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Welcome
It's
Thanksgiving time, a time to think about gratitude,
family, friends, and food. Speaking of food, what's
your favorite Thanksgiving Day food? Mine has got to
be the stuffing. It was such a sad time during the Atkins
era of low carbs, and to my delight: bread is back!
Load my plate with stuffing please, and if you, like
me, eat too much, just exercise that much more. Have
a pleasant holiday y'all.
Computer
Check-up Part I
Every
time a client, friend, family member, or colleague tells
me that his or her computer is not working, it sends
a chill down my spine. I feel for them, and it scares
me into reviewing my own schedule for maintaining and
safeguarding my photos, work, client's work, personal
finances, and more.
I
reflect back with longing to when all of my information
was stored on "the LAN," my employer's servers,
which were backed up daily. This was a time when I kept
nothing on my hard drive, my computer was replaced every
2 years, and if anything went wrong with my computer,
I'd call someone to fix it. Now, it's all on me.
The
holidays are here, and your to-do list is building.
The last thing that you want to be thinking about is
maintaining your computer. But like getting your car's
oil changed, taking care of your computer is easy, takes
a little bit of time, and a little bit of cost, and
buys a great deal of peace of mind.
Also
like a car, even if you do everything according to the
manual on schedule, your computer may still let you
down, and at the worst possible moment. I give you that.
But, and you know this is true, it reduces your susceptibility,
and minimizes the damage.
I
have acquaintances, and I won't name names, who with
the best intentions buy and download the right products
(many of which are free) to keep their system safe.
But then they don't RUN the products or keep them up
to date. That's like buying a maintenance program for
your car, but never taking it to the shop to be worked
on.
I'm
not an expert, but I do read up on this stuff. Here
are the top 7 things that I think we should be doing
to safeguard the information on our computer, in order
of importance:
1.
Back up (what you don't want to lose).
2. Check for viruses.
3. Put up a firewall.
4. Keep your operating system updated.
5. Eliminate spyware.
6. Maintain your computer (scan, defrag, & cleanup)
7. Update your software.
In
the next few issues, I'll discuss these topics more
in depth, starting with next month's issue: backing
up.
Quick
Tip: Smart Spammers
Have
you noticed how smart the spammers are getting these
days? I get a lot of email from people who say they
are Paypal, but they are not. I report them to spoof@paypal.com,
and they thank me. How do I tell the real emails from
the fake ones when the real one went to my Junk folder
and the fake one went to my In Box (really!)?
- Paypal
addresses me by name or my company's name, not "Dear
Paypal Member," or something like that or no
name at all.
- Paypal
never sends an attachment.
- Paypal
doesn't provide a link their site. (When I hover on
the bad link provided by the spammers, my computer
system alerts me that the link is suspicious) Instead
Paypal directs you to log onto your account to do
something such as update the date of an expiring credit
card.
When
in doubt, contact Paypal, but the easiest thing to do
is to log into your account to see if what the email
is claiming is true. Be safe out there.
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