Opera Browser Now Offers Free VPN Service

I tip my geek hat to the folks over at Opera.

* Opera Browser Now Offers Free and Unlimited Built-in VPN Service

“Opera becomes the first web browser to offer a built-in Free, unlimited and 256-bit encrypted VPN service for everyone.

Opera’s Free VPN protects unencrypted browser session from leaking on public WiFi networks and will also let unblock firewalls to improve privacy and security.” Read more..

* Get the Opera browser here.

Today’s Pretty Picture:

Not a bad cellphone pic, eh? Click on image to see more by this artist

“Spring 2011” by SurFeRGiRL30, courtesy of Flickr Commons

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Today’s quote: “There is only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that’s your own self.” ~ Aldous Huxley

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.

How to prep your smartphone for emergency situations

Folks, the author of this article is a bit wordy, (like, you can skip the first 4 paragraphs..) but there is some good info here… And we all know, we should be somewhat prepared ahead of time, as a Rule.

* Zombie apocalypse? Prep your smartphone for emergency situations

“Learn how to equip your phone to help steer you through disaster scenarios, whether a zombie apocalypse or a Donald Trump rally.” Read more..

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* Side business: August, check your Junk folder.

Today’s quote: “Positive thinking will let you do everything better than negative thinking will.” ~ Zig Ziglar

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.

How to Disable Windows 10 Upgrade With Just One Click

If you are a Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 user, who doesn’t want to upgrade to Windows 10 now or anytime soon, you might be sick of Microsoft constantly pestering you to upgrade your OS. Here’s a quick and easy tool to turn off the upgrade nag.

The tool is called Never10, and it’s from Steve Gibson. Click here, to go to his page, and scroll down a bit to the “download” button. (You may want to read the very brief instructions.. but this is 1-click-simple.)

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Today’s quote: “Your attitude is like a box of crayons that color your world. Constantly color your picture gray, and your picture will always be bleak. Try adding some bright colors to the picture by including humor, and your picture begins to lighten up.” ~ Allen Klein

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.

How To Boost Windows Ten’s Performance

Those of you who have ‘upgraded’ to Windows 10, and like to ‘tweak’ their machines for best performance, may want to read the following article —

* 10 Tips to Speed Up Windows 10

“Windows 10 is faster than the previous versions of Microsoft’s OS, but you can still speed up your PC with our tricks.” Read more…

[ Those of you ‘Power Users’ who have been using Windows for years probably won’t find anything really new here.. ]

Today’s quote: “Have courage for the great sorrows of life and patience for the small ones; and when you have laboriously accomplished your daily task, go to sleep in peace.” ~ Victor Hugo

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.

How to disappear from the Internet

And other Items of Interest

Folks, a few things for your Friday.

* Podcast: How to disappear from the internet

“On this week’s episode of the TechRepublic podcast, Frank Ahern reveals the secrets of skip tracing and social engineering. Frank also explains how to disappear completely and never be found.” Cick here.

* Why Microsoft’s ‘Tay’ AI bot went wrong

“She was supposed to come off as a normal teenage girl. But less than a day after her debut on Twitter, Microsoft’s chatbot—an AI system called “Tay.ai”—unexpectedly turned into a Hitler-loving, feminist-bashing troll. So what went wrong? TechRepublic turns to the AI experts for insight into what happened and how we can learn from it..” Read more..

[ “AI” is “Artificial Intelligence” ] [ And the whole idea of AI gives me the creeps.. Remember Hal in Space Odyssey? ]

* Cloud plus artificial intelligence is creating The Matrix (and that’s a good thing)

“A study by advisory firm Leading Edge Forum titled Embracing ‘the Matrix’ and the Machine Intelligence Era, suggests that the combination of cloud computing and artificial and machine intelligence (MI) “will increasingly be able to perform just about everything that companies and individuals do, and many things that we cannot“.” Read more..

[ .. a good thing? Replaced by a machine a “good thing”?? ]

* Just look at these crazy-spendy luxury gadgets

“The luxury tech market is full of gadgets that you did not even know you wanted … until now” VIEW THE GALLERY

… well, I think that’s enough for now. It’s Good Friday. Be well.

Today’s quote: “My message, especially to young people is to have courage to think differently, courage to invent, to travel the unexplored path, courage to discover the impossible and to conquer the problems and succeed. These are great qualities that they must work towards. This is my message to the young people.” ~ A. P. J. Abdul Kalam

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.

Sunday Items

Folks, a few things worthy of your attention:

* Data Breach Day — Patreon (2.3M), T-Mobile (15M) and Scottrade (4.6M) — HACKED!

“This week, three high-profile data breaches took place, compromising personal and sensitive details of millions of people. Telecommunication giant T-Mobile Crowdfunding website Patreon US brokerage firm Scottrade In T-Mobile’s case, its credit application processor Experian was hacked, potentially exposing highly sensitive details of 15 Million people who applied for its service in the …” Read more..

Related: How to Freeze Credit Report To Protect Yourself Against Identity Theft

“If your Social Security number gets hacked in any data breaches, including recently hacked T-Mobile, then there’s a way to prevent hackers from misusing your identity (i.e. identity theft). The solution here is that you can institute a security freeze at each of the three credit bureaus, Equifax, Experian, or TransUnion. Once frozen, nobody will be allowed to access your credit report, ... ” Read more..

Today’s Interesting Image (SB #208):

Click on image to see more by this artist

“Ellis clan” by Homini:), courtesy of Flickr Commons.

Today’s quotable quote: “Positive thinking will let you do everything better than negative thinking will.” ~ Zig Ziglar

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.

Possible help for ransomware

Folks, this article discusses ransomware, and provides links to a ‘toolkit’ that may help you if you have been hit with an infection, and your files are now ‘locked’ by encryption. I have not tried any of this myself, and cannot comment one way or the other, except to say my advice is to seek professional help; but if you want to try D-I-Y decryption, well, then, here you go. Use at your own risk.

Article: Ransomware: To pay or not to pay

“There is no need to tell victims of digital extortion how successful it is. What is needed is a way to help victims respond to the ransom demands.” Read more..

And here is the toolkit’s Information page. It is vital that you thoroughly read it before using the toolkit. Ransomware Response Kit Overview.
Once you’ve read and understood the page, click the “Downloads” in the navigation pane. Be sure to read the “Readme” file before trying any tool.

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Today’s quote: “You cannot have a positive life and a negative mind.” ~ Joyce Meyer

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

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