playlist. > (shift .) increases playback speed and < (shift ,) decreases it.

Here is a good list, but some of them do require focus to be on the player.