Deal: Epson Workforce 645 on Sale at OfficeMax
OfficeMax has the Epson Workforce 645 printer on sale for $99. This is currently my favorite all-in-one inkjet printer for home use. It is wireless so all you need is an electrical outlet somewhere convenient, connect it to your router and you’re ready to go. It holds 250 sheets of paper and can automatically print on both sides of paper. Of course it scans, copies and faxes, and it has a 30 sheet document feeder. It’s fast, works with Macs and PC’s and even your mobile devices.
Here’s the link: http://goo.gl/TvMXP
If Microsoft Calls – Don’t Answer!
This scam has been going around for at least a year now and I’ve written about it before, but this week in 2 days I had 2 clients tell me that they got a call from “Microsoft” saying they’ve detected a problem with their computer. I promise, Microsoft will NEVER call you to tell you there is a problem with your computer. The people calling are overseas and will attempt to frighten you into going to your computer and downloading a file from a website onto your computer, they will then ask for your credit card number. These are BAD guys, don’t do anything they say.
If you want to have fun and play with them by wasting their time and money, then you can play along to keep them on the phone but DON’T actually do anything on the computer or give them a real credit card number. Make one up.
If you don’t want to waste YOUR time, then just hang up on them and if you can, just block the number so they can’t call you again.
There Be Viruses Among Us!
I’ve have THREE clients this week get viruses on their computers. I’m not typing this because I’m exercising my fingers. PLEASE listen – this is how to AVOID getting infected in the first place, and will save you getting scolded by me about what you DIDN’T do.
Today is the second Tuesday of the month – that means updates from Microsoft will be coming your way, and that also makes it an excellent time to remind you to keep your eye out throughout the month for updates from Adobe (Acrobat Reader and Flash) and Oracle (Java.)
Don’t forget – these are SECURITY fixes. If you DON’T do them, you’re giving the bad guys an easy back door into your system. There are as many as eleven different flaws being patched this month, so be on the look out for them.
Three ways your smartphone can hurt your career
Tech Republic’s Toni Bowers has written an article on how the improper use of your smartphone can actually hurt your in your business or your career.
Follow this like to the article: http://goo.gl/J9qMd
Order Online at Walmart.com and Pay With Cash
You may love the idea of being able to shop online, but perhaps you HATE the idea of paying online. Well guess what? Walmart is there for you. You now have an option of ordering online, and then within 48 hours going to your local Walmart store and paying for your purchase there. They give you the option of picking up your purchase at the store or having it shipped to your home.
Fix for Largest Mac Malware Infection Finally Out
As many as 600,000 Macintosh computer systems (and up to 13% of all U.S. Macs) have been infected with the “Flashback” Trojan malware, and Apple has finally published a fix for it. Flashback takes advantage of a security flaw in Java. Oracle patched it back in February and most Windows machines were updated at that time. Since Apple runs their own version of Java, they take the responsibility for updating it, and have been very slow to do so. Flashback was designed to steal passwords. To see if you’re infected, download F-Secure’s Flashback detection and removal software. It will check for and remove Flashback from your Mac. For once Windows users don’t need to worry about this one.
If You Don’t Have Dropbox, Get It
Dropbox is a great way to not only synchronize files between two computers, but it also give you online backup (you don’t have to use it with two computers.) Dropbox installs as a folder on you computer and you use it just like any other folder, except that any file you put in the Dropbox folder gets backed up to the cloud (and any other computer also using the same account.) Dropbox gives you 2GB for free, use this link and you’ll get an extra 250MB: http://bit.ly/extradropboxspace
Tell your friends about it and get up to 16GB of free storage!
Keep the Bad Guys OUT of Your Computer!
Today is the second Tuesday of the month – that means updates from Microsoft will be coming your way, and that also makes it an excellent time to remind you to keep your eye out throughout the month for updates from Adobe (Acrobat Reader and Flash) and Oracle (Java.)
Don’t forget – these are SECURITY fixes. If you DON’T do them, you’re giving the bad guys an easy back door into your system. There are as many as eleven different flaws being patched this month, so be on the look out for them.
Posted in News, Security | Tags: second tuesday of the month, security updates, Windows update | 
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Deal: Lenovo Laptop with Intel Core i3 for $399
Office Depot has the Lenovo G570 on sale this week for $399. This is an excellent general purpose laptop built by a company with a reputation for quality laptops. It has a 15.6” screen, 4GB of memory, and large 500GB hard drive, DVD burner, hi-speed wireless, built-in webcam and microphone, HDMI port and memory card reader.
Here’s the link to Office Depot’s page: http://goo.gl/t8n2J
Google and Nascar Introduce Self-Driving Race Car
Over the past couple of years, Google has logged over 200,000 miles testing their autonomous cars in both California and Nevada. To comply with legal requirements, they had to have someone sitting in the drivers seat “just in case” something went wrong, but so far nothing has and the self-driving cars have performed amazingly.
Well, Nascar is so impressed that they have partnered with Google and are testing an autonomous car designed for stock car racing. Follow the link to view Nascar’s announcement and see video of the car: http://goo.gl/RVxPs
Want a Bigger iPhone?
No sooner has the buzz over the new iPad begun to quiet down than the newest rumor to surface is that the next iPhone will have a 4.6” screen, compared to the 3.5” screen that every iPhone has had up to this point. The rumor seems to be coming out of Korea, where there probably is a supplier for Apple that is leaking the information. The source is “industry sources” so take it with a grain of salt. At this time there are no credible rumors as to when the next iPhone may come out.
Did You Update This Week?
Yep, I know this reminder is late, but if you KNOW it’s late, then you KNEW it was coming and should have been prepared. There was a MAJOR update to Windows and several minor updates that need to be installed, so be sure that you’re doing them. And as always, be sure to update your Adobe Acrobat and Flash when you see the red icon, and update Java as well (most viruses I see these days sneak in through systems that DIDN’T patch their Java installation.)
Desktop Deals From Dell
Dell has a couple of their desktop systems on sale you might be interested in. Let’s start with a basic replacement for that really old and slow machine you have running Windows XP. For $299 they have a 3.2GHz dual-core Pentium machine with a 500GB hard drive, 2GB of memory, a DVD burner and Windows 7. 2GB of memory isn’t a lot, but Dell wants $80 to upgrade to 4GB. Instead of that you can buy an additional 4GB from Newegg.com for $20 giving you a total of 6GB. Plenty for anything you’ll throw at it. Here’s the link: http://goo.gl/0N26V
If you want a higher performance machine, for $449 their Vostro business line has a quad-core Intel Core i5 (3.1GHz) with 4GB of memory, 500GB hard drive, built-in wireless networking, memory card reader, DVD burner, Windows 7 and 1 year of next business day in-home support if they can’t fix the problem over the phone. You can get it here: http://goo.gl/saA9E
Be Careful When Buying a Kindle as a Gift
Kindle’s are great. I think they’re so great that I bought one for a very good friend of mine who I knew loved to read. She got her Kindle and was tickled pink. Then she turned it on and saw MY NAME on it.
When you buy a Kindle through Amazon, since they know who you are, to save you “hassle” they set your Kindle up with your account information ready and waiting to buy books. So my friend was all set to buy as many books as she like on MY account without ever having to enter a password or anything.
I went back and saw that there is a small check box that says “this is a gift” and as I later found out, if you DON’T check the box they assume it’s for you and set it up with your account.
Kindle’s are great and make great gifts for your friends who are readers. If you buy one through Amazon, LOOK for that little check box during checkout and be sure to check it. Then the recipient can set up their own account with Amazon.
Big Bad Dell Laptop under $700!
Dell has their 17.3” XPS laptop with an Intel Core i5 processor on sale for only $689.99 when you add the coupon code
7WR1C2?HTTQQ11 at checkout. This is the XPS series, not their entry level Inspiron series. This is a very nice laptop with 6GB of memory, and huge 750GB hard drive, a BACKLIT keyboard (very nice), an NVidia graphics card, DVD burner, high-speed wired and wireless networking and JBL audio.
This isn’t a small laptop, 17.3” is a big laptop and it weighs about 7.5 lbs. If you’re looking for something small and very portable, this isn’t it. But for price/performance/features with a nice big screen – this is a winner. Oh, and they are offering free shipping on this as well. Here’s the link: http://goo.gl/gQvtQ (don’t forget to add the coupon code to save an additional $100.)