Weekly Newsletter

 

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**Due to technical difficulties, some of you may not have recieved last week's newsletter.  If so, it is posted here!

Tip of the Week: Avoiding "SmitFraud" infections

SmitFraud is a commonly contracted spyware infection that tricks users into purchasing fake anti-spyware and anti-virus programs by acting like a legitimate warning.   In order for your computer to become infected by SmitFraud, you have to download the "Trojan" which most commonly appears as a "required codec" or video player download necessary to view a video online.

The key is understanding the common tools for viewing online videos and not falling for any alert that says that you need additional software to view a video.  The most common programs that most computers should already have installed (unless it is brand new or newly reformatted) include Apple's QuickTime, Adobe's Flash, Real Networks RealPlayer and Microsoft's Media Player.

If you ever get a pop-up or error message stating that you need to download a special program or codec in order to view an online video, think twice if it isn't one of the ones listed above (and make sure to teach your kids to do the same, as they are the most common ones that fall for this trick.)

Headwhack of the Week: Why won't this website print properly?

Most of today's browsers do a good job of dealing with an issue that used to plague anyone that wanted to print out a web page or HTML based e-mail page...it would cut off the right side of the page or message.

If you are still using version 6 or older of Microsoft's Internet Explorer, you may still be dealing with this paper wasting issue.  If so, upgrading to Version 7 of Internet Explorer or additionally installing Mozilla's Firefox will provide with you with an option that quickly takes care of this problem: Shrink To Fit.

By choosing the Print Preview option in either browser, you will have the option to "scale" the page to fit your printer's output.  There are a number of other ways to deal with this issue, including printing selected items only, copy and paste to Word or change the paper orientation which was discussed in this advice column some years back.

Geek Speak of the Week: Friendquest

Slang term used to describe the act of sending a "friend request" to another person on a social networking site like MySpace, Facebook and Linkedin.

Security: 'Cybersecurity commission' to proffer advice to next president

Transitions between presidential administrations are typically influence-peddling, power-consolidating, appointee-vetting exercises run by Washington insiders. Perhaps that's why the quintessential Washington think tank, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, is trying to insert itself into the process.

News: Track, share and compare your gas mileage at Fuelly.com

With the exception of the mega-rich, everyone is concerned about getting the best bank for the buck one it comes to the fuel bill. 

Fuelly.com was recently launched for those that want to track their mileage, campare it against the EPA estimates and see how others that have the same vehicle are doing. 

News: Microsoft Prepares for End of Windows With Midori

With the Internet increasingly taking on the role of the PC operating system and the growing prevalence of virtualization technologies, there will be a day when the Microsoft Windows client OS as it's been developed for the past 20-odd years becomes obsolete.  Microsoft seems to be preparing for that day with an incubation project code-named Midori.

Data Doctors Video on Cnn.com: Using Google with your cell phone

We turn on the wayback machine this week to remind everyone with a cell phone that has text messaging capability that Google has some pretty cool features that are available if you simply text them for info...

Watch the video and help our rankings on CNN.com!  You can watch us live every Saturday morning at 9:30AM Pacific, 12:30PM Eastern or watch the archived versions of our segments whenever you want at CNN.com/video.

MacLife: Quick Spotlight on "Spotlight" 

Louis from MacMedia want to put this week's spotlight on the Spotlight feature in the MacOS. 

Spotlight is the magnifying glass icon located at the top right of the menu bar.  Simply click on that icon and type in your key word search.  Spotlight searches filenames, content, and metadata (data that describes other data) to find almost anything on your Mac.  Spotlight can be used to search data in many areas of the operating system and even applications.  Examples of this would be finder, mail, system applications and various other programs.  So say you're looking for information pertaining to Macmedia on your computer type your search information in the spotlight window and let your Mac to the rest.  In just seconds you’ll computer will query that request and pull up almost anything related.

So for those of you with organizational issues, the next time your searching for your long lost email, try spotlight and let the Mac do the rest. 
Spotlight is a feature that can be found in both Tiger (10.4.x) or Leopard (10.5.x) it can be launched by either clicking on that little magnifying glass on the top right of your screen or by pressing the Apple and Spacebar keys at the same time.

For more info on the Spotlight feature, go here.

Opinion: Macs Are PCs, Dammit!

The brilliant ad campaign from Apple, which manages to make PC users look like uptight boobs, is entertaining and impressively effective. It also helps foster one of the greatest misconceptions of our still relatively young digital age: that Windows-based computers are PCs while Macs are, well, something else. Of course, that's wrong—dead wrong.

Weekly Advice Column: How to Scan questionable e-mail attachments

We had this as our tip last week, we spoke about it on the radio show and it seems to have caught a lot of people's attention, so here is a full advice column devoted to explaining how to scan e-mail file attachments before opening them if you think they may be legit.

This Week's Show:  Leveraging the "Wisdom of Crowds" online

The Wisdom of Crowds was discussed by author James Surowiecki when he postulated that the collection of information in groups resulted in decisions that were often better than could have been made by any single member of the group. (Think "ask the audience" option on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?)

This is also demonstrated every day in the corporate structure of most companies, but the Internet allows us all to leverage the Wisdom of Crowds with a couple of mouse clicks.  Whether you need to make a purchasing decision, find a quiet hotel with clean rooms or have a major business problem to solve, you can gather the Wisdom of Crowds if you know where to look!

Listen in as we discuss all the great ways you can use the Internet to research virtually any question or problem that life places at your feet!

Join us Saturdays from 12:00PM–2:00PM (Pacific) on News 92.3 KTAR or listen LIVE via the Internet at KTAR.com as we discuss your computer questions at: 602.277.5827 or ask your questions during (or before) the broadcast using the ask a question page.

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