Home Computer Talk

If you’re an Ebay user, you may want to call your bank. On September 25th the popular online auction site was hacked. The hacker, posting as “Vlad” was brazen enough to reveal himself by posting the usernames, contact info, and credit card/banking info of over 1,000 users on one of Ebay’s Community message boards for several hours before it was shut down by Ebay. The remaining message boards were buzzing with worried users, many who became frustrated with Ebay’s lack of public response to the breach. What is particularly troubling about this event is Ebay’s lack of response. They have not, to anyone’s knowledge, contacted any of the members who’s personal info was compromised and in fact are remaining pretty tight lipped about the situation, saying only that the person responsible is a “malicious fraudster”. They also claim the credit card info displayed by the hacker was invalid, but several user reports dispute them. ComputerWorld.com posted an article yesterday calling for Ebay to come clean and explain to its members exactly what happened and what is being done to prevent it from happening again. We can only hope that they do the right thing and stop what appears to be a large scale cover-up.

If you had credit card or bank account info on file with Ebay, don’t take any chances. Call your CC provider and/or bank and tell them your info has been compromised. It may also be worthwhile to contact the major credit bureaus and have a fraud alert placed on your reports. Protect yourself!

ebay, ebay security breach, ebay hacked, computerworld.com

Starting next month, AllAusus.com will release it’s Eee 700 Laptop. This laptop will retail for an amazing $260! Here’s what you get for that price:

2GB Flash Memory(no hard drive)
256MB RAM (upgradable to 1GB)
Intel CPU
3 USB Ports
SD/MMC Card Reader
Built in WiFi and a 56K Modem
Built in Stereo speakers.

The units come with a 7′ (800×400) screen and weight a scant 1.95lbs. They come preloaded with Linux but are compatible with Windows XP. The battery life is said to be about 3hrs. Interested? Preorder here!

home computing, low cost laptops, Eee 700, Asus

LAKE FOREST, Calif., Sept. 20 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — WD(R) (NYSE: WDC) today introduced its smaller, sleeker My Book(TM) external storage solutions: My Book Home Edition(TM), My Book Office Edition(TM) and My Book Essential Edition(TM). Ranging from 320 GB to 1 TB (terabyte), the new My Book models were designed with specific users in mind. Home users will appreciate the automatic and continuous backup of their precious memories on the My Book Home Edition. Office users will rely on the remote access and sharing capabilities of the My Book Office Edition. My Book Essential Edition meets the needs of users who seek simple, instant storage.

Demonstrations of the newly redesigned My Book family of external hard drives may be viewed at WD’s booth (No. 864) at the DigitalLife(TM) (http://www.digitallife.com) event being held at Javits Center in New York from Sept. 27-30, 2007.

“Just in time for the holidays, we have taken the world’s number one selling external hard drive family and redesigned it to solve the particular needs of a diverse customer set,” said Jim Welsh, vice president and general manager of WD's branded products and consumer electronics groups. “With the new My Book family, WD delivers meaningful new features such as continuous backup and remote access while enhancing the qualities of elegance and simplicity that made this family of products so popular.”

My Book Home Edition for Preserving Precious Memories

My Book Home Edition offers an effortless way to preserve all of life's important milestones — from baby's first steps to family holiday celebrations — all captured in digital photos and videos. The elegant, collectable My Book Home Edition takes up no more space than a paperback book and with automatic, continuous backup users can set up the drive to automatically store and backup all of their precious memories.

My Book Home Edition combines:
— automatic, continuous backup that works in the background and gives
peace of mind when it comes to keeping precious memories preserved;
— synchronization and encryption of data;
— capacity gauge that shows how much space is available on the drive;
— drive activity light;
— environmentally-friendly power-saving design that goes into standby
mode after 10 minutes of inactivity and wakes up automatically when
you're ready to use the drive;
— SmartPower(TM) feature that powers the drive on and off with the
computer;
— high-performance triple interfaces (USB 2.0, FireWire 400(R), eSATA)
for convenience and compatibility among multiple computers, including
both Mac(R) and PC;
— protected by a 3-year limited warranty;
— Kensington(R) security slot that works with a Kensington lock kit to
secure the drive to your desk; and,
— Google(TM) Toolbar, Google Desktop, and Picasa software.

My Book Essential Edition for Simple, Instant Storage

My Book Essential Edition offers an effortless way to add more storage capacity to home or office computers. The drives are equipped with a USB 2.0 interface that offers convenience and compatibility among multiple computers; SmartPower features that power the drive on and off with the computer; and a 1-year limited warranty.

Availability and Pricing

My Book Home Edition and My Book Essential Edition storage appliances with capacities ranging from 320 GB to 1 TB are available now at select retail stores, online retailers and in the United States directly from WD at http://www.shopwd.com. Estimated pricing for the My Book product family ranges from $129.99 USD to $379.99 USD depending on model and capacity.

A 3-D view and more information on the My Book family of external storage products can be found at http://www.wdmybook.com.

About WD

WD, one of the storage industry’s pioneers and long-time leaders, provides products and services for people and organizations that collect, manage and use digital information. The company produces reliable, high-performance hard drives that keep users' data accessible and secure from loss. WD applies its storage expertise to consumer products for external, portable and shared storage products.

WD was founded in 1970. The company's storage products are marketed to leading systems manufacturers, selected resellers and retailers under the Western Digital and WD brand names. Visit the Investor section of the company’s Web site (http://www.westerndigital.com) to access a variety of financial and investor information.

Western Digital, WD, WD logo and MioNet are registered trademarks; My Book, My Book Home Edition, My Book Office Edition, My Book Essential, SmartPower and DriveAccess are trademarks of Western Digital Technologies, Inc. Other marks may be mentioned herein that belong to other companies. All other brand and product names mentioned herein are the property of their respective companies. One gigabyte (GB) = 1 billion bytes. One terabyte (TB) = one trillion bytes. Total accessible capacity varies depending on operating environment. Product specifications are subject to change without notice.

home computers, external storage devices, Western Digital, external hard drives

Despite all the tools we and our ISP’s have to fight spam, it’s still continues to be a huge problem. Millioms of spam emails are sent every day, hawking everything from black market pharmacuticals to porn sites. According to Kapersky Labs, even if there is only a 5% response, the spammers have made a huge profit. Aside from hogging bandwith and the general annoyance factor, spam also spreads spyware and malware such as trojan horses-and that’s not all. These days spammers have gone beyond out inboxes to the web itself, putting up thousands of websites, some nothing more than what are called “link farms”, (a page of nothing but links) splogs(fake blogs who’s sole purpose is to exploit Google’s Adsense program)or plastered with banner ads. Other spammers are more sinister and put up pages that look innocent and legit but have embedded codes that can do everything from plaster your desktop with ads and icons to stealing your passwords and credit card info. These types of pages are frequently used in what is called “phishing”. The scammer puts together a page that looks like it is from a legit source such as eBay, Paypal, or your bank and emals it to you. It usually contains a dire warning that your account has been compromised and you need to verify your info or risk suspension. These fake sites look very very convincing, but there are three easy ways to figure out if they are real or not. The first one is quite basic. Most companies will never ask you to provide personal info via email. Second, any email you get from a company you have an account with will almost always be address to you by name. Third, simply put your mouse pointer over the link and look at the bar at the bottom. It will display the real address and 99 times out of 100 it will be a scam site, not the legit one.

So how do you protect yourself? Here are a few tips:

Never open attachments from someone you don’t know., If someone you do know sends you an attachment that ends in .exe or .pif, contact them before opening as they could be infected with a virus. Only after they verify it’s a legit attachment should you open it.

Be wary of links in emails Again, if you don’t know who sent it, don’t click. For emails from sites you have an account on warning you of suspicious activity or pending suspension, remember what we discussed above. Never log in via a link in email, go to the site directly and log in there.

For shopping and news sites that require registration, consider a “throw away address” Since these types of sites often sign you up for all kinds of newsletters and “special offers” don’t use your primary email address. Sign up for a free Yahoo!, GMail, or Hotmail address and use that instead, as they can easily be abandoned if overrun by spam.

Update, update, update! Keep all anti-virus and anti-spyware software updated.

Use your head! If something doesn’t sound or look right, avoid it, and if it sounds too good to be true, it is!

computers, antivirus software, spam, phishing, protecting yourself from cybercriminals, spyware

*cartoon courtesy of ensmp.net*

If you’ve bought a new computer recently chances are it came with a lot of junk software. My recently purchased laptop came with trialware for AOL, Vonage, Rapsody, Microsoft Office, and Vongo and desktop icons for everything from Ebay to Yahoo!. PC manufacturers are paid to include such junkware, and retailers such as Best Buy actually profit by offering to remove it for a fee. You may find some of the trial applets useful, but if you choose to remove them all, you’ll see a substantial improvement in speed and performance.

The first step in removing the junk is to go to your control panel and remove as much as you can from there. If there still junk left, try one of the cleaning tools recommended by PC World. You won’t be sorry!

computers, trialware, crapware, junkware, preinstalled software on new PC’s

PC World has compiled a list of the funniest sites on the web. From mullets to swedish rock bands of the 70’s, it’s all here. And what better way to make a Monday better than with a laugh or two? Know of any sites PC World left out? Leave a comment and let me know!

home computing, humor, funny websites, PC World

Last time we talked about how to clean your monitors, laptop screens and scanner glass safely. Today let’s talk about keyboards and pointing devices. Keyboards get dirty incredibly fast because we use them so much. Don’t think so? Turn yours upside down and give it a couple of firm shakes. The shower of crumbs and grit may surprise you. A gentle tap on the edge of your desk will dislodge any stubborn particles. You can also use compressed air to clean between keys. Here is a good step by step tutorial on how to do that. Be sure you heed the warnings!

Today’s optical mice and trackballs rarely need cleaning, but if you are still using the old kind with a ball, you’ll want to clean it regularly. Take the ball out and use a cotton swab dipped in rubbing alcohol to clean the rollers inside. Make sure everything is dry before putting the ball back in. Make sure you clean that mousepad too!

how to clean a keyboard, cleaning a mouse, computers, PCs, laptops

Today is a somber and sad day here in New York City. 6 years ago life changed forever when the World Trade Center fell and thousands died. Please take a moment today, wherever you are and say a prayer for those who were killed and those left behind, and tonight give your loved ones a hug and count your blessings!

9/11, New York City, terrorist attacks, September 11, World Trade Center

Monitors, scanners, keyboards and pointing devices tend to get grimy fast, which isn’t surprising considering how much we use them. Cleaning these things isn’t difficult, but it’s easy to do more harm than good if you don’t follow some simple rules:

Never spray anything on your monitor or scanner glass! If that liquid gets beneath the glass of a scanner, it will lead to condensation problems. Liquid seeping behind the glass of a monitor will damage it. Spray your cleaning cloth instead.

Use the softest and most lint free cleaning cloth you can find. Some laptops actually come with soft lens cleaning cloths, these are ideal. Paper towels may seem like a good choice, but they can actually scratch surfaces. This can be an especially big problem with scanners as even the smallest scratch will show up in hi-res photos.

Don’t open-ever! Monitors should never be opened up, no matter how dirty they may be-they contain enough voltage to cause serious injury. If your monitor needs to be taken apart for cleaning, take it to a professional.

Be careful what you clean with. Use a cleaner that specificaly says it’s safe for electronics or plain rubbing alcohol. Avoid anything with abrasives, and use the smallest amount possible.

Tomorrow we’ll talk about cleaning pointing devices and keyboards!

computers, monitors, pointing devices, keyboards, scanners, how to clean a monitor

If you use Firefox you’re probably a big fan of their adblocker plugin-but if you use it you may find yourself blocked from accessing some webpages. The reasons why are explained at WhyFireFoxIsBlocked.com. The site states that adblockers rob site owners of revenue and that viewing pages with out the ads amounts to internet theft. They say until individual site owners are allowed to deny access to users of the ad blocking program, they will deny access to all Firefox users.

What do you think? Post your thoughts in the comment section below!

home computing, firefox, adblocker, internet theft, blocking ads, mozilla

Hello readers,
I apologize for the silence. I’ve been ill. I’m finally well enough to get back to my writing so stay tuned for all the news you need to know about the world of Home Computing. Thank you for your patience!

home computing, illness, writing