Category Archives: Computers and Internet

Computers and Internet

The Lies of the Interwebs

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Okay, so many people have been trapped into all sorts of things on the internet.  It’s best to stay informed on how to be safe on-line. There are preventative measures that you can take, in order to avoid being taken advantage of by internet scammers.

1. Sharing to get access

People often get duped into sharing a link on their Facebook walls. It will often say, “Share this link to watch the video,” or something similar. Once you share the link, you don’t get access, and you have also just posted a link to your wall, which then traps your friends as well. Don’t do it. It’s a trap!

2. Programs that come with free programs. 

Often, when you get free programs off the internet, they will come with additional free programs that try to install themselves when you are installing the program you actually want. You have to watch out for these dialogues while installing the program. Often, there will be a check box that is automatically ticked that you will have to untick in order to prevent the installation of additional software.

3. Copying and Pasting Code

Hackers will often use snippets of code, and order you to copy and paste them into your address bar and then press enter. This takes advantage of JavaScript programming, and can manipulate the web pages you paste it on. For example, hackers can create code that will automatically post stuff to your Facebook, or add comments, send messages, etc. Do not copy and paste code into your address bar in order to get access to content!

4. E-mailed spam links

Hackers will often break into email accounts, either because of an easy to guess password, or easy security questions which hackers easily guess. They then use the account to email all the contacts on that account with a spam link. Often, that is the only link in the email, and nothing else is said about the link. There are certain things that throw red flags. Foreign domain names (for example, .fr instead of a .com address), long codes, etc.

Additionally, be aware of emails which say “You need to recover your account” or etc. For example, it might be an email from PayPal. However, it is not an actual email from PayPal, and clicking the link takes you to a PayPal looking website, designed to entice you to enter your username and password so they can use that information to compromise your account.

5. Password Stealing

Again, only enter your password on the website for which you use it. If a website asks you for a password for another website, make sure you trust that website before giving away your password.

 

These are just a few of the ways you can stay safe online. As always, be careful what you click on.

Computers and Internet, Facebook

Facebook Adds Following Feature – Loses Ability to Choose Content

following
Facebook has recently added the Following button to the top of friends’ profiles

So, you may ask what’s this new following button you’ve seen on people’s profiles recently? Well, the feature has always existed, it just hasn’t been this prominent before. This setting used to exist as “Show in News Feed” in the drop down Friends menu at the top of a person’s profile. You could check or uncheck if you wanted to a see a friend’s posts in the News Feed. However, below this was an option to choose the types of updates you’d want to see from that friend. From this list, you could select whether you wanted to see certain things like status updates, life events, photos and videos, and, my most favourite, other activity. Other activity would get rid of annoying stories like “This person just became friends with that person.” With the new update, it means I can’t control what I see in the ticker. Though I rarely use it these days, I go through and clear it up every once in a while. Now with this new following option, changing the type of updates you see from friends is no longer possible.

Computers and Internet

You’re Not Out Of Ink

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So, it’s that time of year again. The time when college students go back to school. If you’re like me, your printer has probably been sitting in its box since you packed up your dorm room in April. You haven’t used it in a while, and now it’s time to use it again. But alas, you go to print something, and you get a blank page. You think you’re out of ink and will have to go buy a new cartridge. But this probably isn’t the case. In reality, the ink has dried up and plugged the holes, ceasing any ink flow. What you have to do now is to “simply” clean your cartridge so that it works again. But only if it were so simple. And that is why I am writing this…

First you need to open your printer settings. To do this, click on the Start menu and click on Devices and Printers.

Click on "Devices and Printers"
Select Devices and Printers from the Start Menu

Next, find your printer in the list, right-click it, and select Printing Preferences.

Select "Printing Preferences" from the drop down menu.
Select “Printing Preferences” from the drop down menu.

Now, depending on your printer, this part is different. Look for a printer services or maintenance button.

Select the "Printing Services" or "Maintenance" button in this menu.
Select the “Printing Services” or “Maintenance” button in this menu.

Click on Clean Cartridges and follow the instructions from there.

Select "Clean Cartridges" from the list
Select “Clean Cartridges” from the list

This should make your printer cartridges work like new again. Now you don’t have to go out and spend ~$25 – $35 dollars on a new cartridge with money you already don’t have.

Computers and Internet

Google Docs – A Useful Resource for Group Projects

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So, as I was working on a group project for class, I decided to throw our main document up on Google Docs so that everyone could edit it at the same time. I shared this idea with another group and they found this quite useful as well. I will now share how to do this with you all.

Begin by uploading your document to Google Docs (http://docs.google.com). If you’re using a Mac, it seems Google can’t convert .pages documents so you may want to save it in a .doc format first, or copy and paste the text to a new document on Google Docs.

The Upload Button
Click here to upload the photo to Google Docs

After you have uploaded the document, open it and click File > Share. Type in the names of those you want to share it with. You have the option of adding a personal message as well. Then anyone can click the link, be taken to the document, and will be able to view and edit it.

The Share Box
Here, you can type email addresses of the people you wish to share the document with. You can also select whether they can edit the document or just view it.

This allows your group to work on the project together outside of the time you are able to meet together. You will be able to see changes each other have made without having to come together and discuss anything. You can also make comments on the document and chat with others who are online at the same time.

Computers and Internet, Facebook

Recent Activity on Facebook Timeline

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An Update from a previous post:

Some users are reporting that some of their recent activity is no longer showing up, like comments on other friends’ posts or event activity on Facebook’s new Timeline. It appears Facebook has now removed the option to display such stories at all on Timeline. From now on, stories such as commenting activity and event invites will appear in the News Feed and Ticker based on your friends’ subscriptions to you and your subscription to theirs. There seems to be a glitch with Event Activity that has yet to be fixed for users who have hidden it in the past and are now unable to unhide it. 

For example, if you go to a friend’s Timeline, you will not be able to see whose posts they have commented on recently. If you want to find out, you would have to go to Subscribed (at the top) and check “Comments and Likes.” From then on, whenever that friend likes or comments on something, it will appear in the Ticker (above the chat bar on the right side).

It does not look like Facebook will ever restore commenting/event activity to Timeline.

Computers and Internet, Facebook

An Introduction to Facebook’s New List System

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Facebook has once again made a change to the user interface of its website. Now, friend lists can be accessed from the sidebar of the homepage. Before, it was hidden in the depths of drop down menus where everyday users would never find them.

Lists allow users friends to be categorized in order to share and see updates with certain groups of people. For example, one could have a list of their best friends, and another list for people they work with.

Facebook automatically generates some lists based on your and your friends’ profile information. Lists are automatically created for the family you’ve listed, the places you’ve worked, the schools you’ve gone to, and posts from the city your currently in. It also creates a “close friends” list and an “acquaintances” list to help users get started who are new to Facebook’s friend lists.

With this change, Facebook has brought a number of new options for groups.  To find these options, open the list by selecting it from the left sidebar on the homepage (if it’s not there, click more). In the top right corner of the page is a “Manage List” drop down menu. From here, users can manage the types of updates they want to see while viewing the list, merge the list with another one, or add and remove friends/pages from the list.

Merging is one of the new features available. It allows two lists to be brought into one. For example, Facebook automatically creates a “family” list. It’s convenient enough to merge the old family list a user may have already created with the new one Facebook made. (One thing I don’t like about it is that after merging, the old list is deleted. It would be ideal if a list could be merged into another but not be deleted afterward).

Facebook has also made a difference between being friends and being subscribed. Users can be friends with someone on Facebook, but not be subscribed (which means the user wouldn’t see their updates in his/her news feed). This is good for users who just need to add someone to keep in contact with them, not to know what is going on in their life.  By default, a user is automatically subscribed to “most updates” when they become friends. This can be changed by opening their profile and clicking on the “Subscribed” button to change options.

Facebook has, as I just mentioned, also added a few more options while viewing friends’ profiles. Users can set what types of updates they want to see from a particular friend  in their news feed right from their profile. For example, a user can choose to see status updates from a friend, but not the photos they post. To do this, click on the “subscribed” button on any user’s profile.

Their is now also an option to add friends to a list right from their profile. Previously it was hid in the background just as much as lists were. Now, it’s convenient to add friends to lists in order to better manage who users are sharing with.

With the introduction of these new options, Facebook has introduced a “restricted” list. This makes it easy to only share publicly visible information with certain friends. Users can find this list by clicking on “more” next to lists in the left hand sidebar of the homepage. This list can be used for people who users just need to keep in contact with, but don’t want to share their personal lives with.

Facebook has also updated lists so that while viewing a list, posting anything via the “publisher” by default will only be shared with that list. This alleviates the challenge of thinking about whose going to see what is posted when whats shared only applies to a certain group of friends.

A lot of these features are already present in Google +. It seems Facebook is updating itself because it saw where it was lacking.

Computers and Internet, Facebook

Facebook Subscribers

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It appears you can now have “subscribers” on Facebook much like followers on Twitter. Click on the “subscriptions” tab on your profile and click “Allow Subscriptions.” Posts with a privacy setting of public will be visible on your profile, and people can choose to subscribe to you (rather than adding you as a friend). You will be notified when a someone subscribes to you. You can always choose to block someone or turn off subscriptions.