Adobe Flash received an update on April 21st 2016, and it's starting to affect usability. I had written a tutorial on how to upgrade your version a couple years ago, but here is some more current information. 

To avoid following a link to a bogus download, I advise going directly to Adobe.com, then following the link to the Adobe Flash download. From there, you have to follow ALL the steps to download, launch and install the update (many people tend to simply click the ‘install now’ link and assume they’re done). The software will appear in your downloads folder, double click on the ‘.dmg’ file (it’s a disk mounted image) and launch the installer, then double click the ‘install flash player’ button, then agree to open the software. You’ll have to sign in with your computer login password to authenticate, then continue to follow the installation process. To complete it, you’ll have to relaunch your browser(s). Once done, you can continue to watch Youtube videos, view JacquieLawson e-cards, reserve ferries, etc.

These are your Mac's System Preferences. They can do a lot. So, as an exercise, I'm going to go through each of them, one a day, and show you what they do. For starters, you can find them in your Apple menu, very top left of your screen.

System Preferences #1 - General

This one's mostly about appearance, such as highlight colour and size of sidebar icons. My suggestion, as always, is to open it up and see what each option can do. You can't ruin anything. The one that matters to me the most is the option for automatic scroll bars. After upgrading to a new OS, you may be dismayed that your scrollbars have disappeared due to the default, 'automatically based on location'. First thing I do is switch that option to 'always'. I just don't like to hover in hopes that my scrollbars will appear. You ight also want to select, 'ask to keep changes when closing a document', too. 

System Preferences #2 - Desktop and Screensaver

This is where you choose your desktop picture, whether it's from Apple's default folders or your own Photos library. You can choose to rotate through a selection of your photos on a schedule of seconds, minutes or days. If you don't want your slideshow to include your entire Photos library, you can create an album of your top 10, 50 or 200 etc photos, and select it as your target folder.

There are screensaver options on the second page, though screensaver are not as crucial as they were when we used old cathode ray tube (CRT) monitors

How To Create An Apple ID, Quick Guide to Bits and Bytes, How To Change Your Wifi Network Password, How to create a monthly calendar item, How to set a specific ringtone, recent software updates

How To Create An Apple ID

Hard to believe, but there are people out there using Mac computers who have never created an Apple ID. Any computer post-Snow Leopard does require an Apple ID to be able to buy apps, rent movies, buy music and books, and take advantage of the benefits of iCloud.

The process is pretty straightforward. Navigate to https://appleid.apple.com/account and fill in all the details. The tricky part comes at the point where you have to answer a series of security questions. The problem is, you could potentially forget the answers to the questions 2 or 3 years down the road, or even tomorrow afternoon, if you're like me. Best practice would be to take a screenshot of the answers by pressing command-shift-4 simultaneously and drawing the mouse coordinates over the answers. Store the screenshot on your desktop, or wherever else you can find it easily. You'll also have to fill in your birthdate. Please don't try to trick them into thinking you're younger than you actually are. Don't laugh, I've seen it happen. When, not if, you forget your Apple password, you will need these details to reset your password.
You don't need to add your credit card info at this moment, you can choose 'none' as your payment method.
Create a good, strong password. Your Apple ID contains many important details about you, and you don't want scammers getting access to those details. Refer to one of my older blog posts about how to create a strong password here. http://www.upyourmedia.com/…/13-passwords-and-security-for-…
You'll have to verify your email address before the ID becomes active, just follow the link in the email Apple sends.

A Short Guide to Bits and Bytes

Your computer uses bits and bytes to process information. 1000 bytes is a Kilobyte. 1000 KB is a Megabyte. 1000 MB is a Gigabyte. 1000 GB is a terabyte. Your front facing iPhone camera takes pictures of about 150-300 KB, the rear-facing camera is closer to 3 MB. So if you have a 1 TB hard drive, you can cram in with about 333,000 selfies. Get snapping'!

How To Change Your Wifi Network Password

There are a few reasons why you might want to change your wifi password. I use the technique to get my unco-operative teenage son's attention. To do so, log in to your modem via Safari by typing the modem's IP address in to the address field.  (Telus and Shaw addresses and passwords will be printed on the modem itself, for D-links etc, you may have to do a Google search for the address. It will look something like 192.168.0.1) Look for your wireless settings, change the SSID (network name) if you wish. CSIS Surveillance Van, or Click Here Mom are two good choices. Then change the password. Distribute the password at your discretion. Keep in mind that ALL of your devices will have to have the new password entered, including your wireless printer, iPhone, Apple TV, etc, 

If your wifi is being served through an Apple Airport Extreme or Express, you can easily change your password through the Airport Utility.

How To Create A Recurring Calendar item in Calendars

You can create monthly recurring events in your Calendar app. (or weekly,  bi-weekly, or even every 2nd Friday of the month).  Easy, and handy for regular events, such as pre-authorized payments, book-club meetings etc. I use this one to keep track of my pet's flea medications. Create the event as normal, but when you go to edit it, click the 'repeat' option in the data field. Choose the applicable option, daily, weekly, bi-weekly, monthly. Alternately, you can select Custom, which will allow you to set custom details, such as every six weeks, every 3rd Tuesday, etc. You can even choose to be alerted the day, hour or week before, to ensure that you're prepared. Works!

How to Set an Individual Ringtone for a Specific Contact

I love my ringtones, and I love to be able to know who is calling or texting without even glancing at my phone. I've created many many ringtones that I assign to my favourite contacts, many of them that are fully in line with the personality of the contact, and I'm working on making them available on my website. There are 2 dozen stock ringtones already available to you on your iPhone, and to assign one to any contact, you need to navigate to your Contacts App, open the specific contact of your choosing, click edit, then change the ring or text tone from default to one of the other tones available. It really does make ignoring your phone a little easier, and can set yours apart from the other 15 iPhones in line at the bank.