My KL Trip in June 2018 - some unintended consequences

A few unintended consequences of my Malaysia trip....

1. Respect the Traffic ... It is so pleasing to see traffic rules being followed ... I should try to do it

2. Respect the differences & ladies .... Ladies clad in headgear in a Muslim country jostling shoulders with mini skirted chinese women and Indians in shorts ....

Also, Anuj's family lifestyle is SOOO different from ours ... but still quite cool,

They don't have much physical activity ... watch tonnes of TV (mostly a single hindi comedy TV serial ) through the day, have very simple meals, do not even have a maid, sleep late wake late (in holidays) and generally are not going anywhere... but seem to be doing well :)

Being different is COOL, most things don't really matter as much as I think they do

3. Respect the housework ... Anuj helps in cooking etc. and they all generally share house work ... Parents more than kids ....

Smart Wifi Toggler – an app to improve your Android Phone’s Battery life automatically

The single most important thing that I find lacking in my smartphone today is Battery Life. Whatever we do, we barely scratch past a day without needing a charger. How about I tell you a simple way to improve the battery life of your phone automatically.

Enter – Smart Wifi Toggler!

This is a small Android app that does a simple job effectively. It shuts down your wifi when you leave a wifi zone (like your house / clinic) and restarts it when you get back to a wifi zone. This leads to a large amount of battery life improvement as open wifi is a serious drain on your phone’s battery, plus a potential security hazard.

Here is what the Google Play Store description says

“Smart WiFi Toggler is an application designed to control your phone's WiFi using location based rules. Its aim is to conserve battery and minimize data charges by turning WiFi off when not connected to a network, and turning it on when a known hotspot is present. It constantly learns where your hotspots are located to make its decisions.
It's a very useful application if you frequently forget to turn WiFi off when leaving a hotspot, or if you want to automatically switch from mobile data to WiFi to conserve battery whenever you're back into a hotspot.”

There are many similar sounding apps so please remember to download the app with the above icon only. The author of the app is “Seboult Aghuelan”.

In my use I have found that this app takes a couple of days to figure out your default wifi zones. Once it has learnt your regular wifi areas it is quite effective in improving battery life. The only issue I find is that Android automatically shuts down the app after a few days and then I  need to restart it to keep it working.

Till the next time,

Personal Practice – How to browse the Internet with more privacy & less ads!

Have you ever searched for anything online – say a watch, and then find that on every site you go ads of watches keep on appearing?
Do you hate when the entire page is full of flashing video & banner ads?
Does your computer suddenly slow down while surfing certain sites?

If the answer to any of the above questions is YES, then give me just a few minutes of your time and you will be browsing the net like a true PRO!

Internet is like a GIANT advertising machine. Most of the big players like Google, Amazon, Yahoo & Facebook etc. are following your browsing habits and creating ads according to what you surf, whether you like it or not.

Once they come to know that you like something or want to buy something, you will be bombarded with ads related to the same for days & weeks. In addition browsing unprotected can be a big security risk with many websites and unscrupulous people exploiting ads and browser pages to infect your computer with virus & even use it to run bad software without your knowledge!

Here are 3 very useful chrome extensions that you can easily install and get rid of most of this risk, and have a much better surfing experience.

For a step by step tutorial on how to add extensions in Chrome please visit this URL https://www.wikihow.com/Add-Extensions-in-Google-Chrome

Just search the Google Chrome Store & add these extensions here

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/category/extensions

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1. 1. Adguard

There are many adblockers on Chrome store, but this is my favorite. In fact I have installed paid version of this on my mobile too. However the desktop version is FREE, and here is how it is described “Unmatched adblock extension against advertising and pop-ups. Blocks ads on Facebook, Youtube and all other websites.”

 With close to 40,000 reviews and a 5 star rating, you cannot go wrong here.

2.       2. Privacy Badger –

Privacy Badger blocks spying ads and invisible trackers. It's there to ensure that companies can't track your browsing without your consent. Please ensure that you download the Orange color extension created by EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation).  While this extension may sometimes cause some websites that track you aggressively from not loading properly, if needed, you can always switch it off for a specific websites.

3.       3. HTTPS Everywhere

– This is another excellent protection tool created by the ever reliable EFF. As you may know, most websites that have passwords or are used for financial transactions use https (secure) webpage.

HTTPS Everywhere automatically switches thousands of sites from insecure "http" to secure "https".  It will protect you against many forms of surveillance and account hijacking, and some forms of censorship.

To conclude, in today’s world just simply browsing the internet puts you at risk of many privacy-related issues. An antivirus is unlikely to offer complete protection against many malicious software that can infect your browser. Just simply adding these extensions to Chrome can help you browse safely, efficiently and with much more privacy.

Dr. Gaurav Gupta

docgaurav@gmail.com

www.charakclinics.com