Tiplet expert tips & tech support

March 25, 2009

How to Find and Use an Online Backup Service

Filed under: data storage and recovery,Internet,online computing — Tags: , , , , — admin @ 5:00 pm

by Tina Gasperson

It’s important to keep your important computer files backed up, because almost inevitably your hard drive will fail and all the data on it will be gone forever. In fact, if you can back up your documents, photos, and videos in more than one location, you’ll be doubly safe. Archive CDs and DVDs only last for just so long and can be lost or broken, so having a “backup backup” online might be the solution you need. Fortunately there are many online backup services you can take advantage of. I recommend that you look for a service that has been around for a while and has a good reputation. One such service is Mozy.com.
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March 24, 2009

When a Non-Secure Site Wants Personal or Financial Information

Filed under: Internet,privacy & security — Tags: , , , , , — admin @ 8:00 am

by Gabe Goldberg

Twice recently, e-commerce Web sites have taken me to dangerous checkout screens — that is, Web pages which transmit data “in the clear” (unencrypted) — to complete online purchases. One of them even assured me “All orders are processed on secure servers.”

But without the reassuring padlock (or other secure-page symbol displayed by the browser when viewing a secure Web page) and Web address beginning “https” (instead of the usual “http”) I wasn’t about to provide information requested such as address, mother’s maiden name, credit card number, etc.
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March 23, 2009

How Can I Avoid Losing Real Email in My Spam Folder?

Filed under: e-mail,Internet — Tags: , , , , , — admin @ 8:00 am

by Gabe Goldberg

Spam — junk email offering scams, lost-relative fortunes, exotic romance, drug deals, etc. — is a nasty curse on the current Internet. Technologies are being explored to curb or cure it, and law enforcement has occasional successes shutting down king spammers, but in the meantime, we deal with it.

Most ISPs (Internet service providers) and most email software offers options for handling spam, selecting methods of detecting it and customizing what’s done with it. And add-on software products promise wonderfully precise protection. While these choices can help, they all unfortunately have disadvantages.
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March 21, 2009

How to Use Whois to Learn Who Is Behind a Web Site

Filed under: Internet — Tags: , , , — admin @ 1:00 pm

by David Hakala

It pays to know who you are contacting over the Internet. Before you give any personal information, even an email address, to a Web site, you should have some idea who owns it and what their reputation is. If you buy something online, you should know how to contact the vendor in case there is a problem. Think worst case: where and upon whom would you have a lawsuit served?

Most commercial Web sites have an “about” page that tells you about a company, and usually a “contact” page giving the firm’s street address, phone number, and legal name. If you don’t find such information on a site, a red flag should go up and you should do a bit of sleuthing before parting with anything of value.
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Launching an URL When the Computer Thinks It Is Text

Filed under: Internet,Macintosh — Tags: , , — admin @ 8:00 am

by Nathaniel Poor

The Mac OS and most applications do a good job of recognizing URLs so you can click on them to go to their location, either directly or with the contextual menu (usually via the right mouse button). Either click on it if the computer knows it is a URL, or right-click (or control-click with the main mouse button) on it and choose “Open URL” from the contextual menu.

But this does not always happen. Not every application recognizes a URL, even with a “www” in front of it. There are a lot of programs and possible scenarios, and the end result is sometimes you have a URL right there in front of you but the computer doesn’t understand that the text is a URL.
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March 19, 2009

Twitter Clients for Mac OS X

Filed under: Internet,Macintosh,social networking — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , — admin @ 8:00 am

by Dee-Ann LeBlanc

Unless you live under a rock, you’ve probably heard of Twitter, even if you haven’t used it. While the folks at Twitter are proud of the simplicity of their approach, having every Tweet from every person you’re following just flow into one long stream can get overwhelming.

Fortunately there’s a Twitter API that allows third party developers to write tools that interact with it. In the OS X world, there are many different Twitter clients. This article discusses four of them: EventBox, TweetDeck, twhirl, and Twitterrific.
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March 18, 2009

How to Disable Browser Cache

Filed under: Internet,privacy & security,Windows — Tags: , , , — admin @ 5:00 pm

by Tina Gasperson

The first time you visit a Web page, your browser stores the file in your cache so that when you visit again, the page loads quicker. The stored files load from your hard drive instead of having to be downloaded from the Internet. This is a useful feature because it makes your Web surfing much faster. Sometimes, however, browser caching is undesirable – it may cause you to miss updates on a Web page that changes frequently. There are several ways around this. You can bypass, clear, or even disable your browser cache so that each time you visit a page all the files are freshly downloaded.
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Using Windows Remote Desktop Function

Filed under: computer performance,Internet,mobile computing,Windows — Tags: , , , , — admin @ 1:00 pm

by David Hakala

Imagine you are away from the office, or home, or home-office, about to make a presentation to an important client. In the waiting room, you discover you’ve left your PowerPoint presentation and, more importantly, the contract the client was going to sign on your desktop PC! It’s time to die … unless you have Remote Desktop running back home.
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Amazon’s MP3 Downloader and iTunes

Filed under: digital media,Internet,Macintosh — Tags: , , , — admin @ 8:00 am

by Nathaniel Poor

If you’re an iTunes junkie like I am, the thought of using some other online service to get music would never occur to you. It is sure to be in some strange format and probably won’t work with iTunes.

But no. Check out Amazon’s MP3 store. I was sucked in recently when I heard they had U2’s Boy for $5 for a limited time. Yes, $5. And even better, the songs are automatically added to iTunes.
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March 14, 2009

How to Enable and Disable Cookies

Filed under: Internet,privacy & security — Tags: , , , , — admin @ 5:00 pm

by Tina Gasperson

In an Internet world, cookies are no longer just sweet, bite-sized baked treats. Now, they’re an important element of your Web browsing experience. Some sites require you to have “cookies enabled” in order to access the information there. Some people, on the other hand, want to disable their cookies for privacy reasons. What exactly are cookies, and how do you enable and disable them?
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March 12, 2009

How to Install Java

Filed under: applications,Internet,Windows — Tags: , , — admin @ 6:00 pm

by Tina Gasperson

If you’re online, you will need to install Java because so many interactive applications use Java encoding, which makes it possible for the applications to run on any kind of computer.

You’ll know if you don’t have Java installed, or if you have the wrong version installed, because the site or application you’re trying to access will tell you that you need to install the latest version of Java. It used to be a bit tricky to find and install Java, but that’s no longer the case. Now, it’s as easy as clicking a few buttons and you’re done.
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