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Viruses, Backups, and More – Facebook got hit with a major case of the Koobface virus and it’s not the first virus to give them grief. Apparently many users assume that because you have to log in, you are somehow protected but that is not the case.
Not only that, I was listening to a podcast the other day and the speaker mentioned his computer was infected by a piece of spyware. It was only on his computer for a couple of days before Adaware caught it and removed it. But that was long enough for hackers to gain access to his bank account and siphon money out of it!
It’s vital in this day and age that any of us who are connected with the internet make sure that our antivirus and firewall protection is kept up-to-date, and that we check our computers regularly for spyware. It’s also very important that we back up our computers regularly, at least once a month if not more often. So today is your official reminder to:
1. Back up your computer – documents, photos, music, email, and anything else you don’t want to lose.
2. Make sure your antivirus and/or firewall software is updated. Then run a scan if it doesn’t do it automatically.
3. Make sure your spyware is updated. Then run a scan if it doesn’t do it automatically.
4. Defragment your computer, if it doesn’t do it automatically.
5. If you would like ideas on what software to use and what to do if you have a problem, take a peek at my post from September, http://www.sandwichink.com/computers-need-caregiving-too
Blogging Caregivers – For those of you who blog, personally or professionally, I wanted to share some information with you. If you are using WordPress – either .com or .org – you may have heard that there is a major upgrade coming soon. I’m personally looking forward to it (all Geeks enjoy upgrades 🙂 ), but I’m also a bit leery of it as well. Will everything work smoothly on the blog after the upgrade? I will probably wait a week or three to do it, until I am sure that my theme, the wonderful Thesis which I totally love, is fully compatible with the WordPress.org upgrade. When I do upgrade, I will post a note with a warning that I am upgrading so you will, hopefully, have some idea of what is going on if there are “issues.” But I am happy to announce that if you gave Windows Live Writer a try, as I suggested in September, http://www.sandwichink.com/windows-live-writer-test-even-caregivers-like-to-experiment , it should work fine with the upgrade. I wrote Brandon Turner, who is on the Live Writer team, to verify that info. He wrote me back, right away:
It looks like everything is solid with WP 2.7, at least from our interaction with it.
There is going to be a new feature in our next version of Live Writer, which releases in a few weeks away, that is just for WP 2.7.
He went on to explain that when we upgrade to WordPress 2.7, we need to reconfigure our blogs through Live Writer in order to turn on that feature. I’ll give it a shot when the time comes and let you all know how it goes. And I am counting on Brandon to help me if I don’t succeed the first time 🙂 Then I’ll pass on his help to you. I have to tell you, the support for this product has been wonderful! In the computer world that doesn’t always happen. Mega Kudos to Brandon Turner and the whole Live Writer team!!!
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