Technically Foreign - Technology, Culture & a KB of Humor » Internet Tools

StumbleUpon to find what intrests you

Terry — Wed, 16 May 2007 23:20:08 +0000

We live in a complicated webbed world. The internet has brought us a ton of information and yet navigating through the sticky web is more like the poor fly who is about to be Charlotte’sÂ dinner. But wait! Now you have a true way to navigate the web without know what you really want to look at. Hmmm is that wrong. We do search for things using a search engine and it works if what your searching for is in the top two or three pages. However, we all have our own interests and that is where the stumbleupon.com site fits in.

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.

How to find a book in a library anywhere in the world?

Terry — Tue, 15 May 2007 16:54:40 +0000

So you found the book you like on amazon but do you really need to buy it? Don’t forget about what you learned in school about Libraries. Now your local public library may not have what your looking for but it’s the Librarians job to help you find it. However there is a great site that taps into most of todays libraries across the country and even the world. That is www.Worldcat.org .

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

The Bad words of Computer Security Part 3 – Software Updates

Terry — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 17:29:23 +0000

There is a lot of words for Software updates including, Vulnerabilities, patches, versions and bugs. Software and your Operating system need to have the latest version, otherwise you risk your computer to cyber attacks. For example if your using an outdated version of Firefox (a web browser) and enter a site that attacks a certain bug which has been known and fixed in newer versions then even if you have an Anti-virus program you can get attacked. The simple rules:

Make sure your Operating system is always up to date. Schedule your machine to automatically update your software.
- For windows make sure automatic update is on, follow Microsoft's instructions here: http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/update/msupdate_keep_current.mspx
- For Mac make sure you install the updates when prompted, follow Apples instructions here: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106704
- Linux - since every Linux distribution is different you will have to read the help page, but most distributions have a simple software update button that not only updates the Operating System but updates all software that is installed which is better then both Apple and Microsoft's updates.
Next make sure that all your applications are up to date. This use to be a very hard one but has gotten much easier. Before you would have to compare each verison of your software or goto each software and see if they have an upgrade button and click it once in a while. Today a lot of software like Firefox and Thunderbird will automatically install new updates and inform you when these have been done. Also There is a software inspector that inspects your computer for all out dated (vulnerable) software. This is the secunia inspector. Click the button below to inspect your computer and make sure all your software is up to date. This should be run every month.
Run the Secunia Software inspector to make sure your computer is safe.

If you follow the first part of the serious about passwords, the second part about Viruses and this part about updating your software there will be a 99% chance of your computer getting taken over, infected and your identity stolen over the Internet. These are simple rules and are equivalent to changing the oil in your car.

The Bad words of Computer Security Part 2 – Viruses

Terry — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 22:57:17 +0000

In the first Part of the “Bad” words of Computer Security I talked about Passwords. Now that you have a safe and secure password what about Viruses??? Since a computer was built by a human you will notice we take a lot of the same words when we talk about ourselves. If you get a virus, that’s not a good thing. The same goes for your computer. Now we protect ourselves from viruses, we don’t eat from the garbage, wear the right clothing when its cold and in general stay away from the things that will harm us. That is the same with computer viruses, be careful what you feed your computer. In the good old days that meant putting a disk in a drive, today that means going to a website, downloading a program or opening an email. Security experts use to say don’t open anything from strangers, but even that has changed.

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.

What’s in an address anyway?

Terry — Thu, 07 Dec 2006 21:31:47 +0000

So your at a party and this guy gives you his business card. You goto his website and look around but that’s only part of what you can find out about someones company. The technical aspect of the location and the IP (actual number associated with the website.) has a lot of information. There are a bunch of sites that have great tools to help you find out about a website, email address and more.

www.dnsstuff.com – basic dns and domain tools.
www.iptools.com - DNS and domain tools, different tools that allow some more personal information.
www.nwtools.com – another of the same tools, this was the first site that i used.

Each of the above sites can also tell you about your connections. Post any questions or comments to this post.

Connection Speed tests

Terry — Thu, 07 Dec 2006 21:24:58 +0000

Sometimes you just want to know how fast you are going. If your driving your car you always know how fast your going, but when your downloading a file from the internet you never know the exact speed of your connection. On the internet it’s called a bandwidth meter. Here are two sites that will test your connection and tell your speed:

http://www.speedtest.net/ – A graphical interface of how fast your connection is as though your driving a car. Pretty nice application.
http://reviews.cnet.com/7004-7254_7-0.html – Cnet.com’s bandwidth meter is probably the fastest and easiest way to test a connection.