Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Social Networking a Waste of Time or Genius Government Surveillance System?

Do you use facebook?  Have you ever really thought about all the information about you that is now out there for everyone to see… It does sound scary but when you think back hasn’t this same information almost always been out there for all to see, just not so neatly packaged.  Not too long ago I needed some information so I used google to search for my friends name.  Not only did I find the girl’s name, I found her house, the address and photo than went all around her house.  I could then enter in my own address and find the exact driving directions to her address.  Now if this is one of those things that makes you go “ahh” is this too much information?  Just step back and think, we have had telephone books for years which contained this very same information.  It would have taken me a little longer because i might have had to use a paper map to figure out those directions and I would not have seen the house until i was driving by it – but all in all it was still there for me to see.

I ran across this video floating around on FB today.  I think you’ll enjoy this and by all means pay attention to who the broadcast company is before you get all up in arms about this video.

Now please do not take this video for anything but what it is, entertainment,  just like facebook is entertainment. 

So what does this tell you?  Remember that everything you post, EVERYTHING is visible to everyone else so do not ever think that you are having a private conversation on Facebook or any other social network.  As a matter of a fact new computers, start with a disclaimer that explains that your email transmissions could been seen by others.  There is a little check box that we all hit to make that message stop appearing after the first time we see it.  Then many users act as if they are shocked that their information can be seen by others.  remember what we used to call this thing just a few years ago it was called the World Wide Web, a web of interconnected computers.  It is still exactly that a web of computers that are all connected to each other.  There are safety precautions that many of us take to keep our information from being seen by others but remember nothing is fool proof. 

I tell my clients that if someone really wants their information, there are many places beyond our control.  Just please be careful and smart about sharing your personal information. 

If we can be of assistance to you please feel free to contact Simply Seniors Computer Tutors 321-431-3866

So what do you think of all of all of this social networking?  Contact us on facebook and tell us all about it! 

Monday, September 26, 2011

October class schedule

Welcome to October!  Ok well I am a couple of days early.  I love this time of year, when the leaves change the kids go back to school the air becomes cooler in a couple weeks and you really start to feel fall (I live in FL so it’s at least mid October before we get to pull out our hoodies and turn down the air conditioners). 

Wpsc  Oct 2011 PHOTO schedule

Simply Seniors Computer Tutors has a great fall line up and NEW Computer classes.  We are even offering ipad and Andriod classes!  That’s right as the prices start to come down seniors are looking for earlier to use equipment and the ipad might be the right tool for you.  Never seen one before?  Want to come see what all the hype is about?  Come to class this Friday 9/30/2011 and we’ll be demonstration a hands on ipad class.  If you already own one bring it and we’ll learn something new together!

Remember these classes are just $10 but for that to remain that way we need a higher class count.  So please do tell your friends and bring them with you.  All Simply Seniors Computer Tutors classes are held at Friday at 10am, the Wickham park Senior center, Melbourne, FL. 

Do you have questions? Need in-home computer services, training or repair?  Just call the ONLY computer business just for Senior Citizens, “Simply Seniors Computer Tutors”  321-431-3866 we are located here in Central Florida and looking to help you with your unique computer needs!

321-431-3866 visit our web site www.ComputerTutorHelp.Us

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Back to School with Computer Tutor!

Join Stacey Kile of Simply Seniors Computer Tutor for Computer Tutor’s great Computer Classes being offered Friday mornings  10:00am at the Wickham Park Senior Center, Melbourne Florida.\

These classes explore a variety of computer topics and they are geared toward the newer computer users.  Past classes have included “How to back-up your PC” “Windows 7 Tips & Tricks” and “Digital Photos and your Computer”

The Aug – Sept 2011 class schedule is posted below.  Please share this with your friends.  If you know someone who could use computer help – don’t be shy – contact “Computer Tutor” we specialize in In-Home Computer Services for seniors and home bound individuals.  Our tutors have 10 years hands on experience teaching seniors age 60+ we have the experience and patient knowledge to lead you down the information super highway! 

Simply Seniors Computer Tutors 321-431-3866 serving Central Florida and Beyond! 

Let’s Be Friends

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Tuesday, May 24, 2011

June 2011 class schedule & letter to clients

This is Stacey, your Computer Tutor form Simply Seniors Computer Tutor writing with the June class schedule. These classes are offered at the Wickham Park Senior Center and each Friday is a different topic. These classes are slightly advanced (if you can read this email you’re advanced J) . During June we will have a “pick the tech’s brain” session where you are welcome to bring your computer questions and have them answered live. We will not be able to work on your computer, but we will be glad to give you the steps to solve your own problems. New on the class schedule is “Computers Inside Outside” we will dissect a computer and explorer the inner workings. You’ll learn correct terminology and go away with a better understanding of how things work (so you won’t be taken advantage of at a Big Box store or by an unethical technician). Also new on the calendar and inspired by televisions new reality series “Extreme Couponing” is “Internet Couponing”, you are going to learn the tips and tricks of the professionals and may walk away from this class and never shop the same way again. Learn how to save big money using coupons and Facebook marketing.

I hope to see you there! We price the classes very low at $10, most include a printed text and we attempt cover a variety of interesting topics to fill almost everyone’s need. If you have a class suggestion, for example, someone has been requesting a class about e-readers, we sure would love to hear from you.

We will be taking a little break during the month of July and not offering classes. These very popular classes will start new and fresh late August 2011. We hope you have a wonderful summer where ever you may end up this season and will be looking forward to working with you again soon!

Additionally, starting June 1st is Simply Seniors Computer Tutors FLORIDIAN CELEBRATION!!! We will be offering our in home services for just $79 hr! This is the time to get those computer files organized; have someone else back up your computer’s data to a safe location; learn that computer task you’ve been putting off; put in that new wireless router – have all of your computer & technical needs taken care of for a great discounted rate!

Thank everyone for your support throughout the years I could not do this without you! I want to thank my many clients who have been so thoughtful and helpful in passing around these class schedules and I appreciate your assistance!

If I can be of further assistance please contact me at 321-431-3866

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Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Learning Facebook

At Simply Seniors Computer Tutor, we are being asked everyday “How do I Facebook?'”  We often give a brief overview and demonstrate how we use our own Facebook account.  Because of your overwhelming response we have decided to create a new facebook class.  This class will be offered June 2011 for the first time.  It will repeat throughout the Brevard county area as needed.  While preparing for this class I have examined and studied many “Facebook How-to” web links.  I will share the best of the best information below as today’s Blog topic. 

The following was written by Susan Nq and was first posted at http://hubpages.com/hub/facebookforbeginners

Are you thinking of joining Facebook? Or are you new to Facebook and are now staring at Facebook's homepage thinking: What the hell to I do now? Then this article is just what you need to learn the basics of Facebook. You'll be connecting with your friends in no time.

The first thing you'll probably want to do is upload a profile picture. You can do that easily by clicking on the link that appears when you hover your mouse over the space for your profile pic. Once you've done that, you are ready to tackle Facebook.

 

THE MENU BAR

The menu bar is located at the top of every page. It contains four items on the left side: Home, Profile, Friends, and Inbox. Let's run through each of these briefly.

By default, Facebook takes you to your Home page when you log in so that's probably where you are right now. It's where you will find your friends' activities, that is if you have friends already. Your Profile page is where you will find all your stuff on Facebook. It's also where you will find your "wall", which is a Facebook term that you're going to be hearing a lot of from now on. Your Friends page is, of course, where you will find a list of your friends and where you can search for other people who you would like to be your friend. Your Inbox, well, I don't think I need to tell you that it contains mail that you receive or send to friends.

Now that you know that you can navigate between these pages using the menu bar, let's discuss each page in detail.

Your Home Page

Your home page has five major components: News Feed, Filters, Requests, Suggestions, and Highlights. (See figure below.)

 

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Facebook Home Page Layout

  • News Feed. Here you will see all your friends' activities on Facebook. Wall posts, uploaded photos or videos, posted links, etc. If you want to know what your friends have been up to, this is the place to go.
  • Filters. You can create filters so you can manage how you see your friends activity on your homepage. You can do that once you already have many Facebook friends.
  • Requests. Any request or invitation that you receive, such as friend requests and application invitations, will appear here. (More on Facebook applications later.) Clicking on an invitation gives you the option to Accept, Ignore, or Block.
  • Suggestions. Facebook suggests friends, groups or pages that it thinks you may know or be interested in. It will appear in this space.
  • Highlights. This area shows things like pictures your friends have commented on, videos they have liked, etc.  It also contains links that enable you to "join in the fun" your friends are having.

Your Profile Page

Your profile page is your own "personal space" on facebook.  It is where your friends will find your profile picture or avatar, your friends list, applications widgets, and your tabs.  By default, there are two tabs when you sign in: Wall and Info.  Later when you start uploading photos or videos, corresponding tabs will appear next to the Wall and Info tabs.  (See figure below.)

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Facebook Profile Page Layout

  • Wall. The wall is your main "space" on Facebook. Just like on a real wall, you and your friends (if you choose to let them do so) can "write" on this wall by using the What's on your mind? box right below the tabs.
  • Info. The basic information you typed in when you signed up for Facebook can be found in your Info tab. You can add or remove data at any time.
  • Other Tabs. Additional tabs such as Photos, Videos, Boxes, Notes, etc. may appear once you have used these internal applications. Once you've uploaded a profile picture, for example, the Photos tab will already be visible.

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Just type in what you want to write on your wall and hit the Share button.

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Clicking on the What's on your mind? box reveals the buttons for posting a link, photo, video, etc. on your wall or someone else's wall.

Your Friends Page

Clicking on Friends in the menu bar takes you to a page where you can find your other friends who might also be on Facebook. You can choose to find people through your email address or simply use the Search for People option also in the Friends page.  Once you already have some friends, you can see all of them by clicking on All Friends in the filter located at the upper left corner of the page.

Your Inbox

You can have a "conversation" with one of your friends by sending them mail. I say "have a conversation" because your replies are appended to the original message and you can see the full history of the conversation in a single thread.

A circle with a number on it beside the word "Inbox" on your menu bar indicates that you have new mail, the number in the circle corresponding to the number of new messages you got.

Chat

You can also talk to your friends through the Chat feature in Facebook. You'll see the button for it on the lower right corner of the page. Clicking on it brings up a menu with friends who are available for chatting. So what's the difference between the inbox and chat? Chat conversations are lost once you sign out of Facebook, mail in your inbox stays there until you manually delete it.

I should also mention that you can turn off chat if you don't feel like it. Just click on Chat > Options > Go Offline. Going offline doesn't sign you out of Facebook, it just makes you unavailable for chatting.

Applications

Basically, there are two types of applications or apps for short: those that were created by Facebook and those made by third-party developers. The internal Facebook applications include Notes, Photos, Links, and Video. Third-party applications include games, quizzes, etc. I've talked about my favorite third-party Facebook appshere.

Where do you find Facebook apps?  Click on Applications on the lower left corner of the page and select Browse More Applications.

Bookmarks

Right beside the Applications button I mentioned above are your bookmarks.  By default, you should see icons for Photos, Links, and Notes along with some others.  Hovering your mouse on them shows a description of each icon.

You use bookmarks as shortcuts to where you want to go.  I should mention though that clicking on the bookmarks will bring you to a recent activities page.  For example, if you click on the icon for Photos, it doesn't bring you to your photo albums, it shows you the recent photo albums of your friends.  From there you can go to your photo album by clicking on the My Photos link at the top of the page.  The same applies for the other bookmarks.

Notifications

See that small icon that looks like a signboard? That's where all notifications can be found. Facebook notifies you if your friends post something on your wall, comment on your uploaded photos, etc. When you see a red bubble with a number on it, it means there's been some new development. So aside from watching your inbox, you'll also want to keep an eye on those notifications for friend updates.

Settings

Hovering your mouse on the Settings button on the upper right side of the page, you'll see three options: Account Settings, Privacy Settings, Application Settings.

You can change your real name, email address, password, etc. through Account Settings. Privacy Settings allows you to create different levels of privacy. For example, you can set certain information to be viewable by selected friends only.Application Settings allow you to control how applications behave. Just have fun and experiment with these options.

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Account Settings page

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Privacy Settings page

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Did you know that Simply Seniors Computer Tutor specializes in coming into your home to help you one on one with your computer problems? We also offer classes each Friday at the Wickham Park senior center. These classes start at 10 and each Friday is a different topic. We look forward to helping you in your home or in our classroom. Visit online at www.ComputerTutorHelp.Us or 321-431-3866 servicing Brevard and beyond.

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Tweet Tweet, How to set up a Twitter Account, write the best ‘tweets’ and build followers quickly!

Simply seniors Computer Tutor loves showing people new things!  Many of our seniors are now using Facebook on a daily bases and some even Tweet!  Today we are going to look at the basics to creating a Twitter account, then we will review article on how to create the type of Tweets people want to read and share with their followers ie., (friends, social network).  Lastly, we will find out what methods one can use to bring the followers to your account.

How to create a Twitter account from www.ehow.com:

Twitter is a social networking/blogging site that allows you to update your personal blog and communicate with your online friends via 140-maximum character messages, or "tweets," that describe your current status. Whether you are reading something online, or boarding a plane, Twitter is a great way to keep in touch.

  1. Go to The Twitter homepage and scroll all the way to the bottom. Click on the "Get Started" button.
  2. Create a username and password. Twitter will automatically check the availability of your username. Once you find one that is unique, enter your email address and continue.
  3. After you create your account, you can manually see if any of your e-mail contacts are on Twitter. Just enter your e-mail username and password, and twitter will automatically import anyone it recognizes.
  4. Invite friends. Any emails Twitter didn't recognize, it will display on the next page. You will be able to check different email addresses to send invites to.
  5. Search for friends. Chances are good that your friends have multiple email addresses, so it is a good idea to enter their name in the search bar and double check.
  6. Set up your phone. The big advantage of Twitter is that you can update via text messages from your phone. Go to the "Devices" tab on your profile page and then enter your cell phone number. A confirmation message will be sent to your phone, and then you'll be able to make your first update.


Read more: How to Create a Twitter Account | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/how_4541204_create-twitter-account.html#ixzz1GoZawhMU\

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A new service being offered by Computer Tutor Consulting, is our “Be Socially Challenged NO MORE” package.  We will set up any 3 of your Twitter, Facebook, Linked In, Google Buzz, Yahoo, AIM, Windows Live, Skype, Blogger, and link these accounts for just $99 set up fee!  In addition get a 6month maintenance package for just $59 month for the 1st 6 months!  This is a deal that will pay for itself in publicity in NO time flat!  Call 321-431-3866 Today! Ask about the Socially Challenged Package!

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Writing the perfect tweet; this was written by and published at http://twittercism.com/the-perfect-tweet/

How To Write The Perfect Tweet

Tuesday, March 9th, 2010 at 8:00 am 

Share28

Twitter has rapidly become the ultimate platform for sharing and exchanging link content. For bloggers and brands, Twitter has surpassed Digg, Stumbleupon, Delicious and Reddit as the greatest and most efficient way to build website traffic.

How To Write The Perfect TweetBetter still, by building an engaged andrelevant community, marketers can continue to reap the benefits of that traffic on a daily basis. Almost by accident, Twitter has provided us with a new and improved take on permissive marketing, which has allowed the network to leave many other websites in its dust.

It’s not all gravy, though – it’s easy to make mistakes that can be very costly indeed, leaving your tweet (and content) all but ignored. Continue making those errors, and Twitter will be about as beneficial to your brand and website as a badly-drawn flyer at your local community centre.

And while it’s perfectly acceptable to link to your own content, if you over­-sell it, self-promote too much, or start to resemble an old-fashioned salesman (even slightly), you’re very quickly going to be overlooked. Worse, likely it won’t be too long before you’re labelled as nothing more than a spammer.

When you get right down to the nitty-gritty, only two things really count when striving for the perfect tweet:

  1. Maximum readability
  2. Maximum retweetability

These are both vital, but neither should be tailored at the expense of the other. For maximum benefit, each needs to be perfect every single time.

1. Think Like Your Readers

This is a bit of a no-brainer, but it’s easily overlooked. For your tweet to be perfect, it needs to appeal most to your readers, to the majority of your network, and not to you.

Unless you’re a world-famous celebrity or brand with millions of devoted followers, adopting an attitude of ‘they’ll know what I mean’ will almost always backfire.

You have to take the time to craft your tweet accurately and pleasingly, thus ensuring that it will be appeal to the highest number of readers.

2. Use Consistent Excellence To Stand Out From The Crowd

Take a moment to peruse your Twitter feed. Refresh the page. Who stands out? Why?

Through prolonged Twitter use we all become tuned into paying attention to certain things in our timelines, notably the avatars and usernames of our favourite profiles. But a friend or valued associate sharing new content isn’t always enough to make us click on that link. We trust their judgement, and we have liked some of the things they’ve shared in the past, but this hasn’t turned us into a robot, automatically clicking on everything they tweet.

Conversely, there are many times when we suddenly notice the tweet of somebody we’ve only recently started following, or have previously not paid much attention to, because it was excellent. It ticked all of our boxes, and we read the tweet and clicked on that link.

This has an additional benefit in that because the tweet was so good, subconsciously we’ll make a little note about the user (particularly their name and avatar) and are more likely to notice them the next time they update. This attention will rise exponentially if their tweets maintain a consistent quality.

Likewise, if the quality of updates dips too sharply or wanders too far off-course, we’ll start to pay less attention, and in severe cases this can lead to a total tune-out and unfollowing. Hence, while being occasionally excellent is better than nothing, beingconsistently excellent is better than everything.

3. Sell The Headline (In A Non-Salesman Way)

People need a really good reason to click on your link. Remember, at any given time (and in almost any Twitter client) the reader is faced with a number of choices to make – there might be as many as a dozen different tweets on their screen, and a lot more if they’re using columns or groups.

And things move fast – one or two refreshes later, and you could be long gone.

So, even if you’ve been consistently excellent for tweet after tweet and dear reader comes straight to you, your job is not done. They still need a reason to click, which means your copy has to sell that link.

The trick is you have to do this in a way that makes it seem like you’re doing something else. People don’t really like to think they’re being sold to, especially in social media.

Let’s call it unselling.

It goes without saying that ‘click here to buy my stuff’ should only be used if your intention is to be completely ironic or you don’t actually care about people visiting your site.

Learn the difference between selling the link and selling the content – the content is what will sell your product or idea, but nobody is going to care about any of that unless you’ve first sold them the reason to read it. You might have discovered the cure for cancer, but nobody is going to care if you link it next to ‘This is cool.’

The reason can be number of different things. Promises work extremely well, but only if you actually deliver. Lie to people enough and it doesn’t matter how good your headline copy is. Honesty is essentially your best policy, but that doesn’t mean you can’t give it a fresh coat of paint with a little spin and reverse psychology.

It’s worth noting that superbly-written headline copy can often generate immediate retweets, even if it’s obvious the other party didn’t actually read the content, or because they trust and believe in you enough to make the (hopefully safe) assumption that you’re going to deliver the goods.

A word on linking to website content that is not your own – don’t be afraid to rewrite the headlines of others. Most of the time these are formatted to appease a single platform or marketplace, and won’t work as well on Twitter. Other times they just suck, plain and simple. If you can do it better, do it better. Nobody is going to object if you’re sending them solid traffic.

4. Use Correct (And Acceptable) Punctuation

Here’s the thing: I’ve never met anybody who was offended or put off when they read something that paid attention to the correct use of punctuation. The opposite is not true – many people (enormous numbers if you use the internet as a gauge) feel that, rightly or wrongly, missing or an incorrect use of punctuation reflects poorly on the writer.

This is certainly true when it comes to first impressions.

Use full stops and commas. Put your apostrophes in the right place. Use speech marks and parentheses.

Don’t end every sentence with an exclamation mark. A simple hyphen can often be the difference between a real word and one that doesn’t exist.

It can help to read your tweet out loud before you submit it. Are the pauses in the right place? We still need to breathe, even at 140 characters (or less).

Studies have shown that retweets contain more punctuation than normal tweets, even ignoring the colon that is automatically inserted by most Twitter clients (i.e., RT @).

Everything, that is, except semi-colons. I love the semi-colon, which is an underused and misunderstood little fellow at the best of times, but much as it pains me I feel it wise to leave them out of my tweets. It’s all about the little sacrifices.

5. Accept Nothing Less Than Flawless Grammar And Perfect Spelling

If you’re a bad speller, or struggle with grammar, consider writing your tweets in your favourite Word processor first. This might seem unnecessary, or even patronising, but let me just echo the sentiments above – people will judge you on how you write, and how you spell, and this will have a direct impact on whether your links are clicked and your updates retweeted.

A quick checklist for every tweet:

  • Always start with a capital letter
  • Always use a capital letter with each new sentence (and you only need one space after the full stop)
  • Learn the difference between your and you’re, its and it’s and there, their and they’re
  • Capital letters make it LOOK LIKE YOU’RE SHOUTING
  • Avoid text-speak at all costs. Far better to take an extra minute or two to elegantly craft your message and link into the desired 140 characters than it is to resort to writing like somebody who dropped out of high school (and then banged their head)

Don’t look to celebrities for guidance here. Many of them break most of these rules, most of the time. It doesn’t matter for them, because they’re celebrities. The rules don’t apply. They’re going to get tons of attention and retweets no matter what they do. The same goes for lots of power-users and long-established Twitter veterans.

It’s different for the rest of us. Remember: be consistently excellent. You cannot afford to be anything less.

6. Observe The Magic Retweet Number

The magic retweet number is the total number of characters you need to leave blank at the end of every tweet to ensure maximum retweetability.

Over time, I have given considerable thought to this figure and continue to refine and perfect it. Currently, the magic retweet number stands at twenty-five. Which means your copy, plus link, should ideally be 115 characters or less.

This is a rule that you will need to break from time to time. Certainly, you should not sacrifice a really quality piece of copy to squeeze your tweet under that ceiling. And Twitter’s internal retweet mechanism has somewhat decreased the need to be so mindful of retweet space.

But if you never any room for others to share your message with their network, chances are that most of the time they either won’t make the effort, or that perfect piece of copy you wrote will be bastardised and lost to the horror of txt spk. Guess what – as it’s a retweet, now everybody thinks you wrote it like that. Welcome to your legacy.

7. Shorten All Links With Bit.ly (And Nothing Else)

This chart says it all.

If you’re using anything other than bit.ly to shorten your links – certainly if you’re using TinyURL – you’re actually hurting your brand. Bit.ly is Twitter’s URL shortener of choice and that recommendation, plus the stats and convenience that bit.ly provides, make it nothing less than essential for those looking to get their content re-shared.

Tip: the bit.ly sidebar is super-convenient.

Conclusion

Twitter is supposed to be fun, and doing everything by the book, or in a very methodical or rule-driven way, can sometimes make it seem just a little bit too much like hard work.

However, if you really want to succeed on the network, then you’re going to have to put in that little bit of extra effort. If you want to be consistently excellent then I’m afraid you will have to work hard – at least until it becomes second-nature. Few people are naturally wonderful, certainly all of the time.

Trust me: it’s worth the sweat. Once you see the benefits that great headline copy, can’t miss unselling techniques and first-class grammar and punctuation can make to your Twitter presence and impact – as well as your website traffic, and sales – you’ll never again settle for anything less than the perfect tweet.

If you enjoyed this post, here's some cool things you can do to give a little back:

  1. Follow @Sheamus on Twitter
  2. Like the Twittercism page on Facebook
  3. Share this article on one of these fine networks:

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Now how to build the followers! Thanks to http://www.jamiefaidley.com for the great info on how to build followers on Twitter. I started a Twitter account last night and 24 hours later have 250+ following me just because of what is said about –so follow this advice if you are looking to build a twitter community of your own!

One thing that I really like about using Twitter as a marketing tool over blogging or even newsletters is how easy it is to build a large following.  Of course, it isn't nearly as easy to make money from these followers so don't just disregard your traditional marketing tools because you have a lot of followers on Twitter.  If you are new to the platform or your numbers have been stagnant then hopefully this post will show you how to get more followers on Twitter.

Find People to Follow

Friends: Start off by finding the people that you already know, this way you can build up some decent numbers before using any additional tactics, which will help because there is a landslide effect on Twitter which shows the more people that are already following you the more that will start to do so.  (I'm assuming of course that your friends will follow you back, I mean they are your friends right?)

People with the Same Interests
: You want to search for people who share the same interests as you, for example if you like sports then follow sports news services, major blogs, etc.

Industry Leaders: Find the key people in your industry and follow the same people they are, since chances are you will be interested in them as well.

Suggester Tools: Twitter's suggestion tool will help you find other people to follow.

Pace Yourself: Don't go out and follow 1,000 people over the next hour.  Besides the fact that you look spammy just for doing this, when people come to your page they will see that you are following a massive number, but not being followed by nearly as many.  To them this must mean that you are not popular in relation to the people you are following.  Other Twitter users are normally pretty quick to follow you if you are following them, so add a batch, wait it out, then add another.  Rinse and repeat this process over time and you'll start to accumulate a following.  Just make sure you have a fairly balanced follower/following ratio.  It also stands to reason that you should not use a script or bot to add followers because this is spammy and could get you banned from the system.

Follow People Back

The whole point of Twitter is to build relationships with other people, after all it is a socialmedia, so follow people back who follow you.  As you start to get more popular on Twitter you will find that more and more people will start following you that you have never heard of before.  If you follow every one of them back, you can lose track of the people that you actually signed up to follow.  This is why you should probably have one account that you use for business and marketing that you strive for popularity and another you use just to follow the select few people you want to hear from.  If you want to automatically follow people who follow you, sign up for TweetLater.

Be a Person

Seems obvious, right?  I mean you are reading this article.  Well, let's make sure that you are letting the Twitter universe know by going over the details on what I mean exactly by "be a person."

  • Use a picture for an avatar - Show off your face and people will relate your tweets to you.  A real picture for an avatar translates into you sharing real life experiences.  Some people use a company or site logo to help with branding, but this isn't as personal and can cost you followers, but is better than nothing.  If you just have the default image up then you can't be too serious about Twitter so why would anyone want to follow you?
  • Name - You also want to have a real name and not just your company name.
  • Details - Post a description or biography of yourself to give your account some personality.
  • Add a link to your homepage - You want to let people know what you are about and what kind of information you will be providing, how else are they going to decide whether you are worth following or not?  Besides, how are they going to visit your site if you don't provide a link and of course you want to increase your traffic numbers!

Again, this all adds up to showing that you are a real person and not spammer JohnDoe1212 or an evil corporate empire!

Tweet!

If your newest tweet was weeks ago then why would someone want to follow you?  If you aren't updating your account then you must not be committed and are probably inactive.  People want to know what you are currently doing or working on, but keep the noise to a minimum and don't spam everyone on your list.  If you tweet more than 20 times per day you are clogging up my page and I will probably unfollow you.  You also want your tweets to add value for your followers and contribute something to community, but they should also be fun so you don't bore your followers into ignoring you, or worse, unfollowing you!  Great tweets on a consistent basis will not only help you to grow your following but also will get people to become more interested in what you are doing, thus driving traffic to your actual site.

Promote Yourself

There are several ways to promote yourself to increase your Twitter following.  If you already have a blog then simply write a post about Twitter and add a link to your account in the article.  If you have a newsletter send out a blast to your subscribers about how they can also follow you on Twitter.  TwitterCounter has a chiclet that lets you show off how many followers that you currently have.  Put your Twitter link in the signature of your emails or forum posts.  You can even add cool buttons from TwitButtons or Twitter Buttons to spruce up your site a little bit.

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Remember, if this all seems to much, Simply Seniors Computer Tutor can help! Simply Seniors Computer Tutor is the premier technical assistant for seniors! Not only do they offer classes at various locations throughout Brevard, they offer one on one in home services, virus clean up, repairs, pick up and delivery, new computer set up and specialty projects such as photo recoloring, digital photo archiving and much more. Simply Seniors Computer Tutors are Florida and Brevard County background checked, arrive in identifiable uniform, with company ID, additionally, UNLIKE the 'average guy' posting on CL, our company is licensed, insured and certified to work on your computer. KNOW YOUR COMPUTER TECHNICIAN do not allow just anyone into your very personal data and information or your home! Simply Seniors Computer Tutor understands seniors have unique learning abilities and we have spent the last 10 years researching the BEST methods for computer training and senior citizens. Stop struggling to use your PC or stop your parents constant phone calls asking "how do I..." Call Simply Seniors Computer Tutor today at 321-431-3866

www.ComputerTutorHelp.Us

Monday, March 14, 2011

Facebook users become the latest victims of the Japanese Tsunami

I have been telling you about virus I have seen on FB – here is a GREAT article that AVG antivirus alerted me to you can read the orginal at http://www.ghacks.net

It’s not the first time that spammers and malware writers have used a tragic public event to spread malware on Facebook, but the latest are fake videos purporting to show “breathtaking” or “unbelievable” footage of the Japanese tsunami.

These links, when clicked, will take you through to another website where you will be required to perform additional actions such as clicking further links in order to view the the video (which doesn’t exist!)

In performing these actions you will be giving the malware writers valuable information, especially if you “like an app” and have personal information such as your home address, telephone and mobile phone numbers and your email address of your Facebook profile.  Such malware, and there are many on Facebook and other socialnetworks at the moment, could even require you to download and install a plugin or codec to watch the video.  Such a file will certainly be malware of some variety such as a bot or keylogger.

Simply clicking on the main link for most of these “apps” will post a link to your wall saying that you like it.  This is most commonly how these malware apps will spread.  Should you see on on the wall of a friend, you may want to notify them or post a message under it informing people of its real purpose.

The tsunami which hit Japan last week after a massive 8.9 magnitude earthquake has killed thousands of people, with up to 10,000 people still missing from a single coastal town, and caused billions of dollars of damage including critical damage to one nuclear reactor and further damage to two others.

Past events where spammers and malware writers have tried to exploit users on Facebook and other social networks have included the death of Michael Jackson and the Indonesian tsunami of 2004.

Here at gHacks we wish to send our continuing sympathies for those people from around the world who have been affected by the earthquake, and especially to those people in Japan who are continuing to be affected by this tragedy.

We urge you to pass the word around about these malware links and, if you can afford it, to donate a small amount of money to help those in need through your local Red Cross, Red Cresecent or other disasters charity

 

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Thanks to the ghacks team for sharing the above info with us! again the original can be seen at www.ghacks.net

Remember, if this all seems to much, Simply Seniors Computer Tutor can help! Simply Seniors Computer Tutor is the premier technical assistant for seniors! Not only do they offer classes at various locations throughout Brevard, they offer one on one in home services, virus clean up, repairs, pick up and delivery, new computer set up and specialty projects such as photo recoloring, digital photo archiving and much more. Simply Seniors Computer Tutors are Florida and Brevard County background checked, arrive in identifiable uniform, with company ID, additionally, UNLIKE the 'average guy' posting on CL, our company is licensed, insured and certified to work on your computer. KNOW YOUR COMPUTER TECHNICIAN do not allow just anyone into your very personal data and information or your home! Simply Seniors Computer Tutor understands seniors have unique learning abilities and we have spent the last 10 years researching the BEST methods for computer training and senior citizens. Stop struggling to use your PC or stop your parents constant phone calls asking "how do I..." Call Simply Seniors Computer Tutor today at 321-431-3866 www.ComputerTutorHelp.Us

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Microsoft Security Essentials Alert - FAKER NOT THE REAL SOFTWARE!!!

I wrote this blog while doing some research on FREE Microsoft software.  I thin you need to beware of this.  The information in today’s blog comes from www.bleepingcomputers.com a great web site for computer technical info!!!

What this infection does:

The fake Microsoft Security Essentials Alert is a Trojan that attempts to trick you into thinking you are infected so that you will then install and purchase one of 5 rogue anti-virus programs that it is distributing. When the Trojan is run it will masquerade as an alert from the legitimate Windows Microsoft Security Essentials Program anti-virusprogram. This alert will be titled Microsoft Security Essentials Alert and states that a Trojan was detected on your computer. It will list this Trojan as Unknown Win32/Trojanand state that it is a severe infection. It will then prompt you to clean your computer using the program in order to remove it. When you click on the Clean Computer or Apply actions button, it will state that it was unable to remove it and then prompt you to scan online. If you click on the Scan Online button it will list 35 different anti-virus programs, 30 of which are legitimate anti-virus programs and 5 that are rogues that the Trojan is distributing. These five rogue programs are:

  • Red Cross Antivirus
  • Peak Protection 2010
  • Pest Detector 4.1
  • Major Defense Kit
  • ThinkPoint
  • AntiSpySafeguard or AntiSpy Safeguard

During this fake online scan only the 5 fake anti-virus programs listed above will state that this supposed Trojan is an infection. It does this to scare you into clicking the Free Install button next to them that will install the rogue program onto your computer and then reboot your computer. It should be noted that Red Cross Antivirus, Peak Protection 2010, Pest Detector 4.1, Major Defense Kit, AntiSpySafeguard, ThinkPoint, and AntiSpy Safeguard that this Trojan is distributing are exactly the same. They just have different names and different graphical user interfaces. You can see images of each of the above rogues below.

Fake Microsoft Security Essentials Alert
Fake Microsoft Security Essentials Alert
For more screen shots of this infection click on the image above.
There are a total of 11 images you can view.

After your computer is rebooted, the rogue that was selected will automatically start and perform a fake scan on your computer. When it has finished it will state that it was able to clean numerous files, but was not able to clean some files, such as iexplore.exe, until the program is purchased. While running, this program will also terminate many programs when you attempt to run them and display a message stating that they are infected.

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Remember, if this all seems to much, Simply Seniors Computer Tutor can help! Simply Seniors Computer Tutor is the premier technical assistant for seniors! Not only do they offer classes at various locations throughout Brevard, they offer one on one in home services, virus clean up, repairs, pick up and delivery, new computer set up and specialty projects such as photo recoloring, digital photo archiving and much more. Simply Seniors Computer Tutors are Florida and Brevard County background checked, arrive in identifiable uniform, with company ID, additionally, UNLIKE the 'average guy' posting on CL, our company is licensed, insured and certified to work on your computer. KNOW YOUR COMPUTER TECHNICIAN do not allow just anyone into your very personal data and information or your home! Simply Seniors Computer Tutor understands seniors have unique learning abilities and we have spent the last 10 years researching the BEST methods for computer training and senior citizens. Stop struggling to use your PC or stop your parents constant phone calls asking "how do I..." Call Simply Seniors Computer Tutor today at 321-431-3866 www.ComputerTutorHelp.Us

Best Free Microsoft Downloads

 

I often like to share information on the best free/shareware on the web.  Today’s information is going to focus on some great freeware from Microsoft!  Can you believe that they actually give away software? 

This great information was located on this web site:  http://www.techsupportalert.com

When people talk about freeware, a lot of times they think about free alternatives to Microsoft products – free office suites, free operating systems, even free alternatives to products that are already included with Windows like Paint, Notepad and Internet Explorer.  However, Microsoft does provide a collection of free software that is definitely worth checking out.  This article is designed to provide an overview of the best free Microsoft programs.

Antivirus

  • Microsoft Security Essentials

    System Requirements: Windows XP and up

    Microsoft Security EssentialsThis may be the best free product ever from Microsoft.  MSE is a free anti-malware program with an interface ideal for average users, and effectiveness ideal for advanced users as well. Its interface is simple and unobtrusive, and when it detects threats, it displays messages that are meaningful and easy to understand. It is light on resources, receives regular updates, and has exceptional detection rates. You can perform scans on demand, but it also continuously guards your system with real-time protection. The recent release of version 2 adds more features, including a "Network Inspection System" and a heuristics engine for a more comprehensive set of protective measures. Another feature added in the new version is the ability to adjust the maximum CPU usage the scanner uses – this is particularly useful if the computer in question is underpowered and the scanner needs to use less resources. Overall, MSE is an excellent product that rivals even some commercial antivirus software.

****watch out for a VIRUS that is currently discising it’self to look like this sofwtare!****

from www.bleepingcomputer.com

Please follow our Removal Guide here Remove the Fake Microsoft Security Essentials Alert Trojan .
You will move to the Automated Removal Instructions (see our next blog)

MORE FREE MICOROSOFT SOFTWARE

System Analysis

  • Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer

    System Requirements: Windows 2000 and up

    This tool analyzes a computer and provides a summary of how secure or insecure it is. Some of the things it checks for are security updates that have not yet been installed, settings that are not recommended (such as weak passwords, disabled firewall, etc), running services that may not be necessary, network shares, and more. This program can be a valuable tool for IT professionals, but it can also help average users who want to make sure their computers are as secure as possible.

Parental Control

  • Windows Live Family Safety

    System Requirements: Windows Vista and up; Click here for the XP version

    Family Safety is a parental control program for filtering web content. It can also restrict email contacts. It has an activity log that allows you to see who tries to access which sites, and activity across multiple PCs with Family Safety installed can be collected in the same log.

Internet

Browser

  • Internet Explorer 9

    System Requirements: Windows Vista and up

    Internet Explorer 9Internet Explorer has long been troubled, unable to keep up with other browsers in several areas, particularly in speed, security, and support for newer web features. Internet Explorer 9 looks to change all that, boasting a wealth of improvements over IE8. It starts much faster, it loads web pages much faster, and it takes full advantage of hardware acceleration wherever possible. It includes a download manager (with pause/resume), and it has a startup manager for add-ons that lets you see which add-ons use the most resources and disable them if needed. The interface has been revamped and is simpler - the address bar now doubles as a search bar (like in Chrome), tabs are on the same row as the address bar by default (this can be changed), and the buttons have been shrunk and rearranged.  Also, its improved support for standards like CSS 3 and HTML 5 allow web designers to deliver a richer online experience to IE users. As for security, Microsoft has added protective measures against pop-ups, phishing sites, and suspicious downloads. A sandbox mode has also been added, which can help keep malware contained and prevent it from affecting your system. I can't say whether it will outdo Firefox or Chrome, but it definitely looks to redeem Internet Explorer as a viable browser.

File Hosting Service

  • Windows Live SkyDrive

    This one isn't really a download - SkyDrive is an online file hosting service provided to anyone with a Live account (registration is free). It offers an impressive 25GB of online storage for documents, pictures, website favorites, and other files, and you can share these with friends. It includes a search feature so you can find things quickly. Folders on SkyDrive can be added to the Live Mesh program for synchronization with folders on local machines. The one downside is a file size limit of 50MB, so if you're looking to store large files, you'll have to split them or use a different service. SkyDrive has also been merged with Office Web Apps, an online office suite that lets you create, upload and edit Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote documents. These web apps include common office features and work really well; just bear in mind that they are essentially stripped-down versions of the Office programs and don't have all the features. SkyDrive is a great service overall and is a reason by itself to create a Live account. (Review)

File/Folder Synchronization

  • Windows Live Mesh

    System Requirements: Windows Vista and up

    Windows Live MeshMesh is a synchronization program that lets you synchronize files, folders, and settings for IE and Office between different machines over the Internet. You can also sync up to 5GB of files and folders onto your SkyDrive online storage. Additionally, if you log into your Live account, you can see a list of your computers that have Mesh installed, and you can remotely control any that are currently running Mesh (this feature must be manually enabled in Mesh, and Internet Explorer is required). In my experience, the remote control is not as fast or smooth as TeamViewer, but it does work well and is a nice feature to have bundled with the synchronization functionality.

Mail

  • Windows Live Mail

    System Requirements: Windows Vista and up; Click here for the XP version

    Mail is actually a decent program and is similar to Outlook. It supports multiple email accounts, RSS feeds and a calendar all combined in one attractive application.

Instant Messenger

  • Windows Live Messenger

    System Requirements: Windows Vista and up; Click here for the XP version

    Messenger has the standard features expected of an instant messenger client, but it also has integration support for social networks (Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn) and a photo viewer for shared albums on SkyDrive and Facebook. Messenger Companion is an add-on that lets you share links to websites with friends, who in turn can share comments on these links.

Blogging Tools

  • Windows Live Writer

    System Requirements: Windows Vista and up; Click here for the XP version

    Writer provides an easy way to create and publish blog entries. It has the standard formatting features, and you can add links, pictures, videos, maps, and more. It integrates with many popular blog sites, including Blogger, WordPress, SharePoint, and several others.

System Tools

System Tools Suite

  • Sysinternals Suite

    System Requirements: Windows XP and up for all tools except RAMMap (Vista and up); some tools won't run on 64-bit systems

    This suite contains a long list of a variety of system utilities and troubleshooting tools, from system monitors to disk tools to maintenance. Two of them, Autoruns and Process Explorer, are listed below.

Startup Manager

  • Autoruns

    System Requirements: Windows XP and up

    AutorunsArguably the best tool of its kind, Autoruns gives you complete control over the things that run when you start Windows, including items in the Startup folder and items listed in the Registry. It can be useful for optimizing the speed of your system by letting you disable unnecessary programs, and it can also help combat certain types of malware that run when Windows starts. This is a must-have for any computer repair kit. (Review)

Process Viewer

  • Process Explorer

    System Requirements: Windows XP and up, including IA64

    Process ExplorerAn advanced process viewer. Process Explorer was once the best tool of its kind, but it is still useful for anyone who wants something better than Task Manager but doesn't need all the whistles and bells. It lists all running processes in a hierarchical format, you can restart, suspend or kill processes, you can kill process trees, and you can set process priorities. It also lets you view threads, strings, and other details about processes. It displays CPU and memory usage, and you can configure tray icons to show these as well. You can optionally configure it to replace Task Manager. (Review)

Autoplay Utility

  • Autoplay Repair Wizard

    System Requirements: Windows XP/2003 only

    This utility is used to fix invalid or broken autoplay settings for CD, USB or other drives.

Tweaking

  • Tweak UI

    System Requirements: Windows XP only

    One of the PowerToys for Windows XP, Tweak UI lets you change various settings to the appearance and behavior of the user interface. For most users, these settings would otherwise be unavailable for adjustment.

Multimedia

Animation

  • Microsoft GIF Animator

    System Requirements: Windows 95 and up

    Microsoft GIF AnimatorThis program is no longer supported by Microsoft or even hosted on their site, but it serves its purpose well as a simple GIF animation creator. You can create new frames from the clipboard or from files, you can set the duration of individual frames, you can configure looping and transparency, and a few other features. It isn't very fancy, but it does about everything you need if you create your frames in a separate program like Paint or Photoshop. (Review)

Image Tools

  • Microsoft Image Composite Editor (ICE)

    System Requirements: Windows XP and up

    Microsoft Image Composite EditorThis is a panorama stitcher – it takes a group of overlapping photos and uses them to form a panoramic image. When started writing this list, I had not previously used Microsoft ICE. I was eager to try it out since it has received so much praise. I took a few quick photos of my office with my cell phone and fed them to ICE, and I was amazed – they were stitched together nearly perfectly and the exposure was blended across the whole image.  ICE allows you to do some additional things, such as crop the panorama, change the panorama rotation, choose between planar, cylindrical or spherical projection, and save in several different formats, including JPEG, TIFF, BMP, PNG, HD Photo, and Silverlight Deep Zoom. You can also upload and share your panoramas on the Microsoft Photosynthwebsite, where others can view them interactively by rotating and zooming, even panoramas that are full 360 degrees (Microsoft SilverLight is required to use Photosynth). Needless to say, there are many awesome examples that show off the power of ICE on Photosynth, examples that weren't taken with cell phone cameras. (Review)

  • Image Resizer

    System Requirements: Windows XP only

    Image ResizerOne of the PowerToys for Windows XP, Image Resizer lets you quickly resize one or multiple images to fit within a certain length and width. You right-click on the file(s) and select "Resize pictures" to bring up a simple interface, where you can select one of four pre-set sizes, or specify your own. You can also choose whether to save over the original files or create new files.

Photo Organizer

  • Windows Live Photo Gallery

    System Requirements: Windows Vista and up; Click here for the XP version

    Photo Gallery lets you organize, tag, upload, and edit your photos, among other features. The editing features are no replacement for programs like Photoshop, but they are handy for quick and easy alterations. (Review)

Video Editor

  • Windows Live Movie Maker

    System Requirements: Windows Vista and up (XP users can find "Windows Movie Maker" in their Programs menu, but the features are not all the same)

    Windows Live Movie MakerMovie Maker doesn't boast a set of advanced features, but the features it includes are sufficient for many users and are ideal for putting together slide shows and short videos. Plus, you can use it to publish your videos on SkyDrive, Youtube, Facebook and Flickr.

Slideshow Software

  • Photo Story 3

    System Requirements: Windows XP and up

    Photo Story 3A very easy yet powerful program for creating slideshows. The program walks you through each step, providing a variety of different feataures along the way. You can add effects of every sort, from photo effects to transition effects to panning and zooming effects. You can add text to each picture, narration, and background music. Overall I think this program is outstanding, and I wish I had started using it years ago. Just be aware of two things: the only video format it can save is wmv, and WGA validation is required if you download from Microsoft. (Alternate download location | Review)

Educational

Mathematics

  • Microsoft Mathematics

    System Requirements: Windows XP and up; .NET Framework 3.5 SP1

    Microsoft MathematicsThis program is targeted primarily for the educational audience, but it can be useful for jobs that require math calculations. It packs in many features, including equation-solving, unit conversion, 2d and 3d graphing, algebra, trigonometry, and even calculus. It can display step-by-step instructions on how to solve a problem, which can be very helpful to students who are learning new math topics. You can also scribble things free-hand as input, and it does a fairly decent job at recognizing everything (although sometimes you may need to redraw some symbols). This program was originally not free, but Microsoft released the newest version as freeware on January 11, 2011. Microsoft also provides Microsoft Mathematics Add-In for Word and OneNote, which adds Microsoft Mathematics features to those programs.

Programming

  • Small Basic

    System Requirements: Windows XP and up; .NET Framework 3.5

    Small BasicSmall Basic provides a programming environment suitable for beginner programmers. It uses a simplified version of the BASIC programming language. Even though it's found in the "Kid's Corner", it can be an excellent learning tool for both kids and adults who are just getting into programming. It includes a PDF tutorial to get you acquainted with the program and walk you through programming concepts.

Miscellaneous

Virtualization

  • Microsoft Virtual PC 2007

    System Requirements: Windows XP and up

    Microsoft Virtual PC 2007A virtual machine is a simulated environment in which an operating system can run without actually being installed on real hardware. It can have several uses – some use it to test software without altering their system; others use it to run an older operating system compatible with older software. Several free options exist for creating and running virtual machines, and one of them is Microsoft Virtual PC. Linux and other non-Microsoft operating systems are not officially supported (although it is possible to get them to work), but it runs versions of Windows just fine. When you create a virtual machine for a specific operating system, Virtual PC will recommend certain settings (hard drive size, memory), but you can adjust these as desired. Once your guest OS is installed, you can install a set of tools called Virtual Machine Additions that make the virtual machine run more smoothly. It also adds support for seamlessly moving the mouse from the host OS to the guest, drag-and-drop files from the host to the guest, and setting up shared folders. One feature that's especially useful for testing purposes is undo disks, which gives you the option to run a virtual machine without altering the virtual hard drive. Other virtual machine programs can run a wider range of operating systems, but if you're virtualizing a Microsoft OS, Virtual PC is a solid solution. It hasn't disappointed me in the 4+ years I've used it.

  • Windows Virtual PC

    System Requirements: Windows 7 only

    Windows Virtual PC is the latest version of Virtual PC, exclusively for Windows 7. It only supports (officially) guest operating systems from XP SP3 and up. If you have Windows 7 Professional or higher, you can download and install XP Mode – this installs a pre-configured XP virtual machine and allows you to run applications in the virtual machine while making them appear to run on the host operating system.

Software Development

  • Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Express

    System Requirements: Windows XP SP3 and up

    This is a great free set of integrated development environments, essentially lightweight versions of the commercial Visual Studio programs. It consists of Visual Basic Express, Visual C# Express, Visual C++ Express, Visual Web Developer Express, and Windows Phone Developer Tools.  It also supports the newer .NET Framework 4. Registration is required within 30 days.

Again a very big thanks to http://www.techsupportalert.com for all the hard work of finding this information. 

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Simply Seniors Computer Tutor is the premier technical assistant for seniors! Not only do they offer classes at various locations throughout Brevard, they offer one on one in home services, repair, pick up and delivery, new computer set up and specialty projects such as photo recoloring, digital photo archiving and much more. Simply Seniors Computer Tutors are Florida and Brevard County background checked, arrive in identifiable uniform, with company ID, additionally, UNLIKE the 'average guy' posting on CL, our company is licensed, insured and certified to work on your computer. KNOW YOUR COMPUTER TECHNICIAN do not allow just anyone into your very personal data and information or your home! Simply Seniors Computer Tutor understands seniors have unique learning abilities and we have spent the last 10 years researching the BEST methods for computer training and senior citizens. Stop struggling to use your PC or stop your parents constant phone calls asking "how do I..." Call Simply Seniors Computer Tutor today at 321-431-3866 www.ComputerTutorHelp.Us

Monday, March 7, 2011

WordPress hit by massive DDoS attack

 

I love blogging.  Wordpress is one of the world's largest blogging host and it has been attacked not once but twice this last week.  Read on to learn more.  Credit to http://www.h-online.com

alt

On Thursday 3 March WordPress.com, the world's largest blogging host, was subject to a massive Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack, the largest that it has ever experienced. The first notification on the status page for Automatic Inc., the owner of wordpress.com, stated that "WordPress.com is currently being targeted by a extremely large Distributed Denial of Service attack which is affecting connectivity in some cases. The size of the attack is multiple Gigabits per second and tens of millions of packets per second." Just over two hours later, Automatic reported that "Our systems are back to normal. We'll continue to monitor them and post updates here if needed."

Judging by various reports, there is as yet no indication of either the origin or reason for this attack. According to security company TechCrunch, the founder of WordPress, Matt Mullenweg, has informed them that: "This is the largest and most sustained attack we've seen in our 6 year history. We suspect it may have been politically motivated against one of our non-English blogs, but we're still investigating and have no definitive evidence yet."

DDoS attacks, such as those during Operation Payback, are usually mounted from botnets – a number of computers that have been infected by malware that, given certain instructions or at a preset time, flood the target site with excessive amounts of traffic.

WordPress is open source software for the design of blogs and other web services. The manufacturer provides not only the software, but also the necessary space on a web server. About 18 million blogs run on the platform.

This information came from http://www.h-online.com 

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Simply Seniors Computer Tutor is the premier technical assistant for seniors! Not only do they offer classes at various locations throughout Brevard, they offer one on one in home services, repair, pick up and delivery, new computer set up and specialty projects such as photo recoloring, digital photo archiving and much more. Simply Seniors Computer Tutors are Florida and Brevard County background checked, arrive in identifiable uniform, with company ID, additionally, UNLIKE the 'average guy' posting on CL, our company is licensed, insured and certified to work on your computer. KNOW YOUR COMPUTER TECHNICIAN do not allow just anyone into your very personal data and information or your home! Simply Seniors Computer Tutor understands seniors have unique learning abilities and we have spent the last 10 years researching the BEST methods for computer training and senior citizens. Stop struggling to use your PC or stop your parents constant phone calls asking "how do I..." Call Simply Seniors Computer Tutor today at 321-431-3866  www.ComputerTutorHelp.Us

A Virus for Macs?

A good friend of mine was showing off her very cool Mac products recently.  My daughter is obsessed with owning an iPod-touch.  Everyone wants an iPad…. WHY??? I don’t get it!!!  The entire line of ‘i’ equipment is WAY over priced and WAY overly complicated.  This is just my opinion.  Why would I pay hundreds of dollars just so I can use my finger to move things on the screen?  Doesn’t my daughters $20 MP3 player do all a 10 year old needs it to do?  Why do I want an iPad when I own a full laptop that has the ability to do everything vs the iPad that doesn’t have a keyboard, is a very tiny screen can’t play movies (ok I can but very small).  I do not get it – these people must just have extra money to burn and I really wish I could have it!  :-)  The big selling point is supposed to be that the Mac is untouchable, no viruses… maybe this isn’t so true.  Check out this info I read this morning. 

This information was found on www.howtogeek.com

Mac OS X Trojan catches Sophos' eyeA new Trojan has cropped up and it's targeting Mac OS X users, one security firm says. According to Sophos, the Trojan, called "BlackHole RAT" by its author and "MusMinim" by the security firm, is a variant of the Remote Access Trojan on Windows. The author of the Trojan says the malware is not yet completed, but it already does some annoying things.

image

Simply Seniors Computer Tutor is the premier technical assistant for seniors! Not only do they offer classes at various locations throughout Brevard, they offer one on one in home services, repair, pick up and delivery, new computer set up and specialty projects such as photo recoloring, digital photo archiving and much more. Simply Seniors Computer Tutors are Florida and Brevard County background checked, arrive in identifiable uniform, with company ID, additionally, UNLIKE the 'average guy' posting on CL, our company is licensed, insured and certified to work on your computer. KNOW YOUR COMPUTER TECHNICIAN do not allow just anyone into your very personal data and information or your home! Simply Seniors Computer Tutor understands seniors have unique learning abilities and we have spent the last 10 years researching the BEST methods for computer training and senior citizens. Stop struggling to use your PC or stop your parents constant phone calls asking "how do I..." Call Simply Seniors Computer Tutor today at 321-431-3866  www.ComputerTutorHelp.Us

Friday, March 4, 2011

Best Free Operating System For Kids

If you read the blog during Feb I was playing with Joli-cloud and new operating system that allows me to use my Facebook login and user information in order to maintain a whole “computer in the clouds”  - if the term ‘cloud computing’ is new to you I suggest you read a few of the older Simply Seniors Computer Tutor Blogs or just google the term. 

Introduction

Keeping young children occupied these days is quite a challenge. Quite naturally they see computers as a source of entertainment and want to enjoy them along with the rest of us. Herein lies the next challenge in that some areas of the internet are not suitable at all for child viewing and can potentially present real life dangers.

Discussion

DoudouLinux Activity MenuDoudouLinux aims to achieve an optimum balance by providing an environment aimed at kids 2-12 which is fun, educational and safe to use. This is good thinking because it removes the need to let your kids loose with your own operating system and also prevents the possibility of them bypassing whatever security software you have installed on it. Never underestimate the ability of little minds to work these things out. Instructions for bypassing parental filterscan easily be found via Google or on social networking sites.

The easiest way to run DoudouLinux is from a downloaded CD image. Once you've burned the image to a disk, there is nothing to install, update or configure. Running it from a live CD also means you wont interfere with your normal Windows installation. To run Windows again just pull out the live CD and reboot.

An alternative using a USB key is also provided but this is a lot more complicated and not supported by all systems. The download link and instructions for both options are here.

DoudouLinux WholeAlthough DoudouLinux is designed primarily to run as a live CD, if you like what you see and have a spare computer, it is possible to make a full install.

Access to the installed system on which the CD is running is not possible so your resident files and settings are in no danger of being lost, altered or infected.

The system comes complete with a range of programs which are both fun and educational. Content filtering is included by default so you have no worries about your charges accessing inappropriate material when connected to the internet. Most of the programs don't even require a knowledge of files, folders or menus and can be operated without the ability to read.

DoudouLinux MiniSome users may even find DoudouLinux suitable for older people with learning difficulties or other disabilities.

There's no doubt that older kids will soon outgrow this and want the “real thing”, but for younger children, DoudouLinux is an ideal introduction to the world of com

 

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Keep watching for Simply Seniors Computer Tutors reviews on DoudouLinux in up coming blogs!

Simply Seniors Computer Tutor is the premier technical assistant for seniors! Not only do they offer classes at various locations throughout Brevard, they offer one on one in home services, repair, pick up and delivery, new computer set up and specialty projects such as photo recoloring, digital photo archiving and much more. Simply Seniors Computer Tutors are Florida and Brevard County background checked, arrive in identifiable uniform, with company ID, additionally, UNLIKE the 'average guy' posting on CL, our company is licensed, insured and certified to work on your computer. KNOW YOUR COMPUTER TECHNICIAN do not allow just anyone into your very personal data and information or your home! Simply Seniors Computer Tutor understands seniors have unique learning abilities and we have spent the last 10 years researching the BEST methods for computer training and senior citizens. Stop struggling to use your PC or stop your parents constant phone calls asking "how do I..." Call Simply Seniors Computer Tutor today at 321-431-3866

Thursday, March 3, 2011

How to Remove WinFixer / Virtumonde / Msevents / Trojan.vundo

This is an old one, it dates back to 2009 but for some reason it has been surfacing once again.  Here is a great resource on how to remove this Trojan if you have it on your computer.  You will probably find that the solution includes running Malware Bytes, (available for safe download through www.filehippo.com).  I hope you find this helpful.  The original information was posted at: www.bleepingcomputer.com – thank you to everyone at Bleeping computer, a great web site for technical help!

What this programs does:

The Vundo family of Trojans is one of the most common infections we find on user's computers. This infection can cause popups that include advertisements for rogue anti-spyware programs. Some common rogue antispyware programs that are advertised include WinFixer, SysProtect and WinAntiSpyware. Users are normally targeted by false positives, fake alerts, and warning of infections on their computer. An example of this type of misleading advertisement would be popups alerting users that they are infected with a blackworm virus. The most common method of infection is through outdated versions of the Sun Java platform; older versions are being exploited so it is important to firstly make sure that your Java software is fully up to date. This infection is normally detectable by users receiving popups when they use the Internet. Your antivirus program might also notify you via an alert that you have a Vundo Trojan on your computer.

The Vundo infection has evolved over time to include harder and harder protection methods so that it cannot be easily removed. These methods are random names, random autorun locations, random CLSIDs, and rootkits to hide these locations from removal tools. Due to this, specialized tools have been created in order to target this specific infection and remove it. The following guide will explain how to use the tool, and hopefully rid your system of this malware.

Threat Classification:

Tools Needed for this fix:

Symptoms that may be in a HijackThis Log:

The file names in these entries are random:
O2 - BHO: (no name) - {904e23fc-67aa-4ac1-89e6-dd4eed16b596} - C:\WINDOWS\system32\zibuzuhu.dll
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [nohawevufi] Rundll32.exe "C:\WINDOWS\system32\vosevodi.dll",s
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [7cc01263] rundll32.exe "C:\WINDOWS\system32\ropoligi.dll",b
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [CPM7ff321ff] Rundll32.exe "c:\windows\system32\kamideva.dll",a
O4 - HKUS\S-1-5-19\..\Run: [nohawevufi] Rundll32.exe "C:\WINDOWS\system32\vosevodi.dll",s (User 'LOCAL SERVICE')
O4 - HKUS\S-1-5-20\..\Run: [nohawevufi] Rundll32.exe "C:\WINDOWS\system32\vosevodi.dll",s (User 'NETWORK SERVICE')
O20 - AppInit_DLLs: C:\WINDOWS\system32\mufezuwi.dll c:\windows\system32\kamideva.dll
O21 - SSODL: SSODL - {EC43E3FD-5C60-46a6-97D7-E0B85DBDD6C4} - c:\windows\system32\kamideva.dll
O22 - SharedTaskScheduler: STS - {EC43E3FD-5C60-46a6-97D7-E0B85DBDD6C4} - c:\windows\system32\kamideva.dll

Guide Updates:

01/09/07 - Updated guide to reflect updates to the tools 11/03/09 - Updated for new removal technique.


Choose the removal method you would like to use:


Automated Removal Instructions for Trojan.vundo and Virtumonde using Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware:

  1. Print out these instructions as we may need to close every window that is open later in the fix.
  2. Before we can do anything we must first end the processes that belong to Trojan.vundo and Virtumonde so that it does not interfere with the cleaning procedure. To do this, download the following file to your desktop.
    rkill.com Download Link
  3. Once it is downloaded, double-click on the rkill.com in order to automatically attempt to stop any processes associated with Trojan.vundo and Virtumonde and other Rogue programs. Please be patient while the programs looks for various programs and closes them. When it has finished, the black window will automatically close. If your desktop was hidden, you should also now be able to view it again. Do not reboot your computer at this point, or the programs will start again.
  4. Now you should download Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware, or MBAM, from the following location and save it to your desktop:
    Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware Download Link
  1. Once downloaded, close all programs and Windows on your computer, including this one.
  2. Double-click on the icon on your desktop named mbam-setup.exe. This will start the installation of MBAM onto your computer.
  3. When the installation begins, keep following the prompts in order to continue with the installation process. Do not make any changes to default settings and when the program has finished installing and is at the last screen, make sure you uncheck both of the Update Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware and Launch Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware check boxes. Then click on the Finish button. If Malwarebytes' prompts you to reboot, please do not do so.
    If you receive a code 2 error while installing Malwarebytes's, please press the OK button to close these errors as we will resolve them in future steps. The code 2 error will look similar to the image below.

Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Screen

  1. As this infection deletes a core executable of Malwarebytes' we will need to download a new copy of it and put it in the C:\program files\Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware\ folder. To download the file please click on the following link:

Malwarebytes' EXE Download

When your browser prompts you where to save it to, please save it to the C:\program files\Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware\ folder. When downloading the file, it will have a random filename. Please leave the filename the way it is as it is important that it is not changed. You may want to write down the name of the file as you will need to know the name in the next step.

  1. Once the file has been downloaded, open the C:\program files\Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware\ folder and double-click on the file you downloaded in step 8. MBAM will now start and you will be at the main program screen as shown below.

Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Screen

  1. Before you can perform a scan, you must first update the program. To do this click on the Update tab, and that at the new screen click on the Check for Updates button. Malwarebytes' will now check for new updates and download and install them as necessary. When the update is completed, you will be prompted with a message stating either that you already have the latest updates or that they have been updated. Either way, you should now click on the OK button to continue.
  2. Now click on the Scanner tab and make sure the the Perform full scan option is selected. Then click on the Scan button to start scanning your computer for Trojan.vundo and Virtumonde related files.
  3. MBAM will now start scanning your computer for malware. This process can take quite a while, so we suggest you go and do something else and periodically check on the status of the scan. When MBAM is scanning it will look like the image below.

Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Scanning Screen

  1. When the scan is finished a message box will appear as shown in the image below.

Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Scan Finished Screen

You should click on the OK button to close the message box and continue with the Trojan.vundo and Virtumonde removal process.

  1. You will now be back at the main Scanner screen. At this point you should click on the Show Results button.
  2. A screen displaying all the malware that the program found will be shown as seen in the image below. Please note that the infections found may be different than what is shown in the image.

Malwarebytes Scan Results

You should now click on the Remove Selected button to remove all the listed malware. MBAM will now delete all of the files and registry keys and add them to the programs quarantine. When removing the files, MBAM may require a reboot in order to remove some of them. If it displays a message stating that it needs to reboot, please allow it to do so. Once your computer has rebooted, and you are logged in, please continue with the rest of the steps.

  1. When MBAM has finished removing the malware, it will open the scan log and display it in Notepad. Review the log as desired, and then close the Notepad window.
  2. You can now exit the MBAM program.

Your computer should now be free of the Trojan.vundo and Virtumonde program. If your current anti-virus solution let this infection through, you may want to consider purchasing the PRO version of Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware to protect against these types of threats in the future.

If you are still having problems with your computer after completing these instructions, then please follow the steps outlined in the topic linked below:

Preparation Guide For Use Before Posting A Hijackthis Log


Automated Removal Instructions for the Vundo or Virtumonde infection using VundoFix:

  1. Please print these instructions as they will be needed later when Internet access is not available.
  2. Save these instructions in word or notepad to the desktop where they can be easily found.
  3. Download Vundo Fix and save it to your desktop.
  4. When it has completed downloading, double-click VundoFix.exe to run it.
  5. Click the Scan for Vundo button.
  6. Once it's done scanning, click the Remove Vundo button.
  7. You will now receive a prompt asking if you want to remove the files, click the YES button. Once you click yes, your desktop will go blank as it starts removing Vundo.
  8. When completed, it will prompt that it will shutdown your computer, click the OK button.
  9. When the computer has shutdown, turn your computer back on.

The WinFixer and Vundo infection should now be removed from your computer.

If you are still having a problem then please perform the following steps:

Note: This step should only be used if the instructions in the previous steps did not remove the infection:

  1. Download VirtumundoBegone and save it to your desktop.
  2. Now reboot into Safe Mode.
    1. This can be done tapping the F8 key as soon as you start your computer
    2. You will be brought to a menu where you can choose to boot into safe mode.
    3. Select safe mode with networking using your arrow keys on the keyboard and then press enter.
    4. When you computer reaches the desktop make sure you log in as the same user which you had performed the previous steps,
  3. Once you are logged into safe mode, double-click VirtumundoBeGone.exe file you just downloaded and follow the instructions.
  4. Exit when it has finished, and reboot back to normal mode.
The WinFixer and Vundo infection should now be removed from your computer.

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Simply Seniors Computer Tutor is the premier technical assistant for seniors! Not only do they offer classes at various locations throughout Brevard, they offer one on one in home services, repair, pick up and delivery, new computer set up and specialty projects such as photo recoloring, digital photo archiving and much more. Simply Seniors Computer Tutors are Florida and Brevard County background checked, arrive in identifiable uniform, with company ID, additionally, UNLIKE the 'average guy' posting on CL, our company is licensed, insured and certified to work on your computer. KNOW YOUR COMPUTER TECHNICIAN do not allow just anyone into your very personal data and information or your home! Simply Seniors Computer Tutor understands seniors have unique learning abilities and we have spent the last 10 years researching the BEST methods for computer training and senior citizens. Stop struggling to use your PC or stop your parents constant phone calls asking "how do I..." Call Simply Seniors Computer Tutor today at 321-431-3866