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	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. ************************************************************** 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 ********************************************************** 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. ************************************************************ 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


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December 9, 2007

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October 14, 2007

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