Posts Tagged ‘Web’

Why the internet will fail (from 1995)

Thanks go to Three Word Chant!

The Inter­net? Bah!

Hype alert: Why cybers­pace isn’t, and will never be, nirvana

By Clif­ford Stoll | NEWSWEEK

From the maga­zine issue dated Feb 27, 1995

After two deca­des online, I’m per­ple­xed. It’s not that I haven’t had a gas of a good time on the Inter­net. I’ve met great peo­ple and even caught a hac­ker or two. But today, I’m uneasy about this most trendy and over­sold com­mu­nity. Visio­na­ries see a future of tele­com­mu­ting wor­kers, inte­rac­tive libra­ries and mul­ti­me­dia class­rooms. They speak of elec­tro­nic town mee­tings and vir­tual com­mu­ni­ties. Com­merce and busi­ness will shift from offi­ces and malls to net­works and modems. And the free­dom of digi­tal net­works will make govern­ment more democratic.

Balo­ney. Do our com­pu­ter pun­dits lack all com­mon sense? The truth in no online data­base will replace your daily news­pa­per, no CD-ROM can take the place of a com­pe­tent teacher and no com­pu­ter net­work will change the way govern­ment works.

Read more…

Geek Humor

• >——– The infor­ma­tion went data way ——–<
• 2 + 2 = 5 (for extre­mely large values of 2)
• AAAAA (Ame­ri­can Asso­cia­tion Against Acronym Abuse)
• (A)bort, ®etry, ℗retend this never happened…
• Access denied — nah nah na nah nah!
• An error? Impos­si­ble! My modem is error correcting.
• As a com­pu­ter, I find your faith in tech­no­logy amusing.
• ASCII stu­pid ques­tion, get a stu­pid ANCI.
• Bad com­mand. Bad, bad com­mand! Sit! Stay! Staaay…
• Bad com­mand or file name! Go stand in the corner.
• Best file com­pres­sion around: “DEL *.*” = 100% compression
• Beware of com­pu­ter pro­gram­mers that carry screw­dri­vers. (Leo­nard Brandwein)
• Beware of geeks bea­ring gifs.
• Bles­sed are the pes­si­mists, for they make backups!
• Bles­sed is the end-user who expects nothing, for he shall not be disappointed.
• The box said, “Requi­res Win­dows 98 or bet­ter” so I ins­ta­lled Linux.
• BREAKFAST.COM Halted…Cereal Port Not Res­pon­ding Read more…

More Shortcuts for MS Word

   Command Name                  Shortcut Keys
   ------------------------------------------------------------------------

   All Caps                      CTRL+SHIFT+A
   Annotation                    ALT+CTRL+M
   App Maximize                  ALT+F10
   App Restore                   ALT+F5
   Apply Heading1                ALT+CTRL+1
   Apply Heading2                ALT+CTRL+2
   Apply Heading3                ALT+CTRL+3
   Apply List Bullet             CTRL+SHIFT+L
   Auto Format                   ALT+CTRL+K
   Auto Text                     F3 or ALT+CTRL+V
   Bold                          CTRL+B or CTRL+SHIFT+B
   Bookmark                      CTRL+SHIFT+F5
   Browse Next                   CTRL+PAGE DOWN
   Browse Previous               CTRL+PAGE UP
   Browse Sel                    ALT+CTRL+HOME
   Cancel                        ESC
   Center Para                   CTRL+E
   Change Case                   SHIFT+F3
   Char Left                     LEFT
   Char Left Extend              SHIFT+LEFT
   Char Right                    RIGHT
   Char Right Extend             SHIFT+RIGHT
   Clear                         DELETE
   Close or Exit                 ALT+F4
   Close Pane                    ALT+SHIFT+C
   Column Break                  CTRL+SHIFT+ENTER
   Column Select                 CTRL+SHIFT+F8
   Copy                          CTRL+C or CTRL+INSERT
   Copy Format                   CTRL+SHIFT+C
   Copy Text                     SHIFT+F2
   Create Auto Text              ALT+F3
   Customize Add Menu            ALT+CTRL+=
   Customize Keyboard            ALT+CTRL+NUM +
   Customize Remove Menu         ALT+CTRL+-
   Cut                           CTRL+X or SHIFT+DELETE
   Date Field                    ALT+SHIFT+D
   Delete Back Word              CTRL+BACKSPACE
   Delete Word                   CTRL+DELETE
   Dictionary                    ALT+SHIFT+F7
   Do Field Click                ALT+SHIFT+F9
   Doc Close                     CTRL+W or CTRL+F4
   Doc Maximize                  CTRL+F10
   Doc Move                      CTRL+F7
   Doc Restore                   CTRL+F5
   Doc Size                      CTRL+F8
   Doc Split                     ALT+CTRL+S
   Double Underline              CTRL+SHIFT+D
   End of Column                 ALT+PAGE DOWN
   End of Column                 ALT+SHIFT+PAGE DOWN
   End of Doc Extend             CTRL+SHIFT+END
   End of Document               CTRL+END
   End of Line                   END
   End of Line Extend            SHIFT+END
   End of Row                    ALT+END
   End of Row                    ALT+SHIFT+END
   End of Window                 ALT+CTRL+PAGE DOWN
   End of Window Extend          ALT+CTRL+SHIFT+PAGE DOWN
   Endnote Now                   ALT+CTRL+D
   Extend Selection              F8
   Field Chars                   CTRL+F9
   Field Codes                   ALT+F9
   Find                          CTRL+F
   Font                          CTRL+D or CTRL+SHIFT+F
   Font Size Select              CTRL+SHIFT+P
   Footnote Now                  ALT+CTRL+F
   Go Back                       SHIFT+F5 or ALT+CTRL+Z
   Go To                         CTRL+G or F5
   Grow Font                     CTRL+SHIFT+.
   Grow Font One Point           CTRL+]
   Hanging Indent                CTRL+T
   Header Footer Link            ALT+SHIFT+R
   Help                          F1
   Hidden                        CTRL+SHIFT+H
   Hyperlink                     CTRL+K
   Indent                        CTRL+M
   Italic                        CTRL+I or CTRL+SHIFT+I
   Justify Para                  CTRL+J
   Left Para                     CTRL+L
   Line Down                     DOWN
   Line Down Extend              SHIFT+DOWN
   Line Up                       UP
   Line Up Extend                SHIFT+UP
   List Num Field                ALT+CTRL+L
   Lock Fields                   CTRL+3 or CTRL+F11
   Macro                         ALT+F8
   Mail Merge Check              ALT+SHIFT+K
   Mail Merge Edit Data Source   ALT+SHIFT+E
   Mail Merge to Doc             ALT+SHIFT+N
   Mail Merge to Printer         ALT+SHIFT+M
   Mark Citation                 ALT+SHIFT+I
   Mark Index Entry              ALT+SHIFT+X
   Mark Table of Contents Entry  ALT+SHIFT+O
   Menu Mode                     F10
   Merge Field                   ALT+SHIFT+F
   Microsoft Script Editor       ALT+SHIFT+F11
   Microsoft System Info         ALT+CTRL+F1
   Move Text                     F2
   New                           CTRL+N
   Next Cell                     TAB
   Next Field                    F11 or ALT+F1
   Next Misspelling              ALT+F7
   Next Object                   ALT+DOWN
   Next Window                   CTRL+F6 or ALT+F6
   Normal                        ALT+CTRL+N
   Normal Style                  CTRL+SHIFT+N or ALT+SHIFT+CLEAR (NUM 5)
   Open                          CTRL+O or CTRL+F12 or ALT+CTRL+F2
   Open or Close Up Para         CTRL+0
   Other Pane                    F6 or SHIFT+F6
   Outline                       ALT+CTRL+O
   Outline Collapse              ALT+SHIFT+- or ALT+SHIFT+NUM -
   Outline Demote                ALT+SHIFT+RIGHT
   Outline Expand                ALT+SHIFT+=
   Outline Expand                ALT+SHIFT+NUM +
   Outline Move Down             ALT+SHIFT+DOWN
   Outline Move Up               ALT+SHIFT+UP
   Outline Promote               ALT+SHIFT+LEFT
   Outline Show First Line       ALT+SHIFT+L
   Overtype                      INSERT
   Page                          ALT+CTRL+P
   Page Break                    CTRL+ENTER
   Page Down                     PAGE DOWN
   Page Down Extend              SHIFT+PAGE DOWN
   Page Field                    ALT+SHIFT+P
   Page Up                       PAGE UP
   Page Up Extend                SHIFT+PAGE UP
   Para Down                     CTRL+DOWN
   Para Down Extend              CTRL+SHIFT+DOWN
   Para Up                       CTRL+UP
   Para Up Extend                CTRL+SHIFT+UP
   Paste                         CTRL+V or SHIFT+INSERT
   Paste Format                  CTRL+SHIFT+V
   Prev Cell                     SHIFT+TAB
   Prev Field                    SHIFT+F11 or ALT+SHIFT+F1
   Prev Object                   ALT+UP
   Prev Window                   CTRL+SHIFT+F6 or ALT+SHIFT+F6
   Print                         CTRL+P or CTRL+SHIFT+F12
   Print Preview                 CTRL+F2 or ALT+CTRL+I
   Proofing                      F7
   Redo                          ALT+SHIFT+BACKSPACE
   Redo or Repeat                CTRL+Y or F4 or ALT+ENTER
   Repeat Find                   SHIFT+F4 or ALT+CTRL+Y
   Replace                       CTRL+H
   Reset Char                    CTRL+SPACE or CTRL+SHIFT+Z
   Reset Para                    CTRL+Q
   Revision Marks Toggle         CTRL+SHIFT+E
   Right Para                    CTRL+R
   Save                          CTRL+S or SHIFT+F12 or ALT+SHIFT+F2
   Save As                       F12
   Select All                    CTRL+A or CTRL+CLEAR (NUM 5) or CTRL+NUM 5
   Select Table                  ALT+CLEAR (NUM 5)
   Show All                      CTRL+SHIFT+8
   Show All Headings             ALT+SHIFT+A
   Show Heading1                 ALT+SHIFT+1
   Show Heading2                 ALT+SHIFT+2
   Show Heading3                 ALT+SHIFT+3
   Show Heading4                 ALT+SHIFT+4
   Show Heading5                 ALT+SHIFT+5
   Show Heading6                 ALT+SHIFT+6
   Show Heading7                 ALT+SHIFT+7
   Show Heading8                 ALT+SHIFT+8
   Show Heading9                 ALT+SHIFT+9
   Shrink Font                   CTRL+SHIFT+,
   Shrink Font One Point         CTRL+[
   Small Caps                    CTRL+SHIFT+K
   Space Para1                   CTRL+1
   Space Para15                  CTRL+5
   Space Para2                   CTRL+2
   Spike                         CTRL+SHIFT+F3 or CTRL+F3
   Start of Column               ALT+PAGE UP
   Start of Column               ALT+SHIFT+PAGE UP
   Start of Doc Extend           CTRL+SHIFT+HOME
   Start of Document             CTRL+HOME
   Start of Line                 HOME
   Start of Line Extend          SHIFT+HOME
   Start of Row                  ALT+HOME
   Start of Row                  ALT+SHIFT+HOME
   Start of Window               ALT+CTRL+PAGE UP
   Start of Window Extend        ALT+CTRL+SHIFT+PAGE UP
   Style                         CTRL+SHIFT+S
   Subscript                     CTRL+=
   Superscript                   CTRL+SHIFT+=
   Symbol Font                   CTRL+SHIFT+Q
   Thesaurus                     SHIFT+F7
   Time Field                    ALT+SHIFT+T
   Toggle Field Display          SHIFT+F9
   Toggle Master Subdocs         CTRL+\
   Tool                          SHIFT+F1
   Un Hang                       CTRL+SHIFT+T
   Un Indent                     CTRL+SHIFT+M
   Underline                     CTRL+U or CTRL+SHIFT+U
   Undo                          CTRL+Z or ALT+BACKSPACE
   Unlink Fields                 CTRL+6 or CTRL+SHIFT+F9
   Unlock Fields                 CTRL+4 or CTRL+SHIFT+F11
   Update Auto Format            ALT+CTRL+U
   Update Fields                 F9 or ALT+SHIFT+U
   Update Source                 CTRL+SHIFT+F7
   VBCode                        ALT+F11
   Web Go Back                   ALT+LEFT
   Web Go Forward                ALT+RIGHT
   Word Left                     CTRL+LEFT
   Word Left Extend              CTRL+SHIFT+LEFT
   Word Right                    CTRL+RIGHT
   Word Right Extend             CTRL+SHIFT+RIGHT
   Word Underline                CTRL+SHIFT+W

Clampi Virus targets online banking

In the modern world, most people never see their bank (with the exception of ATM withdrawals).  We use bill pay, direct deposit and bank debit cards.  This is the exact behavior that the Clampi virus is living on.

Must Have Application for Thumb Drives

It’s a sign of the time, you can buy a thumb drive almost anywhere.  I have even seen them in Gas Stations in the Omaha area.

Things Learned from the Internet

• You want it, you can find it online.
• If you don't want it, you can also find it online.
• It might take a while.
• Sometimes the hunt is half the fun.
• Everyone has a website. Grandfathers, mothers and babies. Everyone.
• At some point, Google became a verb.
• The difference between web surfing with Firefox and IE is the difference between body armor and a trendy cotton vest.
• If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
• The Internet is the geeks playground. Here, we rule.
• Not that you would ever need to know the dietary habits of the South American anteater, but it's comforting to know you could find it online if you did.
• When in doubt, Wikipedia.
• Anyone who uses the term 'Interweb' has never been online.
• Explaining the Internet to someone who's never been online, is like explaining the Magna Carta to your cat.
• Almost everything of substance can be summed up with a “DUDE! Check this out!' and a hyperlink.
• Be safe. Be cynical.
• Some else already said it first. But that doesn't mean it won't be said again, and again...
• The Internet IS redundancy.
• There is no such thing as 'sufficient bandwidth'.
• There's always something new.
• You can never go back once you've tried it.

Free Online Games

Orisinal - Gorgeous Flash animation, perfect for kids

Go Figure, Dirty sites are dirty…

Symantec, the makers of a very widely used array of internet security programs, has compiled a list of the 100 “dirtiest” sites.

Firefox Keyboard Shortcuts

1. Drag and drop
   • Drag the favicon of any site to your home icon to set it as the home page.
   • Drag a hyperlink (or image) to the new tab icon to open the link in a new tab.
   • Drag a highlighted word to the search bar (beside the address bar) will bring you to the Google search result page for that word. If you drag the highlighted word to the address bar (and press enter), Firefox will perform a Google “I’m Feeling Lucky” search

There are many things that you can drag and drop in Firefox.

Easily Remove Ads from Gmail

I enjoy the massacre of ads. This sentence will slaughter ads without a messy bloodbath.

Flip 3D your Firefox Tabs

Looking at all the evidence presented to me, Firefox is making major strides in browser preference among web surfers.  I know it is my browser of choice.

I Love this utility

One of my favorite websites to look at daily (ok many times a day) is Life Hacker.  Today as I was going through some of their archived postings I found this.

Find drivers for unknown devices

Have you ever been given a com­pu­ter, or bought an old fixer upper PC that didn’t have all the discs or infor­ma­tion for the components?

I know this is frus­tra­ting since I too have had this pro­blem.  Espe­cially when it invol­ves key equip­ment (Net­work card).  There is nothing more irri­ta­ting then loo­king at your device list and seeing the yellow ques­tion mark.  Well tech­ni­cians, as with almost everything com­pu­ter rela­ted, there is a site setup to help with this.  PCIDatabase.com

So how does this work?

You will want to go to the ques­tion mark in the device mana­ger and right click on the entry (there maybe more then one on a rei­mage or a cus­tom built machine).  For those that may not be fami­liar on how to get to the device mana­ger here are some sim­ple steps.  Find the My Com­pu­ter icon on your desk­top (upper left by default).  You will want to Right click on the icon and you will get a menu like this:

After you left click on the pro­per­ties entry a new win­dow will pop up:
If you do not have the tab shown, you will want to click on the Hard­ware tab.  Once here, click on the device mana­ger and you will see a list of ins­ta­lled devi­ces.  You will scroll down for the yellow ques­tion mark.  In my exam­ple there are none, but I am sure you will find them rather quickly.

Read more…

When is an antivirus really a virus?

Today I recei­ved a call from one of my exter­nal users that was una­ble to access any web­si­tes because some new anti­vi­rus was saying he was unpro­tec­ted and every web­site had mali­cious code.

Since I know that we have McA­fee 8.5 deplo­yed to our users, I knew that this was not a McA­fee issue.  As we dis­cus­sed it a little further he was men­tio­ning that the Anti­vi­rus wan­ted him to purchase the software.

This isn’t the first I have heard of this.  There is a soft­ware com­pany Inno­va­gest 2000 that is pro­du­cing this soft­ware.  They adver­tise it as an antispy­ware appli­ca­tion, but it is the spy­ware.  On some less then savory web­si­tes you will get a pop up that says that your com­pu­ter maybe infec­ted and they offer a free scan.

The fear of being infec­ted moti­va­tes a lot of peo­ple to run this free scan.  Unk­nown to them this appli­ca­tion ins­talls under­neath and now you are stuck.  On that note, I do recom­mend only doing the online scans from repu­ta­ble sites.  I per­so­nally recom­mend the follo­wing: Syman­tec, Panda, and McA­fee.

This appli­ca­tion is extre­mely hard to get rid of.  It rere­gis­ters and ins­talls if it is not com­ple­tely unins­ta­lled correctly.

I hate pro­grams like this.  But it is a fact of life out there.  The modern day snake-oil salesman.

While the pro­gram is run­ning you will see the follo­wing unde­si­ra­ble behavior:

• A “Win­dows Secu­rity Cen­ter” sta­ting that you should purchase Per­so­nal Antivirus.
• Nume­rous alerts sta­ting that your com­pu­ter is under attack or that you have mal­ware run­ning on your com­pu­ter. If you click on these alerts, Per­so­nal Anti­vi­rus will be ins­ta­lled, or you will be brought to the purchase page for the program.
• Your Inter­net Explo­rer brow­ser will be hijac­ked to show secu­rity war­nings when brow­sing the web that stop you from reaching your desi­red page.

As I men­tio­ned before this bug­ger is very hard to get rid off.  But not impos­si­ble.  I found these ins­truc­tions at BleepingComputer.com.

Read more…

Online Backup

A few days ago, I discussed a backup tool named Cobian and I promised to look into online space for offsite storage.

Safely type email on your iPhone

I do not personally own an iPhone, but I do keep my eye out on some of the interesting applications from time to time, and this is one that I would love to see on my beloved blackberry.  Email n’ Walk.

Kidzui

When you think of trus­ted names in pro­ducts for kids, some of that come to the top of the list inc­lude: Bar­bie, Mat­tel, and Hot Wheels.  Now ima­gine the three of them com­bi­ning to create a safe way for kids to access the inter­net and parents to check and con­trol that access.  What you would be left with is Kid­Zui.

What is Kid­zui?  Well let me try and help with that.  Kid­zui is a brow­ser that has parents in mind.  With a cen­trally mana­ged list of web­si­tes that are allo­wed, not allo­wed, abi­lity to be noti­fied when your child adds a new friend, as well as many other cus­to­mi­za­ble secu­rity fea­tu­res, Kid­zui is all about allo­wing super­vi­sed independence.

With two ins­tall options (Fire­fox Add-in or Stan­da­lone down­load) the setup is inc­re­dibly easy.  Follo­wing the setup you will be then promp­ted to do the ini­tial regis­tra­tion of your parent account.  During this phase, you will be set­ting up your first “Zui” or child account.  You can create an account for all mem­bers of your family.  Please note, keep your pass­word and email address you set this up with away from the child so they can not login and undo wha­te­ver set­tings you choose.

Some of the paren­tal options in the brow­ser itself are: full screen (kiosk) only mode and require a pass­word to exit.  This would be a great fea­ture to keep anyone from being able to close Kid­zui and just launch IE or Firefox.

Read more…

Keep that Software up to date

If you are like I am, you have a lot of software installed on your computers.  So much in fact it seems impossible to keep them all up to date.  I know a lot of people think, if it ain't broke, why fix it?

Export to Excel

One of the nice things of working IT Support is that I get to learn of new features I would not normally use. This actually occurred the other day with a function the Microsoft Excel adds.

Top 10 Phishing Scams as of 05/29/2009

By now, ever­yone with an email address has recei­ved those phishing emails.  You know the ones I mean, your Pay­Pal account will be disa­bled if you don’t login by such and such a date.  I have found the follo­wing list of the top 10 Phishing Scams.

Top 10 Phishing Scams

If you receive a simi­lar mes­sage in your inbox you should delete it and not follow the links in the mes­sage. If you want to check your account, you should type the bank or com­pany web­site directly into your web brow­ser, or add a book­mark, rather than follo­wing links in an email. If you are unsure if an email you receive is legi­ti­mate, visit the com­pa­nies web­site directly, phone the com­pany, or con­tact their Cus­to­mer Ser­vi­ces or fraud depart­ment (usually fra…@companyname.com) to con­firm that they sent the mail.

Upda­ted Last: May 29, 2009

1. Amazon.com — Limi­ted Account Access Details
2. Noti­fi­ca­tion
3. Com­mon­wealth Bank Sur­vey 2009
4. noti­fi­ca­tion
5. Secu­rity Alert
6. Pay­pal Mem­ber Noti­fi­ca­tion
7. Impor­tant alert [mes­sage id: ]
8. Dear Pay­pal Mem­ber
9. Check out the latest items from your favo­rite sellers on eBay
10. Bank Of Ame­rica Alert: We have tem­po­ra­rily pre­ven­ted online access to your account

Read more…

OpenDNS — Review and Recommendation

For those of you that have children and want to block out specific types of sites, OpenDNS is for you.