Welcome to
this week's edition of the Computer Kindergarten Newsletter.
Today is
Sunday, June 6, 2010
In this
Issue:
Special
Feature: New Travel Scam Alerts for the Upcoming Vacation Season
Tips &
Tricks: Create a Keyboard Shortcut for your Favorite Program
Featured
Computer Term: The Top 30 Internet Terms for Beginners: 8. Blogging
This Week's
Topic: Minimizing Spam - Never Respond to Spam
Question:
Windows 7 Mouse Properties
Websites of
Interest: Grocery Coupon Websites; Diets and Good Nutrition; Pet Information;
Alzheimer’s Prevention
**********************************
Special
Feature: New Travel Scam Alerts for the Upcoming Vacation Season
The
following article is by Audri Lanford
of scambusters.org
You are not
the only person looking forward to your upcoming vacation. The travel scam
artists share your eager anticipation. They have dreamed up some new tricks
they hope you do not know about, and put a new spin on some of the old
favorites. Here are some travel scams to be on the lookout for in 2010:
Fake car
park attendants
Previously
prevalent in Italy, this travel scam now pops up in many big European cities,
where parking can be notoriously difficult.
The trick
can take many forms. You may just drive onto a piece of wasteland where other
cars are parked or you may enter a big, official parking lot. Either way, a
"parking attendant" approaches you and hands you an official looking
ticket, usually demanding a fairly exorbitant fee. You are tired, frustrated
and there is a language problem, so you just hand over the cash.
Later, you
discover you're either parked illegally or there's another fee to pay -- this
time, the real one.
Action: You
put yourself at risk if you do not know who owns the place where you are
parking or what the real arrangements are for payment. Check them out the best
you can. You can ask the attendant to show credentials -- but avoid
confrontation.
Phony travel
guides.
At a famous
venue, a local offers to show you around for a fee. This may be a fairly
obvious and transparent ruse, where he is just trying to make a quick buck. But
some scammers pose as agents for official guides, taking your money and telling
you to wait at a particular spot. Of course, they never return and there is no
official guide.
Action:
Guidebooks and online sites will tell you the arrangements for official, paid
tours.
Free holiday
awards
Although a
well known travel scam, we can't miss out mentioning the
"you've-won-a-free-vacation" scratch card trick because it's probably
the number one scam on many European and Caribbean beaches this year.
There are
numerous angles but the scam boils down to two things -- you'll either have to
pay a "processing fee" to get your otherwise free vacation, which is
really non-existent, or you'll be asked to attend a tedious presentation where
they try to sell you timeshares or expensive vacation add-ons with high
pressure sales tactics.
Action:
Every one of these cards is a winner -- that ought to be enough to tell you
what to do, but we will say it anyway: Treat these the same way you would an
email that says you have won a lottery -- trash them.
Credit card
problems
This is our
catch-all for numerous tricks you need to be on the lookout for this year.
These are the key ones:
- Try not to
let your credit card out of your sight when you're using it in an unfamiliar
place. Out of sight, the number and the crucial security code printed on the
reverse could be written down.
- Don't be
taken in by a trader in a foreign country who offers to bill your card in
dollars, thereby saving you a foreign exchange fee from your card issuer. The
trader will almost certainly use an extortionate exchange rate and you will end
up out of pocket.
- Check how
much your credit card issuer charges for foreign transactions. Some charge
nothing, others as much as 3% of the value of the transaction.
Paying for
paper tickets
When you
book a flight online, you usually have the option of just using an
"e-ticket" (basically a printout of your booking confirmation that
you take to the check-in desk) or having an old-fashioned paper ticket mailed
to you for an additional fee.
Usually,
this is $10, which is what the International Air Transport Association says it
costs.
But some
unscrupulous travel agents and organizers are charging up to $40 or $50 for
this questionable privilege.
Action: Do
not take paper. But if you do, make sure you know what the fee is before
committing yourself to buy. If the fee is too high, consider taking your
business elsewhere.
**********************************
Tips &
Tricks: Create a Keyboard Shortcut for your Favorite Program
Following
these steps, you can create shortcuts to open your frequently used programs.
Rather than the long process of maneuvering through the Stat menu to find the
program you want to open, you can use a combination of keys to quickly start
the program.
Here are the
steps:
Open the
Start menu and look for the program you want; right click on it. A menu will
open, left click on Properties.
The
Properties window will open; click in the shortcut key text area (you do not
have to erase any text that is in there; when you type, the text will
disappear). Choose an appropriate letter for the program you want to open and
type it into the box. Example, use the letter i for
Internet Explorer or w for Word. Ctrl + Alt +” will be automatically entered
for you as soon as you type the letter in.
Click OK to
finish creating the new keyboard shortcut. (In Windows Vista or 7, you may be
asked to give administrator permission, click the OK or Continue
button.
To use your
new keyboard shortcut, hold down the CTRL key and the ALT key with one hand and
press the letter you choose with the other. Release the letter key and then
release the CTRL and ALT keys. Your program will open.
**********************************
Featured
Computer Term: The Top 30 Internet Terms for Beginners: 8. Blogging
Whether you
are brand new to using the Internet, or you've been using it for years, there
are thirty important terms that are absolutely worth learning. Join us for our
ongoing series on Internet terminology, where, with the help of Paul Gil from
about.com, we provide definitions and information on the Top Internet Terms for
Beginners.
This Week:
8. Blogging
A blog ('web
log') is the modern online version of a writer's column. Amateur and
professional writers publish their blogs on most every kind of topic: opinions
on health care, commentaries on celebrity gossip, photo blogs of favorite
pictures, tech tips on using Microsoft Office. Absolutely anyone can start a
blog, and some people actually make reasonable incomes by selling advertising
on their blog pages.
Web logs are
usually arranged chronologically, and with less formality than a full website.
Blogs vary in quality from very amateurish to very professional. It costs
nothing to start your own personal blog.
Read more
about blogging here:
http://computerkindergarten.com/html/031906.html
In our next
edition: Social Media and Social Bookmarking
Please visit
our Newsletter Archives to review the terms we’ve already covered:
http://computerkindergarten.com/30internetterms.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.
**********************************
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:
Windows 7 Mouse Properties
Question: I
just purchased a laptop. Can I use a mouse? I am not very comfortable with the
touchpad.
Answer:
Yes, you
can. Just plug the mouse in and the computer will automatically set it up for
you. There will be a little message in the bottom right corner when the
computer is finished setting it up. It will then be ready for you to use.
Question: I
am left handed. On my old computer I switched the mouse buttons so I can use it
with my left hand. Can I do this on my Windows 7 computer?
Answer:
Yes, you
can. You will have to go into Mouse Properties to do so. Here are the steps:
Click the
Start Orb at the bottom left of the screen. Open Control Panel. Click Hardware
and Sound and then click Mouse. The Mouse Properties window will open.
You will see
tabs across the top. Click the Buttons tab.
In the
Buttons configuration area, click the checkbox to the left of Switch primary
and secondary buttons. Click the OK button.
Question:
Can I make the mouse pointer larger on my new Windows 7 computer? It is a
little difficult to see right now.
Answer:
Yes, you
can. Your computer comes with quite a few different pointers from which you can
choose.
Click the
Start Orb at the bottom left of the screen. Open Control Panel. Click Hardware
and Sound and then click Mouse. The Mouse Properties window will open.
You will see
tabs across the top. Click the Pointers tab. In the Scheme area, you will see a
dropdown box with a small down arrow to the right. Click the down arrow. A list
will display with the mouse pointer choices. You will see large and extra large
choices in the list.
Click on
one; below, in the Customize area, you will see a preview of the pointers in
that scheme. When you find a scheme you like, click the OK button.
**********************************
Websites of
Interest:
Grocery
Coupon Websites
Question: My
daughter in law prints out grocery coupons online. Can you tell me those
websites?
Answer:
There are
many websites that you can use. Here are a few:
http://www.groceryguide.com/
http://shortcuts.com/
http://www.couponchief.com/
http://www.coupons.com
http://smartsource.mygrocerydeals.com
http://www.valpak.com
http://www.ppgazette.com/
http://www.couponmom.com/
http://www.mambosprouts.com/
http://www.redplum.com/
Diets and
Good Nutrition
From the
U.S. National Library of Medicine, this site can help with planning a diet and
staying healthy.
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/diets.html
Pet
Information
From the
American Veterinary Medical Association, this site is filled with free audio
and video media on pet-related topics.
http://www.avmamedia.org/
Alzheimers Prevention
This site
provides information on reducing risk factors for Alzheimers.
http://www.alzprevention.org/