Unusual Technology Challenge
In my work helping clients with their technology, every day presents the possibility of an interesting new challenge. That’s what makes it fun. For 35 years, I’ve been storing up everything I learn along the way so I have answers at the ready when my clients need them. No matter how obscure or unusual the task, someone else invariably comes along who needs the exact same kind of help.
So, when I read on a local Facebook group here in the Cotswolds that a charitable organization needed volunteers to run video transcripts through online translators, I reached out. The woman seeking help chairs the Timothy Syndrome Alliance, an organization working to improve the diagnosis, treatment, and care of individuals with CACNA1C-related disorders. This piqued my interest and seemed a good use of my spare time. I received my first assignment and learned that the required task was a tedious one, to cut and paste small sections of text into an AI translator, so that subtitles could be generated in multiple languages. (Diagnosis is so rare, there are entire countries with only a single known case, which can be very isolating for those affected. The goal of this project is to make new and updated information accessible to all.) Volunteers were needed because the text translation could take up to an hour for a single language.
I knew there had to be a quicker way!
A program called Keyboard Maestro came to mind. I purchased a copy and dug in. I won’t go into detail here about how it works, but I was able to create a macro that completes the one-hour task in six or seven minutes. It could save hours each time a new video is translated. I am sharing this story as the sort of example I usually forget to mention when someone asks, “What exactly is it that you do?” In short: I solve computing and technology problems, whether it’s something I’ve done a million times before, or something I can delve into and solve for the very first time.
All this to say: please reach out if you want to make your technology work better or faster for you! I can probably help.
Scams
I continue to get calls about scams. Most recently, a client setting up a new HP printer called and told me they went to HP’s website, https://123.hp.com, and called the number shown there for further help. But there is no phone number shown on this HP site – at least not a readily obvious one. I suspect they made a mistake typing the address, which led them to a scam site. The person who answered their call insisted that their network was compromised and wanted to charge them $199 to put it right. Happily, they sensed something was wrong, hung up, and got in touch with me.
To repeat my warning from last year: if the slightest thing doesn’t seem right in a phone call, hang up. Nothing bad will ever happen if you do this. If something doesn’t seem right in an email, don’t click on any links. You can always check the email “from” address — it’s nearly always obviously not from the place it purports to be from. You can always call me if you are unsure, regardless of how insistent the person on the other end of the line is that you shouldn’t call anyone. (In fact, if someone is insisting you shouldn’t speak to anyone else, that's all the more reason to do so!)
Metal Detecting
As many of you know, I took up a new hobby a few years ago: metal detecting. It has so many enjoyable facets – from being outdoors and driving in the remote countryside to finding fascinating objects, researching and photographing them, and submitting relevant ones to the Finds Liaison Officer so they can be entered on the Portable Antiquity Scheme’s website. Below is a photo of some of the more interesting items I’ve found recently.
18th Century knee buckle, Elizabeth I sixpence, George III half penny, Henry II cut half penny, James II shilling, and William III sixpence.
Starting in the upper left, you can see an 18th century knee buckle, used to hold someone’s stockings under their britches. Next is a Queen Elizabeth I sixpence. Look just to the right of the cross at the top of this coin and you can see a small mark that looks like a hand or a mitten; this is the mint mark of the Tower of London for the years 1590-92, where the coin was made. Next, we have a half penny of George III from 1806, just 30 years after the Declaration of Independence was signed. On the bottom left is the oldest coin I’ve found: a cut half penny from the reign of Henry II. It was made by a moneyer named Rogier, in Exeter between the years 1158-1163, less than 10 years after the end of The Anarchy. I love to think about the transaction which led to it being cut in half to make change, and what caused it to be dropped in a Cotswolds field at the end of its journey from Exeter. Next we have a gun money shilling from 1689, made a year after James II was deposed in the Glorious Revolution. He fled to France, then returned to Ireland and planned to invade England to get his throne back. He needed money but didn’t have much silver, so melted down old church bells and armaments, hence the term “gun money.” Last in this row is a 1696 sixpence of William III who, with his wife Mary (James II’s daughter), replaced James II on the throne.
Please reach out if you need a hand with any of your Apple devices, related software, or a puzzling technology challenge! (Or if you have a field you’d like me to visit with my metal detector!) You can email me at hugo@heriz-smith.com or text/call (207) 691-7788 (US) or 07943 199484 (UK).