| Wednesday, January 25, 2006 |
| Great Tips to benefit your computer experience... |
Welcome Fox 6 viewers! If you enjoy Tech Check, be sure to listen in this Saturday from Noon-1:00 on 1070AM (WAPI) for a special high tech edition of the radio show "Dialogue" hosted by Chase and Sam. We began our broadcasting endeavors in 2002 hosting Tech Talk, which was on air for over 3 years - and now we are testing the waters for a return to a weekly computer oriented radio show. If that's something you're interested in, be sure to listen Saturday from 12-1 and call in, or email us your feedback. Let your friends know too!
GO FULL SCREEN: Want to do more than just maximize the window you're working in? Go full screen by pressing the F11 key. You can undo the full screen by pressing the F11 key again.
FASTER BOOT-UP: Speed up your computer's boot up time. Click on start - run - type in msconfig - look at the programs that load on startup. You should be able to uncheck certain programs allowing your startup time to be faster. *Note* - Make sure you do not uncheck the wrong programs. Do a google search on the file name if you're not sure.
SIDE BY SIDE: Need to look at multiple windows side by side? Simply click on one of the windows in the taskbar. Then holding the ctrl key down, click the other desired windows in the taskbar. After all the windows are selected, right click on the taskbar and select tile vertically. The windows you selected will appear equally sized beside each other. Very helpful for comparing or transferring files.
RECOVER LOST FILES: Accidentally delete files? DON'T SAVE ANYTHING ELSE TO YOUR HARD DRIVE! and then run this program PC Inspector File recovery. If you've already saved other things to your hard drive, you still maybe able to recover your file, so it won't hurt to give it a shot.
CUSTOM ICONS: Want to make your own icons? In your image editor, make your picture 32 width and 32 height in pixels. When you save your image use the .ico tag at the end instead of .jpg (ex. yourpic.ico). Now right click on the icon you want to personalize, click on the customize tab and find browse to the icon you created!
GET ORGANIZED: Organize your files into groups. Right-click in any empty space in the folder you're in, click arrange icons by, and then click show in groups. You can then arrange icons by Name, Size, Type, or Modified. |
posted by The Knowles Family @ 1:30 PM   |
|
|
|
| Wednesday, January 11, 2006 |
| This week's Tech Check: How to avoid spam. |
Anti-spam tips / Too much Spam!
Spam Prevention: (keep scrolling down for tips if your inbox is already full, or if you need free anti-spam programs)
1. Be very wary about giving out your email address. Only subscribe to the most reputable newsletters, avoid posting your address in newsgroups and don't send around email forwards to large numbers of people (spammers have been known to harvest the email addresses from forwards they receive). Don't post your email address on a message board or online forum, as spammers use computer "bots" or programs to harvest email addresses that are posted in most online places.
2. If you want people in a forum or message board to contact you, post your address in an obscure way so that a human could figure it out, but a program could not. For example: contact me at: chase7733(put the at symbol here)chaseandsam.com. You may want to get a little creative here, as email harvesting programs are becoming clever enough to harvest some addresses written in this matter - for instance: someguy somewhere.com might get harvested.
3. Don't reply to any spam that's sent to you - Don't try to unsubscribe, and don't send an email to the sender with "remove" in the line as this will tell the spammer that your email address is "live" and being used.
4. DON'T ever buy anything advertised by a spam email, that only encourages the problem!
5. Some spam senders use computers to randomly generate email addresses. This way, all common names in a given domain are hit with spam regularly - the way to avoid this is to use difficult to guess addresses, or email addresses with letter/number combos: e.g. Jesse5443@yourdomain.com instead of Jesse@yourdomain.com. |
| posted by Chase Thompson @ 1:12 PM |
|
|
|
|
| Anti-Spam Tech Check part 2 - already overwhelmed |
Tips if you're already overwhelmed with Spam.
1. If you are using Outlook to get your mail, it's time to try using a Spam Filter. Outlook has a built in filter, but the free programs we list below will probably work better. A Spam filtering program will block most email that has spam characteristics, and keep it out of your main inbox. You'll have to watch out for false positives, though - sometimes a spam filtering program will filter out a legitimate email, and you'll miss it if you don't check the folder that the filter sends spam to. If you decide to use one of the programs below, be sure to follow the links to learn how to install and "train" the spam filter - it will work a little bit when you install it, but it will get much better over time.
2. If you are using another email provider, (Hotmail, etc) click on their help section, and see if they have any settings that are designed to mitigate spam. Some email vendors provide a level of anti-spam filtering that is set to low or medium by default. If you are being overrun, it's worth bumping the spam filtering up a notch or two, but be sure and check your junk or spam folder from time to time so you don't miss any legit email.
3. If your current email account is totally overrun by spam, with more coming in daily - maybe it's time to ditch it and get a new one. Try using a free internet account that does a good job filtering out spam emails. Both Yahoo and Gmail do fairly well at this. If your account is bombed by dozens of spam emails every day - it's time to change email addresses, and implement the five prevention tips above.
4. Although it won't help your spam problem in the short run, sending a full copy of any spam you get to the right place will help the "spam police" track down the most notorious spammers. You need to send a full copy of the email (including the headers - you'll need to click the "show headers" or "show original" or "show all" button in most programs) to: Spamcop.net. They will send a complaint letter on your behalf to the appropriate network administrator. BE SURE YOU READ SPAMCOP'S RULES before you send them a suspected Spam email.
5. If you are really desperate, use a Challenge/Response anti-spam program. This type program will intercept every single email you receive and send an email to the sender making sure they are authorized. Once they respond properly, the email goes into your inbox - if they don't respond, you won't get the email. Two caveats: One, if you are subscribed to online newsletters that you want to receive, you need to set the program to allow those newsletters in, as most newsletter senders have no patience to deal with challenge/response systems. Two: Be prepared to spend some time upfront approving all of your email - once you approve mail from an address, the system assumes that any other mail you get is okay, but in the early stages you'll have a bit of approving to do, and every email sent to you will be delayed by this. There is a free challenge/response anti-spam program listed below from Spamresearchcenter.com |
| posted by Chase Thompson @ 1:11 PM |
|
|
|
|
| Anti-Spam Part Three |
Here are a few high quality anti-spam programs to look into. Keep in mind that you need to carefully read the information on each program before you install it, and note that if you have any questions about the program, check out the support section for each program.
SpamBayes Filter for Outlook (Click Here to Download) - This is an Anti-Spam program/filter collection that works to filter out spam based on semi artificial intelligence. You'll have to train it to work for you, but once you do, it's pretty good at defeating spam, and it's free! You'll certainly want to visit the Spambayes homepage to read all about it, including how to install it. Copy and paste this link into your browser: spambayes.sourceforge.net/
Spam Assassin (Click Here to Download) Spam Assassin is a free add in for Microsoft's Outlook that filters spam based on the anti-spam tools found at Spamassassin.org. Here's the link to Spam Assassin's Sourceforge page to find out more details: sourceforge.net/projects/saoutlook/
Abuse- (Click Here to Download) Abuse is not so much a program to prevent spam, but a program to exact revenge on a spammer. It analyzes a given message, attempts to discern the ISP the message was sent from, and automatically sends a complaint letter to the Internet Service Provider. You'll want to read more about abuse before you use it at The Abuse Home page on Sourceforge: sourceforge.net/projects/spam-abuse (cut and paste the address into your browser)
SpamResearchCenter Challenge/Response (Click to Download): This is a program that forces anybody who emails you to verify their identity by blocking all incoming mail and requesting the sender respond to an email query about their identity - once they send that in, and you okay it, the program will let email through from that person. Be sure and read the SpamResearchCenter info page on the program so you'll know how to run it. Copy this link into your browser: www.SpamResearchCenter.com |
| posted by Chase Thompson @ 1:09 PM |
|
|
|
| Sunday, January 08, 2006 |
| Three new Quickguides: Anti-Spam, 2006 Tax Guide, Legal Help |
Thanks for visiting our Foxpage! We've written/revised, three new quickguides that we guarantee will provide you with helpful and useful information - Check them out!
Anti-Spam guide - Everything you need to know about preventing spam. Great anti-spam tips, free anti-spam software, and several paragraphs of anti-spam advice.
2006 Online Tax Guide - 2006 Tax Software reviews, Money Saving Tax Tips, and links to great tax advice.
2006 updated Online Legal Guide - need legal help, or curious about law school?
Don't forget to scroll down for our guide on how to keep your computer safe from spyware/viruses and adware for no cost. It's the most popular segment we've ever done for Fox6 in terms of visitors to the website.
Also, if you haven't seen our new video site, www.Safevideo.com, now's a good time to check it out - we've just added four more pages of sports videos, and the site now has close to 400 free videos, and they are all safe for home/safe for work! |
| posted by Chase Thompson @ 3:28 AM |
|
|
|
|
| Chase and Sam Pages: |
|
Sponsored Links:
computer sales
|
|
| Previous Posts |
|
| Archives |
|
|
| Chase and Sam Friends: |
|
| ChaseandSam.com XML/RSS Feeds: |
|
| ChaseandSam.com XML/RSS Feeds: |
|
| Other Good Sites: |
|
|
Updates and New Podcast
