Oh lordy, we’ve all gotten this trash in the mail. Yes, I said it.. TRASH! I hate this stuff.  It comes in the mail quite frequently.  But how do you know it’s trash?  This is yet another area where the internet is your friend!

Whenever you get something unsolicited in the mail (this includes the EMAIL!) or on the phone, NEVER respond to it.   But if it captures your interest, at least check to see if it’s legitimate.  Do this by going to google.com (or your favorite search engine) and putting in any pertinent information you can get from the mail.

My mail was from “AVC travel” so I went to my search engine and typed in: “AVC Travel” (with the quotes, in order to look for the two parts together) into the search bar.  Here are the results.  As you can see, right off I learn that I do not have a car or a trip.  Just doing a little clicking, I find out that this company is a time share seller.

Always question anything that comes to you which you did not specifically request.  This includes mail, email, telephone calls and people who come to your door. Use the internet to make sure you don’t get scammed.  Or at least to be sure that you are getting what you expect to be getting.

Good luck out there in Wide World!

It doesn’t have to be this way, though! Check out Photojojo’s Ultimate Guide to Taking Portraits at Night for tips and advice!   (Then edit your pics and share them with friends and family online!)

Check out how this clever person used a motion detector, a blender, and a strobe light to teach those cats that counter plants are NOT for *nom*!  The Blender Defender!

(also posted on Densaville.com)

Around this same time, I met a fellow comicker named “Fesworks” on various comic forums I frequent.  He is amazing. He not only does his own comics, he does artwork for other comic writers,  hosts a webcomics podcast with other comickers, contributes to Infendo.com (a Nintendo site! YAY!) and is always supportive and encouraging to those of us who dip our toes into the webcomic world.

Fesworks has stepped up to this year’s 24-Hour Comic Challenge in a big way. He is going to make a LEGO comic!  A LEGO comic means that instead of drawing panels, he will build scenes and characters out of LEGOs, photograph them, and present the photos in a sequential (comic) story! WOW!

Fesworks is starting his 24-hours this afternoon at 3PM Eastern time.  He has set up THIS WEBPAGE to allow us to watch his progress.  Please stop by and see how it’s going!  If you use Twitter, you can follow Fesworks on Twitter.

Go, Fesworks!

(cross posted from Densaville.com)

Well, what if you’re looking for a job? Do you know that employers are now checking up on the online activities of their employees?  And it’s not spying because it is PUBLICLY AVAILABLE INFORMATION which you yourself provided to the internet.

Or worse.. what if you’ve made an online enemy?  With the information you’ve provided, they could hack into your online email account and REALLY embarrass you. (Remember what happened to Sarah Palin!) Oh no!

Well, you’ve decided that you want to clean up your online presence.. but where do you start?

Smashgods.com has a wonderful article filled with suggestions.  I definitely recommend at least reading through it.

Witchy Tip:  First, let me say that for computer novices I strongly recommend Mcaffee and Norton and other paid-for programs.  They are specifically designed to be user-friendly and they update regularly and automatically.  I personally use these for my own computers.

That being said, who can blame anyone for trying to save a little money where they can?  There are many free antivirus programs which provide quality protection for your computer that is on par with big name antivirus programs.

If you would like to investigate free antivirus protection for your comptuer, I would recommend you review articles by PC Magazine and check out the reviews and downloads at Cnet’s DOWNLOAD.COM.  Write down the names of two or three programs that interest you, then search the internet to see what people are saying.

When you have made your selection, go to that product’s website (or a respected download site, such as Download.com) and download and install the program onto your computer.  If you have questions or problems, look around the product’s website for a FAQ (”Frequently Asked Questions”) page first.  If your question or problem is not addressed there, contact the product’s support staff or join their forum if they have one!

Witchy Tip:  Do not run two antivirus programs at the same time.  Since they access the same parts of your computer, they may conflict with each other and disable the programs or slow down/crash your computer.

Whether you choose paid or free antivirus protection for your computer, make sure that you update frequently!  Use the program’s auto-update feature. This keeps your computer protected from the latest known virus problems on the internet.

Surf Safely!

Turns out that just because a cord fits into the little slot does NOT mean that the cord is appropriate for the device. I had picked a cord that was for another device and it allowed too much power to go through! *sizzle*

If I had labeled my cords using a label and a Sharpie pen, (or one of these handy cord tags) I would have been sure to have the right one and not risked losing all my pictures.

So this is my tip of the day! Label all your cords! I already do that for the incredible amount of cables coming out from the back of my computer so I know what cord goes to what, but I haven’t done this for my portable devices. I found out the hard way about not having the correct cord for the correct device. If the external drive cord had a label on it, I wouldn’t have chosen the first cord out of the drawer that fit in the back of my drive.

Do you already label your cords? How do you do that? How do you store your detachable power cords? Share your cord labeling and storage tips with us!

(BTW: I am about to cry over the possibility of losing my pictures. I am hopeful that the folks at my husband’s office can recover the pictures for me. If not, I will have to pay a data recovery service to have a go. Keep your fingers crossed!)

If GM had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving $25 cars that got 1000 MPG.

Could this be in response to Cringley?

(See Car vs. Computer)