Friday Good Stuff

Here are a few items for your Friday.

* Why TV is doomed: HBO Now and the new cord-cutting economics

“The entire old-school television distribution system has been rocked by a quake of epic magnitude. Now I can watch whatever I want — and save hundreds of dollars a year.” Read more..

Related: Add Pluto TV To Your Internet TV Lineup

“If you are looking for a FREE internet based TV like environment you may enjoy exploring Pluto TV where the amount of content is amazing.” Read more..

That number should be much much higher, IMHO. But.

* I don’t care about the Apple Watch. Would never own/wear an Apple Watch. And as a family-friendly blogger, cannot print what I think about the Apple Watch. If you’re looking for info on the Apple Watch, well, every single tech website out there has oodles & oodles of drooling propaganda advertising hype articles on the latest Apple gizmo, so feel free togo to one of those. (To do so, click here.)

* Firefox helps you cover your assets with latest Tracking Protection feature

“Did you know that not all websites honor Do Not Track? If privacy while browsing is at the top of your priority list, Jack Wallen offers up a Firefox tip that just might allow you to sigh a breath of private air.” Read more..

[My best guess is that no website {0} honors ‘Do Not Track’, actually.. Why should they? Tracking you pays $$$.]

Today’s Important Message: As you know, tax season is a “prime cybercrime season”, and we are warned to be on the alert for bogus IRS emails/phone calls. Truth is.. it’s always “Prime Cybercrime Season”, and we must realize it. Operating with an ever-vigilant healthy paranoia has to be our day-to-day.

Today’s Poll:

Today’s Fun Video:

Today’s quote: “For it is in giving that we receive.” ~ Francis of Assisi

Copyright 2007-2015 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved.

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All we really have, in the end, are our stories.
Make yours great ones. Ones to be proud of.

Learn more about who is Gmail-ing you with Rapportive

Those of you who use Gmail may be interested in this plug-in I just learned about.

Folks, there’s a browser add-on (aka “plug-in”) that replaces the ads in Gmail with some pretty cool info about the Senders of the email in your Inbox. It’s available for Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari 5, RockMelt, Flock, and Mailplane (a standalone Gmail application for Mac). It’s called Rapportive, and I found it due to some rave reviews.

What is Rapportive?

“Rapportive shows you everything about your contacts right inside your inbox. You can immediately see what people look like, where they’re based, and what they do. You can establish rapport by mentioning shared interests. You can grow your network by connecting on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and more. And you can record thoughts for later by leaving notes. Imagine relationship management built into your email. For free.”

Check it out here.

Today’s quote: “A day of worry is more exhausting than a day of work.” ~ John Lubbock

Today’s fun video (because it’s summer):

Copyright 2007-2013 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved.

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All we really have, in the end, are our stories.
Make yours great ones. Ones to be proud of.

Troubleshooting Internet Explorer (A Collection of How To’s)

It is a simple and well-known fact of life — sometimes things go wrong with computers.

When that something is your web browser, and you cannot surf the ‘net, or log in to your email, or Google Docs, well, that kind of defeats the whole purpose of having a computer these days.

Causes: There can be many reasons your browser can get ‘corrupted’ and stop functioning properly – from viruses, to Updates failing to install properly, and also “cookies” can ‘go bad’ – and so there is no 1-click-cures-all, (wouldn’t that be great?) but here are some things you can do to try to get Internet Explorer working like it should, and/or working like you want it to .
[note: most of the practical steps described in the article links below can be applied to other web browsers.. (Firefox, Chrome, etc.) ]

Restore Missing Favorites In IE*

Internet Explorer Runtime Error!!*

Quick Tip: Turn on ClearType in Internet Explorer

Can’t Download? Reset IE

How To Clear Your Cache

View Multiple Mail Identities in One Browser

Extracting text from Web pages*

Precautions for your Internet privacy*

Quick Tip: Customize new tabs behavior

IE’s Menu bar, Taskbar icons, and bad Updates*

Internet/E-mail Troubleshooting – JavaScript

What is a “homepage”?

How to use tabs in IE 7

Saving webpages as files

I hope you found this collection of How To articles helpful.

Today’s quote: “Nothing builds self-esteem and self-confidence like accomplishment.” ~ Thomas Carlyle

Bonus tip: If you are in a position where you need to get your Dear Sweet Aunt Martha (or other utterly tech unsavvy type) a computer so that they can have email, do yourself a favor, spring for an iMac.

Bonus reading:

* Infographic: Spam Olympiad

“Spammers and “slammers” took advantage of world-wide attention on the London 2012 Olympics to flood us with junk and fill the social media streams with abuse. Here’s a snapshot of their activity.” Read more

* Are You Forwarding Hate Email As A Political Propaganda Tool?

“Have you noticed that as the we ramp up for the U.S. Presidential election the hate email propaganda starts to roll in. I have been getting so much of it (mostly from personal acquaintances) that it actually makes me very uncomfortable and has me questioning the  stability and IQ of our population. I sometimes feel […]” Read more..

Copyright 2007-2012 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved.

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All we really have, in the end, are our stories. Make yours great ones. Ones to be proud of.

Flash Cookies Devouring Your Privacy

“..Flash cookies may be making an end run around your attempts to preserve your privacy…”

In a world run by advertising revenue.. the online marketers (hello, Google) are determined to “profile” you, track your online habits, and serve you “targeted” ads.
Yippee.

So, we “consumers” (and yes, that’s how us “average computer users” are viewed) have had to become adept at blocking “cookies”, installing Ad Block programs, and adjusting our “Privacy settings”.

Fact is, we’ve become pretty good at it. So the advertisers had to develop, better, harder to prevent methods at tracking us, and getting their ads to pop open so we can see them (and ignore them).
(Are you thinking of advertising on the Internet? Paying for ads? Good luck with that..).

One such method they’ve developed is the “Flash cookie” (or, “LSO”) which actually uses Adobe’s Flash Player as a conduit.
If you have ever watched a “video” on YouTube, you know what Flash Player is.

If you are at all concerned about your privacy, or simply want to prevent the Big Brother aspect of the Internet, I suggest you read Are Flash Cookies Devouring Your Privacy?

“Even if you delete normal tracking cookies regularly to evade tracking by snooping sites and eager advertisers, little-known Flash cookies may be making an end run around your attempts to preserve your privacy.” Read more..

Here you will learn about the Flash Player “control panel“, and the settings you need to adjust to gain back some of your privacy.

looks like loads of fun, doesn’t it? Well, that’s why most of us don’t bother, and the concept of privacy is becoming obsolete.. and when you really think about our “tech”, you might think Orwell’s 1984 was tame by comparison.

So, if you don’t use Firefox, and have the BetterPrivacy add-on (I also reco TACO) you will want to read the article, click the link, and tweak a setting or two.
If you think your right-to-privacy is more important than advertisers getting their way, that is.

Today’s quote: “Looking at the proliferation of personal web pages on the Net, it looks like very soon everyone on Earth will have 15 megabytes of fame.” ~ M.G. Sriram

Copyright 2007-2011 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved.

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Video Tutorial and Sunday Beauty 59

Folks, regular readers have heard me say (many times) that I use Firefox as my web browser; and that I do so mainly for the safety provided by the security “add on” NoScript. Today, I have a short video which explains the basic How To (and the “why”) of NoScript.

Fact: The Internet has become a dangerous place.

And it being Sunday, how about a pretty picture?

Click on image to see more by this artist (reco'd)

venice-19 (romantic venice at night) by Alan Light, courtesy of Flickr Commons

Enjoy the rest of your weekend everybody!

Today’s quote: “The difference between perseverance and obstinacy is that one comes from a strong will, and the other from a strong won’t.” ~ Henry Ward Beecher

Copyright 2007-2011 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved.

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Firefox 6 Reviewed, iPhone Tips, Facebook, Chatter, And More

Loyal readers know that I use Mozilla’s Firefox as my web browser. And they know I have chosen it simply because of the many Add-ons available – mainly Internet Safety (privacy and security) tools. If these “Add ons” were not available, I would not use Firefox. It’s that simple. (To see my choice of Firefox security add-ons, click here.)

What they may not know is, like many people, I got really turned off by Firefox’s new policy of a rapid release cycle and constant updates and ‘upgrades’ to new versions. And, I did not like the “minimalist look” of version 4, which is a direct rip-off of Google’s Chrome browser (if I wanted Chrome, I would have installed Chrome. Duh.)

Every time I turned around, Firefox wanted to update.. and, in fact, since I wrote Firefox 3, or 4 (or 5)? + Turn Off the “Upgrade” Nag back in May, they are now up to version 6. Let you in on a secret: I am still using version 3.

Yesterday, though, I read a detailed review by FOTIS-winning Seth Rosenblatt of version 6, which most Firefox users (if they agreed to the upgrades) already have. This has me rethinking, particularly what he said about Firefox 6 on Android, and I will be putting it to the test this week. In the meantime, you can read his review and analysis of the latest release here, (Find out why it earns 5 stars..) and if you already have it, learn some new features.

• 5 awesome Mozilla Firefox secrets (photos)

Firefox is packed with useful, built-in features you might have missed. Customize Firefox with these five helpful tips. View images

Further Brain Food:

• Salesforce abuzz over social networking software

“Metallica playing a trade show? It’s the kind of deliciously strange bit of news a person might share on Facebook – but Salesforce.com would rather see it posted on Chatter.” Read more..
(Never heard of Chatter? Me neither. Read the article.)

• The complete list of Windows Logo keyboard shortcuts

“The Windows Logo key can be a powerful tool if you know the right shortcuts.” Read more..

• 10 wacky IT office pranks

“An office without practical jokes would be a mighty dull place to work. Luckily, legions of IT pranksters have kept things lively over the years.” Read more..

• Tips and tricks to improve your iPhone experience

“A few simple tricks can make a big difference in how well your iPhone serves your needs. Calvin Sun shares some basic tips he’s discovered.” Read more..

• Can you tell a real Facebook e-mail from a phishing attempt?

“Notification e-mails from social networking sites like Facebook can be dangerous; if you’re fooled by a phisher, you can click your way into big trouble.” Read more..

• Recently, Steve Jobs stepped down as CEO of Apple. I wrote about that (see my Steve Jobs Steps Down, if you missed it) the day after. Since then, many more articles have been published, and the speculation continues. Probably the best of these I saw is Without Jobs as CEO, five reasons Apple won’t be the same

“Lots of people are talking about why Apple will continue its momentum even without Steve Jobs as CEO. Here’s the counterpoint.” Read more..“

Related: Only one minor, teensy-weensy, little problem.. 

I never joined Facebook..!

Yeah. It’s Monday again… yippee.

Today’s quotable quote: “Make somebody happy today. Mind your own business.” ~ Ann Landers

Copyright 2007-2011 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved.

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IE, Firefox, or Chrome – Which is best?* | Consumer as beta tester

I am frequently asked my opinion about web browsers: mainly, “which is best – Firefox or Chrome?” Yes, sometimes I am asked about IE or Opera too. Well.. what do you mean by “best”? And is your definition of “best” the same as mine? Fortunately, I don’t have to think too hard when I am asked, as web browsers all basically do the same thing –> show you websites.

I use Firefox as my “alternative” browser. And I have chosen it simply because of the many Add-ons available. If these “Add ons” were not available, I would not use Firefox. It’s that simple.

So, what Firefox Add-ons do I use? I’ll show you:

[addenda: I have recently added OptimizeGoogle (specifically to strip out the ads in Gmail) to my suite of defenses.]

With the exception of the Vimeo video capture-to-blog plug in, I would recommend this configuration. Why? Well, what do these things do? Look at them, and you’ll see that they are defenses – typically, blocking elements I do not want. And yes folks, your machine needs defenses on the Internet. (OK. The Java is not a defense. It’s a vulnerability.. see, Java, the new Adobe (+How To Protect Yourself).)

Adding Add-ons to Firefox is easy: click on the Tools menu, and then Add-ons. A window like the one pictured will open. In the upper left is the Get Add-ons button. Click it.
(If that seems like too many to you, I would say at a minimum you want NoScript, WOT, and Flashblock.)

*     *     *

Do you have a favorite TV show? Do you ever record movies?

I thought so. So I have a reading reco for you, a tutorial: How To Burn A Recorded TV Show in Windows Media Center

“Many people out there that have Windows Vista and Windows 7 based computers have never tapped into the Windows Media Center component that is right under their noses.”

* Orig post: 11/12/2010

Today’s reco’d read: Should we now expect to pay $500+ to be tablet beta-testers?

“Tablet makers continue to fall short of the Apple iPad and roll out buggy and incomplete tablet devices, at prices of $500 or more, and I am getting tired of it. Aren’t you?” Read More…

Today’s quote: “Success is simply a matter of luck.  Ask any failure.”  ~ Earl Wilson

Copyright 2007-2011 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved.

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