Ask DACS
November 2013

Moderated and reported by Jim Scheef

Ask DACS is a Question and Answer session before the main presentation at the monthly General Meeting. We solicit questions from the floor and then answers from other audience members. My role as moderator is to try to guide the discussion to a likely solution to the problem. The answers below include my own post-meeting research.

Q – I have my own first question. I received a high-definition video file from a TV station in Boston. They produced the video, Captivating Connecticut, which is about Connecticut State Parks. When I play it in Windows Media Player, it displays in an aspect ratio of 4x3 (old-style television). This is obviously wrong because people are too skinny and round things like wheels are decidedly oval. What can I do to play this in 16x9?

A – Several members suggested VLC Player. VideoLAN is an organization that releases its open source projects under the GNU General Public License. While the programs are free to download and use, I personally encourage everyone to provide financial support for products you find useful. Every feature mentioned at the meeting proved to be accurate. VLC comes with a variety of codecs (the part of the program that reads and interprets a particular video file format) and does, indeed, allow changing the aspect ratio of a video file during playback. This, plus a looping feature, allowed me to play the video full screen and unattended at an all afternoon event. Very cool.

Q – How many people dislike the new look of Yahoo email?

A –Many people raised their hand in the affirmative. Asking my own questions is dangerous because this one led to a rant on how Yahoo is shooting themselves in the foot. The recent user interface changes in all Yahoo products have been an unmitigated disaster, both making things harder to use while actually reducing functionality! A follow up question…

Q – Does anyone want to recommend an alternate email service for those wishing to leave Yahoo?

A – One person suggested AOL and this is an excellent choice. If you can’t get the address you want on AOL, then try AIM.com (AOL Instant Messenger) which is just AOL under a different name. Both offer free, standards-based email that can be used from any email program. Last time I looked (several years ago), they offered 2GB of space for messages; they probably offer more now. Other possibilities include GMX which can handle large (up to 50MB) attachments; Live.com and Outlook.com, both from Microsoft. Two email services that promised extra privacy recently shut down after refusing to give information to the FBI. 

Q – What are some free alternatives to Skype for small PC-to-PC group voice calls?

A – At the meeting I suggested that just about any instant messaging service such as AOL Instant Messenger or Yahoo Messenger will support small group (five or six participants) calls like this, but it appears that much has changed since Microsoft bought Skype last year (2012). Microsoft has merged their Windows Live Messenger into Skype. The old Messenger product is still offered to those who prefer the Messenger user interface (user friendly is what you know). At the same time, the mixes of services offered by the formerly competing instant messaging services from Yahoo and AOL have changed drastically, so my implication that “if you like your instant messenger, you can keep your instant messenger” is no longer true.

A member offered Google Talk as an alternative, and some combination of Google Hangouts, Gmail, Talk, Voice and Contacts appears to offer a pretty complete alternative to Skype. However, a quick reading of the web pages for all these Google services leads me to believe there will be a learning curve. It appears that the place to start is to download the Google Hangouts plugin. Using the Google Chrome browser here would seem wise as I believe it will make the integration easier between the Google services, especially if you tie your Google account to Chrome (log into Chrome). At this point the suggestions digressed into VoIP services like MagicJack Plus and Vonage. These services are not free but would offer more reliable service. They also work with your regular telephone rather than a computer.

Q – My second Yahoo question involves the weather service on my customized “My Yahoo” page. I have set my default location to New Preston, CT, which is the closest location to my home. However, the page always opens in whatever Yahoo believes to be my current location. For some reason when I am at home, Yahoo pegs my location as “Massachusetts”. At various times in the past, Yahoo have chosen Sturbridge, MA, or Oxford, MA. Does anyone have a suggestion on how to make Yahoo just accept that I want the weather for New Preston?

A – At the meeting my “My Yahoo” page opened with Danbury, CT as the location. This, of course, was my location at that time, suggesting that the current location is based on IP address. To make the location “stick” and always display my “preferred” location, many people suggested clearing cookies, but the default location is saved in a cookie or my Yahoo account information is saved to a cookie. Several people suggested that “current location” is based on IP address. After the meeting I pursued this track. It turns out that Firefox provides location data permissions to websites on a site by site basis. With the website you want to control visible in Firefox, go to the Tools menu and select “Page Info”. On the Permissions tab, look for the “Access Your Location” setting and uncheck ‘Use Default’ and pick your preference from ‘Always Ask’, ‘Allow’ or ‘Block’. Next, on the Tools menu, select ‘Options’. Click the Privacy tab and check the setting for “Clear history when Firefox closes”. If the box is not checked, you’re done; click Ok. If the box is checked, click the “Settings...” button and the “Settings for Clearing History” dialog opens. Uncheck the box for “Site Preferences” under Data and click Ok. This allows Firefox to save the change you made to the site permissions. As I write this, the newsletter drop dead date is today so I can’t report on the long term effect of these setting changes but I think we are on the right track.

Q – Is there a way to make free calls from a cell phone by connecting to Wi-Fi?

A – At the meeting I searched for “free wi-fi phone calls” and found several references. Some were on “how to” sites like eHow.com with instructions on ways to do this on both Android devices and iPhones. Further research is left to the reader.

Q – Can I use a smart phone that no longer has cellular service to make Skype calls?

A – Several people responded that an iPhone with no phone service is called an “iPod” and the Wi-Fi will continue to work on both iPhones and Android. Once the phone is “de-authorized” leave the SIM card in place so it will still work for 911 calls, but use the Skype app to make calls. One member related how he had purchased a SIM card from one of the prepaid services (GoPhone, Consumer Cellular, etc.) and uses those minutes only when necessary.

Q – In Windows 8.1 is there a linkage between the initial login and subsequent logins to a Microsoft site? For example, someone logs in using a regular Windows login and then tries to log into a Microsoft account belonging to another user. When my friend attempted this scenario, the second login was refused.

A – There are three possible way to login (authenticate) on a Windows machine (Vista or newer). One is an Active Directory domain login, which is used on corporate networks and is beyond our scope here. The second is the local machine account we have all used for many years. When you first set up Windows on a new machine, setup will prompt you for a user name. Typically you type in your first name and that becomes your user name on that machine. Hopefully you then enter a password and live happily ever after. The third way to login is to use a Microsoft account. Over the years this has been called a Microsoft Passport, Microsoft Wallet, .NET Passport, and Microsoft Live ID. It has always served as a single-signon for all of your Microsoft services. Unlike earlier versions the setup of both Windows 8 and 8.1 ask for a Microsoft account as the login name rather than just a simple name. It is possible to bypass this, but the default is a Microsoft account. When you set up your login this way, the machine will “know” your credentials when you want to open your email (MSN.com, Outlook.com, Live.com, etc.) or connect to your SkyDrive account, or Office 365, etc. This integration means you’re not constantly asked for passwords and that can be pretty cool.

This was a third-party question, so we do not have first-person testimony and details are often lost in the translation. With a “regular” machine account (second type above), the machine does not really know who you are in any scope beyond that one machine. When you go to a website – Microsoft or anywhere else – you must enter a username and password to authenticate. Logging in with a Microsoft account is different in that during the login process, the machine validates the password with Microsoft and Microsoft returns a security token to the machine that “proves” you are you. Now when you go to a Microsoft site, the site can read that token and automatically grant access to the site. In our scenario, if the original login was in fact a Microsoft login, then I could understand the second login failing, otherwise it should work.

Q – I upgraded my Windows 8 machine to 8.1 from the Microsoft Store and there were a lot of questions during the download and install process. What are these questions?

A – Other members related their experience with the upgrade process to answer this question. Most of the questions were permissions for Microsoft to collect information at the time and forever more. Questions mentioned at the meeting included things like: “Can Microsoft use your location?” “Do you want to send trouble reports to Microsoft to improve the product?” and so forth. This would make a good topic for the Mobile Devices and Windows 8 SIG.

Discussion moved to the philosophy of “always using the custom or advanced installation” when installing anything. Others related how they had trouble when installing “free” software from even supposedly reputable websites like Download.com, CNET.com, etc. Even the Adobe product installers for Reader and Flash will install “extras” if you are not careful to read the options. The old adage about “no free lunch” definitely applies to free software.

Questions for the upcoming meeting can be emailed to askdacs@dacs.org.

Disclaimer: Ask DACS questions come from members by email or from the audience attending the general meeting. Answers are suggestions offered by meeting attendees and represent a consensus of those responding. DACS offers no warranty as to the correctness of the answers and anyone following these suggestions or answers does so at their own risk. In other words, we could be totally wrong!