Personal Injury and Social Security Disability Blog

Featured Link - Web 2.0 Directory

Are you one of those baffled by all the talk of Web 2.0? Here's the Wikipedia definition:

Web 2.0 is a trend in the use of World Wide Web technology and web design that aims to facilitate creativity, information sharing, and, most notably, collaboration among users. These concepts have led to the development and evolution of web-based communities and hosted services, such as social-networking sites, wikis, blogs, and folksonomies. The term became notable after the first O'Reilly Media Web 2.0 conference in 2004.^[2][3] Although the term suggests a new version of the World Wide Web, it does not refer to an update to any technical specifications, but to changes in the ways software developers and end-users use webs.

But the Featured Link is a cool directory of Web 2.0 sites, each represented by the company logo and searchable by category. As of now, there are more than 2300 sites represented at Go2Web20. Check it out.

Featured Link - Internet Crime Complaint Center

The federal government has a Web site where you can report all those Internet scam e-mails you get every day. Not that it will do any good, but maybe you'll feel better after complaining. Here's the explanation from the Internet Crime Complaint Center:

The Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) is a partnership between the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the National White Collar Crime Center (NW3C), and the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA).

IC3's mission is to serve as a vehicle to receive, develop, and refer criminal complaints regarding the rapidly expanding arena of cyber crime. The IC3 gives the victims of cyber crime a convenient and easy-to-use reporting mechanism that alerts authorities of suspected criminal or civil violations. For law enforcement and regulatory agencies at the federal, state, local and international level, IC3 provides a central referral mechanism for complaints involving Internet related crimes.

The site does have a good section on Internet crime prevention that is well worth reading.

Beware Of A "Rootkit" Virus

These new rootkit viruses are driving people nuts. Here's a quick tip from Tom Mighell's Internet Legal Research Weekly:

Viruses are tricky, but rootkits are especially diabolical.  A rootkit is a program that digs deep to the root of your computer, and hides itself there.  If something is wrong with your computer and your regular troubleshooting can't figure it out, maybe it's a rootkit. There are several rootkit detectors, such as the free Rootkit Revealer (http://tinyurl.com/2gukvq), that will tell you if you're infected.

Finding Wi-Fi On The Road

I've written before about finding Wi-Fi hot spots on the road. It's getting easier to do as more and more businesses and hotels offer connections. In Texas, all the highway rest stops have Wi-Fi now, and other states are joining this trend. Besides the usual Starbucks hot spots, Wi-Fi can be found in many public libraries. In fact, if you just park near a library or motel you're likely to find a free hotspot available for you. Not that I would suggest you do that.

If you have time to plan ahead, you can check for hotspots by visiting jiwire.com. or you could go to boingo.com and pay $21.95 per month to use any of more than 100,000 hot spots around the world. And if you have trouble getting connections, you can visit hfield.com and buy a Wi-Fi extender that will let you connect from longer distances.

Featured Link - Free Online File Backup

None of us backs up computer files as often as recommended, but there's a great free service that makes backing up both painless and automatic. You can get a completely free online backup of up to 2 GB from Mozy.com. That's not enough for all your photos and video, but it'll cover your spreadsheets and document files. If you want more storage, you can upgrade to a paid account. I've used Mozy for months, at the paid level, and it works great.

Remember, do request test restores. Otherwise you won't know until it's too late if you have a problem with your backups. Here are some of the Mozy features:

• Open/locked file support: Mozy will back up your documents whether they're open or closed.
• 128-bit SSL encryption: The same technology used by banks secures your data during the backup process.
• 448-bit Blowfish encryption: Secures your files while in storage, providing peace of mind that your private data is safe from hackers.
• Automatic: Schedule the times to back up and MozyHome does the rest.
• New and changed file detection: MozyHome finds and saves the smallest changes.
• Backs up Outlook files: Disaster-proof email protection.
• Block-level incremental backup: After the initial backup, MozyHome only backs up files that have been added or changed, making subsequent backups lightning fast.

Link of the Day - End User License Agreement Analyzer

Do you ever take the time to read the end user license agreements (EULAs) that pop up each time you buy or download a software program online? No, neither do I. But now there's a free program that will read the EULA for you, and alert you to any tricky language. Just visit JavaCoolSoftware.com and get the program for free. Here's more information:

End user license agreements (EULAs) are the bane of most computer users.
No one wants to read through pages and pages of boring text before installing a program. And many programs put their license agreements in small windows that require lots of scrolling. So many people either skim them or skip reading them altogether.

But it can be dangerous not to read license agreements.
License agreements can provide information about the intentions of software, and other bundled components. Have you ever installed a program, only to have your desktop taken over by advertising? It may have been noted in the license agreement that you simply clicked past. If you aren't reading the license agreements, you have no idea what you could be agreeing to.

You should always read license agreements before agreeing to them.
But now there's a way of making that much easier.

EULAlyzer - Making it all easy

EULAlyzer can analyze license agreements in seconds, and provide a detailed listing of potentially interesting words and phrases. Discover if the software you're about to install displays pop-up ads, transmits personally identifiable information, uses unique identifiers to track you, or much much more.

The Benefits

• Discover potentially hidden behavior about the software you're going to install
• Pick up on things you missed when reading license agreements
• Keep a saved database of the license agreements you view
• Instant results - super-fast analysis in just a second

And with additional features like the EULA Research Center, which optionally allows users to anonymously submit license agreements they scan to help us to further improve the program, everyone can be a part of the effort to make something that used to be so tedious, so easy.

Link of the Day - Google Guides

Many thanks to my friend Jim Calloway for his alert about the nifty Google Guides, especially the two-page Google Cheat Sheet and the Google Calculator Cheat Sheet. Thanks Jim!

Ask.com Gives Option Of Deleting Your Search History

The Dallas Morning News reports today that the search engine Ask.com is allowing people to delete their search history at that site. The new policy, called SearchEraser is due to debut today.

The article points out that Google and Microsoft retain search histories for 18 months, and AOL and Yahoo retain them for 13 months.

The only drawback to this new policy is that because Ask relies on Google to deliver many of the text-based ad links on its pages, some information about search requests and clicks will still end up on Google's computers even when AskEraser is turned on.

Link of the Day - Datamancer Computer Keyboards

If you're looking for a Christmas gift for me, hurry on over to Datamancer.com and check out the gorgeous hand-made computer keyboards there. I can't afford to buy one for myself, but I'd be glad to accept one from you...

Link of the Day - Protect Yourself Online

The San Jose Mercury News recently had a nice collection of tips for safer Internet use. Most are common sense, but it never hurts to review the basics:

1. Make sure your operating system's automatic updates and firewall are turned on.

2. Use security programs including anti-virus and anti-spyware software, and subscribe to security updates.

3. Run a full system scan at least once a month.

4. Don't open attachments or click on links in e-mails from people you don't know.

5. Use passwords with at least eight characters and numbers and symbols, and change them regularly.

6. Access the Internet through a router - it creates an implicit firewall for you, so bots can't reach your machine directly.

7. Don't use the same password for every account - and use more complex passwords for "important" transactions, such as with your bank.

8. Don't connect to the Internet using a wireless connection without a password.

9. Don't send sensitive information to a Web site that does not begin with "https," which means it's secured.

10. When you receive an e-mail, think about whether it's really from the purported sender, rather than an impostor, before taking action.