Triona's Tech Tips

Are you interested in Twitter, but not sure how to get started? My column in today’s The Northwest Herald tells you how to get the most out of Twitter:

If youʼve never used Twitter, itʼs like the headline scrawl across the bottom of your favorite news channel, except that these headlines are written by you and me. Follow someone on Twitter and youʼll receive their latest mini-messages, and you can send mini-messages of your own.

Businesses are using Twitter to keep in contact with customers, advertise events, promote special offers, and grow relationships. Skeptics might doubt that one can do business via Twitter, but my direct experience says it works.

Here’s how you can start using Twitter in just a few easy steps.

1. Sign up for Twitter
Your Twitter name is your identity, so choose wisely. Also make sure you are using strong passwords that are not in use on any other site (especially financial sites or other social media sites like Facebook). Twitter has some nice resources to get you started including Twitter Basics for beginners.

2. Find people to follow
What are you interested in? Most news outlets have Twitter feeds, as do many newspapers, periodicals, television channels… anyone who offers content is offering it on Twitter. Some of your friends and colleagues are using it, too. As you start using Twitter, you’ll gravitate toward people with like interests. For example, a news outlet might retweet a link you like from a blogger, and you might decide to follow the blogger on Twitter for more of the same kind of content. To follow someone, go to their Twitter page and click the Follow button.

3. Send your first tweet
Remember: relevant, concise, and interesting. When in doubt a good quote always works. Retweets that you find interesting also work, but remember, posting too often is as bad as not posting often enough.

Some examples of tweets (sent by yours truly):

4. Invite people to follow you

Start with people you know personally, then the people they are following. You’re most likely to get followers in small trickles rather than big waves. And don’t forget to interact with your followers! Twitter isn’t just headlines, but a multi-way conversation. A conversation might go like this:

5. More Help With Twitter
Here are some additional resources if you need help with Twitter.

Tech Tips articles on Twitter
Search for keyword Twitter and you’ll find my previous articles on the topic.

Twitter Help Center

Chris Brogan: 50 Ideas On Using Twitter For Business

How are you using Twitter for your business? Share in the comments!

If you’re not familiar with iPads and Facebook, 2012 may be the year you join the crowd. In my Tech Trends column in this month’s McHenry County Business Journal (digital edition here) I talk about how this may be the year everything changes:

Mobility, social media, and cloud computing are taking the world by storm. Consumer IT is affecting everyone from enterprise-level organizations to small businesses, and back to the consumers themselves. It’s a rapid and sometimes vicious cycle in which failure to follow the trend could cost companies much-needed momentum.

Here are five ways you can stay on top of these emerging trends.

1. Make a mission statement
Everyone should have a mission statement for online marketing, businesses and individuals alike. What are you trying to accomplish? Do you want people to buy products, sign up for your email newsletter, visit your blog? Explain how you are uniquely qualified to help. If you’re marketing yourself rather than a business, your mission is to demonstrate to employers how you are uniquely qualified.

2. Contribute value
You get out of social media what you put into it. Follow people with valuable content and contribute valuable content of your own. Note that the converse is also true: you can and should stop following people if they do not provide you with information you find useful.

3. Seek balance
If you’re not posting often enough, people will lose interest. If you post too often they’ll be overwhelmed. Find the right frequency for you based on your mission and target audience. This is where mobility and social media go hand in hand. If you think of a good LinkedIn status, use your smartphone and post it. It takes far less time to actually do it than to write “Update LinkedIn Status” on a to-do list.

4. Delve in
Don’t be afraid to experiment! Sign up for Facebook, add some apps to your iPad, and most of all read, read, read about these emerging technologies.

5. Subscribe to Tech Tips by email, RSS, and Twitter
And here’s a good place to start. Follow Tech Tips and get your feet wet with someone who isn’t going to laugh if you make mistakes. Email subscribers receive bonus tips and product reviews. Be sure to follow me @trionaguidry on Twitter for breaking tech news and other geek goodies. If you’re not on Twitter you can visit my blog where you’ll find my Twitter feed in the right sidebar. Don’t know how to RSS? Check out my info on RSS here.

How are you planning to use mobility and social media in the new year? Comment and share your thoughts!

You’ve probably heard the buzz about SOPA and PIPA, a pair of bills being considered by Congress. Proponents of the bills say they are necessary to protect intellectual property rights. Opponents argue that SOPA is nothing more than censorship.

This usually isn’t an opinion blog, but on this one I have to take a stand. SOPA is an abomination that must not pass.

Some are urging a blackout as a protest against SOPA. I considered it, but decided not to. The purpose of this blog is to educate people about computers, and I can’t think of a better way to protest SOPA than providing the information you need to oppose it yourself.

The problems with SOPA and PIPA are many, censorship being the main issue. But there are technical problems with these bills that make them cumbersome and ineffective. They might actually make the Internet less secure by interfering with standards that exist to keep it that way (e.g. DNSSEC). As an IT expert and an advocate of free speech, I oppose these bills and encourage you to do the same.

There’s plenty of news coverage out there, and I’ve gathered some that help explain the SOPA/PIPA debate.

This one has a list of the sponsors, so you known whom to contact.

• PCMag: The Right Way To Protest SOPA (John C. Dvorak)

And this one will let you contact your legislators too.

• Public Knowledge: This Bill Seriously Screws With The Internet

More information here:

• reddit: A technical examination of SOPA and PROTECT IP [aka PIPA]
• The Register: A preview of SOPA: Web shut down before my eyes
• PCMag: Top Five Objections To SOPA, PIPA
• PCMag: Where Do You Stand On SOPA, PIPA? (interviews with PCMag staff on the issue)

And, I can’t conclude without pointing out that, as always, you need to make sure you’re clicking on bona-fide resources regarding SOPA and not some malware scam taking advantage of the headlines.

• eWeek: SOPA Web Protests Sure To Inspire Malware Distribution Scams

What do you think of SOPA and PIPA? Do you support or oppose them, and why?

Ever type the wrong Web address by mistake? Did you know that cybercriminals snatch up typoed domains in order to create tempting lookalikes?

Typosquatting is the practice of registering a domain that is a typo of a common site, like goole.com instead of google.com. Most people don’t notice their typos, especially if they land on a site that looks similar to the one they expect. While some of these typoed sites are innocuous, others can contain everything from malware to password harvesters.

Security firm Sophos did an interesting study of typosquatting, and concluded that malware is actually the least of your problems if you wind up on a mistyped site. However, that’s not to say you shouldn’t be concerned about viruses.

More worrisome is the old bait-and-switch game. Sophos describes a situation in which you mistype apple.com and end up on a lookalike page that invites you to download iTunes. Except it’s not iTunes, it’s a site offering “unlimited music downloads.” And it doesn’t even give you that much, just access to some online forums of questionable value.

Another example of bait-and-switch is the brand ripoff. Many of the typos for search engine Google go to search engines that aren’t Google, but use the Google logo and serve up “results” that earn clickthrough cash for the squatters. Fake competitions and surveys also bring in the dough.

How can you avoid typosquatting?

• Be careful what you type.
• Check the address bar to confirm the site you’re on.
• If things don’t look right, quit your browser and try again.
• Hover over links without clicking and look at the status bar at the bottom to see where they go.
• Use bookmarks to avoid typos.
• Don’t rely on history instead of bookmarks, in case mistyped links linger there. (History shows where you’ve visited, bookmarks are shortcuts to links you visit frequently.)
• Don’t try to click through a mistyped site to get to the real page, even if you are offered a link to do so. Quit your browser and start again.

In February I’ll give you the inside secrets on How To Ditch Your Computer For An iPad. And if you’re not receiving Tech Tips by email, you’re missing out on bonus tips, tricks, and product reviews. Subscribe free to Tech Tips, and don’t forget to follow me on Twitter @trionaguidry for breaking computer news and other geeky stuff.

Is it possible to have a truly offline computer? As I described in my recent column in the Northwest Herald, the short answer is no. Even if you don’t need the Internet, your computer does. You can still be infected by viruses even if you’re not online. In fact, your computer will turn into a silent hotbed of virus activity just waiting for the opportunity to infect others. The older the computer, the worse the problem.

The article isn’t available online, so I’ll give you the gist of it:

Pretend you have a Windows 2000 computer that never goes on the Internet. Using it is like traveling through time, ten years into the past. There are plenty of old friends installed: Microsoft Office 2000, Acrobat 5, Internet Explorer 6, programs that were standards at the time but have long since been replaced with newer versions.

You might think you could continue to use this computer in isolation, maybe for basic word processing. It doesn’t matter as long as it doesn’t connect to anything, right?

But, let’s pretend your printer dies. No point in word processing if you can’t print. The new printer says that it’s not really Windows 2000 compatible, but you might be able to find some software on the Internet. You try to log on but poor Internet Explorer 6 can’t handle a modern web site. And, behind the scenes, a virus just snuck through holes in IE6 to infect your computer.

Unaware of the virus, you decide to use your Windows 7 laptop to download the printer software to a USB flash drive. Another virus hitches a ride from the laptop to the desktop, a virus that can’t run under Windows 7 but is more than happy to infect Windows 2000. The Windows 2000 computer is now a hotbed of virus activity, and the only symptom is that it’s increasingly slower.

Other viruses join the party, and pretty soon that Windows 2000 computer is spewing all sorts of junk that infects your Windows 7 laptop, your smartphone, your iPad… then your email and Facebook accounts get hijacked and suddenly your bank is calling about missing funds.

I’ve received a few responses from folks with older computers, disagreeing with my opinion. Most of the responses included the observation: “I’ve been running this version of Windows for umpteen years and I’ve never had a virus.” If I may add… that you know of.

In fairness to these folks, yes, I do know people who use Windows 98 or Windows 2000 without the world grinding to an earth-shattering halt. Most of them are retirees or others who don’t use their computers often. In such cases we try to keep the computer functional for as long as we can. But there are others who – in my opinion – are doing absolutely lunatic things with ancient computers. Like trying to run a business with them: payroll, marketing, the works. And that gives me the screaming heebie-jeebies because there are SO many ways it can go disastrously wrong for both you and your business.

Most viruses and malware show absolutely no signs of their presence. It doesn’t matter if a Win98 or Win2000 computer has antivirus installed or not, because any antivirus capable of running under those versions of Windows is incapable of detecting new threats. It’s like taking a police officer from 1912, dropping him into 2012, and expecting him to cope with modern problems for which he has no frame of reference.

Friends, I’m saying these things to help, not to hinder. I think one reason many people are reluctant to change is because it truly is difficult to get used to a computer with a different interface. Like when we moved from DOS to Windows 95, or Windows XP to Windows Vista and 7. A new interface puts us on edge, even old salts like me. It’s annoying to spend half your morning trying to figure out how you used to do something, but that’s technology, and the only thing you can do is adapt.

You may find it easier if you keep in mind that computers haven’t really changed all that much since the 1980s. Saving a file, typing a document, finding a contact’s address, these things are still the same. It’s the look-and-feel of the computer that has changed, plus the ability to access more information faster. Even the Internet is pretty close to what it was when I started using it twenty years ago. Today I’m using RSS feeds and Facebook chat instead of Usenet news and UNIX talk, but the fundamentals remain.

What do you think? Is there life to be had in old computers, or are the security risks too great?

For 2011, let’s avoid the obvious computer gift choices and look at some that are purely for fun.

Etch-A-Sketch iPad Case
And yes, there’s an app for that.

HTML for Babies
Now your infant can learn web design before he or she can walk.

Tron Legacy / Tron Classic on Blu Ray
Admit it, you’d rather have a real-life lightcycle. Who wouldn’t?

Computer Engineer Barbie
It’s about time, although it’d be really hard to walk across a data center in those heels.

Chocolate Han Solo In Carbonite
A delicious bounty of chocolate goodness.

I wish all of my readers a safe and happy holiday season! In January we’ll talk about how Mistyped Web Sites Lead To Malware. Subscribe free to Tech Tips for bonus tips, tricks and product reviews, and don’t forget to follow me on Twitter @trionaguidry for breaking computer news and other geeky stuff.

There’s a big debacle going on in the tech world. It seems that CNet aka download.com, purveyors of downloadable software, took a very popular geek tool called Nmap and wrapped their version of the free installer with the installer for some junky browser toolbar. Two of my favorite tech sites, The Register and Sophos Naked Security, have good descriptions of the situation.

The author of Nmap is a well-known Net.denizen named Fyodor, who is justifiably steamed. His response:

“The problem is that users often just click through installer screens, trusting that download.com gave them the real installer and knowing that the Nmap project wouldn’t put malicious code in our installer. Then the next time the user opens their browser, they find that their computer is hosed with crappy toolbars, Bing searches, Microsoft as their home page, and whatever other shenanigans the software performs! The worst thing is that users will think we (Nmap Project) did this to them!”

He has an excellent point. I can tell you that any customer I’ve ever worked with would be irate indeed to have their computer messed up by a stupid junky toolbar they never wanted. But what should you, as a consumer, do about good software that comes bundled with junk?

Go to the original download source
Don’t rely on aggregate sites like CNet for your software. Instead, go directly to the web site of the program’s developers. You’ll often find a more recent version there, as well as better support options. This also eliminates the problem of poisoned search engine results when searching for programs (links that look legit but lead to virus-laden sites).

Look at the window before you click
In the Nmap case, the installer for the Babylon browser bar makes it look like you have to install it before you can install Nmap. When installing software, look very carefully for obscure checkboxes and buttons. Most of these installers stealthily install their junk by either making the opt-out checkbox hard to find, or by making the junk look like a necessary part of the install.

In the Nmap case, if you click Accept you’re only accepting the junk because this is the wrapper; you haven’t even gotten to the real installer yet. As Fyodor said, most people will click this then wonder why their Web browser isn’t working. Then they’ll have to find somebody who knows how to remove this kind of junk, because you have to remove ALL of it or it will continue to mess up your computer.

Make your voice heard
If you spot software that is bundled with junk, let the manufacturer know how disgusted you are. Keep your friends and colleagues informed by sending them a link to this article and letting them know about the menace of stealthy junk software.

You should not ever have to install a piece of junk to install the program you want – and if the program you want won’t let you do it any other way, find a different program. Shame on you, CNet. And kudos to developers like Fyodor who actually care about the end users.

(Photo of awesome Tron “I Fight For The Users” shirt from ThinkGeek. And no, I’m not getting any affiliate rewards for telling you that. I just like both the shirt and the store.)

When we talk about “the cloud,” we simply mean the Internet. It’s a new name for something we’ve been doing for a long time: using the Internet to store and exchange data. Cloud computing, however, takes this concept to a new level. Pair that with the prevalence of Internet threats and you really have to start taking a look at where your data is going.

Increased use of mobile devices only makes matters worse. Vendors are embracing the cloud as a simple way to synchronize between devices of differing manufacturers and models. What is easier for them is not necessarily better for you. I’ll use Apple’s iCloud as an example, although the problem is industry-wide.

Until now, the way to sync a mobile device to a computer was to connect the two with a cord – in the old days it was a serial cable, now it’s traditionally USB. Connect the cable, run your software, and you’re synced. But there are drawbacks to this method, especially when you have to sync more than one device, and it’s not always an intuitive process.

Enter iCloud, which promises to let you sync all your iDevices with ease. Apple’s web site proudly states, in classic Steve Jobs style:

“iCloud stores your music, photos, documents, and more and wirelessly pushes them to all your devices. Automatic, effortless, and seamless — it just works.”

Yes, but what does that mean, exactly?

Where once your data went through a simple cable from your mobile device to your computer, now it traverses miles of network and resides in one or more data centers. Syncing one contact between two devices sitting less than an inch from each other now involves millions of dollars in IT infrastructure. Creepy, when you think about it, and not very environmentally friendly either.

Consumers seem willing to make the trade-off, if mobile and cloud revenues are any indication. To be honest, I don’t think most people think about it. This complacency can easily lead to increased security risks. Imagine the stuff on your phone: contacts, calendars, all sorts of information you’d never trust to a complete stranger. But that’s exactly what you’re doing when you using cloud services to sync. New services like iCloud let you sync even more information. Pretty soon everything you do on an electronic device will be on the Internet.

Or has that already happened? I described my recent experience evaluating iPad RSS apps and my realization that the only decent products, not to mention all the award-winners, required the use of Google Reader. This means that you have to put all your feeds – the blogs and web sites you subscribe to – on the Internet. Never mind the free speech issues and Big Brother implications that the government could watch and/or censor what you’re reading, what if I don’t want to put my feeds in the cloud? They only need to reside in two places: my computer and my iPad.

But the apps with the features I wanted required Reader, so I held my nose and accepted the inevitable. That is becoming the only option if you want the functionality these products promise. A few – a very few – vendors include options that allow you the same functionality without using the cloud, but the process often feels like a kludge. They don’t want you to do it that way. They want you where it’s easy (and cheap) for them to deal with you and your data.

I’m in IT, so I’ve got computer security on the brain. The average person doesn’t and that concerns me. For most people technology is a black box that they hope, as Jobs said, “just works.” The cloud makes that easier, but at what cost? I think it’s important that we think about the implications of technology before diving headlong into its use.

In today’s Northwest Herald I talk about how mobile security is a growing threat to businesses and consumers alike. Here are additional resources that can help.

First, the basics: recommendations on security software. These are all reliable vendors in the security arena and have mobile products available for a variety of platforms.

• Kapersky Mobile Security
  http://usa.kaspersky.com/products-services/home-computer-security/mobile-security
• ESET Mobile Security
  http://www.eset.com/us/products/mobileantivirus.php/
• Webroot Mobile Security For Consumers
  http://www.webroot.com/En_US/consumer-products-mobile-security.html
• Intego VirusBarrier iOS (Apple iOS only)
  http://www.intego.com/virusbarrierios/
• Trend Micro Mobile Security (Android only)
  http://us.trendmicro.com/us/products/personal/mobile-security-for-android/

Next, I wanted to expand on what I said about using mobile technology to keep up with the latest threats. One of the best ways to do this is to subscribe to technology-related RSS feeds. I’ve talked about RSS before. It’s like getting regular headlines automatically updated to your computer or mobile device. There are a wide variety of RSS apps, but you’ll find most of them will require you to use either Google Reader or their own cloud-based technology to sync your feeds. And speaking of feeds, here are some to try.

• Triona’s Tech Tips RSS Feed
  • You can also subscribe via email by clicking here or sending a message to techtips-request@guidryconsulting.com, subject subscribe.
• Security Feeds For Microsoft, Apple, Adobe, and US-CERT. Note that these might change as this post ages.
  • http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/security/rss/bulletin
  • http://rss.lists.apple.com/security-announce.rss
  • http://blogs.adobe.com/psirt/feed/atom
  • http://www.us-cert.gov/channels/alerts.rdf
• Sophos Naked Security
  • http://feeds.feedburner.com/NakedSecurity

One last piece of advice. Go into the settings of your mobile device and turn off any sharing that you’re not using. Periodically monitor your privacy settings on mobile devices and online sites, because they won’t necessarily stay the way you set them (thanks a lot, Facebook).

I never thought I’d be nostalgic for the days when installing software meant stuffing disk after disk into a floppy drive. Today’s fast Internet installs make the old days look positively antiquated. I’m delighted with the convenience of being able to install a new game utility at a moment’s notice. And one thing I find that I miss about the old days is the ability to try software before I buy it.

Case in point: I recently evaluated RSS readers for iPad. Leaving aside my annoyance that almost all of them require Google Reader (what if I don’t want to put my feeds in the cloud?), it wasn’t possible to test the apps without buying them. I ended up buying a couple of apps that couldn’t do what I wanted, which is great for the developers (and Apple) but not so good for a budget-conscious citizen.

I don’t expect something for nothing. Developers put valuable time and skill into creating these programs and they should be compensated. But I don’t want to buy software I can’t use, either. Even if its only $0.99 (and most of these apps were in the $5-10 range), the cost adds up. Some developers offer “lite” versions which is great. I’d like to see more of that.

While I’m on the subject, developers need to create decent Web sites that describes their apps’ features in full detail. Check out the site for Reeder, which is an excellent RSS app, not that you’d know it from the site. There’s a whole lot of design without much substance. For pity’s sake, could we have a feature list, a support page, maybe even some frequently asked questions? There’s some information here, but not enough and it’s hard to find. You need to tell people at a glance what they’re getting for their $0.99 or $5 or $10, or whatever.

In other words, today’s developers could stand to grab some nostalgia from the old days, when software came in a box that told you everything you needed to know.