Avoid Horrible Gift Giving With Free Google Docs

Do you sometimes have a problem coming up with the perfect gift for your wife?

Oh SURE, during the "courting period" it was easy to come up with stuff.  But now, finding something she won't immediately want to return is a bit tougher.

Well I've solved this problem, and many others, with Google's free Google Docs collaboration tool.

I created a shared 'Wish List' spreadsheet for eM, myself and the kids.  Now when eM thinks of something she might like to have as a future gift she opens up our shared document and adds it to her list.

Now I always know I'm  getting her something she really wants, and as long as there are enough items on the list, we still retain some element of surprise because she doesn't know which gift is coming.  Some of our immediate family members have also asked to see the list so we've given them permission to view it as well.

New Study: Negative Short Term Video Game Effect on Children

New study out last month about the short term effects of video games on children's writing, reading and learning skills.

The study examined a group of 6-9 year-olds both before, and then 4-months after, receiving a video game device and three age appropriate games.

According to the author of the study which appeared in a journal of the Association for Psychological Science,

"boys who received the video-game system at the beginning of the study had significantly lower reading and writing scores four months later compared with the boys [who did not]. Although there were no differences in parent-reported behavioral problems between the two groups of kids, the boys who received the video-game system immediately had greater teacher-reported learning problems."

DIY Fix For Your Wobbly Keyboard

Tip: Is your keyboard wobbling because you snapped off one of its little legs?  Use the "spring" from a large binder clip to replace it.  Good as new!

(and yes, that is a delicious glass of scotch in the background)

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Free Google Calendar Makes It Easy To Organize The Family

Do you wish you had a more organized and reliable way to coordinate schedules with your wife? Would you like to be able to share your schedule with friends and family? Wouldn’t it be cool to have an up to the minute weather report right on your calendar?

You can have all this and more with Google’s free shared calendar application!

If you have a free Gmail account you have access to Google’s free calendar application. There’s absolutely nothing to download because it’s all web based.

You will be able to create specialized calendars, share them with friends and family or keep them private, overlay multiple calendars on top of each other so you can easily see conflicts, send appointment alerts to your phone or email, and add free extras like a calendar for all US Holidays and a Weather overlay!

Internet Crime Up 22%!

you are the water buffalo in this scenario (J took this pic. Nice, right?)

A scary report out this month from the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3)  regarding cyber crime.

Especially scary because it details a  high rate of cyber-crime in the Washington DC Metro Area.

The IC3 is an organization put together by the FBI in conjunction with the National White Collar Crime Center and the Bureau of Justice Assistance.  I mentioned their list of 17 identity theft prevention tips in my hardening your passwords post.

According to the report, Maryland ranks 19th and Virginia 28th in the number of perps per capita!

Complaints to the IC3 increased 22% last year and the average amount of money lost per complaint jumped from $265K in 2008 to $560K.

The Top Three Crimes:

• 20% non-delivery of goods or services.
• 14% identity theft.
• 10% credit card fraud.

If you haven't done so already, please plan on carving out some time to protect yourself.

Review the four post series:
Protecting Your Identity
Stop Credit Solicitations
Freezing Your Credit
Hardening Your Passwords

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Use Filters and Labels To Manage Your Gmail

Does your swamped Gmail Inbox have you down? Wish there was an easy way to sort through and organize all your mail?


Well there is!

Gmail has easy to use filter and labeling options that allow you to handle and organize your mail BEFORE it ever hits your inbox.

As an example, I have a filter set up to capture mail from my favorite retailers. And while these are retailers that I want to hear from, I still don’t want their email choking my inbox.

Each time one of my filtered retailers sends me an email, Gmail captures it, labels it, and diverts it to a special folder I’ve labeled “Retailer”.

The "Retailer" folder keeps an unread email count in my side bar so I always know if a retailer has sent me something new. Now, instead of these emails hitting my inbox, they wait patiently in the folder until I want to read them.

Here’s how to do it:

Harden Your Passwords

Today's post is all about passwords and it's my fourth in a series of four about DIY identity protection.

In the first post of the series, Protecting Your Personal Information on the Internet, research revealed that most peoples' passwords were extremely easy to hack.

Well, last December, 32 million passwords belonging to a company called Rockyou were breached by a benevolent hacker who turned the passwords over for study.

A firm named Imperva  conducted research on the stolen passwords and found, "Nearly 50% of users used names, slang words, dictionary words or trivial passwords (consecutive digits, adjacent keyboard keys, and so on). The most common password among Rockyou.com account owners is '123456'."

According to that same study, a hacker with a decent DSL connection and a list of the top 5000 passwords (the top 20 of which are pictured below) could "gain access to one new account every second" and take "less than 17 minutes to compromise 1000 accounts."

Freeze Your Credit So Bad People Can't Get It (rhymes)!

Did you know that, as of January 2008, if you're a Maryland resident, you can freeze your credit report with each agency for 5 bucks a pop and as of January 2010 you can do this on-line?

Freezing your credit report means that no one can open up a new line of credit in your name.  So even if someone were to steal your identity they wouldn’t be able to use the information to get lots of shiny new credit cards.

Stop Credit Solicitations From Coming In The Mail Where The Bad People Can Steal Them!

Do you think that tearing up your credit card solicitations is overkill?

Don’t think a person could really get a credit card in your name if they dug through your mail or trash, pulled out a direct mail credit solicitation, added a different address and sent it in?

Well you’d be wrong.  That’s exactly what can happen as reported by MSNBC.

Protecting Your Personal Information on the Internet

Do you continue to hear the stories about passwords and accounts being hacked, people being scammed on-line and companies "losing" their customers' information?  Does it make you nervous?

The on-line world, much like the real world, is both wild and wonderful. There are positive elements and seriously creepy elements.

This is the first in what I think will be a four post series on protecting yourself and your family on the web.

To start us off I’m posting a terrific, albeit scary, MSNBC article about how easy it is to gather and then use your personal information from Facebook and other sites where bits of your identity can be viewed by any maniac with a computer.

From the story, "Using only one friend’s name and place of employment, he found her blog and résumé. That provided a font of information on her grandparents, pets, hometown and more. He then visited her bank’s Web site...."  I'll have tips for you at the end.

Use Google Reader To Manage Your Subscriptions

Are you new to the wonderful world of blog subscriptions (also known as RSS feeds) and would like to learn how to add a subscription to your favorite blog (wink wink, nudge nudge)?

Google's Reader feature is an incredibly easy to use subscription management tool and, like everything else from Google, it's free!

First, you'll need a free Google account.  If you already have Gmail (Google's free email service) then you're already set!  Use the "Reader" link at the top of the Gmail page (click on any picture to get a close up view).

If you don't already have a Google account you can click here to get started.

Once you're on the Google Reader page, click the "Add a subscription" tab at the top left of the page and either enter the blog address or enter key words to conduct your search.

TIP: Once you're set up with Reader you can subscribe to future blogs while you're on that blog's site by finding and clicking the blog's "Subscribe" button. Your subscription will be added automagically to your Reader.

Once you get a few subscriptions you can create files to hold similar blogs, add them to your iGoogle account (more about the wonders of iGoogle in a future post), etc.

Other free Google products reviewed here include Google Calendar, Gmail filters and Google Docs.

Happy Reading!

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Free Program Helps You Deeply Customize Your Wallpaper

John's Background Switcher is a free program that allows you to customize your computer's "wallpaper" with your own photos.

And when I say "customize" I REAAAAALLY mean customize!

Among its many features:

• Pull photos from ANY source, including your internet photo account, random photos from the web, etc.

• Manage how the pictures appear on your desktop.  You can configure a montage, use a single image, whatever!
• Automatically switch out your photos with whatever frequency you set.

I use it on both XP and Vista machines and it's stable.  It handles dual monitors with no problem but has a little trouble with three.

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Another Free Favorite: Volumouse!

Volumouse is one of the those little programs that I can't live without and can't remember what life was like before I found it!

How would you like to be able to control your pc's sound from the wheel on the mouse?

Well download this little beauty and you can!

I've got mine set to work whenever I mouseover the desktop or a title bar.  You can configure yours anyway you'd like.

It's a free program, and it's been stable on both my Vista and XP machines.

Scroll down the Volumouse main page and click the automatic download link.

Pump up the volum...ouse.....

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Get The One Free Program I Download For All My Relatives

CCleaner is a program that deletes all kinds of stuff that bloats your computer and makes it run slower.

I've used this absolutely FREE application for over a year and I've installed it whenever a family member has asked me to work on their pc.

This application helps to optimize your system and protect your privacy by deleting all kinds of third party applications, browsing history and unwanted cookies and it cleans up your registry files.

You can set it, as I do, to run when you start up your computer.

The download is easy and it's FREE!

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CommandCentral - how to add an additional monitor without buying a new video card

Here's a shot of my cozy home work station.

You may have noticed that I have a few monitors.

If you're not a software developer you may not need four.  But everyone could use a second monitor!

If your PC doesn't support two monitors you may have thought your only choice was to take your machine to your local tech store and have an expensive video card installed.

You have another option!

All you need is an available USB port on your PC and a VGA-USB adapter.

I've shopped around A LOT and found the best value at the moment (just a reminder that I am in no way paid by any manufacturer or service provider except for the random GoogleAds that are on this web page).