Spotting a phishing scam

I recently received an email, which looked like it was from PayPal, but I instantly could see it was a phishing scam, however they do seem to be getting better at mimicking. Below is the image of the email, the number of errors that highlight it is a phishing scam is in double figures, how many can you spot? I do not want to point them all out, that would be helping the criminals.

I will point out an obvious one, which I imagine they would find hard to correct, that is at the top it says 'Dear Client', this is not specific enough to be genuine email from a company that knows more details about you than just your email address. Some phishing emails would replace 'Client' and put the word of your email address before the '@' symbol e.g. Dear Smith_John, this would also highlight a phishing scam.

My general advice on receiving emails is:

1. Read the email, do not just click on the link, even if it looks urgent, that is what the scammers are counting on.
2. If you have no instigated an email e.g. requested a password reset, then it is best to assume it is a scam.
3. Do NOT use any links provided in the email, instead go to the companies web site through a link of your own (bookmark) or from a search engine. The web site address should have a HTTPS prefix, not just a HTTP.  
4. If the offer sounds to good to be true, then it is a scam.
5. If there is just one thing that does not look right e.g. spelling mistake, poor grammar or poor quality logo then it is a phishing scam.

How to reduce size of PDF file on Mac

I had some PDF files which were over 14MB in size and I needed a way to reduce the size to upload them to a web site that had a limit of 10MB. I thought this would be an very easy and I would have some option to save the PDF with reduced quality to reduce the size of the file. But I could not find any option on my Mac and found it even more frustrating in Windows 10. One solution I though of, which works is:

1. Open PDF file in Preview.
2. From the 'File' menu select 'Export'.
3. Export the file as a JPEG, this will save the file with a small file size.
4. Open the JPEG in Preview and then from the 'File' menu option select 'Export as PDF'.

Copy Photos from iPhone to Mac

It does not seem that obvious on how to copy photos and video off the iPhone onto a Mac. With Android phones you can look at the file system and locate the required files. One method I used in the past was to use iPhoto, import the photos and then drag the photos into the relevant directory in Finder.

But the quickest method I found was to open up the 'Image Capture' (I use spotlight for this) and from there you can view and browse the images and videos on the phone and drag and drop them into the relevant directories in Finder.

Apple Mac - Freezes when another monitor is positioned close to it

At home I usually use an Apple Mac, recently I've needed to do work on a separate PC in the same location. I've noticed some strange behaviour with the Mac when I position the monitor of the PC near my Mac, the result is I can move the mouse pointer, but the mouse click does not work and also the keyboard does not respond. The cursor for the keyboard actually disappears and the Mac appears to be frozen apart from the ability to move the mouse. First time this happened I thought there was a problem with it so restarted it, but all I needed to do was move the PC's monitor a bit further away. 

The monitor that is causing the issue is a standard Dell one and the distance the monitor needs to be is very close, approx 150mm from the Mac. 

Windows Search Frustration - One Possible Answer

I use macOS and Windows 10, one feature in macOS which is useful and quick is the ability to search for files, this can be done using Spotlight or Finder. Searching for files in Windows is completely different, it is almost unusable because it takes so long and on occasions gives up and does not show the user a file that does actually exist.

One possible solution I have found is an application called 'Everything', it has been developed by David Carpenter and is available on his web site VoidTools.com. I am still evaluating it (version 1.3.4.686), but my first impression is good and it finds the files I look for very fast. The overall interface is plain, which is not a bad thing, but it does look a bit dated. My current opinion of the software is that it does what I want it to do well, and I would recommend it.

Microsoft Feedback - Was this helpful?

Recently I requested Help from a Windows application and received the following dialog popup.




I found it interesting  that the Help did not work and then it asked whether this was helpful. The link to the Microsoft Support was also not helpful because it did not take me to the related issue. I can see the reason why this occurred and it is because of the Microsoft Help framework always asks whether the help was helpful, but I think Microsoft could have improved on the information in the dialog by including a relevant link to the exact support page for the issue, or a link to a knowledge base article about the issue.

Over the years I have found that Microsoft do have problems with Help, one of the problem being some of it does not relate to the product version you have because they have constantly been changing features and location of features. Eventually I hope it will get a framework that works and knows which product you are using and gives the relevant help you request.

iPhone - How to decline a call when locked

I recently changed my Android phone and decided to move to Apple, there are multiple reasons for doing this, which I might put in another post. One thing that took me sometime to find out was how to decline an incoming call when the phone is locked. Basically it is very simple, just double press the lock button, that is the one on the top of the phone. This is not as intuitive as other functions and I believe Apple could improve on this and make the option available on-screen, but for now this is the only way I know of.

How to move a window that has disappeared off-screen in Windows

I recently had a problem where I had two monitors then I starting working with one monitor. One problem I came across was one of the applications I used was last used in the second monitor area, so when I started the application (a Microsoft application) it appeared off screen in the coordinates it was last used, therefore I could not see it. Here are the steps to fix this annoying problem:

1. Click on the application in the taskbar or 'Alt'+'tab' to the application to give it the focus.
2. Then press 'Alt'+'Spacebar', this should display the popup window menu.
3. Press 'M' to enable the window to move.
4. Press the left arrow key to move the window left onto the first monitor.

New Bloomberg iPad App Review

Yesterday I was forced to update the Bloomberg App on my iPad, which I was a bit reluctant to do as the old one I thought was good, useful and fairly easy to use. The presentation of the old version looked good, maybe a little cluttered, but after a short time I really liked how I could get quickly get a good overview of markets, currencies and the latest news on one page.

After installing the latest version and running it my first impression was how I disliked the presentation, the previous app was dark, and easy on the eye, the new one has a lot of white and feels too bright. The new home screen does not give an overview of stock markets and currencies, which is something I liked in the previous version. Even when you go to the markets page, you cannot get a good overview, you have to select the area of interest from a drop down.

The overall screen layout feels as if it was designed for a phone and not a tablet. The previous version felt like a complete piece of software, this version feels like a basic or lite version.

While using the App it felt a little buggy, the refresh of currencies does not seem to work and I had to go out of the screen and back in for it to refresh correctly. I am not confident the graphs work correctly either (see image below), when looking at the performance of one stock it showed the month being "Feb 2017", with 31 days, the current date was the 1st so it felt the label for the month was incorrect and should have displayed "Jan 2017".

Overall this App feels like it has been rushed and has not go through the QA department correctly. I think they need to employ some UX designers to try to get the usability right, maybe they should also consider doing some end-user testing to get some feedback, the reviews on the app store are appalling, which is understandable. The previous version I would have rated 7/10, this new version I would give 2/10.