A
word from the Chief Guru: Christmas and New Year Greetings
Over the past few years, CyberGuru’s client base has
expanded considerably. As a result, we are currently looking to the future
in doing so looking to manage the rate of this growth. One of the ways
we’ve already done this is to provide Annual Contracts better to manage
time and work spent on client work. At the same time, this planning
enabled us perform additional services in a controlled and selected manner
in order to receive a better “work-life balance” and to sufficiently
service our existing clients on Annual Contracts. Whilst we’ve been the
process of slowing down, we don’t wish to lose our clients completely! I
am endeavouring to keep my knowledge and skills up-to-date as we hope to
able to expand the business again in the future.
In this bumper issue of the CyberGuru newsletter, we
feature some hints, tips and tricks to keep you secure on the web, by your
protecting your online identity with good password practice and
identifying if a website is safe. We also provide more on how to identify
a hoax or phishing email. Finally, we uncover some useful add-ins for
Microsoft Office 2007 to assist you to start the new year off well.
As another year draws to a close, CyberGuru would like
to wish all our clients, prospective clients family and friends, all the
very best wishes for the season. Thank you for your ongoing support this
year.
Rather than sending out Christmas cards this year we have made a donation
towards Christmas hampers for the needy through the St Vincent De Paul Society.
However, there is an electronic Christmas Card available at
http://www.cyberguru.com.au/christmascard2008.htm.
We look forward to working with you for another
successful year in 2009.
Best wishes
Chris
Chris Jeffery
Proprietor/Chief Guru
News: Increase in hourly rate charges effective from 1 January 2009
~
CyberGuru's hourly rate charges will increase to
$85/hour for both online and offsite services. Despite rising costs
CyberGuru has kept this increase as low as possible. This pricing will
take affect from Monday 1 January 2009.
Fixed quote work is still available upon request. A $20
call out fee for offsite solutions less than two hours in duration still
applies.
All existing Annual Contracts will remain at the same
price until hours are renewed, or the contract expires, whichever comes
first.
Please feel free to contact us if you have any
questions.
Hints, Tips and Tricks: Protecting your online identity with good password
practice
Computer passwords are required for so many varied
purposes, many websites from internet banking to your favourite internet
portal to save your preferences request that you create an account with a
password to perform a transaction.
Often when registering an account on a particular
website, they’ll ask you to enter a password and often asked whether you
wish to save this password in memory. Saving passwords in memory is not a
good thing to do as not only does it enable anyone to be able to access
your account if they are logged into your computer, but it doesn’t force
you to remember it – and if you lose your password, it can be a lot of
trouble to recover it!
When choosing your password, it is important to not
make them obvious that others would know or could easily guess, such as
your birthday or an anniversary, name of your partner, children or pet.
Various websites place restrictions on the type of password you can use,
and recommend some capital letters, numerals and symbols to increase its
complexity.
It is good practice to change your passwords on a
regular basis. It is also recommended that don’t use the same password for
each service which you use, particularly on websites.
Most importantly, ensure you don’t keep your passwords
written down, but preferably only in your own memory. If you need to write
them down, keep them in a safe spot, that isn’t easily discoverable to
ensure your online identity is protected.
Hints, Tips and Tricks: Identifying if a website is safe with Norton Safe
Web
Everyone knows that the Internet is huge, there are
many online threats like viruses, phishing, and spyware, and there's a lot
of unsavory Web sites out there—Web sites that will try to deceive you,
steal your credit card numbers or passwords, or even crash your computer.
By the time you visit a Web site it's usually too late. The damage has
been done, you've been had. So, how can you find out if a Web site is a
safety risk before you visit it?
Norton Safe Web is a new reputation service from
Symantec. Symantec's servers analyze Web sites to see how they will affect
you and your computer. Then, using the Norton Toolbar installed on your
PC, they will let you know how safe a particular Web site might be before
you view it. If you need to find out more about how a Web site might
behave, they provide more detailed information right here on the Norton
Safe Web.
Norton Safe Web can be found at
http://safeweb.norton.com.
This article is available from our
Hints, Tips and Tricks page at
http://www.cyberguru.com.au/helpdesk_hintstipstricks.htm.
This information has been provided by Norton Safe Web.
Hints,
Tips and Tricks: Identifying a hoax/phishing email
Many of the requests we receive is asking whether an
email is a hoax or phishing email.
If you are unsure what we mean by these terms, you’ll
find some previous articles CyberGuru has previously written on the topic
at the following addresses, including definitions of what these are:
*
http://www.cyberguru.com.au/helpdesk_hintstipstricks_bewaryofphishing.htm
*
http://www.cyberguru.com.au/helpdesk_hintstipstricks_bewaryofphishingpart2.htm
*
http://www.cyberguru.com.au/helpdesk_hintstipstricks_viruswarningsandhoaxes.htm
It is important to understand that most of the time,
hoaxes and phishing emails use fraudulent email accounts to make you
access their websites and provide your confidential data to them.
Most times, the website and email address is fake and
when picked up by authorities, they are blacklisted and removed from the
internet. However, some times this may take a while to occur. In this
cases, there are some rules you should follow if you receive such an
email:
1. Most importantly, do not click on any links or open
any attachments. A virus infection might occur if you do this.
2. Forward the email to the “abuse” account for your
Internet Service Provider (ISP). They will often have the means to
blacklist the address or advise the police if necessary.
3. Do not forward it to your friends or colleagues,
even if it is just a warning.
If in doubt in any way, even if you recognise the
organisation or do deal with them, it is recommended that you do not open
the file and delete it immediately. If you feel you have been compromised,
call the provider of your bank/financial institution to ensure that you
are protected.
This article is available from our Hints, Tips and Tricks
page at
http://www.cyberguru.com.au/helpdesk_hintstipstricks.htm.
How-to Guide: Installing and using Microsoft Office 2007 Save as PDF
Writer
One of the benefits of Microsoft Office 2007 over its
predecessors is the ability to save files as Portable Document Format
files, better known as PDF. PDF is a format developed by Adobe for
document exchange. These days, it is an standard file type enabling
various manufacturers to incorporate into their own programs, as Microsoft
has. The advantage of PDF has over a standard Word or Excel document is
that it keeps the formatting and you don’t need the source document to
open the file, and additional security benefits.
Through a free Save as PDF Writer add-in which can
downloadable from Microsoft you can to export your Microsoft Office
documents as PDF files.
This how-to guide is available from our How-to Guides page
at
http://www.cyberguru.com.au/helpdesk_howtoguides.htm.
How-to Guide: Installing Microsoft Office 2007 Compatibility Pack
At the launch of the Microsoft Office 2007, a new file
format for default documents for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 was
introduced. These files do not allow backward compatibility with existing
files, this is a Word 2007 document cannot be opened in Word 2003 or
earlier. A Compatibility Pack File Formats is now available for download
to ensure your Microsoft Office 2007 documents are compatible with
previous versions.
This how-to guide is available from our How-to Guides page
at
http://www.cyberguru.com.au/helpdesk_howtoguides.htm.
Joke: Apple Corporation Sues Itself
In a move that has industrial analysts scratching their
heads, Apple Computers has filed suit against Apple Computer, Inc. The
company claims that Apple has violated the Look and Feel of their own
machines which has helped to make the company famous.
An Apple Spokesperson stated 'This is no joke. If we
don't protect our copyrighted interface, everyone will use it and we could
lose the exclusive right. So it is in our best interests to sue anyone who
uses the Macintosh Look and Feel, including ourselves.' The spokesperson
says Apple has retained the prestigious LA law firm of Kukla, Fran and
Ollie to spearhead the lawsuit. Apple's in house lawyers will defend. Long
time Apple observer Ernest Dinklefwat stated that this is a sure sign that
Apple has too many lawyers and not enough engineers. 'In the old days
Apple depended on its talented engineers to keep ahead of the competition,
but now they have lost the edge, as well as their grasp on reality.'
The industry will be sure to watch this case closely.
If Apple wins the suit against itself, this could mean a massive recall of
all Macintosh and I-mac computers which will need to be converted to avoid
all graphics and desktop metaphors and instead provide a simple
terminal-like interface. Such a move would cause a massive digression in
the personal computer market. Users of computers would be forced to learn
to read, which could cause dangerous literacy among college students and
professionals.
Joke: If Computer
Companies run Christmas
If IBM ran Christmas...
They would want one big Santa, dressed in blue, where
kids queue up for their present-processing. Receiving presents would take
about 24-36 hours of mainframe processing time.
If Microsoft ran Christmas...
Each time you bought an ornament, you would have to buy
a tree as well. You wouldn't have to take the tree, but you still have to
pay for it anyway. Ornament/95 would weigh 1500 pounds (requiring a
reinforced steel countertop tree), draw enough electricity to power a
small city, take up 95% of the space in your living room, would claim to
be the first ornament that uses the colors red/green together.
It would interrogate your other decorations to find out
who made them. Most everyone would hate Microsoft ornaments, but
nonetheless would buy them since most of the other tree types wouldn't
work with their hooks.
If Apple ran Christmas...
It would do everything the Microsoft ornaments do, but
years earlier, and with a smaller mouse (not stirring of course).
If Silicon Graphics ran Christmas...
Ornaments would be priced slightly higher, but would
hang on the tree remarkably quickly. Also the colors of the ornaments
would be prettier than most all the others. Options would be available for
'equalization' of color combinations on the tree.
If Dell ran Christmas...
Wait a minute? Isn't IBM running this Christmas..?
If Fisher Price ran Christmas...
"Baby's First Ornament" would have a hand-crank that
you turn to hang the thing on the tree.
If The Rand Corporation ran Christmas...
The ornaments would be large perfectly smooth and
seamless black cubes. Christmas morning there would be presents for
everyone, but no one would know what they were. Their service department
would have an unlisted phone number, and be located at the North Pole.
Blueprints for ornaments would be highly classified government documents.
X-Files would have an episode about them.
If the National Security Agency ran Christmas...
Your ornaments would have a secret trap door that only
the NSA could access in case they needed to monitor your tree for reasons
of national security.
If Digital Equipment Corporation ran Christmas...
We used to have Christmas back in the '70s, didn't we?
If Hewlett-Packard ran Christmas...
They would market the Reverse Polish Ornament, which is
put in your attic on the weekend after Thanksgiving, and placed out for
viewing the day after the January Bowl Games.
If Sony ran Christmas...
Their Personal Xmas-ing Device, which would be barely
larger than an ornament and flat, would allow you to celebrate the season
with a device attached conveniently to your belt.
If the Franklin Mint ran Christmas...
Every month, you would receive another lovely
hand-crafted item from an authentic Civil War pewter ornament collection.
Each ornament would weight about seven pounds, and require you to pay
shipping and handling charges.
If Cray ran Christmas...
The holiday season would cost $16 million but would be
celebrated faster than any other holiday during the year.
If Thinking Machines ran Christmas...
You would be able to hang over 64,000 ornaments on your
tree (all identical) at the same time.
If Timex ran Christmas...
The holiday would be cheap, small, quartz-crystal
driven, and would let you take a licking and keep on shopping.
If Tandy ran Christmas...
The staff would sell you ornaments, but not know
anything about them or what they were for. Or you could buy parts to build
your own tree.
Thanks!
Thanks again for your
interest and custom in our solutions. You are receiving this newsletter
because you contacted have CyberGuru, use or have used our solutions in
the past or signed up for the mailing list.
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If we can assist you in any way through our solutions, please
contact us.
Christopher Jeffery trading as CyberGuru
Web:
http://www.cyberguru.com.au
Email:
cyberguruDONOTSPAM@cyberguru.com.au
