More interesting websites

Finding out information on the internet is sometimes like looking for a needle in a haystack. You have to be very good at searching, using the right keywords, very persistent, trying different combinations of words or phrases, and sometimes just lucky. It's nice to hear about sites from time to time that are handy, should you ever need them.

Under the category of "I wouldn't have even have thought of that" is a site dreamed up by a guy who saw an obscure comment on a site about secrets. From this he created a blog called I Found your Camera What a novel idea. If you find a SD card or an entire camera, and don't know who it belongs to, you can send a couple of photos from the camera to the blog and the designer will post the images and a little message about where you found it.

Gas Buddy is a site that you can go to if you want to find out what the prices are and whether or not they are going up soon. You can look for the cheapest gas in your area.

The last site is a new one with an awkward name. It's called Wolframalpha.com. It's a site where you can put in mathematical formulas and get the answer, put in your birthdate and find out what was happening on that day or how many days you've been around. It's no real competition for Google, but the maker of it claims to cut the haystack a bit and get to the information you want a bit faster. This site is interesting if you are into math and science, but the jury is out on whether the rest of us would find it useful.

Virus programs

I just wanted to mention that AVG and Adaware both have new FREE versions available. I've been to a few client's homes to find that they still have two versions back because they were directed to a page that wanted them to pay for a new version.

AVG is created by a company called Grisoft. But if you go to free.grisoft.com you will always be directed (within about four clicks, they don't make it easy!) to the download.com site where the free up to date version is located. Similarly, Adaware, a program for Malware, is created by lavasoft, and I go to lavasoftusa.com to be directed to their download.com page to download. AVG's current version is 8.5 and Ad-Aware currently is supporting their anniversary edition.

Don't be fooled though, once you get to the final download page, you have to read carefully where the download you want is. Sometimes a flashier, more colourful button will beckon you to download, and it isn't usually the program you thought you were downloading!

Don't forget please, to install any current versions of virus software before installing a new version. And restart your computer between the uninstall process and the new installation.

Be afraid, be very afraid

I have noticed that there is a lot of interest in the sites such as Twitter and Facebook, and it grows even bigger. I find it funny that even though I am computer savvy and enjoy my work, I can't drum up any interest it these social networking sites. It's hard to get excited with the idea that people you left behind in high school can now look you up and revisit your past. I have friends that are addicted to their Facebook pages to the detriment of the relationships in the here and now.

But the other thing I worry about is privacy. Especially since I appear to have a stalker. It's a bit sad, but this person seems to search the web looking for items about me. I'm not particularly interesting, nor am I famous, but it is scary to know that someone can find out information about you that you have thought was fairly private and safe.

And I am glad that I don't subscribe to Facebook, or Twitter to people about the boring details of my day. And if I want to find out what my friends are doing, I call them up and ask them!

That doesn't mean I don't like the technology that we have to keep in touch. Far from it. We are able to talk often to our relatives in Scotland and London easily and it is just like the cartoon family the Jetsons portrayed that we can view them smiling at the same time!

Just remember that everything you write on Facebook and sites that are similar are read by more people than you think. Students going for jobs have their sites looked at by more than their friends; a young man who was about to be sentenced and was portrayed as full of remorse for his drunk driving was pictured on his page, drunk and partying with his friends just prior to being sentenced! No remorse shown there, but who would have thought that a prosecuter would have been looking at that page!

Two weeks after Joshua Lipton was charged in a drunk driving case, the college junior attended a Halloween party dressed as a prisoner, with the words 'jail bird' on his costume. Not surprisingly, his prosecutor was able to obtain photos of him at the party that were posted on Facebook, and claimed he was an 'unrepentant partier who lived it up while his victim recovered in the hospital.' The photos were presented in a slideshow, with one of them showing Lipton holding a can of Red Bull in one hand, and an arm draped around a girl bearing sorority letters. The judge agreed with the prosecutor, and changed Lipton's sentence to two years in prison. The article also cites other instances of people getting harsher sentences from pictures of them posted online.

So apart from behaving yourself, which is always a good idea, it is best not to leave a trail of things you would rather people not know about you. It takes a long time for that information to disappear even after you have deleted it.

It is also likely a good idea to change your passwords on accounts you have such as email, banking etc. as well as being careful what you write in blogs such as this, and the social networking pages. You never know who is reading or looking over your shoulder.