My Say What Blog Archives - Page 36 of 53

Jun 29th Technology – What It Can Do For You & To You!

What will 5G, the next generation of wireless technology mean to you?

First lets figure out how exactly 5G technology will be used. It won’t replace todays 4G networks, but will supplement them. Bandwidth, capacity and mobile broadband will be radically improved much more than previous generational shifts.

Now how are they going to do that you ask. Well… in part by packing thousands of small antennae onto cell towers, utility poles and buildings. Mobile speeds will be pushed from 100 Mbps to upward of 10 Gbps. WOW! That’s a thousand-fold increase, making next-generation wireless competitive with the fastest fiber-optic wired networks.

Looking forward to the next several years, billions more things will go online. Using 5G networks to send and receive huge amounts of new data at lightning speed. That information will go from personal to global, connecting you, your home and community. Think connecting smart clothing, prosthetic devices and perhaps ingestible health monitors. Okay, now that is weird.

Science fiction meets reality with fully integrated living spaces (smart homes) that adjust to the needs of all family members. 5G will optimize home security, power and water usage, and personalize entertainment. Also 5G networks will help seniors at home by monitoring their meds, connecting them to telehealth services and tracking everything from sleep to insulin levels.

Exciting huh?

Switching gears from technology to social media, let’s take a quick peek at what TWITTER is chirping about. Twitter hopes to attract a bigger, broader audience with one of its most comprehensive product updates in years, that will personalize news for users and send them notification of events you need or want to know. Like the volcanic activity in Hawaii. Twitter could alert people with the most relevant live video, photos, tweets of the action. No more searching though mounds of data for what you’re interested in. Cool huh?

FACEBOOK Tattles: Ever wonder who can see all your facebook friends and the weird pages you may follow? The answer, ANYONE. Yep, that’s right from employers, stalkers, identity thieves and even your mother. Oh my.

To limit this go to your phones facebook app. Tap on the three lines, next scroll to Setting and Privacy, then tap Privacy Settings. Switch Who can see your friends list from Public to Friends – even better Only Me. Do the same on the same page with a separate setting for Who can see the people, pages and lists you follow. By taking this action others can’t post on your behalf, or at least until you approve each post.

Did you know that Facebook scans all the photos and video you share to create digital face IDs? Want to tell them hands off?

In the Facebook app under Setting & Privacy, tap Settings, then Face Recognition switch to No under do you want Facebook to be able to recognize you in photos and videos? Down side of this action, Facebook won’t recommend tagging you in photos, and won’t give you a heads up when someone else posts a photo of you.

Now lets talk a little about Facebook Advertisers. Each member in North America was worth approximately $82 in advertising to Facebook in 2017. Advertisers can use very personal data to target you. That gives me the creeps. How about you?

To avoid this, in the Facebook App’s Settings & Privacy menu, tap Settings, then Ad Preferences. Then tap open the section called Your information. Switch Off adds based on your relationship status, employer, job title and education. While you’re in Ad Preferences, go to Ad setting and switch to Not allowed for Ads based on data from partners and Ads based on your activity on Facebook Company Products that you see elsewhere. The down side is you give up more relevant ads, which is more of a problem for advertisers than you.

Did you know that by liking a page, you give Facebook advertisers permission to use your name in ads they show your friends – this happens without compensation to you. Not cool. To stop this, on your phone under Setting & Privacy, click Settings, then Ad Preferences. Tap open Ads Settings and switch to No One the setting for Ads that include your social actions. The down side if there is one – You stop the use of your name by a company you might not want to be associated with.

I’ve captivated your attention long enough. Next time we’ll tackle security and privacy in Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and Apple in Technology and Social Media cyber space. See you then!

Posted in My Say What Blog and tagged 5G, Facebook, Privacy, Security, Technology by Tena Stetler with comments disabled.

Jun 19th Technology Corner – Did You Know?

I guess I’m kinda a geek at heart. I love new technology and things it can do for us. Sometimes its more what it does to us. LOL Anyway… I’ve been collecting all kinds of exciting news and decided to share.

Let’s start with SPAM MAIL. I get frustrated spending the first ten minutes of my day deleting all the ad’s from my email that I didn’t sign up for. Click the unsubscribe link, fill in your email and unsubscribe, right? All kinds of WRONG! I found out all you are doing is confirming your email for the unscrupulous marketer to send you more from different companies. Ugg! Unfortunately there is no way to completely eliminate span, but a couple of things will minimize it. 1. Don’t click on questionable on line offers. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. 2. DON’T try to unsubscribe by filling in your email after clicking on the unsubscribe button. 3. Send the unwanted email message to your spam file. Email providers spam- filtering software will take it from there.

On to APPLE. Apple’s security gap that allowed law enforcement agencies to pry personal information from locked iPhones without a password is slamming shut. The loophole involving iphones vulnerability to intrusion via the Lightning port used to transfer data and charge the device will be shut down with an impending update to apple’s iOS software that powers the iPhones. Wednesday, Apple outlined its decision to tighten iPhone security further as part of a crusade to protect the highly personal information its customers store on iphones.

Wish you hadn’t sent that SNAPCHAT message? In the coming weeks Snapchat will roll out a new feature to help with damage control regarding messages you really didn’t want or shouldn’t have sent. It’s not fool proof and the person you sent the message to will be able to see a message was scrubbed, but it’s a step in the right direction. Don’t you think? Or perhaps you should consider my mom’s advice. “Never put in writing or pictures anything you don’t want splashed over the front page of your local newspaper.”

Well that’s all the time I have today, but never fear, next week we tackle privacy settings, what Twitter wants to predict, what the next generation of wireless technology 5G will mean for you, and maybe my ongoing battle to learn Instagram. See you next time! Got some tech news? Let everyone know, leave a comment.

Posted in My Say What Blog and tagged Apple, Email, Oops, Snapchat, Spam Mail, Tech by Tena Stetler with 2 comments.

May 24th Memorial Day – More Than A Three Day Weekend

Memorial Day is upon us, a lot of you will be hitting the highway to go camping, fishing or traveling to friends’ homes. You might be planning a big get together with family and friends or just decorating the graves of loved ones. Wherever you are and whatever you are doing, stop for a moment and remember the reason we celebrate.

Did you know that all Americans are encouraged to pause for a minute of silence at 3:00 p.m. on Memorial Day? That’s right, wherever you are during your festivities, please take a minute to honor and remember our country’s fallen heroes who made the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom.

No matter how bleak things look, I still believe we live in the greatest nation in the world. If you don’t feel the same, maybe you should reconsider your locale. I can say that because I live in the greatest nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Be Safe and Have a Happy Memorial Day!

Posted in My Say What Blog and tagged camping, freedom, hiking, lives, Memorial Day, remember, Weekend by Tena Stetler with comments disabled.

May 16th Awww a Spring Weekend – What Did You Do?

How did you spend your weekend? We spent the weekend in the dirt. The sky was blue, the temps were perfect 75-80 degrees with a mild breeze. I put sun screen on all my exposed skin, but forgot the tops of my feet. Guess what— Yep, they got burned in patches through my sandals that look so weird. LOL

Last week, we cleaned out the garden and got it ready to plant. Added several bags of new garden soil with fertilizer and put in seeds for carrots, kale, romaine lettuce, and sugar snap peas. This weekend we picked up five tomato plants and a six pack of Marigolds. We use the Marigolds for pest control. They do a good job and look pretty too.

My hubby, our chow chow, Mystic, and I spent most of Saturday visiting the local garden centers. Boy were they packed! I guess everyone was like us and decided the warm spring weather was here to stay. Could be a mistake. Since I’m a life-long resident of Colorado, I know better than to plant outdoors before Memorial Day. Nine times out of ten we get a freeze and end up covering up or carrying in all the tender plants. Heck it’s been known to snow in July. But… after cleaning up the yard last weekend and trimming up the bushes, I couldn’t help myself. I needed some color out there. Darn it.

We picked out several plants in varying sizes and colors to fill our empty pots in the front yard. (They’ve been empty since 2016.) I’ve been accused by friends and neighbors of tempting Mother Nature, again. Though it’s been two years since the softball size hail of July 28, 2016 at 10:30 p.m. Yep, I’m still shell shocked after that experience. Lived here all my life and never seen anything like that. However, this year it didn’t stop me from sprucing up our front and back yard. The lilac’s lining the perimeter of my back yard are in full bloom. So beautiful.

I went so far as to start a fairy garden. I even planted a pumpkin patch in a spot in our yard I scouted out last year. It gets the most sun all summer long.

Wish me luck! Share in the comments what you did this weekend or plans for next weekend. Are you planting? Or do you live where your plants are already flowering and your garden is producing?

Posted in My Say What Blog and tagged Colorado, Fairy, Gardening, pumpkins, Spring, tomato plants by Tena Stetler with 4 comments.