December 13 2009

Welcome to this week's edition of the Computer Kindergarten Newsletter.
Today is Sunday, December 13, 2009

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 2010! From all of us at Sharper Training Solutions - Ceil, Kristin, Angela, Nichole, Nicole, Trish, Roberto and Kim

In this Issue:
Special Feature: How to Use PC to Protect Yourself From Scammers
Special Feature: Gadget Gift Guide

Tips & Tricks: Make Programs Always Open Maximized

This Week's Topic: Web Search Tips

Tips & Tricks: Undo Keyboard Shortcut
Question: Program Version Numbers
Websites of Interest:

A MESSAGE TO OUR READERS:

We’ve gotten thousands of emails over the last few years thanking us for our articles on computer safety and online and offline scams and hoaxes. We wish we had the time to answer each one. We appreciate your thanks!

Here at Sharper Training Solutions, one of the things we are very dedicated to is educating all of our friends about identity theft, scams and computer dangers that can be out there. We’ve found that some of these scams can be pretty clever and can easily fool most of us. Because of that, we encourage you to read these articles very well and to pass on our newsletter articles to your friends and family to educate them as well.

And don’t forget, you can always email us with any questions or issues you may encounter.

Stay safe out there !

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Special Feature: How to Use PC to Protect Yourself From Scammers

The following is from scambusters.org

With the right approach and access to the right information, our PCs can play an important role in protecting us against scams.

Using the best Internet security software and knowing the safe sites to visit creates a safety net that stops the scammers in their tracks. And the information you glean online can also be used out in the real world.

So often we think and read about our PCs being a big source of scams. And it's true -- without the proper safeguards and up-to-date information, they can be a route to all sorts of online crime. But it's also true that your PC can be a powerful ally in the battle against crooks, protecting you against both online and offline scams, as well as helping you take swift corrective action if you do get snared.

Using the Internet and PC tools to Protect You

The Internet is teeming with sites that claim to help you avoid scams. But you have to be careful because many of those same sites are either out to trick you into thinking you're already a victim or to charge you for services you don't need.

But there are 7 failsafe Internet actions and PC tools you should be using to limit the risk of getting scammed. Here they are:

Bookmark and regularly visit the website of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) at ftc.gov. This carries not only regular updates on the latest scams and other consumer-related crimes but also has valuable advice on what to do if you discover or suspect you are a scam victim.

http://www.ftc.gov/

Monitor all of your online bank and credit card accounts. Even if you do not do your finances online, you can still set up Internet access to your accounts so you can see all the latest transactions and quickly spot anything out of the ordinary -- instead of waiting for your monthly statement to arrive by snail mail when a lot more damage has been done.

Check your credit rating by collecting your free annual report from each of the credit rating agencies. Beware though that there are all sorts of sites purporting to offer free credit reports but most of them are, one way or another, after your money.

The value of checking your credit status is not only in establishing your creditworthiness but also in raising a red flag if you have become a victim of identity theft -- because the thief will almost certainly have damaged your good credit standing.

http://www.equifax.com

http://www.experian.com/

http://www.transunion.com/

Follow the latest scam news.

http://computerkindergarten.com/thisweeksedition.html

http://www.scambusters.org

http://www.ftc.gov/

http://www.snopes.com

Install software that genuinely does give you PC protection. These days, all the market-leading Internet security applications go way beyond simple anti-virus protection, by letting you know whether websites you're visiting are safe or not -- for instance, if they're really phishing sites -- as well as warning if any site tries to upload software onto your PC.

Another increasingly important PC tool to consider is a password generator. Too many of us use either easy-to-guess or the same passwords for every account. It is an open invitation to identity theft. See this Scambusters article: Get Tough With Computer Passwords and Secret Questions.

Checking official records and contact information. All local governments offer useful information online but the extent of these varies from one organization to another. For instance, you might be able to check the ownership history and other information about a piece of real estate you're thinking of buying or renting, or whether an individual or company is registered or licensed for business services they are offering.

At the very least, the Internet is a valuable source of contact information at state, city or county levels and for emergency and utility services -- usually much more comprehensive than you would find in the phonebook, and able to point you in the right direction when you suspect a scam.

Keeping your credit card details secret. Yes, that's right. Although we use credit cards for many online transactions, you do not need to use your number. There are at least two things you can do:

Set up an account with an online payment service. Principally, at the moment, this means PayPal since it's the most widely accepted online payment service, accepted not only on auction sites but also by more and more general retailers. Google also offers a service, Google Checkout, and others are on the way.

These services link your account with these organizations either to your credit card or to a bank account -- and they're the only people who need to know these details. When you pay by these services, they will either use any balance you have saved with them or draw the money from your accounts, without the vendor ever knowing the details.

So, there you go. The world of technology, and specifically the Internet, has definitely brought more potential scams into our homes, but, used wisely, PCs can also be a powerful weapon in the battle to beat the crooks.

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Special Feature: Gadget Gift Guide

Not sure which camera, phone or iPod to get for the people on your holiday gift list? Here are buying guides to help you make an informed decision.

Phones & Phone Gear

http://gadgetgifts.about.com/od/phonesphonegear/Phones_Phone_Gear.htm

iPod and MP3 Player Buying Guide

http://reviews.cnet.com/mp3-player-buying-guide/

Shopping for a Photo Printer

http://www.pcworld.com/article/182285/digital_focus_photo_printers.html?tk=rss_howto

Digital Camera Holiday Gift Guide

http://cameras.about.com/od/buyingguide/tp/2009_holiday_gift_guide.htm

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Tips & Tricks: Make Programs Always Open Maximized

If you like the program you’re using to fill the whole screen, why not have them open maximized?

Here are the steps:

Find the icon or menu item that you usually use to open the program. Right click on it. From the resulting menu, left click Properties.

Click on the Shortcut tab and look for Run. Next to Run, you will see Normal Window. To the right of that is a small down arrow; click it. A list will appear, click Maximized.

Click the OK button.

When you open the program, it will run maximized (fill the entire screen).

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Today's Topic: Web Search Tips

Question: My kids swear I should be able to find anything online, but I do not always find what I’m looking for. Are there ways I can improve my searching?

Answer:

Yes, there are. Here are some tricks from about.com that should give you more successful results:

Looking for a Specific Phrase? Use Quotation Marks

If you are looking for a specific phrase, just typing it into a search engine will probably not get you the results you were hoping for. Search engines might bring back pages that have all the words you entered, but those words most likely will not be in the order you intended or even anywhere near each other. For instance, say you had a very specific search query in mind such as:

Nobel Prize Winners 1987

Your results could bring back pages that have Nobel Prize, winners of prizes, 1987 winners of prizes, 1,987 winners of prizes..and the list goes on. Probably not what you were hoping for, to say the least.

However, using quotation marks around your phrases takes care of this problem. When you use quotation marks around a phrase, you are telling the search engine to only bring back pages that include these search terms exactly how you typed them in-order, proximity, etc. For example:

"Nobel Prize Winners 1987"

Your search results now will only bring back pages that have all these words in the exact order that you typed them in.

Site Search with Google

You can use Google to search within a site, and since most site search tools just are not that great, this is a good way to find what you are looking for. Here's the command:

site:URL "keyphrase"

For example, if you wanted to search about.com for the word Google, this is what it would look like:

site:about.com "google"

How to Use the Inurl Syntax

The inurl search syntax allows you to search for words within the URL, or Uniform Resource Locator. This is just another interesting way to search the Web and find Web sites that you might not have found by just entering in a query word or phrase.

What is a URL, first of all? URL stands for "Uniform Resource Locator", and is the address of a resource, file, site, service, etc. on the Internet. For example, the URL of this page is located in the address bar at the top of your browser, and should include "websearch.about.com" as the first part of it.

The inurl search syntax allows you to search for words within the URL. For example, if I wanted to find all the URL's that contained the word "flower" in Google, I would do this:

inurl:flower

Use Basic Math to Search More of the Web

There are a few basic principles that you can successfully use in nearly all the search engines out there to find exactly what it is that you are looking for, and one of the most basic techniques is using the add and subtract symbols in your Web search string.

Here's how it works:

* The minus symbol:

Use the "-" symbol when you want a search engine to find pages that have one search word on them, but you need the search engine to exclude other words commonly associated with that search word. For example:

* Superman -Krypton

You are telling the search engines that you would like to find pages that only have the words "Superman", but exclude the listings that include information about "Krypton". This is a fast and easy way to eliminate extra information and narrow your search down; plus you can do a string of excluded words, like this: superman -krypton -"lex luthor".

* The plus symbol:

Now that you know how to eliminate search terms, here's how you can add them in, using the "+" symbol. For example, if you have terms that must be returned in all your search results, you can place the plus symbol in front of the terms that you need included, such as:

* football+nfl

Your search results would now have both these terms included.

Using the plus and minus symbols is just a small part of a successful Web search strategy. Be as specific as humanly possible. Search engines are not intuitive and will not be able to figure out that when you type in "jewelry", you actually are looking for "handmade freshwater pearl watches". Don't be timid about telling a search engine specifically what it is that you are looking for, and using different techniques (in different ways) to get better results.

How to Search A Specific Domain

If you would like to limit your searches to a specific domain, such as .edu, .org, .gov, and more, you can use the site: command to accomplish this. For example, if you would like to search for "cheese", but only in .edu sites, you would use this query:

site:.edu cheese

Use the Web to Check Your Local Weather

You can get your weather forecast quickly on the Web, without waiting through the news report and endless commercials. There are plenty of great weather sites that you can use to find your local weather reports; here are just a few of my favorites:

The Weather Channel: get local weather, world weather, and lots of other fun metereological stuff.

www.weatherchannel.com

National Weather Service: An extremely detailed site; this is the place to go if you're looking for hurricane or tornado information as well.

www.nws.noaa.gov

Weather Underground: Find local weather; also offers code that you can use to place the weather on your blog or web site.

www.wunderground.com/

CNN Weather: I like CNN Weather because they have in-depth stories and background information.

weather.cnn.com

BBC Weather: Find both local and worldwide weather with BBC Weather reports.

www.bbc.co.uk/weather

Yahoo Weather: This is the one that I've used consistently every single day. Fast and easy.

weather.yahoo.com

Use Different Search Engines for Different Searches

Don't fall into the rut of using one search engine for all your search needs. Every search engine returns different results. Plus, there are many search engines that focus on specific niches: games, blogs, books, forums, etc. The more comfortable you are with a good variety of search engines, the more successful your searches are going to be.

Visit The Search Engine List - a comprehensive list of search engines you can use

tinyurl.com/d9kxvd

Use the Web to Find a Definition

Need to find out what a word means? From obscure to common use, you will be able to use search engines to find the definition of any word you can think of.

define:word

Search the Web with Toolbars