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Welcome to this week's edition of the Computer Kindergarten Newsletter.
Today is Sunday, March 22, 2009
In this Issue:
Special Feature: Protect Yourself from Phishing Scams
Tips & Tricks: Twenty Five Most Important Rules of Email Etiquette: 13. Punctuation Matters; in Emails Too
Featured Computer Term: Use the Notes Gadget in the Windows Vista Sidebar
This Week's Topic: Cleaning Up Your Hard Disk: Defrag the Hard Drive
Question: Keeping Digital Camera Batteries Fresh
Websites of Interest: Time Maps; Printer Manuals; Coloring Pages; What's Inside My Computer?
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Special Feature: Protect Yourself from Phishing Scams
The following article is by Tony Bradley of About.com
Phishing is a scam in which the attacker sends an email purporting to be from a valid financial or eCommerce provider. The email often uses fear tactics (ex. your account will expire) in an effort to entice the intended victim into visiting a fraudulent website. Once on the website, which generally looks and feels much like the valid eCommerce/banking site, the victim is instructed to login to their account and enter sensitive financial information such as their bank PIN number, their Social Security number, mother's maiden name, etc. This information is then surreptitiously sent to the attacker who then uses it to engage in credit card and bank fraud - or outright identity theft.
Phishing attacks have become more sophisticated and users need simple steps they can use to protect themselves from becoming victims of phishing scams. Follow these 5 steps to avoid being a victim and protect yourself from phishing scams.
1. Be Skeptical: It is better to err on the side of caution. Unless you are 100% sure that a particular message is legitimate, assume it is not. You should never supply your username, password, account number or any other personal or confidential information via email and you should not reply directly to the email in question. Ed Skoudis says “If the user really suspects that an e-mail is legit, they should: 1) close their e-mail client, 2) close ALL browser windows, 3) open a brand new browser, 4) surf to the e-commerce company's site as they normally would. If there's anything wrong with their account, there will be a message at the site when they log in. We need people to close their mail readers and browsers first, just in case an attacker sent a malicious script or pulled another fast one to direct the user to a different site.”
2. Use The Old-Fashioned Way: An even safer means of verifying if an email regarding your account is legitimate or not is to simply delete the email and pick up the phone. Rather than risking that you may somehow be emailing the attacker or mis-directed to the attacker’s replica web site, just call customer service and explain what the email stated to verify if there is truly a problem with your account or if this is simply a phishing scam.
3. Do Your Homework: When your bank statements or account details arrive, whether in print or through electronic means, analyze them closely. Make sure there are no transactions that you cannot account for and that all of the decimals are in the right spots. If you find any problems, contact the company or financial institution in question immediately to notify them.
4. Let Your Web Browser Warn You: The latest generation web browsers, such as Internet Explorer and Firefox come with built in phishing protection. These browsers will analyze web sites, compare them against known or suspected phishing sites, and warn you if the site you are visiting may be malicious or illegitimate.
5. Report Suspicious Activity: If you receive emails that are part of a phishing scam or even seem suspicious, you should report them. Douglas Schweitzer says "Report suspicious e-mails to your ISP and be sure to also report them to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) at www.ftc.gov".
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Tips & Tricks: Twenty Five Most Important Rules of Email Etiquette: 13. Punctuation Matters; in Emails Too
This article is part of our ongoing series on Email Etiquette. With the help of Heinz Tschabitscher from about.com, we are taking an in depth look at email etiquette. To read previous editions of this series, please visit our newsletter archives:
http://computerkindergarten.com/html/etiquette.html
The rules of email etiquette are not rules as much as they are guidelines that help avoid mistakes (like offending someone when you don't mean to) and misunderstandings (like being offended when you're not meant to).
These core rules of email etiquette help us communicate better via email.
Punctuation Matters; in Emails Too
How you say a sentence can carry a lot of its meaning. Which words you emphasize and when you briefly stop often alters the message expressed completely.
In writing, punctuation carries much of this suggested interpretation of the mere words. If you omit it completely, alter it or place punctuation marks sloppily, the reader can be puzzled or, without much pondering, misinterpret what you write all too easily.
Of course, mistakes can happen; there's nothing dramatic about that. The absence of rules should just be the exception, not itself the rule. So, together with avoiding too much slang in your emails, try to follow the rules of punctuation, to both your and the reader's benefit and understanding.
No Punctuation Mark Reduplication
Nothing is classier, of course, than the skillful hyperbole, say in exclamation marks!!!!111!!
There is also a proper place for every form of art, however — and professional emails are usually not the right place for many exclamation or question marks. Strive for very few exclamation marks, and don't reduplicate other punctuation marks, even if they are in their proper place.
To read previous editions of this series, please visit our newsletter archives:
http://computerkindergarten.com/html/etiquette.html
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Featured Computer Term: Use the Notes Gadget in the Windows Vista Sidebar
The Notes gadget in Windows Vista allows you to create multiple notes and even multiple sets of notes so that you can organize yourself electronically. These steps show you how to create notes in Windows Vista. Once you do this, you can get rid of all those sticky notes you have hanging on your computer screen.
1
Add the Notes gadget to the Sidebar. To do so, click the Gadgets symbol (a plus sign) at the top of the Sidebar and double-click the Notes gadget.
Type your note.
After you type your note you can either click the Add button (the plus symbol) to save the note and move on to the next blank note, click the Back or Forward arrow to navigate between notes, or click the Delete button to delete a note.
Click the Settings button to tweak your note.
Click the little wrench in the set of tools to the right of the Notes gadget to change the font or color of your Notes text. Use the Font and Font Size fields to modify the font. Click the arrows beneath the Notes preview to choose a different Notes background. Click OK when you’re done.
Click OK.
By clicking OK, you save all of the settings for your note.
Next week: Customize, or Turn Off, the Windows Sidebar.
Visit our Newsletter Archives to read previous articles in this series:
The Windows Sidebar in Windows Vista
http://computerkindergarten.com/html/030809.html
Add Gadgets to the Sidebar in Windows Vista
http://computerkindergarten.com/html/031509.html
Is there a computer term or phrase that you'd like to see an explanation of? Email it to info@computerkindergarten.com and we'll put the term and its definition in an upcoming newsletter.
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Today's Topic: Cleaning Up Your Hard Disk: Defrag the Hard Drive
Today's computers come with hard drives that have amazing amounts of disk space. But no matter how big, new programs, caches, and temporary files can use up this free space pretty quickly and cause clutter on the drive and computer slowdowns.
You will see many programs out there offering to help you free up hard disk space, for a fee. Windows has built-in tools that will do just as thorough a job in cleaning up your hard drive – and, they’re free!
This is the last article in our Cleaning Up Your Hard Disk series. Over the last five editions of this newsletter, we showed you how to use the Windows tools to clean up your hard drive. Links to all the previous articles can be found at the end of this article.
Defrag the Hard Drive
When a file is stored on your hard disk, it's often split into separate fragments. Fragmentation occurs naturally when you use a disk frequently: creating, deleting, and modifying files. At some point, the operating system needs to store parts of a file in noncontiguous clusters. You can't see the fragments, and you can't stop this fragmenting from occurring, but it can slow down the speed at which data is accessed because the disk drive must search through different parts of the disk to put together a single file.
However, you can defrag your system. This is the term used for reorganizing the data on your Hard Disk into a more logical sequence, which means taking all those scattered fragments of files and piecing them back together where they belong. This helps free more hard drive space and makes the accessing of files a speedier process; your Hard Disk will work quicker and more efficiently.
To defrag the drive, open My Computer, right-click the drive icon, and choose Properties. Click the Tools tab, and click Defragment Now.
This will probably be a lengthy process, depending on the size of your hard drive and number of files.
We hope you enjoyed our Cleaning Up Your Hard Disk series. Previous articles can be found in our newsletter archives.
Windows Disk Cleanup
http://computerkindergarten.com/html/020809.html
Remove Unnecessary Windows Components
http://computerkindergarten.com/html/022209.html
Remove Unused Applications
http://computerkindergarten.com/html/030109.html
Delete Restore Points
http://computerkindergarten.com/html/030809.html
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Question: Keeping Digital Camera Batteries Fresh
Do you have any suggestions about getting the batteries to last longer in a digital camera? Mine seem to die at a very fast rate.
Answer:
Here are several suggestions:
Try rechargeable batteries. Most should several years, even with recharging them weekly. That should save some money in the long run, especially if you can buy the batteries at a large, bulk package store or online. Take a look at the camera manual before you make the purchase, just to make sure you can use rechargeable batteries.
Always bring extra batteries with you. Purchase more than one set of rechargeables. Or, if your camera uses its own proprietary battery, purchase one or two extras. Check eBay for that; you will save considerable money over buying from the manufacturer.
Use the LCD as little as possible. That is the largest drain on the battery. Check to see if your camera has an auto shutoff that you can set to turn the LCD off as soon as possible after taking the picture.
Playback is a drain on the batteries, too. You may want to look at a picture after you took it, but try to avoid using playback otherwise.
Batteries last longer if they are not exposed to the cold. If you bring extras along, keep them in an inside pocket. Try to keep the camera as warm as possible, too.
Rechargeable batteries lost their charge, even when not in use. If you are planning on taking your camera, charge all your batteries beforehand.
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Websites of Interest:
Time Maps
Visit this site for an Atlas of World History.
http://www.worldhistory.timemaps.com/
Printer Manuals
If you lost your printer manual, visit this website. It has manuals for over 100,000 printers.
http://retrevo.com/samples/Printer-manuals.html
Coloring Pages
For the kids, this site, from Crayolo, has over 1,000 free coloring pages for you to pick from. Print, or color online.
http://www.crayola.com/free-coloring-pages/
What's Inside My Computer?
From How Stuff Works, visit this site to learn how your computer works.
http://computer.howstuffworks.com/inside-computer.htm
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