joe's blog . .

It's been a while . . .

Sun, 08 Jan 2012 19:12:22 +0000

Haven’t posted for a while, been so busy with work I haven’t had a chance, plus I’m in process of building my new site with integrated blog. You’ll soon be inundated with updates and useful info, as well as some pointless stuff :)

Secure your Twitter #twitcleaner @twitcleaner

Sat, 12 Nov 2011 21:33:52 +0000

This is a lazy post, I admit it.

I’ve been away from my blog for a while working on a number of projects as well as balancing a lot of general work (which is always a good thing and you’ll never hear my complain about workload!), so as a quick post, I thought I’d mention TwitCleaner again, the useful tool that cleans your stream of spam tweeters and annoying “people” who just post fake links to malicous sites.

So, in short - use TwitCleaner! It really is worth it.

http://thetwitcleaner.com/

Mobile Security - Are You Protected??

Thu, 20 Oct 2011 22:24:00 +0100

Welcome along to another month’s computer tips, this month I’ll be writing about mobile phone and smartphone security, something, which a lot of people take for granted.

I’ve read a number of articles and reports recently talking about just this topic, and how users are taking risks without knowing it. For example, how many of you protect your handset with a security code?? I know I certainly do, and this is a feature available on many new handsets and is the first line of defence should you lose your mobile, or have it stolen.

As well as securing the device with a passcode, many newer handsets are vulnerable to such threats as malware and rogue applications.

The main purpose of current malware is to send premium-rate SMS messages and to obtain and sell your information. Luckily iOS requires user confirmation before sending premium-rate SMS messages so therefore prevents that issue; however the other smartphones are still vulnerable to this.

The best application I’ve found for both iOS and Android is “Lookout” it has several useful features which secure the phone and monitor it for any permission changes and anything that is out of the ordinary. As well as this it has a handy little backup feature to copy your contacts to their servers in “the cloud” – this can easily be turned off though if you don’t want the backup to run. Perhaps however, the most appealing feature is that once you’ve activated your Lookout account on their website, you then have the ability to report the handset as “Stolen” in which case you can locate the phone by using it’s GPS tracker, and not only this but the phone will let out a loud alarm sound whether the sound is off or not – meaning you can easily find it if it’s lost, or if it’s stolen the thief will get quite a shock!!

If you’re interested in using Lookout, please check out: https://www.mylookout.com/

Here’s a list of known Malware, taken from “A Survey of Mobile Malware in the Wild”:

Android:- Fake Player, Geinimi, ADRD a.k.a. HongTouTou, PJApps, DroidDream a.k.a. Rootcager, Bgserv, Zhash a.k.a. Zeahache, Walk&Text a.k.a. Walkinwat, Adsms, Zsone a.k.a. Smstibook, Smspacem, Lightdd a.k.a. Droid Dream Light, DroidKungFu a.k.a. Legacy a.k.a. Gonfu, Basebridge, YZHC- SMS a.k.a. Uxipp, Plankton a.k.a. Tonclank, jSMSHider, and Ggtracker.

iOS:- Dutch 5Euro Ransom, Ikee a.k.a. Eeki.A, Privacy.A, and Ikee.B a.k.a. Duh.

Symbian:- Kinap a.k.a. Panika a.k.a. Appdisabler, Flocker, Exy a.k.a. Yxe, Feixiang, BadAssist, Album, CommDN, MerogoSMS a.k.a. Merogo, Enoriv a.k.a. SMSSend.2, Down- sis, Nokmaplug a.k.a. NMPlugin a.k.a. Nmapplug, CReadMe, ZeusMitmo a.k.a. Zitmo a.k.a. Zbot, Sagasi a.k.a. SPIsSaga, Themeinstaller, GamePackage, Zhaomiao a.k.a. SZhaomiao, InSpirit, Instalarm a.k.a. Installer.A, Shurufa, Lopsoy, Spitmo, Sslcrypt, and SkinServer.

Bogus calls from "Microsoft"

Mon, 26 Sep 2011 13:25:00 +0100

Recently I’ve spoken to a number of clients and indeed friends and family members who have had a phone call from companies posing either directly as Microsoft or as partners or affiliates.

First things first, this is not a new scam; it has been around for a long time. The give away about the whole scam is to know that Microsoft will not in any case call you and offer you support out of the blue. The only time you will receive a support call from a Microsoft representative is if you have sought help from them directly and they are responding to you, in which case they will have a reference number, or “Case-ID” as they are known, that they can quote back to you to confirm that you are indeed talking to a genuine Microsoft employee. Another thing to remember is that if it is a Microsoft employee, they will have the case details and indeed your name that you logged the call with so will speak to you by name.

If you have already received a call like this, then please read on for some advice on what to do next. If you’ve already given your credit card or debit card details then the first task would be to contact your bank and inform them you think you may be a victim of fraud. You will then need to explain the situation and what has happened.

You also might consider contacting your phone service provider such as BT and inform them of this, and if you noted the number that called you, give that to your phone supplier, as they may be able to prevent such calls in the future.

Hopefully that’s given you a quick education on these scam calls – it’s important to understand that this type of fraud may not just be limited to Microsoft, people may call saying they’re from other companies as well, therefore you must be careful to keep your personal information safe.

Social Network Safety

Mon, 12 Sep 2011 18:44:39 +0100

Here’s a basic guide to staying safe on Facebook and Twitter.

If you have a Facebook account, or Twitter account, you may have noticed some random posts appearing from time to time on your friends timelines with links to shocking videos or images, or a common one is “OMG – I can’t believe you can actually view who’s looking at your profile”. For starters, let’s clear that up – Facebook does not have a feature that can track who views your profile, and will not authorize an application to do so – so you can ignore that straightaway, and anyway often the links will have spelling mistakes and grammatical errors that give them away. With regards to Twitter, you may notice spam messages or posts with little information other than a shortened hyperlink (A garbled link designed to make you click on it through curiosity).

My first recommendation for securing your profiles is to use a free tool called “Profile Protector” – it’s from a security firm called Barracuda, you can find it here: http://profileprotector.com/ - to install you need to trust Barracuda to connect with your Facebook or Twitter account, and grant the app access to your profile etc, (now this is the sort of things that rogue apps want to do, but as I mentioned, Barracuda is a well-known security vendor so you shouldn’t worry too much about that). Once complete it will provide you with a little report warning you of any issues – if there is any.

My second free utility is called “TheTwitCleaner” http://thetwitcleaner.com/ - it’s a similar tool to the one above, but specific to Twitter, it analyzes your comment stream and gives you a full report on whether you’re following “Bots” (Fake accounts used to automatically post links or spam links) – then you can clean your list up by blocking or removing them from your accounts.

Hmm, toolbar anyone??

Thu, 25 Aug 2011 16:36:20 +0100

Hmm, toolbar anyone??

I pimped my coaster!!

Tue, 23 Aug 2011 15:14:17 +0100

I pimped my coaster!!

Charity Bike Ride

Fri, 19 Aug 2011 13:31:29 +0100

I’m taking part in a 100mile charity bike ride on September 11th 2011.

If anyone is feeling generous, head on over to: http://www.justgiving.com/joehenstridge/ to sponsor me.

I’m doing it in aid of the Alzheimers Society.

Thanks!!

In aid of Alzheimers . . .

Fri, 19 Aug 2011 13:30:07 +0100

In aid of Alzheimers . . .

How to Copy and Paste

Mon, 15 Aug 2011 14:27:13 +0100

A nice easy set of instructions, an obvious one but uselful nonetheless …

1. Select the item

To select text you should place the cursor at one end of the text. Then hold down the shift key, and click on the other end of the text. Everything between will be selected ready for copying. The text will be highlighted once selected.

Alternatively, like above, place the cursor at the beginning of the text, click the left mouse button in, and hold it in while dragging the cursor over the text you wish to copy, release the mouse button when you have the text selected.

2. Copy into the Windows clipboard

To copy to the clipboard you should Press Ctrl-C (that means hold down the Control key and press C) It’s easy to remember, as C is short for Copy.

Alternatively, move the cursor over some of the highlighted text, and “right-click” – a menu will appear, left click on the “copy” option.

3. Position the cursor where you want to place the copied item

To do this, just click where you want the text or object to appear – this may mean opening a new program, such as “Wordpad”.

If you want to replace some text with the new text then you can select the unwanted text by following the same approach as 1. above. Step 4 will paste over the unwanted text.

4. Paste the item out of the Windows clipboard

To paste what’s in the clipboard you should Press Ctrl-V (that means hold down the Control key and press V.) It’s not so easy to remember, unless you think of V as the cross section of a pasting brush. You can Paste an item of text or an object any number of times if needed.

Alternatively, when in Wordpad, you can “right-click” on the page, and from the menu that appears, select “paste”, your text will now appear on the page.

Keyboard Shortcut Hints
Remember the Control shortcuts:
Copy - Ctrl-C
Paste - Ctrl-V
Cut - Ctrl-X

Speaker!

Fri, 12 Aug 2011 10:47:35 +0100

Been asked to do a piece on Technology at a Sci-Tech meeting group later in the year! Hmm, what to talk about????? Idea’s on a postcard!

Love this error - makes perfect sense … …

Wed, 10 Aug 2011 22:45:55 +0100

Love this error - makes perfect sense … …

Keep your system up-to-date

Wed, 10 Aug 2011 16:01:00 +0100

I’ll be updating this again over the next couple of days with guides for Linux and Mac, but here’s a nice easy explanation for Windows Updates.

Whether you’ve got a desktop, laptop or netbook – this guide will apply for all.

Windows Update - To keep things running smooth on your computer it’s important to try and keep your software up to date. Now first of all, before undertaking any updates on your system you should perform a backup of your computer, so that should the unthinkable happen and something go wrong you have all your data saved. (For more information on backups, check out my blog for an earlier article)

Once you have your backup we can begin updating your system, now depending on what operating system you’re running it can differ slightly. For example, users running Windows XP (Or earlier) will need to open up Internet Explorer, go to the “Tools” menu, and select “Windows Update” – if however, you don’t see “Tools” anywhere, don’t worry, it’s under the “Safety” menu as well. Now even if you don’t have either of those in view, you can of course go direct to the website by typing in this address into your address bar: windowsupdate.microsoft.com – this will take you straight to the site. Now for all you people running Vista or 7, it’s a lot easier, go to your program list, by clicking on the start icon, then select “Programs” and find “Windows Update” in the list.

Once the site/program has loaded on your screen, you’ll be confronted with some options, in XP it’s easiest to choose the “Express” method of updating as this automatically selects the important updates and security updates that your system is missing, in Vista and 7 it’s slightly different, you’re directly given the choice of installing just the recommended updates, or whether you’d like to add some optional updates – to play it safe you can simply apply the important ones.

Typically important updates will require a restart of your machine, but don’t worry – once the updates have installed the system will let you know with a handy reminder, so when it’s convenient – simply restart your machine and enjoy!

Follow me on Twitter!! @jhitsolutions

Protect your Facebook and Twitter Profiles

Sun, 24 Jul 2011 22:08:39 +0100

This is a short but very sweet post, after seeing a number of spam posts on friends accounts on Facebook I decided to force my friends and family to install http://profileprotector.com - Barracuda’s Profile Protector - an excellent piece of security software which scans your profile for any dangerous links and and removes them, it also keeps you safe in future by not allowing any unauthorised or dodgy looking links from being posted.

As I said, short and sweet - stay safe online! http://profileprotector.com

Awesome Software

Wed, 20 Jul 2011 10:49:56 +0100

Found this emulator software which is awesome for testing sites on iPhone and iPad displays, http://code.google.com/p/ibbdemo2/

Enjoy!!!

Google+

Sun, 10 Jul 2011 18:16:36 +0100

Big thanks to @alexwoollam for the invite, enjoying it already, I have invites to share … .

What to look for when buying a new PC

Wed, 06 Jul 2011 09:39:12 +0100

If you’ve been watching any TV lately you will have no doubt noticed the huge increase in advertisements by PC and laptop manufacturers, not to mention the new series of ads from Microsoft for their newest operating system, Windows 7 – and you can’t go an ad break without the odd Apple advert here and there.

I’ll be giving you a rough guide on what each of the following categories for new computers are best suited for, Netbooks, Laptops, Desktops and a little bit on Tablets. That way you can then decide what is the right choice for you.

Netbooks:- A few years ago, this category didn’t exist, and now – Netbooks are one of the top selling computing items. Primarily because of the fact they give you a cheap way to get access to Internet and email but also because they come with such great battery life – some models boast a 9 hour battery life! Now Netbooks aren’t just restricted to Internet and email; you can of course do word processing, listen to music and upload to an MP3 player, and perform basic photo editing tasks, many of them are quite capable of watching a movie (Not necessarily DVD’s though as many don’t have a DVD drive built in, to save space!). Just don’t expect it to be blisteringly quick while it’s doing those things – Netbooks tend to be good for performing one or two tasks at a time, more than this and it’ll begin to struggle. One bit of advice I will mention to anyone buying a Netbook is to choose your anti-virus product wisely, many products tend to use too much of the systems resources just to run as normal - I have found that Avast! works well as it has a lower footprint than many of the other products. If you’d like to use Avast! - let me know!

Best uses: Web browsing, email

Laptops:- The older brother of the Netbook, if you’re wanting to do more, and don’t want to wait for it, then a laptop is probably for you. As well as everything mentioned in the Netbook category, laptops can easily handle multiple programs running at the same time, and you can expect to be able play some gaming titles as well. It’s important to look at the specs when looking for a new laptop; the main three are processor, memory and storage. As a baseline I would look for the following specs at the very least; 2GB of RAM, Dual Core processor, 250GB of storage. Another important factor is screen size - you need to weigh up whether you’ll be using the machine literally as a “laptop” as in lounging around with it on your lap, or whether you’ll be using it as a desk. You may find that anything larger than 15.6” will be a bit to big to be using on your lap day in day out. There is of course smaller screen sizes, 13.3” is a popular size for the business sector as it is portable enough to carry in a bag and yet still packs the power to perform well in day to day tasks. A general rule when thinking about size is that, the smaller the screen size the higher the price. (I know what you’re thinking, Netbooks are smaller but a lot cheaper!) That may be so, but the spec’s I’m referring to here are laptop spec’s.

Best uses: Word processing, moderate web browsing, email, music management, basic photo editing, some gaming and watching movies.

Desktops:- If you don’t like the idea of a laptop, or you just want to use your computer for more specific tasks, such as gaming, intense photo or video editing then a desktop is likely to be the choice for you. You can buy laptops that suit these needs, but you’ll be looking at £1500 + for such laptops, whereas desktops can give you the same, if not better performance for well under half that. For example, a recent UK built system reviewed in a popular PC magazine had a specification of; Intel Core i5 3.3GHz Processor, 4GB RAM and 1TB of storage, coupled with a 22 inch flat screen – all of this for just £650. There are many many desktop PC’s out there and they all have big spec lists, you should have in mind a clear idea of what you’ll be wanting to do with your system before you start looking, as then you can eliminate ones that don’t match up to your needs. If you’re wanting to play games or edit movies and photo’s then a decent graphics card should also be on your list - one with at least 1GB of memory will be able to handle most tasks.

Best uses: Intense photo editing, video editing, gaming, heavy Internet use, heavy email usage, watching movies, heavy desktop publishing.

Tablets:- The newest category here, Tablets burst into the mainstream with the iPad, Apple’s easy to use handheld. There have been a lot of new Tablets since then, but it’s Apples that’s still number one. The key things to look for when buying a tablet is the operating system, there are a few, there’s Apple’s iOS which is only on the iPad and iPad 2. There’s Blackberry’s TabletOS - which as you’ve guessed is just on their Tablet the Playbook. There’s Android which is from Google, and is the widest used across all the other Tablets. The point here is that many apps at the moment only work on certain operating systems, they are beginning to spread across all of them but it takes time, so be sure to check the apps you want, that they’ll run on the Tablet you want. Other key points to look out for is the storage, many have small on-board storage but allow you to add additional storage by means of a memory card. The iPad however, has it’s storage built in so is fixed at a certain size. As well as storage, you might want to decide if you want a “Wifi only” version, or one that’s capable of connecting to the mobile networks, a “3G” Version. I should mention that 3G Versions will come with a monthly contract, just like a mobile phone.

Best uses: Internet and email on the move, media streaming.

If you want further help or advice for buying a new machine, why not get in touch.

Burning a CD/DVD

Wed, 08 Jun 2011 12:34:40 +0100

This process can differ depending on the operating system you’re using, I’ll be explaining how to do it on Windows XP, Windows Vista or Windows 7 – Mac users try here: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1328

There are many bits of software available that help you do this, but I’ll be explaining how to do it using the built in software within Windows.

An important note is that if you’re using Windows XP – you can only burn CD’s – to burn DVD’s you’ll need some extra software – http://cdburnerxp.se/

Ok, so first off you need to make sure your computer or laptop has a CD or DVD drive that can burn disks. The easy way to do this is to look at the disk drive, it should have a label printed on it saying “CD/RW or DVD+/-RW” or some combination of both. If nothing is printed on it, you can still check through your computers interface – simply open up “My Computer” or “Computer” for those using Windows 7. In here you should have you disk drives listed, and you’ll be able to see the name of the drive listed here.

Our next task is to locate the files we’d like to burn, so wherever they may be on the computer, locate them, and once you know which one/s it is, simply right click on the file and choose “send to” then choose “CD/DVD Drive”.

Once you’ve done this, you’ll notice a balloon will pop up in the bottom right hand corner telling you that you have files ready to be written to disk. You can click on the balloon to view the files, or continue selecting more files. Once you’ve chosen all your files – you can then click on the balloon – or if it’s disappeared – open My Computer and double click the CD/DVD Drive. This will open up your window with the files listed, and on the left hand side will be an option to “Write these files to disk” – Clicking on this will bring up a wizard screen, at this point you can name your disk, then choose to burn the disk.

It will prompt for a disk, and open the CD tray for you to insert your disk, once inserted, you can continue and burn your disk – then depending on how much data, it should be ready within a few minutes!

Password Do's and Don'ts

Fri, 03 Jun 2011 11:34:27 +0100

For many of you, these are obvious and standard practise, but, for a lot more people - these tips aren’t.

Please read over these simple tips for creating a password:

Do:

Choose a password that is at least 8 characters long
Include both upper and lowercase letters
Include numbers and symbols, such as 5, 3, !, & etc

Don’t

Use personal information, such as names, address, phone numbers etc
Use dictionary words, slang or common phrases
Use more than four consecutive characters of one type, such as 1234, abcd
Use the same password for sites that hold sensitive information such as banking sites or shopping sites

It can be tough to have different passwords for all your sites or accounts - but it’s worth it to keep all your data safe!

Mac Users Beware!!

Thu, 19 May 2011 21:58:41 +0100

It’s been coming!! - Mac users please be careful, read this before installing any anti-virus:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-13453497

I personally use iAntivirus: http://www.iantivirus.com/ there is also Sophos: http://www.sophos.com/en-us/products/free-tools/sophos-antivirus-for-mac-home-edition.aspx