Apps/Tools
Free Anti-Virus Software for Your Mac
Security company Sophos has released a free home version of its’ Mac anti-virus product. There have been a few instances of malware reported for the Mac, and as the popularity of Mac computers grows, they will undoubtedly become a more attractive target for the bad guys. If you have a Mac, give this a try: http://bit.ly/TekChic0209
Using No-Script with Mozilla Firefox
For a detailed explanation on WHY you should be using No-script with Firefox, click here to read my November, 2010 article on how to avoid viruses and malware.
If you don’t have the latest version of Firefox, go to Mozilla.com and download it from there. If you haven’t used Firefox before, during installation it will let you import your Favorites (called Bookmarks) and give you the option of keeping your same home page or using Firefox’s Google home page.
Once Firefox is installed, click on “Tools” in the top menu and select “Add-ons”
Next click on “Get Add-ons”, type “noscript” into the box and hit enter. You’ll see NoScript with the scary looking graphic, now click on “Add to Firefox” in the lower right corner of the box.
Next you’ll see a box with “Install” counting down. Click on it when it says “Install Now”
After a few seconds it will finish and you’ll be prompted to restart Firefox. Click on “Restart Firefox”
After Firefox restarts, you’ll probably notice at the bottom of your browser window the “S” in the red circle with the line through it in the lower right corner and the yellow bar with the “Options” button.
To finish your setup, click on “Option” and select the “Appearance” tab. UNCHECK the box next to “Allow Scripts Globally (dangerous)”
Next click on the “Notifications” tab and UNCHECK the box next to “Display the release notes on updates”. Click on OK.
Your setup is done! Now, it’s not uncommon for a site to run several scripts, or even have a script call another script into play. If you’re at a page you trust, then click on “Options” in the yellow bar at the bottom. Start by just approving the sites main page. If everything works fine on the page, don’t worry about the rest. If buttons or features aren’t working on the page, go ahead and approve the other scripts until the page is working fully (remember – once you’ve done this, you won’t have to do it again for this site so it’s gets less obtrusive over time.)
There you go – you’ve just put a HUGE roadblock between you and the bad guys.
Posted in Apps/Tools, Security | Tags: add-ons, Firefox, malware, NoScript, security | 
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Look For Flights From Your Phone
You won’t be able to actually book your flights from this app, but you will be able to do your shopping to compare prices. Available for both the iPhone and Android phones, OnTheFly lets you quickly search to see what flights and fares meet your criteria. You can get more information from their web site at http://bit.ly/TekChic0199
This is a VERY well done app, it’s actually faster to look for 
flight on your phone than on the computer. When you find the flight you want, you can (of course) always book it online using your favorite travel site, or just call your travel agent (who might even get you a better deal.)
The app is free, and is in the Apple App Store and the Android Marketplace, or if you have a bar-code scanner app on your Android phone, just scan the barcode to the left at it will take you directly to the the Marketplace.
Dropbox – Free and Easy Way to Share Files
Is this you? You need to get a file or a bunch of files from one computer to another, it could be within your home or perhaps a business associate 1,000 miles away. Or maybe you have a small office and have files that need to be available to all the computers in the office, but you don’t have or want the trouble or expense of maintaining a server.
Say hello to Dropbox. Dropbox is online storage that makes it SIMPLE to share files between as many computers as you want. Just download Dropbox and install it on your computer (MAC, Windows, Linux and even Apple and Android phones.) You get 2 Gigabytes of free storage, and you can even create private folders that are shared with specific people. Dropbox creates a folder on your computer, and anything you put in that folder is immediately copied to the other Dropbox users in your account. It also safely stores a copy online that you can access anywhere from any computer. It’s also a great way to send a file to a friend that’s too big for email. Just create a folder for them and drop your file into it. From the Dropbox website you can send them a note and they will be given a link that lets them access that folder online. It’s a great tool.
Use this link to get an EXTRA 250 Megabytes for free: http://bit.ly/TekChic0182
UNSUBSCRIBE From Annoying Ads
Here’s a service you’ll definitely want to use. It’s Unsubscribe.com. What it does is make it EXTREMEMLY easy to unsubscribe from the mailing lists that you are on but don’t want to be. Maybe you bought some clothes online one time, and now you find you’re getting 10 emails a week from various clothing sites – unsubscribe.com is the answer. If you use Microsoft Outlook or Gmail (with Firefox) you get a simple button that you press and bingo, they take care of everything for you.
They have a free version that lets you unsubscribe from 5 mailings a month, or for $19/year you get unlimited unsubscribing. Don’t expect to get off the list of the blatant spammers (you know, the Viagra, Canadian Pharmacy, etc.) but the stuff you perhaps “accidentally” subscribed to just got your name added because of an order, this is great.
In Outlook it installs in the icon bar:
If you Firefox to access Gmail, it installs with the other buttons above your inbox:
If you’d like to give it a try, go to unsubscribe.com, or just click on this link: http://bit.ly/TekChic0181
Posted in Apps/Tools, Tips | Tags: Firefox, gmail, Outlook, spam, unsubscribe, unsubscribe.com | No Comments »
Use Office 2010 for Free on the Web
Did you know that Microsoft let’s you use web versions of Office 2010 for free on the web? The versions are simplified somewhat, but for most of us they do everything we want them to do. You have Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote to use, create documents that you can store online or onto your computer – completely FREE! First you need some kind of account with Microsoft. It could be a Hotmail or Passport account from the past, or now they call them “Live” accounts. If you don’t have or don’t remember yours, just make a new one at https://login.live.com/, it’s simple and fast. Once you have your account, login and go here to accept the privacy agreement: http://bit.ly/TekChic0179. Now you’re ready to start making docs with 25 Gigabytes of free storage – that’s a lot.
Posted in Apps/Tools, Tips | Tags: Excel, free software, Office 2010, Office web, OneNote, PowerPoint, Word | No Comments »
A Useful App for Your Laptop
Unless you ALWAYS use your laptop plugged into the wall, then this is a great app for you. The BatteryBar not only tells you if your battery is charging or not, but it gives you the expected life of your battery, how quickly it is charging, and how much of its capabilities is still available.
It’s free and available for Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 here: http://bit.ly/TekChic0170
Make a PDF (Acrobat) From Any Program
PDF files are great because you don’t need the program the document was created in to view it. It doesn’t matter if the original source was Microsoft Word, Photoshop or a web page – you click on the PDF file and it opens in Acrobat and you see exactly what the author wanted you to see. Wouldn’t it be nice to do that yourself. I create PDF files of online receipts when I purchase something – and put the the file in a “Receipts” folder under “My Documents”. Look Ma – no paper! Well, you can do it for free yourself. Just download and install the free CutePDF Writer onto your Windows computer (Mac users have this capability built in.) It downloads and installs quickly. It appears to your computer as a printer, so if you can print it, you can make a PDF file of it. You simple go to your print menu and rather than your default paper printer, select “CutePDF Writer” as the printer and a dialog box will pop up asking you where to save the file. It’s that simple.
LastPass Basics – The BEST Password Manager
LastPass is a great tool for managing your passwords. As I mentioned in my August 2010 article, having good passwords is essential to keeping your information secure. But having good passwords AND remembering them is almost impossible to do, so that’s why you need to go to www.lastpass.com and download LastPass. The name LastPass is reference to “The Last Password You’ll Have to Remember!” With LastPass you only have to remember one really good password – your “master” password. This master password unlocks your vault, allowing LastPass not only to remember your usernames and passwords, but now it can fill it in for you the next time you visit the site. Most browsers already have this capability, but they are not secure and easy for a bad guy to see. All you data in LastPass is highly encrypted, and without your master password, all anyone can see is gibberish.
The advantages of LastPass are many: 1) your vault is stored encrypted on the web and is accessible to you from any computer, anywhere. 2) It works with all the major browsers. 3) It works on Windows, Mac and Linux, so the password you created on your Windows machine at work will be available to you on your Mac or Linux machine at home. 4) It’s FREE for use on your computers, and for only $1.00 a month you can access to your login information on your smartphone (iPhone, BlackBerry, Windows Phone, Symbian and Android phones.)
Here’s 1 minute video on the basic function of LastPass:
So give LastPass a try. I’ll posts later on some of the more advanced but very cool features of LastPass.