Welcome
to this week's edition of the Computer Kindergarten Newsletter.
Today is Sunday, December 14, 2008
We
will not be publishing this newsletter for the next three weeks so the writers
and editors can celebrate the holidays with their families and friends.
To
all of our readers, we wish you a very Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy
Holidays, and a happy, healthy and peaceful New Year. See you in 2009! From all of us at Sharper Training
Solutions - Ceil, Liv, Kristin, Angela, Nichole,
Debra, Nicole, Margaret, Mary, Trish, Roberto and Kim
In this Issue:
Special Feature: A Bad Economy is
Good for Scammers: Work-at-Home
Scam
Tips & Tricks: Twenty Five Most
Important Rules of Email Etiquette:
3. Do Not Default to Reply All
Special Feature: Too Much Security?
This
Week's Topic: Minimizing Spam -
Never Respond to Spam
Question: Delete a Document
Question: Clean the Screen
Websites of Interest: Merry
Christmas!; Happy Hanukkah!; Happy Kwanzaa!; Happy New
Year!
Please
consider the environment before printing this email.
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Special Feature: A Bad
Economy is Good for Scammers: Work-at-Home Scam
The
following is from http://www.bottomlinesecrets.com. Reprinted with
permission.
Rising
unemployment rates, sky-high fuel prices, a plunging stock market and falling
home values have landed many Americans in difficult financial straits. This
makes people psychologically predisposed to jump at a potential solution --
without stopping to consider whether this solution is truly as appealing as it
seems.
Here
is a recently reported scam that is designed to take advantage of America's
current economic problems...
A
help-wanted email says that you can earn hundreds of dollars per week from home
in your spare time by filling out online surveys... sorting emails for a large
company... or performing some other simple task.
Work-at-home
opportunities are attractive to the millions of Americans who have lost their
jobs and to those in need of extra cash to keep up with the rising cost of
living.
Unfortunately,
almost all work-at-home help-wanted emails are scams.
If
you respond, the scammers might try to...
*
Convince you to buy a list of companies in search of work-at-home employees.
The list is worthless.
*
Sell you a list of online survey companies that pay participants. Even online surveys
that do compensate participants pay so little that it is generally not worth
your time or trouble.
*
Ask you to pay an "application fee." The scammer pockets your fee.
There is no job.
*
Get you to reveal your Social Security number or other personal information so
they can run a background check before hiring you. They steal your identity.
*
Sell your contact information to other con men and Internet scammers, who will
try to take advantage of you.
What
to do: Delete work-at-home emails. They almost always are scams.
In
the next edition of this newsletter:
A Bad Economy is Good for Scammers: Gas Saver Scam
Visit
our Newsletter Archives for previous articles on A Bad Economy is Good for
Scammers
Unpaid
Fuel Bill
http://computerkindergarten.com/html/111608.html
Technicians
at your Home Scam
http://computerkindergarten.com/html/120708.html
**************************************************************
Tips & Tricks: Twenty
Five Most Important Rules of Email Etiquette: 3. Do Not Default to Reply All
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.
3. Do Not Default to Reply All
If
it's good to reply, it should be better to reply to all; right?
Yes,
it is — but only if the reply is really important to all the recipients.
How often is that the case? Have you, conversely, ever seen somebody reply to
all by embarrassing mistake?
That's
why it's best to use Reply to All cautiously.
Do
Not Default to "Reply All"
Use
your email program's Reply to All feature only when
* your
reply will be necessary to know for the original sender and all people in the
original email's To: and Cc: field.
Do
not use Reply to All when
* only
the original sender needs to know your reply
* your
comments will be crucial to know for the original sender and a few other
recipients, (Use Reply in this case and add the select other recipients
manually. You can copy their addresses from the original email, of course.)
* you
have been a Bcc: recipient in the original message. The Bcc: field should only be used to
distribute emails while keeping the recipients' addresses confidential or to
copy somebody internally, as proof, when delivering an email to the outside,
for example. If you reply to all as
a Bcc: recipient you reveal your being a recipient.
* your
message says "Thanks!" or "Me too!".
To
read previous editions of this series, please visit our newsletter archives:
http://computerkindergarten.com/html/etiquette.html
**************************************************************
Special Feature: Too Much Security?
Everyone
knows that securing your computer is important these days. Without securing
your system and network, you can run into all kinds of problems. On the other
hand, there is such a thing as too much security. If your computer is overly secure,
you will lose functionality and your computer will become more of a pain than
anything else. Here are a few things that can cause you computer trouble from
being too secure!
Too
Much Antivirus – When it comes to damaging computers, viruses are the king.
When your computer has a virus, you can see anything from performance problems
to identity theft results. While it is important to have good antivirus
software, you should never have more than one antivirus suite running on your
system at once. Having more than one type of antivirus software can cause them
to malfunction, leaving you with no protection.
Too
Many Firewalls – Along with an antivirus program, firewalls are very
similar. A good firewall is important, but having more than one can cause major
issues. Since firewall software is designed to close ports and seal shut your
system, overlapping two of them can cause them to block each other and leave
you with Internet connectivity troubles.
Security
Settings Set Too High – I'm sure most of you have looked at Internet
Explorer's security settings at one point in time (you can look at them by
clicking Tools, Internet Options, Security tab). Those
settings have a range from low to high. Most of you will see that your computer
is set to medium or medium high. That is perfectly fine. While IE does have the
option for high, you will see that setting your system that way will not help
you at all. When your browser security is set too high, it blocks almost
everything. You will not be able to see most Web sites and the ones you can see
will be missing items.
Privacy
Settings Set Too High – Right next to the Security tab in Internet
Explorer, you'll find the Privacy tab. That tab mostly controls your cookie
settings. Keeping control of your cookies is a good thing, but not having any
cookies is just as bad. If you set your privacy settings to the highest
setting, your browser will not allow any cookies into your system. Therefore,
many Web sites will not work for you.
**************************************************************
Today's Topic: Minimizing Spam -
Never Respond to Spam
You
should never respond to spam. In
many cases, junk email is generated by a computer using random characters to
make up email addresses. If you
respond, you're letting the advertiser know that there’s a real, live
person at the end of that email address and you may get even more junk email.
Unless you actually respond, advertisers who send spam have no way of knowing
whether or not you open and read their messages.
Junk
emails often have details about how to remove your name from a mailing list in
the body of the message. This can be anything from replying to the sender with
the words unsubscribe in the subject line to going to a Web site. Never respond
to spam! While advertisers from legitimate businesses will usually take your
name off their mailing lists, with spammers, when you try to unsubscribe
you’re really just confirming your e-mail address and you're likely to
wind up on more spammers' lists of valid accounts.
In
the next edition of this newsletter:
Minimizing Spam – Report Spam
Visit
our Newsletter Archives for previous articles on Minimizing Spam:
Minimizing
Spam - Create a New Address
http://computerkindergarten.com/html/110908.html
Minimizing
Spam – Registering Online
http://computerkindergarten.com/html/111608.html
Minimizing
Spam – Stop the Forwarding Fiend
http://computerkindergarten.com/html/120708.html
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Question: Delete a Document
How
do I erase a document?
Answer:
To
erase a document, you need to find the file and delete it.
Make
sure the document is not open.
If
you have saved the document in your Documents or My Documents folder, open the
folder. If it is saved in a
different folder, open that folder.
Find
the document; click once on it to select it. Right click on the document. From the
resulting menu, left click on delete.
A window will display, asking you if you want to move the file to the
Recycle Bin. Click the Yes (or OK)
button.
The
next time you empty the Recycle Bin, the document will be permanently deleted.
In
some programs, a document created in that program can be deleted in the Open
window. For example, if you created
a document in Microsoft Word, open Word, click File on
the menu and then click Open. In
the Open window that you now see, find the file and right click on it. From the resulting menu, left click on
delete. A window will display,
asking you if you want to move the file to the Recycle Bin. Click the Yes (or OK) button.
**************************************************************
Question: Clean the Screen
How
can I clean my computer screen?
Answer:
If
your screen is not one of the old glass kinds, you must take special care in
cleaning. Here are some
suggestions:
Turn
the monitor off. It will be easier
to see the areas that need to be cleaned.
Start
with a soft, dry cloth. A cloth
used to clean eyeglasses is a good choice.
Avoid using paper towels, toilet paper, tissue paper, or any rough
cloth.
Gently
wipe the screen. Do not press hard.
Pushing directly on the screen can cause pixels to burn out.
If
necessary, slightly dampen the cloth with water. Do not use cleaning products that
contain ammonia, alcohol or any other chemical. Most of these can cause yellowing of the
screen.
Some
companies sell small spray bottles of special cleaner for flat screen monitors,
usually available where electronics are sold. Never spray anything directly on the
screen. It could run into the edges
of the monitor and cause damage.
Spray onto the cloth and wipe with that.
The
plastic edge around the screen can be cleaned with any cleaner. Be careful to
avoid contact with the screen.
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Websites of Interest:
Please visit our website for holiday information and history, greetings, fun,
graphics, recipes and much more:
Merry
Christmas!
http://computerkindergarten.com/html/christmas.html
Happy
Hanukkah!
http://computerkindergarten.com/html/hanukkah.html
Happy
Kwanzaa!
http://computerkindergarten.com/html/kwanzaa.html
Happy
New Year!
http://computerkindergarten.com/html/newyears.html