Siri AI

For the June 16, 2026, meeting, we were originally planning to discuss spaces — virtual spaces, virtual screens, and various hardware and software technologies for putting more information in limited screen space. Various time constraints and health issues have forced a postponement of that topic, possibly to July.

Instead, we focused on Apple Intelligence, which was also the main topic of the keynote at Apple’s World Wide Developer Conference 2026 (WWDC26), which concluded last week. After teasing Apple’s plans for artificial intelligence (AI) for over a year, the keynote provided some specifics, and these became the topic of the June meeting.

The slides, posted below, contain a wealth of information about Apple’s forthcoming suite of operating systems for the Mac, iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and other devices, collectively known as OS 27. Coming out this fall, macOS 27 will be known as Golden Gate, replacing Tahoe. iOS 27 for iPhone, iPadOS 27 for iPad, watchOS 27 for Apple Watch, and visionOS 27 will retain their numerical names, without a California place name.

Central to all of these operating systems will be Siri AI, a new version of Siri that will perform as many of its AI functions as possible on the host device. Among other things, Siri AI will rely heavily on Spotlight for interacting with files, and will also be able to draw on information spanning different applications to satisfy user requests. Because these artificial intelligence functions require specific types of processors, OS 27 will be limited to Apple Silicon devices; there will be no update for Intel-based MacBooks and desktop Macs.

Another big change will be a partnership with Google’s Gemini AI agent for items that require resources beyond what your device can do on its own. Apple will use Private Cloud Compute to protect the privacy and security of Apple device users, sending encrypted, anonymous requests to Gemini; Google will not know what you have requested, nor be able to track any of your private information or activity. Apple has published some technical papers on the subject:

Expanding Private Cloud Compute

https://security.apple.com/blog/expanding-pcc

Introducing the Third Generation of Apple’s Foundation Models

‘https://machinelearning.apple.com/research/introducing-third-generation-of-apple-foundation-models

These new operating systems should be released sometime this fall. Historically, they come out in September or October, but Apple, as usual, declined to be more specific.

Notes for Siri AI meeting

Lots of text. In the listing of OS 27 improvements, the items marked in yellow were ones that I’m particularly looking forward to. These aren’t necessarily the most useful or the most important, just things that I want to see ASAP.

Video of the June 2026 meeting: Siri AI

Video recording of the June 2026 meeting on Siri AI

Click on the YouTube logo in the video if you want to expand the recording.

Transcript of the meeting on: Siri UI

This transcript was generated automatically by Zoom, and Zoom frequently has flights of fancy. Use your browser’s find function to search for particular words or phrases.

18:29:45 Okay, it’s.
18:29:48 6:30, so I’m going to start with our usual.
18:29:52 questions and answers, and I realize there are only three of us, but…
18:29:55 of a layer. Now, four of us.
18:29:57 But if anyone has a question, I have an answer, and it might even be a correct one.
18:30:03 Sorry. Anyone have a question?
18:30:11 Nobody has a question?
18:30:12 Are you going to go over the new Siri 2.0?
18:30:18 Yes, in fact, I said I was going to do spaces and talk about.
18:30:25 Siri and Apple Intelligence.
18:30:29 And I lied, I’m going to talk about…
18:30:32 Siri and Apple Intelligence, and not going to talk about spaces at all.
18:30:39 Oh, shut up.
18:30:45 I have a, um…
18:30:47 I have a concussion and been feeling somewhat under-ambitious, so…
18:30:52 I’ll put off spaces for another time.
18:30:59 Um, so yes, I will be talking quite a bit about that.
18:31:02 Even though I might have to…
18:31:07 Siri stomp.
18:31:12 Will that get better in the next version of the OS?
18:31:18 No?
18:31:16 No, and it’s partially it’s own fault, because…
18:31:22 I set it up so that I don’t have the word hey first.
18:31:26 I just have it respond to…
18:31:30 its name, and normally that’s perfectly okay, because I’m the only one here, but.
18:31:35 During smug meetings, it gets…
18:31:37 entertaining sometimes.
18:31:40 Once I did a, it was a joke.
18:31:44 I have, um…
18:31:45 I have an Alexa…
18:31:48 Echo Dot, and I also have a Google Home.
18:31:52 And I pasted together a bunch of…
18:31:56 recordings, they weren’t done…
18:31:58 altogether, but I pasted it together so it sounded like they were arguing amongst themselves.
18:32:04 And I.
18:32:06 posted it on.
18:32:09 My user group site on the East Coast.
18:32:13 And I had people from Apple.
18:32:16 People from Amazon and people from Google all ask,
18:32:22 How did I get them to argue with each other and
18:32:25 It was… I just recorded something.
18:32:27 And then I pasted them together.
18:32:29 So it wasn’t as if they were really arguing, but they were all quite.
18:32:33 Intrigued as to how I managed to get them to argue, because it did sound like they were arguing with each other.
18:32:39 But I wrote out a script in order to make it sound that way.
18:32:45 So I do have fun with them unless they speak up when I’m not.
18:32:51 intending them to.
18:32:54 Hmm.
18:32:56 Anyone have any questions?
18:32:57 I do have a question about
18:33:00 Shared albums.
18:33:03 in…
18:33:03 Yes.
18:33:05 in iMovie, you can make a magic movie,
18:33:09 Which entails you just feeding it a bunch of clips, it’ll add transitions and…
18:33:13 All that sort of thing, but it will…
18:33:15 It will make the clips, it’ll shorten them to whatever…
18:33:18 you know, truncate them, or leave them be, and so on.
18:33:22 Well, I’ve noticed that in sharing an album, if you have video clips,
18:33:27 Uh, it works the same way.
18:33:30 It’ll shorten some of them.
18:33:33 And I… is there some way to…
18:33:36 Disallow that, or to… in iMovie, of course, you can…
18:33:40 The shortened clip can be lengthened.
18:33:43 But I don’t see any way to do that in the shared album business.
18:33:47 Um, okay.
18:33:49 I do a great many videos. I do them for…
18:33:53 smug, I do them for my church.
18:33:56 For the church have done something like…
18:33:59 400 since I moved here, and…
18:34:02 2018. So I do a lot of video.
18:34:06 for things other than straight video, like, for example, the
18:34:11 straight for the straight Macintosh user group video.
18:34:14 I record this using Zoom,
18:34:18 I bring it into iMovie, and then I trim out the parts that I don’t want, such as the
18:34:24 part at the start of the meeting where I’m sitting there trying to get the controls to work, and so on and so forth.
18:34:30 So I use iMovie for that, because it’s just one pure piece of video, and I chop out things like
18:34:36 I mean, I had a power failure chop out that part.
18:34:38 Things like that.
18:34:41 For other things that I do, I don’t use iMovie.
18:34:45 So, for example, to assemble a whole bunch of smaller clips,
18:34:48 Uh, you might recall…
18:34:51 that I had, um…
18:34:53 a short video of a bunch of emojis talking about artificial intelligence.
18:34:59 Um, I did that in Keynote.
18:35:01 I recorded the movie clips independently.
18:35:05 Then I fired up Keynote and put them in the order I wanted,
18:35:08 And I set up the transitions within Keynote, and then I exported it as a video.
18:35:14 And the reason why I did that
18:35:16 is that there are other more powerful tools, such as…
18:35:20 Final Cut Pro.
18:35:22 Which is a real bear to learn.
18:35:26 And there are many other ways of doing it. But the nice thing about.
18:35:32 keynote, Keynote.
18:35:33 Basically, he says, I’m going to do this, then I’m going to do this, then I’m going to do this, then I’m going to do this.
18:35:39 You feed it a… you paste in a video that’s…
18:35:42 The length that you want, uh, and it just saves them in order, so…
18:35:47 That’s how I tend to do…
18:35:50 Some of the more complicated things that I’ve done.
18:35:53 There are other ways of doing it, but Keynote, because
18:35:58 within that one slide, if that slide is a 13-minute video,
18:36:05 It’ll be 13 minutes long, and if you don’t want it to be 13 minutes long, you trim it, and then dump it into…
18:36:11 Keynote. You’re not waiting for…
18:36:14 The program, be it
18:36:15 iMovie or Final Cut or whatever.
18:36:17 to dynamically make changes on the fly,
18:36:21 As it’s rendering it, Keynote just saves it as a video.
18:36:25 So and it also allows me to do things that are a little bit complicated. Like, for example,
18:36:32 And iMovie, you can put on titles.
18:36:35 But the titles come in a set format.
18:36:37 And they’re down at the bottom or they’re up at the top, or they fly in all over.
18:36:42 With Keynote, I can make the title anything I want to, because it’s just a slide.
18:36:46 And I can use any font I want to, I’m not.
18:36:48 I’m not subject to the constraints of, uh…
18:36:52 of how iMovie does it, so.
18:36:56 my technique and…
18:36:59 It’s weird, I know, is just to use Keynote, and I lay out
18:37:04 longer videos that are done in pieces in Keynote.
18:37:08 And then after it’s all done the way I want it to,
18:37:11 Then I go to the file menu and I say export, say that I want it as a…
18:37:18 movie, and it renders out the movie.
18:37:22 Again, it’s easier to use than Final Cut. It gives me…
18:37:26 It gives me options that I don’t have in iMovie itself.
18:37:31 So that’s how I do things like that.
18:37:34 How does it paste the clips together?
18:37:38 Well, if I have…
18:37:41 If you recall the…
18:37:44 movie with a bunch of emojis.
18:37:46 I just had a slide.
18:37:48 Paste it in one movie. Another slide, paste it in another movie. I don’t like the order, I just rearrange the slides.
18:37:55 And it rearranges the movies because
18:37:57 There’s one clip per slide.
18:38:00 But will it make it one single movie, or does it…
18:38:03 Yeah, yeah.
18:38:04 It does. It combines all the slides together.
18:38:07 Yeah.
18:38:08 Oh, wow, that is powerful.
18:38:12 I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it, but it’s what I use because I’m really lazy.
18:38:16 You can do much the same in…
18:38:19 In iMovie, but.
18:38:22 What I will do in iMovie, because it doesn’t have as much control over things like titles.
18:38:28 At the start of the smug postings that I put up on YouTube,
18:38:34 I have a slide that I made in Keynote, I save that as an image,
18:38:38 And then in iMovie, I just import that image and I stick that at the front.
18:38:43 of the video. So that’s why I don’t have a standard iMovie
18:38:47 title in an iMovie end credit.
18:38:49 It’s that custom smug logo.
18:38:53 But that’s because I didn’t do it in iMovie. I did it in Keynote.
18:38:57 Keynote, I use it for a lot of things other than what it was designed.
18:39:03 But can you? Can you do that with
18:39:06 Like, photos that have been videoed,
18:39:09 And in the photo app, I mean, can you take…
18:39:12 Is that what Steve was talking about?
18:39:14 Well, within photos, you can create a…
18:39:19 a video, those custom videos, just export it as a video.
18:39:23 And then you can suck it into…
18:39:25 iMovie, and you can modify it the way you want and stick a title on the front of it.
18:39:30 Or you can take a whole bunch of smaller videos and put them all together.
18:39:36 That… I do that all the time in iMovie as well.
18:39:38 But a lot of the stuff that I do to control things.
18:39:43 Um, I use.
18:39:44 I use Keynote. I use Keynote because I don’t know if you’ve ever used PowerPoint, but PowerPoint.
18:39:50 is one of the most…
18:39:53 horribly designed things on the planet.
18:39:56 When Microsoft bought it, Microsoft did not develop PowerPoint.
18:40:01 It was… it was an outliner. It would just do text outlines, and so you could add things in, and you could indent things, because it was a text outliner.
18:40:11 And Microsoft decided that they were going to do something else with it, because, um.
18:40:16 a company that doesn’t exist anymore, and I can’t remember the name of it.
18:40:20 Adobe bought it, and I can’t remember the name of the company.
18:40:24 Um, anyway, they had…
18:40:26 They had a
18:40:29 a slide presentation piece, a package.
18:40:32 And Microsoft thought they had to compete with that, so they went and took
18:40:37 What was a really nice outlining product and turned it into PowerPoint.
18:40:41 But PowerPoint does all kinds of just incredibly stupid things.
18:40:46 And Keynote has a much cleaner design.
18:40:49 If you put something someplace, it stays there, it doesn’t wander all over.
18:40:54 doesn’t change fonts, it doesn’t…
18:40:57 Let’s change punctuation just because it’s Tuesday.
18:41:00 It does what you want it to.
18:41:03 And…
18:41:02 And I like Keynote because it does latex and you can have like equations or symbols,
18:41:09 And everything in latex and PowerPoint,
18:41:14 You can’t do that. You have to kind of take a picture of it and then plop it in as a pic.
18:41:18 Yes, and by the way, when he says latex, he’s not talking about
18:41:22 latex gloves, latex is a
18:41:24 is a programming language for doing equations and laying it out typographically.
18:41:29 Well, special symbols, Greek letters,
18:41:32 Well, it was originally designed for math formulas, but
18:41:36 Right, right.
18:41:37 Um, but, um…
18:41:38 Yeah, it’s a very powerful tool, and it’s got a very simple interface, but the reason I really like
18:41:44 Keynote is its consistent.
18:41:47 And I cannot get that kind of consistency with.
18:41:51 with PowerPoint.
18:41:53 PowerPoint just does all kinds of stupid things.
18:41:57 The two pieces of Microsoft software that I use all the time that I really like.
18:42:02 Our Microsoft Word, which I’ve been using since 1984.
18:42:05 and Excel. And Excel is what’s one of those things that people don’t really understand.
18:42:10 Excel is a Mac program. It was developed on the Mac.
18:42:14 for the Mac, it was made by Microsoft.
18:42:16 And it was much later introduced into
18:42:19 Windows, but you can do amazing things with.
18:42:23 with Excel, but you can do amazing things with Word as well.
18:42:28 Okay.
18:42:27 I don’t think I can live my life without Excel.
18:42:30 My whole life is organized by itself.
18:42:34 Then Microsoft works is an oxymoron in any way, except for those two programs.
18:42:40 Um…
18:42:38 I agree. Can I ask you a question?
18:42:42 Does anybody else have problems with their iPhone 17?
18:42:47 Not ringing.
18:42:48 And not only not ringing, and you’re missing calls,
18:42:52 But it doesn’t even show that somebody calls.
18:42:55 And so they’re texting you, going,
18:42:57 I’m trying to call you, but it’s going to voicemail.
18:43:02 So I’ve had this problem now for about two and a half weeks.
18:43:07 I’ve been to, um, I’ve done everything, I’ve looked it up, and it’s like, oh!
18:43:11 You’re one of a million people that has this same problem. Do these 12 things.
18:43:15 So, I went over to T-Mobile, they changed the eSIM, they did all kinds of stuff.
18:43:21 We started it several times.
18:43:23 Is anyone else having that problem?
18:43:26 The answer to that is…
18:43:30 a lot of people, it will not ring because they accidentally mute it.
18:43:35 There are all kinds of… well, I’m just saying there are all kinds of different ways to mute it.
18:43:38 Yeah, right.
18:43:40 You can mute it using the side button, which a lot of people may have accidentally done.
18:43:45 You can mute it doing a bunch of other things.
18:43:47 I, for the most part, prefer to not have it ring.
18:43:51 But the other thing that, um, with starting with the iPhone 17 and the latest version of the.
18:43:57 operating system that people sometimes are not aware of.
18:44:00 You have to be very careful about how you screen calls. It’s got a new call screening feature.
18:44:07 Right.
18:44:07 And you have to be really careful about what you screen. As an example,
18:44:12 You don’t necessarily want to screen all you don’t want to ignore all unknown numbers because.
18:44:18 Exactly.
18:44:19 If you have a doctor’s appointment.
18:44:22 Right.
18:44:22 And the doctor sends you a reminder,
18:44:24 That reminder is probably not going to come from a number that’s in your.
18:44:28 Right.
18:44:29 address book, and if you screen out everything,
18:44:32 That’s not in your address book, it won’t ring. And then later on, you’ll wonder why.
18:44:37 So there are a number of different ways in which
18:44:41 Your phone can be operating perfectly well, and you can still manage to miss calls, depending upon
18:44:47 Right.
18:44:48 How you set up screening and whether or not you accidentally
18:44:52 muted. You can mute it using the side buttons, you can mute it by using the
18:44:56 the control center.
18:44:59 What is that? Yeah, I think it’s called Control Center.
18:45:03 Focus is another thing. Yeah, I’ve been through all those things, and I’ve…
18:45:09 become really aware of all those different things.
18:45:12 So just yesterday, I found on Apple Community,
18:45:16 Where people were talking about this problem.
18:45:19 And then they gave a list of of, you know, the 12 or 15 things to try, which I had already tried all of them.
18:45:26 And then the last one was to restart it.
18:45:29 But not just restart it the normal way, which is I just press the thing, and then it says slide to restart.
18:45:35 And I slide it. This was very specifically, you have to do it exactly this way.
18:45:41 You have the up-down buttons, you press the up once quickly, you press the…
18:45:47 down quickly, and then you hold the side button
18:45:50 Until…
18:45:52 it until the apple appears. You don’t slide it off.
18:45:56 And I did that.
18:45:58 I had to really pay attention to how it…
18:46:01 Senate, and after I did that, it started… I started getting calls.
18:46:06 and they started showing. But it was a specific way of restarting
18:46:11 That’s different from any other way that I’ve ever restarted.
18:46:15 I think you’ll find that that’s a reset.
18:46:18 That’s why I was thinking that it was, yeah, but it wasn’t…
18:46:16 Yeah, that’s a reset. Right.
18:46:22 like, reset to factory standards, because all my stuff is still there.
18:46:26 It was some special reset, and so apparently that’s what it needed.
18:46:30 Yeah, I have heard of people having problems, but
18:46:34 It’s difficult with.
18:46:39 so many people tried to have their phone limited. And the reason why people try to have the phone limit
18:46:47 calls, is that
18:46:49 Throughout the history of the phone in general, when people first started having.
18:46:56 phones in their homes, people complain that they got calls all the time, even if it was only one or two a week.
18:47:01 Well, now you can have a call all the time, and since it’s literally with you all the time,
18:47:07 Yeah.
18:47:06 It can be really, really annoying.
18:47:09 So people have figured out different ways to have it screen it, or just
18:47:12 not have the ringer go off, all kinds of things.
18:47:15 So it’s become a problem.
18:47:19 And when a lot of people say that it’s not ringing, it’s not necessarily because of a
18:47:23 Problem with the phone, it’s because there are just a myriad of different ways of
18:47:29 telling it to shut up. And whether you expect it to or not, you.
18:47:34 happened to hit on a way that’s a bit overly quiet.
18:47:38 But yeah, the reset is an option. I would caution you though.
18:47:44 that if you need to reset it more than, like, once every six months.
18:47:49 there might be something wrong with the machine.
18:47:51 Yeah.
18:47:51 Because that’s the, um…
18:47:54 That’s the, uh… that’s an extreme way of solving the problem. Normally, you need to reset your phone.
18:48:00 Turn it off, turn it back on again. I mean, turn it, power it completely down, wait a few minutes, power it completely back up, and that’s more than enough.
18:48:09 Big.
18:48:08 Well, that was happening to me too. I have an iPhone 15 Pro Max.
18:48:13 And, you know, and on certain calls, it wasn’t ringing, and then I realized I had the setting for screening,
18:48:19 So that if it’s not in my address book, it won’t ring.
18:48:22 Oh, yeah, I did.
18:48:22 But then I found that
18:48:25 I took it off, and all the calls kept coming in,
18:48:27 But it was so annoying, I was getting so many spam calls that I put it back on,
18:48:33 And just check to see…
18:48:35 you know, the missed calls list every so often to make sure
18:48:38 I didn’t miss one that I really wanted. And it turns out, I’ve been doing this for, like, a couple of months now,
18:48:45 Uh, I’m getting less and less spam calls.
18:48:50 It’s, like, almost down to zero.
18:48:50 That’s.
18:48:55 You’re not…
18:48:55 I have… I have a…
18:48:57 I have slightly different problem than the rest of you. Actually, I shouldn’t say that, because I don’t know where you guys are from.
18:49:04 I moved here from Maryland.
18:49:09 And my…
18:49:11 phone number has a Maryland prefix.
18:49:13 Because it has a Maryland free prefix, and because every single lobbying lawyer and lobbying firm.
18:49:19 on the planet is in Washington, D.C., or Baltimore, or somewhere in that area.
18:49:25 I get tens of thousands of calls a year,
18:49:28 From there, asking me to donate money, vote for this candidate, vote against that candidate.
18:49:36 save the whales. Doesn’t make any difference what it is.
18:49:39 All kinds of lobbying. So, I set up call screening, and the call screening now
18:49:46 will make my phone vibrate in the sense it’s in my pocket. I feel it.
18:49:50 And I look at it, and if it’s from 240 or 301 or 703.
18:49:57 or 202, or any of the.
18:49:59 Baltimore, Washington phone numbers,
18:50:01 I don’t answer it.
18:50:03 Could it be the president calling me? Possibly. Could it be someone telling me that the
18:50:10 withholding my social security, I guess I found out I’m actually only 12, might be.
18:50:15 I don’t care if it’s from that area, I don’t want to hear them.
18:50:19 Because I’ve lived here for eight years now.
18:50:21 I don’t really need to hear them anymore.
18:50:25 So that’s my way of screening is also visual. If I get a phone call, I’ll look at it.
18:50:30 And if it’s from the DC area, I just don’t answer.
18:50:36 I’m not recommending that you necessarily do that.
18:50:41 But.
18:50:42 You know, there are different… you have to deal with.
18:50:45 You have to deal with telecommunications.
18:50:48 In your own, um, in your own way.
18:50:53 It’s… it is a problem.
18:50:55 By the way, the FCC
18:51:00 was within 60 days of implementing a rule that required.
18:51:06 The phone companies not to pass through a call unless it was from a valid number.
18:51:11 A lot of these spammers, they use invalid numbers.
18:51:15 You’ll see that the call says it’s from South Dakota. Why? Because there’s a line in South Dakota is not being used. So they say it’s.
18:51:23 from that phone number.
18:51:25 They were within 60 days of making that a rule, because the phone companies have the technology to do this right now, so that
18:51:32 Somebody places a call, they place a text message to you,
18:51:37 The phone company can instantly check to see if it’s from a valid
18:51:40 Phone number. They were within 60 days of doing that,
18:51:45 And the current administration vacated the rule.
18:51:49 So.
18:51:50 Uh, there was relief… there was a technological solution that had nothing to do with your phone.
18:51:56 And, um, they cut it off.
18:52:00 By the time.
18:52:01 It’s… the technology is there.
18:52:04 And in most countries, they don’t allow
18:52:07 companies to do what they do in the United States.
18:52:12 Such is life.
18:52:15 Any other questions?
18:52:17 Now that you’ve heard my rant against…
18:52:19 spam phone calls.
18:52:23 Well, I’m having…
18:52:27 So I have an iPhone 17, and then I’ve got my Mac Mini, which is great.
18:52:33 And then I have an iPad error. They’re all relatively new.
18:52:38 For some reason, my iPad error does not get the emails.
18:52:42 Even though when I go to the iCloud,
18:52:47 Everything appears to be okay.
18:52:49 But I cannot, and I also cannot check emails on my phone.
18:52:54 And I don’t understand why.
18:53:02 And I just used to be so be able to figure this out in the 80s.
18:53:08 with Apple, but now it’s beyond me. I just can’t figure it out.
18:53:11 Uh, but my first question is, what company…
18:53:15 Do you have an iCloud account, or do you have an AOL account or?
18:53:20 I have iCloud, but, you know, I’ve got OliPen for Internet, and I’ve got for my
18:53:27 email, and I’ve got…
18:53:29 T-Mobile for my phone.
18:53:32 Okay, the only pen is for your internet, but it’s… but do you have an email account with OliPen?
18:53:39 Yes.
18:53:41 Okay.
18:53:43 This has nothing against Olipan as a company because I’m actually quite impressed with them.
18:53:50 But OliPen is an email address is not a really great idea.
18:53:54 And the reason is that they are…
18:53:57 a local.
18:53:59 Yeah.
18:53:59 company, which means that if internet access for any reason is cut off from the peninsula.
18:54:05 You don’t get anything.
18:54:06 That’s right.
18:54:08 Apple and Gmail and Microsoft are all global.
18:54:12 Yeah.
18:54:12 In fact, on the space station, they use iCloud.
18:54:16 for email on the space station.
18:54:19 Uh, which isn’t even on this planet.
18:54:22 But, um, Olipan has a limitation because of that.
18:54:25 Other ones that I’m not terribly happy with people using in this day and age are
18:54:30 AOL. AOL dates back to the days, well.
18:54:35 AOL took over email accounts from CompuServe in the 1990s.
18:54:40 And they got really big, and then they got sold, and then got sold again, and they got sold again.
18:54:45 And eventually they acquired by Verizon. Verizon just wanted their customer lists.
18:54:51 And then they sold it to, right now, it’s owned by an Italian.
18:54:54 holding company. They’re spending no money at all on the infrastructure to AOL, so AOL is just.
18:55:02 Not a good choice. Yahoo is not a good choice.
18:55:05 Um, you basically want to… for email, and things where you really do.
18:55:11 when to get your mail. You want to stick with iCloud, you want to stick with…
18:55:16 Microsoft, you want to stick with Google.
18:55:19 And, among other things, they are.
18:55:22 They are global presences, so…
18:55:26 You can be in Spain, you can be in.
18:55:30 forks, and you can get email, assuming that you have internet access.
18:55:35 With Olipen, it’s a little bit rockier.
18:55:38 But in terms of why they’re not showing up on your phone,
18:55:43 and your.
18:55:46 Thank you.
18:55:44 And I think I… I think I know why. I had figured it out, I forgot.
18:55:50 That one of them is an IMAP.
18:55:55 IMAP, and another one is put in as a Pop 3.
18:55:59 And in the addresses in the, you know, email accounts,
18:56:04 And nobody can figure out how to change it.
18:56:08 Well, that’s another reason why I.
18:56:11 recommend Google or Microsoft or Apple because they’re all.
18:56:17 IMAP.
18:56:17 So when you say Google, are you talking about Gmail?
18:56:20 Gmail, yes.
18:56:22 Okay, okay.
18:56:23 And when you say iCloud, because I have an iCloud account,
18:56:29 Yeah.
18:56:29 and then when you say Microsoft, what is that outlook?
18:56:34 Uh, yes, Outlook.
18:56:35 Okay. Okay.
18:56:39 Okay, thank you.
18:56:44 Other questions?
18:56:47 I do not. Hey.
18:56:49 Any other questions?
18:56:51 Does anybody have Starlink?
18:56:55 No?
18:56:57 Yeah, Starlink is…
18:57:02 I know some people who have Starlink that really like it.
18:57:06 But they’re people who…
18:57:08 um, aren’t anywhere near…
18:57:11 Scrim or Port Angeles, they’re out.
18:57:14 on the side of a mountainside someplace, or something like that.
18:57:18 The good news, bad news with Starlink is that.
18:57:22 It’s not a uniform service.
18:57:24 And the other thing is that it’s really good at.
18:57:28 things being broadcast to you, it’s not so great.
18:57:32 about things where you’re doing things interactively.
18:57:36 Um, and part of that is because it’s a satellite service, and the satellite has very little power.
18:57:41 It just doesn’t have a lot of bandwidth.
18:57:44 If you think about it, when Comcast and a bunch of other people got into the
18:57:49 Internet business. They’re very good at delivering things to you.
18:57:54 Uh, like wavetable.
18:57:56 The download speed that you can get from wave cable around here, you can get a gigabyte a second, which is really, really fast.
18:58:04 But the upload going the other direction, is
18:58:07 Just a tiny fraction of that.
18:58:09 Why? It’s because they’re a cable television concern.
18:58:13 They sent identical content out to lots of people.
18:58:17 But email is not identical. Any email you send off is a one-on-one.
18:58:23 And they just don’t have the upload bandwidth going the other direction. Starlink has the same problem.
18:58:29 That unique content going out the other way tends to be quite slow and less reliable.
18:58:36 Um…
18:58:37 And and there’s no easy fix for that.
18:58:41 DISH, for example,
18:58:43 A lot of people have DISH. DISH can send you a TV signal, but when you send something back, it actually goes over phone lines.
18:58:51 So that’s even slower.
18:58:54 It’s just a.
18:58:57 It’s just a… it’s a combination of physics and what you can do with telecommunications.
18:59:03 Would you recommend…
18:59:06 an Internet provider on the peninsula.
18:59:09 I mean, like I said, I have OliPen,
18:59:12 Just for the Internet, but…
18:59:15 Who would you recommend?
18:59:17 If you look at a topographical map of.
18:59:21 of Clallam County, I will tell you that that’s why I can’t recommend anything.
18:59:27 when you’re in Seattle, Seattle might be very lumpy.
18:59:31 But Seattle has over a million people.
18:59:33 And so they have an extensive infrastructure.
18:59:36 Telecommunications infrastructure. We don’t.
18:59:40 Um, if you think about.
18:59:42 How people get here. People come here via 101.
18:59:45 Is there an alternative to 101? Nope.
18:59:51 And our telecommunications are the same way. There’s…
18:59:54 Very limited access in and there’s.
18:59:56 Uh, very limited access going the other way.
18:59:59 And when it comes to telecommunications provider,
19:00:02 If you’re in downtown Sequim, Olypin does a really good job.
19:00:06 But Oli pins completely unavailable where I am.
19:00:10 Hmm.
19:00:10 And there’s even.
19:00:14 the PUD even has fiber optic that they offer.
19:00:17 downtown. High-speed fiber optic.
19:00:20 But if you’re outside of those 8, 10 block area.
19:00:23 They don’t have it. So I can’t really recommend.
19:00:27 I can’t recommend one recommendation.
19:00:31 Okay.
19:00:29 I have a friend out on…
19:00:32 Uh, what’s the name of that?
19:00:36 on Palo Alto.
19:00:38 that.
19:00:40 She uses…
19:00:45 Hughes, which is a satellite.
19:00:48 And the downlink is okay. The uplink is just absolutely atrocious.
19:00:53 She jokingly says that.
19:00:55 It would be easier for her to get in her truck and drive to my place.
19:00:58 to hand me something than to send me an email.
19:01:02 It just depends upon where you live.
19:01:04 Because it’s just not a.
19:01:06 We don’t have a uniform infrastructure here. It’s very…
19:01:11 It’s very broken up.
19:01:13 And I very much like the fact that I can wake up in the morning and eat breakfast and look at.
19:01:21 Doze and fawns and my.
19:01:24 Uh, in my backyard.
19:01:26 But that doesn’t mean I have the same high-speed internet that I was used to when I was in suburban Maryland.
19:01:34 I had a gig up and a gig down.
19:01:38 And I don’t think if there’s any place in the county that has that.
19:01:43 So.
19:01:45 Um… .
19:01:45 There are some areas that are served better, like,
19:01:48 For instance, since we have
19:01:51 Verizon, uh, for our…
19:01:53 Phone service, and we get a fairly good signal here.
19:01:57 Um, we use their service for our internet as well.
19:02:01 I kind of don’t like putting all my eggs in one basket, but that’s what we’ve wound up with.
19:02:06 There’s also another one that we used before that. They have fiber optics that ran into the neighborhood,
19:02:13 to one house, and then that house
19:02:16 agreed to put up a, um…
19:02:20 a short radio type of a system that covers our neighborhood, which is
19:02:25 This is somewhat smaller than your neighborhood, I believe, and uh…
19:02:29 But it’s like 50 houses, or 50 lots here, and uh, so it covers all that pretty well, but…
19:02:36 Um, and we were happy with that.
19:02:39 the heck, it’s not… it’s not Nokia with that. It’s, uh…
19:02:43 I’ve been trying to think of the name, but…
19:02:46 It just depends on your particular area, who can service you well.
19:02:52 You might check with your neighbors.
19:02:54 Yeah, unfortunately, that’s the…
19:02:57 That is the answer.
19:02:59 When I moved here, I was on AT&T. Kathleen had a discount because she was in the military and they offered a really good discount.
19:03:07 So we’d had AT&T since we…
19:03:11 First got cell phones, and we moved into this house, and we couldn’t get a signal at all.
19:03:16 And not having to signal on your cell phone in your own home.
19:03:20 really torqued me off, so we switched to Verizon.
19:03:23 Is Verizon better?
19:03:25 Well, where I am, yes, but…
19:03:28 2 miles away, maybe not.
19:03:32 Right.
19:03:32 It’s, um… I can’t give you… I can’t give you a.
19:03:35 uniform answer, because it depends… because our.
19:03:38 Our topology is so…
19:03:40 convoluted.
19:03:42 Well, if I have the OliPen,
19:03:44 But I also have a Gmail account.
19:03:47 So, which I never use,
19:03:49 But if I lost the OliPen because…
19:03:53 Something happened on the peninsula, I could still use my Gmail.
19:03:57 We accept that you’re not thinking about this the way you should.
19:04:01 If you lost your early pin, you don’t have Gmail either, because nobody’s using the Gmail.
19:04:06 That’s right, that’s right, yeah.
19:04:09 We’ll be an island, yeah.
19:04:11 Please.
19:04:11 So, if you went to do something like that, you need to start using it immediately.
19:04:16 Yeah.
19:04:16 And I have a friend who has an AOL account.
19:04:19 And I set up the AOL account so it automatically sends… it forwards everything that comes into the AOL account.
19:04:26 to our Gmail account, because that way when it comes to her,
19:04:30 when she responds, it may have… they may have sent it to AOL, but the response will go to the Gmail, so then the next time they send a message.
19:04:37 It’ll go to their Gmail. So just gradually, over time.
19:04:42 The AOL will be irrelevant.
19:04:44 Okay.
19:04:44 And that’s the same thing you can do with the Olipen. Just set it up to
19:04:48 Okay.
19:04:49 Auto-forward to Gmail.
19:04:50 And then just respond from Gmail, and after a while, people just…
19:04:54 Use your Gmail.
19:04:56 Okay. Thank you.
19:04:58 And it’s after 7. Yes.
19:05:04 Michael said that he’s not our president, but does our non-president have a report to?
19:05:09 Provide the rest of us.
19:05:13 I think
19:05:13 Did you set up the, uh…
19:05:16 the attendance sheet.
19:05:18 Yes, I did, um, but I did not log into my
19:05:23 email to you, give you that address. So, let’s try doing that.
19:05:35 I somehow lost.
19:05:37 My video.
19:05:47 We see you just fine.
19:05:50 Yeah, but I.
19:05:52 I
19:05:56 I was just moving something out of the way.
19:05:59 And Zoom decided… oh, there you are!
19:06:04 Uh, I’m trying to log into my email so that I can.
19:06:19 Get your… the meeting link.
19:06:27 Oh, and I was trying to remember what that other
19:06:31 service that we had was, and it’s, uh…
19:06:34 Uh, Nicola.
19:06:36 Nicole is good if you’re in a specific area covered by them, so you could try that as well.
19:06:50 And I believe the charge was, like, $80 a month for it, and we get our Verizon for…
19:06:56 Uh, 45 a month, so…
19:06:59 It made sense to make the move.
19:07:01 Yeah.
19:07:02 Um, I did set up an attendance link and I can’t reach it because I’m not in my
19:07:07 own account, I’m in my fake user account.
19:07:11 And my fake user doesn’t have access to my…
19:07:14 Vice President accounts, so…
19:07:16 Heck.
19:07:20 That’s my.
19:07:23 summary here, just heck.
19:07:31 Um…
19:07:32 The schedule said that we were going to talk about spaces.
19:07:36 And about…
19:07:40 Apple intelligence and Siri, um…
19:07:44 AI. And we’re not going to do that because…
19:07:48 I’m suffering from a concussion, and…
19:07:51 Just found.
19:07:53 life difficult, but…
19:07:56 I want to at least explain what I’m talking about.
19:07:59 On Mac, if you have a laptop, you have a limited amount of screen space.
19:08:04 And if you went to do something complicated, pretty soon you run out of spaces to tuck things away.
19:08:10 And the Mac operating system has built-in ways of
19:08:14 of handling that, including…
19:08:17 virtual screens that you don’t normally see, but you can flick to those.
19:08:21 other screens to do things.
19:08:24 And you can also have overlapping windows. If any of you have ever used Windows.
19:08:29 Windows, when you bring up an application that occupies the entire window.
19:08:34 And on the Mac, no, you can tile it so you can have multiple things open at once.
19:08:39 Um, and I wanted to talk about that because I’ve seen several people recently.
19:08:43 run into problems because they just couldn’t get everything they wanted to do.
19:08:48 on screen at once.
19:08:50 And I wanted to show different ways of doing that. For example, the, uh…
19:08:55 The current Mac operating system,
19:08:58 If you shove a window up to the top,
19:09:02 menu bar, it’ll actually offer to put that in a different space.
19:09:07 And a lot of you have never done that, or you didn’t know what it was trying to do, so I was going to demonstrate that, but I just.
19:09:14 Uh, I’m not up to that today, so instead I’m talking about
19:09:18 Apple Intelligence.
19:09:20 And about what Apple did at their keynote.
19:09:24 Um… last week?
19:09:26 Last week. Um…
19:09:29 First thing, a couple things about the Worldwide Developer Conference. It’s called WWDC, which people think makes it sound like a…
19:09:37 A rock concert, and to some extent it is.
19:09:40 They broadcast it for free. It used to be that you had to travel down to.
19:09:45 San Francisco and pay to stay there for a week.
19:09:49 But now they broadcast it for free and all the sessions.
19:09:52 You can get online.
19:09:55 It is a software developer conference, and…
19:09:58 Anyone want to venture a guess as to how many software developers work… how many software developers work on Apple.
19:10:06 products.
19:10:10 Like, is it 10,000?
19:10:15 I heard that they had…
19:10:18 a thousand…
19:10:20 Um, um, app…
19:10:23 app.
19:10:28 People turned in a thousand,
19:10:31 apps an hour to them for
19:10:33 You know, trying to get him into the system.
19:10:36 Yeah. They run about 1,000 apps, new apps or revised apps, an hour.
19:10:41 Yeah, that’s…
19:10:42 There are 10 million people
19:10:45 who have a developer accounts, and I happen to be one of them.
19:10:49 Do I actually develop stuff for Apple? No.
19:10:53 I got a developer account because when I worked for the government.
19:10:56 I wanted to make sure that what Apple was doing wouldn’t break things that I was creating.
19:11:02 for the general public. So I would download the latest software, I’d play with it.
19:11:08 figure out what the bugs were, figure out things that I liked, things I didn’t like.
19:11:13 lobby Apple to change the things I didn’t like.
19:11:16 And so that’s how I got involved in this. But do I regularly develop software for?
19:11:22 Apple products, so the answer is no.
19:11:26 Um, but, um…
19:11:27 Anyway, so they now have the worldwide developer conference so they can.
19:11:34 have these seminars that last an entire week to talk about.
19:11:38 What Apple’s going to be doing in the future.
19:11:40 And the focus is mostly on software.
19:11:43 They have, on occasion, introduced new hardware.
19:11:46 Um, this year…
19:11:48 They didn’t introduce any new hardware at all, which is unusual.
19:11:52 There wasn’t any announcement of any kind of new hardware at all.
19:11:56 But the software developer, the keynote,
19:12:01 did talk about something that I’ve mentioned previously when I was talking about.
19:12:04 Apple Intelligence, I said that
19:12:07 I wanted Apple to work on.
19:12:11 making Apple Intelligence more powerful, yes.
19:12:14 But I also didn’t want them to abandon.
19:12:17 the emphasis they have on privacy and security.
19:12:22 If you go into ChatGPT, or you go into Anthemorphic, or you go into…
19:12:28 Cloud, or you go into Fireflyer.
19:12:30 Any of the other AI models out there.
19:12:33 When you submit a question or you give it a paper to look at or whatever you do,
19:12:41 They keep that.
19:12:43 They use that information to train their models.
19:12:48 And I don’t want to do that.
19:12:50 Uh, there are good reasons not to want to do that. For example.
19:12:53 There’s a case right now in South Carolina, North Carolina, I don’t remember exactly where.
19:13:00 of this lawyer who found out that his spouse was going to divorce him.
19:13:05 Because she had uploaded.
19:13:09 a draft of the, uh…
19:13:11 Her divorce decree.
19:13:13 into an AI model, and he had seen it.
19:13:17 and tried to kill her.
19:13:20 Well, I’m not planning on killing anyone, nor do I really want anyone to try and kill me.
19:13:25 But I really don’t want any of my personal information.
19:13:29 to be on Google, to be on.
19:13:33 meta to be any of those places.
19:13:35 And I’m fairly… I have a lot of practice at keeping my.
19:13:39 personal information outside of.
19:13:44 outside of the public domain.
19:13:45 Now, if you go into…
19:13:48 Google, and you type in my name,
19:13:50 If you put my name in quotes, quote, Lawrence Charters quote.
19:13:54 Type it in, press return, you’ll see lots and lots of things about me.
19:13:58 But those are things that I choose to have out there.
19:14:01 I don’t want them to know anything about my personal business.
19:14:05 And so I don’t want them to use that for training.
19:14:09 I did not want Apple…
19:14:12 To expand their AI.
19:14:16 offerings at the expense of.
19:14:19 individuals’ privacy and security.
19:14:22 And I was extremely pleased at what I saw in the keynote.
19:14:27 But I’m going to show you a…
19:14:31 a, um…
19:14:33 a keynote presentation that I did, different than Apple’s keynote.
19:14:37 Uh, in which I talk about
19:14:38 what they talked about at the
19:14:41 At the developers conference, but then I’m going to focus particularly about
19:14:45 how Apple is doing artificial intelligence.
19:14:49 and how it’s doing it in a way that’s actually useful to people.
19:14:53 Artificial intelligence, a lot of people say, I have no use of artificial intelligence.
19:14:59 Which isn’t true at all.
19:15:01 Um, I don’t know if you’ve ever used Microsoft Word and had it correct your grammar.
19:15:05 It’ll go through and it’ll do things that looks like your Christmas tree. It’ll have things red and green and blue.
19:15:11 Saying, you didn’t do this, you didn’t do that, and you can go through, it’s up to you to actually fix those things. It’s not…
19:15:17 rewriting it for you. But it’s up to you to go and fix those things.
19:15:21 And there’s a company out called Grammarly that does the same thing with things that you do.
19:15:26 On the web, works within your web browser,
19:15:28 And as you’re typing in a response to somebody on a website, it’ll sit there and say,
19:15:34 Um, you should put a comma here and
19:15:36 do all kinds of things.
19:15:38 Those are…
19:15:40 Most of the tools that people use, that people would call artificial intelligence.
19:15:45 I would say that the not really, but it’s getting there.
19:15:48 Because most of the artificial intelligence tools.
19:15:51 that we currently have are actually offshoots of that.
19:15:56 They’re offshoots of these.
19:15:58 grammar checkers that, uh…
19:16:00 have been going around. When I have to admit that when, uh…
19:16:04 I wrote my first word processor, the first word processor on a computer that I ever saw.
19:16:09 was one that I wrote. And when a commercial one came out,
19:16:13 A few months later, I told my spouse that I was going to buy it, and she said, why? And I said,
19:16:18 It has a spell checker.
19:16:20 I was an editor of a magazine, I was editor of newspapers. One thing editors know right off the bat
19:16:28 They can’t edit their own stuff.
19:16:30 Because I knew what I was writing.
19:16:32 And so I will go through and I’ll have misspellings all over the place that I don’t notice.
19:16:37 I noticed it in somebody else’s work, but I don’t notice it in mine.
19:16:40 So a spell checker to me was a godsend because it made it sound like I actually knew
19:16:46 how to spell. And that was the first sort of artificial intelligence. Is it really artificial intelligence? No.
19:16:54 Because as an example.
19:16:56 This one guy said that, uh…
19:16:59 His interest was piqued.
19:17:02 when he saw such and such. He spelled peaked, P-E-A-E
19:17:06 K-E-D.
19:17:07 Well, that is a peak, but it’s not the kind that the same as peaked your interest.
19:17:13 And I made fun of this for several weeks before he caught on to the fact that.
19:17:18 I was using three different versions of the word peaked.
19:17:22 to make fun of him, and he didn’t understand why I was doing that.
19:17:27 But he eventually caught on.
19:17:28 So I’m going to show you a presentation.
19:17:31 It’s got a lot of text.
19:17:34 You feel free to stop and ask questions.
19:17:38 But I’m going to show my screen.
19:17:40 As soon as I remember how to do that.
19:17:46 How about this one?
19:17:49 And…
19:17:51 What do you see right now?
19:17:55 Any.
19:17:55 We see a space background with, uh, with, uh…
19:17:59 Um, weather stuff on it.
19:18:01 Okay.
19:18:01 You got the weather, the widget, the weather widget.
19:18:04 Yeah.
19:18:03 the weather widget. Okay, we can shrink that down, because we don’t really…
19:18:09 Although I have to admit, I like the weather.
19:18:11 better today than yesterday.
19:18:14 Yeah.
19:18:14 Yep.
19:18:19 I’m not going to do this full screen, because when I was doing this full screen,
19:18:24 I found out there’s an artifact that I didn’t like, so I’m going to…
19:18:31 You’re going to see my navigation off here on the side.
19:18:35 Um the.
19:18:40 We’re not gonna do spaces, we’ll do that some other time. They introduced a lot of things at the Worldwide Developer Conference.
19:18:48 And I’m going to go through about 100 and some odd of them fairly quickly.
19:18:53 These are things that they improved in OS 27.
19:18:57 One thing they were very consistent about this year.
19:18:59 is they called it OS 27.
19:19:01 Even though the Mac operating system has a new name,
19:19:06 It’s macOS 27.
19:19:08 Golden Gate is the name of the next version of the operating system.
19:19:12 They still referred to things as OS 27, because the changes that they’re making
19:19:16 The improvements tend to be for the
19:19:20 iPhone, the iPad, Mac OS.
19:19:23 Vision OS in all of them, so…
19:19:26 I’ve highlighted some things that I think are intriguing,
19:19:29 In yellow, like, for example, more relevant spotlight searches, but they have just a whole bunch of things.
19:19:36 And here’s one screen.
19:19:37 And here’s another screen.
19:19:40 And here’s another screen, and I’m not going to bother to stomp on all of these because
19:19:45 There are a lot of screens.
19:19:47 But I will put my…
19:19:49 PowerPoint slide up on the…
19:19:54 a straight Mac.
19:19:55 Lawrence, Lawrence.
19:19:57 I just want to say, if you’re…
19:20:01 I don’t know how our… probably everyone else feels the same. If you’re not up to doing this, I mean,
19:20:05 A concussion is a big deal.
19:20:08 You know.
19:20:08 Oh, this is… no, it was doing something…
19:20:14 additional that was a strain. I’m actually doing okay today.
19:20:16 Okay, all right. Just want to make sure.
19:20:20 But anyway, there are just a lot of things, and I’m not going to go through all of them, but uh.
19:20:25 One of them, for example, that I’m really intrigued with is that you can set
19:20:29 Different levels.
19:20:32 audio levels for alarms, so that
19:20:35 For example, in the morning, I like to wake up, I, my
19:20:40 watch. Doesn’t sound an alarm, my watch tickles my wrist, and that’s… that’s fine, because it’s.
19:20:45 wakes me up, but it doesn’t alarm me.
19:20:48 But for other things, like I’m going to go in for a.
19:20:52 a CAT scan on Thursday to check on my concussion.
19:20:57 For that, I want to make sure that I don’t miss that appointment, so I want that alarm to be something that I won’t ignore.
19:21:04 Whereas another one, which is, remember to take out the trash.
19:21:08 Yeah, that’s important, but it’s not time specific, so that can just be a general.
19:21:12 you know, alarm. And you’ll be allowed to change the alarm
19:21:18 volume for different types of alarms, depending upon what it is you want. Not different types, for different alarms.
19:21:23 And so there are lots of different things that you can do.
19:21:26 Another change, one that I even highlighted here was that
19:21:29 A lot of the operating system changes in the past,
19:21:33 have been for Apple’s apps alone.
19:21:37 So that if you were using Safari and they made some security thing, it would apply just to Safari.
19:21:43 Well, with the next version, a lot of the things they’re going to do work with third-party apps as well.
19:21:49 And one, for example, is
19:21:51 Support media sharing from third-party apps.
19:21:55 Well, if somebody sent you something in Google Photos,
19:21:58 And you’d like it to be in Apple Photos, you can get it, but sometimes.
19:22:03 You have to go through several steps in order to have it.
19:22:05 So, I don’t know exactly what this is going to look like when it’s finally delivered, but.
19:22:11 The idea of making it easier to.
19:22:15 share, uh, media between different applications. It sounds like a good idea to me.
19:22:21 Um, and this has, like, 160, or… I don’t remember how many.
19:22:25 And I just… there’s a…
19:22:27 During the keynote, they flashed this up on screen with these… it’s one screen.
19:22:32 that has these boxes of text floating through it.
19:22:37 And somebody captured that and wrote them all out, and I just stuck them into a slide.
19:22:44 What OS set 27 will work on? It’ll work on pretty much anything that’s got an Apple Silicon chip.
19:22:51 It will not work on anything prior to that.
19:22:55 So if you have an Intel-based
19:22:57 iMac, or you have an Intel-based
19:22:59 MacBook, uh, it’s not going to work on that.
19:23:04 And there are some technical reasons for that, but…
19:23:07 That is, this is basically the end of the, um…
19:23:12 Intels. And I have an Intel-based…
19:23:15 iMac Pro that, uh…
19:23:19 Um, that I’m really sorry that I won’t be able to do these things on.
19:23:23 on that machine anymore, but that machine is also 8 years old, so, you know.
19:23:29 It’s stood in good use.
19:23:33 But anyway, anything that’s running Apple Silicon,
19:23:36 OS 27 will work on it.
19:23:40 There are some caveats, which I’ll get to in a second.
19:23:44 Uh, iPads that can use OS 27 are pretty much
19:23:49 Any of the current machines and going back
19:23:53 several generations as well.
19:23:56 Like, for example, my iPad Mini has an A17.
19:24:01 Pro chips, so it can work, but the previous version of it
19:24:04 I will not. But it’s a fairly broad range.
19:24:10 iPhones that can use OS 27. This goes back to iPhone 11, which is something of a surprise.
19:24:17 Because the chip in an iPhone 11 is really quite ancient.
19:24:21 And I think the reason why they did this was that.
19:24:25 Uh, last year, when Apple promised that a lot of stuff was coming out for Apple Intelligence.
19:24:32 they didn’t actually deliver.
19:24:33 So this is kind of a makeup for that. They’re going to.
19:24:36 have it go back farther. But there are going to be some caveats to that.
19:24:41 Which is basically the more powerful of the hardware, probably the more benefits you’re going to get from it.
19:24:47 So an iPhone 11, yeah, it’ll probably run iOS… it’ll probably run OS.
19:24:53 27, but will it be able to do that with all the bells and whistles?
19:24:57 I don’t think so.
19:25:00 There’s a technical summary of…
19:25:03 One way in which Apple is doing this new intelligence model.
19:25:07 And it’s on Apple’s website at this address, which you don’t have to copy down, because I’ll put it on the website.
19:25:13 But it’s basically a quick overview.
19:25:17 of how they go about doing that, but I have some flowcharts for that as well that I’ll…
19:25:22 that you won’t understand, but I’m going to show you anyway.
19:25:27 The 2 things that…
19:25:29 came across most powerfully in the keynote was that
19:25:33 Apple Intelligence and Siri AI.
19:25:36 are going to emphasize privacy and security.
19:25:41 That when you basically…
19:25:43 Ask your phone or your iPad or your Mac to go out and do something, or find something,
19:25:50 Basically, the only people on the planet are gonna know about it are you and your device.
19:25:57 One thing that Apple…
19:25:59 could not do as well as Google.
19:26:02 was Google has a really good artificial intelligence.
19:26:07 technology called Gemini.
19:26:09 It’s had different names, and it’ll probably have new names in the future, but it’s called Gemini.
19:26:16 And.
19:26:18 what I think they spent this last year doing was coming up with a.
19:26:23 Contractual relationship with, uh…
19:26:26 Google that allows
19:26:28 Apple to have Google on the back end,
19:26:32 But only after the stuff has been anonymized. In other words,
19:26:37 You send a request off to your phone saying,
19:26:41 Who was president in 1827? Your phone doesn’t know that. He goes out and asks Apple. Apple may not know who the president was in 1827.
19:26:50 It asks Google, but when it asked Google, it doesn’t say,
19:26:55 who’s asking the question.
19:26:56 And it doesn’t keep the answer.
19:26:59 So Google responds, sends it off to Apple.
19:27:02 Apple sends it back to you, and then Apple gets rid of the fact that that transaction ever took place.
19:27:10 So, yes?
19:27:10 Lawrence, I had a question. What about…
19:27:12 When you’re interacting with Siri,
19:27:16 Um, and you’re having a conversation
19:27:20 Does Siri is going to remember
19:27:23 The first part of the conversation,
19:27:25 to be able to answer maybe a second part, and where’s that information saved so that Siri knows
19:27:32 What you’re saying…
19:27:34 The answer to that is… I don’t know exactly. I heard.
19:27:39 They talked about that a bit.
19:27:41 But there’s a… there are two different parts to…
19:27:44 Apple intelligence, the way that Apple is doing it. And one reason why they came up with Siri AI.
19:27:51 In the past, when you wanted to go to ChatGPT.
19:27:57 You would go into your browser, usually,
19:28:00 And you go to the ChatGPT site and you type in whatever you wanted, and it would come back.
19:28:06 in your browser.
19:28:08 Apple is pushing that more into Siri, so you would ask Siri a question.
19:28:15 Siri, if it knows the answer, would give you the answer.
19:28:18 Like, what is my name? It’ll tell you what your name is.
19:28:22 What day of the week is it? It’ll tell you that. What time is it? Tell you all kinds of things. Where do I live? Knows that.
19:28:28 all kinds of things it knows.
19:28:30 But for things it doesn’t know and has to go out.
19:28:33 That’s when it would talk to Google.
19:28:37 Will it remember the question?
19:28:39 If it was something that…
19:28:41 that Siri knew the answer to already.
19:28:45 And you’re asking a follow-up to that, the answer is probably yes.
19:28:49 If it’s something that it did not know, and
19:28:52 It doesn’t it sent that out someplace else and you ask a follow up question. You might have to repeat part of the follow-up question.
19:29:00 Because it can… it looks like it will have the ability to follow up.
19:29:05 questions that it is in control of.
19:29:07 But if it has to go elsewhere, I’m not sure that that’s going to happen.
19:29:10 But I also heard it was going to…
19:29:14 Uh, know what is currently on your screen,
19:29:17 Yes.
19:29:18 And where is that being stored?
19:29:21 Again, that’s actually taking place on your device.
19:29:25 Your device knows what’s on the screen.
19:29:28 They’ve had that character recognition software for quite some time now, so it can read what’s on your screen.
19:29:33 And if it knows that that’s a picture of your daughter, for example,
19:29:36 And you can say, oh, what is her birthday?
19:29:40 And if it knows that that’s your daughter, because it’s on your machine and it knows that’s your daughter,
19:29:45 It can say, oh, her birthday is, and it looks it up and…
19:29:48 whatever record that it has, again, on your machine.
19:29:51 That’s why it’s important to understand exactly who’s doing the work.
19:29:56 You have a staggering amount of information about yourself,
19:30:00 on your iPhone.
19:30:02 On your Mac, on your iPad.
19:30:05 So, it can do those kind of follow-ups if it’s something, again, that it can see your screen and it knows you’re doing that.
19:30:11 Like, for example, what you can ask the question that you have a picture of, I don’t know that it can actually do this, but as an example.
19:30:18 You have a picture of a pomegranate. What can you do with it? Well, if it was up to me, you could throw it away, because I don’t like pomegranate.
19:30:24 But it might suggest that you…
19:30:27 make something with that pomegranate, because it knows that that’s a picture of a pomegranate, and it’s on your machine.
19:30:32 If it doesn’t recognize it, it can’t tell the difference between a pomegranate and a
19:30:37 Pomeranian, then it might have to actually go out and ask for things like that. It depends upon what it’s.
19:30:45 what its knowledge base,
19:30:48 can encompass.
19:30:50 And so it’s going to…
19:30:52 It’s looking at privacy and security,
19:30:56 And it’s doing as much of that as possible on your device, because that way it doesn’t even have to go outside.
19:31:01 to ask anybody else.
19:31:04 Have you tried it on the beta version of 27?
19:31:06 I cannot answer that question.
19:31:09 Oh, okay.
19:31:13 This is a kind of a flowchart of how it works.
19:31:18 And again, this is going to be in the slide deck that I put up on the site.
19:31:22 But here is your iPhone or your iPad or your Mac.
19:31:27 You ask it questions. If it’s something that it knows how to do,
19:31:31 It’ll process it on the device,
19:31:34 It figures out…
19:31:36 What parts it might be able to do itself, and what parts it can’t do. If it can do it all itself, it’ll talk to you.
19:31:43 Like, you say, where’s my picture of Timmy? And it knows that Timmy is your.
19:31:48 your cousin, and it brings up a picture of Timmy.
19:31:51 So it can do that all on the phone because it knows all that stuff. Assuming that you’ve ever bothered to tell it.
19:31:56 that that weird guy is your cousin Timmy.
19:32:00 If it doesn’t know what it is, it sends it out to the… over the internet, it’s encrypted.
19:32:07 And it sends it out over to Apple’s private cloud compute, and they call it,
19:32:11 Private Cloud Compute, because it’s a.
19:32:14 It’s Apple Intelligence, but it’s not used by anybody else.
19:32:20 in your instance, other than you. You might be
19:32:23 using their private cloud compute along with a million other people at a time.
19:32:27 But in terms of your question, it’s all in its own little.
19:32:31 Enclave, and it’s not being shared with anybody else.
19:32:35 And if it can come up with the answer, it sends it back to you.
19:32:40 And it’s anonymized. So the apple doesn’t know where it’s coming from, and you don’t know where it’s coming from.
19:32:46 And exactly how that encryption works, don’t worry about that.
19:32:49 how it knows how to send it back to you? Well, it’s sending it from one
19:32:54 key token to another key token. Key tokens generated on the fly.
19:32:58 It says it got it from this address, it sends it back, and then it throws away.
19:33:03 the key, so it doesn’t really have any way of talking to it again.
19:33:05 This is for.
19:33:08 talking between you and Apple.
19:33:11 It’s…
19:33:11 Can you ask for the source of this answer?
19:33:14 Um, I don’t… I don’t know that. For some things you can, but for other things, like if it’s a picture of your cousin Timmy.
19:33:21 And it’s in your photos library, I don’t know if it would tell you that or not. Probably just show you Timmy.
19:33:28 And you could say, hey, he’s out of your Apple Photos. I don’t know what it would do.
19:33:32 Haven’t tried something like that.
19:33:36 If it can’t answer it between your device,
19:33:40 And apples private cloud. It gets a little bit more complicated.
19:33:44 So, your question goes out to Apple’s cloud.
19:33:49 out here, and then if Apple doesn’t… if it needs to get more information like.
19:33:58 Who was the first president who wasn’t born in the United States? Believe it or not, our first several presidents
19:34:02 weren’t born in the United States. So who was the first president who was born in the United States?
19:34:08 Apple might know that, but it probably doesn’t, and it would go out and ask Google.
19:34:13 So when it goes to Google,
19:34:14 It sends the key, this key that it created on the fly to accompany the question,
19:34:21 sends it out to Google,
19:34:23 Google looks for it, parses out the question, figures out what it is.
19:34:27 and then sends it back. When it sends it back,
19:34:31 The… Apple has it in what they call these ephemeral VMNs, virtual
19:34:37 machines.
19:34:39 It uses that to process the request that it gets back from Google, sends it back onto you,
19:34:45 And then it destroys that virtual machine. So it just all goes poof.
19:34:49 Apple doesn’t keep a record of the request, it doesn’t keep a record.
19:34:54 Record of the answer. And Google doesn’t have any information.
19:35:00 from you.
19:35:03 All they have is this anonymous request.
19:35:05 Now, if you happen to send a question that you explicitly identify yourself, like,
19:35:11 uh, did, uh, Law Charters attend the.
19:35:14 1989 Macworld conference.
19:35:17 If that was your question,
19:35:19 And Apple doesn’t know the answer, and it goes out to Google, and Google looks it up and finds out that you’re on the.
19:35:26 You were registered at the 1989 Apple Macworld
19:35:31 conference and sends it back to you, it doesn’t know who answered the question, but it does know that somebody asked that about Lawrence Charters.
19:35:39 Because, yeah, it’s… it’s… it had to know at least that much, so it will know that.
19:35:45 But in terms of who asked the question, what they wanted to use it for, what they’re doing with it, has no idea.
19:35:51 So this is basically how it works. And the keys to this are these keys, these secure keys that it…
19:35:59 that Apple creates, and then Apple destroys.
19:36:02 Those are the things that protect.
19:36:04 your data. When it’s going out,
19:36:06 Google gets nothing. When it comes back, they destroy the key.
19:36:10 And without the key, you have no idea what’s going on.
19:36:13 And these virtual machines, again, after it completes a request, it gets rid of the virtual machine.
19:36:20 And a virtual machine is basically just a pocket of memory that’s
19:36:22 that’s being used on their servers.
19:36:25 And it’s being used for that task, and after that task is over, they just get rid of it, and they reallocate the memory for other things.
19:36:32 So this is basically how it works.
19:36:34 And again, I know this is probably looking…
19:36:36 weird, but it’s how it works.
19:36:39 Kind of gives you some examples.
19:36:42 Um, couple days ago, I was using the AP app on my phone,
19:36:46 And it said, Washington, United States. No article available in your area.
19:36:52 Now, this cracked me up because it actually makes me feel good when there’s no national news about the area that I’m in.
19:37:00 There’s no wildfires, there’s no mass shootings.
19:37:02 There’s no ferry boat that went aground. It’s nice that there’s no, uh…
19:37:09 no news about it. Is this an example of artificial intelligence? And the answer is no.
19:37:14 When you go into the AP News app, you get to specify.
19:37:19 What your areas of interest are. My interests are women’s
19:37:24 basketball. I really like women’s basketball. Washington State.
19:37:28 And a few other things. So I go in there and I specify that. If there’s no news about Washington State, it comes back and says.
19:37:35 No article available in your area. Now, it doesn’t mean that there aren’t articles about lots of other things, but just nothing
19:37:41 That particular moment about Washington State, or about women’s basketball, or whatever it is.
19:37:46 And this is not AI, this is basically just a kind of a list processing, and I’m not on that.
19:37:53 Nothing I wanted was in that particular list at that point.
19:37:57 So this doesn’t take AI, this is just basic computer programming.
19:38:01 Here’s an example of something that says it’s officially Beatles’ first album, Please, Please Me.
19:38:06 was released closer to the 1800s than to the present day, and it shows.
19:38:11 The number of dates from the 1800s till today.
19:38:16 And to the Beatles album and then to today.
19:38:20 And you are.
19:38:22 You are… the Beatles were closer to the 1800s than you were to their first album.
19:38:28 Because we’re getting old, and that was a long time ago.
19:38:31 This is not exactly AI either, because a human came up with the question.
19:38:37 A human figured out the answer. Now, he probably used a computer calendar.
19:38:40 But this is not AI.
19:38:42 It’s a… it’s just a…
19:38:45 Clever question and clever answer.
19:38:47 Here is a chart of where you’re likely to get bear attacks.
19:38:52 And it says, Mercury, Venus, approximately no risk of bear attack.
19:38:57 Mars, Jupiter, Saturn.
19:38:59 Also, no risk of bear attack.
19:39:01 Is this AI? No, this is a cartoon that somebody drew that is 100% correct.
19:39:06 But it’s not artificial.
19:39:09 It’s not artificial intelligence.
19:39:12 And this is a list of all data centers in Europe in the year 1437.
19:39:17 And as you notice, the map is completely blank, it’s just a map of Europe.
19:39:23 And is that AI? No, it’s just a human came up with a way of telling a joke.
19:39:28 And it’s nothing artificial intelligent.
19:39:33 Um, this is… happened on my phone.
19:39:36 I got a message that says Apple Pay wallet protection auto change.
19:39:40 Charge alert for your Apple ID, $537.40, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
19:39:45 It’s got a bunch of verbiage here.
19:39:48 Apple flagged this as…
19:39:50 possibly fraudulent.
19:39:54 But it was up to me to decide that it was spam,
19:39:57 And up to me to press the little button that says delete and report spam.
19:40:02 So it’s not really AI, it’s just Apple’s programming doing what I asked it to do.
19:40:08 I told it to flag suspicious.
19:40:12 messages, and it thought this was suspicious.
19:40:15 So none of that’s AI.
19:40:18 This is the illustration I was going to use for tonight’s talk that I didn’t deliver.
19:40:24 on spaces. And I typed in to, uh…
19:40:27 Google Gemini said I wanted a photograph.
19:40:31 of a penguin being very…
19:40:33 anxious about trying to keep track of what’s on 10.
19:40:37 uh, computer screens.
19:40:39 So it was a puffin.
19:40:43 that was anxious about trying to read 10.
19:40:46 computer screens. And there are actually 11 computer screens, so, hey, I got a bonus.
19:40:51 Plus, a laptop screen, plus an iPad screen and two phones.
19:40:58 So it gave me more than I asked for.
19:41:00 Uh, so we got a penguin, we have a penguin, we have a puffin.
19:41:05 that’s really upset, and if you could zoom in, there’s actually something in here that, oh, it says this, uh…
19:41:10 This coffee cuff back here is.
19:41:13 Puffin Patrol, some nice little things that I didn’t really ask for, but…
19:41:16 It pleases me greatly.
19:41:20 Google Gemini created this photo for me. Is that artificial intelligence?
19:41:26 I’d still say no.
19:41:29 It’s a tool that I used
19:41:31 To create something, and we call it artificial intelligence, but.
19:41:36 I was the one who created the problem.
19:41:38 I was the one who set the parameters of how I wanted it to be,
19:41:42 displayed, and it generated it using…
19:41:46 generative AI, but is it really artificial intelligence?
19:41:51 No, we’ve had the ability to do this. You know, Apple’s been an Apple.
19:41:55 Industrial light and magic has been doing things like this for quite some time.
19:41:59 It’s not really intelligence, but it is what we currently classify as.
19:42:05 AI. Now, the next thing I’m going to show you…
19:42:07 is a little bit more impressive.
19:42:11 Now, I told…
19:42:15 Gemini.
19:42:16 to create a video for me.
19:42:20 of a puffin trying to use an iPhone, trying to answer.
19:42:24 an iPhone and
19:42:27 I hope that this will play, and you can see it.
19:42:40 And we have a very frustrated puffin, because…
19:42:44 It just… it lacks the equipment to…
19:42:48 To, uh, answer the phone.
19:42:50 Now, is this AI? This is really getting close to AI because I just I typed in maybe.
19:42:55 15 words, and it created that video.
19:42:59 And it’s a photorealistic.
19:43:03 Puffin and that’s an identifiable iPhone.
19:43:07 It’s one of the older ones that’s got a mechanical button.
19:43:10 And you didn’t tell it what kind of background you wanted or anything?
19:43:14 No, it kind of… I think Puffin was kind of a dead giveaway.
19:43:18 Oh, yeah, yeah.
19:43:22 Um, so…
19:43:23 That’s the kind of thing that is what I would consider closer to being.
19:43:28 AI. Now,
19:43:30 some things to think about.
19:43:32 If you…
19:43:33 If I do this today, I happen to have a Google…
19:43:38 one account, I can’t remember if that’s what they call it.
19:43:40 It’s a paid account.
19:43:43 with Google, because I have a whole bunch of email, and I’ve got websites, and a bunch of other stuff.
19:43:49 So I’m paying Google for my account.
19:43:53 And if I ask this, I’m sure that because I have a paid account,
19:43:57 I will get a better level of service than people who are doing this for free.
19:44:03 What a lot of these AI companies do is they give you tokens, and you get so many odd tokens for this.
19:44:08 account, and for this level of account, you get more tokens for higher levels, and so on and so forth.
19:44:14 So, how many tokens did I burn up creating that video? Have no idea.
19:44:20 I suspect that for apples.
19:44:24 AI that talks to Google.
19:44:27 that it’s… there’s going to be probably a very basic level that has very little access.
19:44:33 And if you want more, I think it’s probably going to require that you have a
19:44:37 and iCloud Plus account.
19:44:40 The iCloud Plus accounts cost money.
19:44:44 That’s when you want more.
19:44:46 storage for your iCloud. But if you pay for more storage in iCloud, you’ll automatically get things like
19:44:55 The privacy protection on your browser and a bunch.
19:44:59 other things that come at present.
19:45:02 But I think you also probably would get more access to.
19:45:07 Um, um,
19:45:08 Google AI. Why? Because it’s costing.
19:45:12 Google money to do this, and it’s costing Apple money to support this.
19:45:17 So, I suspect that
19:45:19 If you want to do more with AI, you’re going to have to have.
19:45:24 and iCal out plus. That is not clear. They haven’t made that clear.
19:45:29 And it might be a while before.
19:45:33 That’s I have a clear answer on that.
19:45:38 Apple AI limitations. The more powerful your device, the more it can do.
19:45:43 If you look at the amount of RAM,
19:45:46 That’s on an iPhone 17 Pro Max compared to.
19:45:52 that iPhone 11, the iPhone 17 has a lot more memory.
19:45:55 available to it. It also has more storage available to it.
19:46:02 AI is going to require
19:46:04 both memory and storage to do its work.
19:46:08 Because if you ask it a question like.
19:46:11 Uh, how many would, uh, how many
19:46:15 How much wood could a woodchuck of a woodchuck could chuck wood?
19:46:19 That’s a joke.
19:46:21 It’s easy for you to say.
19:46:22 Yes, well, also, I’m not feeling all great that great, so tongue twisters are a little hard.
19:46:27 I, uh, yeah.
19:46:29 But Apple right now can give you an instant answer for that. Why? Because billions of other people have asked that because it’s an obvious thing to try and
19:46:36 trick Siri. But…
19:46:39 in the… if you’re doing this with AI, and you say,
19:46:43 generate me a photograph of this.
19:46:46 That’s going to take storage both
19:46:49 device first. No, thank you.
19:46:51 That’s going to retake storage to actually parse out the question.
19:46:55 It’s going to take storage on your machine,
19:46:59 to send off a.
19:47:01 query to Apple that might send it off to Google and then come back.
19:47:05 It’s going to take RAM, and it’s going to take storage space.
19:47:09 If you have a phone and you look at the iPhone storage,
19:47:13 setting in your settings.
19:47:15 And you’re almost completely maxed out.
19:47:18 You probably are going to have trouble using.
19:47:22 Apple AI, simply because you don’t have enough space on your device.
19:47:26 to work with. So, the more powerful your device,
19:47:29 The more I can do, the more free RAM and more storage you have, the more you can do.
19:47:34 You can do more if you are more skilled and educated.
19:47:39 Um, and I… I’m not doing this because I’m trying to be an elitist.
19:47:43 It’s just that if you have a word processor,
19:47:46 And you have a degree in English.
19:47:48 You probably will be able to use that word processor.
19:47:52 more fluently than someone who is struggling to get out of junior high.
19:47:58 You can do more if you have more imagination. Now, as you might have noticed, I’ve got a thing for.
19:48:04 Penguins and puffins, so…
19:48:07 I can ask them to do ridiculous things.
19:48:10 If you don’t have that tendency and you’re much more linear.
19:48:14 thinker, then you probably won’t be able to do as much.
19:48:18 So, yeah…
19:48:20 I’m just learning a new graphic design program.
19:48:25 And, uh, I’ve never used AI before, but
19:48:29 There’s AI built into it.
19:48:31 And so I can… I’m starting to learn that
19:48:35 Just what you were saying.
19:48:37 And I do have an English degree. But if I can…
19:48:41 describe to this AI thing and type out
19:48:45 Exactly what I am thinking, like the details, using these brand colors and
19:48:50 And it needs to… this is the date, this is the time, and all that, and…
19:48:54 Uh, you know, in the…
19:48:57 format, it’ll spew out several different versions of whatever this thing is that I’m
19:49:03 trying to create. And it is a matter of being able to say it in a
19:49:10 Very clear way. It’s pretty cool, and it… I’m just learning it now, but…
19:49:15 That I… that way of being able to explain it to AI in a way that it can.
19:49:20 Put it back. It’s pretty cool.
19:49:23 What’s the name of the program?
19:49:24 Canva.
19:49:25 Oh, I’m not familiar with that one.
19:49:27 It’s a graphic design program.
19:49:29 Well, yeah, but I use several of them. I just haven’t heard of that one.
19:49:33 Yeah.
19:49:33 A lot of it has to do if you…
19:49:36 If you forget the fact that it’s got the word compute in it,
19:49:40 We don’t actually use…
19:49:43 computers for computations.
19:49:46 Right.
19:49:46 They perform things by doing computations. We use them as communications tool.
19:49:52 My iPhone is sitting in my pocket is a full-blown Unix computer.
19:49:56 more powerful than any Unix computer in the world in 2000, in the year 2000.
19:50:01 I mean, it’s just unbelievably powerful and it wanders around in my pocket.
19:50:05 and answers spam for me.
19:50:07 But we use them as communications devices and not as computers.
19:50:13 However, when it comes to using computers.
19:50:16 The more you can articulate what it is you’re trying to do,
19:50:21 the better luck you’re going to have at actually getting what you… what you want.
19:50:25 That puffin answering the phone, I was astonished that I got what I wanted on my first try.
19:50:31 Uh, the one with the.
19:50:33 puffin and all those screens. That was actually my…
19:50:37 second try. Um…
19:50:38 The first try was okay, but I just… I wanted to tweak it a bit.
19:50:42 But again, being able to figure out
19:50:45 A lot of people, they say, well, uh…
19:50:49 I’ve got tomato soup and I’ve got cheese in the refrigerator.
19:50:54 What can I make with that for dinner?
19:50:57 Well, the answer is probably not a lot, but if you were to give it a few more ingredients to work with,
19:51:02 You can probably ask Gemini or
19:51:05 Apple Intelligence, or Siri,
19:51:07 to come up with a recipe for something.
19:51:10 But you have to be able to provide it with enough building blocks to get something that’s useful.
19:51:16 I can’t remember the movie that I saw, it was many, many years ago.
19:51:16 Yeah.
19:51:20 This woman who had no money at all went into a.
19:51:24 department store.
19:51:26 When they had soda bars,
19:51:29 And she asked for hot water.
19:51:30 And she asked for a catch up.
19:51:32 And she made herself tomato soup.
19:51:35 If you’re desperate, yes, that’s tomato soup, but.
19:51:38 If you have more ingredients and you can more articulate what you want.
19:51:42 Um, you get better results. In her case.
19:51:45 The hot water was free, and the ketchup was free, so that’s what she had. She had tomato soup.
19:51:51 And again, the other thing that I want to say is I don’t know if it’s going to require iCloud Plus to do this.
19:51:57 But a lot of the stuff that they were talking about in terms of the encryption,
19:52:02 is built into iCloud Plus and does not come
19:52:05 with the vanilla version of iCloud.
19:52:08 that you get for free.
19:52:09 Um, so that remains to be seen.
19:52:15 Um, things that you can do with… actually, I should have this other thing out here first.
19:52:22 I’ll get to that.
19:52:24 Things that you can do with the new Apple AI because it’s built into Siri.
19:52:30 Because it’s built into Siri, and Siri can talk to almost anything, including Apple passwords,
19:52:36 One of the things you will be able to do
19:52:37 is go into the password app,
19:52:40 and say, most of us have, if you use Apple passwords for storing passwords.
19:52:45 Most of us have sites that we’ve been to
19:52:48 that have had compromised passwords.
19:52:50 Uh, it doesn’t necessarily mean you’ve done anything wrong.
19:52:55 With the forthcoming release of OS 27, you’ll be able to ask passwords
19:53:02 to reissue.
19:53:05 to redo all the compromised passwords. It’ll just go through all of them.
19:53:09 And if it’s a weak password, or it’s been compromised, or if it’s been repeated,
19:53:13 It’ll go through all of those and issue new ones.
19:53:17 It does that by logging into the website, going through the security protocol for that site.
19:53:22 Assuming that the site supports this,
19:53:24 And creating a new password, and then logging off.
19:53:27 If you did this by hand, it could take you 20 minutes for each one of these.
19:53:32 Yeah.
19:53:32 So this is a huge, um,
19:53:35 Huge win for sanity.
19:53:38 Um, I would suggest that for a lot of you.
19:53:41 Before you actually tell your Mac or your iPhone to do this.
19:53:45 that you go through your list of passwords and passwords,
19:53:49 And if you’re not using that anymore,
19:53:52 If you’re not using that anymore,
19:53:55 Just delete your account on that, uh, on that site.
19:53:58 There’s no reason to reset the password if you intend to go back there.
19:54:02 And some of these things don’t even exist anymore.
19:54:06 Uh, I found out.
19:54:08 that.
19:54:10 Passwords has an account of mine for CompuServe.
19:54:13 I’m pretty sure CompuServe doesn’t exist anymore.
19:54:16 And I know the source doesn’t exist. The source
19:54:21 Again, it dates back to the…
19:54:23 1990s, and it doesn’t exist anymore.
19:54:25 So just delete those things, and then…
19:54:29 You won’t spend time trying to…
19:54:32 have it contact sites that don’t exist anymore.
19:54:34 But this is going to be something that comes out with OS 27, and I think it’s a…
19:54:38 Huge boost for security.
19:54:40 Another thing that you can do
19:54:43 And as a photographer, I’m not sure that I’m really wild about this.
19:54:48 Um, I take documentary-style photographs. When I take pictures, I take them to document things.
19:54:54 He was a newspaper editor, magazine editor.
19:54:56 And I don’t want to create things that didn’t exist.
19:55:00 So, I’ll go out and I’ll take a photograph, and if that photograph doesn’t work, or whatever, I’ll take another one until I find one that does.
19:55:09 I went up to.
19:55:12 to Vancouver.
19:55:15 BC to see my…
19:55:17 Daughter, granddaughter, and son-in-law.
19:55:18 And I was up there for 10 days, and I took 3,000 photographs.
19:55:23 And of those 3,000 photographs, most of them are never going to see the light of day.
19:55:28 Because I, if I didn’t like something, I’d take another one.
19:55:32 With the new Apple Photos and Apple Intelligence, you can do things that you could not do before. You can
19:55:38 Reframe photographs. So if you took
19:55:41 you’re shooting down on someone.
19:55:43 And you decided it’s better to shoot up,
19:55:46 It’ll allow you to edit in such a way that it looks like you’re shooting upward.
19:55:50 Or if you have…
19:55:52 you’re shooting somebody, and in the background, there’s a palm tree.
19:55:56 And offense, and over on the side, there’s a garage with junk in front of it.
19:56:00 It’ll allow you to extend
19:56:02 The palm trees and other things off to the side to cover up the fact that there’s a
19:56:08 garage there, which is really cool.
19:56:11 I’m not sure that I actually like that because
19:56:14 I like photographs to capture reality rather than to
19:56:19 paper it over with fiction, but…
19:56:21 That’s a cool thing to be able to do.
19:56:24 And it’ll also be able to automatically
19:56:26 Just clean up some things like, uh, over…
19:56:30 exposed spots or underexposed spots.
19:56:35 I haven’t played with this, but it sounds cool.
19:56:38 Even though I have some qualms about it.
19:56:44 going still on photographs with Apple Photos.
19:56:48 When Apple Photos first came out, I didn’t… was not very impressed with it, because I used uh
19:56:53 Lightroom from Adobe, which I think is a much better
19:56:57 package for…
19:56:58 keeping track of photographs.
19:57:01 Photos didn’t impress me, but the new photos.
19:57:05 Uh, over the past several years has gradually gotten to be really quite impressive.
19:57:09 And among other things, with the version coming out this fall.
19:57:14 It’ll allow you to do things like set up… it’ll automatically create a collection
19:57:20 of photographs taken by you.
19:57:21 So it won’t have photographs
19:57:23 that were taken by other people that people have sent to you, or screenshots, or things like that.
19:57:28 It’ll only be things that you took.
19:57:30 And that might be something that you’ll want.
19:57:33 And the other one is you can have identity documents, like,
19:57:37 passports and driver’s licenses and so on and so forth.
19:57:40 things that are, um…
19:57:44 identity documents that you might want to carry with you.
19:57:46 Even if you’re not carrying your wallet, you can still have access to it.
19:57:50 It’ll automatically create a collection of those things.
19:57:53 And all of these collections, by the way, you also can password protect so that if somebody
19:57:58 Grabs your phone, they don’t necessarily have.
19:58:00 Access to this stuff.
19:58:03 So that’s going to be coming out in Photos.
19:58:06 And, um…
19:58:08 Other things you can do that you could not in the pa- that you can’t currently do.
19:58:13 You can ask questions that require data from multiple sources.
19:58:18 I can ask my S…
19:58:22 IRI, to turn on my TV.
19:58:25 And I say SIRI, turn on Dungeness. Dungeness is the name.
19:58:31 of my Apple TV, so it can turn it on.
19:58:34 Once it’s turned on, I can say, launch YouTube TV on Dungeness,
19:58:39 And it launches my list of channels that I have, and so on and so forth.
19:58:45 Well, in the future, you can go beyond that and say, send an alarm for my appointment today at Olympic Medical Center.
19:58:51 Which is using multiple applications at once. It uses your calendar, it uses alarms, uses clock, uses messages.
19:58:58 So it goes through messages to find out what the thing that Olympic Medical Center sent.
19:59:03 It knows it can then examine what time it said,
19:59:06 And it can figure out, okay, I like my alarms 15 minutes in advance, 30 minutes in advance.
19:59:12 And do all of this sort of stuff from multiple different applications at once.
19:59:17 all on your phone or all on your Mac.
19:59:19 Or you can say, notify me when the price drops on the 70 to 300.
19:59:24 zoom lens at Glaser’s camera. Glaser’s camera is a big
19:59:28 camera store in.
19:59:30 in Seattle. And if you…
19:59:32 If you’re a camera person, I highly recommend you never go to Glazers because
19:59:37 You’ll leave poorer than you when you went in. Has just amazing stuff.
19:59:42 But if their website notices a drop in price.
19:59:46 It’ll Safari will check it and say, okay, it had a drop in price and it’ll send me a reminder that there’s a drop in price.
19:59:54 Have I tried this? Have no idea if this is going to actually work the way it’s described.
19:59:58 But I’m intrigued with the possibility.
20:00:01 Show me the photo of Mount Shasta I took last week.
20:00:04 Again, it can do that on your own device without talking anything else.
20:00:08 Assuming it could recognize Mount Shasta,
20:00:12 goes through your photos, looks at Miles Shasta,
20:00:14 And it can bring it up. And Mount Chasta can identify one of two ways. Either you explicitly
20:00:21 stuck a label on it saying, hey, this is Mount Shasta, or it’s looking at the GPS coordinates
20:00:27 on the photo and says, ah,
20:00:29 This is probably Mount Shasta.
20:00:31 But right now, I ask it to do that, and it probably is not going to work.
20:00:36 I can ask photos to do things like…
20:00:38 Show me airplanes. Type in airplanes, shows me a lot of airplanes.
20:00:43 But it will also make mistakes. It’ll give me a picnic table.
20:00:48 Why will I give me a picnic table? It’s got a horizontal surface, it’s got splayed-out legs on it.
20:00:53 Looks like an airplane to Siri.
20:00:57 But I’m assuming that that’s going to get a little bit brighter in the near future.
20:01:03 Being able to articulate questions like that and get useful results.
20:01:09 is something I’m looking forward to.
20:01:13 Another thing that I want to…
20:01:16 that might seem kind of esoteric, but it’s important.
20:01:21 Apple has pretty much…
20:01:23 If you look at the keynote and how they presented this stuff,
20:01:27 Siri is the intelligent assistant that we’ve been using for years.
20:01:31 And Spotlight is the indexing function on the Mac and on your iPhone.
20:01:37 And Apple Intelligence is their cloud name for all of this stuff.
20:01:42 Basically, they’re now collapsing all of these, and the way to do most of this stuff is going to be through Siri.
20:01:49 You want to ask a question, you ask Siri.
20:01:51 And Siri can go out and use Apple Spotlight to find files.
20:01:55 can use Apple Intelligence to.
20:01:57 Ask for information above and beyond what it can find.
20:02:01 But they’re really pushing the fact that Siri’s going to be
20:02:03 The interface for it. Why? It’s because people use Siri all the time.
20:02:10 I use Siri several times a day.
20:02:13 Even on days when I’m not doing that much.
20:02:17 It’s just a… it’s a really…
20:02:21 powerful way of using
20:02:23 a device, especially when you’re busy doing something else. I was washing.
20:02:26 Dishes yesterday, and I had a phone call from a woman who’s.
20:02:31 spouse just died.
20:02:33 And the phone announced that she called, and I told,
20:02:37 Siri, to answer the phone, I could chat with her on the phone while I was washing dishes. Actually, I had to stop washing dishes because
20:02:45 Dishes make an awful lot of noise, you can’t actually talk, but
20:02:47 My hands were still wet.
20:02:50 Okay.
20:02:49 And I could still talk to her.
20:02:52 Didn’t have to touch anything. I could just do that.
20:02:55 with my voice.
20:02:57 Making that the kind of gateway
20:03:00 into doing more things, I think is a huge…
20:03:04 Uh, plus.
20:03:06 Any questions about that? Because I did talk a lot.
20:03:15 Thank you for the graphic thing. That was really very clarifying.
20:03:21 Yes, it was.
20:03:29 The
20:03:31 I will.
20:03:33 post the, um, slides on, uh…
20:03:37 And the
20:03:38 Straight Max site, because again, just the list of…
20:03:42 I don’t know how many pages, 20 pages worth of things that they’re planning on updating.
20:03:48 Those had nothing to do with Apple Intelligence. Those are just things that they are fixing or enhancing.
20:03:55 There are quite a few innovations in women’s health, for example, that they’re adding to.
20:04:01 Um, the iPhone.
20:04:03 into Apple Watch and there are…
20:04:07 just changes to cosmetly.
20:04:09 People have had trouble if they have an iPad,
20:04:12 The iPad now allows you to tile applications on the iPad.
20:04:16 Which was something that they introduced with iPadOS 26.
20:04:20 A lot of people still don’t quite understand how that works.
20:04:24 And they’re making some slight tweaks to the appearance to make it more obvious.
20:04:29 how to do that sort of stuff. Um, and they just…
20:04:33 Literally hundreds of.
20:04:35 changes they’re making to what we have already.
20:04:39 But the big…
20:04:41 message for most of the keynote was that there.
20:04:44 going in with both feet into
20:04:47 intelligence, and they’re doing it in such a way.
20:04:49 that they’re emphasizing privacy and security.
20:04:54 your privacy and your security.
20:04:58 One interesting kind of…
20:05:02 Side effect, though, is that it’s not going to be immediately available in the EU.
20:05:08 Now, the EU, unlike the United States has no privacy laws that apply to corporations.
20:05:13 Nothing. If the corporation
20:05:16 Has your private phone number, they are not required to do anything about it.
20:05:20 They can use it as often as they want.
20:05:22 Because we don’t have any privacy laws.
20:05:24 The EU has very strong privacy laws, so
20:05:27 The EU has strong privacy laws.
20:05:30 Apple’s new operating system is going to emphasize privacy and security. Why is it going to take a while to be in the EU?
20:05:38 It’s because in the EU,
20:05:41 They want
20:05:44 They basically went to…
20:05:47 have access to…
20:05:49 Apple’s security in order to make sure that it’s really secure.
20:05:54 They want Apple to compromise their security.
20:05:56 To prove that their security is secure.
20:05:59 And Apple is saying no.
20:06:08 And, uh, Apple’s probably going to continue to say no until Europe gives up and just…
20:06:15 decides on a different course.
20:06:17 They had a similar thing where the
20:06:20 Uh, the British government wanted Apple to give them.
20:06:25 a security certificate that allowed
20:06:27 the British government to examine all.
20:06:32 iPhone traffic going in and out of Britain.
20:06:35 And Apple said no.
20:06:36 And they… Apple fought with Britain for that for a couple years before.
20:06:41 Britain eventually gave up.
20:06:43 I’m hoping it doesn’t take that long this time.
20:06:47 But.
20:06:49 Um, it.
20:06:50 It was an interesting.
20:06:52 Apple developers can’t.
20:06:55 conference, and I’m greatly looking forward to seeing what happens this fall when they.
20:07:01 bring out the new…
20:07:02 iPhone, iPad, Mac,
20:07:05 Vision OS software.
20:07:08 What will happen when you take your iPhone to visit your daughter in England?
20:07:14 And you’re able to use all this…
20:07:16 Artificial intelligence in the Us.
20:07:19 When you get to England, what happens?
20:07:22 I suspect I won’t be able to use it in.
20:07:24 England
20:07:27 Okay, any idea how they’ll keep that from happening?
20:07:31 Oh, yeah, because the.
20:07:34 Apps are geo-fenced.
20:07:39 Ah.
20:07:39 Geofenced is basically… it knows where you are, and depending upon where you are,
20:07:44 It applies this set of protocols, and if you’re someplace else, it applies that set of protocols.
20:07:50 Um, Apple did it that way because
20:07:53 For example, if you have a phone that you bought in the United States.
20:07:57 And you’re a Belarus citizen.
20:08:01 Belarus really likes to spy on their own people.
20:08:06 They don’t want people going into Belarus.
20:08:09 and evading what the police can do.
20:08:12 So, what happens when that…
20:08:14 phone that was purchased in the United States, you go into Belarus,
20:08:17 It starts following Belarus law.
20:08:20 Apple basically has to do it that way.
20:08:22 Now, there are some cases, though, where the developers screw up.
20:08:27 Um, I was curious about this.
20:08:29 this icon that appeared on my iPad,
20:08:32 It was a yellow icon with a B on it.
20:08:36 And I happen to know that the B is the symbol for Manchester, England.
20:08:41 Manchester adopted the bee as a symbol because it was a city of industry, and they built trains, and
20:08:46 all kinds of other stuff. So, they were all busy little bees.
20:08:51 I suspected it was for the Manchester bus service, so I launched it, and it told me that there were no Manchester buses.
20:08:57 Available anywhere in Scrum, which was a real shock.
20:09:01 I mentioned this to my daughter.
20:09:04 And my daughter said that she got rid of off of her phone,
20:09:07 Because it’s improperly geofenced. She bought her phone in the United States.
20:09:12 And because she bought her phone in the United States.
20:09:16 It’s geofenced, so it doesn’t work in Manchester, so.
20:09:19 It would work for me, but give me no information, or it won’t work for her.
20:09:24 In England.
20:09:25 That’s not geofencing, that’s a programming error.
20:09:30 They screwed up.
20:09:31 Because it should be based upon where the phone is located.
20:09:35 Not where it was purchased.
20:09:37 It should be based upon where the phone is located, and uh…
20:09:41 Um, I thought that was hilariously funny, but it’s not a.
20:09:44 It’s not really an Apple problem, it’s the developer for the.
20:09:48 For the app just screwed up.
20:09:51 But that’s how it… that’s how it knows how to properly…
20:09:57 what the restrictions are that apply.
20:09:58 For example, child pornography rules in Great Britain.
20:10:02 changed as of, uh…
20:10:04 June 1st, and they’re much more draconian.
20:10:08 Pornography is prohibited.
20:10:10 From being displayed to, to, uh…
20:10:13 Children under 18. Just absolutely prohibited.
20:10:16 What’s the restriction in the United States?
20:10:21 There really isn’t any. It changes from…
20:10:24 State to state, city to city, and it’s not enforceable in the United States.
20:10:28 But because the entire country went this way in Great Britain,
20:10:32 If you show up in Great Britain with your US phone, instantly you probably aren’t gonna…
20:10:37 You’re not going to be able to view your favorite porn sites because it doesn’t know how old you are.
20:10:44 Because it’s geofenced. So.
20:10:47 There’s a right way and a wrong way to do almost anything and.
20:10:51 And the Manchester bus system screwed up.
20:10:57 Uh, I was really disappointed that I couldn’t get a bus in.
20:11:00 to Manchester in Squimla.
20:11:06 Probably just as well, the gas bill from here to.
20:11:09 England would be horrific.
20:11:12 Yes.
20:11:11 Lawrence.
20:11:12 Apple intelligence be put into CarPlay in your car?
20:11:18 Um, the answer to that is the.
20:11:21 It will be, for example, you can tell it to optimize a route and so on and so forth, allegedly.
20:11:27 The trouble with CarPlay, because CarPlay
20:11:30 is in an automobile, and automobiles are also covered by.
20:11:34 uh, transportation rules.
20:11:36 It won’t be as full-featured as when you’re sitting there and just talking to your phone.
20:11:40 It’s got to be much more constrained because.
20:11:44 You’re not allowed to create a distraction in the car.
20:11:47 So having it help
20:11:49 Avoid distractions, like…
20:11:51 If you’re going down the road and say, uh,
20:11:54 Uh, take me to the McDonald’s in Silverdale.
20:11:57 Will it do that? Yeah, because it doesn’t…
20:11:59 take you away from what you’re doing, which is driving.
20:12:03 But anything that can interfere with what driving, it’ll probably be constrained.
20:12:07 Carol, did you have a question?
20:12:09 I do.
20:12:11 I want to know about your…
20:12:14 fall, and you’re…
20:12:16 You said you had a concussion?
20:12:19 Uh, yes, I was.
20:12:21 uh, taking some… someone…
20:12:25 To.
20:12:27 to an appointment, and as they started to get out of my car, they started to fall.
20:12:32 And I was intent on keeping them from falling.
20:12:36 And when I stood up, I banged my head into the…
20:12:39 uh, door frame of my, uh, car.
20:12:43 And, uh…
20:12:45 It’s been bothering me now for about 10 days.
20:12:51 So, it’s nothing…
20:12:54 spectacular, it’s just…
20:12:57 Will it take just time to get over it, then?
20:13:00 It took me time to have someone look at it when…
20:13:04 Immediately after this happened, I was taking this person to their appointment,
20:13:10 And I wasn’t able to address it, and then the next day.
20:13:14 I didn’t really feel that bad. It wasn’t until…
20:13:17 A day after that, that I was feeling bad,
20:13:20 I tried to get a steamed appointment by at Olympic Medical.
20:13:24 And they told me the soonest I could get an appointment was July 15th.
20:13:29 Which is kind of far in the future, especially if you have a concussion.
20:13:33 I happen to be in Port Angeles the next day.
20:13:37 I went into the ER, hoping that I could be seen there,
20:13:40 After spending five hours in the ER without even being logged in,
20:13:44 I left.
20:13:49 So it took me…
20:13:50 So what about just like the Squim walk-in clinic.
20:13:53 The Squimoncan clinic I knew from experience that they don’t really like this kind of thing. They’d much prefer.
20:14:00 for a thing that might be a concussion, they much prefer you go.
20:14:03 To the ER. But today I did manage to get the uh.
20:14:10 the primary care clinic to see me.
20:14:13 But I did that because, among other things, my spouse was a nurse,
20:14:17 And I wrote a message to…
20:14:21 The care team.
20:14:23 I explained what the problem was, I explained
20:14:26 I tried A, I tried B, I tried C.
20:14:28 And they put me on a wait list and they had a vacancy today, so I got…
20:14:32 seen instead of July 15th, I got seen on June 6th.
20:14:37 16th. So…
20:14:40 saved almost a month.
20:14:43 Hmm. Wow.
20:14:46 The healthcare system in the United States is under severe strain, and it’s not just here.
20:14:51 Yeah.
20:14:56 Any other questions?
20:15:00 Is Apple Wallet usable in Washington state?
20:15:03 I use Apple Wallet all the time. Are you talking about the.
20:15:07 Apple, the driver’s license ID and wallet?
20:15:10 No.
20:15:12 No.
20:15:09 Yeah. No, I thought you could add your license to the wallet.
20:15:16 Yes, by Washington.
20:15:15 In some states, and it’ll be used, like, at the airport.
20:15:19 Washington is not one of the states.
20:15:21 Oh, okay.
20:15:23 Colorado is Virginia is.
20:15:25 Virginia, which did not give women
20:15:27 the right to own property until 1996.
20:15:31 Virginia allows you to put your ID.
20:15:36 Your driver’s license to Apple Wallet.
20:15:39 Washington State, which has had women politicians since the 1890s,
20:15:43 hasn’t done that, so…
20:15:46 I have no idea why.
20:15:49 But it’s up to the states. It’s not…
20:15:53 What can I say?
20:15:56 There are lots of other things you can do, like, for example,
20:16:00 Bloedell Reserve, which is a garden on Bainbridge.
20:16:02 You can put your membership card for Blodell Reserve into Apple Wallet.
20:16:08 That struck me as really wild that you could do that for a garden, but you can’t.
20:16:14 Stick your your ID.
20:16:16 for the state into Apple Wallet.
20:16:21 Just strange.
20:16:24 I have opinions, but…
20:16:31 So, do you, uh, from a standpoint of artificial intelligence,
20:16:36 There’s…
20:16:39 Two…
20:16:40 uh, levels…
20:16:42 Well, probably multi, but you’re probably gonna… you’re probably already thinking about what I’m gonna ask. I don’t know how to frame it well, but…
20:16:49 But, you know, the futuristic Terminator, where when…
20:16:54 Uh, when… when it was able to…
20:16:56 Uh, start actually thinking on its own, bad things happen.
20:17:01 And that is a belief that that…
20:17:04 will happen…
20:17:06 When it gets that capability that there could be really bad things happening.
20:17:11 Uh, do you think that there are people working on that, or it is working on that now?
20:17:18 Um, okay, that’s a…
20:17:22 No.
20:17:19 That’s not a simple question, but it is a good question.
20:17:24 First of all, I want to back up a bit.
20:17:26 A lot of what we… most of what we hear about artificial intelligence is not artificial intelligence. It’s not independent.
20:17:33 Right.
20:17:34 Problem solving is not independent solution.
20:17:38 When I wanted that picture of a puffin, I came up with the.
20:17:42 problem, I…
20:17:43 outline what I wanted the solution to look like, and then I was the one who decided that it had actually
20:17:49 done what I wanted, so…
20:17:51 It was a tool that I was using.
20:17:53 It wasn’t an artificial intelligence.
20:17:58 Are there artificial… are there things that are good at… that are actually doing things that humans cannot do?
20:18:03 Yes, and one of them is.
20:18:06 The current artificial intelligence engines are large language models, which means they’re really good at grammar.
20:18:14 Well, what is something that is… that involves grammar that really is a problem that humans can’t seem to be able to solve?
20:18:21 And I’ll tell you the answer to that is…
20:18:24 Programming. There are…
20:18:26 trillions of bytes of code out there that in your web browser, on
20:18:32 On websites, all kinds of code out there.
20:18:34 Most of them done by human beings, a lot of them done incompetently by human beings.
20:18:40 Well, uh, several of the large AI.
20:18:44 companies have found out that if you.
20:18:48 take computer code, and you feed it to the large language models,
20:18:52 they can find defects.
20:18:54 Well, that is, A, really great.
20:18:57 Because if they can find the defects, then you know what to fix.
20:19:00 But it’s also really bad because if the good guys can find the defects in the code,
20:19:05 The bad guys can too.
20:19:09 So why do I think the Chinese are doing right now, and the Russians are doing right now?
20:19:13 They’re feeding all the Western language code that they can find.
20:19:16 into AI engines trying to find
20:19:19 defects so that they can exploit them.
20:19:22 Um, so that’s a good news, bad news, but it is something that.
20:19:26 that large language models are really good at. They’re really good at grammar, so…
20:19:32 In most modern programming languages, you end a statement using a semicolon.
20:19:37 And one of the most common ways to have an error is just miss a semicolon.
20:19:44 There’s a computer language called Lisp that was used for artificial intelligence research for a lot.
20:19:49 And LISP actually stands for something, but I can’t ever remember what the real word is, because
20:19:55 What most people who programmed on Lisp used to call it is,
20:20:00 Stands L-I-S-P, stands for lots of irritating, silly parentheses, because Lisp has a whole bunch of parentheses.
20:20:06 And if you miss one, your program fails or does something really ridiculous.
20:20:12 But finding those flaws, that’s something that large language models are really good at.
20:20:17 Is that really artificial intelligence? It’s getting close simply because it’s not something that really we’re very good at.
20:20:23 doing. So it’s getting close.
20:20:28 But are the computers ganging up on us to take over the world?
20:20:33 Now, the largest…
20:20:36 thing that humanity has ever created.
20:20:38 is Google. Google is millions of servers.
20:20:44 Scattered throughout the entire globe.
20:20:47 They go out and index all of these websites, so they basically have all that knowledge. It’s a really, really powerful, powerful
20:20:54 tool, the likes of which it exceeds
20:20:57 It exceeds the atom bomb, it exceeds
20:21:00 A nuclear aircraft carrier, almost any project we’ve ever done.
20:21:03 It vastly exceeds them in terms of
20:21:07 scope and capability.
20:21:08 But it’s not intelligent.
20:21:11 It can’t create its own problems, it can’t solve its own problems, it needs somebody to
20:21:17 to direct it.
20:21:19 There’s a joke that was popular when microcomputers first came out.
20:21:24 it basically was saying,
20:21:26 Never trust a computer you can’t throw out the window.
20:21:29 Well, one of the advantages of microcomputer is that if it was acting stupid, you could pick it up.
20:21:34 Go over to the window and throw it out the window.
20:21:36 And that’s basically one way of also maintaining control. Oh, you’re gonna act up, just toss you out the window.
20:21:44 I use the analogy of what the big flaw was with HAL and Colossus and.
20:21:50 All of these science fiction computers.
20:21:52 they didn’t have an off switch.
20:21:54 All of my computers, and this house has, like, a dozen.
20:21:57 I know where the off switch is for all of them.
20:22:01 So I’m very much in control of the artificial intelligence because.
20:22:06 I know that if the power goes out,
20:22:09 I’m in control.
20:22:12 How do they check…
20:22:12 I might be really sad because my computers aren’t working, but at least I know I’m in control.
20:22:17 What was your question?
20:22:19 How does AI know
20:22:21 that maybe the information they went out and got is wrong.
20:22:26 It doesn’t. That’s one reason why you have so many of the…
20:22:29 Lawyers get in trouble for
20:22:32 Having, um,
20:22:34 citing cases that are actually hallucinations.
20:22:38 Right.
20:22:39 If you have a novel that
20:22:42 references a case, Marbury v. Madison, which is a real case, but it’s Marbury versus Edison.
20:22:50 And it cites that as a case because it was in a novel.
20:22:53 You suck that into…
20:22:56 These AI language models, they can’t tell the difference between that fake case and a real one.
20:23:02 And Giuliani was disbarred.
20:23:05 for using fake cases, and a whole bunch of others are.
20:23:09 There is a whole huge lawsuit, several million, multi-million dollar lawsuit,
20:23:14 In California, no, it wasn’t in California.
20:23:17 I can’t remember where it was, that was thrown out just a couple weeks ago, in which both sets of it was Arizona.
20:23:23 Both sets of lawyers were using AI.
20:23:26 And they were basically throwing…
20:23:28 fake cases at each other.
20:23:30 And the…
20:23:30 Well, how can Apple guarantee security?
20:23:35 from picking up bad data.
20:23:37 Um, it’s, again, it’s being used as a tool. It’s not going to necessarily… if you ask.
20:23:45 Which presidents were born outside the United States? There’s a set list of answers. It can send you that list. It’s like…
20:23:52 8 people.
20:23:53 But if you ask…
20:23:54 But what if somebody put a bad list out there, and it grabs the bad list?
20:23:59 Well, it.
20:24:01 if there’s more than one copy of those lists, that’s the sort of thing that’s being… that’s replicated, like,
20:24:06 What is 2 plus 2? Billions of things out there are going to tell you that it’s 4.
20:24:11 And somebody might have some site that says it’s 3, but the consensus pretty much is going to be.
20:24:17 4. Plus, computers…
20:24:20 Yes.
20:24:18 But does it check the consensus? It doesn’t check the it does.
20:24:22 Yes.
20:24:25 Any type you have an answer, there’s a weighted answer.
20:24:29 And the more people that agree with that,
20:24:31 You come along, how do we pick president? It’s the one that we.
20:24:36 The majority of the people who are bothered to vote,
20:24:39 Pick that person. Is that person right? According to the election law, that person is right.
20:24:44 And that’s basically how these search engines work, and that’s how.
20:24:50 A lot of these things. The problem with the cases that… case law.
20:24:54 that we have is that Giuliani was trying to create new case law.
20:25:00 So he wanted something that had never been done before, there was no precedent.
20:25:05 And so went out and found precedent.
20:25:07 And the precedents came out of Tom Clancy book. Another president came out of a Patterson book.
20:25:13 I can’t remember what Paterson’s name, but he writes these thrillers.
20:25:17 Okay.
20:25:19 Um, as far as the searching was concerned, those must be legitimate cases. It matches the circumstance.
20:25:25 So therefore, it must be the answer.
20:25:28 And Giuliani threw it in his court brief and.
20:25:31 And, uh, it got him disbarred.
20:25:36 Have you tried to use AI to create a website?
20:25:41 Um, I have something that I’m working on.
20:25:44 right now that I’m not ready to show anybody.
20:25:46 It’s not so much an A… it’s not so much creating a website.
20:25:51 I had an AI… I worked with somebody else.
20:25:55 to ingest a website that I’d already made.
20:25:59 that had gigabytes worth of data.
20:26:02 And it created a wiki out of it. A wiki is a knowledge base.
20:26:07 created a wiki out of the stuff that it ingested, so.
20:26:12 It has… it indexed all the articles, it did summaries of what the articles were about.
20:26:18 It could extract the major topics.
20:26:21 Um, and, uh.
20:26:23 I was really… it was a fascinating exercise.
20:26:26 And if and when I get…
20:26:29 a few things fixed. Uh, I’ll show it to people.
20:26:32 But that was done by using cloud, which
20:26:36 Claude, which is C-L-A-U-D-E.
20:26:41 that artificial intelligence agent.
20:26:44 And the person who was working with me is a…
20:26:47 Former professor at George Mason University, professor of computer science.
20:26:51 And it was an interesting thing because I was the editor of that magazine.
20:26:56 So it was sucking up a whole bunch of things that I’d written, and…
20:26:59 stuff that I edited by other people.
20:27:02 And it was a fascinating exercise.
20:27:05 But it didn’t create a website, it created a wiki, which is basically a…
20:27:10 index of this website.
20:27:14 with summaries and speculations.
20:27:16 My spouse had written some things, and among other things.
20:27:20 theorize that Kathleen Charters was the spouse of Lawrence Charters.
20:27:25 Because again, it’s an AI engine. It didn’t know.
20:27:29 So it could theorize that, but it didn’t really know.
20:27:32 And it also theorized that Lawrence Charters and Lawrence I Charters were the same person.
20:27:37 But again, it wasn’t sure, but it theorized that they were.
20:27:41 the same person. So it was an…
20:27:44 It was an interesting exercise.
20:27:45 And that was a big project. I mean, 4.5 gigabytes worth of…
20:27:50 Steph
20:27:53 Last question.
20:27:54 Yeah.
20:27:56 If AI gave you an answer from a Tom Clancy novel,
20:28:00 And you asked that the source of its answer, would it tell you that it was a Tom Clancy novel it got it from?
20:28:06 It depends upon…
20:28:09 How explicit you can make the question. Like, for example,
20:28:13 If you.
20:28:15 Ask for, you know, you have tomatoes and you have a bunch of ingredients and you say.
20:28:21 Give me a recipe for this, and it comes up with a recipe.
20:28:24 And you say, and then you would ask,
20:28:27 Why did you pick Pimentos for this recipe? It may not be able to do that because it’s a collage.
20:28:35 of multiple things. And that’s one of the problems that you can.
20:28:39 You can quiz people about things like that, but it’s very difficult to.
20:28:44 quiz a database about something like that.
20:28:45 But what if you said, what book did you get the recipe from, or what source was the recipe from?
20:28:51 But see, a lot of the recipes that you can get from AI engines are not out of a book.
20:28:57 Oh!
20:28:56 They’re dynamically created based upon the ingredients. It knows that.
20:29:00 that if you have peanuts, and you have
20:29:03 If you have and you have honey, and you have this, and you have that, that you can make sticky things like.
20:29:09 peanut clusters, and so on and so forth.
20:29:11 It doesn’t need a specific recipe.
20:29:13 If you throw in something new, it can say, well, you might be able to do this, simply because the preponderance of the evidence.
20:29:20 says that these things will work together.
20:29:23 Oh.
20:29:23 But did it come out of a specific book? It may not be able to tell you that, because it’s not doing that.
20:29:27 Yeah.
20:29:30 Could Giuliani have prevented us?
20:29:32 Mishap, or I’m going to call it that.
20:29:36 By specifying that…
20:29:38 The precedents have to come out of the state code annotated or the federal code annotated. Could he have done something like that?
20:29:47 Um…
20:29:50 As a lawyer that went and got him off the hook.
20:29:53 Because as a lawyer, you submit
20:29:56 a document to the court,
20:29:57 And you say, this is my work. I stand by this. I did this research.
20:30:03 You are not saying, somebody says this, you are saying,
20:30:07 I am presenting this to you as something factual.
20:30:10 And what’s the way to prevent factual.
20:30:15 Uh, fraud in that, check your work.
20:30:18 Did he do that? He didn’t.
20:30:19 Right. But I’m saying if he had if he had set those kinds of limits,
20:30:23 Then he would have been able to check.
20:30:26 Because, you know, you can check those different code annotated.
20:30:29 Well, yes, you…
20:30:29 I mean, it’ll either be there or not, according, you know…
20:30:34 Yeah.
20:30:33 It’s like saying, this is on page 56 of the…
20:30:36 King James Version of the Bible, something like that.
20:30:40 Well, um
20:30:40 I’m gonna either be there or it won’t.
20:30:42 Depending, do you know how many printings of the King James Bible?
20:30:45 Well, but you know what I’m saying, that the one…
20:30:49 You know what I mean? Because you can specify the…
20:30:50 Yes, I indeed.
20:30:52 Yes.
20:30:52 In other words, you set fairly strict parameters.
20:30:56 I don’t know whether… I mean, it should… it should follow that, right? It should…
20:31:04 There are times where that’s not…
20:31:07 useful. For example,
20:31:08 Washington State annotated code.
20:31:13 is online for the state of Washington and you can actually specify down to the paragraph level.
20:31:18 It’s a website, and so on and so forth.
20:31:22 You can do that for Washington State, for a lot of states, you can’t do that.
20:31:26 Ah.
20:31:28 Plus, I’ve read that if it can’t find something like that,
20:31:32 In some cases will make it up.
20:31:35 Well, yes, but that’s the hallucination part.
20:31:38 The hallucination means that it still found something that it could come up with.
20:31:42 But what it came up with may not have been from a real source. For example,
20:31:47 Hunt for Red October.
20:31:49 Hunt for Red October is a novel by John Clancy about
20:31:53 This Russian submarine defecting to the US.
20:31:57 And it was a great movie, it’s a good… it’s a good novel.
20:32:03 Is that real, or is that invented?
20:32:11 What do you mean, the novel?
20:32:13 The infrared October.
20:32:16 Well, I don’t know, but it might be one of those deals where it’s just based on a real incident, but that’s so broad.
20:32:22 It is based upon a real incident. It’s based upon the capture of U555.
20:32:28 In the Middle Atlantic during World War II,
20:32:31 by Admiral James Gallery.
20:32:34 Admiral James Gallery, without bothering to tell anybody else,
20:32:37 decided he was going to capture a U-boat.
20:32:40 And he captured one. And in the process, he also captured an Ultramachine, which he thought was hot stuff.
20:32:47 Churchill wanted Gallery executed.
20:32:53 Why? Because nobody told Gallery that Ultra existed.
20:32:57 Nobody told Gallery that Enigma machines existed.
20:33:01 So he went out and captured
20:33:04 First wartime capture of an Enigma machine,
20:33:07 And Churchill was afraid that it might give away the war, because the Allies had been using Enigma
20:33:13 captures for months.
20:33:16 And Gallery might have blown the whole thing, so…
20:33:19 Churchill wanted Gallery, an American admiral executed for doing a really great job.
20:33:25 The hunt for Bed October is basically a fictionalized version.
20:33:28 Using the Soviet Union instead of Nazi Germany,
20:33:32 about the capture of U-555.
20:33:35 That’s not the one that’s in the Chicago Museum of Science. Oh, it is.
20:33:38 Yes, yeah, yeah, it’s the one that’s at the field.
20:33:40 I’ve been in it!
20:33:42 Well, it’s something that I’ve wanted to do.
20:33:44 Um, but I haven’t been to the…
20:33:46 I haven’t been there, I want to see the the
20:33:49 I’m a World War II historian. That’s my specialty.
20:33:54 It’s a different ocean, but still.
20:33:56 Yeah.
20:33:56 I would like to see the U-boat.
20:34:00 But that’s based upon a real story.
20:34:03 But is it fictional in terms of the hunt for Red October? Yes.
20:34:07 But is it based upon something that happened? Well, sort of.
20:34:13 It gets complicated. And there are novels that cite Washington state code.
20:34:20 there are novels that cite Washington state code, so you can say,
20:34:24 WSC, whatever, and it’s made up.
20:34:27 Ah.
20:34:28 And how is a poor little robot supposed to know that?
20:34:30 Well, but if you said it’s got to come out of the Washington State code annotated,
20:34:34 You mean the artificial intelligence will see it in the novel and think that it did come out of
20:34:39 Yes.
20:34:40 Washington State, I get it.
20:34:42 Yes.
20:34:42 So it’s not all that intelligent.
20:34:44 No.
20:34:48 That is not intelligent at all. It’s a tool.
20:34:52 Yeah.
20:35:00 Next month.
20:35:02 Um, two things. First of all, I can… I still want to do the presentation on spaces, because I see a lot of people getting.
20:35:09 Kind of trapped in…
20:35:11 They say that the computer’s not capable of doing something that probably is if they…
20:35:16 knew how to do certain things.
20:35:18 That’s one thing. The second one is that.
20:35:22 My church…
20:35:24 Um, maybe putting in new monitors this month.
20:35:28 And if they’re ready next month, and I can find a weekend.
20:35:33 We might have a Saturday meeting at my church.
20:35:36 Where we can do things in person and possibly…
20:35:41 Bring in.
20:35:43 equipment that we don’t want anymore, and…
20:35:45 foisted off on one another.
20:35:48 But again,
20:35:48 Yeah, sounds a great idea.
20:35:50 If you have suggestions of what I could do instead,
20:35:54 Please send them off to me.
20:35:57 Or couldn’t we do it in conjunction with just have the meeting there, but also trade stuff?
20:36:02 Well, that’s what I intend to do, but…
20:36:05 The in-person thing might be on a different topic than…
20:36:10 Our regular monthly.
20:36:11 topic. It depends upon how ambitious I feel.
20:36:15 Okay.
20:36:18 Also, there’s a festival in.
20:36:20 July, so who knows?
20:36:22 Well, are you going to download the beta version of 27 and fiddle around with it?
20:36:28 I cannot confirm or deny.
20:36:30 Okay.
20:36:34 I will tell you that if I do, it’ll probably be on one of my iPads.
20:36:39 I’m pretty interested in that.
20:36:41 How well that, uh…
20:36:44 new passkeys passwords app will work or not.
20:36:48 Um, that might be one of the last things I’d try.
20:36:52 Because I’d rather not screw up…
20:36:55 My passwords.
20:36:56 Well, couldn’t you use Peter Lyon’s password?
20:36:59 That’s a thought.
20:37:02 But then I’d have to set the…
20:37:05 Peter line up with one of my iPads.
20:37:09 I’m kind of jealous of my iPads.
20:37:13 But, uh, yeah, that’s a thought.
20:37:16 Anyway, write to me if you have questions or suggestions or whatnot.
20:37:21 Did you ever put up the the sign-in sheet, or…?
20:37:25 No, because it’s in an account that I can’t…
20:37:28 reach. If I… if I go into that other account, I kill the…
20:37:33 Zoom session.
20:37:33 You put a link on the website.
20:37:36 Uh, I can do that, but I’m afraid I’ll get sign-ins from, you know,
20:37:41 King Kong and whatnot.
20:37:43 Yeah, okay.
20:37:43 Do you want to just take our names down?
20:37:45 I took a screenshot, but, um…
20:37:48 Okay.
20:37:48 Among other things, one person, they signed in, I think,
20:37:52 Uh, might have been you.
20:37:53 is listed as Zoom user.
20:37:56 Which is…
20:37:57 Oh, yes, I see that.
20:37:59 Oh, am I supposed… okay, I guess you can educate me. How do I fix that?
20:38:03 Um, are you using a Mac?
20:38:06 iPad.
20:38:07 The answer is I don’t know how to do that on an iPad.
20:38:11 Okay.
20:38:11 When you first sign into the meeting,
20:38:15 It asks you what name you want to be known as.
20:38:19 Yep.
20:38:18 Really? I’ll watch for that next time, okay?
20:38:19 Ah.
20:38:22 Okay, I had no idea that…
20:38:25 You only knew me as Zoom user.
20:38:30 I’m Sherry, by the way.
20:38:32 The.
20:38:33 Steve knows me, so…
20:38:35 My daughter had a
20:38:40 Apple time capsule.
20:38:41 Which is a combination router, backup device, so on and so forth.
20:38:46 And when she went off to college, because she wanted a firewall between her and.
20:38:50 everybody in your dorm, and we were coming up with names for it.
20:38:55 And I suggested DEL space asterisk period asterisk.
20:39:00 Which she thought was fine, but it freaked out the Windows people, because that’s the command to delete everything on your hard drive.
20:39:07 Oh, my gosh!
20:39:09 So they left her firewall alone, which is kind of what I wanted them to do.
20:39:15 But you can do strange things with names if you’re evil.
20:39:22 Or creative.
20:39:24 Well, that was a little evil, you know.
20:39:27 Well…
20:39:28 Anyway, good night, everyone.
20:39:31 Good night, thank you.
20:39:32 Yeah, good night!
20:39:32 Thank you very much.
20:39:33 Yeah, thanks much.
20:39:34 Appreciate it.

May 2026: Basic Computer Security

The May 19, 2026, SMUG meeting focused on basic computer security. Literally every day, there are news stories about new or “new and improved” techniques used by rogue agencies, hostile nations, or ex-partners to defraud, defame, or otherwise make your life miserable. “Zero-day” flaws in many computer and device operating systems can cause you all kinds of unexpected grief.

Poor befuddled puffins can't figure out how to use a fingerprint to get past the lock screen.
Poor befuddled puffins can’t figure out how to use a fingerprint to get past the lock screen. Note the “Cybersecurity for Birds” book on the right edge of the desk.

Most successful computer attacks rely on one thing: the average person with a smartphone, tablet, or computer gives next to no thought to computer security. The average user often ignores privacy controls, fails to update their devices, and uses the same simple password for everything, assuming they think about passwords at all. They never think to lock their device, and assume that, as an obscure individual, they are not worth the attention of a hacker, a foreign government, or a terrorist. This inattention is precisely why “average computers” are the most common victims of computer crime and privacy breaches.

Among the highlights of the evening: the presenter’s Internet went out in the middle of the Question & Answer session. This resulted in the loss of the entire Q&A session. However, we do have a possible answer to one question. One member said that, when they position various application windows on their desktop, the windows don’t stay where they are put. A member wrote in with an Apple Support video that shows how window tiling works on new Macs:

Apple support video showing how window tiling works on Macs running Sequoia or later.

Apple has an extensive library of support videos on YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/@applesupport

Notes on Basic Computer Security

There were notes, with lots of text, and you didn’t have to write your own. As promised, here are the notes.

Video of the May 2026 meeting: Basic Computer Security

Video recording of the May 2026 meeting

Click on the YouTube logo in the video if you want to expand the recording.

Transcript of the meeting on: Basic Computer Security

This transcript was generated automatically by Zoom, and Zoom is sometimes (often?) creative. Use your browser’s find function to search for particular words or phrases.

19:04:15 I do have a request for our new president.
19:04:18 And you, maybe the two of you, since you’re geographically near.
19:04:23 One another could figure out…
19:04:26 how to get that… our, uh…
19:04:28 Discussion boards seem to work properly.
19:04:31 Uh, it is working properly.
19:04:33 Oh, it is.
19:04:33 Yes, um, that was something I should have mentioned.
19:04:37 I could not figure out why it wasn’t working, and I was gone for 10 days when I came back.
19:04:43 I wrote to the people and they said, oh, it’s just this, that, and the other thing.
19:04:48 And I checked all the things they said.
19:04:51 And… that didn’t change anything.
19:04:53 And I went back an hour later to do something else on the website,
19:04:58 And it was working. So, I think they screwed up and they fixed it when…
19:05:03 After I complained.
19:05:06 Well, thank you for doing that. I will check it after our meeting.
19:05:10 I haven’t checked it today, but the last time I looked, it was working.
19:05:14 And…
19:05:16 I cannot…
19:05:18 Figure out how to…
19:05:20 Show my desktop.
19:05:26 Share.
19:05:27 Okay, let’s try this desktop.
19:05:34 And…
19:05:37 Uh, and we’re not going to start with questions, because that’s later on.
19:05:42 The.
19:05:45 Some of the illustrations I’m going to use are taken from
19:05:50 Macs, some of them are taken from Windows, uh, they’re not taken from Windows.
19:05:53 Some are taken from iPads, some are taken from phones.
19:05:57 Because as the Mac.
19:05:59 And iOS and iPad operating systems.
19:06:03 take on more of a similar feel.
19:06:07 In terms of how they look, it doesn’t really make any difference which operating system you’re talking about. It probably looks the same.
19:06:13 And I’m using a variety of sources.
19:06:16 And then Connelly and Basic Computer Security, because
19:06:20 Your iPhone is actually a Unix computer that you carry around in your pocket.
19:06:24 Your iPad is a Unix computer that you carry around.
19:06:28 In your hand, I guess.
19:06:30 and your Mac is whatever you happen to have. If you have a desktop that sits on your desktop,
19:06:35 If you have a laptop, it’s a laptop, but they’re all Unix computers.
19:06:38 The Unix operating system
19:06:40 was developed in the 1970s. It started work in the 19…
19:06:46 60s.
19:06:48 He considers.
19:06:50 January 1st, 1970, to be the.
19:06:54 birth of.
19:06:56 Unix, and that’s because the clock inside of Unix starts at that point.
19:07:00 Most of what you do on a Mac, you’ll never know that the Unix is there, but there’s Unix underneath it.
19:07:06 And Unix is an incredibly powerful operating system.
19:07:10 Most of the internet runs on Unix.
19:07:13 And, uh, this particular illustration that I used on the website and such,
19:07:18 This was done with Google Gemini.
19:07:21 I said I wanted puffins to be befuddled by computer security,
19:07:27 And if you look at the blow-up of the picture,
19:07:30 It’s kind of out of focus in the back here, but it says,
19:07:33 Cybersecurity for birds, and I’m really proud of the fact that it says that, because that.
19:07:39 That just appeals to my sense of humor.
19:07:43 Computer security is a lot like learning how to get potty trained and how to wear clothes in public and so on and so forth. You just learn
19:07:53 That to be out in the world, there are certain expectations.
19:07:56 Uh, you should be washed, you should be dressed.
19:08:00 Uh, you should wear a coat if you need a coach, you should wear a hat.
19:08:04 And when you’re out interacting with the world,
19:08:08 You have to obey traffic laws, you shouldn’t jaywalk, you…
19:08:12 drive on the correct side of the road, you pay traffic rules, use your turn indicators, a whole bunch of things that you
19:08:18 have to do in order to.
19:08:20 be out in the public.
19:08:23 And using a computer is a lot like that because
19:08:26 When you take your…
19:08:28 computer, a phone out in public,
19:08:31 You are…
19:08:34 dealing with dozens of people, or sometimes thousands of people.
19:08:39 If you go into QFC, you might only see 50, 60 people, you might…
19:08:44 See 500 if you go to Walmart. When you take out your phone, even though you’re just doing something that you think is simple.
19:08:52 Thousands of people might be able to see what you’re doing.
19:08:57 And there are ways to prevent that, but you have to be aware
19:09:00 That it’s not just an appliance. It’s not like your refrigerator.
19:09:04 You plug in your refrigerator, and your refrigerator knows how to refrigerate things.
19:09:08 It does not know how to microwave things.
19:09:11 It does not know how to play football.
19:09:14 On TV, it doesn’t know any of those things, it just knows how to refrigerate.
19:09:18 And it doesn’t go anywhere. And unless you’re standing right in front of it, and you open the door,
19:09:22 It has limited interaction with the rest of the planet.
19:09:25 your phone, your computer, that’s not the case at all.
19:09:29 So, you want to be prepared for the fact that you’re dealing
19:09:33 with the entire world.
19:09:36 Um, so, when you’re getting ready to go outside, you get showered, you get dressed, do you.
19:09:43 have breakfast, and do all those things, and you went to do the same things with your…
19:09:48 iPhone, your iPad, or your Mac, because at that point, you’re dealing with a lot more people.
19:09:55 The kinds of threats that you face.
19:09:58 Um, believe it or not, children.
19:10:00 Adult family members, visitors to your home,
19:10:04 All are threats to your computer, to your iPhone, to your iPad, they can accidentally delete things, they can modify things.
19:10:11 They can use your computer when you’re not looking to look at porn. They can do all kinds of things that can cause you all kinds of bad problems.
19:10:19 Most malware, which is bad,
19:10:22 code that does a harmful thing.
19:10:25 Most malware attacks that I’ve seen successful on Macs have been from people
19:10:30 who visit porn sites.
19:10:32 So, if you’re not in the habit of visiting porn sites, you probably have less of an exposure.
19:10:38 than most other people.
19:10:40 On 1 thing that you can do to help.
19:10:44 yourself deal with.
19:10:46 Internal threats from children and family members and such.
19:10:50 is every user of your machine
19:10:53 should either have their own computer, or their own phone, or their own iPad,
19:10:57 Or they should have their own account.
19:10:59 On the Mac, you can set up dozens of accounts on the computer.
19:11:03 So if you’re sharing it with your spouse,
19:11:05 Your spouse should have their own.
19:11:08 Account that they log into.
19:11:10 And that way, they don’t mess with your stuff, and you don’t mess with their stuff.
19:11:15 Your machine was set up to do this out of the box.
19:11:18 It’s a little bit harder to do on an iPad,
19:11:22 And it’s really difficult, it’s impossible to do on a phone. Phones are designed to be used by individuals. They’re not really designed to be used by groups.
19:11:31 You can set up.
19:11:34 multiple accounts on iPads, but it’s usually done so that a parent.
19:11:38 can have control over a child’s account. It’s not really a full
19:11:43 user experience. But, um, that’s one way to get rid of the… to reduce the threats.
19:11:49 If everybody in your house has their own little box on your computer,
19:11:52 They really can’t mess you up that much.
19:11:56 Um, you also have threats from people who come into your house.
19:12:01 Occasionally, like, housekeepers, repair people.
19:12:04 Visitors, they may snoop around on your machines.
19:12:09 Or they may actually cause damage to information on the machines,
19:12:14 Generally speaking,
19:12:15 And I can’t emphasize this enough,
19:12:17 If you are not right in front of your computer or your phone or your iPad,
19:12:23 You should either log out, or you should lock it.
19:12:25 To lock your phone, all you need to do is press the power button that locks it.
19:12:30 To lock your iPad, same thing. Press the power button and it locks it. You don’t have to turn it off.
19:12:34 Just press it and it locks it out.
19:12:37 On your Mac, you can just log out.
19:12:39 And if you do that.
19:12:41 They really can’t get in.
19:12:44 Uh, so that’s something that you should just be in the habit of doing.
19:12:47 At work,
19:12:49 I was evil, and if people in my
19:12:54 Area of responsibility.
19:12:55 did not lock themselves out of their computers. I changed their default language to Chinese.
19:13:02 Because that kind of told them that they.
19:13:05 Should have locked their machine.
19:13:07 There was one person I could not do that because she was Chinese.
19:13:12 And in her case, I changed it to Urdu, which is a
19:13:15 language they use in the Middle East.
19:13:17 But.
19:13:19 It did teach people to lock their machines.
19:13:23 Uh, because again, somebody can sit down.
19:13:25 And if somebody sits down at your machine, and it’s unlocked,
19:13:29 If they send a message, it’ll look like it comes from you, and if they send something that you don’t like,
19:13:34 It can cause you representational harm, or they can delete files that are important to you.
19:13:41 You really want to lock up your devices.
19:13:45 Other threads are banks and stores and vendors, a vendor in this case can be a grocery store, it can be a fruit vendor, it can be a restaurant.
19:13:57 Um, and also websites that you visit. All of these vendors.
19:14:03 and stores and whatnot can be hacked,
19:14:06 and your data can leak.
19:14:07 Your data is leaking and it’s not through anything that you personally did.
19:14:12 You have an account with your bank, your bank,
19:14:16 hires themselves out, hires an outside consultant to come in and do.
19:14:21 assessment of their floors or whatever.
19:14:23 And that outside consultant,
19:14:26 breaches the bank’s security.
19:14:28 You can lose personal information.
19:14:30 through no fault of your own. There is a
19:14:35 A site called Have I Been Pwned, P W.
19:14:38 ND, which is a hacker term meaning you’ve taken over something.
19:14:41 Have I been pawned on that website, I’ve…
19:14:45 I was looking at it a couple weeks ago, https://haveibeenpwned.com
19:14:47 And at that point, I had been pawned
19:14:50 a good 200 times, which are data breaches that
19:14:54 other vendors had had that
19:14:57 potentially exposed my information.
19:15:00 And.
19:15:01 That’s something that you cannot control.
19:15:04 But you can control
19:15:07 Um, the amount of damage they can do by making sure that every email account you have.
19:15:13 Every web account that you have,
19:15:15 has a unique
19:15:17 Uh, either account name and password, or just the password alone.
19:15:21 I tend to use the same account name all the time.
19:15:24 Because when I go on to some place, I don’t really want to remember who the heck I thought I was.
19:15:29 But every account that I have has a unique password.
19:15:32 The reason why unique passwords are important.
19:15:37 is, I’ll give you an example of this woman
19:15:40 who she was… she was a lawyer.
19:15:44 And she had all kinds of accounts, and she got tired of keeping track of them, so…
19:15:49 She started using the default account for things that she did not think were important.
19:15:54 She put herself in for a drawing,
19:15:57 for… it was to raise funds for some charitable cause.
19:16:02 She put herself in for the drawing.
19:16:04 And she used that default account name.
19:16:07 The nonprofit really couldn’t afford really big security, they got hacked.
19:16:12 And once the hackers had her username and account,
19:16:16 They compromised every single thing she had that she used that.
19:16:20 password for every single thing she had. And unfortunately, one of the things that she
19:16:26 had used that password for.
19:16:29 was a bar association in a state that she had.
19:16:32 Credentials in, but she didn’t use that often.
19:16:35 You can be credentialed in multiple states.
19:16:38 Well, this one state, she was credentialed there because of one case. She forgot about it.
19:16:44 They got those, uh… they took control of her account, and they sent out things that caused
19:16:49 Her and her business, reputational Harm, so.
19:16:53 You don’t ever want to reuse a password.
19:16:57 And depending upon what it is, you also might want to use a unique account name.
19:17:02 You will find that a lot of people, they get into the habit of using their email message as their email address,
19:17:09 As their account name.
19:17:12 Two problems with that. One is that if you use your email address as your account name,
19:17:17 Millions of people have your email account, banks and.
19:17:20 And people that are on mailing list, they’ll all have your email account. So they already have one of the two things you need to get into the account.
19:17:27 The other problem with the email address is that if you have an email address with Comcast, for example,
19:17:34 And that works fine in San Diego, but then you move up here, and Comcast is no longer.
19:17:40 Your provider, your email address doesn’t work anymore.
19:17:45 So there are difficulties in using your email address,
19:17:49 as your account name.
19:17:51 But everybody does it, including me.
19:17:54 I’m just saying that you should be aware that the fact that there are problems.
19:17:57 Other threats are disgruntled relatives, business partners, or neighbors actively trying to cause you harm.
19:18:06 Sometimes you can’t really do much about those threats.
19:18:10 You know, if you have a relative who wants to trash your reputation,
19:18:14 You’re kind of stuck.
19:18:16 Um, but what you can do is not say in a public forum.
19:18:21 Anything that you wouldn’t say to someone face-to-face.
19:18:24 An example of that is…
19:18:27 If you send a text message and saying, yeah, Jan.
19:18:30 Jan’s a real pain in the butt, and I wish she’d moved to some other state.
19:18:34 You send that text message to your cousin, your cousin sends it to Jan, and now Jan knows what you said about her.
19:18:41 So you really don’t want to say anything.
19:18:44 that you wouldn’t tell somebody face-to-face.
19:18:46 Text messages, email, video recordings.
19:18:49 Web postings can all be copied and pasted and used against you. And you find this out every time we have a political campaign,
19:18:56 Which now seems to be all the time, where somebody finds some web posting or Twitter thing that somebody posted along,
19:19:04 Time ago, and now they’re using it against them in a campaign.
19:19:08 Um, and that’s a threat that you can control just by
19:19:12 Not being a, uh…
19:19:16 I’m not saying nasty things about people.
19:19:20 Other threats. Something to note in the United States, it’s a little bit different in Europe. Europe under the EU has very different
19:19:28 Federal and state governments in the United States are governed by privacy laws.
19:19:34 Companies are not.
19:19:36 So, when I was a federal government employee,
19:19:39 I had very stringent rules on what I could do with.
19:19:45 personal data. If you, as a member of the public,
19:19:48 wrote to me and asked a question,
19:19:51 I could send you an answer.
19:19:54 But I was not allowed to tell anybody that you’d ask the question without a court order, because that’s a private thing between
19:20:02 The public and the government.
19:20:04 If you’re a corporation and you write to the corporation, the corporation can do anything it wants to with it because there are no privacy laws.
19:20:11 That cover corporations in the United States.
19:20:14 In the EEU, there are very strong privacy laws.
19:20:18 Covering corporations.
19:20:20 And you’ll find that Apple and Microsoft and Google
19:20:24 tend to follow the EU’s policies because it’s too much of a pain.
19:20:29 To have one set of rules for the EU and another for the United States. So they tend to
19:20:36 grandfather us in. Most companies don’t do that.
19:20:41 I will mention one particular bank that twice.
19:20:44 In the past, oh, 15 years.
19:20:47 has been cited by the federal government and fined lots and lots and lots of money, for example.
19:20:52 by taking information that they harvested off the web,
19:20:56 and creating bank accounts for these people without the people even knowing.
19:21:02 That they… that it happened.
19:21:03 That is a violation of your privacy. They couldn’t get them on that because we don’t have any privacy laws covering corporations.
19:21:10 What they did is they went after them for
19:21:12 violating bank policy laws.
19:21:14 And that’s our difference between the United States and the rest of the planet.
19:21:19 But generally speaking,
19:21:20 Don’t put anything of value, either monetary or reputational.
19:21:27 On a site you don’t trust.
19:21:29 So, for example, if you think that this.
19:21:32 If you think, for example, the, uh…
19:21:35 The, uh, Straight Mac user group site,
19:21:37 doesn’t have good security,
19:21:39 Well, probably he shouldn’t tell me anything that might cause you harm.
19:21:44 You just, you want to be.
19:21:47 aware that that is a threat.
19:21:52 Foreign governments, foreign businesses, terrorists, and people who hack others’ websites in somebody’s basement.
19:21:59 Also can be a threat.
19:22:01 Now, you might think that you, as an individual living in Sequim or Port Angeles, or wherever you happen to live,
19:22:08 That you’re not a target, but you are, because if they can get.
19:22:12 $100 from you, that may not break you.
19:22:17 But if they do that to a million other people, that’s a lot of money.
19:22:20 And that’s what most of these scams on the internet are aimed at. They’re not interested in trying to
19:22:27 Empty your bank account of tens of thousands of dollars. That’s good for
19:22:31 And then lying in the local paper.
19:22:33 They’re interested in getting 5, 10, $50, $100.
19:22:36 But from thousands or tens of thousands or millions of people.
19:22:41 So, even though you may not think of yourself as a target, you are.
19:22:49 The most likely threats.
19:22:52 Are ones that you make yourself either.
19:22:55 Things that you don’t do that you should have done, or things that you.
19:23:00 put places that you shouldn’t have,
19:23:02 And they cause problems. So either you or your immediate family make errors that
19:23:08 caused most of the problems. As an example,
19:23:12 If you know that you shouldn’t click
19:23:14 On attachments that you get from unknown…
19:23:18 senders, and you do that,
19:23:20 Basically, you created the threat, because when you accept that
19:23:25 unknown document. You might also be accepting the fact that it has malware with it that can compromise.
19:23:32 your machine. So, yes, they made a threat,
19:23:35 But unless you actually do something to accept it, it’s not going to harm you. If you just delete it, it’s not going to harm you.
19:23:42 So we want to make sure that you…
19:23:46 that you are fairly careful in what you do, and be aware that for people running.
19:23:52 Macs and iPhones and iPads.
19:23:53 Most of the threats are from things that you accepted.
19:23:59 intentionally or unintentionally.
19:24:04 And, um, getting back to my metaphor, before you go anywhere with your Mac, and that includes firing it up and just reading the news.
19:24:12 Make sure that you’ve taken care of it.
19:24:15 That you’ve brushed its teeth and all that sort of stuff.
19:24:18 Um, and the first thing you can do is make sure that you automatically install updates.
19:24:23 I have heard any number of people say, oh, I wait for a new update, so it’s been out for a couple of weeks before I try it.
19:24:31 There’s one woman who told me this.
19:24:34 She said that she always waited a couple weeks. When I checked her machine, her machine was a year and a half out of date.
19:24:40 This guy who is an IT professional said that he usually waits at least a month, and he marks it in his calendar.
19:24:47 So they’ll do the update a month later if he hasn’t heard anything back.
19:24:52 His particular machine was two and a half years out of date.
19:24:56 The easiest way to stay up to date is to.
19:25:00 Turn on automatic updates.
19:25:02 And your Mac and your iPad, this one on the…
19:25:06 On the left, that’s an iPad notification that there’s an update.
19:25:09 And the one on the right is the max saying that there’s an update out there.
19:25:14 It’ll put a little red circle there with the number of messages it has, and usually that message is that
19:25:21 You have an update to the operating system.
19:25:24 And if you set it up so that it automatically does the update,
19:25:29 It will just automatically do the update. A lot of people will say, well, I have it set up to do automatic updates and it never seems to do that.
19:25:36 But a lot of people also turn their machine off if they’re not using it, so they’ll.
19:25:41 have their machine… they’ll have their laptop turned on when they’re using it, and then when they’re done, they’ll close it up.
19:25:47 If it’s not turned on, it can’t do the update.
19:25:52 And so you have to remember to just sometimes, if that’s the way you have it.
19:25:57 Just to remind yourself, when you’ve powered up,
19:25:59 Just check to see if there’s an update.
19:26:02 Um, and it’ll either do it right now, if you ask it to, which is what I usually do.
19:26:07 Or you can have it wait and do it at night. If you wait and have it done at night, you have to make sure
19:26:13 The device, whether it’s a phone or an Apple watch or an iPad, or your Mac,
19:26:19 You have to make sure that it’s on power. It needs to be
19:26:23 powered, and then you can say, update it tonight, and it’ll do it at night time.
19:26:31 Another thing to note about updates.
19:26:33 If you have an Apple Watch, the Apple Watch is essentially a companion to your iPhone,
19:26:40 So, you don’t have to do it this way, but I always update the phone first.
19:26:44 And then I update the watch second.
19:26:47 Because that way the phone knows everything it’s supposed to know before it actually talks to the watch.
19:26:52 Tells it to update it.
19:26:55 This is an update on the iPad, looks pretty much the same as it does on the Mac.
19:27:01 The composition’s different. Oh, you’ll notice on this Mac one, it says, review Apple Account Phone Number.
19:27:07 You can also get notices like that, that it’s been a while since you’ve done whatever you want to check to see if your phone number
19:27:14 is, uh, correct, so that.
19:27:16 You have another way of being contacted if there’s a problem.
19:27:19 But in this case, there’s a software update, and it wants you to look at the phone number.
19:27:24 It’ll do the same thing on the iPad.
19:27:27 And you can tell it to update it and update now or update.
19:27:31 Uh, later on.
19:27:34 In addition to updating your operating system, you should also update your apps.
19:27:39 If you get an app from the App Store, either on your.
19:27:44 Mac or your iPhone or iPad, or watch for that matter.
19:27:48 If you get them from the Apple App Store,
19:27:52 it’ll automatically update those applications if you tell it to. But again,
19:27:57 Just like the Mac, your iPad needs to be turned on, your iPhone needs to be turned on, your Mac needs to be turned on.
19:28:05 For this, uh, thing to work.
19:28:07 Um, and if it is, it’ll just automatically keep those things up to date. And if it’s not, you can go into
19:28:14 The app updates, go into the app.
19:28:18 The app that says apps,
19:28:20 And in the preferences, it’ll be something that says, uh, look for the…
19:28:24 updates, and you can say update now, and it’ll update things.
19:28:27 You’ll notice this one on the left where it’s an iPad. This is an iPad that I hadn’t used.
19:28:33 in a couple weeks, and it was, um, just.
19:28:36 sitting, and I told it to update, and there were 22.
19:28:40 Things that needed to be updated.
19:28:42 And it just cheerfully went and updated them, because I told it to.
19:28:47 Um, some things about…
19:28:50 Lawrence, where do you get to that? How do you…
19:28:52 How do you get to that?
19:28:55 The app, it says apps. It’s a blue icon has got.
19:29:01 compass on it, and it’s the App Store.
19:29:06 application on your Mac, on your iPhone, on your iPad.
19:29:08 Ah, okay.
19:29:09 It has preferences, and if you go in to look at the preferences,
19:29:12 One of them is turn on automatic updates. I think it’s on by default.
19:29:17 But the other thing is, you can tell it if it does have things to.
19:29:20 be updated, you can just press this little
19:29:23 update all in a little update all of those things.
19:29:26 Okay, thanks.
19:29:29 One way to keep track of updates, and I recommend this to a lot of people and.
19:29:34 Hardly anyone ever does it.
19:29:36 Apple has a mailing list called Apple Security Announce,
19:29:40 Every time they have a security,
19:29:45 Announcement and the security announcements just for operating systems, it’s not for applications. https://lists.apple.com/mailman3/lists/security-announce.lists.apple.com/
19:29:50 But every time they have a security update,
19:29:53 They’ll send you an email to tell you that it’s out there. And I highly recommend
19:29:59 that you do this. They don’t come that often.
19:30:03 In a busy month, you might get two emails.
19:30:06 And in many months you won’t get anything at all.
19:30:08 And it doesn’t cost you anything, you just go to that website, you type in your address, and it…
19:30:14 emails you updates. It’s absolutely.
19:30:17 free service, and…
19:30:19 The emails themselves are just text. There’s no graphics, there’s no advertisements. It just says, hey, there’s an update, too.
19:30:26 Such and such, you will get an update for every operating system, so even if you don’t have an Apple Watch, you might get an update saying there’s an update to an Apple Watch, but.
19:30:35 That’s about the only thing that might.
19:30:38 um, bother you.
19:30:41 Um, going back to my
19:30:43 Sing about getting properly dressed.
19:30:46 If you shop only from vetted, reputable vendors, that’s one way to keep yourself safe.
19:30:54 And the App Store, all of the apps on Apple’s App Store for the watch, for the iPhone, for the iPad, for the Mac,
19:31:00 All of those apps have to be from identified direct developers.
19:31:05 They have to actually register with Apple.
19:31:08 They have to have created the app according to Apple’s design principles, which among other things,
19:31:16 They have to be.
19:31:18 They have to follow the sandbox model. A sandbox model
19:31:21 It’s from the old.
19:31:24 adage about, um, stay out of my sandbox.
19:31:27 My sandboxes for me and me alone.
19:31:30 If you create an app and it stays in your sandbox, it can’t interfere with other apps.
19:31:35 That’s the whole point. Data can’t leak from one app to another.
19:31:40 Problems can’t leak from one app to another.
19:31:42 You’ll notice on the Mac that if something ever crashes,
19:31:45 When it crashes, the only thing that usually crashes is that app. It doesn’t take the whole thing down.
19:31:51 Uh, if any of you have ever used Windows, quite often when it crashes, it takes on everything, but…
19:31:55 On the Mac, it just crashes one particular app.
19:31:59 And one of the things that the vetting process does also is if an app crashes a lot, Apple yells at them and says, fix that.
19:32:06 As it’s not supposed to do that.
19:32:10 Um.
19:32:11 So they… Apple validates that the apps are designed the way they’re supposed to be.
19:32:16 That they operate in the sandbox, and that they come from valid
19:32:21 developers. An example that came to mind was that.
19:32:26 Several years ago, when
19:32:29 When security people said, you should have a VPN for your
19:32:33 for your iPhone, you should have any VPN for your iPhone.
19:32:36 A whole bunch of VPNs appeared on the App Store.
19:32:39 And they were allegedly from different vendors. Apple did some research, and they all came from.
19:32:45 Just a few vendors in China.
19:32:48 And those few vendors in China where,
19:32:50 owned by the Chinese army.
19:32:53 And Apple revoked the security certificate.
19:32:55 When Apple revokes the security certificate,
19:32:58 Even if that app is on your phone, it doesn’t work anymore.
19:33:03 So that’s another reason why it’s a good idea to get.
19:33:07 your apps from the Apple Store, because if there’s a problem,
19:33:10 They can prevent it from causing you problems.
19:33:14 Um, if they revoke the certificate,
19:33:18 The program won’t launch. It’s just dead space.
19:33:25 And a lot of this just says things that I just told you about, that they’re sandbox and, uh, that is supposed to be.
19:33:33 are updated rather than tar, but…
19:33:35 TAR is a different word entirely.
19:33:40 Things that you don’t need to worry about. I saw this, um…
19:33:45 meme recently and it tickled my fancy.
19:33:48 I heard the government is putting chips inside of people, and this other woman says, I hope I get Doritos.
19:33:55 You really don’t have to worry about.
19:33:58 The government’s sticking chips into your body.
19:34:01 I don’t remember which… there was one anti-government protester
19:34:05 Who claimed that the.
19:34:07 Federal government injected a chip in his butt.
19:34:12 And exactly why the federal government would do that wasn’t clear, but.
19:34:17 Um, he, um, he killed a bunch of people and.
19:34:21 He is no longer with us.
19:34:23 But, uh, no, the government doesn’t go around putting chips in people, that’s not something you need to worry about.
19:34:28 Another thing that I see people worried about is they’re worried about radiation from their phones and.
19:34:35 You know, that it’s going to do something bad with them.
19:34:38 Something people don’t realize is even cars
19:34:42 radiate.
19:34:44 Cars radiate radio waves.
19:34:46 If you’re old enough to remember the old days when you’re driving down the road and a plane passes over.
19:34:52 And it screws up your car radio.
19:34:54 That’s because the radios back then were not terribly well shielded, and neither were the cars.
19:35:01 The cars, the engine in your car generates radio waves.
19:35:06 the engine. Doesn’t need the radiator, it doesn’t need the radio, it’s just the engine.
19:35:11 It’s electromagnetic radiation,
19:35:13 And it can be generated by the engine alone. So if you drive a car, you’re going to expose yourself
19:35:19 to radio waves. Even if you turn your radio off. So, don’t worry about radio waves coming from your phone,
19:35:26 It’s supposed to… don’t… don’t worry about.
19:35:30 Um, people broadcasting and sending signals into your brain, and
19:35:34 Forcing you to wear an aluminum cap.
19:35:36 Um, especially in the summertime that you will not allow, like the aluminum cap.
19:35:41 And they’re not going to inject you with chips.
19:35:45 There are other things that you don’t need to worry about.
19:35:47 I have seen a lot of computer security things that look like this next slide.
19:35:55 This is a map, and it says most people live outside this circle, more people live outside this circle than inside it.
19:36:04 That statement is 100%.
19:36:06 True. It’s also completely useless.
19:36:10 And a lot of computer security stuff that I see.
19:36:14 posted is true, but useless.
19:36:18 So…
19:36:20 You want to be a little bit skeptical when you see somebody complain about, you know, this could.
19:36:25 pose a threat to this, that, and the other thing.
19:36:28 Another thing that people worry about are robots.
19:36:32 And this slide kind of expresses my feelings about robots.
19:36:36 It’s a fake captcha where it says… it gives you choices.
19:36:40 I’m not a robot. I’m not a robot myself, but I’m not judging those who are.
19:36:45 Defying robot.
19:36:47 I’m not a robot, but I know you are, so this feels a bit hypocritical.
19:36:51 I reject the binary assumptions underlying this statement. I’m not a robot, but I’m willing to convert.
19:36:58 Okay, this is kind of my feeling about the robot apocalypse. I’m not really worried about.
19:37:05 Robots.
19:37:07 If you saw, there’s a robot in China that completed a half-marathon.
19:37:12 Things like that. Okay, they are not going to really affect anything that I do.
19:37:19 That robot in China costs tens of millions of dollars.
19:37:22 to around one half marathon.
19:37:25 And I can go out and find a teenager who can do that for far less than millions of dollars.
19:37:31 I’m not really worried about that.
19:37:33 I am worried about artificial intelligence, but it’s not so much that I think the artificial intelligence is going to take over
19:37:40 things from me, I’m afraid it’s going to put…
19:37:42 perfectly good people out of work for no good reason.
19:37:45 If you look at what they’ve done with artificial intelligence, they’re trying to replace
19:37:51 Receptionists, they’re trying to replace…
19:37:54 Uh, call center operators are trying to replace
19:37:56 customer service people, the kinds of people that when you’re having a problem with a company,
19:38:01 You want some human being to talk to. They’re trying to get rid of those people.
19:38:06 That I do worry about, because.
19:38:09 You know, I don’t really… if you remember when call trees first came out with voice answering machines.
19:38:15 Press 1 to do this, press 2 to do this, and then you go throughout.
19:38:20 89 levels of the…
19:38:22 of the maze, and you’re back where you started with nothing accomplished.
19:38:26 That’s what they’re trying to do with.
19:38:28 With artificial intelligence, and that bothers me a great deal, but…
19:38:33 Robots, I’m not going to worry about robots.
19:38:36 Things that you should worry about.
19:38:39 are bad passwords.
19:38:41 At the top is how…
19:38:43 People tell you to make passwords.
19:38:45 Dollar sign S, lowercase as 1 1
19:38:48 Lowercase age, capital C, 7 star.
19:38:53 lowercase A, C, and a carat.
19:38:56 That’s the kind of thing that people say makes a good password. The trouble is.
19:39:00 It’s hard to remember, and it’s hard to type.
19:39:02 And if it’s hard to remember, and it’s hard to type,
19:39:05 What do people do? They write it on a sticky and they put it on their monitor.
19:39:10 Or, it’s written on a piece of paper on the top of their desk, or they get really frustrated,
19:39:15 And they changed the whole thing, and they just say,
19:39:18 Enter, or something else really simple.
19:39:21 A good password is the one that I have here in red,
19:39:24 And these red triangles are actually, that’s where a space is, so it’s…
19:39:29 Pandas space R, space, pour space politicians, exclamation point.
19:39:35 That is a fantastic password. It’s 28 characters long, really almost impossible,
19:39:42 for anything to break. It’s easy to type,
19:39:46 Which means you’ll actually do it.
19:39:48 And it has special characters, because the space itself is a special character, and so is a…
19:39:54 So that’s a really, really good password.
19:39:57 But the ones that, for years, they’ve been telling you that this one at the top, that’s a good password,
19:40:02 It’s not a good password, you will not remember it, you will not remember to type it correctly,
19:40:07 It’s hard to type and you’ll end up compromising it by either changing it to something way too simple,
19:40:15 Or you’ll put a sticky on your…
19:40:17 on your monitor, and then everybody can see what your password is.
19:40:20 Lawrence?
19:40:21 Those are the things. Pardon?
19:40:23 Canada on an emoji be in a password? Is that acceptable? No.
19:40:27 No, no, no.
19:40:28 So what are those… how did you get those upside-down triangles?
19:40:32 Those are just to tell you where the space is. That’s just a regular space. I’m just saying that that’s.
19:40:38 There’s a space there. That doesn’t mean that they’re…
19:40:41 Oh.
19:40:42 There’s a triangle there, there’s a space there.
19:40:43 It’s a standard way to indicate when you’re doing coding where a space is.
19:40:48 A lot of people think that, uh…
19:40:51 A zero is the same as nothing. To a computer, there’s a character for nothing. It’s called null.
19:40:58 And when you… when I write things with spaces, people tend to just say,
19:41:03 Oh, and they’ll write P-A-N-D-A-S-A-R-E without the space. Nope.
19:41:08 There’s a space there.
19:41:11 So if you write, pandas are poor politicians.
19:41:14 That is a good… with those spaces.
19:41:17 That is a great password. It’s long, it’s easy to type, it’s fast to type,
19:41:22 You’ll probably remember it.
19:41:25 Um, so that’s what you should worry about, is you should worry about.
19:41:30 poor passwords that you have that are too short,
19:41:33 Or they’re too hard to remember, and you keep on forgetting them.
19:41:37 Um, on my bank.
19:41:39 If I type my password in wrong three times, it logs me out. Well, actually, it never logged me in.
19:41:45 But it just says goodbye.
19:41:47 Because it knows that hackers try repeatedly. So, you know,
19:41:51 Come up with something that I can correctly type the first time is a good thing.
19:41:57 Um, the other thing that I just… I think I’ve mentioned this before.
19:42:01 I will not bank with a financial institution
19:42:04 that tells me my password doesn’t have the required characters.
19:42:09 Because a lot of banks, they won’t accept a space as a character.
19:42:14 So if it’s telling me that the space is an illegal character.
19:42:18 That means the bank is reading my password.
19:42:24 That makes it useless as a password if they know what my password is.
19:42:29 Because that password is between me and the bank. It’s not for their use.
19:42:34 I don’t want them reading the password.
19:42:36 So if it tells me that my…
19:42:39 Password has an illegal character, it means they’re reading my password, and I won’t do business with them.
19:42:44 And I can mention names, but I shouldn’t do that.
19:42:48 And something that I’m going to put up on the web, but there’s a bank in town that does that.
19:42:51 And I’m never gonna use that bag.
19:42:56 Another thing that you should watch out for is spam.
19:43:00 And how do you tell spam?
19:43:02 Spam is dangerous because spam means it’s, what’s the name, commercial unsolicited.
19:43:11 email or messaging, or whatever, I can’t remember what.
19:43:14 The definition of spam is, spam is any kind of message that ends up in your instant message on your phone,
19:43:19 or in your email that you didn’t request.
19:43:22 But how can you tell spam from stuff that’s legit? One is,
19:43:28 Who it’s sent to. If you have a message that says.
19:43:32 The IRS wants more information on your tax return.
19:43:36 And you look at who is it addressed to, and you see a whole bunch of addresses,
19:43:41 That’s not for the IRS. First of all,
19:43:43 IRS does not send you email like that. They send you a letter through the post office.
19:43:49 Second, if you get something that’s supposed to be from any government, and it lists a whole bunch of addresses,
19:43:54 It’s obviously not for you. This is a piece of spam that was sent out by some hacker.
19:44:00 who’s trying to hit a whole bunch of people with one email message.
19:44:03 But it’s not from a bank, it’s not from the government, it’s not from
19:44:09 DMV, because they don’t send
19:44:12 mass messages out to lots of people.
19:44:15 Another way to tell it’s spam, if it’s in a language that you don’t normally read.
19:44:21 This is in Cyrillic. I don’t read Cyrillic, so I don’t even have to read the message. I know that.
19:44:27 It’s not for me, and I can mark it as spam.
19:44:33 And I can tell that just by seeing how it’s written.
19:44:37 A trick that you can do if you have a lot of messages and you want to go through them in a hurry,
19:44:42 Make… start your messages in alphabetical order.
19:44:45 Because at the top of the list, you’re going to see here that there are a bunch of people who have things like emojis, like they have
19:44:51 apples and cucumbers and spaceships and so on and so forth, that they stick.
19:44:56 in their subject line.
19:44:57 And at the bottom, you’ll have a whole bunch of foreign languages.
19:45:01 And you can just go through and just mark all those and call them spam.
19:45:05 You don’t even need to read them, because I have yet to see one of those things that.
19:45:11 wasn’t spam. I will tell you something that is embarrassing.
19:45:16 Um, the…
19:45:17 Chief Finance Officer for my agency, once upon a time.
19:45:22 sent out a message to everybody in the agency saying they had to get their budgets in in time.
19:45:28 And they stuck dollar signs.
19:45:31 In the subject line. Well, that’s what spammers do when they’re trying to tell you that you got free money or something like that.
19:45:37 So pretty much everyone just marked the message as spam.
19:45:42 You do want to make sure you don’t kind of sabotage yourself.
19:45:47 And, uh, don’t… don’t write messages that look like spam.
19:45:50 But one way to tell it’s spam is if it’s in a foreign language and you don’t speak that language.
19:45:55 I get a lot of messages in Japanese, but I’m a Japanese historian.
19:45:59 That’s normal, but Russian, nope.
19:46:04 Um, spam also will have things that you just know have nothing to do with you. This is, uh
19:46:10 A instant message that came through.
19:46:12 saying that this is Emily from Glassdoor, and she’s recruiting to my area.
19:46:17 She’s probably not with Glassdoor and one dead giveaway,
19:46:22 is the address that it came from. It doesn’t say it came from Glassdoor. Glassdoor is a recruitment company.
19:46:28 This comes from fully corout dot hair.
19:46:32 Uh, definitely not from Glassdoor. Not to mention the fact
19:46:36 That I’m not looking for a job with them.
19:46:40 Here’s another piece of spam.
19:46:42 This is, it says for the, it’s from Temu. Temu is a
19:46:46 Kind of the Chinese equivalent of Amazon.
19:46:50 And your background and resume have been recommended by multiple recruitment agencies, blah blah blah blah blah.
19:46:55 Well, all of that is junk, but you’ll also notice it was sent with from Jessica
19:47:01 Well, something or other, at iCloud.com.
19:47:04 It didn’t come from Temu.
19:47:06 So, even if I had been interested in the message, this tells me that it’s spam.
19:47:11 And you’ll notice down at the bottom,
19:47:13 That way, if you press this report junk,
19:47:16 Don’t just delete the message, press that button, because if you report junk,
19:47:22 It flags that
19:47:25 account is account that is sending out spam.
19:47:28 And that helps prevent other people from getting spam.
19:47:32 As well as it deletes the message. But don’t just delete the message, it reported as junk first.
19:47:36 And then you can kill it off.
19:47:39 Um, this one says, uh, my team has been trying to reach you regarding the PlayStation 5 you won for our raffle.
19:47:46 If you didn’t participate in a raffle, this is definitely spam.
19:47:50 And also, you’ll notice that it’s coming from loverdelicate.com.
19:47:55 Probably not some place you’ve ever been to or want to.
19:48:00 Um, these pieces of spam, by the way, these are all things that I’ve received at one time or another.
19:48:05 This is Christy, who’s going to give me…
19:48:08 $100,000 because she won the Power Bowl, and she’s sending off…
19:48:11 Message to 200 random, uh…
19:48:14 Individuals. You don’t need to know anything about this at all, you just know it’s spam, so.
19:48:19 This one, this one I’m quite fond of.
19:48:26 My call filter on my phone, this one’s from Verizon.
19:48:29 Said that potential spam detected.
19:48:32 And what cracks me up is a type of spam that tries to infiltrate your organization
19:48:38 It’s called spear phishing.
19:48:41 And this particular phone number… phone call came from Spearfish, South Dakota, which I just thought was
19:48:47 hilariously.
19:48:49 Funny. But yes, that’s bad.
19:48:54 And, uh, this vehicle registration agency, uh, is regarding my overpayment.
19:49:01 But you’re looking, and the address, it’s not a government site, it’s Dorff23.com, so.
19:49:07 That’s not from a government agency, if it has a comm address.
19:49:11 And this one says, uh, Netflix, you need to update your membership with us.
19:49:17 But it’s, again, it’s not from Netflix, it’s from somebody else.
19:49:22 And this is also another one that’s a dead giveaway.
19:49:26 If you get a message and there is no sender and no subject,
19:49:30 You really don’t even need to read any further, because it’s probably just spam.
19:49:36 And this one, it says that my…
19:49:38 Account is expired, well, no.
19:49:41 No company would send out a message like that.
19:49:44 And if they did, they’d probably follow it up with one saying, oops, we screwed up.
19:49:50 One of my favorite ones is this one says I have an outstanding toll.
19:49:55 And I have to go to EasyPassNY.com, not a gov,
19:50:00 In order to pay it, but the area code at the top.
19:50:04 The country code at the top is 63, which is the Philippines.
19:50:07 I really doubt that New York
19:50:10 sends their toll…
19:50:12 summonses through instant messages, and I’m pretty sure that if they did,
19:50:16 It wouldn’t be from the Philippines.
19:50:20 So when you see spam on your
19:50:24 In your email, or in instant messages,
19:50:29 Click, saying that it’s junk.
19:50:32 Because that tells Apple, that tells Google, that tells Microsoft, whoever account you have it with.
19:50:38 It tells them that this is suspicious and you’re flagging it.
19:50:46 And after you’ve said it was.
19:50:49 junk, then you can delete it. Or you can press this handy little thing here that says delete and Report Junk, and it does it all in one
19:50:56 fell swoop. But it’s a two-step process, and you never want to just delete junk, you always want to report it first.
19:51:06 This is not spam.
19:51:09 And… it… this was sent out by, uh…
19:51:13 You might recall that a tanker truck
19:51:17 Overturned on an overpass west of Port Angeles last year.
19:51:22 And it fell into the river.
19:51:26 And someone dictated a message, I’m guessing, in the sheriff’s office,
19:51:31 And it says, this is a message from Clallon County Sheriff’s Office.
19:51:34 Please listen carefully to all instructions,
19:51:37 Thank you, murderer, murderers should use extreme caution.
19:51:41 As has that, workers will be in the area, voluntary water restrictions remain.
19:51:46 In effect for the city of Port Angeles, slaughter utility customer.
19:51:51 Terrible, terrible, terrible message.
19:51:53 That is not spam, though. That was sent out by the Sheriff’s Department.
19:51:58 But they didn’t do a particularly good job of.
19:52:03 Making it look like it wasn’t spam.
19:52:05 And it was just reporting that that tank truck fell in the river, and if you lived in
19:52:09 Port Angeles, you should make sure that.
19:52:14 It was, it threw in some.
19:52:17 toxic information… toxic.
19:52:20 substances in the river, and they had water restrictions.
19:52:23 This is also not spam, is from the Clallam County Sheriff’s Office,
19:52:28 This came after that first one, and it says that…
19:52:32 Um, there is tsunami advisory has been issued. You’ll notice that they learn from their mistake.
19:52:37 And this one looks like it’s from the Clallam County Sheriff’s Office,
19:52:41 And this was after there was an earthquake.
19:52:44 And, uh, there was a tsunami warning for the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
19:52:48 So, this, again, was not spam, and this is how it should have looked.
19:52:52 First time.
19:52:55 Generally, what I’m saying when it comes to things that are sent to you, do not invite bad guys in.
19:53:04 On a PC, you can actually compromise it just by reading a message.
19:53:08 On a Mac, it’s a little bit harder, but you still don’t really want to read
19:53:12 spam messages. If you can tell it’s spam message, just mark it and make it go away.
19:53:18 You do not want to open up attachments that seem suspicious.
19:53:23 One of the few ways that you can actually compromise a Mac is that if you haven’t been doing
19:53:28 Your updates, opening up a PDF can compromise an iPhone or an iMac.
19:53:33 It has to be several versions out of date, but
19:53:37 It can still compromise them, so.
19:53:40 Don’t open up any attachments that you don’t recognize, don’t open up email messages.
19:53:45 from people you don’t know,
19:53:47 If you think it’s spam, just.
19:53:51 Market is spam.
19:53:55 I’m not going to get too much into privacy things, but privacy settings on your Mac and in your iPhone can cover a lot of things. For example,
19:54:05 You can have privacy settings for paired devices, like.
19:54:08 Uh, you can restrict
19:54:11 things like earbuds and mice and other things.
19:54:17 You can restrict speech recognition.
19:54:20 You can restrict your journals so that only your journal talks to you and not to other people.
19:54:25 You can have sensitive content warnings, so…
19:54:29 Um, if you… you can make it so it’s G or PG, it doesn’t use that as a rating symbol, but.
19:54:36 Things like that. You can restrict.
19:54:39 analytic information going back to Apple.
19:54:42 You can restrict Apple’s advertising, they’ll still send you advertising, but it won’t be…
19:54:48 It won’t be targeted directly to you.
19:54:51 In Apple Intelligence, you can either
19:54:53 uh, use ChatGPT or not, it’s up to you, and I recommend that you not.
19:55:00 Uh, wired accessories.
19:55:02 On an iPad, you can actually hook up a mouse to an iPad.
19:55:05 Or you can hook up a keyboard to an iPad.
19:55:08 And on your Mac, you can hook up
19:55:12 I mouse to your Mac,
19:55:13 All of those could carry bad things with them, so.
19:55:18 If you plug something into your machine, you might need to go in and authorize that device
19:55:25 To talk to your machine. Why is this bad? As an example.
19:55:28 There was a company several years ago, probably about 10 years ago, when.
19:55:32 USB devices were just getting
19:55:35 I started… they had a mouse that had…
19:55:38 uh, a 32 K.
19:55:40 It’s not much now, but at the time, it was big, hot stuff.
19:55:44 32K USB memory stick embedded in the mouse.
19:55:47 So when you plug the mouse in, not only did you get the mouse, but you also got this
19:55:52 32K is storage, so you could store whatever the heck you were going to store on it.
19:55:56 This struck to me as a really bad idea.
19:56:00 So I…
19:56:02 wrote a small script just as a test. I wrote a small script that I put on the mouse,
19:56:06 And on a Windows machine, my little script,
19:56:10 Would, as soon as you plugged into the
19:56:11 It would turn the screen black, and it said, you’ve been compromised.
19:56:16 And it took me all of 15 minutes to write that script.
19:56:20 It didn’t do anything harmful, but it scared the crap out of people.
19:56:25 And we had purchased… our agency had purchased, like, dozens of these mice,
19:56:30 And we sent them all back because.
19:56:32 My simple demonstration…
19:56:35 Didn’t cause any harm.
19:56:36 But it’s very, very easy for somebody to have compromise Windows machines. On the Mac, it didn’t do that for a variety of reasons, but…
19:56:45 On Windows, it was definitely scary.
19:56:46 Anyway, all of these privacy things, settings are on your iPhone, your iMac,
19:56:54 Your iPhone, your Mac, your iPad.
19:56:57 And you should pay attention to them.
19:56:59 As an example of things that you should pay attention to.
19:57:03 are things like locations.
19:57:06 Do I have 1 for the location settings.
19:57:09 I was wondering why my iPhone was not giving me elevation. Normally, if you bring up the compass on your iPhone, it’ll give you the elevation.
19:57:17 Well, one day when I was being paranoid, I told the compass that it could not use my location.
19:57:24 And in retrospect, that’s kind of stupid, because
19:57:27 Compasses are all about location.
19:57:29 When I turn back on location, it could tell me the…
19:57:33 Um, my elevation.
19:57:35 Uh, which was really handy when I took this train trip the last couple weeks.
19:57:39 Because I want to know how high we were when going through various parts of Colorado.
19:57:44 So you can turn on things that can track location, and on my.
19:57:48 iPhone, the things that track location are Apple Maps,
19:57:52 Google Maps, and…
19:57:55 A couple other things. One is a scientific tool.
19:57:58 That measures gravity, and you don’t really care about it, but.
19:58:04 Very few things track location.
19:58:07 Things that try to track location include games.
19:58:10 Now, why would you have a gang track location? And the answer is, it’s of no benefit to you, but it’s of great benefit
19:58:18 to advertisers. If the advertisers know that a clump of people in this state
19:58:23 is playing their game.
19:58:25 then they can flag those people to send ads to them, or…
19:58:31 solicitations to buy this new game pack that gives them more.
19:58:37 capability, or whatever.
19:58:39 Games don’t need to know your location.
19:58:42 in the, uh, Zoom…
19:58:45 wants to know, can it use your camera? You actually have to authorize that.
19:58:50 And the answer is yes, you want it to use the camera.
19:58:52 Can it use your microphone? Yes, you want to be able to use the microphone.
19:58:56 Should a game…
19:58:58 use your camera and a microphone? The answer is probably not.
19:59:01 So you went to look at
19:59:04 The location settings, the privacy settings on your phone,
19:59:07 on your iPad, on your Mac,
19:59:09 Because a lot of stuff in there just doesn’t make any sense.
19:59:12 And so like AP News, should AP News tracking your location?
19:59:19 Well, sometimes yes, sometimes no. Probably mostly no.
19:59:23 But if you do a lot of traveling to the east and west coast,
19:59:26 If you’re on the East Coast, you might want East Coast news, so it sees you’re on the East Coast, it’ll give you East Coast news.
19:59:31 If you’re on the West Coast, it gives you West Coast news.
19:59:34 It just depends upon what it is you’re doing. But a lot of things,
19:59:37 No, you don’t want them to know where you are.
19:59:43 Another thing that it’s a more… it’s more critical for iPads and iPhones, not so much for.
19:59:51 For.
19:59:53 Max.
19:59:56 Track settings. The track settings will try and track all kinds of settings, like…
20:00:02 What language do you have? What equipment do you have? A whole bunch of things will ask you.
20:00:07 Can they track you when you add, uh,
20:00:11 when you launch a.
20:00:13 An application, uh, for the first time on your iPhone or your.
20:00:16 iPad, it’ll say, can we track you? I always say,
20:00:21 No. And sometimes, like Facebook will come up with this little plea. Oh, please let us track you, we can…
20:00:27 We can provide you with a richer experience.
20:00:31 And my answer is that…
20:00:32 My answer is really not printable, but I don’t really want to give, uh, have Facebook give me a richer experience.
20:00:39 So, I just say, no, they can’t track me.
20:00:43 There’s really… I can’t think of anything off the top of.
20:00:48 My head’s where I want them to track me, so.
20:00:50 You can pretty much just say, no.
20:00:55 Accessory settings, I already told you about the mics, mouse that’ll ask you when you plug something in.
20:01:01 Um, can I plug something in?
20:01:04 And now we get to the question part.
20:01:07 As for why, I made this, um…
20:01:10 illustration in Google Gemini.
20:01:13 And I was trying to come up with something I thought was humorous,
20:01:16 And the idea of puffins trying to use a…
20:01:20 A laptop, and trying to get past the fingerprint.
20:01:24 Uh, to log in. I thought that was.
20:01:26 I thought that was sufficiently lardhearted and.
20:01:30 ludicrous that, uh…
20:01:33 Um, it made a good photo.
20:01:34 And if you look in the background, it actually looks sort of like the Orcas Islands off in the distance, but
20:01:40 That was just an accident.
20:01:44 And I’m going to stop sharing my screen.
20:01:47 Any questions?
20:01:49 I had one question.
20:01:51 Yes.
20:01:52 Um, is there any danger in sharing your calendar
20:01:56 with your family members across the devices in your house.
20:02:01 Um, Kathleen and I…
20:02:05 Um…
20:02:07 Kathleen had a complex calendar. She had five degrees,
20:02:12 So, all in different subjects, she had.
20:02:16 associations in the Methodist Church that I didn’t have.
20:02:20 In healthcare that I didn’t have,
20:02:22 In computer science that I didn’t have.
20:02:23 So we ended up each having our own separate calendars.
20:02:27 Because I kept on getting appointments for her,
20:02:31 that were driving me crazy.
20:02:33 So we had a shared calendar,
20:02:36 for things that we both were interested in. Like, if she was going to go on a trip or.
20:02:39 We were going to go out to dinner or something like that.
20:02:42 We had a separate shared calendar. We did that one.
20:02:45 in Google Calendar.
20:02:47 Uh, rather than an Apple Calendar. The Apple Calendar is mine, her Apple Calendar was hers, and we didn’t share them.
20:02:53 Simply because our lives were complex.
20:02:57 If you have a simpler.
20:03:00 family arrangement, um, if it’s on.
20:03:03 If it’s on your phone and your spouse’s phone and your child’s phone, probably not going to be a problem unless they’re just a lot of…
20:03:11 Traffic. At which point you might want to have a separate
20:03:15 calendar that’s a shared calendar.
20:03:18 The shared calendar, we just went in and created a Google account. We both subscribed to that.
20:03:22 calendar on the Google account, we could add things to that shared a calendar, and we could both see it.
20:03:29 And that was only for things that we wanted the other person to know about.
20:03:33 Was there any reason you chose the Google Calendar over the Apple calendar?
20:03:38 Well, with the Apple Calendar, we would have had to create another Apple ID, and your Mac.
20:03:42 Oh, really?
20:03:43 Yes, your Apple ID is tied to your calendar.
20:03:47 Her Apple ID is tied to her calendar.
20:03:49 Yes, we can share the calendars, but then…
20:03:51 Everything got shared. And with the… you can’t have… you can’t be logged into two Apple IDs at the same time.
20:03:59 But it’s real easy to be logged into your Apple Calendar and a Google Calendar at the same time, so that’s why we went that way.
20:04:06 Gotcha. Okay, thank you.
20:04:08 But I would be getting, like,
20:04:10 You know, uh, turn in your first draft of your journal article.
20:04:16 Well, I wasn’t writing a journal article, she was. Or I would have one, uh…
20:04:22 rebuild the sanctuaries website.
20:04:24 She wasn’t rebuilding the sanctuary website. What did she care about that?
20:04:29 So it just, it was driving us both nuts.
20:04:35 I have one, Lawrence.
20:04:36 Yes.
20:04:37 When you were talking about privacy settings, right after restrict Apple ads,
20:04:43 You said something about ChatGPT.
20:04:46 And I missed it.
20:04:47 Oh, the Apple Intelligence.
20:04:50 One of the things that I really like about Apple Intelligence, Apple Intelligence is coming for a bad rap in the.
20:04:56 in the news because they say it’s too limited.
20:04:58 But one of the things that I like about Apple Intelligence is when you’re using Apple’s AI,
20:05:05 As much of the process as possible takes place on your device, takes place on your iPad,
20:05:10 takes place on your phone, takes place on your Mac. It doesn’t go anywhere else. And so nobody else knows about it.
20:05:15 All right.
20:05:17 If it does make a request, like you want to know something that.
20:05:22 That your phone doesn’t know.
20:05:24 And it asks Apple, it sends an encrypted message.
20:05:28 that’s anonymized. It doesn’t… it’s not tagged to you, so it goes out and gets that information, comes back, and uses it.
20:05:35 ChatGPT is a commercial firm,
20:05:38 And you can optionally go into Apple Intelligence and turn it on.
20:05:43 But the danger is, everything you keep, you send to ChatGPT, it keeps.
20:05:49 Everything. And I don’t want them to keep.
20:05:53 I don’t want it to know what I’m doing.
20:05:55 So I, I do not turn that on.
20:05:59 And… but that’s under your control. You can turn it on on your Mac, you can turn it on on your… on your…
20:06:04 iPhone or your iPad, but I personally will turn it off.
20:06:09 A lot of people, though, don’t have that same concern that I do.
20:06:14 And so that’s why it’s listed in the privacy.
20:06:16 Under Apple Intelligence, you can turn it on or off.
20:06:20 Okay, so it’s under the Apple Intelligence.
20:06:23 Part of the privacy settings.
20:06:26 Well, actually, there’s an Apple Intelligence part of the settings panel all by itself.
20:06:32 Right.
20:06:31 But it’s also listed in privacy because it’s the same thing. But if you set it one place or the other,
20:06:37 It’s basically the same thing.
20:06:39 They just list it in two different places.
20:06:42 You have to just turn both off, or just one?
20:06:44 No, no, if you do it in 1 place, that’s enough.
20:06:46 Okay, thank you.
20:06:47 And it’s off, it’s off by default.
20:06:52 Oh.
20:06:51 If you want to use ChatGPT, you actually have to turn it on.
20:06:56 Okay, I’m not aware I turned it on, but I did go there.
20:07:00 Today, and it seemed to work.
20:07:03 On my phone.
20:07:04 With ChatGPT or Apple Intelligence.
20:07:07 Well, I put it into Safari ChatGPT, and it came up in Safari.
20:07:11 Yes, but that means you’re just going to the regular ChatGPT site. It’s not using Apple intelligence.
20:07:17 Okay, got it. Thank you.
20:07:22 Any other questions? I realized I was talking a lot.
20:07:25 Yes.
20:07:26 Privacy, uh, privacy…
20:07:29 Question, uh, you said that, uh, banks had their own
20:07:34 Privacy regulations, rules.
20:07:39 that U.S. corporations are not bound by the same kinds of rules that EU corporations are.
20:07:45 That’s correct.
20:07:46 Okay, so what I’m…
20:07:49 Wondering about is, uh…
20:07:55 organizations like hospitals and
20:07:59 My health, the online…
20:08:03 access to everybody’s…
20:08:05 individual accounts everywhere.
20:08:09 What?
20:08:07 Yes, those are not, those are not covered by privacy law, but they are covered by HIPAA.
20:08:12 Right.
20:08:14 Right.
20:08:13 Which is a health information, privacy protection act.
20:08:18 Right.
20:08:18 Now, it sounds… health insurance privacy protection act.
20:08:24 Okay.
20:08:23 That sounds like it’s a Privacy Act, but it’s really not. It’s really…
20:08:28 a health regulation.
20:08:29 And I mention that because
20:08:33 Under HIPAA.
20:08:35 The various vendors have access to your information simply because you gave access
20:08:40 To the doctor, so for example, if the doctor sends it out for.
20:08:45 lab tests, the… they’re not… they are not required to tell you what lab they send it to.
20:08:52 In Europe, they have to.
20:08:55 Because it’s not really a privacy regulation, it’s a health insurance.
20:09:01 Regulation.
20:09:04 Mm-hmm.
20:09:04 I realize I’m seeming to be picky, but
20:09:08 it’s really not a privacy regulation, in spite of the fact that that’s in the Act.
20:09:15 You can keep information away from your relatives.
20:09:19 You can keep information away. Well, as an example, this couple I know.
20:09:23 They’ve been living together for something like 30 years, and under Washington state law,
20:09:27 That’s considered a common law marriage.
20:09:29 But they could not visit their, um…
20:09:33 Their partner in the hospital because they were not married.
20:09:37 And…
20:09:38 they’re stuck. Now, that was…
20:09:41 A year and a half ago, they’re now married because they’ve decided that that was a stupid.
20:09:47 thing not to do.
20:09:54 What’s your thought on, um…
20:09:57 the app Copilot.
20:09:59 Copilot is Microsoft’s artificial intelligence agent.
20:10:05 I have used… I happen to.
20:10:08 Among other things, have two Windows machines, and please don’t ask why, but…
20:10:13 I use Copilot, but I use it
20:10:16 Mostly for…
20:10:18 Things that it was that Microsoft is doing already.
20:10:22 For things like grammar and checking, I have a tendency to
20:10:25 Not put articles in, I’d be writing something.
20:10:28 And I’d say the…
20:10:29 I’d say something, group went someplace and Copilot will pop up and say,
20:10:36 The group went someplace, but again, it’s under my control.
20:10:39 I use Copilot for that purpose. I’ve used it to make some illustrations.
20:10:45 But I tend to.
20:10:47 I tend to use.
20:10:50 Google Gemini for illustrations, that puffin.
20:10:56 illustration that I had today was done with, uh,
20:11:00 Google Gemini.
20:11:01 Copilot is okay.
20:11:04 But, uh, again.
20:11:05 Everything you feed into Copilot.
20:11:09 Microsoft uses, so…
20:11:10 I don’t give it anything confidential.
20:11:16 Okay, thanks.
20:11:22 question and this is Sidna. I still haven’t figured out how to sign in.
20:11:28 when we attend the meetings.
20:11:31 Oh.
20:11:31 I…
20:11:33 I can actually show my screen, and I’ll show you how to do that.
20:11:38 Okay.
20:11:42 And we will make this go away because we don’t need this right now.
20:11:48 Um…
20:11:49 I sent the link out in the, um…
20:11:53 Chat window, and if you click on that link, you double-click on that link, it comes to this form,
20:11:59 Oh.
20:11:58 And what you do on this form, you just fill in
20:12:03 The.
20:12:05 Yeah.
20:12:04 Your email address.
20:12:07 Your name first and last. The reason why is that sometimes people’s email addresses don’t tell me what their name is.
20:12:13 So, your first and last name, and then you check this little box, which meaning? Now, today, it’s only one meeting, so that’s only one box to check, but.
20:12:22 The, uh, the.
20:12:25 The address for this form is in the chat.
20:12:28 Uh, window and you just double-click on it and it brings up this form in your browser.
20:12:34 And it works… it works on, um…
20:12:34 Oh, okay, okay.
20:12:36 It works on a phone, it works on iPad, it works on your…
20:12:40 On your Mac.
20:12:41 Okay. Thanks. I think I did it.
20:12:45 Okay.
20:12:45 I’m going to do it.
20:12:48 Double click.
20:12:50 Any other questions?
20:12:52 No.
20:12:59 Um, something I went to…
20:13:01 tell you about thinking.
20:13:05 Our church, my church,
20:13:07 is thinking about putting in some larger monitors in our fellowship hall.
20:13:13 And if they do, I’m thinking about either having a meeting sometime this
20:13:19 This.
20:13:20 summer either at my church or at the library. Haven’t really talked to the library yet to see what they have.
20:13:27 Uh, it would probably be on a Saturday, and it’d be in the afternoon, and…
20:13:31 The reason why a Saturday afternoon is that people tend to be freeze on Saturday,
20:13:37 And a lot of people don’t like driving at night, so if we were going to have a meeting, it would be.
20:13:42 Probably in the afternoon.
20:13:44 I was thinking about, in addition to having an in-person meeting,
20:13:47 We also might have a swap meet. I have some equipment that I don’t need.
20:13:53 And I don’t want to sell it or anything like that. I would like to just give it away.
20:13:59 And.
20:14:01 If we had an in-person meeting, that’d be a place where you could bring stuff that you no longer wanted.
20:14:08 The good news, bad news about this, if nobody wants the equipment, then you still have to take it back with you.
20:14:15 You can’t just.
20:14:17 abandoned it at my church or at the library, they wouldn’t like that.
20:14:20 But that’s a thought that I have.
20:14:23 If you have any thoughts on my thought, please.
20:14:28 Write to me. And the other thing is, um, what would you like to do for our next meeting?
20:14:35 I’d like to talk about allergies. I was listening to the recordings because I have to edit them to put them up.
20:14:41 And I sniffle a lot, because I have really bad allergies. So, if any of you have a.
20:14:46 Cure for allergies, I’d appreciate that.
20:14:52 Can we send you suggestions?
20:14:54 Absolutely.
20:14:56 I’m… by the way, you sent me a question asking if I could talk about
20:15:02 passkeys. I’m reluctant to because…
20:15:06 They’re not scary, but explaining why they’re different than passwords.
20:15:11 tends to make people’s mind go poof.
20:15:14 So, if I can if I can come up with a…
20:15:18 A good way of explaining that, uh…
20:15:21 Well, we might talk about passkeys because passkeys are…
20:15:25 Our.
20:15:26 That’s the way to go for the future.
20:15:33 You’re so patient and informative.
20:15:37 Lawrence, and I just thank you so much for what you do.
20:15:41 Well, thank you for the…
20:15:42 Really appreciate you.
20:15:43 Thank you.
20:15:45 We’ll second that.
20:15:48 Keep in mind that I’m really an historian.
20:15:53 I just got employed for
20:15:56 30-some years is computer techie.
20:15:59 Um, one reason why.
20:16:01 I started, I started a career in, in, uh, computers is that
20:16:07 I bought a home computer when they first came out in 1977.
20:16:14 And I started off with.
20:16:19 Programming a mainframe, because my…
20:16:21 My girlfriend, later my spouse, talked me into it.
20:16:24 So I grew up with the history of modern computing.
20:16:28 And I use them as communications tools, and I spend a lot of time explaining to people
20:16:34 how computers work. And that…
20:16:37 Ended up being my job that I got paid for, but, uh.
20:16:42 I really am an historian. If you ever want to talk about war crimes, I know a lot about that.
20:16:48 Oh my gosh.
20:16:49 That’s what I did my master’s on, was the Tokyo war crimes trial in 1946 through 1948.
20:16:56 Yes.
20:16:58 And strangely enough,
20:17:00 Very few people have ever wanted to talk to me about it. I just don’t understand why.
20:17:07 Anything else?
20:17:09 Mm-hmm.
20:17:11 Well, I thank you, and have a pleasant evening, and I’m sorry about the, uh, internet outage.
20:17:18 Thank you, Lawrence. See you next time.
20:17:20 Yeah, good night, Laurence.
20:17:20 Good Lawrence, thank you. Bye.
20:17:21 Thank you. Thank you, Lawrence.
20:17:23 Good night.
20:17:23 It’s great.

Cable, connector, and adapter confusion

Cable, connector, and adapter confusion

One of the most common questions I’ve received over the years comes in two forms:

  • I am trying to connect [something to something else] and don’t know what cables I need.
  • I am buying a new [iPhone, iPad, Mac] and need to connect it to [my old printer, my old external drive, an arc welding machine] and don’t know how.

I want to recommend two resources, one (almost) free and one that costs money. First, the (almost) free one: MacTracker. MacTracker is a database of Apple devices (desktop and laptop and server Macs, cameras, displays, iPhones, iPads, Newtons, printers, watches, major pieces of software, etc.) with dates of when they were introduced and discontinued, what software they came with and what software they are compatible with, what ports they have, etc.

You want to know what kind of ports you can find on a Macintosh Performa 600? MacTracker will tell you it has a DB-15 display port and a DB-25 SCSI port, which means it can’t be connected to any modern equipment; even the keyboard and mouse use ADB connectors incompatible with anything used today.

A MacBook Pro from 2008, on the other hand, does come with USB ports, but they are USB 2.0 ports, far slower than the USB-3 or Thunderbolt 4 ports used on a MacBook Pro from 2021. The 2015 MacBook also has a VGA port for external video, incompatible with the 2021 model using HDMI for external video.

You can get MacTracker for your Mac from either the Mac Tracker website,

https://mactracker.ca

or from Apple’s Mac App Store,

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/mactracker/id430255202

You can also get it for iOS (both the Mac and iOS versions contain the same information) from the iOS App Store,

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/mactracker/id311421597

I say it is “almost free” because the developer, who has been working on MacTracker for decades,

https://mactracker.ca/20-years/

has devoted vast amounts of time and energy to this endeavor. Say nice things to him; he’s Canadian.

Knowing what ports your Mac or iPhone or Newton has is only half the battle. The next challenge: cables and adapters. It is possible to plug (some) iPads into an external disk drive, but getting the right cables and adapters can be a challenge. An example: I recently could not understand why my Thunderbolt RAID would not work with my new M1-powered Mac mini. I ran a cable between the two, and it fit perfectly, but nothing happened.

The problem? I was using a USB-C cable, which looks almost identical to a Thunderbolt 4 cable. But while the connectors look the same, the USB-C cable lacks the chips inside the connectors that make them Thunderbolt 4 cables. Thunderbolt 4 cables are backward compatible with USB-C, but you can’t use a USB-C cable to connect two Thunderbolt 4 devices. There are also critical speed differences:

  • Thunderbolt 4 to USB 2.0 device (with adapter): maximum of 480 Mbps (in theory, 48 megabytes per second)
  • Thunderbolt 4 to USB 3.1 device (with adapter): maximum of 10 gigabytes per second
  • Thunderbolt 4 to USB 3.2 device (with adapter): maximum speed of 20 gigabytes per second
  • Thunderbolt 4 to Thunderbolt 4 device: maximum speed of 40 gigabytes per second

Once I grabbed the right cable, my Mac mini was very happy with the RAID, and the RAID was impressively fast. Fortunately, I both knew what the problem was, and I had the right cable.

If you lack such experience, I highly recommend you get a brand-new book, Take Control of Untangling Connections. While I haven’t purchased the book, the publisher has a free preview of the book,

and it looks like the perfect reference for those who haven’t spent half a century plugging computer equipment into things. The book is $9.99, and you can purchase and download a copy (in PDF, Kindle, or iBooks format) in one step:

https://www.takecontrolbooks.com/untangling/

 Not only does it tell you which cables do what, it also offers advice on how to reduce cable clutter. My personal record: I had a Mac IIfx once upon a time that had 11 devices plugged into it. One computer, 11 devices. The computer and peripherals spilled off the desk and onto two adjacent tables. Just periodic dusting was a major technical exercise.

Knowing what cables can be used to connect devices is critically important if you want to add a scanner or printer or external disk drive or you are trying to migrate older devices to a new machine. Invest in some reference material; it can save you tremendous amounts of time, and money.

Peek Performance, peeked

Peek Performance, peeked

Apple’s March 8, 2022 “Special Event,” titled “Peek Performance,” was indeed a pun. Apple provided a peek at where their future lies, and it is a fast, elegant future.

First, the boring stuff. Apple offered two new iPhones, an iPhone 13 and an iPhone Pro, in green. Same iPhone 13 and 13 Pro specs as their cousins, but green. They also announced the phones would be available on March 18, which was ridiculous. Didn’t they look at a calendar? March 17 is the obvious day to start selling a green phone.

(Yes, I know the previous paragraph is hard to read, but the important thing is: green.)

Green!

Next up was an impressive, if confusingly named, iPhone SE. Apple has introduced previous phones and called them SE, but the new 2022 model is much, much faster, more secure, has better battery life, a far better camera, and camera software, etc. It is priced less than any color iPhone 13, but the performance is not that far behind. The announcement was expected, but still: impressive.

If you have anything older than an iPhone X, your phone is nearing “end of life” in terms of updates, security, and connectivity. The iPhone SE is reasonably priced and comes in several colors (well, red, white, and black), none of them green.

New iPhone SE. No green.

The new M1-powered iPad Air is essentially an M1 iPad Pro, but more affordable and lighter weight. It comes in a variety of colors, including a Sequim-friendly lavender (Apple calls it “purple” but it is lavender). You can also get it as a WiFi-only model, or as a WiFi and cellular version, allowing you to be connected to the Internet anywhere you can get a cell signal. I stuffed my iPad Air under a pillow so it wouldn’t hear about all the wonders of the new model and get jealous; it is an impressive hardware and software feat.

M-1 powered iPad Air, connected to a solid-state external drive via USB-C.

Apple also introduced a Studio Display, which is a 27-inch, 5K (5120×2880 pixel) Retina display with a 12 megapixel Center Stage camera (the camera “follows” you when doing video conferencing, thanks to some fancy software), six speakers that provide Spatial Audio, a very bright screen with an extraordinary color spectrum, three microphones with support for Siri, three USB-C ports, one Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) port, all powered by its own Apple Silicon processor. It probably has a faster processor and more memory than any Mac you’ve ever owned.

An Apple Studio Display hooked up to a MacBook Air. You can hook it up to any other current Mac, too.

Finally, there was the Mac Studio. When it appeared on the screen, my initial impression was that it was a bit more than twice the height of a Mac mini, and I immediately noticed the air holes on the bottom, the two USB-C ports on the front, and the SD card slot. As a photographer, the SD slot in front captured an inordinate amount of my attention. “Look, an SD slot!” My spouse did not laugh, but probably wanted to.

Mac Studio front, showing two USB-C ports plus — an SD (Secure Digital) card slot, for still and video cameras.

Eventually, they got around to showing the back of the Mac Studio, and things got more exciting. There are four Thunderbolt 4 ports, a 10 Gb Ethernet port (10 times faster than what most computers have), two USB 3.1 ports, an HDMI port, and a headphone/speaker jack.

You can also clearly see the air vents on the base, where air enters, and the zillions of holes out the back, where the air is vented. The back also features the power button, hidden away where you won’t accidentally turn things off.

As you might guess, this is a high-end machine, with memory ranging from 32 GB to 128 GB, storage ranging from 512 GB to 8 TB (8 trillion bytes), and two different CPUs. The M1 Max comes with a 10-core CPU, 32-core GPU (graphics processing unit), and a 16-core neural engine. The top-of-the-line model has an M1 Ultra with a 20-core CPU, 64-core GPU, and a 32-core neural engine. Translated into English, either one has lots of central processing power for number crunching, lots of graphics processing power for watching up to 5 screens at once (or doing massive movie or audio or photo processing, or breaking Russian codes, or…), and the neural engines can do trillions of operations a second to process Siri requests, handle computer security, and other complex tasks that are difficult to explain but you’ll like the results.

In addition to the very fast Ethernet connector, it also has Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.0, allowing you to connect to almost anything worth connecting.

The lowest-end model is $1999, but if you go for the faster chip, lots of memory and lots of SSD storage, it gets expensive. Add in a Studio Display (the Mac Studio does not come with a screen, or mouse, or keyboard) and — it is not a low-end machine, by any means.

Despite the price, the size of the machine is a breakthrough (no big ugly box to hide), the connectivity is excellent, and the performance is stunning. If you do a lot of video work, or work with great masses of photos, or do high-end music or sound editing, this is an immensely attractive machine.

Peek performance, indeed. You can stream Apple’s Special Event via your web browser, or the Apple TV app on your Apple TV.

Addendum: here is a graphic showing the relative size of Apple’s current desktop processor chips. The M1 was used in the first Apple Silicon iMac, Mac mini, MacBook Air, and MacBook Pro (as well as two iPads), the M1 Pro and M1 Max were used in later versions of the MacBook Pro and the lower-end Mac Studio, and the MacBook M1 Ultra is the heart of the higher-end Mac Studio. The M1 chip has an amazing 16 billion transistors; the M1 Ultra has a staggering 114 billion transistors.

Peek Performance

Apple has scheduled a “special event” for March 8, 2022, at 10 am Pacific Time. From Apple, the only hint at what is coming is the phrase, “Peek Performance,” which is undoubtably a pun on something (Mac, iPhone, robot vacuum cleaner) that is more powerful than something else that came before.

Personally, I am hoping for a Star Trek-type teleporter pad, making it faster and easier to visit England, New Zealand, and Japan. But the rumor mill is positing that we will see a new iPhone SE, or a new iPad Air, or possibly a larger Apple Silicon-based iMac, or an updated Mac mini, or possibly a Mac Pro with multiple Apple Silicon chips that can render a Disney animated movie in mere hours.

Whatever it is, we will undoubtably discuss it at the March 15 Strait Macintosh meeting, along with references to the Ides of March.

Meanwhile, Apple has suspended all product sales in Russia, suspended the use of Apple Pay in Russia, block the download of the Russia Today (RT) News app and the Sputnik News app in Russia, and has disabled traffic and live maps in Apple Maps in the Ukraine.

🇺🇦

And a heads-up for anyone who runs a website, either personal or for a business or organization. Russia and its allies have drastically stepped up their attacks on websites, including those with no military or government purpose, such as the SMUG site. Why are they doing this? They attack such sites to turn them into platforms for launching attacks against more sensitive sites, essentially trying to turn the sites into a robot electronic army. We are monitoring the situation.