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