Dave Bytes - November 18, 2007

Please remember to use your thinker, before you tinker!

November 18, 2007

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Here's A Windows Tip

Microsoft Offer of Vista Instruction

Order a Free CD Set
Discover How to make the computer easier to see, hear, and use.
This free CD set shows you how to make your computer more comfortable and easier to use with accessibility settings and programs.
The free Microsoft Accessibility CD set includes:
Windows Vista Accessibility Demonstrations and Tutorials CD featuring a video and eleven demonstrations of accessibility. See the new Ease of Access Center, Windows Speech Recognition, and Internet Explorer 7.
Accessibility Resources CD which features Windows XP accessibility demos and tutorials, accessibility solutions, tutorials and training, and resources for businesses. Learn about accessibility in Microsoft products such as Office and Internet Explorer.
http://www.microsoft.com/enable/cd/default.aspx

Want To Help? Just Take Care To Avoid Online Donation Scams

You can use the Internet to contribute money quickly to most of your favorite nonprofit organizations.

Unfortunately, there are a number of online donation scams on the Internet.

How to spot an online donation scam

Most online donation scams take the form of unwanted and sometimes fraudulent spam e-mail messages and posts in online forums, asking for donations in the name of well-known legitimate charities, or disaster victims and survivor funds.

This form of fraud, called phishing, uses a type of spam or pop-up window that claims to be from a legitimate organization, but is used to con money or personal information from would-be donors.

Phishing e-mails often provide links to phony Web sites that appear to be official. (Phishing can be done over the phone, so it's wise to be skeptical of phone solicitations for charitable causes, as well.)

Tips to help avoid online scams

•	Improve your computer's security and use current technology to help block spam.
•	Use the Microsoft Phishing Filter.
•	Be on guard if you receive an unsolicited e-mail from a charitable organization asking for money. Don't click any links or enter any personal information.
•	Instead of responding to solicitations, proactively contact well-known and established charity agencies that you or people you trust have used before.
•	If you do receive an e-mail request from a charity you'd like to support, go to their Web site by manually typing their address into your Internet browser, rather than by clicking a link in the e-mail message. Better still, call them for verification and to find out how to contribute.
•	While online, manually type in the aid organization's address into your Internet browser.
•	Double-check the spelling of the organization's Web site, and get in the habit of always looking at the actual Internet address (for example, "http://www.redcross.org") before you continue browsing a Web site. Spoofed Web sites often use deliberate, easily overlooked misspellings to deceive users.
•	Be wary of e-mails that claim to attach photos of disaster victims or areas—these attachments could be infected with computer viruses or worse.
•	If you provide your credit card number or personal information to a charity-related Web site, make sure the site uses legitimate site certificates and that there is a written policy about protecting personal information.
•	Keep up to date on the latest online scams through trusted technology news providers, government agencies, and other professional sources.

Here's An Internet Explorer Tip

Removing Saved Passwords and User Names

Back when you first started using Internet Explorer (IE), it asked you if you wanted the program to remember your passwords so you wouldn't need to type them in again. Chances are pretty good you let IE have its way. IE is possibly storing your passwords even now.

Here are some points to consider about allowing IE to save your passwords:

Your passwords are sitting around in a file somewhere. Even though they're protected and encrypted, you might not trust IE to absolutely, positively keep the passwords safe from every clever virus or worm that's running around. Is this paranoia? Perhaps not.

If you don't type your passwords on a semi-regular basis, you'll forget what they are. Memory's the second thing to go, right?

Anyone casually walking by your PC, who can log on to Windows with your ID, can then log on to any site and pretend to be you. That's particularly distressing if any of your credit card information has ever been entered on any form — and your bank accounts.

The minute you let anyone sit down at your PC, he or she can break anything on it. It should send shivers down your spine that anybody who can guess your Windows password immediately has access to any Web site, and he or she can do anything you can do (in your name), including shopping with your credit card or sending wire transfers from your bank account.

Don't let IE hold onto your passwords. Period. To keep IE from storing away your passwords, follow these steps:

1. Start Internet Explorer.

2. Choose Tools --> Internet Options --> Content.
IE shows you the Internet Options dialog box.

3. Click AutoComplete.
IE brings up the AutoComplete Settings dialog box.

In general, to save time, you want to have IE remember the Web addresses that you type. If don't like the idea of IE storing your credit card number to be used automatically when filling out forms on the Web, then uncheck the Forms box. That's a tough choice for timesavers because it also tells IE that it shouldn't store your name, address, phone number, and so on, to use on forms. You're potentially saving yourself more than simple time by playing it safe.
Use Table 1 below to figure out how to handle the last two check boxes.

4. In the Use AutoComplete For area, choose the settings that work best for you.

5. If you want to clear out any of IE's current AutoComplete data, click the appropriate button.
If you click Clear Passwords, IE deletes all the passwords that it has stored. If you click Clear Forms, all the data IE has — including all user names and passwords, in addition to addresses, telephone numbers and the like — gets the heave-ho.

6. Click OK twice.

Table 1: Consequences of Internet Explorer AutoComplete Options

*User Names and Passwords on Forms*	*Prompt Me to Save Passwords*	*IE Does This*
Checked	Checked	IE stores all the user names you enter on forms, but it stores passwords only if you explicitly give permission when you type the password. If you can remember to tell IE that it's okay to remember relatively unimportant passwords (say, the password to log on to a news site, or a vendor's support site), but can always remember to tell IE to not remember important passwords (for example, on a banking site), this is a good, timesaving combination.
Checked	Not Checked	This is the most dangerous combination. IE remembers all the user names and passwords that you enter and offers them when anyone using your Windows ID reaches the logon Web page.
Not Checked	N/A	IE doesn't store any user names or passwords. The most secure, but most time-consuming, option.

If you want to delete some AutoComplete entries (such as your credit card numbers) but want to use others (such as your name and address), there's a way. The next time you fill out a form on the Web and you see some data you don't want IE to remember, double-click the box that's coming up with your sensitive data, and then click the unwanted entry once and press Delete. That gets rid of it.

Don't Take the Bait on Phishing Scams
We've all learned to avoid the obvious e-mail scams—but sometimes it's just hard to tell. Here are some tips that separate the chaff from the wheat:
Know what a phishing scam is: an attempt to con you into supplying ID info, account numbers, names, passwords and so forth. Be wary.
Do not reply to requests for financial information initiated by someone else. Legitimate businesses will not ask you supply or "verify" account information.
Never open an unknown attachment, and always keep your firewall up.
If you're still wondering, check it out on Snopes.com.
Report scams at once to spam.uce.gov or at the Anti-Phishing Work Group's reportphishing@antiphishing.org.

Here's An Outlook Tip

Adding Pictures to Outlook Contacts

With Outlook 2007, you can include a picture with the contact information you collect -- and not just for decoration. Now that many cell phones and other mobile devices synchronize with the Outlook Contacts List, you can make someone's picture appear on your cell phone screen every time they call or send you a text message. Those pictures will also appear when you pick the Business Cards view of your Outlook contacts.
Add a picture to a contact record:
1. With the Contacts screen open, double-click a contact to which you want to add a picture.
The contact record you chose opens.
2. Double-click the picture icon at the top center of the contact record.
The Add Picture dialog box opens.
3. Double-click the picture you want to add.
The picture you chose appears in the contact record.
4. Click Save and Close.
5. Another smiling face now adorns your world. If you're likely to be sending out your own business card, it's probably worthwhile to add a nice-looking picture to help make a good impression.

Computer Junkies Go to Rehab

Internet addiction is such a big problem in the obsessively wired country of South Korea that the government has launched an “Internet Rescue” camp for young men. At the tuition-free Jump Up Internet Rescue School – which could be the first of its kind in the world – campers can’t use computers for their 12-day stay. • The schedule includes exercise and group activities like horseback riding. “It is most important to provide them experience of a lifestyle without the Internet,” a counselor says. “Young Koreans don’t know what this is like.” It’s not yet clear if the camp successfully pulls young men away from their computers. But camp administrators say they’re getting four to five applications for every opening.
can we in the US be far behind?

Pause For Thought

	On Thanksgiving Day all over America, families sit down to dinner at the same moment - halftime.

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Last Updated
11/19/2007 05:41 PM

How to spot an online donation scam

Tips to help avoid online scams

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Don't Take the Bait on Phishing Scams