Ukraine Charities

 Link to local charities helping Ukraine on the ground:

www.supportukraine.co

Direct Deposit to Ukrainian Defense Department: 

https://bank.gov.ua/en/news/all/natsionalniy-bank-vidkriv-spetsrahunok-dlya-zboru-koshtiv-na-potrebi-armiyi

Hungarian Sources Helping Refugees Directly

Migration Aid: https://migrationaid.org/adomanyozas/

Age of Hope: https://aoh.hu/kapcsolat/

Hungarian Reformed Church: https://www.facebook.com/Reformed-Church-in-Hungary-434259159985027/

Charity Grading Sites: 

charitywatch.org

https://www.charitynavigator.org/

You can also use these sites to find well regarded large charities like CARE. direct relief, world vision, doctors without borders, Save the Children

https://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=content.view&cpid=9366

https://www.charitywatch.org/charity-donating-articles

AirBnB

My opinion on using airBnB to help Ukrainians?

1. If you are worried about the overhead of charities, understand AirBnB will take a larger cut (18%) plus you will pay taxes on the stay.  A good charity has less than 10% overhead.  

2. You are only helping one person...who may not need help and may be getting help from a number of other "guests".  A charity will spread your donation across many people.

3. Your host is probably already rather wealthy

Payment:

It seems like a number of these charities are now providing credit card options for Americans to use.  However, some of the more local charities do only accept bank transfers. This lowers their fees and makes sure the money gets to those who need it, but is difficult and expensive for Americans to use.  

Three ways to address this: 

1) Just do a swift transfer through your bank.  This will cost you $25 but may also cost the charity a fee plus a currency conversion commission from their bank

2) I can do it for you but you need to send me the money through venmo

3) Get either a "revolut" or "wise" card.  Convert to the currency you will send to (I recommend sending to a euro account) then do the transfer.  If you travel abroad frequently or have family abroad, these are good cards to have...but not worth the effort just for this.

I can help with any of the above options.  

International Communication

This post will be for all friends and family who want to keep in touch with us while we are abroad.  It provides some tools and services to manage things with us and our kids.

I will not post most of our contact info on the web.  If you need to get these pieces of information, find us on facebook.

Communication
First of all, understand we will be 7 hours ahead.  So when it is 7:00 pm in Chicago, it is 2:00 AM in Budapest.  Please don't call us at 7:00 pm Chicago time. 

We will maintain new US numbers through Voice over IP services on our phones.  They will hopefully support both voice and SMS services.  Message us for the new numbers.

I am going to try to keep our current phone numbers on Google Fi, but they will mostly be turned off when we are abroad...we will turn them on when we are stateside.

The best way to get in touch with us is using the following apps in order of preference:
1. Whattsapp - this is a mobile app available on Android or Apple that allows for SMS, multimedia sharing and phone calls.  It is a reliable service and owned by Facebook.  I think this will be our primary service where you can reach us on the go.  You can find us by our phone numbers. 
2. Facebook Messenger - Also offers messaging, multimedia sharing, and phone calls.  We will also likely be available on the go using this service but it is secondary to Whatsapp.  The messenger app is available for Android, Apple and Windows devices.
3. Viber - Same as Whatsapp...we don't use it now, but may begin to use it more later.  Again, you can look us up by our phone number.  The app is available for Andoid and Apple devices.
4. Skype - Right now we use this for planned calls only as most of the above services aren't available on laptops.  There is an app available for Android, Apple and Windows devices.  We typically do not have the Skype app turned on on our phones.

Payments
Due to difference in banking systems and large expense in sending packages to Hungary ($65 for a envelope), sending a check will not work.

If you want to send us money (holiday gifts etc), there are three primary ways to do it:
1. Venmo - This is a phone app available for Android and Apple.  The service is owned by Paypal, thus very reputable.  You link it to a bank account and it allows you to send money for free.  You can look us up by our email addresses.
2. Paypal - This is primarily more of a web application, though android and apple apps are available.  You can send money as "friends and family" to us this way.  This is a bit more difficult as we will then need to transfer money to our bank account.  You can send money from credit card, but it will deduct a fee.  Tranfers are free if you deduct from a bank account or use your paypal balance.
3. Zelle is a web application that allows you to send money from one bank account to another.  Currently, our bank accounts do not support this, but I understand one of them will very soon.
4. Send a check to one of my parents.  The check should be made out in their name, not ours.

Gifts
Shipping is EXTREMELY expensive unless you go through a specialized shipping service.  It costs roughly $65 to send an envelope via Fedex/UPS and $600 for a 50 lb suitcase.  You do not want to send packages through normal mail as they often get "lost" (ahem stolen) in transition.

Also, no store present in the US is also present in Hungary.  the only gift card you can send would be Amazon, which leads me to my next point.

If you do want to get us or the kids a physical gift, the best way to do so is through Amazon.de (the German Amazon site).  They will ship to us for free, though the price will be adjusted for Hungarian VAT at the end (think of it as sales tax).  Please message us for address.

I will update this if we find other reliable websites to buy gifts.

Holiday Cards or Letters
You can send us cards or letters cheaply.  Do not include anything of value as they are known to disappear (ahem stolen) in transit.   Also, please do not send checks as we cannot cash them in Hungary.

Facebook Privacy

I'm back after a month break due to a 2 week vacation then catching up on all the things I missed while out.

In curating my Facebook feed to open up this blog, I realized the level of freedom and control that Facebook offers in it's privacy settings.  Few people fail to recognize how open their Facebook may be and how locked down you can make it.

You want to do this proactively as you never know when someone will use your profile information against you.  I was once pursued by a lawyer who used my LinkedIn information to begin calling me at work.  Debt Collectors and potential employers check out your social media all the time.

First of all, a few features:

• Look at your page as a public user sees your profile

When looking at your feed, click on your name in the upper right hand corner
On the lower right hand of your cover photo is a "..."
Click on it, then select "View As..."
Note that in the ribbon at the top, you can type int he name of a person and see your profile as they see it.  It's a good way to check to make sure you are blocking things from someone in particular.

You are now seeing your profile as a person who isn't a Friend or Friend of a Friend sees it.  Check for posts you didn't mean to make public.  Check your About section and pictures to see what is visible.

All of these permissions can be changed in your Edit Profile section.

• Limit Past Posts

If you want to adjust your privacy settings for all past posts, you can go into Settings then select Privacy then for Limit the Audience... choose Limit Old Posts




Next, the settings you'll want to look at (all of these can be found in the Settings section) and the recommended setting.  This will give you a locked down profile without making it unusable.

Privacy

• Who can send you friend requests: Friends of Friends
• Who can look you up using the email address you provided?  Friends of Friends
• Who can look you up using the phone number you provided?  I allow Everyone, but maybe you want to make this Friends of Friends
• Do you want search engines outside of Facebook to link to your profile?  No (If you've googled your name, you probably see a link to your facebook profile.  This will block that)

Timeline and Tagging

• Who can post to your timeline? Friends
• Review Posts...?  Yes (This will prevent someone from posting inappropriate posts or pictures on your timeline)
• Who can see posts you've been tagged in on your timeline?  Friends
• Who can see what others have posted to your timeline? Friends
• How can I manage tags people add and tagging suggestions?  Review all of these

Public Posts

• Who can follow me?  Friends
• Public Post Comments: Friends or Friends of Friends
• Public Profile Info: Friends

Look Yourself Up

Like I said, last night's post was a freebie, but this one will be short.

One of the easiest things you can do for your own personal security is to google yourself.  Google your name with quotes around it and see what you find.  Maybe google some of your usernames. Look for your personal information being exposed.  While you are at it, look at the results in the perspective of what an employer would look at (I google any applicant before I hire them).

Use different search engines...Google, Bing, Duck Duck Go, Yahoo.

A couple years ago, I found that a group my son was a part of had accidentally left all their registration records exposed, so when I looked up my name, I saw records that included my name, address, phone, email, and kid names.  In working with the group, I was able to close the exposure for all the kids involved.

You may find forum posts you made when you were more young and stupid that you may want to have deleted or marked as private.

Take a look at your social media profiles as someone who isn't logged in.  Is that political rant against Donald Trump public?  Are those updates to LinkedIn when you are dissatisfied with your job being broadcast to your boss?  Tweak your security and privacy settings so you are only sharing what you want to share.

Tech Support Call

Earlier this week, I had a call from "Tech Support" informing me that my computer was infected and they wanted to help me fix it.  Don't believe them.  

I messed with them and followed their instructions to access a screenshare tool.  When they gave me the access code I used it to report them.

If you think about it, how would anyone be able to connect your computer communication with your phone number?  And especially, how would they know to connect it with your cell phone?  Even worse, these people called my work number.  

If you think they might be valid, go to google and type "What's my IP" then ask the support person what your IP address is (do this before you connect to their remote support tool).  I promise it won't match.  

This lady pressed on after I told her I reported her saying "I'm with the government and you just reported the government to the government."  When I asked what my IP address was, she confidently made one up, but it was way wrong.  

  

Crashplan Backup

This is my first attempt at a blog.  I'm going to start by providing tips for folks to keep themselves safe, whether it be online or otherwise.

My first tip will be to back up your data.  There has been a rash of ransomware going around lately that encrypts all your data.  They ask for a ransom in order to get the password to decrypt it.

I use Crashplan.  It's about $5 a month for one computer to back unlimited data up to the cloud.  Our phones are backed up to Google and all other devices feed into my main computer, so this works for me.  

They have 3 methods of backup:
1) Backup to external hard drive or network share.  This is free.
2) Backup to a friend.  If you have a lot of data, you can backup using step one, then give the external drive to your friend, have them install the software and keep your stuff backed up offsite for free.
3) Backup to the cloud.  This is the only thing you have to pay for, but data is unlimited.  I have 5 TB up there now (it took 4 months to get it up there).

The only downside is if you have over a TB, you'll need to make sure you have a large amount of RAM installed and do a memory tweak.  Since it runs on Java, it can be a memory hog.

Many folks speak very highly of backblaze as well.  It does not offer the option of backing up to a friend.

As for me, since I have so much data and it is very slow to upload, I back everything up to a external hard drive and began backing critical data to the cloud.  Once that completed, I began the 4 month task of letting everything upload to the cloud.

From a security perspective, you don't want anyone snooping in your data, thus Crashplan also allows the option of encrypting your data with a separate personal key.  DO THIS!!!!  Then save the key to a separate cloud service.  If you lose it, you lose your data.  The benefit of this is I no longer really care about the security of the crashplan service.  So long as they use standard algorithms (they do) the only way someone can see my data is to get a hold of my key.