Category Archives: General Computer Stuff

Worldwide Ransomware Attack

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If you have paid attention to the news, you know the world is in a cyber war firefight running from Friday to today. No one is going to protect you. To make it worse, some are claiming anti-virus software is making it worse. Sheesh!

The First Evil

The First Evil

The current primary problem is older operating systems; Windows XP and Vista. Microsoft quit supporting those old systems. But, many businesses have chosen not to update to newer systems. For some like the healthcare industry and industrial manufacturing their complex applications were dependent on features in the old operating systems. It was difficult and expensive to update.  Continue reading →

VR: Minimal Latency

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You probably know a serious problem with VR is latency, the delay between moving your head and your eyes seeing the visual response. It is considered the primary cause of Simulator Sickness, aka motion sickness, AKA sea sickness, etc. A part of that delay comes from how long it takes the display screen to refresh the image it displays.

I suspect many of us haven’t realized that for Augmented Reality the problem is even worse. In AR we are seeing the world in real time with perfect sight and head movement synchronization and  an lagging AR image super imposed. While there is less chance of simulator/motion sickness the lag is visually obvious and annoying. See the video.

NVIDIA is experimenting with 16,000Hz (16KHz) screens. My Samsung screen provides a 120Hz refresh rate, more than 1,000 times slower.

See: NVIDIA Demonstrates Experimental 16,000Hz AR Display

We can get acceptable AR for most uses with way lower refresh rates. However, NVIDEA’s tech will provide crisp images even in combat games and athletic efforts where head motion is extreme.

Google Chrome is unresponsive. Relaunch now? Ouch!

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If you use Chrome you may be running into a new problem: Google Chrome is unresponsive. Relaunch now? Relaunching does not resolve the problem.

Chrome

Chrome

The problem popped up in 2015 and seems to be back. It bit me after the latest Win 10 upgrade(?). But, the fix in 2017 is different than in 2015.

Clicking a URL link in another app should open Chrome and subsequently the target web page. Instead you get the ‘unresponsive’ error message. There was a popular 2015 work-around for those using Outlook or Thunderbird: Continue reading →

Second Life: OBS Streaming Tutorial

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Strawberry Singh has posted a nice tutorial on YouTube and her blog. It runs 26 minutes. The video is simple, complete, and well done. I’ll link you to her current challenge where there is a link to the video. The challenge is a bit of fun and incentive to learn how to stream Second Life™.

Strawberry’s Video Challenge

I did find that my OBS (18.0.1 Windows 64-bit) is a bit different than Strawberry’s (18.0.1 64-bit Mac?).

If you haven’t seen the term ‘vlogging’ it is blogging using video. Medhue Simoni is doing an almost daily (8 or ( AM SLT) video tutorial on Second Life modeling and animation. I suppose we could call the tutorials his vlog. See: Medhue channel. The channel has 4,000+ subscribers.

Strawberry’s Vlogging Challenge is here. You can compare her videos and Medhue’s. Strawberry gives away that she has notes and a script for her video in the OBS tutorial as she flips from primary to her secondary screen with the script. Continue reading →

Second Life: Open Source DJ Software

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MIXX DJ Software

I came across this in my daily reading. KirstenLee Cinquetti started posting in the KirstenLee blog. There are two new posts apparently the first since 2015. Whatever, there is this interesting software for those DJ’ing in Second Life™.

See: K’s Software Pick of The Week! This is an article about the software MIXX. See it here: DJ Your Way. For Free. I don’t DJ in SL, but it looks way neat…

Adobe Premiere and After Effects Changes

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The new release of Adobe’s various products change the way we work. I think it is a great improvement. I am still learning how to change my work flow. This video gives you an idea of the important changes.

I used the latest Premiere CC 2017.1 to create my CCUG video. My YouTube uploads are here.

I can make all the video in Premiere now, including opening titles where I usually use a still processed in Photoshop. I do have to save a still shot of the opening title to use on YouTube. YouTube never allows me to choose the frame I want to use. Their three choices always suck.

 

Adobe Premiere Pro CC 2017.1 Update

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If you are using Adobe’s Premiere, you find that making titles and placing text in you video has changed, drastically. The replacement for Titles is NOT intuitive. It is better but, you need a hint or two to get started.

See: Create Titles With The New Type Tool And Essential Graphics Panel In Premiere Pro Cc 2017.1 (Spring) Released 4/19/2017.

The tutorial will get you started.

I find fancy titles are still easier to make in Photoshop. You can import them as PNG, to preserve transparency. You can also import the PSD file. All the fancy effects (AFAIK) are brought in.

The new ‘Essential Graphics’ panel can be docked. Click on the panel name, not the top window bar as in most programs, and drag to where you want it.

I did crash Premiere in the first 10 minutes…

Computer Security: The Port 7547 Problem

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When you connect to the Internet you use your Internet Service Provider’s (ISP) gateway/router modem. ISP’s want to control and manage the gateway. They do that using port 7547. So, what keeps a hacker from coming through that port?

An ISP that is up on security will restrict use of that port. They will set the gateway to only respond to traffic on that port if it comes from the ISP’s computers.

You can check to see if that is your case. See WordFence’s article and use their scanner: Check if Your Home Router is Vulnerable. If you are vulnerable, they explain what to do.