Inside the brain of a Geek: Eight signs an email may not be legit.

1.     From is blank or senders email address is not recognized.

2.     RE: in the subject line.  You know the emails you sent so when you receive one with the subject “RE: Refund Please” look in your sent items and verify if you sent it and to whom.

3.     Receiving emails not pertaining to your position.  You receive an email from a sender you don’t know marked invoice, and you work in the shipping department.

4.     Email is vague.  Body of the email is “Amazing Video” and a link.  Even if it comes from someone you know, it is more than likely a link to a virus.

5.     Email has urgent or threatening tone.  Email asks for confidential information.

6.     Generic greeting.  “Attention Credit Card User”

7.     Attachment has multiple file extensions.  A file extension is the letters after the period in a file name that indicates the kind of file it is. Example “Is this email legit.docx” The underlined is the file extension and the .docx indicates it is a Word document. Legitimate files only have one file extension. Example of a file not to open  imavirus.pdf.exe

8.      Your gut says so.  We all have had that uneasy feeling or voice in your head that say "something doesn't look right". Listen to it.

Inside the brain of a Geek: 8 Creative uses for the camera on your phone

The camera on your smartphone is for more than taking cute pictures of your dog to post on Facebook.  See example below.  Here are a few creative usages for the camera on your phone.

1.     Mirror.  Check your makeup or look underneath something.

2.     Computer Screens.  The print screen feature is great when it is available.  Use your smartphone to take a picture of blue screens of death, boot errors or monitor issues.

3.     Location of your car.  Last time we parked at the Indianapolis airport, I took a picture of the nearest parking sign and the shelter we used to catch the shuttle.

4.     I want that!  Have you ever seen a kitchen gadget, book, or product that you have to check out?  If you are like me, you will forget the name before you have time to Google it.  Take a picture.

5.     The special for today is?  One of my favorite restaurants has a daily special board that sits on the front sidewalk. If anything interests me, I take a picture, no need to ask the waitress.

6.     Shipping labels: A lot of returns are done via prepaid/printed shipping labels. You always want to keep a record of the tracking number so instead of copying it, take a picture.

7.     Disassemble, yes. Reassemble, maybe. Take pictures of computers and home theater setup before moving. Do this and you don’t have to remember which cable when to the Xbox, Wii, Apple TV, or Roku.

8.     Model and serial numbers:  Take pictures of the model and serial number on appliances before installing.  If you need to contact someone for a repair or warranty issue, there is no need to pull the appliance out to find the information you need. Bonus most pictures are time and date stamped, so you don’t have to guess the install date.

Inside the brain of a Geek: Are you rolling the dice with your password security?

I recently read an article about how a Mother uses a password methodology called Diceware to teach her young children (ages 6 and 9) how to generate secure passwords. Full article link is below and would be an excellent resource for anyone but especially parents.

“We began by using a password methodology known as Diceware, which produces passwords that are easy to remember but hard for hackers to crack. Diceware is deceptively simple: You roll a six-sided die five times and use the results to pick five random words from the Diceware word list, which contains 7,776 short English words. The resulting passwords look something like this: "alger klm curry blond puck."

After reading the article, I decided to try Diceware myself.

1.    Find 5 dice. Found 39 (Don’t know why we have that many)

2.    Open word list - http://world.std.com/~reinhold/diceware.wordlist.asc

3.    Hit Ctrl + F to open the find feature in your browser.  Makes the process much faster.

4.    Roll the dice.

1. 41164
2. 51661
3. 16226
4. 42116
5. 31253

5.    Use the browser’s find feature to type in the numbers and find the random word.

6.    New Password “lp riggs cask me glade”

7.    Check Password with GRC Password Haystack.  Time required to exhaustively search this password’s space is 2.94 hundred trillion trillion centuries. 

My conclusion, it is a fun and easy way to generate secure passwords that are easy to remember. I’m all for anything that gets everyone using secure passwords. Plus “lp riggs cask me glade” is easier to remember for most than “zy?mzykp4^2<C8BV!Gg&^”.

If your password requires a number or symbol go to the Diceware website listed below and they provide instructions for randomly generating those with the dice.

Resources:

Diceware http://world.std.com/~reinhold/diceware.html

Diceware Wordlist - http://world.std.com/~reinhold/diceware.wordlist.asc

WFJ – “Web Privacy Can Be Child's Play”

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB20001424052702303775504579395262543045176

GRC Password Haystack https://www.grc.com/haystack.htm

GRC Perfect Passwords https://www.grc.com/passwords.htm

Inside the brain of a Geek: Easy way to insert a screenshot into an email

Emailing a screenshot is a multiple step process that can be timely and cumbersome.  Outlook 2010 has an obscure tool that can save you some time and frustration. 

Open an email message. Go to the Insert tab. Look for the camera icon.

Click on the camera icon. Then select the Window you want to insert. *Please note that minimized windows will not be available to select.

A screenshot of the Windows is now in the email message.

Your suggestions and questions are always welcome.  Please email me using the form on this website.

Inside the brain of a Geek: Undo an Accidental Move, Copy or Delete

Have you every attempt a file move only to have your mouse skills falter the process and now you must search to find where the file end up?  My favorite thing to do is select multiple files and accidently create copies. Or just delete the wrong file or folder? In any of these cases using Ctrl + Z or Edit \ Undo will quickly reverse whatever you didn’t mean to do.

In the example, below I selected recipes to move.

I accidentally copied the recipes instead.

I select CTRL + Z or Edit \ Undo

Select Yes to verify that I want to delete the copies made.

Now I’m back to where I started.

Stupid Geek Tricks: Undo an Accidental Move or Delete With a Keyboard Shortcut [How-To Geek]

Inside the brain of a Geek: Keyboard shortcut cheat sheet

Love keyboard shortcuts but can never remember the keys? Microsoft now offers you more shortcut options with a cool cheat sheet for Office 2007 and 2010 programs. Pressing the Alt key in any Office program will display KeyTips badges. See the example below.

Press Alt in Word 2010 to display the KeyTip badges.

Press H on the keyboard to move to the Home tab. Now use the KeyTip badges to execute a command. 1 will turn on bold. FF will change the font.

For more on using KeyTips in Word see the video below.

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/access-help/keyboard-shortcuts-in-the-2007-office-system-RZ010156267.aspx?section=8

Inside the brain of a Geek: Help Me, Help You!

Computer issues can turn a good day bad in a millisecond.  When issues arrive you want them fixed but a lot of time you are unsure of what to communicate to technical support. Below are ways to help technical support, help you.

1. Please tell us what you have tried to resolve the issue. We want to know all the details. Did you reboot? Install a fix from a knowledge article? Reopened the application?  Whatever you did let us know.

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2. Please send screenshots or photos of the error or issue. If you are getting a blue screen of death grab a smartphone and snap a picture then have a co-worker email it.

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3. Always include the applications running when the issue occurred. Software applications are a lot like siblings.  Best friend’s one second then sisters fighting over your brother’s GI Joes the next. 

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4. Act like a prairie dog! That’s right pop you head over your cubicle and see if anyone else is experiencing the same issue. Our troubleshoot tactic changes if multiple users have the same issue. Example of issue that could be affecting multiple users.  Internet outage; not sending and/or receiving email; printing to a specific printer; errors with custom applications; and network drives access.

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5. Please be descriptive. When receiving directions, which option would you find more helpful?  “We are located in Indiana” or “Our address is 123 Main St, Fort Wayne, IN”. “My computer isn’t working” doesn't provide much direction. “When I start my computer I get a black screen with a white cursor that says no hard drive found” Provides a good starting point for troubleshooting the issue.

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6. Having a problem, please tells us. We cannot fix a problem if we do not know it exists.

Computer issues can turn a good day bad in a millisecond.  When issues arrive you want them fixed but a lot of time you are unsure of what to communicate to technical support. Below are ways to help technical support, help you.

Your suggestions and questions are always welcome. Please email me using the form on this site.

Inside the brain of a Geek: Easy way to insert a screenshot into an email

Emailing a screenshot is a multiple step process that can be timely and cumbersome.  Outlook 2010 has an obscure tool that can save you some time and frustration. 

Open an email message. Go to the Insert tab. Look for the camera icon.

Click on the camera icon. Then select the Window you want to insert. *Please note that minimized windows will not be available to select.

A screenshot of the Windows is now in the email message.

Your suggestions and questions are always welcome.  Please email me using the form on this website.

Inside the brain of a Geek: Stop YELLING!

Have you ever starting typing and realized several lines in that you accidentally hit the Cap Lock key? If are nodding right now, chance are you deleted everything and type it all again in lowercase. But way, there is an easy solution.  Highlight the text and hold down the Shift button and hit F3.  Doing this will automatically change the text from UPPER to lower (or vice-versa).  Tap a third time to change the text to Title case, Where The First Letter Of Every Word Is Capitalized.

Your suggestions and questions are always welcome. Please email me 

Inside the brain of a Geek: Protect the data on your Android

Don’t worry Android users I didn’t forget you. I found this great article and how to secure your Android phone.

Mobile devices can store a mass amount of data. Photos of your pets?  Confidential corporate email? According to a 2011 study, 50% of mobile users store credit card, PIN, or passwords on their mobile device. Just like your workstation, your Android devices need to be protected. 

For the full article and video on how to secure your Android, please click the photo.

Reference – http://www.phonebuff.com/2012/06/android-secure/

Your suggestions and questions are always welcome.  Please email me