How to Change Background Themes In the New Firefox Quantum

For over a decade I've been a Firefox user but in recent years my Web browser usage has migrated more towards Google Chrome because Firefox has slowed and consumed too much memory. I frequently had to close and restart Firefox as it slowed and/or froze so frequently.

Today when I turned on my computer, Firefox installed version 57.0, Firefox Quantum. Mozilla says that it is better, faster and uses less memory! GOOD! They also say it is 30% "lighter" than Chrome, which alludes to memory usage. GREAT!

Hoping for the best with this new Firefox update! But one thing annoyed me when it first opened on my screen. The tabs were dark with white font. I don't like that. I right-clicked and messed around, hoping to change it back to the light background I was used to, to no avail. I searched the Web for answers and couldn't find anything quickly for mere mortals like myself.

Then I happened upon the quite simple answer and screenshotted it for those, like me, who aren't fans of change when forced upon us.

Here's the annoying (to me in any case) browser tabs and menu that came with the new Firefox Quantum. How to change it? Click the menu item and scroll to Customize.

In the Customize menu screen, click Themes.

Then you will see the background Themes that came with Firefox Quantum. I changed it from the Default Theme to the Light Theme and, wallah, my issue was gone. There are plenty of other Themes out there by clicking Get More Themes. Not me, though. I like it simple.

Firefox color scheme is back to the same ole boring look I've used for years. YES!

What to Do When Someone Appears Suicidal on Facebook

Someone connected to me as a friend in Facebook posted a single word on her page tonight. The word was "Suicide."

The actual post

To be honest I don't recall why this person connected with me as I don't remember her from high school decades ago. But I am connected with her and, like others, her post caused me concern. I couldn't ignore it.

The first 10 or so comments were pleas to her. "Can I help?" "Are you ok?" "??" "What's going on?" "We're all concerned" "Where are you?"

There was no response from the woman and the comments changed: "Can somebody message her daughter?" "Has anyone contacted her?" "Do you know her?" "I tried messaging her" "Her voicemail is full"

I took it upon myself to call the National Suicide Prevention Hotline at 1-800-273-8255 to ask for advice. The problem was that no one really knows where this person is.

After about a minute, I spoke with someone on the Hotline and she indicated in this situation, that Facebook has a "Report Suicidal Content" function at www.facebook.com/help/contact/305410456169423 that allows users to report direct threats of suicide. I did so. As did others.

Facebook's response was "Thanks for reporting this to us. We take these situations very seriously. We'll review the information you provided and may contact the appropriate authorities to follow up on this matter. If you encounter a direct threat of suicide on Facebook, you should contact your local law enforcement or suicide prevention agency right away. If possible, you should also encourage the person who posted the content to contact their local suicide prevention agency. Please rest assured that these reports are kept confidential."

Thankfully one of the individual's friends knew the address she had moved to and contacted law enforcement. An officer is currently checking on her. No word as of yet.

As a product of the pre-smartphone days, I find it maddening to see messages like "I texted her" "I messaged her" " I sent a friend request to her daughter" etc.  Sometimes you just have to get on the phone and call. And that's what one of her friends did.

But the good news if Facebook has provided a platform for several dozen friends of this woman to work together in real time, share information and take an action.

Top Hiring Employers in Ventura County and Adjacent Areas in Mid-May 2017

According to the State of California Employment Development Department, the preliminary estimated unemployment rate in Ventura County was 4.6% in March 2017, down from 4.7% in February 2017 and 5.2% in March 2016. The rate was 5.7% in March 2015, 7.1% in March 2014, 7.9% in March 2013 and 9.4% in March 2012. So in 5 years the unemployment rate in Ventura County has dropped by over 50%.

There are currently an estimated 20,000 folks looking for work in Ventura County out of a labor force of 433,100. Let's take a look at local employers in Ventura County and adjacent areas with the highest number of posted job openings as of mid-May 2017.

CLICK HERE FOR OVER 300 LOCAL AREA EMPLOYER JOB LISTINGS

City of Oxnard - 24 jobs www.governmentjobs.com/careers/cityofoxnard

Community Memorial Hospital - 66 jobs www.cmhshealth.org/careers/job_search.shtml

County of Santa Barbara - 27 jobs www.governmentjobs.com/careers/sbcounty

County of Ventura - 48 jobs www.governmentjobs.com/careers/ventura

Deckers Outdoors - 29 Goleta jobs www.governmentjobs.com/careers/sbcounty

Farmers Group - 75 Woodland Hills jobs www.farmers.com/careers

Guitar Center - 35 Westlake Village jobs www.guitarcenter.com/pages/careers

Los Robles Medical Center - 63 Thousand Oaks jobs losrobleshospital.com/careers/search.dot

Medtronic - 44 Northridge jobs www.medtronic.com/us-en/about/careers.html

Orbital ATK - 27 Goleta, Northridge jobs careers.orbitalatk.com/res_joblist.html

Procore - 62 Carpinteria jobs www.procore.com/jobs/openings.php

Oxnard School District - 33 jobs www.oxnardsd.org/pages/Oxnard_School_District/Departments/Human_Resources

PennyMac - 39 Moorpark, Agoura jobs www.pennymacusa.com/careers.php

Pepperdine - 38 Malibu staff jobs jobs.pepperdine.edu/cw/en/listing

Raytheon - 75 Goleta jobs jobs.raytheon.com

Regal Medical Group - Over 50 SF Valley jobs www.regalmed.com/regalcareers.cfm?rc=car 

Sage Publications - 30 Thousand Oaks jobs  www.sagepublications.com/careers

Simi Valley Hospital - 38 jobs www.simivalleyhospital.com/career/jobs.php

Skyworks Solutions - 28 Newbury Park jobs careers.skyworksinc.com

Sonos - 39 Santa Barbara jobs careers.sonos.com

Dignity Health (St. John's) - over 100 local jobs www.dignityhealthcareers.org/careers/Search-Jobs/index.php

Engility - 37 Ventura County jobs careers-engility.icims.com/jobs/intro?hashed=0

The Trade Desk - 24 Ventura jobs thetradedesk.com/join-us/open-positions

Ventura County Community Colleges - 103 jobs www.governmentjobs.com/careers/vcccd

Viking Cruises - 20 Woodland Hills jobs www.vikingcruises.com/about-us/careers.html

Yardi - 26 Santa Barbara jobs www.yardi.com/US/CareerOpportunities.aspx

Aerovironment - 51 Simi Valley jobs www.avinc.com/careers/jobs/category/simi_valley

Amgen - 171 Thousand Oaks jobs careers.amgen.com

Bank of America - 135 local area jobs careers.bankofamerica.com/us

Blackline Systems - 29 Woodland Hills jobs www.blackline.com/careers/positions

BrightView (formerly ValleyCrest) - Over 20 local area jobs jobs.brightview.com

Centene (formerly HealthNet) - Over 100 Woodland Hills jobs www.centene.com/careers/search-jobs

Child Care Resource Center - 33 SF Valley jobs www.ccrcca.org/about/work-at-ccrc

Goodwill Industries - over 20 Ventura County jobs www.goodwillvsb.org/index.php/join-our-team

You Will Be Amazed By How Much Google Knows About You on the Google "My Activity" Page

If you use an Android phone, YouTube, Google Search, Google Maps and other Google products, chances are Google has more data on you than you could imagine on "Google My Activity."

Google knows what searches you've done, websites you're visited, YouTube videos you've watched, what you've voice searched for and where you've been (if you use an Android phone).

Let's take a closer look at myactivity.google.com. 

Today I was at the local vernal pond at Rancho Sierra Vista/Satwiwa with my son to look at the tadpoles and frogs. My son found saw a group of tadpoles acting out The Walking Dead by apparently feasting on a dead tadpole. At his urging, I pulled out my phone and tapped the Google Voice Search icon and said "do tadpoles eat other tadpoles." And sure enough, My Activity showed that I did search for it and provided a recording of my query.

Now if you forget where you were some day and are looking for a reminder, My Activity can help you with that too. Simply click Other Google Activity then under Location History click Visit Timeline. I clicked this and "today" and saw a map of everywhere I went today while carrying my phone. Kind of creepy actually. But also potentially useful...where was I on Christmas Day 2015? Searching My Activity turned up the fact that we were actually in the Florida Keys.

Searching Location History under Other google Activity reminded me that I was in the Florida Keys on Christmas Day 2015. Google My Activity is a great memory jogger!

I took a look at activity prior to January 1, 2015 to see what Google had on me and it showed all my YouTube activity, including searches and videos watched.

Some folks may get a grin out of reviewing their activity. I apparently was helping my kid with geometry homework on April 13, 2016:

So the good news is that if you don't want Google stockpiling all of this data you can do something about it. Click "Activity controls" where you can manage the tracking of your web and app activity, location history, device information, voice and audio activity and YouTube search history You can also go to "Delete activity by" and remove any or all of what has been recorded. 

Why Posting Your Birthday on Facebook is Not Such a Good Idea

You have 250 Facebook friends ranging from close family members, childhood playmates, high school classmates, frat house buddies, workplace acquaintances and other random people. Some you know well, others not so much. 

Never before have birthdays been so exciting. In your Facebook notifications settings, you can be prompted as to your friends' birthdays automatically. Or if you click your Friends section and click Birthdays, you can see "Friends with Upcoming Birthdays."  It's fun to see 97 people write "Happy Birthday!" on your wall on your birthday!

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But think about it. Do you really want your birth date, a key component of your personal information that can be used for identity theft, openly displayed on your Facebook page?

At lunch today, a friend told me that someone was able to find out his political party, but he didn't know how that happened.

In many counties, voter records are maintained online. Ventura County in fact makes it really easy to find out if you are a registered voter, when you registered and your political affiliation. All they ask for is your first and last name and your birth date. The Voter Eligibility Search is at recorder.countyofventura.org/elections/voter-lookups/am-i-a-registered-voter/#VoterEligibilitySearch.

This friend just so happens to show his birthday on his personal Facebook page. Just month and day, no year. While I didn't know what year he was born in, it took me only two guesses to log in to his voting record. This would not have been so easy had it not been for his posting his birth date to Facebook.

So unless you are interested in making it that much easier to have your identity stolen or personal information discovered, it's probably not a good idea to post your birthday to Facebook. Your real friends will remember your birthday. They either have it memorized or written down somewhere. Or maybe you can give them a hint.

There's a way to restrict access to your birthday on your Facebook page by going to "Contact and Basic Info" => "Basic Information" and clicking the lock icon next to your birthday. You can select Public, Friends, "Only Me" or Custom. "Only Me" is my option of choice. But of course my birthday comes and goes and I don't receive the Facebook-prompted birthday wishes that my friends receive.

Finding one's voter registration status in Los Angeles County at www.lavote.net/vrstatus requires slightly more work than in Ventura County. You need Last Name, Birthdate, House Number and Zip Code. 

More information about how to recover from identity theft

How to place a credit a "security freeze" on your credit file

Unsubscribing From Email Lists to Help Save Time Over the Long Run

Here we are, nearly halfway into the first month of 2017. Some of us have new year's resolutions, some of us don't. Those of us that do may or may not have made progress towards these resolutions.

Perhaps the best approach to feeling like we are actually accomplishing a new goal in 2017 is to set goals that are achievable. Not a lofty goal that could take months or an entire year, but a goal that can be accomplished fairly quickly and easily with a little bit of focus. A goal that, when achieved, can provide immediate benefits.

For me, that achievable goal is to reduce the size of my email inbox. 

Over the course of the year, I buy stuff online, sign up for services and sometimes sign up for email newsletters. While I try to pay attention to un-check the box asking me to sign up for a newsletter, in my haste I sometimes don't do so.

As a result, the daily email inbox grows and grows and grows. Sometimes to 100, 150 or more emails a day.

My daily routine includes deleting emails, usually by quickly clicking a box next to the email, then clicking the delete button. It doesn't take a lot of time to do, but it is a distraction, especially when it continues to happen all day.

If your email inbox is an annoyance to you, consider doing the following:

1. Instead of deleting unwanted emails daily, consider letting them accumulate in your inbox for a week.
2. Then take an hour of focused time to open up each email and decide if this is an email you want to receive on a regular basis.
3. Click the Unsubscribe button. Sometimes that one click unsubscribes you. Other times it leads you to a page that asks "are you sure?" Of course you're sure! Other pages ask multiple questions; would you like a weekly or monthly digest, would you like to receive these emails but not those, etc. Look, decide and take action!
4. A "digest" option is sometimes offered as a way to receive individual messages consolidated into one email. The Nextdoor neighborhood social network website offers a "Daily Digest" feature as one example that can certainly take a load off your inbox.
5. Do you get reminders from Facebook, like birthday reminders? That's something else you can put an end to if it is causing too much clutter by simply clicking the link at the bottom of the email to opt out.

Don't click links in spam emails!

Now one thing you don't want to do is click a link in an email from an unknown sender, otherwise known as Spam. You may be telling a spammer that yes, this email is active, so send me more spam. You don't want that. Gmail does a good job of identifying spam and placing it in the spam folder but there's also an icon you can click for true spam from unknown senders in your inbox.

Now that you have freed up all that space in your inbox and have created hours and hours of extra time, be sure to sign up for the weekly Conejo Valley Guide Updates Email for highlights of things to do and see in and around Ventura County. You have plenty of room now to enjoy these! :) SIGN UP FOR CVG UPDATES VIA EMAIL

One more aside, there also some free online tools out there that do the unsubscribing on your behalf. While I have not personally used them, they may be of interest: Unroll.me  getunsubscriber.com