Lessfeet

If you’ve been reading this blog then you know it’s very important to keep your operating system up to date for security purposes. It is also very important to keep your other software up to date especially software that connects to the Internet.

Linux distrobutions like Ubuntu, Fedora and Open Suse keep all of the software installed using the systems software installer up to date. Windows does not do this. Some software checks to see if it’s up to date. If it does not you have a problem.

The Personsl Software Inspector by Secunia will check to see if you have critical software out of date and will prompt you to install the new version. I have a very up to date system but I install  Secunia PSI and ran it. After a couple of minutes it found that my Skype had a new version. I don’t think I’ve heard of a real problem with Skype but you would not want to take that chance.

Secunia is a Danish computer security service provider best known for tracking vulnerabilities in more than 12,400 pieces of software and operating systems.

I love the Firefox web-browser. One of things I like the most about Firefox are the extentions.

Here are some of our favorites:

• FireFTP is a free, secure, cross-platform FTP client for Mozilla Firefox which provides easy and intuitive access to FTP servers.
• 1-Click YouTube Video Download – Download YouTube in a single click. Download YouTube videos in FLV and MP4 (both High Definition and iPod compatible High-Quality)
• Delicious Bookmarks is the official Firefox add-on for Delicious, the world’s leading social bookmarking service (formerly del.icio.us). It integrates your bookmarks and tags with Firefox and keeps them in sync for easy, convenient access.
• Gmail Notifier – The original notifier for Gmail. Supports checking multiple accounts as well as Gmail Hosted accounts.
• LastPass Password Manager – Lastpass is a great password manager LastPass Password Manager is a terrific companion to this service.
• Omnibar – Integrates location bar and search bar into one. Shows search and url suggestions. Quickly switch search engine using search keywords. Provides different auto-complete popup styles for compact displays.

This is a tip from Paul Thurrott’s Supersite for Windows. You may know the keyboard shortcut for Internet Explorer start fullscreen mode is F11. What you don’t know is the same shortcut works in for Windows Explorer and other applications.  Many other shortcuts work as well. I’ll let Paul tell you more about it.

Record, play, share, embed even stream live video with your mobile phone using Qik. Qik is a website and application that captures video with you phone to save share an view your videos from the Qik website or any site you embed the  the Qik embed code. The incredible thing about it is that you can live broadcast your video form wherever you are. This is a way cool Web 2.0 app!

Qik is supported by over 140 phone. Check to see if yours is on the list and begin streaming your video.

See video live when broadcasting.

The email from all of my account goes to Gmail so I have to go to different sites or open and email program. I go to Gmail and it’s all there.  See Lifehacker. But that’s not the tip!

Google does not check your POP account frequently so you may have your Gmail open but your not seeing all of you messages because they’re still on the server. You can go to “Settings”,  “Accounts and Import”, go down to “Check mail using POP3″ and click on “Check mail now”. This will import any new messages.

This method is very inconvenient. A better way is to turn on this new feature that checks your POP accounts whenever you click the “Refresh link” just above your messages.

At the top of the Gmail page click “Settings” and “Labs”. Find “Refresh POP accounts” and enable it. Now you can check your POP accounts with ease.

I’m always saying use good passwords. Use upper and lower case letters and numbers. I do all of this but one has to have an algorithm to remember ones passwords. The problem is in order to use the password algorithm it has to be easy. Something you can do in your head. My algorithm is so easy that if you discovered one of my passwords it would be no problem to figure out the rest. An algorithm that you can do in your head must be more difficult and hopefully you have the gray matter to use it or you must try something else.

LastPass is the answer. LastPass generate pseudorandom passwords for you and store them on a secure website. Then LastPass can auto-fill passwords as you need them. It can even log you in automatically. It took me a while but I generated all new passwords for all of my logins, they are all different and they are saved securely on the LastPass site.

If your still using the Windows XP or Windows 7 RC  (time is running out for the RC – release candidate) you might want to be thinking about installing your Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade that you preordered back in the summer of 2009 for $49. Didn’t catch that deal? I’m sorry.

There are several methods for upgrading. If you’re current using Windows Vista then the upgrade path is obvious. First make a backup of all of your data. While your computer is ON put in the Windows 7 disk. A setup screen will start. Just follow the prompts. Do not install the new OS over the vista install. You’ll want to start over with a clean install. After install is complete get all of the update then activate your Win7 installation. This is the easiest install. If your installing from Windows XP, Windows 7 RC or from a clean hard-drive gets more complicated. Here’s instructions from Paul Thurrott’s Supersite for Windows.

Are you secure on the net? May you are! Maybe you aren’t! The Internet
is always being monitored by hackers, bots and other things looking for
computers that have open ports that can be attacked.

ShieldsUP is a site from the security and harddrive expert Steve Gibson at GRC.Com.

ShieldsUp scans your computer to see if there are any vulnerable ports
on you computer to exploit. See if you computer is vulnerable.

Steve along with Leo Laporte host a security podcast call Security Now which covers many advanced security topics.

I was discussing last night with someone about upgrading Ubuntu to a new version. I said I did not know much about it because I was alway trying new distros and I never keep a version long enough to upgrade. I also said I thought it was very simple. Just a few clicks and that it is done with little worry that it would break anything. I looked at the Ubuntu instructions for upgrading. It was just as I thought it is all done with no commandline or recompiling the kernel. I don’t know about it breaking stuff. I guess it’s like anything else. Some things could break.

Delicious – Organize, manage and tag your bookmarks (favorites in Internet Explorer) online. Share with others and search bookmarks of others. The best thing about Delicious is the Firefox plugin. I use it as my personal bookmarks manager on my computer.