Meetings from Home It's been a month now, and here we all are still stuck at home. Last month I deviated from my current series and tried to provide information about what technology most people need to work from home. This month I find that I still need to talk about working from home while also reviving the conversation about security and privacy. Face-to-Face Online Meetings Meetings are for many an important part of the workday. Of course, when working from home you use

Working from Home Due to the fact that everyone I know is working from home because of the threat posed by the COVID-19 virus, I thought I would take a break from my privacy and security series and talk about the technologies that make working from home practical. Home Computer Setup Someone planning to work at home should have access to a computer that they can use during the workday. This computer does not have to be the latest and greatest, but it should be able to run a r

Protecting Your Information This is the third in my series on privacy and security. Last month, I reviewed one method of creating secure passwords, and I explained how passwords are typically exposed or cracked. This month I want to look at why it is important to protect our information. Who Are We Protecting Our Data From? First, let's look at who is using our data and why they are using it. Businesses like Google, Microsoft, Facebook, and Amazon; internet service

Time to Change Your Passwords This month starts my sixth year writing this column. Each year I have written at least one column on creating secure passwords. I often try to do this in January. This year we revisit the topic as a part of my privacy series with an eye toward explaining how passwords are cracked and why creating strong passwords and changing them periodically is important. First let's review the rules I wrote way back in March of 2015: 1. Passwords shou

Anybody who has read this column over the years probably recognizes that I am an advocate for both security and privacy. As much as possible, I believe we should take responsibility for protecting our information, but with the current state of technology and laws that fail to protect us, protecting ourselves can be a challenge. So I had a thought with the goal of helping my neighbors better understand some of the issues. I thought I would write a series of articles for the co

It's November again and time to prepare for holiday shopping. This year we will start with some new technology gifts that people might be giving and also revisit 3D printers and televisions from previous years. Voice Assistants Last year, I didn't get to the voice assistants, so I thought I would start with them this year. There are basically two lines of voice assistants that dominate the market: Amazons' Alexa, and Google's Home/Nest lines. These devices are typically small

In my last column of 2018, I discussed the game industry covering game platforms and distribution of games for the personal computing (PC) environment. A lot has happened in the game world since last December, so I thought I would recap and then look at what is changing. How Are PC Games Sold In the recent past, PC games were sold on CD-ROMs and DVDs and purchased at department stores or specialty stores like GameStop or Babbages. The specialty stores and the stock of ga

This month I thought I would start a discussion of home automation and monitoring. Home automation is where devices in our homes do things like control the temperature in our house, turn lights on and off, and lock and unlock our doors. Some of these technologies have been around for many years, like smart thermostats that adjust the temperature settings to save energy when people aren't home, or motion-sensor lighting that turns off in daylight and only turns on at night whe

Back to School 2019 It's that time again when school is starting, and once again we are scrambling to find the tools our students need for the new school year. It has been three years since we took a look at useful software for students, so I thought it might be a good time to revisit the subject but focus on free software. Free Office Suite Software An office suite (similar to Microsoft Office) is a collection of several software components: a word processor, a s

Finding eBooks Last month we discussed eBook files and eReaders. This month we will continue looking at eBooks and discuss finding them. Project Gutenberg Project Gutenberg creates digital copies of books that are no longer under copyright. These books are in the public domain and may be freely copied by anyone. Project Gutenberg started in 1971 and is the oldest digital library with over 57,000 books including the known published works of Mark Twain, H.G. Wells, and Edgar Al

Summer is here, and many of us will spend time on the beach or in the mountains relaxing and catching up on our reading. This month I will look at eBooks and eReaders. Formats Over the years, there have been many file formats designed for eBooks. Currently the most common format is Portable Document Format (PDF). This format was originally developed by Adobe to ensure a document could be printed correctly from any system. The PDF format was eventually opened up and is curren

May and June are popular months for graduations, and laptop computers make a popular gift for the graduating student. This month we will take a short look at laptop computers and what you should know before you purchase one. We will look at the operating system software first and then explore the hardware components. Operating Systems For most practical purposes, there are four operating systems to consider: Windows 10, Chrome OS, Linux, and macOS. The choice of operating sys

World Password Day World Password Day is a day set aside on the first Thursday of May for everyone to change their passwords, add multi-factor authentication, and generally review the security of their devices and applications. The observance is May 2 this year (2019). I wrote a bit about this in January because many observe February 1 as Change Your Password Day. If you didn't change your passwords at the beginning of the year, now is a good time. In general, a good password

This month I will be tackling some questions I get asked frequently or FAQ's. Should I use a Surge Protector for my Computer? The answer here is yes you should protect all sensitive electronics equipment with a surge protection device. A computer plugged into an electrical outlet can be damaged by electrical surges. These surges most often are caused by thunderstorms or issues with the electric system. Last March, for example, my neighborhood experienced a large surge caused

March 14th is known in the United States as Pi Day, a celebration of the number Pi. We celebrate on March 14th because the first digits in the number Pi are 3.14 corresponding to the date 3/14. Other parts of the world represent the day prior to the month and celebrate Pi day on July 22nd. This is because the value of the ratio 22/7 which is 3.14 (to 2 decimals) matches to Pi 3.14 (also to 2 decimals). A better approximation of Pi is 355/113 which matches Pi to six decima

Back Up Your Data As I am writing this month's article, the headlines are about the WannaCry "ransomware" attack that occurred over the past few days. Ransomware is an attack in which a computer is infected with a program that encrypts data files stored on the computer. A screen is displayed explaining that the files are encrypted and to recover them a ransom will have to be paid in Bitcoin. Bitcoin is a nontraceable digital currency. If the ransom is paid and the perpetrator

Stay Private Earlier this month, the legislative branch of our government passed a law repealing FCC Internet privacy rules and allowing Internet service providers (ISPs) to collect and sell information about the Websites each of us visits. The President signed the bill immediately after it passed both houses. It seems that lawmakers figure there is no need to keep our browsing habits private even though we use the Internet to explore things like health issues, finances, and

Pi Day This month I am writing my column on "Pi Day." Pi Day is an annual event that celebrates the number Pi, an irrational number that is approximated to two decimal places as 3.14 and thus celebrated in the United States on March 14. Pi, of course, is an important number in geometry and trigonometry because the circumference of a circle is 2πr (2 times Pi times r) where r is the radius of the circle and Pi is represented by the Greek letter π. The area of a circle is also

Bad Cortana This month we continue our discussion of Windows 10 frustrations. Cortana the Spy Cortana is an intelligent digital assistant built into Windows 10. If your computer has a microphone as most laptops do, Cortana listens to you and allows you to speak questions and commands. Cortana will then pose the question to Bing and return an answer. This is very similar to Apple's Siri, Amazon's Alexa, and Google's "Ok, Google." Even if you do not have a microphone

Another Safe New Year Another January, and it's time to change all of your passwords again. Remember to use a different password for each website and make sure your passwords are at least 12 characters long with a mix of numbers, upper- and lowercase letters, and symbols. The technique described in this column a couple of years ago is fine for generating secure passwords for most websites. This technique requires us to create rules for creating passwords. Your rules should be