Archive for May, 2010

Thoughts on Forwards

Thursday, May 13th, 2010

There is one thing that bothers me more than junk email (spam) when it comes to email. Misuse of forwards FWD FW.

  • Email Forwards are usually sent by people you know and trust.  However many times the information in forwards is not trustworthy and may not even be what your friend or relative actually thinks.
  • Many forwards I get have completely made up information, that can be easily be found to be false or partially false with just a little fact checking.
  • I have found an interesting and useful urban legends web site that deals with some of these http://www.snopes.com
  • Even though an email may be true at one time, parts can be changed to make it at least partially untrue.
  • Some forwards have very controversial information or opinions – many anonymous or miscredited.
  • Some forwards say you have to forward to so many people or say that you have to give it back to show you’re really a friend.   This can be a good way to spread annoying emails.  Do you really have to reply to a forward, that they didn’t write, to show you are a friend?   Some of these emails say you’ll get something free for sending so many – I have never found that to be true.
  • Some forwards are fill in the blank and forward.  This might be giving too much information out.
  • Some forwards have copyrighted text and images that might be illegally redistributed.
  • One misuse of forwards is redistributing a private conversation.  This can be very hurtful to some people.
  • Another misuse related to forwarding is telling everyone to write to one particular person, which can overwhelm someone.
  • Many forwards are basically chain letters.  Chain letters are of course illegal to send in the US Mail.  Email is still fairly unregulated (or hard to regulate) and unsecured.  I would advise people to avoid sending these forwarded emails.
  • After a while the people that send me forwards, I usually ask them to stop sending it.

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Thoughts on washing hands with computer equipment

Saturday, May 8th, 2010

We all are told to wash our hands often.

So I know we get told this a lot. Even I forget or can’t sometimes, but here are some more thoughts.

Reasons to wash hands with computers, phones, electronics:

  1. Wash before to keep equipment clean for you and other users.
  2. More importantly Wash afterward – to keep yourself healthy from the germs and hazardous chemicals that may be on the equipment.

The chemicals and germs may be another reason not to eat by the computer if possible.

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Power Saving Tips

Saturday, May 8th, 2010

Here are some general power saving tips (many that you may already know)

  • Unplug USB Devices when not using them (make sure to eject/remove properly if it stores data)
  • Unplug charges and other devices when turned off and not being used from electric outlet.
    • Have your monitor turn off automatically when computer is not in use.
    • Have your computer go to sleep.
    • Automatically have your computer turn off and on at a certain time if the computer is not used during certain hours.
      • These settings are in the control panel in windows usually under power options
      • These settings are in the system preferences in Mac OS X under energy saver
  • Usually when people ask if they should power their computer off, I say they can but only at night or the time they are not using it. The computer should only be powered on once per day at the most. It is OK to do a soft restart to clear the memory and run start up scripts. Remember to shut down properly if possible. Sometimes people will leave their computer on at night or off hours to do anti-virus/anti-malware scans, updates, backups, and run other utilities.
  • Hopefully you aren’t printing all the time unless printing is necessary part of your business. Unless you print all the time printers are usually a good thing to leave off, or turn off during off hours if there are no printing jobs.
  • Use energy efficient equipment.

Posted in Going Green, computer tips | No Comments »