A New Year's Resolution, and Some Tools to Help

2011 is ending with a flurry of software update activity:

• Microsoft- a large number of critical and important updates
• Adobe- ditto
• Apple- ditto
• All apps- end of year updates

Make it a New Year's resolution, and don't put it off, to bring all your applications current + create a backup of your updated system.  I have some tool recommendations for

• Creating a computer inventory list of all system and installed applications, as well as all software keys.  A list of all hardware is also provided  
• Updating and establishing an automatic schedule for future updates for your Microsoft products.
• Identifying and updating your installed apps; creating an automatic alert mechanism.
• Updating apps and the operating system for Apple.
• Full backup of all system and applications files (doesn't include YOUR documents, music, etc, which should be backed up in other ways)

Each of these recommendations is long enough to be a blog entry in itself, so watch for subsequent entries.

Danger! Those sneaky Android Ads

PCWorld, Jan 2012 has an article by Tom Spring on the ads that are "popping up" on Android devices (eg, your Droid).  Those ads are either "full screen" or they appear along the bottom of the display.  They are compelling, telling you that you need to adjust your battery (and we have the app for you), you've won something, etc.  The ads that run along the bottom of the display are particularly troublesome, because you can't make them go away and it is easy to hit them as you flick through the rest of the screen.  Bottom line:  DON'T SELECT THEM; BACK OUT; USE ADVANCED TASK KILLER (free, available at The Market) to avoid the ads.  Most likely, these are dangerous, and you will end up losing your address book, your phone number, your email, your passwords, and the phone's unique IMEI number.

I also have security on my phone (Lookout, free for basic service and available at The Market) and I use Lastpass (unlike the PC/Apple/Linux version, there is a fee for this service) for all user ids and passwords, available at The Market)

When to buy a tablet?

Among the ways tablets are different is the operating system, connectivity, and inherent functionality.  Steve Fox (PCWorld, Jan, 2012) says that he expects it will be the end of 2012 before these factors have all matured to the point where tablets can be purchased "without reservation."  So, if ;you can wait, get one next Christmas.

Most Reliable Laptops and PCs

PC World's Jan. 2012 issue has published lists of most reliable electronics- Desktops, Laptops, Cameras, etc. It is not scientific, but it is consistent with my experience. Some nuggets:

• Laptops:  Dell and HP on the bottom, Apple, Samsung, Toshiba, Asus on the top.
• Desktop:  Dell and HP on the bottom, Apple, Asus on the top

On the service side, Apple is on the top, HP is on the bottom.

Details

The Microsoft IE 9 “Speed up Browsing” Message

(Note: In the following, some of the pictures are kind of small.  To make them larger, double click on the picture.)

Sometime or another, as you run your Windows updates,  you WILL get an update permission request for Internet Explorer (your Microsoft browser).  This has a number of needed security improvements.  You should install it. But… after you install it you will start getting this message at the bottom of the screen:

It will drive you CRAZY!  If you google the problem, you will see pages and pages of discussion and recommended solutions.  The best I’ve seen, though it is technical, is this.
The usual solution, and the one that seems to work OK, at least for the present, involves setting a time limit associated with when this popup is triggered.

To set this time limit:

1. Make sure your menubar is showing:  Right mouse button click on the area at the top of the browser window. In my browser this area is baby blue.



2. You will get a selection list.  Click Command bar



3. The result should look something like this:



4. Left click the Tools entry and then left click the Toolbar entry

5. THEN left click the Disable add-ons:



6. You’ll get a window like this:



This shows a list of all the add-ons and the approximate time required to start the add-on whenever you start IE9.  Note near the bottom it says “Tell me when the delay exceeds” and then a box, which is this picture says 1 second.   The box is a “pull-down.”  Left click on the arrow and a list of times will display. Set that number be significantly greater than the sum of all the start-up times in the above list by left clicking on the appropriate number.  Left click Done.  The message should not reappear unless the total time to start up all the add-ons exceeds that number…. or until Microsoft decides to reset it during a security update.

How to Change Your ATT Email password.

1.  Go to https://uversecentral3.att.com/static/interstitialDsl.html
2.  Click Log In in the upper right and log in.

3.  Click Profile

4.  Click Create/Manage Sub Accounts

5.  Click Edit User Information

5.  Click on "Edit Security Information."  THAT is where you can change your email password!  A mess, huh!  (Anybody got a shorter route?)  

Banks have dramatically increased ATM Use Fees: But there is still a place with a low fee

There has been recent news about Bank of America charging $5/mo for using their ATM.

This blog entry is related to that.  Recently I needed to get some cash.  I have a debit card.  I know that I will be charged a fee for using another bank's ATM.  However, I was surprised by the new Wachovia policy.  When I enterered $200 as the amount I wanted to withdraw, the seemingly usual "disclosure statement" popped up on the ATM screen that I would be charged a fee for using Wachovia's ATM.  In the past this was $1 / transaction.  But lately it was $2.50.   But, on closer examination, the terms have changed.  The fee was $3.50.   Worse than that, the maximum that I could withdraw was $60.  So, they were charging a fee of $5.9%!   I bet this is going to be happening with almost every bank ATM.

BUT... there is one place where the fee is a flat $1.50 per transaction: Walmart.  Find the ATM located usually near customer service.  The machine is actually more than an ATM; it is a general services machine.  It has a "Walmart" label on it.   Pick the "ATM" button and go from there.