Green Screen – Be Anywhere You Want

If you’d like to try some green screen video, I’m all set up. It’s fun and easy.

Viruses and Malware – How to Get Them

If you want to get a virus or malware don’t do any of the below.

1. Use Windows Update – have it turned on to “Automatic Download and Install.”

2. Don’t run as an “Administrator.”

3. Use Sandboxie.com to sandbox your internet activity

4. Don’t click on links in email.
If possible only view email in “TEXT” mode.”

5. Use Firefox and the NoScript plugin.

6. Don’t open email attachments.

7. Only download files from sites which you know are safe.

8. Use a router as a firewall and turn on WPA2 encryption. Also turn on your Windows firewall. Make sure your router has a password. Turn off WAN. (This allows outside people to change your router settings.

9. Use some sort of Antivirus and Malware software.

10. Have a drive image backup, so that if you do get infected, you’ll have a way to get back to a clean restore. I use Acronis True Image, but there are others available also.

11. Don’t let your kids use the same computer that you use for banking and credit card payments.(more info)

12.  Turn off “AutoPlay” on your computer.

13. Turn off Universal Plug and Play on your Router.  On my router it is found under Advanced – Advanced Network – Uncheck the box “Enable UPnP”

14. Turn on “View File Extensions.”

Note – If you really want to be updated on the latest security threat, listen to Steve Gibson and his “Security Now” podcast. Here’s a link to his website: (click here)

Download YouTube Video

KEEPVID.COM

Here’s another nice site which allows you to easily download Youtube Video. It even gives you the option of getting the higher quality version.

LCD TV vs. LCD Monitor

If you’ve ever wondered if you could just buy an LCD TV and use it instead of buying an LCD monitor, the picture above shows you the difference. The LCD TV while being viewable has a much fuzzier picture than the LCD Monitor. While it would probbly be fine for viewing videos, for day to day use, I’d buy the monitor to get that crisp text.

Vista – Auto Logon

If you’d like to automatically logon to your account in Vista, here’s how to do it. At the Search box, type
control userpasswords2 and press Enter.
The User Accounts screen will appear.
Highlight the account that you want to automatically log on with, then uncheck the box next to Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer. Click OK. The Automatically Log On dialog box appears. Type in the password for the account that you want to log on automatically. Click OK.
From now on, you’ll automatically log in using that account. To get to another account, Click the Start button, click the arrow in the lower-right corner of the Start menu, and select Switch User and follow the prompts.

Vista – Not Too Safe

A friend recently brought over a VISTA computer that was unusable because they had forgotten the password for the startup logon. Within 5 minutes a found a Linux ISO file which allowed me to boot from a CD and remove the Administrators password.What I also learned in the process was that, VISTA is not that safe if you’re trying to hide your data.

I also learned that by adding this command in the Search bar:
Net user administrator /active:yes
You can activate and show the Administrators logon when Windows starts. This is also nice since the  administrator doesn’t have the annoying UAC popup screens. Note – this account doesn’t have a password initially, so make sure you assign a password to this account.

You can hide the Administrator logon by using the command:
Net user administrator /active:no

I like to have at least two Administrator accounts so that if I have a problem with one, I can still logon and make changes.

Computer on a Thumb Drive

Here’s a relatively easy way to put an entire computer on a thumb drive. OK, it uses Linux, but the interface is great and you can do most tasks that you’d normally do in Windows. Here are the steps.

1. Go to http://www.ubuntu.com/ and download their latest version 8.1. That is an ISO file.

2. Use Nero or something comparable to take that ISO file and burn it to a CD.

3. Setup your comptuer to boot from the CD – usually you have to hit F2 or Space or some other keyboard key to stop the normal boot process and get into your BIOS. When you’re their, set it up so that the computer will boot from the CD first.

4. Reboot using the CD you created

5. From the new menu go to System – Administration – Create a USB Startup disk.

6. Follow the prompts and at the bottom you’ll see “Stored in Reserved extra space.” That’sthe area for your stored files. On a 4 GB USB drive, I gave it 3 GB of space.

7. Go back to the computer Bios and change it so that it can boot from the thumb drive. You may have to have a newer computer to do this. Some older computers don’t have this option.

Craigslist – Beware

As an infrequent poster to Craigslist, I was caught off guard when I received a response to my post about my local Toastmaster club. They didn’t want to know anything about Toastmasters. They wanted me to tutor their child. After their second email I became wary when they did the following:

1. They didn’t answer my email questions at all.

2. They wanted all sorts of contact information about me.

3. They wanted to send me a cashiers check – a known bogus tactic.

4. Their English was terrible.

What I’ve learned is to be very cautious when you get an email response on Craiglist. Ask plenty of questions. Never give out your real email address – use the Craigslist email anonymizer feature. Never accept cashiers checks. Don’t be a sucker!