Techreluctant.com

Okay, the Conficker C virus is all over the news and with headlines claiming that Conficker is “Set To Explode” or that it will be a “Digital Pearl Harbour”, and 60 minutes spending 15 minutes scaring us about it Sunday night, you’re understandably nervous that this virus may melt your computer on April 1. That’s when this hiding virus, or trojan horse, will do something. No one seems to know what that something is. We do know that if you have this virus, something will happen to your computer, most likely that it will be used to attack servers on the Internet by contacting them while thousands of other computers do the same. In other words, your computer will become part of one huge botnet. That would slow down your computer. Or it could very well do something worse to your computer but security experts again don’t really know.  It could be the biggest ever April Fools Day joke. Does that mean you shouldn’t worry? Well, let’s say don’t worry but be safe. There is a removal tool for this from Symantec (read their instructions) and one from Bit Defender . Download one of them, run it, and make sure you don’t have Conficker C.  Also, make sure your antivirus software is updated, and you have your version of Windows up to date (if you’re not sure, make sure you are in Microsoft’s Internet Explorer and  click here). If you don’t have Windows and are not using a PC (maybe you’re using a MAC or have Linux as your OS) then you don’t need to worry as this ugly bug, like most bugs, only attacks Windows PCs. To find out more about it, check out Microsoft’s page about Conficker.

One of the little things I use the most on the computer, and one that most people ask me about when they see me do it, is to open a web page in a new window. Instead of just clicking on a link, right-click the link and you will see a dropdown box. Choose Open in New Window or Open Link in New Window (depending on your browser) and that web page will open in a new window. Now you still have your original browser window open and when you finish reading the new page, just close it. For me, when I surf the Net, I find someting interesting, click on it, go to that page and there’s something interesting there so I click again and so on and so on and so on. Before I know it, I’ve lost where I started and wish I could find my way back. That’s why I love opening in new windows. You may have noticed that most of the links I put on here open in new windows and that’s why, so you can always return to where you started. Now you can do it on any web page.

You can also open in new tabs, both in Firefox and recent versions of Internet Explorer. Again, just right-click the link and the dropdown box will give you an option to open in a new tab. That’s not my preference but maybe you’d like to try that as another way of making your tech life easier.

Hoax emails can be dangerous to people, to bank accounts, to organizations, and to companies. Here’s one I got that, since it was forwarded onto me (more than once), people obviously believe. It read, in part,

** TIM HORTON’S SHOCKER **

A man from Arkansas came up to Canada for a visit only to find himself in the hospital after a couple of days. Doctor’s told him that he had suffered of cardiac arrest. He was allergic to Nicotine. The man did not understand why that would of happened as he does not smoke knowing full well he was allergic to Nicotine. He told the doctor that he had not done anything different while he was on vacation other than having Tim Horton’s coffee.

The man then went back to Tim Horton’s and asked what was in their coffee.

Tim Horton’s refuses to divulge that information. After threatening legal action, Tim Horton’s finally admitted…..

*** THERE IS NICOTINE IN TIM HORTON’S COFFEE

Wow, I’ve heard this rumour for years. And I’m so addicted to the stuff, it is not hard to believe it. But it’s not true and to pass on such information is wrong. Tim Hortons has refuted this and the CBC has also checked this out on the show Disclosure. Tim Hortons coffee was analyzed and shown to have absolutely no nicotine. (The other rumour I’ve often heard, that Tim Hortons puts extra caffeine in its coffee was also debunked. In fact, Disclosure’s analysis showed that of coffee analyzed from Tim Hortons, Starbucks, and the Second Cup, Tim Hortons coffee was, on average, the lowest in caffeine.)

So, if you get this email, stop it in its tracks by not forwarding it.

On Wednesday, I explained what a browser was and told you I’d be telling you about my favourite browser today. And here we are. My favourite browser is Firefox. I haven’t used Internet Explorer, except for work-related stuff, since I first found Firefox. The reasons  are many. For me, I like the tabbed sessions (where you can open multiple websites on tabs inside one browser window) and the fact that if Windows crashes for some reason, you can restart all those tabs just where you were; one-click bookmarks; built in search engine; and a built-in spell checker to mention a few. My two favourite reasons are safety and add-ons. Firefox comes with lots of safety features: anti-malware (to stop viruses, torjan horses, spyware and other Internet uglies); anti-phishing(which you know about because you read my post about phishing); popup blocker, and a download manager. But I think the top security feature might be that it’s not Internet Explorer. If you are someone who wants to make a virus and do maximum damage, you are going to target that virus for the most used browser around like, say, one that comes with Windows as Internet Explorer does. That doesn’t mean that Firefox is 100% safe and you’ll never get a virus, but I feel more secure when using Firefox.

Add-ons are probably the coolest thing about Firefox. There are thousands of them you can add to Firefox to do anything from opening all of your favourite websites in tabs within one browser with the click of one button to tracking how much time you spend surfing the net, to previewing web pages before you open them. Since add-ons can be developed by anyone (but they are tested as experimental first), you can find a huge variety of add-ons that will make your tech life much easier.

Now, some argue that Firefox is not as safe as Internet Explorer and Microsoft has adapted some of the great parts of Firefox for Internet Explorer (gasp, I know, hard to believe, hey?) and IE 8 was just released last week so it may even have more Firefox features on it, but I love the little fox. Maybe you will too, so if you’d like to try it click on the fox.

It’s Thursday and that means I get to tell you about something I like. Since my little guy turned one a few days ago, I’ve had babies on my mind and it made me think of a little gadget that’s not really that techie but which made my life so much easier. I didn’t know I would want a gadget for a baby but this one is fantastic. Stock up for shower gifts. It’s called the itzbeen.

With my first child I had a notebook where I would try to write down when he’d been changed, when he’d been fed, how long he’d slept, and to keep track of how many wet and/or dirty diapers he had (a must for a breastfeeding mom). Of course, this whole note-taking thing was hit and miss since most of the time you are doing things in a sleep deprived haze or in the middle of the night or…who can find that notepad AND a pen anyway. Shortly after my second child was born my friend Christine gave me an itzbeen and it made life so much easier, I could never thank her enough. The itzbeen (as in itzbeen 2 hours since the last feeding) includes four timers with buttons labelled for diapers, feeding, sleeping, and a fourth that is for anything you need. It can attach to your belt (or, let’s face it, the elastic on your pyjama bottoms, with the attached belt clip), has a little flashlight built in for those many times in the night when you just want to make sure the little one is breathing, and a backlight you can turn on briefly so you can see all those timers at night. I used the timers religiously for feeding and also used it to record diaper changes early on but soon got out of that. Also, I used the miscellaneous timer for medicine. I still use that because even when I make a note of it in my head, I always forget when I gave medicine. You can use any of the timers for anything too so even when the baby gets older, it’s still a handy thing to have around. There’s a lock on the device which allows you to lock the timer so older children can’t reset it when they play with the itzbeen (because they will play with the itzbeen).

Besides the timers, there is a simple little switch that any breastfeeding mother will grow to love. It simply has R on one side and L on the other. No more clothespins on the shirt to try and remember which breast you started them feeding on last time and no more racking your brain trying to remember because you forgot to use the clothespin. I used this switch for every single feeding. Sometimes the itzbeen would get misplaced and the household had to stop until the itzbeen could be found so I would know what letter that switch was set at.

Gadgets and technology are not required for babies, of course, but they sure can make caring for them easier. The itzbeen does that without being too complicated and without trying to do too much with one device (although I would have loved it if there was a simple counter on it so I could have counted those dirty/wet diapers).

Okay,  maybe you know what a browser is but a lot of people don’t. I know this because I used to work on a computer help desk and nine times out of ten when I’d tell the person on the other end of the phone to “open your browser” they would reply “what’s a browser” or “where can I find that”. You are almost certainly using your browser right now to read this web page. That’s what a browser is—a program that reads the code on a website and displays it to you as a web page. You are probably using Internet Explorer, the most popular browser, mostly because it comes with Windows. But there are other browsers out there, other better browsers in my opinion and that’s the reason I’m explaining the word browser to you now. On Friday I’ll tell you about what I consider to be the best browser and why.

Last week, I went over the basics of googling, This week, I’m going to tell you about Google’s advanced search and also some pretty cool things you can do in that little Google search box.

Google has an Advance Search link on their page (in smaller letters to the right of the search box). With this you can do more specific searches without the minus signs and quotes (sure, now she tells me). It also allows you to change how many search results you see on your results page and is a way to search for something on one specific site (or you can type in your keyword in the main Google search page and then type site:[name of site] such as tech site:techreluctant.com). So, that’s most of the basic searching advice and where to find the advanced search, but there are some extras that Google searches can provide and these can possibly make your life easier (don’t forget that instead of clicking on the Google Search button, you can just hit the enter button once you’ve typed your search).

• Google has a calculator so if you type 144+17 in the search box then click Google Search, you’ll get your answer.

• Looking for the definition of a word? Type the word define followed by a colon and the word you want to define  such as define: easy.

• In these days of economic woe, maybe there’s a stock you’re following. If you want a quick stock quote, just type the ticker symbol in the search box and click Google Search.

• I use Google all the time to convert measurements. So, last week when I needed to know how many cups were in 48 ounces, I just typed 48 oz in cups, hit enter and there was my answer.

• Your friends are vacationing in Australia and you’d like to know what the weather is like there. Just type in weather sydney australia.

• Want to call those vacationing friends but don’t want to wake them up by calling at the wrong time? Just type time Sydney Australia and you’ll know exactly when they are (although I couldn’t get this to work for my city).

Probably the thing I like the most about Google though is the way it checks my spelling. I am not usually a bad speller but I do not want to look up the proper spelling for armadillo every time I want to google it (yes, I have searched about armadillos before and I’m not telling you why). Also, I have a tendency to transpose letters while typing. Each time I type Newfoundalnd in a search, Google always comes back and says “Do you mean Newfoundland?” with not a hint of judgment in its tone.

The Internet is a wealth of information. Finding exactly what you want in cyberspace can be the biggest task but your friendly Google (or other search engine) can make that search much easier, especially if you know how to find what you’re looking for. Happy Googling.

Ever sent a link to someone and the link was longer than the text you wrote in the email? A link made up of two lines of weird letters and numbers and all you said was “thought you’d like this”.  Or ever sent a really long link in an email and then got an email back that said the link didn’t work (because an email program inserted a break in it somewhere)? It doesn’t have to be that way. With TinyURL you can make any long, unwieldy web address into a short link or, aptly enough, a Tiny URL.

Want to waste some time? Feel free to try something called TinyURL-whacking. It’s when you use the basic link for TinyURL (http://tinyurl.com/) and add random letters or numbers after it to go to some random link that someone created a tiny url for. TinyURL is up to six letters or numbers after the slash now (soon not going to be so tiny) so any combination of up to six letters or numbers could work. A variation on this, for the truly bored, is Vanity TinyURL where you put your (six letter or less) name after the tinyurl.com/. Mine is reaaallllly boring. http://tinyurl.com/tina. Stock charts. But the actual address it goes to (http://stockcharts.com/h-sc/ui?c=$hui,uu[e,a]dbcayyay[db][pb50!b200!d20,2!f][vc60][iub14!lo14!la12,26,9!le12,26,9!li14,3!lk14!lm12!lh14,3!lp14,3,3!lf!lya7,14,28][j9343036,y]&listNum=1) is a perfect example of why we need TinyURL.

I am a note-taker. Blog ideas, to do lists, story ideas, website addresses, I open up Notepad on my computer and take notes about them all. At least I used to. I kept losing track of notes or having to leave my laptop and go to my desktop so I could email myself notes on that computer. Or, back when I worked at MUN as an IT Consultant, I would need notes I had on my computer at work when I was home or vice versa. I kept thinking there had to be a different way. I knew about Google Notebook but I didn’t really like it. Then I found Evernote. I am typing this in Evernote right now and then I’ll paste it in the blog. Evernote can be downloaded for either a PC or Mac so you can use it on your computer. But what I love about Evernote is that you can access it on the web and also on your mobile device (my iPod Touch for me). If you use the desktop version you can sync it to make sure you have access to all your notes, whether on your computer, the web or your mobile device. There’s also web clipping so you can save full web pages or just sections of them. I only use the web version because I can just pop open the web page and start writing my notes.

Evernote is free but there is a premium version too if you’d like more monthly storage and the ability to sync a number of different file types but I’m pretty sure tech-reluctants will be very happy with the free version. There are other free, similar programs out there like the previously mentioned Google Notebook, and UberNote, to name just two. But for me, Evernote has made my tech life simpler and more organized. I hope it does the same for you.

I know a lot of writers. They can weave stories and give you in-depth looks into the latest news but some of them can’t spell that well. And many of them, myself included, get mixed up in certain words or phrases. It can happen to the best of us and often does. I know it seems kind of boring to think about grammar these days in the time of the much overused apostrophe S for plurals (my pet peeve of late–there’s a large sign on my way home from town that says something like Quilt’s For Sale and I feel the urge to scream every time I see it) and when the spelling I see on  Facebook makes me fear for the future of our world, but some people care about how they say things, even on the Internet and for you I have a great website.

When in doubt about the correct use of a word or phrase, I turn to Paul Brian’s Common Errors in English. It has saved me some embarrassment. I almost submitted a manuscript with someone having her brow furled. It didn’t seem right so I went to Common Errors in English and phew, that would have been silly because, as Brian points out in his furl/furrow entry,  “If you can furl your brow you belong in a sideshow.” Even if you’re not too concerned about getting it right all the time, I bet if you go to his site, you will learn something you didn’t know before. If you do care about grammar and spelling, you should bookmark Common Errors in English as your go-to place when you’re just not sure.