TeamCushman

Google. The #1 website on the planet. The best search engine wants to be more. Google throws a lot of money into R&D. Somethings are successful some are not. here are a few that I like:

Google Email. Known as Gmail. At first you had to be “invited”, but now it’s opened to the public. Interesting how they keep it in “beta” status. I don’t know why other the fact that its constantly being updated. Google claims that its an experiment in email. The newest version has some great features. Don’t expect this to be like outlook, it’s not. One of the best features is that Gmail automatically lumps all email chains into a “conversation.” That way, you won’t have 2 or more emails from replies sitting in your email inbox. Every account starts with 6 GB of storage, so no need to ever delete anything. Of course, if you need more, $20 gets you up to 10 GB. I have yahoo email as well, the spam feature in Gmail has never let me down. Not one piece of spam has gotten through, as opposed to Yahoo, it’s practically all I get.

I purchased a new computer for my daughter. This time around. No spreadsheet, no excel, no powerpoint. Why? Google Docs and Spreadsheets. Totally compatible with Microsoft. Better yet, the sharing function allows more than one user to share and collaborate (in real time mind you) on documents, spreadsheets and presentations. Travel or work on more than one computer? all you have to do is upload your documents to Google and then sign on to the next computer. In the last few weeks, Google has allowed you to upload and powerpoint and they change it to a flash presentation so you can easily email or embed into a blog. Sweet!

Google - 411. If you haven’t had the chance to try this, you’re missing out. A service to find businesses and connect to them or give you directions, all free! Take a look:

Have an old fashion phone without internet service? now you can text google a search and they will text you back with the answer.

Lastly, there is GrandCentral, which Google purchased a few months ago. While not technically created by Google, still a google operation. GrandCentral used VOIP to connect all of your cell phones numbers together. In our household, we have 3 cell phones. Whenever the customer’s GrandCentral number is called, the chosen phone or phones ring, allowing the customer to answer her chosen phone. The phones can be chosen based on time of day; for example, the home phone can be turned off during business hours, and based on groups (Family, Friends, Work, Web Button, Others) or personalized based on an address book.

Whatever you do, protect your email address at all cost. Many retails, physicians, lawyers now ask for your email address as another way to contact you. But just like your phone number or even your social security number, this is a way for evil doers to spam you or utilize your email address for evil things. Worse case! send you bad jokes endlessly. If you are one that likes to send out jokes, videos to a group of your friends that don’t know each other, take care to hide their email address by blind CCing or creating a distribution list that hides the addresses. Best case, create a new email address for public use such as newsletters, jokes, posting comments, registering for public web sites, etc. PC Magazine claims that 97% of spam comes from posting comments and registering your email address.

Best way to prevent is to spell it out as a graphic. You can do this best by going to Safe Mail.

Of course there are all sorts of different ways to use protection just google it. Probably, the best way to stay safe, is to abstain or just not do it. I just want to raise awareness.

I know this is a long post, but one I feel is the most important that I’ve put up. If you have any teenagers or even pre-teens in the house you know that staying ahead of the tech curve can be like a chess match. I have one teenager, but the younger one is the one that scares me when it comes to the internet. He is very curious when it comes to the internet. While I don’t think he would do anything inadvertently to harm himself, the fact that he even knows how to set up a username and password on sites like Club Penguin sends shivers up and down my spine. This is one of the reasons we all use the same email address. Some families set up separate emails for everyone in the family, I feel that we don’t have anything to hide, so we use the same. This is the way I found that my young hacker signed up for said Club Penguin. It’s not a bad site for kids, but I don’t want it to become training ground for My Space and Bebo (notice I am not linking to these sites!). I’m not being naive, if he can figure out how to set up a username, I’m sure he can figure out how to set up an online email account.

In a recent survey by Pew Internet & American Life Project, shows that on social networking sites, most teenagers are taking steps to protect themselves, which is good news. However, there are a lot of potential risks that parents need to know. Such as: 43% of teens that use social networking sites have been contacted by a stranger. 31% of users have “friends” on their site that they have never met in person. 55% have set up a profile online. Of those, 46% contain some sort of false information about themselves, which can be accessed by anyone online. Think about that for just a second … Get this, 91% of teens use social networking sites as a way to stay in touch with one another … they are not using email! This is how they know what the hot clothes to wear to school, which party to go to, etc … etc … Here are some more disturbing facts in this report:

• Eighty-two percent of teens who have created profiles have included their first names. Seventy-nine percent have included photos of themselves, and 66 percent have included photos of their friends. Sixty-one percent have included the name of their city or town, while 49 percent have included the name of their school.

• Forty percent have included their instant-message screen name. Forty percent have streamed audio to their profile, and 39 percent have linked to their blog.

• Twenty-nine percent have included their e-mail address, and 29 percent have included their last name.

• Twenty-nine percent have included videos, while 2 percent have included their cell phone numbers.

• Six percent of online teens and 11 percent of profiling teens have posted their first and last names on public profiles.

• Three percent of online teens and 5 percent of profiling teens have disclosed their full names, photos of themselves and the town where they live in public profiles.

That’s why, Parents, this is like a chess game. Your job is to stay a few steps ahead, figure out their moves before they think of them. As the title says … the end game is Checkmate! So, here are a few thoughts, suggestions and links to help you. The easiest thing to do is put your computer in a public area. If your kids, have a computer in their room, make sure it’s pointing outward so anyone can see the monitor. Also, make sure that the history files doesn’t erase after the browser is closed. That way, you can track movements by looking at the history file.

Start using Firefox. Why? well for one thing, it is the safest way to browse. Secondly, with all of the additions, you can customize your browsing experience and add a layer of protection for you and your family. In addition to Firefox, you can use family safe browsers for the kids, specifically those under 12. A few examples are Kidzui or Glubble.

Once you have Firefox set up, here are some extensions you can use for safe browsing:

• ProCon and Greasemonkey are two of my favorite profanity filters. These sites will block any profanity on the site with a “***”. ProCon will even direct the browser to another site of your choice. Very nice!!
• Another add on through Firefox is BlockSite. This add-on allows censorship ability to your browser. If you put a site on the blacklist, it will never come up. As with ProCon, you can also redirect to another site. So, what sites do you block? easy Google “social networking” sites to find out the most popular and add them to the list. That way, even if your teen or pre-teen doesn’t know about it, add it!! they soon will. Remember, you want to stay a few steps ahead of them!!
• Read. There are a few good parent forums that will help us band together. A few are: Blogsafety, Web Aware and Safekids.
• For instant messaging, I suggest IM Safer. Just make sure you download it on all the computers in the household, not just one.
• If you plan to continue to use IE, that’s fine, but use the Content Advisor in your internet options.

Lastly, and this one sounds so obvious, but its needed to be said and that is … talk to your kids about their online activities. This type of education starts at home, don’t leave it to the playground or classroom. If you pay the internet bill, then you set the ground rules for usage.

Have a band-aid that won’t come loose? try baby oil. If you are me, I kinda like to let it rip, hair and all. However, with the kids, this doesn’t work. trying rubbing baby oil all over the sticky parts. Haven’t tried it yet, but I’m sure we will get the chance this summer. Need some more uses for baby oil? Hey now, this is a family site, none of those are on the list. Unexpected uses of Baby Oil.

How about turning C batteries into D? All it takes is just a few quarters. Usually 3 or 4 can do the trick. This will extend the length of the batteries. Take a look at the photo at right to see how to do this. Just make sure spring is tight and the electricity will flow.

Ever drop your blackberry or other device in water? I gotta a friend that dropped his in the urinal. He’s on his third blackberry in about a year. So this tip is for him. Sometimes, a hairdryer just won’t do. So, what do you do? leave it in a bowl of uncooked rice overnight. Rice will suck out the excess moisture. Make sure there isn’t a lot of humidity in air as well. Have a wet cell phone, here’s how to save it …

Tip of the week …

No, I’m not going to start charging for access to the site, although a good friend thinks I should. Every once in a while, I see a restaurant or merchant who requires a minimum purchase, say $20, $10 or even $5, to use Visa or MasterCard. What I never realized is that this is a direct violation of their merchant agreement. Both Visa and MasterCard require merchants to accept their cards regardless of the size of payment. Some merchants may not have seen this addendum to their agreement. In fact, according to Visa, 55% of usage is now considered “Micropayments” or those under $25.

So, the next time a restaurant or other stores try to force you to use cash rather than your Visa or MasterCard, ask to speak to the manager and remind them about the policy. Yes, they will argue. Mainly because the percentage of the merchant fee is larger for smaller purchases. Just hold your ground and let them know that you will call Visa at 800-VISA-911. They want to know stores that do not follow this rule. Those that won’t could get hit with a penalty, so that merchant fee they are worried about, could get bigger.