Cyber Alert

Keywords: Internet Warnings

As a computer and internet user you now have a fresh source of information to protect your computer from the increasingly devious and deadly virus attacks which seem to be coming more and more frequently of late.

The government has set up a program, called the National Cyber Alert System – a part of the Department of Homeland Security. Once you've signed up you'll receive email alerts about significant computer virus attacks and detailed information you can use to protect your computer from that virus. These alerts may also include notifications about occasional weaknesses discovered in the security of various commercial software products and, presumably, preventive steps one can take to eliminate that weakness.

The alert system is not part of the Department of Homeland Security's colorized warning system, which reflects the current perceived national terrorist threat level.

The email alerts won't be issued on a regular basis but will be released as often as the need arises. More information on these cyber alerts can be had at www.us-cert.gov

By LauraQuarantiello © Tiare Publications Group

Laura Quarantiello is the author of "Cyber Crime" – a plain English guide on how to protect yourself from computer criminals, avoid identity theft, threats to your children, viruses, spam and more. For information: http://www.tiare.com/cyber.htm

Technology – Simplifying our lives or pushing us to our limits?

Keywords: Managing Technology

Although the convenience of modern technology has simplified our lives on many levels, it has increased the pace of work and life, creating additional stress on how, when and where we do what we do. It’s easy to see just how soon we can reach our threshold as it can all get to be too much.

I love technology and pride my self on the fact that I can easily maneuver the operations of just about any electronic gadget without reading the instructions. I spent 22 years, half of my life, working for IBM, a household name in the technology industry. After leaving as a Vice President and launching my own Life and Career coaching business, I’m hearing a very common message from my clients which should be cause for concern. People are simply burnt out. There just aren’t enough hours in the day to tackle the constant demands of life and work. Perhaps, the expectations have become too high.

Armed with our wireless internet connections, laptops, PDA’s, cell phones and blackberries, we can’t seem to ever get away from work. The expectation seems to be set that we are “on demand” all the time. The boundaries between life and work have become very blurred. While we can work when and wherever we want, we should all heed caution as our society is headed towards increased numbers of people suffering from depression and plain old burn out. In the end, we only have ourselves to blame. Each of us has to be accountable for our own choices and the consequences of those choices. We have to know when to take a stand and say, enough is enough!

10 Ways to Tame Information Overload

Keywords: Technology

"Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information on it." Samuel Johnson 1709-1784

Information overload causes a lot of workplace stress--too much email, voice mail, internet connections, electronic reports, digital images, cell phones, text messages, pagers, PDA reminders, laptops, power point programs, recorders, MP3 players, bridge lines, video conferences, teleseminars, and many more. How do the savvy leaders sort through the noise and capture exactly what they need to succeed?

We've always had more information than we could possibly digest. Technology has helped us overcome the traditional problem of finding the data we need, and technology can help us control and access knowledge in ways to make it meaningful.

Good leaders and managers are all knowledgeable of technology resources. They surround themselves with experts if they cannot embrace the entire scope of their assets, just as they depend on experts in finance, sales, and manufacturing.

Search Engine Optimization For Blogs

Keywords: Blogs

Blogging software is really a simple Content Management System (CMS) that easily adds new pages and integrates them into your site's navigational structure and linkage.

Blogs and blog posts are naturally search engine friendly because they are text-rich, link-rich, frequently-updated webpages that use stylesheets or CSS, and have very little extraneous HTML.

Optimizing a blog is very similar to optimizing a website, and optimizing a blog post similar to optimizing a web page. But depending on the blogging service or software you use, the results may look somewhat different.

If you follow some simple rules for search engine optimization, your blog can rank much higher than static website pages in the search engine results pages.

Here are the most important rules to follow to get your posts listed for keywords of your choice.

1. Use your primary keyword in your blog domain

Whether you purchase a separate domain (recommended) for your blog, or host it on a blogging service or a subdomain of your own site, try to ensure that your URL contains the primary keyword you want to optimize for.

For example, if you want your blog to get found for the keyword "rss" get a domain with the keyword "rss", or use the keyword in a subdomain as in http://ebizwhiz-publishing.com/rssnews/

Getting a domain name with your own name might make for good branding, especially if yours is a personal blog.

Five Credibility Boosting Elements for Web Sites

Keywords: Websites

Who are you, really? And why should I trust you? Without face-to-face contact or a trusted intermediary who has vouched for you, visitors to your web site often have these two questions paramount in their minds when considering doing business with you. Use these five elements to boost your perceived trustworthiness and coax possible customers to step forward and buy.

1. Contact information. This is the easiest credibility booster to implement. Yet amazingly, many businesses ignore the power of simply stating where they're located on the planet and providing a telephone number and email address. Without real-world ways to contact you, some visitors will wonder whether you have something to hide and whether you can be relied on to deliver the goods. With contact information, you come across as legitimate and more reliable.

2. Photos. You don't need Hollywood-style looks to make an impact by including your photo on your site. So long as you aren't frowning or looking depressed, a photo makes you seem more real, appealing and accessible. Likewise, pictures of your company location or of your sales reps who are clearly not models but actual staff members help bring your company to life. And it's easier than ever to add the dimension of voice to a site via an audio welcome. To get a credibility boost from it, record this message yourself instead of hiring a professional.

How to Watch Someone Else's Laptop Screen- with Your Eyes Closed!

Keywords: Privacy

So there you are on a long flight tapping away on your laptop computer keyboard. You glance at the guy in the seat next to you and see that he has cranked his seat back and has his eyes closed so you ignore him.

But what you don't know is - your seat mate is carefully watching your laptop screen even though his eyes are closed!

How can you pull off this seemingly magical trick? First, practice closing your left eye while leaving your right eye half open.

Then recline your seat back a bit. If you carefully rotate your head slightly to the left you'll be able to see your target's laptop screen with your right eye.

Should your target look your way, he will see your closed left eye and your reclined seat and will assume that you're either sleeping or resting with your eyes closed. From his position he won't be able to see your open right eye. This will leave him feeling relaxed and free to use their laptop in any way he chooses.

If you want to go all the way with this tactic, you can go to an optometrist and have them make up a pair of special glasses for you with the focal length tuned to the exact distance of the laptop screen. (approximately five feet)

All About Computer Viruses

Keywords: Viruses

Your computer is as slow as molasses. Your mouse freezes every 15 minutes, and that Microsoft Word program just won't seem to open.

You might have a virus.

Just what exactly is a virus? What kind is in your computer? How did it get there? How is it spreading and wreaking such havoc? And why is it bothering with your computer anyway?

Viruses are pieces of programming code that make copies of themselves, or replicate, inside your computer without asking your explicit written permission to do so. Forget getting your permission down on paper. Viruses don't bother to seek your permission at all! Very invasive.

In comparison, there are pieces of code that might replicate inside your computer, say something your IT guy thinks you need. But the code spreads, perhaps throughout your office network, with your consent (or at least your IT guy's consent). These types of replicating code are called agents, said Jimmy Kuo, a research fellow with McAfee AVERT, a research arm of anti-virus software-maker McAfee Inc.

In this article, though, we're not talking about the good guys, or the agents. We'll be talking about the bad guys, the viruses.

A long, long time ago in computer years, like five, most viruses were comprised of a similar breed. They entered your computer perhaps through an email attachment or a floppy disk (remember those?). Then they attached themselves to one of your files, say your Microsoft Word program.

Two Steps Toward Computer Security

Keywords: Computers

So, you've heard enough horror stories about viruses, Trojan-horses, spyware and their cousins that can really make your Internet surfing a dismal experience. Confucius said: "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step," but the road to computer network security begins with two steps. Here are the two most important things you can do to keep from getting buried in this online garbage:

1) Keep your computer up to date. No matter if you use Windows, Mac or Linux, keeping software on your computer up-to-date is extremely important. Many viruses use known security bugs already discovered in software but not yet fixed or patched on individual computers. For example, the well-know "Blaster" virus (W32.Blaster.Worm), which attacked millions of computers all around the world, exploits something called the "DCOM RPC vulnerability" in some versions of Microsoft Windows. The Blaster virus didn't even rely on your e-mail program to propagate; but rather, it scanned the Internet for vulnerable computers and copied itself to the unpatched machines where it set up shop repeating the process, causing a tremendous disruption in overall Internet usage and untold headaches for owners of infected machines.