It seems the PC world has another scam up there sleeves. To save them money they have the consumer make recovery disks. This just means the Manufacture is trying everything these days not to do their job. I always hated the concept of having a recovery partition and having to make your own disks, why can’t the machine work right out of the box? What this means is you have a choice of making the disks (an hour of your time before using the computer) or actually paying the computer company that you just bought the computer from for a CD. This of course doesn’t happen on a the Apple’s MAC computers. I also find that Dell doesn’t seem to charge anymore for the media, but I could be wrong. Are the computer companies trying to make things more difficult then they have to be? They seem to be able to package the AOL disks pretty well. This article in PC World really pissed me off — http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,136496/article.html — Where it seems the large retails stores are profiting from the apparent Recovery Disk issues by forcing customers to buy the retails stores recovery disks, claiming it is the only way to recover your computer if something goes wrong.

Now I have dealt with both Apple and many PC vendors. Dell has been the only company that I haven’t seen the recovery disk issue come up with, but you have to check a box to get the disks. Why don’t do they give you the disks like Apple has for years? Why is Apple the only one that has stayed constant and gives a proper and simple restoration procces if things go wrong. For example I had two computers that the hard drives failed. An iMac and a Dell. The iMac took less then two hours to format, install the OS from recovery 1 disk and be back online with updates and all. The Dell took half the day and I had to put different disks in, plus find updates online. If I wasn’t as technical as I am, I would of given up and paid someone to figure it out.

It seems to me that the Microsoft Windows world maybe the basis of the Chaos for the recovery disk and getting back up and running quickly without spending a huge amount of money. Issues happen with computers, whether its a PC or a Mac, however what counts is how long it takes to recover and of course how much extra in time and money it takes to have those recovery disks available when that time comes. Always backup your data and if your on a Mac keep those original recovery disks in a safe place.

So before anyone complains about the snail mail interest rate increasing, sit back and pray that congress doesn’t put an email tax. Now some may believe this if fictional but just do a google search for Email Tax or Internet Tax…. I think its time to get back to tying little notes on pigeons.

Stumbleupon works like this. You download the Browser plugin (IE & Firefox compatible), create a login and then you just stumble. Stumbling is first telling the site what you like by choosing categories and pressing a button in your browser called Stumble! This button will take you to random pages that other Stumblers have added. The best part is that you just click a thumbs up or a thumbs down on any webpage. These “I like it” or “I don’t” thumbs are organized in your stumbleupon Favorites. Then you can add your review and comments. Since the site uses tags, its easy to go back to cool pages that you’ve stumbled upon.

Now like all web 2.0 sites there is a great community involved. Adding someone as a friend will place the pages they’ve liked into your stumbling activity. The community grows by more people adding pages. If you click on the ‘Thumbs Up’ icon and no one else has then you’ve discovered that page and get to give it a review.

Stumbleupon my page http://yfat32.stumbleupon.com/ to see how it looks. If you decide to enter into the wonderful world of stumbling, realize it’s like pulling down the arm of a slot machine. Sometimes you get crap, but when you hit that unique and interesting site that you’d never know about then you will realize the fun and usefulness of this tool. Send me a message on stumbleupon if you decide to stumble through the sticky web and lets build on this great community tool.

Now what does this have to do with google? Well today the word google can be used as diverse as the F word. It took hundreds of years for this simple and yet fun word to become a medifore for almost anything. Let’s face it the F word can be used in almost any conversation. Today I have heard googling, googled, googlish, googler with many different meanings. A googler isn’t only someone who uses google but rather someone who just knows a F’n lot. Googling isn’t just that term for searching on google but the process of finding things quickly. Plus everyone is googling each other that it is also the term of background checking dates, employees, employers, friends and everyone in between. I’ve been googled is the term meaning that someone has found me. The word is a very common term today.

The complication of this meaning is that google is not a term, a verb but it is a company. The overall ease of use and culture that the company created shows us that maybe this fun word (say it ten time really fast with out laughing) on the tips of our tongue is the real reason why the search engine is popular. Just like the F word google has that vibe even though the meanings are completely different.

In two hundred or three hundred years from know maybe the word will be a illegal, a slang of sorts. Something that isn’t appropriate to say at the dinner table or to the elders. By then we might not even be communicating by our mouths anyway. However for now we can all keep F’n googling.

At worldcat.org you search for the book, music, video or even article your looking for then after selecting the item enter your location. You will be amazed of how easy it is to find the material your looking for. In the end if you have to buy it from Amazon, they’ve even got the link ready for you!

SITES: http://www.worldcat.org

• Now an easy way to filter adult content in Google is to create a Google user account and keep logged into Google personalized: http://www.google.com/ig.
• Then inside click on preferences: http://www.google.com/preferences?hl=en
• There is a “SafeSearch Filtering” feature. Turn this on and save the preferences.
• Besides Google all top search engines have a safe search Feature, but since Google was singled out…

Now there are many ways to filter a computer and doing this just for Google isn’t the best way since there are other search engines out there. Yahoo, MSN are others who have the same issue. Parents and anyone who has kids around have to learn to set up their computer to have better filters since children can also get into other online places like MySpace or blogs. Software filtering is an important step for parents. With a simple google search with the keywords: parent information on web filtering a parent can find many ways to restrict their computer.

I do not think it’s Google’s or any other search engines responsibility for filtering the Internet for pornography. Instead, the US government could have backed the push for a .xxx domain which would have made it easier for filtering and enforcing control over such content. Instead it is the parent’s responsibility to configure their computer. However, what I have found that all parents should look at is the websites: netsmartz.org, www.nap.edu/netsafekids/ and getnetwise.org. These are a must for all parents to look at. But, if a parent wants to go further, they can use monitoring software like Web Watcher or filter program like NetNanny.

The parent resources below go into more detail about what parents or people who have kids on their computer should do. We aren’t going to leave a four-year-old alone in a house without someone looking after them. Why then would we let children use a computer without proper safe-guards in place ?

Parent Resources:

• netsmartz.org
• Net safeFiltering And Monitory Tools
• getnetwise.org – Online resources for protecting yourself, your kids and your computer.
• staysafeonline.info/ – National Cyber Security Allaiance

Software Solutions:

• Web Watcher
• NetNanny

Rules for protecting your computer from getting a virus:

• Install an anti-virus program. Then make sure you have the up to date virus definitions each month. PLEASE READ, yes that four letter word, READ, the information on the anti-virus companies website. Most anti-virus software comes with a subscription, when that subscription runs out then you are no longer protected from the latest viruses since you will not be able to install the latest definitions. I list Anti-virus programs at the end of the article.
• UPDATE, I know i mentioned it above but make sure that you are getting the updated definitions each day or at least each week. (Companies don’t always reales them each day.)
• Make sure you have a firewall on. Most Operating Systems (Windows, Mac OS X, Linux) have built-in firewalls.
• Run an anti-virus scan at-least monthly with of course the newest definitions. You can schedule the scan. I run mine weekly.
• That Is it…. now for those resources

Resources:

• Certs home security section – CERTS is a government funded research and development institute. They are the security experts.
• http://security.getnetwise.org/ – get net wise is a great website that has information and tools about protecting yourself on the web.
• Microsoft list of Anti-Virus clients – This is a very good and always updated list of anti-virus clients. I personally like Symantec.

Today the web is what rock and roll was to previous generations. It is no longer the tool of the geek, nerd and software engineers (if any distinction exists). The web is open to all who have a creative moment, since it lives in the moment for the moment like table dancing in a dive bar at 3am on a Thursday night. In this moment we discover our inner curiosity and build our wish lists on Amazon and iTunes; our profiles on myspace, 360 and facebook; upload our photos on picasa web or flicker; stream our personal videos on youtube and google video. This is how we – the iTunes Generation – are expressing ourselves. Some people do this a little more then others as in the past with head-bangers, greasers, punks we have labeled these bloggers, hackers and back to the word geek . However, years ago it was the rock star, the guys with big hair, loud voices that entertained us by biting off bat heads, smashing guitars, dancing on stage in spandex. These were our heroes, our role models and in some small way they made us all warm and fuzzy inside. The 21^st centaury has main streamed entertainment making it possible for anyone to be a rock star, to have their 15 minutes of fame and all they need is a little modern day canvas – the internet – to express themselves and show the world what thy are made of. In myspace they post pictures, link to friends, show favorite music videos just for the fun of it. What use to be the fame of the super cool has been distributed to anyone with a web blog, webcam and a little pride. With iTunes you don’t have to wait to goto the store buy the latest song or movie. Plus you can speak your own mind, create your own PodCast and express your own opion, submit it with the thousands of free PodCasts available daily at iTunes.

I would like to say good bye to the Sex Drugs and Rock and Roll generation and hello to the Sex Drugs and iTunes generation. Because whether it’s real or cyber you can’t substitute the sex or the addiction of any drug but entertainment has gone from old school rock into digital puberty.

Today everything is on our computer. Well almost everything, we still can’t get pizza from the computer. We could order it online but what’s the fun of that. Since we work, bank, communicate and play on our computer there is a lot of information and information is as valuables as gold. This first section is concentrating on PASSWORDS. You know that little word you need to gain entrance into a private little space usually in Cyberia. Now this little guy can be used against you, can be your worst nightmare.

Password Account Levels

Multiple passwords are the issue. I have at least 20 things that are Password Protected, and there is no way I’m going to remember 20 different passwords but if i loose one password then All my information can get accessed!!! So when choosing what password to use I have come up with three levels of passwords:

• Free for all - Any site that is free and not very important if someone get’s my username or password. Like Nytimes.com. I have to register to read the newspaper but that’s it! They don’t have any other information, and if someone, some how (discussed later) gets my password it’s okay. Not too much harm done, like someone stealing your wallet but you only had your friends business cards in it. The passwords in this category can be the same.
• Personal - This is your email, blog accounts and anything you keep personal items. These passwords should be different then your “Free for all” passwords but within the category can be the same password. You wouldn’t use this on too many sites though.
• Confidential – This is the motherload for your identity. Your online banking, personal information or anything that could directly damage you. Each one in this category should be different. There shouldn’t be too many but this can easily be done by a short prefix or suffix on a secure password.

So now your saying to yourself, how am I going to remember all those passwords. Stop. Were not there yet, because most passwords are too easy to remember that there also very easy for someone to find out with a simple program. So the above list divides the passwords into category levels, this next session is about creating a secure ROOT password. A root password is a simple base password that can be added to.

Root password

Let’s start with a name, I’ll pick a girls name. Elizabeth. That is a very week password for three main reasons:

1. It’s found in a dictionary. Primarily English dictionaries are used to get passwords, but other language dictionaries maybe used as well.
2. No Numbers.
3. No Special Characters like ! _ – ?

Now just adding numbers to the end or the characters to the end helps a lot, but isn’t always the best. So if you wanted to quickly make this a secure password then Elizabeth-1981 would be better. Now if Elizabeth was born or something else had happened in that year that is related to her then you would easily remember this password. But that wouldn’t be a root password. To make a root we have to make it solid. Now here is an easy way to do this by creating your own code.

• You can replace letters that look like numbers: an E to a 3; an I or L to 1; a O to a 0. These are easy to remember as long as you always do those replacements.
• Special characters with letters like ! with a L or I. A $ with an S. or a ? with a vowel.
• You can also do sound or make up your own code. an A to 8. a 2 with a T.
• Capital letters also help and you can capitalize all constants or vowels.

With the above in mind the following passwords would be a root password for Elizabeth:

• 3l1zab3th
• 3l?z?b3th
• El?z?b3th (Strongest password has capitals, special characters and numbers)
• El!z8beth (Strongest password has capitals, special characters and numbers)

Are these easy for you to remember? That is the important thing and you might want to just think about something that is strong with the above rules that you can easily use for your ROOT Password.

Level Password

Now that you have your root you can expand it to create a level password. Were going to use the last one, El!z8beth. This password is hard to crack and could be used for your “Free for all” level accounts. Then for your “Personal” Accounts you could add a number to the end. It’s not good to add just a one or two because there usually isn’t any relationship unless you put a number two because she’s the second child.

Now for your most secure passwords you have to relate them to the site your accessing and since the password is already secure you could just add a prefix to this password but I believe you want a new root account just for the “confidential accounts”. You can use the same root for all confidential but just add a number, letter and/or a dash. So if we take the name Steve and make it $T3v3 we have a short secure password and now we are going to make that usable for our American Express account and the password could be ae-$T3v3. Since we remember that we use this root password for all our main secure accounts and the initials of the company in the beginning, we could remember this password for a very long time and yet it still will be secure. This root password then could be used for our work also as w-$T3v3. If someone did quickly see some of these passwords they may not understand what it is.

The Final Push

As you can see it takes a little time to create a secure password but once it’s done the root can be used for a while and you can change prefix and suffix with letters or numbers for a while. I find four digit years easy to remember. The main importance is to find an easy to remember password with a secure backbone.

Other Methods

Passphrase – Another way is a passphrase. That is using a sentence or phrase as a password. So the phrase: I am a die hard jets fan would be iaadhjf which would be hard to crack, but with these phrases it’s usually hard to add numbers and speacil characters unless you add a year iaadhjf-89 or a favorite players numbers. This way maybe easier for your to create a password and can be used with the Password Account Levels that I stated above.

Problems with these passwords

One major issue with these passwords is that some sites do not allow some special characters. You might want one of your roots to not have a special character and you add it on with a – when needed.

Resources:

• http://www.securitystats.com/tools/password.php