|
Welcome to this week's edition of the Computer Kindergarten Newsletter.
Today is Sunday, September 30, 2007
In this Issue:
Special Feature: Internet Safety Suggestions
This Week's Topic: Backing Up to a USB Flash Drive
Question: Forward an Email Without Other Email Addresses
Websites of Interest: Capitals of the World; Games for the Brain; Encyclopedia of Ice Hockey; Email Reminder; The Science of Sleep; Social Networking after 50
**************************************************************
Special Feature: Internet Safety Suggestions
Question: I have been on the Internet for awhile now and find that I am incorporating its usefulness more and more into my life. As I read more and more, I can see that there are some dangers, too. Do you have any suggestions for keeping me and my computer safe?
Answer:
Yes, here are some points:
** Never buy anything through pop up ads or spam. To eliminate pop up ads altogether, update to the latest version of the browser you are using and download and install a good pop up blocker.
The latest version of Internet Explorer can be found at this site:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/ie/default.mspx
No Ads is a good pop up blocker. It is a free program and can be downloaded here:
http://www.southbaypc.com/NoAds/
** Never respond to an email asking you to confirm financial or personal information. No business, financial institution, government agency or Internet Service Provider will ever request information in this manner. You will never be asked to update your account through an email. Emails asking for information are phishing scams – the senders are trying to trick you into giving them your information so they can steal your identity.
** Make sure Windows is updated regularly. Turn on the automatic updating. Updates will be downloaded and installed every time Microsoft releases new ones (every second Tuesday). To turn on Automatic Updates, Click the Start button, open Control Panel, and then open Security. Click Security Center, and then turn on Automatic updating.
** Install an antivirus program. When your subscription runs out, install the update. Update the program and run scans on a regular basis.
** Install a firewall. If your antivirus program has a firewall, install it. If not, enable the Windows firewall. To do so, click the Start button, open Control Panel, open Windows Firewall and turn it on.
** Only enter your credit card number and any other personal information on a secure site. Secure sites have an address that starts with https instead of http and will usually have a small, closed padlock displayed at the bottom of the window.
** Never reply to spam. Some spam email will tell you to respond to the email to be removed from their list. Do not do it! That just confirms that your email address is a good address, with a real, live person reading it, and then your address will be moved to every spammers list that is out there.
** Do not open emails from senders you do not know. If you do not recognize the email address and the subject line does not make sense to you, just delete the email. If you send an email to someone who you think may not recognize you through your email address, put your name in the subject line.
** If you must forward email to friends and family, open a brand new email and copy and paste just the part you want to send (see the Question article below to learn how to do this). Clicking the forward button might be easier, but everyone elses email address will appear in the body of the email. The recipient will have to scroll down through all those addresses to get to the content of the email.
** In addition, spammer “harvest” email address from forwarded emails like that. If you have a “forwarded” in your life, you may want to suggest the copy and paste method of sending on emails.
** Create a secure password. Do not use real words. There are tools available to help attackers guess your password. With a computer, it does not take long for a hacker to try every word in the dictionary and find your password. Mix characters; use letters and numbers. To help you remember your password, think up a sentence and create a password using the first letter from each word.
Follow these suggestions and your online use will be safe and pleasant.
If you have any suggestions you think should be added to this list, send them to us, and we will add it in a future newsletter. Send to info@computerkindergarten.com
**************************************************************
Today's Topic: Backing Up to a USB Flash Drive
First, make sure you have a flash drive that is large enough to store all the files that you want to back up. If the files you want to back up are in the My Documents folder, take a look at the size of the folder.
To do so, open Windows Explorer. Click the Start button and then All Programs. Open Accessories and then click Windows Explorer. Right click on My Documents (or, if you use a different folder for saving your files, right click on that one). From the resulting menu, left click on Properties. Click on the General tab at the top and you will see the size of that folder.
Make sure the flash drive you purchase is larger than the size of the folder. You may want to purchase one quite a bit larger; you will probably want it to have enough capacity to use over and over again.
Backing Up
Insert the flash drive into a USB port on your computer. If this is the first time you have put the drive in your computer, it will take a moment or two for the computer to find it and get ready to use it. Once it is ready, a window should appear asking you what you want to do with the drive. Click on Open Folder to View Files. A window will open for this drive. (On some computers, a window will automatically open)
Move the flash drive window over to the side of the screen.
Open the folder that contains the files you want to backup. Move that folder to the other side of the screen so that the two folders are next to each other. The easiest way to do this is to right click on a blank spot on the taskbar (the bar at the bottom of the screen) and from the menu that you now see, click on Tile Windows Vertically or Show Windows Side by Side (depending on your version of Windows).
Click on any file in the My Documents window. It will now be selected. To select all the files, click Edit on the menu and then click Select All. You will see that every file is now highlighted. Point to any file, press and hold down the left mouse button, and drag the file into the flash drive window. You will see that all the files come along. A window will appear showing a progress bar. Once it completes, all the files will now be copied on your flash drive.
Flash drives must be stopped before they can be removed from the computer. In the system tray (bottom right, but the clock), there will be a small green icon with a checkmark. Click on it and then follow the prompts to stop the drive. Windows will display a message when it is safe to remove the drive.
To learn more about Flash Drives, take a look at last week’s article USB Flash Drives:
http://www.computerkindergarten.com/html/092307.html
**************************************************************
Question: Forward an Email without Other Email Addresses
I frequently receive emails that I would like to send on to someone else but the original email has all the names and addresses of the people it has been sent to. How can I get rid of these and just send the part I want?
Answer:
In many email programs, you can not get rid of the names and addresses in the original email but you can send the part you want without sending all the forwarded email addresses.
Here is how to do this:
Highlight only the text that you want to send. Click Edit on the menu, and then click Copy. Open a new email window. Click Edit on the menu, and then click Paste.
The highlighted text will appear in the new email. Input the recipient’s email address and send the email.
**************************************************************
Websites of Interest:
Capitals of the World
Visit this website to brush up on your knowledge of the capitals of the world. Click on the country for history, facts and figures.
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0855603.html
Games for the Brain
Just like the muscles of the body, the human brain needs regular exercise in order to stay in good shape. This website provides exercises and games to help maintain mental power.
http://www.gamesforthebrain.com/
Encyclopedia of Ice Hockey
Everything you ever wanted to know about hockey: facts, history, statistics and much more.
http://www.azhockey.com/
Email Reminder
Would you like to receive emails reminding you of events? Birthdays, appointments, for anything you need to remember. At this site you can enter your email address and a subject, write a note, and then select the date that you want to receive the reminder email.
http://www.futureme.org/
The Science of Sleep
This interesting website, from of HowStuffWorks.Com, explains everything about sleep, along with some tips and habits for improving your sleep.
http://health.howstuffworks.com/sleep.htm
Social Networking after 50
Its not just for teens and college students! This website is a community site where Boomers and Seniors can mingle, find like minded people, discuss common interests, and share experiences.
http://eons.com/ |
|
