Reunion spam makes a comeback

Social engineering strikes again. Last spring, a spam posing as a reunion invitation made its rounds around the Internet. The spam/virus gets spread by an unsuspecting and less than alert computer user opens an email supposedly from a class mate inviting them to a reunion. Once the email is opened, a root-kit (hard to detect spyware/virus hybrid) gets deployed on the person’s computer and begins to spread itself from...

Rick’s Answers his email Videocast – 0...

Mysterious file extensions, flickering monitors (the LCD kind), donating old computers, printing to a file and more are included in this week’s edition brought to you by questions from: James, Barbara, Bev, Robert, Bill, Al, Barb, Keith, Cheryl, Marilyn, Chuck, Charles, Guilermo, and Jack. ...

Rick’s Answers his email Videocast – 0...

With questions from Jim, Cindy, Harley, Mike, Bruce, Marshall, Jason, Larry, Diane, Patsy, Marilyn, Maury, Bill, Michael, and Dave, I give answers covering topics from Kim Komando’s web site, Outlook email oddities, Picasa slide shows, headphone jack problems, decoding Firefox cache files and much more. Have a listen! ...

Sending email blindly (BCC) – Video Tip

Here is a tip to cut down on those hideous email headers and help take a huge bite out of email spam. If you are planning on sending an email to more than a few people, use the BCC or “blind carbon copy” function. Instead of addressing them all in the “to” section of your email, use the BCC instead. This allows you to still send the email to all the people on your list, but the recipients will not...

Rick’s Answers his email Videocast – 0...

This week’s email video brought to you by questions from Papa, Amy, Diana, Dan, Firat, Paul, John, Tina, Ernie, Sheila, Dave, Lisa, Bob, Shirley, and Iris. Their questions ranged from wanting to start a fan club to moving to Ubuntu and from nasty virus infections to how to install a DVD and much more! ...

Rick’s Answers his email Videocast – 0...

Tons of Q&A this week covering a myriad of different topics…brought to you by: Don, Laura, Ron, Pete, Anthony, Donna, Jose, Marina, Ken, Corinne, Emily, Sharon, Elmer, Marilyn, Barbara, Joyce, Judith, Hank and Robert. ...

Rick answers his email Videocast – 027

A great question this week about how to fill out a paper form using your computer. Many other good questions as well including my answer to a writer who downloaded an illegal copy of Photoshop. This week, the Videocast is brought to you by questions from: Terry, Fern, Marcia, Sudarshin, Richard, Gayle, Kim, Bernie, Bill, Azumah, Jack, and Mike. ...

Rick’s Answers his email Videocast – 0...

Twenty questions and answers in this week’s videocast. Questions this week brought to you buy the number 2009 and Bill, Naomi, Rod, Rex, Craig, Jerry, Richard, Dolores, Denise, Shirley, Rita, Betty, Ralph, Merrill, Jerry, Bill, Carole and Bonnie. ...

Don’t buy a new computer yet

2009 is upon us and computer prices are incredibly low, but if you can wait a year to buy a new computer, I would highly recommend it. Why? Microsoft plans on releasing the next version of Windows either late in 2009 or early in 2010. All indications point to the earlier release since Microsoft is anxious to bury Vista. Last week, Microsoft extended the life of Windows XP for a fifth time! This indicates the continued...

Rick’s Answers his email Videocast – 0...

Questions this week ranged from anti-spyware recommendations all the to a strange singing Christmas card that played even after the computer was shut down. This week’s questions brought to you by Dave, Kristina, USSRover, AmaLia, Dave, Mary, Jessica, Bob, Mike, Gloria, and Kent. ...

Thwarted by online poker

Today marked my second Linux/Ubuntu casualty in almost 2 dozen attempts. As I’ve learned more about Ubuntu the past couple of years, I carefully selected clients who would have little problems dealing with a non-Microsoft operating system. You may have read my take on Ubuntu usage for the average computer user before, but here it is again to setup the rest of the story: I believe that any computer users who uses only...

Rick’s Answers his email Videocast – 0...

Brought to you by Harlene, Kristina, Sage, Herb, Crystal, Marion, Mariane, Donna, Dona, Chris, Barbara, and Rosie this week’s edition includes some AVG questions and frustrations, Macintosh advice, Microsoft Office 2007 problems, and of course much more! ...

What do you really do with your computer?

In my travels, it seems that most home computer users primarily use email. I would love to see 100-200 comments attached to this short article so you can tell me what you use your computer for from day-to-day. You don’t have to be statistically accurate or detailed, I’m just curious and this topic is too broad and detailed for a poll. Here’s how I use my main computer: Internet (web browsing, pay bills, web...

Rick’s Answers his email Videocast – 0...

Wow, lots of laptop questions ranging from heat problems, to college student recommendations, installing Flash player and much more. A jam packed edition this week with questions brought to you by: Marcia, Brian, Kristina, Theola, Larry, Phil, Gloria, Pat, Charles, Ron, Jonny, Helen, Tom, Steve, David, and Jean! Take a look! ...

Acer Aspire One Netbook

Today, I had my first opportunity to get some hands-on time with Acer’s entry into the netbook craze, the Acer Aspire One. The young lady I helped bought a blue Aspire One on Black Friday for just over $300. Sporting a 120GB hard drive, an extremely nice 8.9″ screen, 1 GB of RAM, and Windows XP, this little unit was very impressive to look at and use. After some discussion with me, she decided that she...