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..
“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.
Ease Holiday Mailings With Word and Mail Merge
Use Word To Create Labels From Your Address Book Of Contacts
You can use Word’s “mail merge” feature when you want to create a set of documents that are essentially the same but where each document contains unique elements. For example: a letter of holiday greeting, your inserted photos and the basic message (text) will appear in each letter, but the address and greeting line will be different in each letter.
Using mail merge, you can create:
- A set of labels or envelopes The return address is the same on all the labels or envelopes, but the destination address is unique on each one.
- A set of form letters, e-mail messages, or faxes The basic content is the same in all the letters, messages, or faxes, but each contains information that is specific to the individual recipient, such as name, address, or some other piece of personal data.
- More…
Using mail merge, all you have to do is create one document that contains the information that is the same in each version. Then you just add some placeholders for the information that is unique to each version. Word takes care of the rest.
It is that first – creating address labels – that can really help if you need to send correspondence to a lot of people. Your “address book”, or “Contacts” list, can be used as the source for the label maker (see Step 2). Microsoft has a very clear tutorial on using Word’s “mail merge” feature, and here are the links:
Step 1: Choose a document type and main document
Step 2: Connect to a data file and select records
Step 3: Add fields to the main document
Step 4: Preview the merge and then complete it
When you have “merged” your address book, and the ‘labels’ (or, if your printer allows it, envelopes), you just insert a sheet of labels (such as Avery) and hit “Print”. Saves having to look up, and manually copy down each person’s address…
Copyright 2007-9 © Tech Paul. All rights reserved.
post to jaanix
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Gmail — Automated Phishing Detection
Google’s Gmail is currently testing a service designed to alert Gmail users to messages that appear to be phishing attacks.
These phishing alerts operate automatically, much like spam filtering. Gmail’s spam filters automatically divert messages that are suspected of being unwanted messages into ‘Spam’. Similarly, Gmail’s phishing alerts automatically display warnings with messages we suspect are phishing attacks so you know to exercise caution before providing any personal information. (for more details, click here)
Important: You should always be wary of any message that asks for your personal information, or messages that refer you to a webpage asking for personal information.
(You might want to think about how Gmail could do this ‘detecting’…)
If you aren’t quite sure what to look for when you suspect an e-mail might be one of these cybercrime ploys, this brief video can help.
To Detect Phishing
Copyright 2007-9 © Tech Paul. All rights reserved. post to jaanix
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IE 8 – Protecting Your Privacy Online
Do you surf the Internet? Do you use Internet Explorer? According to the statistics, the odds are pretty good that you will answer “yes” and “yes”. The latest Internet Explorer, IE 8, has a feature I like very much, and I think everyone who surfs the net should be aware of — it’s called “InPrivate” filtering. 
InPrivate helps protect your privacy by monitoring 3rd party content (read, advertisers) on the websites you visit, and helps you stop them from tracking you. My only complaint is it must be “enabled” each time you start IE, when IMHO it should be on by default! Please visit the InPrivate FAQ to learn more about this important feature. (or, How do I turn on InPrivate Browsing?)
I have written many articles containing advice and tips for getting the most out of Internet Explorer, and how to troubleshoot ‘glitches’ when they occur, and I have listed links to my more popular tips below. I invite you to scan the topic titles, and see if any catch your eye.
(The bottom link will present all my Internet Explorer articles by date.)
Restore Missing Favorites In IE*
Internet Explorer Runtime Error!!*
Quick Tip: Turn on ClearType in Internet Explorer
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
For more of my IE tips and repair advice, click here.
Copyright 2007-9 © Tech Paul. All rights reserved. post to jaanix
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Odds & Ends on a Sunny Day
* After a week of overcast and cold, I am looking out my window at sunshine, and from the motion of the branches, wind. (Question: why isn’t the word spelled “whind”? Wind is what a mountain road does.) I’m eager for summer to get here. It’s my favorite time of year.
* A reader commented on yesterday’s article on how to remove hidden metadata in your files, and he pointed out that the Office 2007 suite has a feature called Document Inspector especially for this purpose.
For those of you who have Office 2007:
In the copy of your original document, click the Microsoft Office 
Select the type of metadata you want removed.
(For all the details on document inspector, click here.)
* Last week was
Tech – for Everyone’s second birthday. I wrote my first article June 8th, 2007: The first Tech Paul Post: secure your web connection
As you can see from the title, helping people stay safe from online dangers has been a priority for me right from the jump.
Over those two years, Tech – for Everyone has:
- posted over 700 articles.
- received almost 2000 reader comments.
- been read by more than a half million people.
- not posted one advertisement.
- developed a few more gray hairs.
Before I move on to my next “thot”, I want to say to you, Dear Reader, that of those statistics the most important one to me is the comments. “Reader feedback” – as it’s called – keeps me honest, keeps me stimulated, and is my sole “reward”. It is also a good source for topic ideas, so please keep them coming!
* The sunny skies has me thinking about a word, and that word is “vacation”. I like that word, that concept, and the act itself.
But I’m not a 100% clueless idjit (only about 50%). I am aware of a little thing called a Global Recession.
But vacations are necessary for our health and mental “well-being”. It is my sincere hope that you, Dear Reader, will find a way to give yourself some time to depressurize and step back from life’s demands, and maybe get a change of scenery too.
Today’s free link: 13 ways to make vacation budget-friendly
Today’s free download: Today I am going to ask you, Dear Reader, if you have a free program that you consider a Best Of Breed and/or consider indispensable. I’m inviting you to post it as a comment and share it with my readers.
Copyright 2007-9 © Tech Paul. All rights reserved. post to jaanix
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Outlook as a security risk
Disable E-mail Client’s Preview Pane For Safer Computing & Less Spam
A recent article on scam spam (e-mail) prompted a reader to send in this good question,
Hi Paul –
You wrote “don’t even open e-mail from unknown sources.. doing so can/will mark your e-mail address as a “live” person, …”.
How do we delete without opening a specific email message? Even while deleting in bulk the first email in the highlighted selections opens. I’m using Outlook Express. Thanks for your help!
What is being referred to is the feature common to e-mail clients called the “Preview Pane”.
Dear Reader–
You’re correct that most webmail settings, and e-mail clients, (by default) have what is called a “preview pane”, which opens the first (topmost/most recent) e-mail in your Inbox, and shows you the first few lines of the e-mail. Yes.. this will trigger whatever the spammers/hackers are using to verify receipt (such as downloading an invisible jpeg). Because of this, I always turn the Preview Pane off.
To do this in OE, click on the View menu and select Layout.
Then in the Preview Pane Properties, uncheck the “Show preview pane” checkbox.
BTW– by exploring Properties/Options/Settings/Preferences (different names for the same thing), you can disable the preview pane in every e-mail viewer.. Hotmail, Thunderbird, etc.
Tip of the day: While many people find the preview window a convenient way to skim their incoming mail, using it automatically opens your machine up to security risks (especially if you are allowing HTML, and/or images, as the OE pictured above does) and tells anyone who’s interested that yes, your.name@isp.com is a valid address.. suitable for spamming.
I advise disabling the feature, and doing without the ’speed enhancement’ of previewing. Doing so will reduce the amount of spam you receive, improve your privacy, and close the door on one of the methods hackers can use to infect your machine.
Trust me folks, you do not want to be on a spammer list.
Today’s free download: (For Mac) Evernote is the ubiquitous notetaking/data capture utility, and I was pleased to find it for Apple machines/devices. From site: “Evernote allows you to easily capture information in any environment using whatever device or platform you find most convenient, and makes this information accessible and searchable at any time, from anywhere.“
Copyright 2007-9 © Tech Paul. All rights reserved. post to jaanix
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Enable ShadowCopy On Home Editions / XP
From time to time Vista creates ’snapshot’ copies of your files with a service called “Shadow Copy”. This allows you to retrieve older versions of files you accidentally delete or alter.
To go back to a prior version of your file/document, you simply right-click on the file and select “Restore previous versions”, which can get you out of some nasty jams. (For more on recovering deleted files, click here.)
Shadow Copy is enabled on all versions of Vista, but Microsoft grants user access to these copies only in the Ultimate, Business, and Enterprise editions. (Clearly as a method to try to sell more copies of the pricier Ultimate Edition.)
Tip of the day: Users of the “Home” editions of Vista can use Shadow Copy too.
The odds are pretty good that if you bought a new computer, and it came with Vista, it came with Vista Home Premium. I say that because if you walk into a store selling computers, I dare you to find the one that has Ultimate Edition on it. It seems to me that they all come with Home Premium!
Remember how I said Shadow Copy was “enabled” on all versions? Yes? Well, for owners of Vista Home Premium and Vista Home Basic, the service is running, but you need a way to “interface” with it (sometimes called a “front end”). To do that, download and install ShadowExplorer, and gain some of Ultimate Edition’s functionality. This cool piece of software is free, but donations are accepted.
Today’s free link: People who are using Windows 2000 or XP can get an almost identical file functionality with FileHamster from Mogware. This program is designed for people whose talents lie in the Creative Arts, so you don’t ave to be a geek to use it. There’s helpful user forums, too.
Please note: This ability is by no means a substitute for regular system backups. This is for small “oopsies”, not recovery/restoration.
Copyright 2007-8 © Tech Paul. All rights reserved. post to jaanix
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• About Tech Paul
I am a Retired computer & network technician. I used to think the machines were pretty cool. Now I don’t.
They’re anything but.
I regularly posted how-to’s and tricks & tips and general computing advice here starting in 2007. (Use the Search tool to find answers. But be aware, many are rather dated.) Sometimes I answered (your) specific questions in an article if I believed the answer was generally helpful to “everyone”. All the writing you see was my own, typos and all. There always is/was an implied “IMHO” in what you see here.
Note: You are responsible for using this blog and its content. I am in no way liable for any losses caused by user error, viruses and/or other malware, hardware or software failure, or any other conceivable reason.
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