 Ground Hog Day, Valentine's Day, President's Day, Mardi Gras, and the Super Bowl are a few of the special events taking place this month. Our little ground hog friend probably won't even appear this year because he's sick of hearing about global warming. Further more PETA is now saying that it is bad for his health because of the stress caused by the crowd. You can laugh or agree with that at your discretion. Valentine's day is romantic for most of us who have someone special in our life. You make the call about President's Day and Marti Gras. The Super Bowl, whether you're a football fan or not, seems to be a fun day around the world. It's a great time to invite all your friends, lay out the food, and turn on the big screen TV! Lots of things have changed in the last 10 years! The number of Internet users has increased from 350 million to 1.7 billion. One trillion web pages have been created, 13 million Wikipedia articles written and 8 billion songs have been purchased and downloaded. Cell phones went from 1 out of 10 people in 1999 to 2 out of 3 in 2009 and gasoline prices doubled. A sad fact is over one million Americans died from obesity. Some things in our future we can't change but we can have control over our weight. I say this because I have too much hanging over my own belt. Take a close look at people the next time you're at the mall, the airport, or anywhere else. People are fat! Restaurants should cut their prices and cut the amount of food they serve. Fast food places should quit asking "Can we super size your order?" As individuals we just have to start practicing self discipline!
The more I use Malwarebytes, the more I like it. It's fast to download, easy to install, and fast to run a scan. Malware and Spyware are a huge problem in the computing world today and most troubles you encounter will be the result of them. The free version allows you to do manual scans to remove spyware and malware. You can purchase the Pro version for only $24.95 ( a one time charge) which gives you full time protection. Where to find the program, how to install and use it can be found by clicking "System Maintenance" below under "Secrets to Safe Computing." I have again revised the "System Maintenance" page so as to make it easier for you to understand the proper steps and procedures for maintaining your computer. I have added in detail how to install AVG and you may notice that I have dropped the instructions for installing Ad-aware. If you are using it, keep it, as once it is installed it seems to do a good job, but the installation process is very slow so Malwarebytes is a better choice as explained above. You can also run both if you wish. The five steps to safe computing, as explained in System Maintenance are:
If you're not using the latest Internet Explorer browser version 8.0, you should be. This updated browser is faster, more reliable, and safer. You can always tell what version of any application you are using by clicking Help and About. Get it here. If you have Windows 7, you already have it. If you're a Firefox fan the latest version 3.6 was just released. Mozilla claims it is 20% faster than version 3.5. One of the things I love about Firefox is the abundance of Themes, now called personas and there are over 40,000 to choose from! Read all about it and download it here.
We hear a lot about Facebook and Twitter. Seems like you're a nobody unless you use one or both of these social networks. I don't think most people give a hoot about the majority of comments left on these sites, but that's just my opinion. Have you heard the latest gimmick? Now there is a pair of sneakers that you can wear that will tweet every step that you take. This is really exciting! Read about the Rambler shoes, then run out and buy a pair so people can see the words step, step, step or tap, tap, tap, on your Twitter account. Now I've heard it all! Be careful about personal information that you post on social networks. It's easier for strangers to obtain than you think. Want to know what's on the mind of the world's richest human being? Retired CEO of Microsoft, Bill Gates, has started his own blog. Read about his thoughts, what he is still learning, his travels, and how he is spending his fortune. It's called "Gates Notes." 3D is back. And this time, it's making a big statement. The concept isn't new, of course--the first 3D motion picture dates back to the turn of the twentieth century. But a growing string of recent Hollywood releases, cemented by the runaway success of Avatar , has returned 3D to our cultural consciousness. Will we be seeing 3D in our living rooms soon? Read on. Remember, holding down the CTRL key and tapping the Z key will undo the last thing you did in almost any program.
I am so tired of getting urgent emails of virus warnings, and I bet you are too. If the message you get starts off by saying something like; "I've contacted Norton, and verified this with Snopes, bla, bla, bla. It will go on by saying this virus will destroy everything on your hard drive and urge you to forward the message to everyone in your address book. STOP, and delete this email! The more urgent they sound, the more false they are. Don't be one of those people that forwards every piece of junk you get in your inbox to all your friends. Corel has just released the latest version of Paint Shop Pro. They have changed the name slightly to Paintshop Photo Pro X3. I have used this program for 20 years and give it highest rating as a photo editor. Take away all my applications from my computer, but not this one! The new version has some nifty new tools, but one step backwards was that they integrated the organizer into the application instead of undocking it so you could put it on a separate monitor. That won't bother most people as the average person uses only one monitor. You can read all about it and download the full version for a 30 day trial here. I recently found a site where you can spend hours having fun reading about everything! Auto, Business, Education, Fashion, Film, Geography, Health, History, Lifestyle, Music, Sports, Technology, Travel, and Video Games. Of course I started in technology and found "10 signs you're addicted to your cell phone." A lot of us are that way now, so you'll get a kick out of reading the list. Click here for all the fun!
Here's a reminder that you shouldn't send photos in email that come straight out of the camera. They are just too large and for the receiver it's frustrating because you can't see the whole picture without importing it into a photo editing program. Resize them first before sending. A preferable size would be 640x480. As discussed you can always reduce the size of a photo, but you can't take a small photo and make it bigger without adding a lot of noise, or can you? There is a free program that just may let you do that. More from PC World. You might enjoy browsing my personal Photo Site. You'll see over 1,100 pictures in 38 galleries that I've taken from around the world . We have had over 272,000 views on our Photo Site, thanks in part to Cyber News readers! You don't need an expensive camera to have fun taking pictures. An example of this is a recent Arizona sunset that I took with my Iphone! Check out my Blog. There you will find thoughts on many subjects and occasionally find supplements to Cyber News such as Virus alerts or other computer information that I think might be important to you. Blog Remember, you are what you think about and you become what you think about. The life you live is the life you envision!
Remember you can read previous editions of Cyber News by clicking on the links at the bottom of this page. You can also search previous editions of Cyber News by typing key words into the search box. If you would like to be added to our mailing list (absolutely not shared with anyone) just click here. You will be notified when each new edition is posted. Since spam filters seem to be getting stricter our notification may end up in your spam folder, so be sure to check that occasionally for any important email that may have ended up there. Cyber News is a permanent web site, so you can put it in your "Favorites" and refer to it anytime. Secrets of Safe Computing are outlined below. Please don't ignore them. Read each point and be sure to follow the advice as outlined in System Maintenance. Just a few minutes of work each month will go a long way in keeping your computer running smoothly. "Live life with passion, in a constant state of joy, and with an attitude of gratitude!"
Disclaimer: The information presented in Cyber News is researched and is believed to be accurate. We cannot guarantee that all the information will work on your particular combination of hardware, software and user skills. All information herein is offered as-is and without warranty of any kind. Neither Stanley Computing nor its contributors are responsible for any loss, injury, or damage, direct or consequential, resulting from your choosing to use any information presented on this web site. |
The
Wii game has been out a couple of years now, and I always thought it
was for the kids. After seeing it in action a few times I changed
my mind and purchased it after Christmas. Now we're hooked on
bowling. It is so realistic that you really think you're at the
bowling alley. All that's missing is that heavy ball !
If
you're a Facebook user you could have your name as part of the URL.
This is called a vanity address and instead of being a bunch of numbers,
it could be 
The
biggest problem we are seeing in computing today is an urgent virus
warning popping up on your screen. If the message is from your
anti-virus program then take the appropriate action. The problem is
that most of these pop up windows are not from YOUR anti-virus program
and are bogus warnings. Stop everything, close all programs, run
CCleaner, Malwarebytes and/or Ad-aware, then reboot your computer.
That should cure the problem. The last thing you want to do is to
pay $49.95 as requested by these phony companies to fix your problem as
that will be only the start of bigger issues!
Photo
Tip of the Month: I've mentioned this before, but it's
worth talking about again because I still do it occasionally.
Before taking a picture, make sure your camera settings are
correct. I went out recently and shot about a dozen photos of
flooding in Phoenix as a result of heavy rains. When I got home
they were all junk because I didn't check the dial on top of the camera.
If
you think a friend or family member would enjoy Cyber News, don't
hesitate to let them know about it. An easy way to do this is to
right click on the web address in the address window of your browser and
choose copy. Open your email program and a new email.
Address it, and in the body of the message right click and choose paste.
That creates a link and when your friend receives the email he or she
simply clicks on the link and it will take them directly to Cyber News. Of
course you can do that with any web page.
