A Few ID Security Tips

Unless you have been living under a rock for the past several months, you know that several major retailers have been the target of hackers with information about millions of customers being stolen and resold to digital miscreants worldwide.  Hardly a day passes without some new report of a bank account emptied or bogus credit card charges.

While most of us can’t address any major flaws in the security systems of retailers and we can’t guarantee 100% personal security unless we choose to go off the proverbial grid, we can do some simple things that can make identity theft more difficult for those looking to get into our cyber wallets and purses.

Let’s start with sending email.  If you have several people, like your club membership, that you need to send email, don’t put all the addresses in the “To” line.  Rather, put all the addresses in the “BCC” line (the Blind Copy Line); that way the individuals getting the email do not get the complete list of all recipients.  Those with less than honorable intentions can harvest email addresses from messages sent using the standard address method.

Speaking of email, what benefit is it to you to say yes when the clerk asks if you would like your receipt emailed to you? I can think of none.  Announcing your email to the others in line at the checkout, at the same time the clerk may have asked you for your phone number while clearing a check, is just too much information.

So many of us use smart phones and tablets and are delighted when we sit down at Bob Evans or McDonalds and find free wifi.  I use it myself to read the online New York Times, check the weather or sport scores.  This is not a place to do anything online that you wish to keep confidential. 

For example, don’t check your VISA balance and don’t access your online bank account.  Public wifi access can be easily hacked and you never know if you are actually on the Bob Evans wifi.  It could be that the nice looking young man at the next booth has a small wifi hotspot posing as the real Bob Evans wifi and everything you type is being recorded on his laptop.

We shouldn’t be paranoid, but a little common sense can go a long way to protect your identity. 

If you would like more information on online security just email me your name, address, social security number and mother’s maiden name and…..

Open Office…a great alternative to MS Office

The prices of desktop and laptop computers continue to be very affordable.  There are laptops and net books available for about $250 and desktops loaded with features for not too much more.  Once you make the purchase you are often in for a big surprise.  The cost of the necessary software can be as much or more than the hardware.  While operating systems like Windows 7 come bundled with even the most inexpensive computers, the software required to actually do something productive with your machine costs extra.

Even a basic suite of programs like Microsoft  Office (Student Version) which contains MS Word, a word processor, Excel, a spreadsheet program, and Power Point, a presentation program, costs about $150.  If you want the deluxe edition for business use the price can go well over $400.  While Microsoft does offer Office 365 with an annual fee beginning at about $100, you have to renew every year.

You do have a free option and unlike many “free” offers, this one is free and it does work.  No, they are not pirated versions of Microsoft programs.  If you download them you need not worry about seeing a black SUV coming up your driveway complete with a contingent of FBI agents.

One of the leading free packages is Open Office, a suite of programs that has been developed by some very smart volunteer programmers spread throughout the world.  In fact, the code for these programs, rather than being a guarded corporate secret, is available to anyone who wants to make improvements to the programs.  As of this writing there have been more than 150 million downloads of the Open Office software.

The basic package available at the Open Office website contains a word processor, spreadsheet program, presentation program, database program and a neat drawing program.  All of them are compatible with MS Office. You can read and write files in Open Office and use those files in MS Office and visa versa.  Open Office looks and feels much like Microsoft Office.  You will find many of the same conventions, icons and tools.  If you have used MS Word or Excel, you will need little or no training on Open Office.

Getting Open Office is a snap.  Just set your browser to www.openoffice.org and follow the downloading directions.  It will take about 20 minutes to download the programs and set them up on your computer.  They do ask that you consider a donation but that is totally optional.

Open Office has been around since the late 1990s and is used by people all over the world.  Since the development is ongoing there are new features and improvements offered through the Open Office website all the time.

Open Office is great for home or small business applications.  Larger companies or power users may wish to go with a traditional package like MS Office since it does offer support and several cloud based features not available with Open Office.  Before you order that new version of MS Office, you may wish to give Open Office a try.  What have you got to lose?  You can’t beat the price. 

Browsing for Browsers

One of the common denominators in our technology-based world is change.  Just when you begin to be comfortable with a computer program, online service, computer, smart phone or other digital gizmo, they change it.  One of my favorite quotes attributed to Marshall McLuhan, the Canadian philosopher and communications theorist, summarizes what many of us feel.  “If it works, it must be obsolete.”

Online browsers seem to be high on the list of computer software that seems to change more often than some of us change socks.  A browser is a program that allows us to connect and interact with the internet, finding information, reading newspapers, listening to music and watching videos.  Some of the most popular are Internet Explorer, Firefox, Google Chrome and Safari. Since it is hard to keep up with all of the changes that are prevalent in all of them you might want to use just one. But which is the best?

All will work most of the time and all have certain features that set them apart from the others. So as to the question which is best… it depends on how you use the internet.

Microsoft’s Internet Explorer has been around for a long time and once was the browser used by most of the world.  Since it was bundled with the Windows Operating System many people never even thought to use another.  Explorer is a good bread and butter way to navigate the internet for most general users. July 2013 statistics show that it is used by about ¼ of all internet surfers worldwide.

Another once very popular browser is Firefox.  This free program from the non profit Mozilla is based on all open source software.  This means that developers all over the world contribute updates and improvements.  Like Internet Explorer, Firefox is a very good choice for those who are general users of the internet.  Less than 20% of internet users regularly use Firefox.

Currently the most widely used browser is Google Chrome. First released in 2008, Chrome now accounts for almost 50% of all browser usage today.  The rapid rise in acceptance comes from the domination of Google in most every facet of internet and computer use.  Once just a way to find things online, Google now provides panoply of services like Gmail, video calling, personal calendars, translation service, Google Earth and Maps to mention only a handful.  If you use any of the suite of Google services, Chrome is your best bet since it “plays well” with all them.

Finally, a distant fourth, is Safari from Apple.  Now garnering less that 10% of internet users, it works well on Apple products but brings little to the non-Apple user.

Of course you can load any or all of these browsers on your computer and use the one best suited to what you are doing.  I find that choosing one and staying with it is the best choice since all have features and commands that are not common to all.

You Can Hear Me Now!

One of my favorite Star Trek movies is The Voyage Home.  The crew of the Enterprise had travelled back in time to save the earth’s whales and I remember the scene in which Scotty, the starship’s engineer, is attempting to use a vintage Macintosh computer by speaking into the mouse.  Of course his commands fell on the proverbial deaf digital ears as this technology had not yet arrived on earth in 1986.   Nevertheless, I always thought it was so cool that on the bridge of the starship Capt. Kirk could carry on conversations with the computer: making commands, setting the course and asking for answers to complex questions.  While it has been a long time coming, there are now some very practical and easy to use voice commands available on a number of new digital devices.

Perhaps the most well known right now is Siri, the personal assistant application available on the Apple iPhone and iPad. At first you might think that speaking commands is something that is cool but has limited real world uses.  You would be wrong.  There are several tasks that Siri can help with that are very practical and helpful.  For example, tax season is upon us and instead of using a calculator or computer spread sheet to add up a series of numbers, just speak them to Siri. Siri will give you the sum and show each number in the series so you can make sure you have all the entries.  Want to take a brief cat nap?  Just tell Siri to set an alarm.  Forget when you are to meet with a client?  Siri can check your calendar and tell you all the meetings you have with this person.  You can send emails and other messages using only voice commands.

On a road trip and need a cup of coffee?  Ask Siri the location of the closest Starbucks.  On a more serious note, Siri can find the closest gas station, bank or hospital.

For people with Windows devices, there are also applications that can make use of voice commands.  Using Windows 7 or 8 and the Google Chrome browser opens up a whole suite of applications.  By clicking on the microphone icon in the Google search box you can just speak your question.  Google can also do math functions.  Not only can you ask for the sum of a series of numbers, Google will do advanced math functions like square roots and cosines.

While you may not be able to control your starship you can ask Google to display a map.  Give it a try.  Ask for a map of Harrison, Ohio.  Then ask for a map of your street using your address including zip code.

Voice commands have come a long way and will continue to make the keyboard and mouse as Scotty would say, “Oh how quaint!”