For the show broadcast between July 19th and July 25th, 2008
This week Benjamin covered a wide variety of topics, such as protecting your privacy. He mentioned that while deleted items may not be found while navigating through My Computer or the Desktop, they are still on your hard drive and hackers will still be able to recover your information. To prevent this you will want to get a data shredding device. He mentioned three of them.
Evidence Nuker (www.evidencenuker.com), which, at $30, it’s the highest end of the three, and you can do most of this for less than $30 with one of the other two. File Shredder available at (www.fileshredder.org) is free, and has 5 different shredding algorithms, and can also wipe un-used disk space. Lastly, the Zilla Data Nuker (www.zilasoft.ws) shreds everything, (locked files, Recycle bin, scheduler), and works on everything from Windows 95 and up.
First, you go to Tools, Options, Mail Format Tab, Signatures Button, New. Then you configure your signature (include name, e-mail address, phone numbers, and maybe a tagline). You should use a basic and common font, and you can use a picture but make it small. Also, if you have multiple E-mail accounts you can decide which account gets which signature. When you are done, simply click OK.
Additionally, Benjamin talked about some simple ways to save the planet. For instance, when not in usage, you can unplug your cell phone charger. Purchases like the eco-friendly laptop bags like the ones from Targus, or the eco-button (www.eco-button.com), can also help. Spreading the word by telling through Amazon.com's new “Green 3” feature promotes green computing as well. Naturally, buying green electronics helps, and www.circuitcity.com/green has a great list of green products and ratings on their level of “green-ness". Finally, look into recycling your old phones. (http://aboutus.vzw.com/communityservice/hopeLine.html.)
Never ceasing to assist the public in their online encounters, Benjamin gave a list of 8 great reference sources that are not Wikipedia because, while everyone loves Wikipedia, sometimes its just not practical.
www.dictionary.com
www.about.com
www.howstuffworks.com
www.thestraightdope.com
The New York Public Library
(http://digital.nypl.org/mmpco/)
Benjamin also showed his fearless wish to uncover conspiracies within the realm of computing as he told us about Microsoft’s affiliation with McCann Worldgroup, whom it has hired to create a false blogger who will get many people to join Windows Live Messenger and Windows Live Hotmail by telling them that Microsoft will donate money to charity if they IM each other. “The more you send messages, the more Microsoft will donate.” Now, there’s nothing wrong with that, but Microsoft is getting these people to sign up by using a false identity to take the lead of the pack! There is, of course, a small disclaimer at the bottom telling everyone the truth about Parker Whittle Just goes to prove that you always have to remember to read the fine print!!!
Benjamin even taught us the importance of security when he revealed to us that the average unprotected computer on the internet will not last 20 minutes without accidentally downloading some form of malware or contracting some virus. Too many people suffer from the “ostrich head in the sand syndrome” where they believe that if they can’t see the threat then the threat will stay away. Any computer on a network can infect the rest of the computers on that network. You must always be worried about security. Figure out what your fears are, and then plan for those fear and make sure they don’t become reality.
Additionally, Benjamin gave us a non-security-related tip on protecting our computer. This tip was actually on the heat.
Keep
your CPU away from hot
locations
Clean out the dust
Shut it down at night
Keep an eye on the heat
level
Get an alarm for when your
CPU gets too hot.
Get a stand for your laptop
that will keep it cool
Check for unusual noises or
lacks of noise, this could
mean a problem.
Another security concern that Benjamin addressed is Open Wireless Connections. You need to keep your internet closed when you’re not using it so that nothing can get in. But when you are linking into an SSID, make sure you use these guidelines:
Don’t
link into something because
it appears to be legitimate.
It might not be.
Make sure that whatever
you’re linking into has a
WPA key and encryption.
Change the name of your
router to something unique,
like a location in your
favorite TV show.
Set a password to your
network and make sure that
it is hard to guess.
Eliminate all non-WPA
networks from your list of
preferred networks on your
laptop.
Benjamin even taught us how to stay out of some tricky people situations regarding our e-mail and the “reply to all” button. This button will send it to everyone who saw the original message, as long as they weren’t in the BCC field. Make sure that you remove anyone who does not need to see it. Don’t hit “reply to all” if there were more than five people who got the original. That just gets obnoxious. Only send it to the people who really care and who really need to know. This includes chain mail jokes. Only send these to close friends, not to everyone in your list. Additionally, when passing along warnings about viruses, make sure that you’re actually sending something true. Some “warnings” may actually contain viruses. Check out www.snopes.com and www.breakthechain.org. Benjamin also taught everyone how to use “Reply to all” in various programs.
Another thing that Benjamin taught us about E-mail is how to organize it.
Set
flags and reminders to
remind you to reply to
things
Categorize mail by date,
sender, flag color, (if you
have added a flag) and
priority.
Customize Categories
You can search your E-mail
by pretty much any of the
ways that you categorize it.
Create Folders
You can create folders that
contain replied to,
un-replied to, flagged,
priority, etc.
Of course, Benjamin took user questions from e-mail... and were there a lot of E-mails!?!?! Larry asked about Wi-FI; Ray asked about power consumption on his computer since he left it on for ten days while he was on a business trip since he was worried about his e-mails. Benjamin told him not to worry about the E-mail because it would have been fine. Now he needs to worry about his wallet because of all the energy his CPU just sucked down. Steve asked what Bluetooth is and how to make it work and Benjamin gave him a brief definition, some uses, and some basic directions. Shelly asked about her Hard Drive because her computer told her it was full and she needed to clean it up. Benjamin directed her to the “add/remove programs” feature and gave her a list of programs to remove, such as extra search bars.
Remember to tune in next week and to listen to this week’s show right now by using the links below!
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