Tech Trends | At Home with Tech

June 18, 2017

Why My iCloud Email Stopped Working in Outlook for Mac

When your email program suddenly chokes, it’s probably a good idea to first find out if your email provider has updated any of its policies that require you to take action.

Yes, my iCloud emails abruptly stopped showing up in my Microsoft Outlook for Mac program a few days ago. For the record, it was on June 15. My iMac presented a message warning me that something was very wrong and that it might be my password or user ID. But as far as I knew, nothing had changed.

Boy, was I wrong…

June 15 Can be Hazardous to Your Emails
And if you think you don’t need to worry about this particular tech glitch because you don’t use Outlook for Mac for email, be forewarned that this story affects all of your third-party apps that require a password to get to your iCloud email, calendar and contacts.

I scoured the web for possible solutions.
Hours later, I stumbled across this little detail:
(Thanks to 9to5Mac and Lifewire)

As of June 15, 2017, Apple changed its security policies for non-Apple apps. Now, you need to create app-specific passwords through Apple’s enhanced security protocols of “2-step verification” (older system) or “2-factor verification” (newer system).

What this means is you can’t sign into your non-Apple apps using your iCloud password. You’ve got to create app-specific passwords through Apple.

This is not at all a new process. But if you’ve been avoiding Apple’s verification protocols, now you have no choice but to comply or get kicked out of Apple’s ecosystem.

Give a Dad a Chance!
No doubt, better security bolted onto your iCloud account is wicked important. But it would have been nice to know that this was coming.
(Cough)

But as it turns out, Apple sent an email to me on May 16 explaining the change.
I didn’t see that one apparently…

And then I missed the friendly reminder that went out two days before the deadline.
Mea culpa.

So how hard is it to set it all up?
Not at all.

In fact, it’s easy via the Apple ID page, which houses all of your account details and where you can create these à la carte passwords.

Father’s Day Gift from Apple
Look, I know I wasn’t paying attention. And I was given fair warning… twice.

But Apple… did you have to make the deadline right before Father’s Day?!
I mean… chances are there are other dads out there who ran afoul of this change.
I can’t be the only one.
(Cough)

And wouldn’t it be safe to assume we’ve all got other plans on Father’s Day weekend beyond having to spend time trying to figure out how to get our emails working again?

Choosing a different week would have been better.
(Just a pedestrian point of view from one of your faithful users out there in the trenches)

And to all of you ‘IT Guy’ dads out there who dodged this particular bullet, please hear me: If you don’t have the spare time to make your tech updates in a timely manner and hope to keep the status quo going for as long as possible… you can only wait for so long!

And then it catches up with you.
That’s the reality.
Happy Father’s Day.

Now put away your new tie and get to work.
(And read all of your Apple emails!)

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June 11, 2017

The Power of a Video Freeze Frame

Today’s story spans generations and species. And it all begins with a faulty memory card in my camera as I record an important video moment that foretells the arrival of our new kitten.

The memory card in my Panasonic LX10 camera blew it big time. This kind of problem has only happened one other time for me, and that was many years ago. But sometimes memory cards go bad and don’t correctly record your photo or video file.

And of course, fate requires those exasperating moments to occur when something really special happens… yes, a magic moment.
(You know, like when aliens from Mars land in front of your house looking for directions.)

An 18-Frame Conundrum
I missed this particular magic moment recording a video, which ended up having an inexplicable visual glitch every second or so.
(Actually, every 18 frames)

Here’s an example of the glitch.

The videos and photos recorded immediately after were fine. So this appeared to be a one-off problem. Nevertheless, I retired the SDXC card the next day and popped in a new one.
(I didn’t even want to consider the possibility that the culprit
was my still new Panasonic camera.)

Welcome Home, Kitty
And what exactly was this particular event? It was when my wife and I revealed to our seven-year old son that we were getting a kitten, something he’d been wanting for quite some time.

We decided not to simply tell him or reveal the cat like in a magic act.
(No, we would go to the animal shelter together to adopt our kitten.)

Instead, we brought him into the room upstairs where she’d be hanging out during her early days with us. And I had staged that room with all of the cat paraphernalia you usually need… water and food bowls, litter box, cat toys, scratching post, and a cozy bed puff.
(Thank you, Petco.)

I hoped it would be one of those Aha moments where the realization bathed over our son. I wanted to capture that happiness for posterity.

And that’s exactly what happened. It was priceless. He was so psyched. The video was amazing. Except that it wasn’t…

Keep It in Perspective
You might be thinking that this isn’t such a big deal. It’s just one of many great “moments” in a child’s life. There are literally hundreds (thousands?) of others.
(It’s not like you’re recording your own “Truman Show.”)

As a parent, you’re going to miss some along the way. Sometimes due to user error… Other times because your technology fails you.

Years from now, I know not having this video isn’t going to matter.
…I’ve already got videos of the new team in action.
(A boy and his cat)

And you move on.

The 18-Frame Solution
But for some reason I couldn’t totally let go of this.

Was the faulty video file a total loss?
Well, not necessarily…

Sure, you could still make out what happens. But it’s jarring to watch. So it’s value is limited.

But if the video glitches every 18 frames, that means there are plenty of good frames of video remaining.

Frames that could make for a good photo.
Hmmmm…..

What about extracting some of those frames and using them as photos?

So I gave it a try…

How to Grab a Frame from Video
I had shot the video in 1080HD… not as high res as the photos my camera generates.
Maybe that’s another reason to start recording videos in 4K.
(Wasn’t that why I said I bought this camera over the Canon G7 X Mark II?)

There are a few ways to grab a frame off of your video file on your Mac.

You can do it with Final Cut Pro X or iMovie.
Or using QuickTime, first go to your desired frame and then to copy it… select the video window portion on your desktop with Apple/Shift/4. That creates a PNG file, which you can easily convert to a JPG or TIFF.

Q.E.D.
(Quite easily done)

Can Your Camera Do This?
Happily, my Panasonic LX10 and its new memory card have been doing fine over the past month. So I feel comfortable that the original phantom glitch is behind me, and I don’t have to worry about grabbing video frames as a back up plan.

That said, I’m not the first one to stumble upon this idea. In fact, some cameras (like my LX10) include the capability to natively generate frame grabs when you go back and review a video in-camera.

A Video Freeze Can Create a Great Portrait
Surprisingly, I’ve just realized that this technique can be quite useful when trying to capture a more natural portrait of someone who has a difficult time posing for the camera.

Sure, it’s hard to choose a frame when someone’s talking, but the trick is to grab a freeze immediately after a sentence. If it’s also at the end of a complete thought, there’s usually a second of a pause to select from.

Case in point… my eighty-four-year-old father.
He’s not one these days to happily pull off a Cary Grant smile.
(It’s usually more like a Clint Eastwood mug during his Dirty Harry days.)

So I put my new tech technique to work…
I pulled out a frame from a video I just shot of my father proudly talking about his 1962 Red MG.

I think he’s as proud of that car today as ever, and it shows!

Happy Twist of Fate
Isn’t it interesting to see how one frustrating moment of tech failure can open up a whole new world of opportunity?

Sometimes you’ve just got to go with it and see where it all takes you…
(Is there another choice?)

June 4, 2017

Did You Know Your Dishwasher Can Do This?

When your hot water at home goes on the fritz, life can get pretty wonky. On the other hand, life (and your dishwasher) might surprise you…

Our gas-powered water heater stopped working last week. As a homeowner, it was one of those moments you know will eventually happen and dread for years. Not so much because you lose your hot water, but because of the legendary ways water heaters tend to break…

Your Old Water Heater is an Accident Waiting to Happen
The Simple Homeowner’s Guidebook in 50 Steps* says a home’s water heater will usually last 8-10 years, and after that, it just “lets go.” The leak creates some level of flooding. There’s no warning. It just happens. That’s the myth.

I think the reality is not always as dramatic, although it certainly can be. I spoke to a contractor about this, and he told me it’s more often a ‘drip’ that simply grows over time. The trick is to pay attention. But if you really think about it, that’s harder in practice.
(These days, I can barely pay attention to whether I spring a leak!)

Anyway, the good news is our thirteen-year-old gas water heater didn’t lose its structural integrity. It just stopped lighting up.
(And yes, it’s been living on borrowed time for over three years. Someone should tell that homeowner to buck up and stop playing roulette.)

I had a handyman take a look. He told me it was probably the gas valve. That’s a few-hundred-buck fix. On the other hand, it could have just been the thermal coupler. That’s only a $35 part.
(Plus a plumber’s time)

Pop quiz:
What do you do?
WHAT DO YOU DO??

Okay… this one wasn’t so hard.
You go buy yourself a new water heater!
(And be thankful that your old hunk-of-junk unit died in such a graceful and non-destructive way.)

Option A or B?
So that’s exactly what I did.

The problem was the timing.
This all went down the day before we left for a little New Hampshire hiking trip with friends in the White Mountains.

The good news is we were going to be away for a few days.
(We’d find our hot showers elsewhere.)

The bad news is I wasn’t able to schedule the new water heater installation until four days after we’d get back.

We actually had the choice to delay our trip and get the new water heater installed the very next day. I seriously considered it, but my wife reminded me that a glorious hiking trip in the mountains trumps a little hot water.
(Another example of the wisdom from my better half that helps to keep me on track!)

Roughing It
We drove off to the mountains knowing that when we returned, we’d have to live for a while without the modern convenience of an always-available hot water supply.

What do you do?
WHAT DO YOU DO??

Well, first off, you don’t freak out, like I did on the first morning back.
(My wife was much more sanguine about the whole thing. My seven year old was even more psyched, because he didn’t have to take a bath for the foreseeable future.)

For me, the big question was how to take a shower.

Our gas-powered stove was still working… so I tried heating up a big pot of water, bringing it into the shower and then mixing it with another big pot of cold water.
(That makes two big pots of warm water.)

You know, it’s amazing to find out how much (or how little) water you actually need to take a shower.
(My two-pot strategy worked just fine!)

The Dishwasher Dilemma
So you might be wondering by now what this all has to do with being at home with tech.
(Your iPhone and new Panasonic pocket camera can’t help you take a hot shower.)

This is actually about our Bosch dishwasher, which I purchased after some extensive research.
(And yes, I’ve really liked it!)

Doing dishes isn’t the easiest thing without hot water. But on day two of the Lester Hot-Water Crisis I figured I’d run the dishwasher anyway and see what happens.

Well, I opened up the dishwasher door after the cycle finished up and grabbed the first plate. My hand recoiled in pain. For a moment, I was entirely confused.**

My fingers felt the sting of heat. This plate was… hot?

I looked into the dishwasher and realized I had a perfectly clean, hot batch of dishes ready to go.

How was that… possible?!

Always Question Your Assumptions
Okay, I know it must be obvious. But it did take me a moment to process…
My dishwasher heated up the cold water.
(I had figured that dishwashers simply used incoming hot water.)

I told my silly (sad) tale to a friend. He cracked a small smile at my puerile understanding of how dishwashers work.

In fact, they do use hot water, but they also regulate the temperature to better accomplish their washing magic. And that means they have the technology to heat up the water.

And if all that’s coming in is cold water… well, voilà! Now it’s hot.

Your Dishwasher’s Secret Power
I know it’s taken a while to specifically articulate my little Aha moment.
But here it is:

If you lose your hot water at home, your dishwasher doesn’t care.***

So our dishes were sparkling clean.

And everything else worked out:

I successfully took four stove-based showers and didn’t run into anyone who questioned my hygiene.
I’m happy to report that the Lesters have hot water again.
And our hiking trip was indeed glorious.

You’ve got to keep it all in perspective…

*I’m not aware of any such book.
**Not the first time
***And a big pot of hot water from your stove can get it done for a quick shower!

Category: Tech Trends

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