A Program That Helps You Work in Office But Save to Google Docs

I use MS Office for most of my document creation. (I use OpenOffice too, but I am a beta tester for Office 2010, so I'll be sticking to MS Office for most of the year.) However, I also use Google Docs as an on-line document repository. Google docs offers a suite of web apps somewhat comparable in function to MS Office (2003), so documents can be created and edited on the web, from any computer. Documents can also be secured and shared using Google docs.

There's a free program that synchs MS Office with Google Docs, so you can create documents in MS Office and very easily add them to Google Docs. The program, OffiSync can be found here.

Tips on Helping Search Engines Find Your Site

I know that several of us "own" web sites, either for our company or for private use. Either way, you may want to improve the probability that a search by potential clients or potential readers will show your web site on the first page of the results. This post provides a list of useful information on how to make that happen. I'll continue to add to it as I find information I think might be useful.

• A page with a number of "how to" links
• Google "AdWords Keyword Tool" provides information on how often keywords are searched.
• Google Analytics, which you can add to Google websites to provide statistics on which keywords visitors used, number of visits, etc.
• Google webmaster central, provides lots of tips
• PCWorld article, provides tips and links

If you have any tips, please attach them as comments.

April 13, 2010… Be sure run Windows Update and Adobe Reader

This article describes the critical and other vulnerabilities that will be patched by Microsoft and adobe:  http://blogs.zdnet.com/security/?p=6070&tag=nl.e589.  Looking down the right side of that page, there is a discussion of the PDF vulnerabilities.  This is serious stuff. If you use Foxit Reader, which I recommend, make sure you have updated it. 

Free Email (This is primarily for AOL users)

No one need pay for email.  There are many free options and I’ll list four, along with a quick discussion of advantages and disadvantages.  For a full discussion, go to Kim Komando article on free email options and tips for migrating.

NOTE:  An email account is different than your ISP provider.  The ISP Provider is the company that provides access to the internet.  For most of us, that is AT&T (Bellsouth).  You get automatically get an email account with AT&T when you sign up with them.  However, you don’t have to use their email system.

Yahoo

If you are with AT&T you can use their web email, which is Yahoo.  It is free.  However, the web pages are loaded with ads, which slow down your computer and are a significant distraction.  Those with older computers or who have slower DSL should not use this option.

AOL

No using bellsouth/AT&T one should pay for AOL service.  It is free.  I find the desktop AOL is such a resource hog that it should never be considered.  The web based AOL is as bad or worse than Yahoo.  One of the worst features about AOL is a little technical but very important:  you can forward your email to another email provider to consolidate your email and get away from the ad overload on AOL.  How to convert from a paid AOL account to a free AOL account 

Windows Live

This is a viable alternative.  You get a live account and a hotmail.com domain.  I don’t want to go into detail, but most, if you keep windows up to date, have been hit with the option to download the Live Essentials, which comes with a client email application, Windows Live mail, the replacement for Outlook Express. 

Google

The choice between Google and its suite of products and Microsoft (Windows Live) and its suite boils down to personal preference.  Google does not have a direct competitor to Windows Live, but you can use the highly rated Thunderbird or, for that matter, Windows Live.  However, the web interface for Google mail is clean and full function.  I don’t use a email client because I access my email from many computers, and don’t want my mail in many different places.  (This is said knowing that you can always keep your email on the host, even when you manage it through an email client.  I just don’t like that.)   The clean Google interface- no ads or mess- is perfect for a DSL web interface environment. 

Questions? 

Email spammers on your computer

I've been working on one computer that reported sending spam (and worse) emails to other email addresses in the community. The sender's address seems to be from that computer. However, this may or may not be the case. I'm working with a technical group, [url]http://www.bleepingcomputer.com[/url], to understand whether or not this one computer is the source of the emails. The diagnostics I've run have indicated some problems, though not necessarily "smoking gun" indicators that this computer is the source. I've worked at fixing the problem and I'm still working on it (as you might see from my entries-aninkling- on bleepingcomputer). My best guess right now is that this computer is NOT the source of the problem.

Here's how the mass mailer works. It infects someone's computer. It sets up its own email engine. In sophisticated "bots", it even communicates with its master, say in Russia. That master may be working on its own, or it may be an exchange organization that sells the use of the infected computer to other groups. These groups then "order" emails to be sent. This is done for a fee. The master sends orders to the infected computer. The computer generates a mass mailing based on the order. When the emails are being built, the emailer will pick an email address from the list it has constructed from either address books on the computer or by logging the keyboard, and send the emails with that address as the sender and the return address. Anybody that receives the email things it is from the email address that has been inserted.

In order to defeat this thing, we have to find the computer or computers with the bots. This means looking behind the scenes at the email messages- at the email source- where, hidden away, are IP addresses and, if it is a more destructive email, email addresses and urls hidden in the message. That will give some idea of what is going on, hopefully leading to the source.