Sunday, February 18, 2024

Fake "I Can’t Believe He’s Gone" Facebook Posts

We've all seen those fake "I Can’t Believe He’s Gone" posts on Facebook. You didn't click on them, did you? I hope not.

But I couldn't figure out what they were up to. This post (archive.org) on KnowBe4 explains it.

These posts never have the name of the deceased person in them. They have a link that you need to click on to find out who is deceased. DON'T!

Source: bleepstatic

If you click on it, you are taken to a page that asks you to login with your Facebook credentials.

It goes downhill from there.

There are more details on Bleeping Computer (archive.org).





Sunday, February 11, 2024

Integrity of Amazon Reviews

You'll recall my experience with PHI-Not so-COOL. It purported to have 128GB of storage but only had a low quality 32GB microSD card.

I guess I'm a sucker for "deals" so I kept on looking for a USB drive with USB A, USB C, and Lightning connectors. But this time, I thought I would be smarter. Instead of just looking on Amazon, I use Google to double check Amazon.

With this, I found AUAMOZ USB iOS Memory Stick Photo Stick that had several positive comparative reviews on the Internet. So I ordered it from Amazon.

Bad choice!

Here's the review I submitted to Amazon on 01/10/24:
This is a complete FAKE. I ran GRC's ValiDrive against it and it showed that it claimed 268GB but only tested as 71GB. I couldn't resist so I opened it. All this is is a microSD card in a cheap carrier.

How did this get almost 6,000 reviews with a 4.1 rating? Amazon, are you asleep at the wheel?
I even submitted pictures of the internals and the ValiDrive test results.






Amazon's response on 01/12/24:
We couldn't post your review because it doesn't meet our community guidelines.
So, I guess telling the truth doesn't meet their community guidelines.

So I resubmitted my review on 01/12/24 omitting "FAKE":
Doesn't Have Stated Capacity: This doesn't have the stated capacity. I ran GRC's ValiDrive against it and it showed that it claimed 268GB but only tested as 71GB. I couldn't resist so I opened it. All this is is a microSD card in a cheap carrier. You won't be able to read your data from this drive.
Amazon replied on 01/14/24:
Thank you for submitting a review of Flash Drive for iPhone 256GB, AUAMOZ USB iOS Memory Stick Photo Stick External Storage Thumb Drive for iPhone iPad Android Computer (Light Blue); we are sorry you did not have a positive experience. We investigated your concerns about product authenticity, and the information we have indicates that the product you received was authentic. As a result, we removed the review you submitted. This ensures that customer reviews remain as accurate as possible for the benefit of future customers.
If you go read the Amazon reviews, NOBODY mentions restoring their files from the drive.

So I resubmitted my review a third time on 01/14/24 trying to be more succinct:
Doesn't Have Stated Capacity: It only had 71GB of capacity. If you copy files to it, you can't read them back.
Amazon replied on 01/15/24:
Thank you for submitting a review of Flash Drive for iPhone 256GB, AUAMOZ USB iOS Memory Stick Photo Stick External Storage Thumb Drive for iPhone iPad Android Computer (Light Blue); we are sorry you did not have a positive experience. We investigated your concerns about product authenticity, and the information we have indicates that the product you received was authentic. As a result, we removed the review you submitted. This ensures that customer reviews remain as accurate as possible for the benefit of future customers.
I finally bought a SanDisk 128GB iXpand Flash Drive Go that tested and worked great. It cost twice as much as the AUAMOZ and had half the stated (but actual) capacity.


Caveat emptor.

Sunday, February 04, 2024

macOS for Windows Users

This has been a journey but one I needed to have made.


This post is going to be my (and hopefully your) cheatsheet for macOS.

Tips:

  • Command-Q to quit - like the red X in the upper-right corner
  • Function-Delete to forward delete - backspace key
  • Command-Tab to switch apps - like Windows Key + Tab
  • Command-Option-Esc to Force Quit - Control-Alt-Delete
  • Option-click on the Notification Center icon at top right of the menu bar to toggle Do Not Disturb
  • Option-click menu bar icons - access different or expanded menus
  • Option-click the Apple button - lets you restart or shut down your Mac and view system information
  • Command-spacebar for Spotlight search - like Windows Key
  • Use the trackpad as right mouse button - press with 2 fingers to get the right mouse button
  • Use the shortcuts you're used to - use  instead of Ctrl

Links:


Helpful Applications:

Strongbox - for KeePass

Sunday, January 28, 2024

MacBrick

As mentioned earlier, I Sipped the Kool-Aid. And then I stumbled.

OpenCore Legacy Patcher's (OCLP) instructions are somewhat wanting. On a trip, I got a prompt that a new update to OCLP was available. Generally you don't need to install updates unless you are planning to upgrade to a new macOS that that update provides support for but, knowing me, I install them all.

The OCLP updates install automatically after you accept them but I was too aggressive. I got a prompt that something couldn't install because something else was already in progress. With no guidance from OCLP, I clicked the "Retry" button.

BRICK!


From Apple:
A prohibitory symbol, which looks like a circle with a line or slash through it, means that your startup disk contains a Mac operating system, but it's not a version or build of macOS that your Mac can use.
The MacBook wouldn't boot. Basically, the on-the-fly OCLP firmware patches weren't being installed and the MacBook Air 2015 wouldn't boot Ventura.

Being out of town, I didn't have the "magic" USB drive that I had used to install OCLP. Perhaps, with that I could have repatched the firmware.

Anyway, I had a MacBook brick for the rest of the trip. Thankfully, I had brought a Windows laptop as well.

Back at home, I still couldn't figure out how to repatch using the USB drive.

Finally, I just did a hard factory reset (archive.org) on the MacBook and rebuilt it. At least that was good practice and a check on my documentation.


There are lots of links on Google about how to reset a MacBook but they are usually telling you how to erase it. The above linked lifewire.com article will let you reset a bricked MacBook over the Internet. Pretty cool.

Sunday, January 21, 2024

Say No to iOS Apps

I had made a reservation for dinner at a local restaurant. They required Yelp to make the reservation. I used the restaurant's link on their website and it worked fine.

Then the trouble began.

The day before our reservation, I got the following text message from Yelp.


Here's the web page I got when I clicked that link on my phone.


No, I'm not going to install an app just to confirm a reservation.

So, I just replied "YES".


So the demand to install an app was just a bluff. Why would Yelp bluff you to install an app?

I found this reddit comment that explains it better than I can.
  • A website can't ask your OS for a list of installed apps and then sell it to the highest bidder.
  • A website can't nag you with useless notifications, unless you explicitly click "yes" on a scary-looking browser dialog.
  • A website can't access your phone's globally unique identifiers, nor can it collect stats about your battery to determine how likely you are to buy a new phone.
  • A website can't scan your phone's entire storage for interesting stuff after you grant it the permission to pull one photo from a directory.
  • A website can't put you on the "users to eventually ban" list if your phone is jailbroken or rooted.
  • A website can't download ads in the background to show them even if you are offline (even though the web tech to make offline sites actually exists).
Now, that's why don't I like to install apps.

Sunday, January 14, 2024

I Sipped the Kool-Aid

I've had an iPad for years. I've given up and moved to an iPhone, even enabling iMessage. Then I bought an Apple Watch.

Now I've gone and bought a Mac, actually a MacBook Air 2015. I got it CHEAP!
But the last macOS supported on the MacBook Air 2015 was Catalina 10.15.7. Not only haven't there been any security patches for Catalina for a while but it was 4 versions behind.

Then I found OpenCore Legacy Patcher (OCLP). OCLP is my kind of hack. Apple deprecates versions of their Mac hardware by requiring new but basically insignificant hardware. OCLP updates the Mac's firmware in memory to fake that the newly required hardware is present and then the new macOS runs without complaints. Even the performance is good.

But it's not for the faint of heart. As of this post, the installation instructions (archive.org) are for version 0.6.6 while the current version is 1.3.0. And some of the steps are implied rather than specified.

There are lots of other guides on the Internet but they all seem to assume a pretty good understanding of macOS.

So, if you're game, it works great.

My MacBook Air 2015 is running Sonoma 14.2.1.

Sunday, January 07, 2024

PHI-Not so-COOL

You'll recall my experiences recently with ValiDrive and the FAKE 512GB USB drive with USB A, USB C, and Lightning connectors. It only had capacity of 64GB.

Somewhat later, I was out of town and had an urgent need for a USB drive. In my traveling toolkit, I had a PHICOOL USB drive with an alleged 128GB and USB A, USB C, and Lightning connectors.


Now my SOP is to run ValiDrive on new USB drives. Again, this drive was FAKE only having 32GB of capacity and was ridiculously slow.


As I studied the PHICOOL drive I realized that I could open it. Here is what was inside.


But look at this!


A 32GB microSD card!

Run ValiDrive on EVERY USB drive that you buy, even on memory cards.