Two lessons regarding using computers in foreign hotels!

J

JOhnH

Touchdown! Greaser!
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1. I was completely confounded by the "@" sign. I have been touch typing for so long, I don't really know where the @ sign is. I just rely on my finger muscle memory. (hint; it is the <shift 2>). After typing several email addresses, they were all wrong (no @ sign). I googled it and it said to hit the <gramalt 2> or the <gramalt w> but neither of those worked. So I called the hotel manager and he sent a "tech guy" who showed me it was <ALT 64> (or was it 65, I'm not sure).

2. Use a browser like DuckDuckGo and be sure to hit the little flame button when you finish. That closes tabs and deletes browsing history and cookies. This is better than "incognito" or "Private" mode in other search engines because they might open windows in other browsers that are not in private mode.

I learned this after I finished a session and went back and double checked. When I brought up the "Delta" website (for instance) and went into "Manage my flights" the booking code and my last name were still there. Even Yahoo Mail still had my email address and password stored. I called the tech guy back and he tried to clear the browser but it took him about a dozen tries to get it done, but while watching, I saw many other sessions with stored information from days and weeks past.

These are little things, but they wasted over an hour while my wife was waiting to go sightseeing in Punta Arenas, which was fabulous by the way. Penguin Island was really cool.
 
JOhnH said:
1. I was completely confounded by the "@" sign. I have been touch typing for so long, I don't really know where the @ sign is. I just rely on my finger muscle memory. (hint; it is the <shift 2>). After typing several email addresses, they were all wrong (no @ sign). I googled it and it said to hit the <gramalt 2> or the <gramalt w> but neither of those worked. So I called the hotel manager and he sent a "tech guy" who showed me it was <ALT 64> (or was it 65, I'm not sure).

2. Use a browser like DuckDuckGo and be sure to hit the little flame button when you finish. That closes tabs and deletes browsing history and cookies. This is better than "incognito" or "Private" mode in other search engines because they might open windows in other browsers that are not in private mode.

I learned this after I finished a session and went back and double checked. When I brought up the "Delta" website (for instance) and went into "Manage my flights" the booking code and my last name were still there. Even Yahoo Mail still had my email address and password stored. I called the tech guy back and he tried to clear the browser but it took him about a dozen tries to get it done, but while watching, I saw many other sessions with stored information from days and weeks past.

These are little things, but they wasted over an hour while my wife was waiting to go sightseeing in Punta Arenas, which was fabulous by the way. Penguin Island was really cool.
Click to expand...

gramalt ?? Whats’s that
 
Even stateside traveling for work I have found tax paperwork with full social security numbers and other sensitive info for literally years prior. The last place I stayed, I told the manager that her guest computer was infested with malware and showed her the things I found (including X rated selfie videos of a guest) just hanging out in their documents folder. Their IT guy came in after a couple of days to nuke it back to zero.

Heck, even my apartment complex had lease agreements and social security numbers on their 2 guest computers that I deleted after showing them how to find and remove them.
 
And here I thought from the title that this was going to be another COVID-19 post.
 
Really worth having your own laptop when travelling. I'd never put anything on a public computer that involved a password or personal data.Laptops are dirt cheap and most hotels have wifi.
 
Hang 4 said:
Really worth having your own laptop when travelling. I'd never put anything on a public computer that involved a password or personal data.Laptops are dirt cheap and most hotels have wifi.
Click to expand...
I usually follow that advice. But we were packing for climates from near the equator to near the Antartic and we were really trying to pack light. Customs and security lines are long enough without checking luggage so we jammed everything into our carry on luggage. Laptops just wouldn't fit.

South America is a really interesting place. Next time we won't try to do the whole continent in one trip. We plan a couple more trips in the next two years and will probably only do two cities each trip.
 
JOhnH said:
I usually follow that advice. But we were packing for climates from near the equator to near the Antartic and we were really trying to pack light. Customs and security lines are long enough without checking luggage so we jammed everything into our carry on luggage. Laptops just wouldn't fit.

South America is a really interesting place. Next time we won't try to do the whole continent in one trip. We plan a couple more trips in the next two years and will probably only do two cities each trip.
Click to expand...

Sounds like a excellent reason to pack up your own plane and make it an adventure.


Tom
 
MooneyDriver78 said:
Sounds like a excellent reason to pack up your own plane and make it an adventure.


Tom
Click to expand...
We thought long and hard about that. But "Rich Americans" (eg; Americans that fly their own airplanes) might as well plant a target on their backs for both law enforcement and criminals. I saw very very few GA airplanes down there. One twin "something" on the ground in Lima Peru and another small twin in Punta Arenas, in the air. We read a story in (I think) the AOPA mag about a guy that spoke fluent Spanish and he had a real tough time at every stop. Everyones hands were out and if you didn't pay the right people the right amount, there was no fuel to be found.
 
JOhnH said:
. So I called the hotel manager and he sent a "tech guy" who showed me it was <ALT 64> (or was it 65, I'm not sure).
Click to expand...
<ALT64>.

Those are ASCII codes. About the only one I use with any regularity is the degree sign: °. <ALT 248>.

serveimage


https://computersciencewiki.org/index.php/ASCII
 
There are a bunch of symbols available that are not on the keyboard. For example: My 2¢ worth.

If you have a numeric keypad, hold down the "Alt" key and hit 155 on the keypad. Can't tell you the number of times i did this and people ignored the message and had to know how I got the ¢ sign.

There are more - explore and have fun.
 
If it’s a public computer I just presume it has a key logger. Still ctrl+shift+delete

Always use VPNs, especially on public networks
 
JOhnH,

I traveled parts of South America, rented a Piper Tomahawk at Ushuia Argentina, and flew up over the glaciers and mountains North of the city. The rental was at the older airport, just North of the new International one, and walking distance from the city. The planes to rent are at the Flying Club, and rather than get a checkout and fly solo, I took an instructor with me. The instructor made all the radio calls, and held the yoke when I was taking pictures. It was a perfect day, with high overcast sky, so there was no thermal activity producing the customary turbulence near the slopes, but bright enough for very good pictures. I had planned to fly West into Chilean airspace, just to claim having flown in Chile, but after admiring the nature of the mountains, stayed closer to the airport.

That is the airport furthest South on the America's. The planes were immaculate, and they pulled a Piper Archer off the line for a mag drop, and changed out a set of plugs to correct it. There was no drop on takeoff, but they check again after landing. I had intended to fly the Archer, but changed to the Tomahawk, rather than wait for the mechanic to do the plugs, he changed the whole set rather than figure out which plug was shorted.

Renting planes in other cities should be readily done, and since the world wide language of flying and ATC's is English, the rental folks should be reasonably proficient. The instructors speak English pretty well. Renting sure beats the hassle of getting through the paperwork hurdles and crooked officials with your own lane.

Puerto Arenas was a particularly interesting visit, especially the German village to the NE of P.A. Coincidentally, when we were at the P.A. square, there was a cycling road race preparing for the start, and we stayed until they departed, along with an amazing collection of loose dogs. The local dogs did not interfere with the cyclists, just ran along with the excitement.
 
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