Massive E-Mail Phishing Attack Hits Web

Phishing refers to the act of trying to get your personal information in order to use or steal your identity. Phishing can happen with snail mail, email, text messaging, social networking, phone, and more. Today, I learned of a new threat aimed at web based email systems like Gmail, Yahoo email, MSN/HotMail, and others. You can read the entire article here: Massive E-Mail Phishing Attack Hits Web – Enterprise Security...

How to Use the “Extra” Keys on Your Ke...

There are roughly 50 keys on your keyboard that you use on a regular basis, but there are at least 104 total keys on your keyboard. So, what are those other keys for? Here is a list of the keys you may not be using that can make your computing life a lot easier – in no particular order. F1 – The F1 key is located above your number and letter keypad. In almost any program anywhere in Windows, pressing F1 will bring...

6 Health Tips from a Physical Therapist Turned Tec...

When I meet new customers or even strike up conversations with existing ones, my past sometimes infiltrates the conversation. I didn’t start out my adult life as a computer tech/trainer. I didn’t get a degree in computer technology. My degree and training is in physical therapy. I worked as a physical therapist for over 10 years, mostly with geriatrics. During those years, I informally did my own case study on...

Choosing a smart password, from the Gmail Blog

I’ve written many times about passwords and their importance in keeping you safe online. Search the site for passwords to read them and also take a look at this article from the Gmail Blog at Google. Official Gmail Blog: Choosing a smart password.

Rick Answers his Email Videocast – 060

This installment 60 of Rick answers his email (cue the balloons and dancing girls). Questions this week are from Robert, Paul, Jose, Henry, Blane, Clare, Romero, Mark, Robert, and Paramount. They asked about Word 2007 typesetting, backing up photos to CD/DVD, monitor problems, Microsoft Security Essentials advice, cleaning a Nikon camera after surviving Burning Man, downloading Java, recovering from a spyware...

What Rick said, read and thought about this week 2...

5 point lead with 9 minutes to go…yeah, that’s the #Steelers # RT @hankrearden73: Unbelievable.<—to quote my daughter “geeze o’pete!!” # RT @kafmradiodotorg: KAFM’s ‘Faces of FUNraising’-Sunday’s Straight Ahead Jazz.. http://twitpic.com/jfymg # RT @kettlewell: Here’s my first Animoto video from my #iphone … It’s of my family ...

Microsoft’s Security Essentials

Microsoft released an updated and completely re-tooled version of their computer security product. It is now called Microsoft Security Essentials. I have not had a chance to try it out yet (wasn’t accepted into the beta testing this summer), but through my reading it is getting much better scores than their awful Live OneCare products they sold for a couple of years. Overall, it supposedly runs much faster than OneCare...

Rick Answers his Email Videocast – 059

This week’s questions were brought to you by Jim, Joe, Dano, Roger, Richard, Delbert, Neil, Mike, Tallee, and Bhushan (where were the women this week??). They asked questions about deleting Microsoft Word files, online backup, BSOD (blue screen of death), Microsoft Mobile Windows cell phone recommendations, power button problem, disable startup password in Vista, spyware leftovers, wallpaper problems, more spyware...

Net neutrality – It isn’t a political ...

The issue of net neutrality is rearing its head again lately. In a nutshell, net neutrality means that anyone who pays for access to the Internet should get full, unfettered access to the Internet. Opponents want to allow Internet providers to charge for priority access to the Internet. In other words, if you forward an email with a funny joke or pictures of your family, it would take longer (albeit not much longer) for it to...

Picasa brings face recognition to the desktop app

Google continues to make Picasa the photo orgainzer to beat. Not only is it fast, intuitive, and clean, the feature set continues to grow. Today, Google released an update to Picasa, Picasa 3.5. They brought in the face recognition feature that was available in the online photo album version of Picasa and enhanced it for the destkop application. Have a look at this video from Google introducing the new features: ...

I’m a newspaper guy

I never watch news channels or evening news programs. Since I could read, I enjoyed reading newspapers. Although seriously lacking in substance, I still enjoy reading a morning newspaper with my breakfast. I enjoy holding the paper, hearing the crinkle and being able to rip out articles, circle ads, and even separate circulars from it before bringing it into the house. I will continue to subscribe and receive newspapers at my...

I dislike the Dummies books

Getting ready to leave Barnes & Noble where my daughter and I were working on our laptops. I decided to quickly browse the computer books and saw red when I saw so much yellow and black. I frequently get asked what computer books I recommend. While I don’t keep up with all the new books available, I do recommend NOT buying any book with the word dummies on it. My dislike of these books stem from the extreme negative...

Rick Answers his Email Videocast – 058

This week’s questions ran the gamut from Firefox problems to anti-spyware recommendations, a broken CD-ROM, and a half-done job by the pros at Best Buy. This week’s questions brought to you by:  Walt, Thomas, Raymond, Tim, Harold, Al, Humphrey, Scott, Mike, Craig, Martin, and Harprahb.

Quicken to buy Mint.com

I just received a press release announcing that Quicken will buy Mint.com. Mint.com is an online financial manager that has received a lot of accolades the last few years. Quicken also offers an online version of their financial management software and this acquisition looks to strengthen that position. Announcement: Mint.com to Join the Intuit Family – Official Quicken® Blog. ...

Google buys reCaptcha

Google just announced that they have bought reCaptcha. reCaptcha has been a leading company in helping to thwart comment and account spam by requiring a human to decipher characters and words scanned from books before continuing on in a posting or sign up process. Check out the article here: Official Google Blog: Teaching computers to read: Google acquires reCAPTCHA. ...