http://ask-leo.com/how_long_should_a_hard_drive_last.html

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Cuil.com (pronounced “cool”).  And here’s a good reason to use it (or StartPage) instead of Google:  http://newstrust.net/stories/2685319/toolbar?ref=hp

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by Don

I’ve mentioned startpage before, but I found out that if you go to https://startpage.com/ (note the s after http, which means it’s a secure connection, like they use for credit card transactions) it hides your searches even from your internet service provider (ISP). And of course if you install the proxy toolbar, with every search you can click on Proxy with every search to have it bring up the page so that even the page you’re looking at can’t log your IP address.

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This could come in VERY handy! I very reluctantly plug anything Microsoft does, but this is a great service. It’s called SkyDrive. Free 25 gigabytes worth of storage. The only thing required is that you create an account. You don’t even have to create a Hotmail or MSN account. I used my gmail account.  It’s not the same or as good as online backup, but, hey, 25 gig!  And if this is all you have as a backup, you’ll thank me if/when your hard drive crashes.  The only question is, do you trust Microsoft with your personal documents?

Here’s the link: http://windowslive.com/online/skydrive

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Hopefully yours is listed here, anyway.  :)

http://www.amailsender.com/support/smtpserver/

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A couple of useful sites here for downloading videos for later viewing.  I know I often want to watch a video later, not right then and there.  Anyway, here are a couple of links:

http://www.splandoo.com/

http://www.videosnag.com/

There are probably a hundred others.  :)

In a similar vein, here are a couple of online graphics editing sites:

http://friendsnews.com/wordpress/online-editing-sites

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CNET has created a fantastic new service called Tech Tracker that I wish I’d come up with. It tracks and keeps up to date all of the software on your computer!  Mac or Windows!  The only catch is that you have to create an account on their site and give them your email address. Hopefully it’s worth it. Here’s the link:

http://www.cnet.com/techtracker

One thing it got wrong, I just noticed, was that it thought I had Office 2007 installed.  It must have found remnants of a trial installation that has long ago expired.  Anyway, otherwise it looks very useful.

UPDATE:  It doesn’t really keep anything up to date, it simply tells you what’s out of date, leaving you to do the update yourself.  At least they give you the link.

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I hate to promote Google since they already rule the online world, but they do some things very well, e.g., their “unsubscribe” feature in Gmail. In a message, click on Show Details and you should see the option to “Unsubscribe from this sender.”

The advantage of this is that it will be Gmail’s servers talking to the spammer, not your PC, thereby removing the possibility of your being infected from merely visiting the spammer’s “unsubscribe” page.

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This should be useful now that the world is converting to IP v6:

http://emailtalk.org/IPV4ToIPV6.aspx

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QUESTION: There was a couple parked on the curb on Wed from 8am to 12pm on Wed. The girl was like a look-out, it seemed. When I was going to work she gave me a suspicious look, so I drove around in a circle and drove by them getting their license plate. When I came back at around noon, they were still there but the girl looked at me then they quickly left, after having been there for 4 hours. Can you tell from this router log whether they got into the router? There’s a lease renewal from a mac address I don’t recognize. I only have wep encryption. My own computers were off-line for the time of this log.

ANSWER:  Yeah, that lease renewal means that they DID successfully use your router, unless it was a wired computer of yours that you’ve forgotten about.  With wireless, even if they can see your wireless SSID, it won’t give (“lease”) them an address until they authenticate.  Hopefully, if they did piggyback off your wireless, they only used it to access the Internet and not your personal network.  Of course, from there, they could have downloaded illegal movies or music and get YOU into trouble with the RIAA.

Try WPA or WPA2 encryption, make sure that works for you first, then tell the router (somewhere) to stop broadcasting its SSID.  It will still work for you, it’ll just be invisible to your neighbors and those driving by.  Also, make sure your own PCs’ WORKGROUP is something other than the default WORKGROUP or MSHOME.

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