Computer Handyman

I am trying to install GoogleAdSense on my Computer Handyman website , but all I get is a blank, blue space where the ad should go. I guess the problem has something to do with the way my CSS is set up, but AdSense says it may take 48 hours to start working properly. So, I will give it some more time.

  GoDaddy’s ftp connection for their websites does not work like most ftp connections do.   For most ftp connections, the address starts with ftp, as in ftp.website.com , but GoDaddy wants you to leave off the ftp prefix.   I could not connect by ftp to my GoDaddy website , it-handy.com .   I tried for a long time to figure out what was wrong – my password, my user id, etc.   Nothing was wrong except the address of the ftp connection.  

The media is overly excited about the Russian hacking using the SolarWinds update process.  First, was it Russia?   It seems likely that it was Russia, but not certain.   Anyone who is good enough to develop the SolarWinds hack would be smart enough to cover his tracks.   He may not have covered them perfectly, and we may be able to track down the hacker, but he may also have successfully covered his tracks.   He could be a Chinese hacker who copied the trademark signatures of the Russian hackers and who routed his hacks through Russian servers or websites.   It could be a hacker anywhere who did the same thing.   It requires computer expertise, but there are a lot of computer geniuses out there, including in the Middle East and Latin America.   I am surprised that no one has mentioned Edward Snowden in connection with the hacking.   He is a computer genius living in Russia who knows American computer security extremely well.   Is it p...

The 5G upgrade still has a long way to go.  This Wired article explains that 5G operates in three different radio frequency ranges, basically low, medium, and high.  The real, revolutionary changes expected from 5G really come from use of the high frequency ranges, in the millimeter band.  The higher the frequency, the higher the rate of data transmission, and 5G is all about fast data.  The problem is that shorter wavelengths have shorter ranges and cannot penetrate much of anything, like walls.   To get the higher speeds, there would have to be cell towers very close together, many more than we have now, and very close to the people using their phones.   According to the Wall Street Journal , the new cell towers are already running into resistance as they are installed across the US.   The Journal also reports that in one of the countries most wired for 5G, South Korea, it doesn’t work that well.   One place 5G is supposed to be available is ...

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Facebook has announced that it will introduce the Libra cryptocurrency, which will be pegged to several international currencies and will be backed by several well known financial organizations, including Visa and Mastercard.   It appears to be something like a cryptocurrency dollar.   Bitcoin is more like cryptocurrency gold.   It has no set value, but it does a limit on how many Bitcoins can ever exist, making it more like gold, something whose supply is limited and that has a value depending mainly on how much people are willing to pay for it.   Thus, the value of the Libra should be fairly steady, while the value of Bitcoin may vary wildly.   A story in the Verge examines some of the downsides of Libra.   One of the first questions is whether the Libra will work at all.   It seems likely that it will, but its blockchain technology is different from Bitcoin’s.   Bitcoin’s chain is basically open to the world, allowing anyone to create a...

The excitement over bitcoin and blockchain is overblown.  Blockchain may be a relatively secure way of storing information about transactions, but it is not cost-free.  The electricity and computing power used to create blockchains is expensive.  If you are tracking something that is very valuable, it may be worthwhile. but otherwise, the expense of creating the blockchain may it unreasonable to use blockchain. Several sources ( Morgan Stanley ,  CNBC )   say the breakeven point for mining Bitcoin is about %8,000 to $8,600.  Currently, the price of Bitcoin would not cover the cost of mining it in most places in America.  It may still be profitable in some places where electric power is really cheap. Another  Bitcoin-friendly site  puts the cost at just under $5,000.  Where power is cheaper, the cost is much less; in Venezuela, it is only a little over $500. Blockchain works by creating codes that are hard to break.  The co...