Archives for Advice

Podcast 2135 – Tech Tip Sheet

This week we do not have a podcast due to the Labor Day weekend. We hope that you and yours are celebrating and enjoying the last holiday of Summer. Below you can find some Tech Tips that you can use.

Back to School

Make sure that you have your student’s tech protected. After all school can be tough not just on the student but more so on their tech. Getting jammed into a loaded backpack that is pretty much slung around like a tether ball can be hard on laptops, tablets, and cellphones.

Look into breakage insurance unless you can just reach into pocket and buy a replacement when your student show up at home with a broken tech device. Check with your homeowner’s insurance to see if it may be already covered. Also the same coverage may take into account incidents like theft.

Proper Protection

Make sure that you budget for not only the tech device but also for a proper case to store/use it in. Spend a few dollars on a good case for that cellphone that will protect it from drops and spills and you’ll get more use out of that device. One of my favorites is …


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Podcast 1818 5-4-18 The Gary, Ed and Cal Show and Caston Thomas

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Show Notes:

Hour 1: The Ed Rudel / Cal Carson Show

with Capt. Gary Baker aboard the Shared Adventure in Ft. Lauderdale, FL

  

 

[/vc_column_text][vc_separator color=”vista_blue” border_width=”6″][vc_column_text]Discussion topics for both hours:

  1. In case you or colleagues are following Facebook’s announcement today that users will soon be able to opt out of one of Facebook’s key data gathering practices: the collection and use of people’s web browsing history, which the company uses to sell targeted ads. Facebook is getting the message that privacy and transparency are important to Facebook users and Internet users in general. Giving users the ability to identify and manage which sites are tracking information about them shows that Facebook is actively taking positive steps to protect user privacy. Time will tell, but this may help Facebook overcome the shadow of the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

  2. The evolution of the iPad  

  3. Amazon announced a new delivery option for Prime members with the unveiling of it’s in-car delivery option. The new service which will launch across 37 cities in the US will allow Prime subscribers with GM or Volvo vehicles to have their orders delivered to their car. In order to access the new option, members

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Microsoft Office Alternative Suites

Several free alternatives to Microsoft Office are available and each has the ability to view and edit your existing Microsoft Office Word, Excel, and Power point documents.

KingSoft offers an alternative office suite that have been reviewed and approved by PC World Magazine and is my 1st choice. When I have inherited a laptop I usually restore the computer to factory defaults, uninstall the Microsoft Office evaluation suite and install KingSoft from WPS.com. Download Link

 

OpenOffice – The Apache Open Office (www.openoffice.org) has been around for over 10 years and is a wonderful alternative to the Microsoft Office suite. Download Link.

LibreOffice – We were introduced to this office suite when using Linux instead of Microsoft Windows as our computers operating system. Libre Office also offer a Microsoft Windows compatible version that is just as robust and can be downloaded from www.libreoffice.org. Download link


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URGENT: Stop using Microsoft's IE browser until bug is fixed, US and UK warn

IE9 logo

by   April 28, 2014

In a rare move that highlights the severity of the security hole in one of the Web’s most popular browsers, the US Computer Emergency Readiness Team and its British counterpart tell people to stop using Internet Explorer until Microsoft can fix it.

 

Full Article

New Microsoft IE 11 -6 flaw discovered.  US government Homeland security recommends to stop using IE and to use an alternate web browser until Microsoft corrects the flaw.  Exploits already on the Internet.

Microsoft technet article.

HomeLand Security Warning


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Microsoft Not Impacted by Heartbleed Vulnerability

Posted by: Tracey Pretorius, Director, Trustworthy Computing

On April 8, 2014, security researchers announced a flaw in the OpenSSL encryption software library used by many websites to protect customers’ data. The vulnerability, known as “Heartbleed,” could potentially allow a cyberattacker to access a website’s customer data along with traffic encryption keys.

After a thorough investigation, Microsoft determined that Microsoft Account, Microsoft Azure, Office 365, Yammer and Skype, along with most Microsoft Services, are not impacted by the OpenSSL “Heartbleed” vulnerability. Windows’ implementation of SSL/TLS is also not impacted. A few Services continue to be reviewed and updated with further protections.

Microsoft always encourages its customers to be vigilant with the security of their online accounts, change their account passwords periodically and to use complex passwords. More information on how to create strong passwords is available here: Microsoft Security & Safety Center: Create strong passwords.

http://blogs.technet.com/b/security/archive/2014/04/10/microsoft-devices-and-services-and-the-openssl-heartbleed-vulnerability.aspx


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How to protect yourself in Heartbleed's aftershocks

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By  for Networking |

Businesses should not only know about Heartbleed, they should have already implemented Heartbleed fixes by now.  If your bank, favorite online merchant, or software provider hasn’t yet, close your accounts and find new ones. That’s my first bit of advice on how users should handle Heartbleed.

Heartbleed really is that bad. Your user-ids, your passwords, your credit-card numbers, everything you place online is potentially in play for hackers. You can not fool around with this.

So, as I said earlier, get ready to change all your passwords. Yes, every last damn one of them. Were your favorite sites vulnerable? You can check specific sites with the Heartbleed testLastPass Heartbleed checker, or the Qualys SSL Labs test. The first two just check on Heartbleed while the last checks for other possible Secure-Socket Layer/Transport Layer Security (SSL/TLS) and awards sites a grade from A (the best) to F (failure).

Full Article


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Malwarebytes Pro to Support XP Indefinitely

Worried about losing Windows XP security updates after April 7th? MalwareBytes commits to continue antivirus support for Windows XP, if you purchase the Pro version (which I think is still $25) .

2012 EdEd Rudel

 

 

Malwarebytes commits to lifetime support for XP users


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9 TIPS FOR SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS TO SPRING CLEAN YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA PROFILES

spring-cleaningThe snow is starting to melt and everyone wants to start spring cleaning, no? If you are a small business owner, spring is a GREAT time to clean up your social media profiles – just in time for the busy summer and fall seasons.  

So what’s a small business owner to do?  Our experts at Hay There Social Media are here with Nine Tips to Spring Clean Your Social Media Profiles. Tidy up Twitter, freshen up Facebook and polish your Pinterest:

Here we go!  Full Story


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Review of Online Fundraising Sites

Review of Online Fundraising Websites

As we mentioned during our March 8, 2014 show, GoFundMe is just one of a number of sites that offer you the opportunity to raise money for a cause, project or goal.  This is not meant as a promotion for any of the sites here including GoFundMe but as a first step in  your process of due diligence. From this point on it’s all about what you find to be true about each organization.  Good Hunting!

Full Article


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GoFundMe Reviews

Here are a series of links to reviews of GoFundMe.  Note that some of them are from the GoFundMe.

About GoFundMe.com

GoFundMe.com is a crowdfunding website which says they offer anyone the ability to create their own donation page as a safe, legit way to collect donations for life events, projects, and special causes.

To get started with GoFundMe.com, you simply need to create your donation page to tell the story of what you are collecting money for and why, then share it with your friends and family to start collecting donations.

The page you create will have all the tools necessary to collect donations from either debit or credit cards, and you will be able to track visits to your page and review donor information.

You can crowfund through this website in three different ways. First, if you are collecting money for a charity, you can select Charity Fundraising and the donations received by your site will automatically be deducted on a monthly basis and sent to the charity.  More

CrowdFunding Review Site

This site compares GoFundMe to other sites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo etc.

GoFundMe User Review Page

This is the user review page from the GoFundMe site.


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