Tech Talk #15 – Dec 19, 2015 Support scams When someone who says they are from Microsoft or Google or Yahoo or anybody else calls you on the phone to tell you “your computer is causing problems on the Internet” or some other malarkey, just hang up. People at Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, etc. will NEVER call you about your computer. If you do get fooled by the scammers (don’t blame yourself, they’re really good
Tech Talk #14 – Dec 5, 2015 No need to clear that RAM Are your apps misbehaving? Is everything on your phone running slowly? Maybe it’s not even good at making phone calls? Both iOS (Apple) and Android (Google) do a good job of managing your phone’s memory. Your phone is designed to use as much memory as possible to keep your applications loaded and ready to work for you. If you ask your friends
Tech Talk #13 – Nov 21, 2015 Say you’re shopping for ’55 Chevy alternator brackets or something, and a super-scary web page like this comes up. The page might even read itself over your speakers. DON’T PANIC. Do NOT call the number on your screen. It’s just a scam. There is NOTHING WRONG with your computer. Just close your browser and shut down your computer. Give it a minute or so to think about
Tech Talk #12 – Nov 7, 2015 Keeping an eye on Bundleware Sometimes a program you’re installing will sneakily install other software. This ‘other’ software is known as bundleware and can be hard to prevent if you’re not a Marine sniper and can’t uncheck that tiny box way down at the bottom of the screen. There’s a utility called Unchecky that’s great at catching and stopping bundleware. Unchecky runs in the background and keeps watch
Tech Talk #11 – Oct 24, 2015 Google is just one of millions of places on the Internet. Think of the Internet as being a big huge giant place and are lots of other places to go once you get there. To get to the Internet on your computer/phone/tablet you have to use a Browser. If you have a PC then your PC came with Internet Explorer as your Browser. If you have a
Tech Talk #10 – Oct 10, 2015 How do I tell if it’s a fake tech support or printer driver site? Here’s the best way to tell: If you’re looking for something from Dell or HP or anyone else, their company name will show up in the link BEFORE whatever you’re looking for. For example support.hp.com or www.dell.com/support. The fake sites will have what you’re looking for AFTER their site name. Examples of this look
Tech Talk #9 – Sep 26, 2015 Advertisers and social media companies and others are paying for the ‘free’ Internet by tracking which sites we visit, what we search for, how long we stay on a site, what pages we look at, where we live, who our friends are, and more. How can a normal person maintain any privacy on the Internet? Here are some things you can do. If you don’t want your Internet
Tech Talk #8 – Sep 12, 2015 WiFi Flash drives – What’s a WiFi flash drive and why might I need one? If you have a bunch of photos or music on your tablet or phone, how do you get those files to another phone or tablet? Oh sure, you could get a cable and plug things in and copy your files to your computer and then plug in another device and copy those files
Tech Talk #7 – Aug 29, 2015 In a word, great! In the month or so since Microsoft’s new Windows 10 operating system was released, pretty much all of my clients who have done the upgrade are happy. They’re happy that it was easy, that all of their files and programs and settings are just the way they were before the upgrade, and they like the new start button. Some older printers don’t work with
Tech Talk #6 – Aug 15, 2015 Maybe you’ll sleep better not knowing… but if you want to be restless tonight, the New York Times has put together a site where you can see a list of companies from which criminals have stolen data. You don’t have to give the site any of your personal information, just push the buttons appropriate to where you might have an account, or have health insurance, or shop. Once you’re on