Quickly Master Google Fu… Here’s How

There’s one thing all teens can do better than adults – and it’s not Snapchat. They’ve become experts at quickly locating information on the internet.

That’s Google Fu, the ability to use search engines to whip up answers and research faster than a contestant on a radio quiz.

 

Level 1 Mastery: Tell it what you need.

Google is smart and can understand “conversational searches”. Let’s say you came across a great recipe online, but the measurements were imperial. Google has you covered.

Simply tell it what you want to convert, and into what.

[number] [unit] into [unit]

Enter “6 ounces into cups”…and hit enter. Google presents the answer, already calculated – AND it includes a handy drop down to change those measurements for your next ingredient.

The ‘tell it what you need’ formula works for a multitude of questions – here are a few more formats to give you the idea.

• Release dates: [movie/game] release date
• Fast facts: [name of person] death
• Stats: [city] population

Level 2 Mastery: Limiting result type.

With one additional click, you can tell Google that you only want images. Or videos. Or News, maps, shopping, books or apps. Your initial results are presented as a combination of all types – you can see the ALL tab highlighted up at the top. Just click the tab to indicate which result type you’re looking for.

Level 3 Mastery:  Using drop downs.

One of the most popular Google Fu moves is to limit results to sites from a particular country. This is great for locating bargains or local businesses. Click SEARCH TOOLS to drop down a second menu. You’ll see the option to limit Country and even Time.  2 extra clicks and my search is now limited to my home country and items from the past 7 days only.

 

Level 4 Mastery: Using operators.

Your final level of mastery, often used as a last resort when you’re just beginning to doubt whether the internet has the answer you’re seeking.

Adding a – directly in front of a word (no space) means display everything that contains my other search terms, but doesn’t contain this term.

Finally, enclosing your search terms in “quotation marks” binds the term together so Google can’t break it up. E.G. “Project Management”

Your Google Fu will soon be very strong.

How to spot a tech scam before you get stung:

If your computer had a virus, you’d want to know about it before your files became corrupt, you lost your photos and your digital life was essentially destroyed. Just thinking about it can be terrifying.

Tech scammers know we’d be lost without our computers, and that we don’t always know what’s going on behind the screen – which is why they’ve been able to swindle millions from every day people across the world.

These scammers deal in urgency. If you are unsure what is happening, take a breath and remember you can always turn off/unplug the computer.

The scam goes like this:

An alarming pop-up (that you can’t close) appears on the screen, saying your system has been infected with a virus. Alternately you might receive a random phone call from someone (often with a heavy accent) saying they’re from Microsoft and your computer is in imminent danger.

To fix the problem, they need you to download some support software, which they’ll give you a special link for.

A “technician” then uses that software to gain access to your system and make it appear your system is riddled with viruses. Flashing screens, mysterious diagnostics whizzing by, fabricated errors…they’ll do or say anything to make you panic. They’ll even go as far as claiming your system has been infected with illegal content and if not corrected, you’ll face criminal charges.

Demands for credit card information follow immediately after. Once paid, they simply stop fiddling with your system to make it seem as though the problem is fixed. To continue the scam, they’ll soon access your system to recreate the problem, this time offering a subscription for ongoing protection.

What to do if you’re targeted by a tech scam:

1. Don’t taunt them. Just hang up. Right now, you’re only a phone number in their system and they’ll move onto the next – if you give them cause to target you personally, you may find yourself in a worse situation.

The real Microsoft will never randomly call people like this. Ever.

2. If a pop-up appears, immediately run an anti-virus scan. Don’t click the pop-up or call the number.

 

 What to do if you’ve already been scammed:

It’s okay. It feels horrible, but you’re not alone and the situation can be corrected.

Call your financial institution and have the charges reversed and your card reissued. It’s easier than you might think and helps the authorities locate the scammers.

Then give us a call and we’ll make sure they don’t have access to your computer and assess any other damage they may of caused.

 

 

Internet Of Things (IOT), are generally simple or single purpose devices/computers with connectivity to the internet.

 

Why should we care?

1. These devices are INSIDE your network.
2. These devices are generally low cost and therefore to continually develop updates/security patches for them reduces ROI for the company selling/making them.
3. Insecure/unpatched devices inside your network are a threat/potential entrance to the rest of your network (and valuable data/resources)

Consider this: Does your ring doorbell really need to be on the same network as your production machine you use to work remotely from home? How about the Amazon dash buttons for ordering more laundry soap, your smart TV, Withings scale or the myriad of other devices connecting to the internet these days? No of course not. There is no reason for these devices to see any of your other equipment or even one another for that matter.

What can we do? Knowing which devices use the WAN (internet) verses ones only needing LAN (Local) access & their expected functions is a good first step in getting everything where it belongs. After categorizing and separating your equipment, setup and use a guest network (turn on device isolation) for all of the IOT/at risk devices.

Other things to help mitigate the danger:

– Patch your IOT devices (assuming they support it)

– Register your devices so updates/notifications about security flaws can get to you

– Make sure your router/modem/access points have the latest firmware/patches

– Audit your networks (private & guest) and the devices on them

– Test to be sure network isolation is working

Don’t have a guest network, not sure how to set one up, or just don’t want to bother with it? No problem, drop me a line here, give me a ring (903) 686 0200, or book an appointment online here and I will sort it out for you.

 

Recap: The only surefire way to be 100% safe online is to NOT be online.

Not being a realistic option, we can strive to minimize the threat vector with a little bit of effort, equipment, & some know how. The little things add up (both ways)

 

Here’s to safe computing,

Liam –

 

I see lots of phones in this business and I wanted to share some advice to prolong the usable life of your device. (this applies equally to tablets).

Whatever device you end-up buying be it Andorid, iOS, Windows Mobile, or some other Mobile OS it will have a set amount of “internal memory”. The internal memory is the flash memory soldered to the board and cannot be replaced. When this memory wears out (yes it wears out) your device will start to act erratically (like your Uncle Gonk after 6 beers too many) with random crashes, lockup, reboots and other problems.

*Flash memory in a nutshell*

– Flash memory uses a process to read & write data that eventually kills the memory (storage cell)
– Flash memory utilizes wear leveling to maximize the life on any individual storage cell – (good flash chips do this)
– Flash memory like traditional hard drives have memory they use to replace ones that die on the main storage.
– When the replacement cells run out Uncle Gonk comes out in his drunken glory and your device brings sadness to you and all you know.

I have seen plenty of 8 Gig iPhones running iOS 7 and they run walk horribly. They crash, are slow to start and freeze up. iOS 7 is takes most of that space and now the free memory wears even faster.

How do we mitigate this? Always buy a device with at least 1 step up on the memory scale. So, if they sell a 8GB, 16GB & 32GB models, get the 16GB at a minimum. This does several things for you.

1. Extra space – Who doesn’t need it?
2. Better resale value – Easier to sell when it comes time to replace it.
3. Extra Stability – Due to less memory wear/more spare sectors.
4. Extra Life – You have more options for larger apps/custom ROMs.
5. More Options – That 32GB phone you no longer use after switching carriers will make a much better music/video device for junior than the 8GB one you were going to get.
6. Faster – having free space on your phone does make it faster. This has diminishing returns however. Try for 10-15% unused space as a general rule.

Another way we can reduce memory wear is to use expandable storage if possible. Save photos, documents, media, and generally anything you create to the removable memory by default and use the internal memory for applications. Not all devices come with expansion slots for memory but it is an easy change to make if you have the option. Micro SD is the most common and for best performance get class 10 or better cards.

The cost difference between the bottom storage size and the next tends to be about $50.00. To me it is easily worth it. So skip on the extra case of beer for Gonk and get a better phone/tablet.

Liam –

Something I see all the time that really bothers me is when a laptop/tablet/hard-drive/etc is brought in and still has cords hanging out of it, or even worse the laptop is pulled from a bag with the charger dangling from the back or side.

DON’T do this people! It is really rough on your machine and can be very costly.

The same goes for thumb drives, hard drives, wireless cards and so on.

If it didn’t come with that part attached when you first opened the box of your shiny new laptop, don’t cart it around with it plugged in.

The ports are tiny and machines are getting smaller all the time. On the other hand the stuff we plug in is still basically the same size. This puts tremendous amounts of pressure on the solder joints and the motherboard of your machine.

USB Thumb drives are even worse. Why? Because you risk breaking the drive and losing all the data on it in addition to hurting your machine. I still get people coming into my shop who hand me 2 pieces of a thumb drive with some super important thing residing in what is left after an accident.

See the ports and plugs below? They break all the time. I repair these and they are not inexpensive to repair.

Help extend the life of your machine by not leaving stuff plugged into it while you move it around.

If you do bring a machine to me and stuff is plugged in, I will remind you it’s a bad idea. And if you have a broken DC jack or a laptop that charges intermittently I can get you fixed up.

Liam –

iDisplay –

The other day I was need an app I could use to turn my tablet into an extra display. I also needed it to use the touch feature as the mouse input. After some searching and testing I landed on iDisplay. It will work with both your Apple products and your Android devices.

The application is easy to install and configure. You download the mobile app to your phone or tablet and the desktop app to your computer. After this you only have to launch the desktop app and voila you have a secondary monitor with touch input and sound as well. As long as you have both devices hooked to the same network, wired or wireless, it just works. You can move windows across any or all displays and it just works seamlessly.

You can find the download links for both iTunes & Google Play below and the program will set you back $4.99 on either platform.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/idisplay/id363500805?mt=8 – iTunes

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.idisplay.virtualscreen – Google Play Store

http://www.getidisplay.com/ – Developers Site

Liam –

Web based businesses need to protect themselves, and their customers info, from both cyber criminals and the real life variety as well. This is no small task as many find out.  One such company, VUDU the online video giant, recently had some data stolen when their physical security protocols were not enough to protect the customer data contained on some hard drives taken by thieves on the 24^th of March.

An e-mail sent out by the folks at VUDU assures us that complete credit card numbers were not stored in the drives. The data contained on the drives DID include: names, e-mail & physical addresses, phone numbers, account activity, dates of birth and the last four digits of some credit card numbers.

VUDU also admitted user passwords were among the data stolen but followed by saying they were encrypted as well.  No word on the type or strength of encryption used was mentioned, but to be fair that info would be meaningless to most people.

No mention was made on how many people were affected by this security breach. So what has VUDU done about this? First, they are making you reset your password. Next time you log in you should see the password reset prompt & e-mail confirmation shown below.

Secondly, they are footing the costs of identity protection of the affected for a full year. Services to be provided by AllClear ID.

You can find further info at an FAQ they setup here

Now to the point of the article other than to warn anyone who uses VUDU. I preach all the time to not reuse passwords and to have a strong password on any and all e-mail accounts associated with online accounts/businesses.

Why? Because companies will send you password resets via e-mail. So no matter how difficult and complex your banking password may be, all I need to do as a criminal is gain access to your e-mail account to lock you out of your online accounts or worse to use them as my own.

Do you reuse passwords? Do you change your passwords on a regular basis? Can you remember your passwords? Do you use the same login info across multiple sites you wouldn’t want someone other than yourself to have access to?  Would you like some help with managing the post-its/notebook your logins/passwords live in?

Let me help you with your passwords before you have a personal cautionary tale.

Liam –

(903) 686 0200

Be nice to your power adapters to ensure they have a long fulfilling life. Your charger is like any other metal cable or cord, it will deteriorate over time. Cables don’t like to be bent, chewed on, stepped on, rolled over, or be put under excessive strain. Here are a few tips to keep your adapter happy.

When wrapping up the cords around the brick at the end of the day don’t pull them to tight. Leave a little slack where they connect to the brick. Pulling it tight will cause a lot of unnecessary strain on the connection point. Bending the wires inside at the same spot over and over will eventually make them break. With Mag Safes, leave a small loop at the connection point, then wrap the rest around the wings.

 

 

It is also a good idea to disconnect the three prong cable from the brick before wrapping it.

When unwrapping the cords, make sure you support the brick. Grabbing hold of the cable and dropping the brick can cause excessive damage.  Imagine bungee jumping with a rope instead of a bungee cord.

While using your laptop, give the cord some slack when plugging into the computer. Pulling it tight or bending it under your laptop to make it reach will ruin the cables.

The biggest no-no is transporting your laptop with the cord plugged in. The sight of people walking around with their chargers still attached makes me cringe. Letting the brick dangle with nothing to hold onto except the laptops DC jack. This causes strain everywhere, on the end of the cable from the weight of the brick, the connection on the brick, and also on the laptop itself.

Is your laptop power adapter battered and bruised? Can you see exposed wires or have patches of electrical tape? We have many new and used adapters in stock. We can also fix those busted DC jacks.

-Shane

We’ve covered the Cost of Free Software before, but let’s expand that a little bit. Free software can be great. They can keep your computer clean of junk files, and others like PDF Readers are almost mandatory.

Do your research when installing free software. An all in one PC Cleaner that will clean your junk files, make your computer faster and remove all viruses with one click sounds great right? Most of these programs will do the complete opposite of what they say they will do. If you see free software ad’s on Google or most other sites it is most likely not good for you computer.

Once you have decided on your software to download, pay close attention when installing it. When installing some software read the fine print. They may ask you to install a toolbar or security scanners that will of course make your life easier. Just say no to these extra programs! Make sure you remove the check mark from the box next to the offer.

Is it too late for you and your computer? Do you have more toolbars on your browser then you know what to do with? Come and see us to get you all cleaned up and running free of all that junk software.

-Shane