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Hopefully someone reading my blog gets the subject reference today. Google has reported that Monday a small amount of users logged into to see something very scary! No mail in their inbox. Not just that but any archives as well. The big sigh to take from all of this is the data was never truly lost. In a state on Google’s blog they reported what had happened and reassured everyone that everything was fine and they would have emails restored to normal shortly.
Here is the breakdown of what Google had to report:

* .02% of Gmail users were actually affected by this.

*Google apologized to all of the users that were affected “we’re sorry”

*The data wasn’t lost and many who have been affected have already seen their data restored

*it was a new storage software update that gave the bug life and Google caught it before it damaged more gmail accounts.

*Google is currently restoring the data from tape backups.

So to avoid the fear of this issue ever happening in the future, a good tip would be to backup your Gmail in an email client. Hopefully you won’t have to worry about this ever happening again.

Email is the center of the work place, the tool that replaces the phone, and the communicator which connects people around the world. Even old folks got into it making life much more enjoyable sending emails to relatives and friends, especially forwards: my grandfather loves those. How did email come to be, and more importantly, how did it come to be such a Fustercluck!?

Back in the day, let’s say the 1970′s before crack-cocaine hit, electronic mail was sent to another computer that had to be on at the same time. It looked almost exactly identical to the emails you see today, with the header, the subject, and the body all there.

Did you know email predated the internet? That is right, and it actually helped to create it too. Originally email started as a way for two or more people in a business to communicate back and forth with each other about what they were working on. From this it has turned into THE way to communicate with each other, period. Try to call the guy you need a quote from, what will he say? He probably will not even pick up the phone, because he knows that the email will be on its way.

This is all great, really just fine and super, but what about the constant headache of spam, viruses, and all out email bombardment of messages from India to China? Well, I will tell you what that is about, that is about you! I know it seems hard to realize that the one at fault is the one reading this, but the truth is funny like that.

If you want to avoid all that spam? Do not give out your email address by signing up to websites such as Facebook, any site with a newsletter or membership, avoid anything that asks for your email address. How can you still operate without the hassles? Simple, two emails.

I found this out recently when I had so much spam and so much crap coming into the inbox that it seemed impossible to completely stop, until I opened up a new account with the same email server, which is Gmail. If you are like me and you have already screwed up your email account by giving it out too much, then there is a solution, and it is simple. Keep that first email address which still has some use, and get a new email account, call it the top-secret inbox.

Now you have two emails, one for all the spam and baloney that gets piled in the inbox, and the other you only give out to friends, family, and sites your trust will not give out your email address. I stumbled upon this great idea after a month has gone by without one message in the spam box! That is a beautiful thing, and the emails I do get I know for a fact that they are real and that they need my attention.

This saves me so much time wasted trying to delete random messages and spam I thought I marked as spam but now is hanging in the box.  When you handle emails constantly every day, and the response time is expected to be short and prompt with replies, you have no time to be analyzing words and making sure they are okay.

To bring it all down to the heart of the matter, optimize your email by creating duplicity, and getting away with more because now you have a fall guy to take the hit for all those people emailing you and trying to ruin your email experience.

If you have not heard about this new word processor, then you have been missing out my friend, because Google Docs competes with Office and is completely online. There are so many benefits to this type of document platform that they are too many to write about in this blog. However, I will try to contain it in simple and easy terms that even a layman could lay down and understand.

The centerpiece of Google Docs is the collaboration feature that allows multiple people to look at a piece of writing and edit it simultaneously. I have used this tool I cannot count how many times, and it never fails to amaze me as well as save me. My editor could be across the country, yet by connecting via Gmail to the Google Docs folder, we can look at an article together like we were sitting next to each other. Technology shines light on how easy life can be with new tools which make working and writing much better.

Let’s say for example, that you are in the airport on your way to Wichita, Kansas for a big business meeting. On your laptop you have saved the big presentation, all on Google Docs, and there is not a cloud on the horizon. CRASH! No more presentation because the laptop is infested with a virus. What are you going to do? Head to the bar and drink your anger away? Get on the plane and have a breakdown and end up behind the bar? Or are you going to take a deep breath and realize that you are safe, with no fear because you can get onto the presentation from anywhere that has internet access! If you have an iPhone, iPad, or Android, there you go!

More great features include the auto-save and the organisation of Google Docs. When you are using an online application to write anything from school papers to business protocol, auto will save your life if the server goes down and freezes, making sure that data recovery is simple by saving all the time. As I write this blog, WordPress saves the document every minute, this action has literally saved my life and my blog a couple times when if I did not have this auto-save action? A lot of words would have been lost in cyber space this way, they are floating around out there when they should have been saved.

About organizing, Google Docs gives you a folder to share with others along with the ability to move folders and files to different locations. This is perfect for people who need to have things just so. Google Docs is perhaps the best way to write, save what you write, and to share what you write,  organize it all in a nice package, and live life easy.

I strongly recommend using Google Docs if you are a writer like me, or work in any business related to communicating with the outside world where editing and proofreading are essential to getting the job done. Amen.

In Google Docs We Trust.

If you have not already made the jump to Office 2010, then you are still sitting on the lily pad, with all the other frogs deciding when to jump into something better.

The new edition of Office came out last June, changing the way people use the computer and how they conduct their business through it, and now is standard in new PC’s. Microsoft Office is really just an easier way to handle multiple operations at once when the operating system normally could not perform these tasks. For businessmen and professionals, Office has become the standard for email, meetings, and productivity.

Office provides Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Access, InfoPath, Groove, and Publisher. That is a ton of operation for one program to handle, and Office fits them all together for you to use them with ease. So if you have the old version of Office, why not turn your ‘ease’ into ‘easier’?

New Features

One new add on to Microsoft Office is PowerPoint LiveWeb, which is perfect for anyone who uses PowerPoint. Who does not love this program? Students especially have benefited from using this program greatly because it offers such a detailed and neat presentation. No more posters or weird looking projects that you have to spend hours on making. With this new feature, you can add web pages right to the slide making your presentation perfect. The OLD PowerPoint is so hard to configure because you have to add the code to the page.

To top it all off, a new feature called Producer takes the cake on ease. It lives up to its name, it produces results allowing the user to import video, photographs, and audio right into your presentation. If you are involved in e-Learning, a conference, office communications, and public speaking, Producer lets you do what you want to do: the best!

Office 2010 gets into the social network scene with Outlook Social Connector. With this feature you can see what your friends and business associates are doing instantly through Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, and Window’s Live Messenger. Using this feature allows people to follow each others progress and status when at work, school, or home.

Offisync is more than a combination between Office and synchronization, it is a revolutionary change in the way people share, edit, and communicate documents. If you use Google Docs, another multi-usage platform that combines a word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation along with storage, then Offisync is the right stuff. With this feature you now have access to your Google Docs within Office. This makes it easier because you are free from being confined to the Google Apps. It is the key you have been looking for to unlock the door to accessibility.

For all of you that travel across the world seeking business and/or pleasure, Office has combined with Bing to create: Bing Travel Planner for Outlook. Especially if you have trouble to begin with trying to plan a trip or multiple trips over the year, Bing Travel Planner helps you schedule flights and also remember them.

Perhaps one of the most useful tools that Microsoft has added to its new edition of Office, is Microsoft Mathematics Add-In for Word. You can download this free of charge at the Microsoft website. What this allows you math illiterate people like myself to do, or math geniuses like you to accomplish, is graphing 2D or 3D, solving equations in arithmetic and algebra, and even completing statistical functions. How awesome is that? This is something that has been missing in computers, an application that is easy to use and effective in helping the student or businessman who has to deal with numbers daily, finish the work they started.

So for all you Microsoft Office Addicts out there who are off the wagon and need a fix? Office 2010 gives you all that need to satisfy that craving for more.

Today Microsoft Office is on over a billion PC’s around the world. If you work in business or any company, chances are pretty good that email is involved, and Office is perfect for organization and ease of use.

Chris Capossela , who is the Senior Vice President of the Microsoft Office Division, has this to say on a new product that might interest users of Microsoft Office, and businessman who either own a small business or work in one.

“This is just the beginning; Office 365 allows us to take the Office suite and all the servers that go along with it, and move those to the Cloud with a world class productivity service. That really will define the next generation of productivity,” said  Capossela.

It looks like the world of computers and internet is improving for the better. Major factors involved include ease of use, how fast it is, and results. Microsoft Office 365 delivers every day of the year, hence the name.

“No other online service can provide the rich productivity capabilities of Office 365, the ease of use and depth of services, combined with the communication and collaboration of Exchange Online, SharePoint online, and Lync Online, deliver incredible benefits for organizations of all sizes,” said Betsy Webb, who is the General Manager for the Microsoft Office Division.

Small businesses that do not have formal IT staff but have big business needs for communication and collaboration will find a home here. Office 365 provides services for small businesses who want to get up and running in minutes.

You can share your work right with others with the broadcast capabilities of Powerpoint. Make a presentation on your laptop at the office and have that sent to the people who cannot make the meeting.

Sharepoint Online  allows every employee of your company to have their own website, a sort of Facebook that allows each employee and employer to find each other and connect in ways they could not before.

Certain abilities like PC to PC communication are great for small businesses. Employees are able to work across distances with audio and video conversations, Microsoft Office 365 creates an easy living world in your business.

Here is a look at the specifics.

Microsoft Exchange Online is designed for organizations who want to get the benefits of cloud-based email without sacrificing the business-class capabilities that Exchange Server has been providing for decades. Built on the same technology as Exchange Server 2010, Exchange Online provides organizations with the latest capabilities including built-in archiving, optional Conversation View, and MailTips, along with powerful web-based tools for managing online deployments.  With Exchange Online, Microsoft handles the ongoing maintenance, patches, and upgrades of the Exchange infrastructure while providing IT administrators the control and flexibility they require.

With SharePoint Online the services are there for you to make life easier. Manage and share personal documents and insights with colleagues using ‘MySites’, a great feature like Facebook. Keep teams in sync with shared document libraries, task lists and calendars with Team Sites. SharePoint allows you to stay up to date on company news, events and business updates with Intranet Sites. Another good feature is the ability share documents and insights securely with partners and customers using Extranet Sites.

The last feature is called Lync Online. It is a next-generation cloud communications service that connects people in new ways, anytime, from anywhere. Lync Online provides intuitive communications capabilities across presence, instant messaging, audio/video calling and a rich online meeting experience including PC-audio, video and web conferencing. Transform your interactions with colleagues, customers and partners from today’s hit-and-miss communication to a more collaborative, engaging, and effective experience.

All in all, if you have a small business and already use Office 2007, the upgrade to Cloud could mean increases in productivity and results. Personally I have not checked out this Cloud business, as it is only in Beta form right now. It looks promising, with the future of communication happening today, I would check it out.

By Sean Wilcoxson

In this world of computers, technology, and the internet where information flows all around us there exist two types of people: surfers and sharks.

These are dangerous waters. Just last year there were 2.6 million threats in the form of Trojan and other viruses sent out all over the internet. How are we to keep safe when most of us do not even know what a virus looks like, and what is more, how to stop one.

The answer is in the password. There are many different techniques to stop hackers from getting into your computer, this one is crucial to prevention.

You might be asking: “Why do I need to change my password?”

First, let’s take a look at just what a malicious attacker can do with your password.

Recently a hacker masquerading as your friend Bob sent you an email asking for help with money or some other problem and to help him all he requires is your sensitive personal information. Hacker skills are vast in finding ways into your friend Bob’s email account. One way is through malicious software that simply records the information as he types it in, like taking candy from a Bob the hackers now have his sign-in data and can use that for whatever they wish.

Poor Bob did not change his password, left it at boob69, and now has to answer to a friend who lost a thousand dollars because he thought Bob was in trouble from an email he sent. This can happen to anyone.

Sometimes all it takes for a hacker to get your password is to guess. “You use a password that’s easy to guess, like your first or last name plus your birth date (‘Laura1968′), or you provide an answer to a secret question that’s common and therefore easy to guess, like ‘pizza’ for ‘What is your favorite food?,’” wrote Priya Navak, Google’s online operations strategist. Be creative with your password.

Gmail is a common target along with Hotmail, Yahoo, and social networking site Facebook for sharks to base their attack on surfers’ privacy.

There is so much information out there it is easy for hackers to grab whatever they want simply by reaching out there hand. To put this in perspective, 247 billion emails are sent out per day, 81% of which are spam emails. That means that every day there are about 200 billion attempts at scams, viruses, and other malicious attacks on you.

This happened to me, and I almost cashed a check written out to me from a businessman who actually used a job finding website to mask as an employer. He wanted me to send him via email my name, address, email address, and my age. It seemed like harmless info, so I obliged, not knowing that this “employer” was a scammer who wanted me to cash a bad check.

Now you might be asking: “How do I protect myself from these bad people?” Answer: Change your password twice a year and never reuse the same one.

Here are some other ways to protect you in the computer world.

1)      Watch out for messages that ask for your username and/or password. Secure sites will not ask you for this information.

2)      Never give out your password if you opened a link that you think is trusted on an email. Hackers are crafty little crackers; they can disguise a trusted site like Amazon or Google and have your information easy.

3)      Always sign-out when you are finished using your email. Don’t leave the door open for hackers and viruses to get in.

There are also some good, free programs like LastPass and Keepass to help with protection. Don’t get bit by a computer shark while surfing the net!

If you’re using Microsoft Outlook as your email client and you engage in email communication a lot then you may wake up one day and find that Outlook is performing very S-L-O-W-L-Y. This is especially true if you do not split your emails into different PST files.

Think of PST files as ‘file cabinets’. Sure, you can use folders to separate your email messages, calendar events,  notes and so on but those folders still belong to, say, one file cabinet, and if the cabinet gets too full, Outlook performs slowly. And not only that; Outlook may crash and you lose all your important messages (and their attachments!).

The simplest thing to do to protect your email messages in Outlook is to store them in different ‘file cabinets’ (PST files). Here are the steps to do just that.

Note: The following steps are done using Outlook 2007. Steps may vary slightly depending on the Outlook version you’re using. You may also want to backup your existing PST file first before you attempt the steps below.

1. Open Outlook. Click the File menu and then click Outlook Data File.



2. Select Office Outlook Personal Folders File and then click OK.
3. Decide where you want to the new file to be located (e.g., My Documents) and then on the File name field type a name for the new PST file.
4. Click OK.
5. In the Create Microsoft Personal Folders menu, type a Name for the new PST file and then click OK. (At this point, you can even apply a password to the PST file so that no one can access it by you. Good option to have if you’re not the only one using your PC.)

After you create this new PST file, it will be placed under All Mail Items below your current Inbox. Just start dragging email messages (or whole message folders) into this new ‘file cabinet’ and you’re done!

We always advise our clients to backup their data. No matter how new their system, the chance of a catastrophic crash is right around the corner, the likes of which possibly resulting in the loss of critical data. Well, in an age where much of our computer use centers around the internet, a good deal of that the data we prize is now stored online, making it difficult to back it up as easily as we would the information housed within our our hard drives.

Backupify is an extremely helpful service that solves that problem, backing up your online data – Facebook, Gmail, Photobucket, and more – so that you’re able to browse the web with a little less anxiety over how secure your information is should one of the sites you frequent experience problems that threaten the data you’ve stored since your account’s creation.

Once you’re signed up for Backupify, the service performs scheduled backups at one of the 10 online services it supports, requiring only that you provide the login information for that site you’d like backed up. After you’re set up, Backupify ensures that your information is never deleted – easing any worries you might have about  losing all of those blog posts you’ve put on your Facebook page.

There is a fee for subscribing to the service, but it’s certainly more than manageable, considering how critical the information is to many. While Twitter backups are free, the pay plans range from $3.95 $14.95 per month, with fluctuations in price contingent upon just how much you need stored.

This is for those of us who spend a considerable amount of time online, wanting to protect the data we store on the internet.

You can visit Backupify here.

Most of us are already well familiar with the frustrations of spam: unsolicited email advertisements. In recent years, unwanted emails have evolved in an attempt to avoid increasingly advanced filters and wary consumers. The contents and goals of unsolicited emails are not always the same, however, and some emails are more dangerous than others. We’ve put together a list of red flags to help you quickly identify emails that may be harmful to your computer and your wallet.

Suspicious attachments

Attaching files to an email is a quick and easy way to share files with your contacts. The downside is that unscrupulous spammers can attach files like viruses and trojan horses in the hopes that an unwary recipient might download the file and infect their computer. Any time you see an email with an attachment that you weren’t expecting, be very cautious about downloading the attachment or even opening the email.

Links that don’t make sense

In an email supposedly from Yahoo, a link to a specific page on Yahoo’s site appears. So why does the text of the link not begin with “http://yahoo.com”? Because it’s a scam. Many scam artists attempt to gain account information or even credit card numbers by posing as respectable web companies looking for information about your account. These emails typically contain a link where you can reset your password, confirm your credit card information, or log in to access some special new feature. To spot these bad links, you need to look at the url: the address of the page that is being linked to. All urls begin with “http://” or “htpps://” and from there vary from website to website. If the url is not visible in the link, you can hover your mouse over the link and see the url in the lower left corner of your web browser.

email containing links that don't match up and suspicious sender information

Notices about accounts you don’t have

Virus spreading emails that mask themselves as emails from major websites are banking on their recipients actually having accounts with that website in the first place. If you get an email about your facebook account when you never signed up for facebook in the first place, the odds are very good that this is a phishing or virus email.

Password reset requests you didn’t send

One of the most common phishing emails currently is the fake password reset. These emails claim that you recently requested a new password, and direct you to a webpage where you can enter your “old” account name and password. You may be able to identify these emails by the link urls or because you don’t have the account that you would supposedly be resetting a password for in the first place. Even if you don’t see anything wrong with the link or the account information, never respond to a password reset email that you didn’t specifically request.

Sender addresses that don’t add up

An email from YouTube.com will be sent from an account that ends with @youtube.com. If “joey5683426$$@ytmail.com” is sending you important updates about your YouTube account, it’s a safe bet this is also a malicious email. If your email system hides sender information, you can change your settings to show full headers or usually click a link right in the email to show all of the sender information.

Money transfer requests

Typically from Nigeria, these emails claim that there is some obscene amount of money sitting in an account somewhere that the sender wants moved to the United States before something terrible happens to it. It’s not uncommon for these emails to be completely in upper case and poor English, although there are exceptions. These emails are scam attempts, trying to get your bank account information so that the sender can access your funds. No matter the pretense for the email, you should never share bank account information with anyone you don’t know. Recent versions of these emails claim to be from “a member of your church.”

Weird emails from friends

The most dangerous and difficult to spot malicious emails are the ones sent by your friends and other contacts. Usually if you receive a suspicious email from a friend or co-worker, it’s either because their system has been infected or because their account has been compromised. If you see an email from one of your contacts that contains strange characters in the subject, has attachments that you weren’t expecting, links to a file sharing site, or otherwise looks unlike the correspondence you’re used to from that person, take the time to check with them before clicking on any links or downloading any attachments. If you do find a strange email from a contact that later turns out to be a virus or online scam, it’s important to remember that your friend most likely was not the one that sent the email to you. These are almost always sent either by a virus or by someone who gained unauthorized access to your friend’s email account.

Email from the user's account containing a suspicious link and subject

Emails from yourself (that you didn’t send)
These emails can be disturbing when you find them. If you find an email from your own account sitting in your inbox that you know you didn’t send (and you have not allowed anyone else access to your account) immediately change your password and security question for your account. Next, check your “sent mail” folder to see if any other emails went out that you were unaware of. Let everyone who received one of these suspicious emails know that you did not send the emails, that they should not open them or click any links or attachments and that you suspect your account was compromised. You can also let your email provider know about your concerns. If this problem recurs, your system may be infected and need virus cleanup service performed.

As users and spam filters become more aware of these malicious emails, scammers will develop new schemes to get at your computer, bank account, and other information. The best weapon against these attacks is a healthy dose of skepticism, though even vigilant users can fall victim to scams and viruses. If you believe you may have a compromised email account or infected machine, or if you just want more information about how to prevent these problems, give our office a call at 1-800-GEEK-HELP (433-5435).