Author: Bill Scobie
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Warning Signs
You may know some of the signs of possible identity theft, like unexplained charges on your credit or debit card(s), cards being declined when scanned, or sudden changes to your credit score (if you check it on a regular basis), but others may not occur to you as a warning sign. Bills and statements no…
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Thirty-second tricks while waiting for healthcare.gov
I had “fun” over one of these past weekends working my way through healthcare.gov. Since I quickly found that clicking from question to question was giving me about 30 seconds of waiting, I decided to find activities that fit. After toting up my work mileage for the tax year, I turned to: Checking for software…
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CryptoLocker and more
For many years, viruses and other malicious software have not deleted your files, maybe hidden them but not actually deleted them. A new piece of ransomware, CryptoLocker, will actually encrypt your data files, images, documents, videos, etc. on your computer and files that you have on any attached external and/or networked drives. You have to…
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Changes
Yahoo Mail, the basis for AT&T’s webmail, has changed its look and increased its storage limits. Although it is not truly unlimited, for most people, the inbox is open to keep all your email. This lets smartphone users, who use IMAP to read their ATT email, not worry any more about filling up their inbox.…
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Gleanings
When you are looking at Apple hardware, always remember to look at Apple’s refurbished store too. When you are in the online Apple store, look for the link to the Refurbished & Clearance section down at the bottom of the store page. Apple checks all items and offers their same one-year warranty. If you find…
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Surprising things
Google books NGram Viewer. One of the power houses of book digitizing, Google, has made a fun and instructive tool available. NGram does nothing more than show you how a particular word or phrase has changed in usage popularity over time. Simple sounding but it can lead to a party game of trying to find…
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Programming as mind gym
When you stare at the computer screen a good part of the day, when Facebook makes you feel dumb, when you think there must be a way to get your mind going again, try programming. I can already hear the screams of “I can’t do that, I am too old” or “Why would I need…
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Cricking your neck with your portables
With more and more of our daily computing going portable with laptops, tablets and smartphones, we are paying less attention to the ergonomics of these devices. That is, we don’t paying any attention to how our arms and hands, neck and eyes, back and hips, are oriented as we use these portable devices. And, here…
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Under the shade tree
Classicshell for Windows 8 is one of those tools that makes Windows 8 look and act like Windows 7 or earlier that Microsoft did not want to include. For all of you who are not enjoying learning “Russian” when you are switching to Windows 8, you should try downloading this tool that will let you…
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Who’s your friend now?
Social bots? Automatic friends? They sound rather innocuous, sort of just ignore them kinds of things. However, researchers have created software robot, “bots”, that are savvy enough to try and become your “friends” across your social networks. They work by acting rather like a person, albeit a casual sounding friend. Yes, there is a human…
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Google-Fu
Does it sounds like a kind of magic for search on the Internet? Actually, it is just learning a few extras to really improve the results you get to spend less time sifting through the list of results. Just throwing out some terms or even a sentence at Google does not guarantee that the first…
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Games people play
Time wasters or brain makers, computer games have always been tagged as something with a whiff of the naughty and anti-social. They can teach useful skills, one of the “justifications” for playing Solitaire on office computers in the 90s was that it taught mousing skills. Although many think of computer games as first person shooters…