ATTENDING: Larry T, Marcia
S, Diane B, Tom B, Bill N, Bob S, Gene N and Jerry L
TOPIC: Emergency! (How your mac might help)
On a cold winter evening
last year, a power outage occurred in the Hammondsport area which lasted
for several hours. Everything went dead black, although landline phones
with a dial tone still worked. Tom discovered that his Mac laptop,
reverting to battery power, could still be connected to the internet
via the built-in dial-up modem. However, there didn't seem to be any
site that could give him up-to-date information about the blackout.
In subsequent days, he found no mention of the outage or its cause
in local newspapers, radio or TV. This event inspired Tom to investigate
possible ways of communicating with others in the event of a local
emergency (such as power outage, storm or terrorists attack). He set
up a trial blogsite called Local
Emergency as a potential way to share information in the Hammondsport,
NY area. He also discovered that there were quite a few emergency
sites already in existence. Here are some of the possible emergencies
and helpful ideas that might be considered :
E-mail, info blog, twitter,
etc via dial-up internet over landline or cell
Photo upload site to
share emergency photos, conditions, situations, maps
Links to
emergency information sites - local and NY state
Weather phone 1-800-555-TELL
(8355) - dial number, say 'weather'- then town/state or zip (other
topics include News, Gas Prices, etc.)
Use computer cam (built-in
or external such as IceCam2)
with wireless home network for security, surveillance, safe observation,
babysitting
Use Skype (audio-only
for dial up) - connect free to other skype users anywhere in the
world, or pay to call landline or cell phones. For older Macs,
find older versions of Skype here.
LED
Headlamp ($25-50) - 11 hours of light on three AAA batteries
Eton
Clipray LED Light -
handy crank-powered flashlight (1 minute =10 minutes of light)
has USB port for charging a cell phone as well - $15 +7 shipping)
Use laptop as portable
flashlight (battery-powered) w/ screen color set to white
Use laptop as a clock,
alarm, timer
Wirelessly network 2
macs via Filesharing - how to step-by-step
No safe water
Solar Water Purification
(SODIS method) - - - PDF
manual - - - article in Nat
Geo
Beware! Jerry shared his concern
about recent suspicious e-mails he has received with the names of actual
friends enclosed in the reply address which ended with <friends
@ yourfanbox .com>. The message invited him to set up a profile
to share photos with the sender. He didn't reply. Instead he contacted
the real friends via a new e-mail and discovered they had not sent
any invitations.
palindrome -
Bob taught us a new word when it was pointed out that BOB, MOM and
WOW all have something in common.
IN THE NEWS
Stuxnet malware
has infiltrated industrial computer systems worldwide, according to
the Christian
Science Monitor . Cyber security sleuths say it's a search-and-destroy
weapon meant to hit a single target. One expert suggests it may be
after Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant. Other reports on Stuxnet
- - - CNN
Report on Stuxnet - - - Iran
Nuclear Plant Hit by Worm - - - Symantec
Report.
Segway
Owner Dies in Cliff Accident - the owner of the company (not
the inventor) of the vehicle that is suppose to revolutionize the
world perished in a freak accident recently.
Nobel
physics prize awarded
to inventor of Graphene (a
carbon sheet that's only one atom thick but is stronger than diamond
and conducts electricity 100 times faster than the silicon in computer
chips)
Security
Precaution- turn OFF automatic file opening in Downloads in your
Browser Preferences.
(Ex: Safari>Preferences>General - uncheck the
box 'Open safe files after "downloading")
SOFTWARE / HARDWARE
Edimax
EW-7708n ($49 at OWC) - WiFi card upgrade to 802.11n (WPA2) for
older cardbus PowerBooks that contain the 802.11b card. See how it
goes in the laptop here.
1Password is
an application that manages all your website passwords with one click.
Read a review of
1Password. Download 16.3mb
free trial ($39 to buy).
WannaBe -
tiny text-only web browser for OS9 or Classic X - very fast, even on
dial-up (download 400k)
One
Second After by William R. Forstchen - - - What
is EMP? (commentary by the author) - - - sobering novel about
suddenly losing the things we take for granted.
*Start
your own blog - it's free and easy to do. (The word 'blog' is a shortening
of 'weblog').
Hammondsport Mac Users Group - Hammondsport, NY 14840
- www.hportmug.com
