Here is the Crescendo Music Education Podcast - Episode number 58.
Debbie O'Shea here and it is time for another IT Byt. We're going to talk about Chrome extensions and passwords. But it's just lovely listening to this tech advice from somebody as tech savvy as Stuart George from CKP Creative.
And today, I have Stuart with me for another IT Byt. Hello, Stuart.
How you doing? You've been keeping well?
Yes. Fabulous. Can't you hear it and see it?
Absolutely. You're radiating awesomeness.
Okay. All right. What's today's IT Byt?
Well, what we're going to look at today is one of my favourite things. Now, if I shared my screen, which we may do, you're going to see an absolute sea of Chrome extensions. Now, Chrome extensions are a way, it's like a tiny application that can tap into, it could be a website, could be a web app, and it will help you to achieve something. So what we're going to do today, if you aren't using Chrome extensions, we're going to introduce you to the Chrome extension, location, the place where you can find everything. And we'll reveal that in a second when Debbie shares her screen, what we'll do is we'll have a look at a couple that you might find extremely useful right away. Now, you may be using them and not even realise that they're Chrome extensions, because sometimes, when you're stepping through a web app or something you may have a free subscription to or a paid subscription. It'll say click here and download this. And we've all done it. We've gone click, click, click, click, and we end up with these things and go, Well, I don't know what I got. Well look let's demystify a couple of these right now and have a look. And we can see what Debbie's using as well, because I can see that you're using some, and they can be very useful for teachers. So let's go without further ado, would you share your screen.
Share screen, let's do it. Okay, we are on my PC, I still have my bookmarks, I have not yet had a chance to pop them in folders.
That is okay. This social one is done. It's okay. It's okay. Because it's all work in progress. And you do it when you can, you know, and sometimes it might be sitting down watching your favourite show, and doing a bit of double screening. Now, be careful with the double screening, this can you know, end up impacting the old social life. So be careful, if you can do a bit of double screening with your laptop, always good fun to go through and do things. Okay, here we go. So the Chrome Web Store now, of course, you can bookmark this really easily. And we've discussed this in a previous session there. So if you just actually just Google Chrome Web Store or Chrome extensions, you're going to come up with this. So what we're going to do now is have a bit of an explore around. Nw, up the top there, one of the things that, as they used to say now was at the comedy club, or one of the shows we used to watch a few years ago, it's on the tips of the lips of the nation. All right, so it's all about security. Now I can see that you've got up there, LastPass. Now, we won't click on that, because that's your LastPast. And it's actually where you've got all of your passwords. Now LastPass it's known to be a fantastic tool. And it's called LastPass, because they say it's the last password you'll ever need to know. So the whole idea is that you create a master password, which is incredibly long, very complicated. It's something that you type in quite often. And it can live on your browser as we've got here. And it can actually even live on your phone as well. So it's very, very cool.
Now, there's another one. Now, this is an absolute favourite of mine, because Debbie knows I'm a massive fan of Zoho. I'm just a massive fan. You might not have even heard of Zoho. But it's a fantastic mass, a mass platform for running a business or doing things in a very efficient manner. So what we're going to do is we're going to have a really quick look at a Chrome extension made by Zoho, and we're going to get to it by using the Chrome Webstore. So here we are. Up the top. You can see search the store. So what we're going to do is now this one aligns with what LastPass does, but vault which we're going to look at look for now. So if you type in Zoho Vault, as in, that's where you keep all the items you want to keep safe. Okay, so if you hit search on that, you can actually put in a problem you're trying to solve in that search area. And you can put in a stack of different questions and it actually comes up with some really good results, too. All right. So looking at Zoho Vault, this is a Chrome extension. So what we're going to do now if we click on this, now, Zoho Vault enables you to manage your passwords. Now, this will be a deeper dive, and we'll have a look at this one. But in a nutshell, you really need good strong passwords. Let's have a little little bit of a look here. So it's got little Chevrons. That's what those are, the greater than and less than symbols on either side of the image. So if you click through, so store all your passwords in one place and your sensitive data, because who's been searching for their card number or something, when you're in the shops, or you're somewhere and you might need your driver's license number, and expiry dates and things where you can store them securely here behind a really secure platform, and behind a big long password. Now don't be afraid, you only need to have one big long password because everything lives in here. Then here we go. Just for example, on the screen, they've got their login to Domino's and Dropbox and there's a few other different tools and Netflix as well. Who's been trying to, you're out somewhere and you go, Oh, I just have to watch that, that one, one more episode of Stranger Things, I can do that while I'm waiting for something. And you're sitting there but you don't know your password. No password frustrating. So this can also live on your phone as well as on your desktop. Okay, so let's click through with the next section there. So it can autofill as well. What so when you log into one of the places that you would normally be logging into and trying to find a password. And if you're like so many people, and typically below your computer, there might be a book with all of your passwords written. Now, it's okay. I understand that this is how people store their passwords and it's easy to find, guess what? Anybody that may at some point, find their way into your house knows that typically, underneath people's computers is a book with all the passwords, they walk out with your computer, they walk out with your passwords, and unfortunately, you're in a bit of a pickle, shall we say. So this is where having a password manager can save your butt. So hopefully we can say that on the podcast. But anyway, let's click through one more, here you go.
Yes you can say butt.
Fantastic. Excellent. All right, well, I'm here to save time and save butts as well. It's very, very important. Okay, here we go. So you can customise, you can dial things in, you can generate passwords inside this as well, this is what tab is, if you go back to that other tab I'll show you it will generate a password. Sometimes you've got to have a specific length of password, sometimes it's got to have mixed case, and you know, you'll be going I don't know. And then you end up putting in something similar to your cat's name and your street address and a phone number and somebody's birthday. And the problem is the people who are out there who, let's just say aren't as nice and kind and considerate as everybody who's listening and watching here, they know that as well. So with a few, you know, digging around in your social platforms, they might actually be able to put together your passwords really, really easily. Now, typically people reuse these passwords everywhere. So we will be discussing a little bit of the dark web in the future as well. We won't be travelling to the dark web. No, no, we won't be doing that. But we will be talking about how you can keep a watchful eye and to see if you may have been compromised. We'll touch on that in a future episode.
Now, back on track here, you can actually click those buttons as you can see on the screen and make sure that it starts with an alphabet, there's numbers in this, special characters mixed case, you just have to have to hit generate. And within this system, you can make a fancy long 500 character, well, maybe look if you if you have something that's 35 characters long, it will take the machine a long time to actually dig in. And most of these things the hacking is done by some AI or some software to try to crack your password. This will take that system a really long time to do if you follow these steps. So that's how to generate a password within the system. Let's click on that on that Chevron once more there Debbie now and the next thing is you can customise to make auto fills simple and secure as well. So this is it, this is all about security. Now. This is of course back to the top of we're talking about a Chrome extension. So are you ready to add a Chrome extension? It's really complicated. Oh, my gosh, you've worked it out already, there we go. Let's click on add, click go.
Yeah, this great big blue button that goes Add to Chrome. Okay, I'll click on that.
Absolutely. Now, it's asking, Would you like to do it now important to read these as well make sure you're happy with this. And it's going to modify data, it's going to change your privacy related settings. It's totally cool. It's secure. Zoho has their own technology stack. They don't share it with anybody. It's really, really amazingly, incredibly secure. So let's hit Add extension. Fantastic. So and where's it gone? Well, what we're doing, we're waiting for a second. Here we go. So now, it's added it right up the top. Fantastic. So now from here, and with every one of these extensions, what it's going to be able to do, it's going to be asking you to log in. So you typically click on that extension, and then add in your details.
Oh, it did something, it disappeared.
Oh my god, where's it gone? You've blown it up? No, you haven't. Okay? Are you ready to find where your recently added Chrome extension has gone. Click on the puzzle piece.
There you go.
That is the one, click on the puzzle piece, that's it scroll down, typically it will be at the bottom. Let's click the blue pin.
We did that in the last episode, the blue pin.
Thank you. And we all know how important repetition is for learning. So we're touching on this again, this is how you can manage your Chrome extensions and reveal them now. Are you ready? Oh, my gosh, how do we arrange these things? How do we keep them in a good order? Well, you can actually click and drag it. So if you put that up the other end, because it's so important, and you'll use it all the time. So if you put it right at the front there, it's right at the front. And you can then manage your Chrome extensions really, really easily.
The next step. Now, this is sort of digging into the security of setting this up as well. So you'll need to come up with a long password, you'll need to go back through the website. But that's what you do next is you'd click on that extension. And it would ask you for some more details. Now, that's a lot to go through right now. But we can do a quick click on it. We'll click on it. Now. It's asking to sign into Zoho, there's all sorts of things going on here as well. So now, if you don't have an account, you can set up a free account really, really easily. Debbie's got an account. So for anybody who's playing along at home, and doesn't have an account, it'll actually show up there and guide you through those next steps. So what we've talked about is a couple of really important things for everybody to focus on. And that is security, password management, really important. We've touched on a couple, we've got LastPass. And we've also got my favourite, which is actually Zoho Vault, it lives in your browser, as an extension, it can also be on your phone as well. So if you've got an iPhone you can actually open up passwords and retrieve things and put them into various applications you're opening just by looking at your phone. And of course, the same applies with a couple of different variations of an Android phone as well. It can be with your thumbprint or can be, you know, with face as well. So this way you can manage everything. You've got all your passwords in one place. We've talked about Chrome extensions. So I would love to know if there's any Chrome extensions that anybody's using out there, put a comment in and let's have a chat. And it'd be great if you can let us know, some of your favourite Chrome extensions. And in our next episode, we'll touch on a few that are some of Debbie's favourites as well. What have you got there? What's that one? I haven't seen that one.
Oh, it's just not gonna work on this. Okay. Okay, what if I go back to chrome? Will it work? There we go.
Oh, look at that.
I'll do it again. I'll do it again. Okay. And that one's just complete silliness and I often forget it's there. But it just gives you a confetti burst on your screen when you click on it.
Well, I tell you what, this is what I love. You've taught me something as well and guess what I'm going to be installing straightaway. Because we all need a good burst of confetti. You might be sitting down having a sandwich. You're sitting in front of your computer after a long lesson. Look, nothing's better than a burst of confetti. That's really good bit of a celebration. You made it through your lesson. And you're still alive.
I think I'm going to stop sharing but yes. I don't know what it's actually called. It just says fire! Maybe that's what it is.
We could find it. Well, hold on.
Shouldn't we just check because I shouldn't mention something on the podcast and not link it? What if I do fire exclamation mark? And we'll just see.
See if it's got that there. No, oh, there's different things, a bit of pokemon, there you go.
Confetti, because we shouldn't talk about something and then not tell people where to get it.
Absolutely, it's Confetti Cannon!
Of course, it's a confetti cannon, of course. So it throws confetti on your screen, but it doesn't work on every screen. So you'll notice it didn't actually work. Ironically, it did not work on the webstore page.
Well, here's the thing. And this is something to touch on is that extensions won't work in the place where you get the extensions from, because it's, it's technically a web app. And so it's a web app in itself, so you have accessed it. So extensions won't work within the Chrome extension store. So there's another little bit of an IT Byt on the end, as well. But look, and so you can see that you've added it because it's got the little green little bar across the top on the screen. And it's been added. And you can manage your extensions as well. But look, let's look at that another time. But look, that's been a fantastic a bit of a toe dip into the world of Chrome extensions. And of course, we're all about getting everybody involved. So if there's a Chrome extension that you'd like to share that you've found some great use with, please share. And we'll actually go through and do a bit of an exploration on that in a future episode. So look, thanks for having me along Debbie. This has been fantastic as usual.
That's wonderful. Thank you for this edition of IT Byt. See you next time, Stuart.
See you later. Bye.
Thank you for joining me for this podcast. Don't forget that you'll find the show notes on crescendo.com.au/58. Also, you can find the transcripts there. So you've got all of the detail that you need. If you found this podcast useful, I'd really love it if you share the link with a colleague. Remember all I can be is the best version of me. All you can do is be the best you. We'll meet again. I hope we will. Bye.
As we know laughter relieves stress. Don't lose sight of the funny side of life. Oh goodness, how on earth did you get hit on the head with a book? Oh, well, I only have my shelf to blame.
