November 2005 Archives

Ho Ho, Oh No! Don't be a victim of Online Fraud. As more and more folks discover shopping online, the need to be informed and practice good Online Shopping Safety is a must. ABC News reported on Nov 18, 2005 that U.S. consumers are expected to spend $18 billion shopping on the Internet between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year. That is a 25 percent increase from last year. They also reported that 2.5 million U.S. households will buy merchandise online for the first time. To read the ABC News article click here.

I often get asked, "Is shopping online safe"? My standard answer is, "it can be, but you need to follow a couple of basic Online Shopping Rules." Here is a Best Practices list to help you have a good and safe Online Shopping experience:

In an earlier BLOG article we told you about the Windows "L" key stroke to lock your workstation.
If you missed that one look here:
tceblogs.tamu.edu/wtexas/archives/2005/10/locking_your_co.html

That's pretty handy, so I thought I would show you a few more.

One thing about using the little "Windows Logo" key. Many of the keystrokes are not standard between versions of Windows and different keyboards. The keys I show you here work on a standard keyboard on a computer with Windows XP Professional.

If you have a custom keyboard or use a different version of Windows your results will be different. On some keyboards these keys will do other things and you can even programs what the keys will do!

The short answer and the one I recommend is YES.

Now, why do I say yes? Well for one thing, every minute that your computer is connected to the Internet, it is at risk from hackers. System attacks can come at any hour of the day or night, but these attacks most likely will come when you are assumed not to be sitting at your machine. So, you can substantially reduce the amount of time your machine is potentially exposed every week by turning it off at night and on the weekends.

As crazy as hacking sounds, it should be taken seriously. I know what you are going to say, "but my computer is just one machine among many connected to the Internet at any given time". That is true, but it really only takes a moment for a hacker to get in. The result, the hacker would have access to all your private documents and photos, credit card numbers and passwords, etc.

That is what I was thinking the first time I read about this feature. If you are using Netscape 8.0 or Firefox 1.07, you can use tabbed browsing (Sorry you IE fans, this option is not available with the current version of IE 6). Basically, tabbed browsing lets you open tabs, each displaying a web page, within a single browser window. You can also "browse ahead" with tabbed browsing. If you are on a long web page, you can load links in new tabs. The linked web pages will load in tabs while you read the current page.

This entry will show you how to setup and use tabbed browsing using Firefox. If you are using Netscape and want to try tabbed browsing, click here.

If you don't have Firefox, please download it by clicking here!

I hope this title has sparked your interest and you will give this tip a try. As of 2 minutes ago you were officially surfing the web. That meant if you wanted information you went to out to the web and either typed in the URL of the desired website, or you did a search with a search engine, like Google. Welcome to the new web, where content, news, and info comes to you. This is the whole concept behind Live Bookmarks or Live Content.

What does that mean? With one glance, you can quickly see the latest headlines from your favorite sites, and go directly to the articles that interest you with out having to wade through multiple web pages; thus, saving you time and effort.

FireFox 1.0.7, Netscape 8.0, and Internet Explorer 7 (which is due to be released this summer) all support Live Bookmarks or Live Content. If you would like to read more about each, please visit the Firefox, Netscape, and Internet Explorer websites.

This entry will show you how to setup and use Firefox's Live Bookmarks.

If you don't have Firefox, please download it by clicking here!