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Microsoft Vista and Apple iPod
2007-05-14 01:07:00
You may have heard about the conflict between Microsoft Vista and Apple iPod. The problem is that some iPod users have had their units corrupted after disconnecting them using the Microsoft “safely remove hardware” feature. What is an iPod user to do? According the the Vista blog, help is here! If you use ...
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How Many People Visited Your Web Site Today?
2007-05-11 15:35:00
If you don’t know, you are missing a vital step in determining whether web site is successful or if you are just wasting your money. Every web master or web site owner should be checking their web stats (also know as analytics) every day, . That is how you know what is working for your ...
More About: People , General , Site , Today , Visi

Small Business Data Breaches
2007-05-07 14:13:00
When a business experiences a loss of sensitive data, what are the next steps they should take? What resources are available to help them through what can be a confusing process? Here are some web sites that will help in deciding the next steps to take. Privacy Rights Clearinghouse – They provide chronicles of ...
More About: Security , Business , Small Business , General , Data

SecureZip - Encrypt and Compress
2007-05-04 15:45:00
This is a PayPerPost paid review. These days, there are a lot of people concerned about their privacy, especially with all the information floating around on the Internet. I am very careful when sending anything via E-mail and if I am really concerned about privacy, I will use PGP to encrypt the e-mail before I ...
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New Web Site Launch
2007-04-30 16:08:00
We are proud to announce the launch of a new web site for Swann Harbour Condominiums in Swansboro, NC. These are beautiful NC waterfront condos and the developer has done a fantastic job of packing each condo with amenities like Thermador appliances, a 42” Plasma TV with surround sound and whirlpopol tub. However, ...
More About: General , Site , Launch , Web site

Monthly Blog Sponsors
2007-04-29 16:03:00
We wanted to mention our Month ly Blog Sponsor s and say “Thanks!” to them as well. You can see the links to their sites in the right hand column of the blog. Check them out! Remote Backup. Back up and restore critical computer data over the Internet, LAN, or any TCP/IP network. It’s the ...
More About: General

Search Engine Marketing Exploding
2007-04-27 14:11:00
A report from SEMPO (Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization) states that last year, North American advertisers spent $9.4 billion on SEM (Search Engine Marketing ). That figure represents a 63% increase over the 2005 totals. Because of the popularity of Internet advertising, it is estimated that the amount spent per year will nearly double ...

US Anti-Spyware Law in the Works
2007-04-20 09:31:00
A subcommittee of the US House Energy and Commerce committee has approved a bill Thursday that would help protect consumers from spyware by severely penalizing any software company found to be installing anything without the user’s knowledge and permission. The chairman of the committee, John Dingell says: Protecting Internet users from dangerous programs that steal consumers’ identities, ...
More About: Security , Anti Spyware , Spyware , Works , Anti-spyware

Microsoft Windows Animated Cursor Flaw
2007-04-17 13:20:00
If you use the Windows Anima ted Cursor settings on your PC, you are vulnerable to a web-attack through an unpatched hole in the way Windows processes ANI files. The animated cursor setting creates a cartoon-like cursor in Windows (personally, rather annoying). This flaw in Windows is a Zero-day flaw, meaning web-attacks have been spotted already. ...
More About: Security , Microsoft , Microsoft Windows

Most Computer Attacks From US
2007-04-17 03:08:00
Symantec released its Internet Security Threat report last month and it contained some very interesting information with regarding the state of Internet security. Why should home computer users in the United States using Internet Explorer as their web browser pay particular attention? One-third of the world’s computer attacks originate in the United States. More than half ...
More About: Firefox , General , Computer

Professional Web Design
2007-04-15 14:42:00
I got a call the other day from a potential client looking for a new web design. I will call the potential client “Carl”. Usually, in the first few minutes of the conversation, I can tell if things will pan out or if they are “shopping around”. I think Carl set a new record. ...
More About: Web Design , Design , Profession , Desi , Prof

New Corporate Web Site Launch
2007-04-11 16:46:00
Finally, after weeks of work and tweaking, we have released our new corporate web site! It was a complete redesign from the ground up and, while we are very proud of it, I have no doubt that there will still be some adjustments to be made. Our company is located in North Carolina and we ...
More About: Corporate , Site , Launch , Rate , Web site

$38 Billion Deleted from Alaska Department of Revenue
2007-04-02 02:12:00
$38 Billion (8 zeros) deleted because of human error? At the Alaska Department of Revenue, a technician wiped out a hard disk that was believed to contain information which was worth $38 billion. How could something like that happen? It happened while a technician with the Alaska Department of Revenue was doing his routine ...
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TJ Maxx Latest News
2007-03-30 18:37:00
Today, I read a very interesting article by Evan Schuman of eWeek regarding the TJ Maxx data theft. The title of it made me pause: “The Nightmare Scenario: What if TJX Did Everything Right?”. I admit, I had thought of that previously but dismissed it since TJX was being rather tight-lipped about the ...
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Net Neutrality Rant
2007-03-27 00:35:00
These days there are two types of people: Those for Net Neutrality and those against Net Neutrality. I am a card carrying citizen of the “For Net Neutrality” village and I am happy with the way the Internet is currently operating. We can get to the content we want when we want ...
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Do Not Shop at TJMaxx
2007-03-22 12:49:00
That is my new thinking. They same will apply to Marshalls, HomeGoods and A.J. Wright. If I every go to Canada this will apply to Winners and Home Sense stores. Finally, in the event that I can someday afford to go across the pond to the U.K., T.K. Maxx will not get ...
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Lenovo Will Pre-load Microsoft’s Web Toolbar
2007-03-14 15:30:00
Lenovo desktop computers and laptops will start showing up with the Web Tool bar from Microsoft pre-loaded. The two companies announced their deal yesterday. Until that announcement, Google was the default toolbar for Lenovo, so I am sure Microsoft is hooting and hollering for two reasons: They grabbed some share from Google This is the first deal of its kind for Microsoft Under the agreement, Lenovo will set live.com as the default homepage for the computer’s Internet browser and it will add the Microsoft toolbar for web searching. Of course, the end-user can change these default settings but most users do not and that is why securing a deal like this is so important to companies in the Search Engine business. Lenovo is the third-largest PC maker in the world (they bought IBM a few years ago) and so this deal should have an immediate impact on Microsoft’s share of the Search Engine market (currently, they are 3rd behind Yahoo and Google). Tags: lenovo, microsoft...
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HP Says Not Quite to Linux Computers
2007-03-14 13:46:00
Not quite ready for the masses. That is the general consensus among HP executives regarding computers pre-loaded with a Linux operating system and offered to en-mass to consumers. According to a post on DesktopLinux, HP says they are hearing a lot of Linux chatter on forums and other Internet sites and that indicates a growing interest on the part of the average consumer in having their next desktop computer or laptop run on a Linux OS. However, this chatter is simply not at the level that would warrant adding this type of machine to the standard HP offering. HP does offer pre-loaded Linux machines to its enterprise customers already. But most of this type of interest is from businesses outside of the U.S. and North American markets. For example, a company in China recently agreed to purchase several thousand HP laptops pre-loaded with Novell’s SLED 10 (SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop) and there are other similar deals in the works with other Non-US based companies. Of cours...
More About: Computers , Computer , Comp , Quit

Seagate Encrypted HardDrives on Laptops soon
2007-03-14 12:05:00
You have read from us about FBI Loses About 4 Laptop s a Month, and $25,000 for finding Stolen VA Drive . Very soon, incidents like these may come to end. Starting next month, Seagate, together with ASI International, will be offering laptop computers with built-in encryption technology on the hard drive. The chip is packaged together with the laptop PCs and without the authentication from its rightful owner, you can save your energy trying to boot up or read data off the disk. The encryption operation including the security keys are right on the drive. More details about it [here] Tags: Seagate, encrypted harddrives, laptops, security, technology, asi international
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Vista Capable Motherboards from AMD
2007-03-13 12:42:00
If you are planning to switch Vista , check out for these companies’ motherboards. They have been tested by Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) for use with Windows Vista: Asus International EliteGroup Computer Systems Micro-Star International Gigabyte Technology AMD has tested and certified the motherboards, which will be available to computer makers for at least the next 15 months, according to ...
More About: Other , Board , Mother , Motherboard

Sony?s ?Home? Raises Sony?s Ego
2007-03-12 13:10:00
Sony has been know, especially in the recent console wars against the Nintendo Wii and Microsoft’s Xbox 360, to be somewhat of a hound whenever it comes to their comments made on the other systems, or any competition in that matter. Why change now? Sony has recently announced Sony “Home ” for their Playstation 3, where ...
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NCAA Tournament Ticket Scams
2007-03-11 02:42:00
With the NCAA Men ’s Basketball Tour nament (aka March Madness) right around the corner, you better get your tickets now if you want to attend. But, beware of e-scams. The FBI warned about Super Bowl ticket e-scams in January and in that warning, they mentioned that the fraudulent selling of tickets for major events is a ...
More About: Scams , Name , Scam

FBI Loses About 4 Laptops a Month
2007-03-10 05:17:09
According to an audit by the US Justice Department Inspector General, 3 or 4 FBI laptops are lost or stolen each month. As if that was not enough, no one can say if the information on said laptops is classified, personal, sensitive or even encrypted. However, the FBI is doing a much better job in this area than it was reported 5 years ago. During that audit, they were losing about 11 laptops per month. I am sure that the FBI has tons of laptops and it is probably nearly impossible to keep up with all of them, but shouldn’t everything be encrypted?
More About: Laptops , Laptop , Tops , About , Month

Report Spam!
2007-03-10 05:17:09
Are you receiving many junk e-mails in your inbox? I receive up to 10 spam messages daily! Now Google’s anti-spam engineer Brad Taylor, urges all GMail users to hit the “Repo rt Spam ” button fast, as early as possible and always. “For us, spam fighting is a big part of what we do and has been since the start of Gmail,” says Keith Coleman, Gmail product manager. This move was initiated after the SEC suspended stock trading for 35 companies who are allegedly involved in spam scams. You can read more about it from Google’s blog. Remember to hit the button! And, drop by these pages, if you want to know about internet security! Internet Security – What is Phishing? Internet Security – Your Computer and You Tags: spam, sec, technology, email, tech tips, fraud, internet security, what is phishing
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Wikipedia Takes on Yahoo!, Google
2007-03-10 05:17:09
Wikipedia is working on a plan to create a search engine to take on Google and Yahoo !. According to Jimmy Wales, their goal is to take about 5 percent of the Internet search market. He announced Wikiasari last year as a competitor to Google and one that would be more difficult to spam. However, according to the Wiki Search site, Wikiasari is not the name of the new project: Wikiasari is not and will not be the name for the free search engine we’re developing. It was the name of a former project. Further, he says that, contrary to speculation, Amazon has nothing to do with this project. Amazon is still a valued contributor to Wikia, Inc., but they are not participating in Wikia Search. His idea then was that Wikiasari would be human edited, much the same way as Wikipedia. I am guessing that he has learned from the DMOZ problems and will make Wikia Search better . Tags: wikiasari, wikipedia, jimmy wales, google, yahoo, wikia search, amazon, dmoz
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Microsoft Skipping Patch Tuesday
2007-03-10 05:17:09
Next Tuesday is the second Tuesday of the month and that means its “Micro soft Patch Tuesday”. This is the one day each month where Microsoft regularly issues patches for its software (hopefully, you get these through automatic updates ). However, they announced today that they will not be issuing any big patches this month. No, not because they have finally fixed everything . They are still working on the big ones (there are at least 5 zero-day vulnerabilities unpatched). It appears that they want to make sure the big holes are correctly patched the first time. Last year they had to release a patch to fix the previously released Excel vulnerability patch and then they had to do a similar thing with a released patch for Internet Explorer. I would rather they make sure to get it right, but it would be nice not to have to worry about the flaws in the first place (perfect world). They are planning on releasing some fixes to the Malicious Soft ware Removal Tool and seve...

Peter Norvig Criticizes Alexa
2007-03-06 17:15:02
Peter Norvig is the director of research at Google and a post on his blog weighs in on the whole Alex a is Awesome vs. Alexa is Flawed debate. He has published some of his web stats on his blog showing that, although his site gets about twice the pageviews of Matt Cutt’s blog, Matt’s blog has an Alexa pageview ranking that is roughly 25 times better than Norvig’s. That would seem to indicate some unreliable data, at least in terms of measuring web site traffic. Basically, a site gets credit for an Alexa pageview ONLY when a visitor views that site through a web browser which has the Alexa Toolbar installed. Meaning, no Alexa Toolbar installed, no Alexa pageview credited. And, since the Alexa toolbar only works with Internet Explorer, that means that if most of your visitors are using Firefox (or Opera), Alexa is not giving you credit for pageviews. In addition, we had a post a while back about how one can manipulate Alexa ranking and how that fact also really dev...
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Setup a Secure Home Network
2007-03-06 17:15:02
Our article on securing your wireless router has received a lot of visitors. In fact, we got so much traffic for that one article that I had begun writing a more thorough article to show how one could setup an entire secure network in their home. However, on Informationweek.com, I just ran across a very complete article on setting up a secure home network. This article will walk you through every step, complete with illustrations. When you are through, you will have a secure network that will connect up to eight computers in a 600 square foot space (perfect for gaming ). It will show you how to do everything. So, my article has been put on indefinite hold . Tags: secure wireless router, setup network, gaming network, setup secure network
More About: Home , Work , Network , Setup , Secure

Eight QuickTime Holes Plugged
2007-03-06 11:15:03
In a bulletin released today, Apples has plugged eight serious security holes in its Quick Time media player. These vulnerabilities affected Macs as well as PCs. That means, the latest QuickTime version is 7.1.5. If you have not already updated your QuickTime, you can download the latest version from Apple’s web site. Opening a malicious file with any other version of QuickTime will expose you to cyberattack. Since Operating Systems are becoming harder targets, hackers are increasingly attacking other software. Instant messenger programs and media players are popular with hackers since they are so widely used and are not patched as frequently. Tags: apple quicktime, apple, mac, pc, hacker
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Thanks To Our Monthly Sponsors
2007-03-05 17:13:06
We want to say “Thank you” to this month’s Technology Blog sponsors: Remote Backup. Back up and restore critical computer data over the Internet, LAN, or any TCP/IP network. It’s the state of the art in online backup technology, at a great price. Via Talk. They offer one of the most cost effective, complete broadband phone service package available to United States residential and business customers with a 24/7 technical support team. DS3-T1 Telecommunications. With their unique software, they offer the Internet’s only t1 service quoting tool that provides instant quotes in 5 seconds or less. VersaDial. Versadial makes telephone recording hardware and software that makes it easy and cost effective for even small businesses to reap the benefits. Tele Conferences. They are the “no surprises” teleconferencing calls vendor and supplier. Their advertised rate is what you actually pay with no additional charges. Save On Talk. SaveOnT...
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