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Avoid COVID-19 Scams, and Tour Museums Around the World
All crises generate scams, both online and over the phone. This is true with COVID-19, so it bears repeating: don’t click on links in Facebook or Twitter posts. Go to fairviewtowncrier.com/links and click on the “Scams” link to review before trying for that free iPhone or seeking help for getting your stimulus check. And if…
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Who’s Zooming Who?
Using Zoom safely isn’t that hard. Set a password for joining (don’t make it too simple) and consider using a random meeting ID; make sure you enable the “waiting room”; learn how to turn off participants’ webcam and screen sharing; and figure out how to lock the meeting once all participants are in. When you…
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Working from Home, Ad Blockers and Making PDFs
Working from home, social distancing and adjusting to how we use the Internet all are topics of concern right now. When using video conferencing software, turn off the video to improve your audio quality or at least reduce the video quality (aka bitrate—usually some number with bps or just p after it.) Schedule who needs…
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Facebook Info and Google Tips
Facebook is revealing more information about what they track across the Internet, and they also have options available to control how they track you. Their new tool is called “Off-Facebook Activity,” and you can find it under “Settings” then “Your Facebook Information.” You can even cut down on future tracking, but all that really does…
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Virus Updates and Trackpad Hacks
Despite ending support for Windows 7 on January 14 of this year, Microsoft will continue updating the virus signatures for Microsoft Security Essentials, their anti-virus software. This doesn’t mean total protection, but Microsoft seems to be realizing that not everyone is going to jump to Windows 10 by the middle of January. Google’s Chrome browser…
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Tips for Phone and Computer Security
The iPhone has a reputation of being hard to hack, but how can you know for sure? There’s an app for that. Although Apple has strongly limited access to data that security tools would like to access to tell if the phone has been compromised, a new app called iVerify includes a series of detailed…