Use Strong Passwords, Please

Posted by Brian Haines on Jan 28, 2011 in Computers | 1 comment

Email password breaking is on the rise as a way to send out spam. This is especially true with Hotmail and Yahoo email accounts, but can, and likely will, happen more broadly. It is true, and has been known, that spammers can fake the “From” address of a message and that this can cause spam to just look like it came from your address, but the more recent trend has been for hackers to break into your Webmail account and send the spam right from your email.

This trend is especially useful because they often don’t get caught in spam traps since the message authenticates

HP Notebook Advisory

Posted by Brian Haines on Dec 21, 2010 in Computers | 0 comments

HP Advisory

Play PowerPoint on a DVD Player

Posted by Brian Haines on Nov 15, 2010 in Computers | 0 comments

Save As Other Formats

My lovely wife, December, requested this of me just hours before she needed it. She didn’t get the disc in time for her event, but most of the answers I found doing a search required downloading unnecessary software so I decided to try and save someone else time by detailing what worked for me.

I actually tried one of the shareware programs in the hopes it might make the process easier and faster, but it did not. If you have PowerPoint in your Microsoft Office version and Windows Live Movie Maker (or Nero Vision or iMovie on a Mac) then you have everything you need.

Note: I don’t know how well this will work with presentations that have animation effects. If your PowerPoint file is a series of still frames then this will work perfectly. Your mileage may vary.

Blackberry. Not my favorite devices.

Posted by Brian Haines on Sep 11, 2010 in Mobile Devices | 3 comments

Blackberry devices have never been my favorite, but a recent experience gives me reason to put them on my not recommend list. For Internet Email they are mostly straight forward, but users have to frequently delete their messages (text and emails) or the devices will encounter problems.

For the corporate client looking to use enterprise server to keep the device synced with the same email, calendar and address book as their desktop? nope. These devices are so complex, and the way they work relies on so many intricate pieces with so many points of failure they prove beyond the ability of even RIM experts to properly troubleshoot.

I can connect an iPhone, Windows Mobile, Palm or Android device to such a server within minutes. It took 3 different visits, calls to three different company tech help desks, including RIM’s own technicians at three levels and a total of 12 hours to realize the device had a defect.

The verdict is that these devices are more trouble than they are worth.

maxmyspeed.com might be a scam

Posted by Brian Haines on Aug 23, 2010 in Computers | 9 comments

TV Commercials for a product that promises to boost your computer performance had me curious. I wanted to know, first if the product had been reviewed by any credible computer news magazines, or Websites, and second if it would boost the performance if an old laptop I have in my office for testing. What I found caused me never to test my laptop.

On the Maxmyspeed.com home page I noticed acclaims from Tucows, CNET, and PCWORLD and so I immediate thought my first desire had been satisfied. PCWORLD did review CyberDefender favorably in December 2009, but the CNET and Tucows were user reviews and anyone, even someone from Maxmyspeed.com can post a user review.