Greetings,

Today I thought I would take a few minutes and talk about passwords. Everyone has them and almost everyone dislikes them. I thought I would take a few minutes and give a couple of simple techniques to make your password much harder for someone else to guess and/or hack while at the same time keeping it easy to remember.

Everyone understands passwords are needed to keep hackers and other prying eyes out of accounts with sensitive information (bank records, medical accounts. etc). Most folks understand the need for a secure password for email and wireless accounts though some people do not care if everyone knows that password. To protect your family, friends, coworkers, etc you need to make all your passwords more secure. Why? If you dont, people you dont know can and will hack your account or access your network. They can then start using your email account or network address to start sending out virus infections, set your PC up to participate in attacks on other networks, or monitor your computer for sensitive information and send it off to have your identity stolen. If your bank password is complicated and secure but someone can easily access your wireless network it isnt very hard to install a small program that records keystrokes making life easy for a hacker or identity thief.

So what is a person to do to make passwords easy to remember but hard to hack?

1) Incorporate a number and/or capital letter and/or punctuation mark into your password. For example: "password" is simple to guess - YES you would be amazed at how often typing password for the password will get me into someone account. Instead use Password! (Capital P and add ! to the end)

2) Replace letters in your existing password with symbols. Try P@$$word instead of password. The brain works in strange ways and while you remember a simple word like "password" it is also very simple to remember the @ symbol replaces a and the $ replaces the s.

3) Replace letters in your existing password with numbers. The zero key is right next to the letter o. The 3 key is right next to the letter e. Even if someone is trying to watch you type your password they may not notice you typed passw0rd not password or 3agl3 instead of eagle.

Once this change has become habit you can still tape that password to your monitor or leave it under your keyboard spelled out in plain English but you will know the trick to decoding your own password and others will wonder why it doesnt work for them.

This technique can be used for all types of passwords. Email, bank accounts, wireless access codes, etc. Lastly remember A_Computer_Guy, a-computer-guy, and AComputerGuy are all completely different codes to a computer.

Have a nice day!

Doug

P.S. - Hate having to change your password every month or quarter? Is it really hard to decide on a new password? Try this. Just add the number equivalent of the current month or quarter to the end of your regular password. (ie: password02) Next month/quarter increment to password03. Most systems only remember the last 10 passwords so come next year you can still use the same password again. Incorporate this into the above techniques and you are all set with a simple way to secure your passwords yet easily come up with new ones!

Today's blog will focus on Android based tablets - which ones I like, which ones I dont, and why I, personally, like them more than iPads.

I think Google created a pretty excellent product when they released the Android based cell phone. I have owned three different Android models and for the most part I have been very satisfied with each of them. When the first Android tablets came out I was not as excited. They were basically large screen units running an operating system designed for a cell phone. With the release of Honeycomb (Android 3.x) a true tablet styled operating system was born.

Why is there only 1 brand of iPad - Apple but dozens of Android brands - Motorola Xoom, Samsung Galaxy, Lenovo K1, Toshiba Thirve, ASUS Transformer, Acer Iconia, etc? Mainly because Apple does not allow third party vendors to build tablets using Apple's iOS. Google on the other hand, licenses Android to any third party vendor willing to pay the licensing fees.

What are the differences between Android models? The version of the operating system installed, bundled software installed and some hardware features. These 3 components help determine the cost of the unit and in my opinion - whether or not you really want to purchase it. Just today I found a 7" no name Android based tablet for under $60.00 - would I spend my $60.00 on it - NO. Why? 1st reason - it is running Android 2.2 this is the OS Google created for cell phones; it just doesnt work well on non-cellular tablets. 2nd reason - only 4GB of storage (25% of what my Lenovo has) load a few songs or a movie and you are out of space :-( 3rd and biggest reason - the Android Market. Market is how users can purchase and download apps for their tablet. Of the few off brand models I have reviewed for clients none allow access to Market. They have their own branded Market-like download area but all of the ones I have browsed are terrible. Very few applications, even fewer that users would actually want, and in my experience of the ones users might want many apps simply do not work.

So if you are looking to purchase a "cheap" tablet please check the reviews on them first. Google the model you are considering and see what others are saying about it. If you have never heard of the brand before do your homework. Feel free to shoot me an email, I would be happy to give you my $.02 for no charge.

Features to look for when purchasing a Android tablet:

Operating System - Honeycomb 3.0 or higher - avoid tablets running Android 2.x

Storage - 16GB or larger (most can not be added to later so dont shortchange yourself). Most Tier 1 units come in 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB (each step up typically adds $100.00 to the price tag)

Processor - Dual Core (Tegra 2 minimum) Tegra 3's are starting to show up which adds a nice speed boost.

Camera - Front and Rear facing (1.3 Megapixel or higher)

Wireless - 802.11n

Lastly, why do I personally like Android based tablets over iPads. Personal preference. As a tech I feel like I have more control over how I use my tablet. Apple makes some great applications but when something does go wrong I dont like having to call tech support and them fix it without me figuring out what they did. Also nearly every app I run on my Android was free. With my iPad everything worth getting costs me another $.99 / $1.99 / $4.99 and I hate getting nickeled and dimed to death.

Please remember this blog is nothing more than my opinion. Feel free to comment on my post but if you do not agree go start your own blog and post your wisdom for all to read.

Have a nice day!

Doug

Greetings,

I thought I would take a few minutes and blog about a subject I get lots and lots of questions on - tablet computers. The tablet everyone knows about is the iPad and/or iPad2. Android based units are also very common; if the tablet you are reviewing is not specifically an iPad then it is probably an Android unit.

Let me start by saying this blog is not about which unit to purchase - folks will argue with me all day on which unit is the best. This is to help educate those interested in purchasing a tablet computer on the strengths and weaknesses of tablet computers.

So why so much buzz about tablet computers recently, they have been around for years (one of my clients was using one back in the mid 90's in his medical practice). A couple of factors. in my opinion, have helped the tablet market. First is price, tablet computers used to be extremely expensive - now they are about the same costs as a traditional laptop (some are cheaper but I will discuss those in another blog). Additionally, these more expensive tablets were slower and had less functionality than a similarly priced desktop or laptop computer so the only real 'feature" of the tablet was portability. Very few people wanted to pay an extra $1000.00 just to be able to carry a limited use PC everywhere they went.

Second, the growth of wifi and cellular service. All tablets have wireless network functionality built into them and nowadays most fast food establishments, coffee houses, hotels, and the like have free wifi service. In addition, all tablets purchased from cell phone carriers have the ability to stay connected almost anywhere via that carrier's cellular signal. With this change people stay connected all day, everyday not just when at home or work (some will argue this is actually a bad thing :-)

Third, Apple and Google created operating systems designed and optimized for tablet computers. Before these were developed nearly all tablets still ran some version of Microsoft Windows. While Windows is a good product it was designed for desktop computing. It also works fine on laptops as most people use laptops as portable desktops. The tablet is a different animal and is used for different purposes; yes, there are overlaps but tablets are NOT just laptops with touch screens and no keyboard.

Tablets are great for surfing the web, checking email, checking in on Facebook, playing a little Angry Birds, and watching a movie or video. They can be used to show presentations but I would hate to have to create a presentation on one. This would be the weakness of a tablet PC. Many of my clients call asking about tablets and the first thing they say is I want to get rid of my laptop and replace it with a tablet. This gets me to asking questions about how they plan to use the tablet and I end up explaining why getting rid of the laptop may or may not be a good idea.

Tablets do not come with physical keyboards only an on screen keyboard. A couple have docking stations with keyboards and all support external bluetooth keyboards but carrying those around kind of defeats the purpose and portability a tablet offers. If you use your laptop to create content (documents, spreadsheets, presentations, edit photos, etc) a tablet is not a good replacement option for you. If all the programs you use are Microsoft Windows based applications, a tablet is not a good replacement option for you. If you only watch movies, listen to music, surf the web, or show presentations to clients a tablet is a great replacement option for you.

Before purchasing a table I recommend finding out if an application or "app" has been created for the iPad or Android that will fill the current use of your laptop. Both tablet genres have Office type apps but writing a thesis on a tablet could make you rethink whether getting your Ph.D is really worth it and most doctorial students wonder that already :-) If you sell insurance or financial services and feel a tablet will help you present your information more easily to your potential clients you better make sure that program runs on an iPad or Android based tablet - unless it is web based - most do not.

In conclusion, it is not my desire to sway you away from a tablet computer - I have and use both an iPad and an Android based tablet. I like features of both and use them regularly. My goal is to make sure when you spend $300-$500 on one it will provide you with the functionality you think it will. The salesperson at the store is looking to make a commission and may or may not give you all the details.

If you have any questions regarding tablet computers feel free to call or email or comment and I will be happy to help in anyway I can.

Have a nice day!

Doug

What is it?

SPAM is the general term used for unwanted and/or unsolicted email. All those emails you get about refinancing your house, buying cheap drugs from Canadian pharmacies, some guy in some remote part of the world that needs your help gaining access to millions of dollars - these are all types of SPAM.

What can I do about it?

Well the first thing to do is be very cautious giving out your email address. If you have to provide a company your email address expressly tell them do not add it to their marketing database. Marketing databases get sold to anyone willing to pay a few dollars. If you do have to provide an email address go to Gmail.com, Yahoo.com, or any number of other sites that offer free email addresses. Use this free email account address instead of your "real" email address. Then once or twice a month scan that account for real emails and delete the rest. This will help minimize the amount of SPAM you get in your inbox.

Second, consider using a SPAM filtering program. Numerous programs exist to help make sure you only get the messages you really want. Each works a little different but most do a very good job at limiting the amount of unwanted messages in your inbox. Fees run from "free" to monthly or annual subscription amounts. If your business has a domain with multiple email addresses you may wish to consider a domain level email filtering product. We offer a service for $25/mnth that filters up to 10,000 messages per day for an entire domain. If you get more than 10,000 message per day we can work with that also.

Third, if you have a website or your contact information is listed on any website; do not include your email address. Instead have a button created that says email me and require visitors to click it and fill out a form which is then emailed to you. There are plenty of programs available that run through websites and mine email addresses. Any good website developer can help you with this - I would not be one of those :)

Why is it called SPAM?

Here is a link to one site giving an explanation as to how the term got started.

http://www.cybernothing.org/faqs/net-abuse-faq.html#2.4

Since it makes mention of Monty Python I am inclined to believe it - geeks love Monty Python (me included!)

Have a nice day! :-)