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New Real Time Tool for Parents

February 1, 2011 By
There’s a big concern about the safety of children online, and it’s a concern that’s earned a right to attention. Children have disappeared and been harmed by people on the Internet.
Parents keep a good eye on their kids’ behaviors when they’re not online, and equal attention should be given to their online activities. A parent should know what websites their children are looking at and what kind of information they encounter or interact with, and certainly their online friends should be monitored. Sadly, it’s just too dangerous to let them go it alone.
There are all kinds of software out there that people can get to monitor their kids’ activities online, and they’re helpful. But there’s a new one out that lets people monitor the kids in real time. Just like the ‘picture in a picture’ function that some television sets have, parents can do their own online thing while keeping an eye on what the kids are doing at the same time.
Monitor Kids Online From Anywhere, Even Your Phone

Put out by its namesake company, ScreenRetriever (ScreenRetriever.com – download the free trial version) just released this new program that’s the only real time program out there. Internet experts in safety recommend putting the computer in a central part of the home, where it can be easily seen from more than one direction. That way parents can keep a better eye on what’s happening.
Children usually know their parents have the protective software, so there’s no need for secret monitoring. But, kids will be curious, will try and want to see things just because they aren’t supposed to see them. With real time software a parent can stop an activity right away.
Some of the pros about ScreenRetriever:
  • Get real time, up to the minute access to the child’s computer screen.
  • The ability to record the activity to view later.
  • Connect to all the kids’ computers.
  • See what they’re posting on Facebook and Twitter
Children’s or family computers are only accessible from within the house. Nobody else can watch the kids’ activities.
Filed Under: Computers, Websites Tagged With: , , ,

Free Web Hosting: Providers and Features

January 30, 2011 By

The objective of a web hosting service is to provide server space and web access to individuals and organizations that create their own websites.  Free web hosting provides these services through the support and sponsorship of advertisers.

Free web hosting providers offer their packages for free to:

  • Make money from banner ads and forum advertisements
  • Entice users to eventually switch to a paid package
  • Provide complimentary service for purchasing or renewing a domain name
  • Test the waters before changing to a paid web hosting provider

Free Web Host Providers

  • Free Web Space
  • AtSpace
  • 50Webs
  • Freehostia
  • 100Webspace
  • Awardspace
  • 000Webhost

Many of the top providers include 150 MB disk space and 5 GB of monthly data storage.

Look at your website needs to determine if a free web host provider meets your needs.

  • Will advertisement placement and featured products interfere with the integrity of the website?
  • What programming languages will be used to create the site?
  • Do I need to review and analyze web traffic?
  • Will disc space and bandwidth be sufficient?
  • Do I need customer support and assistance for website maintenance?
  • Can I post personal product advertisement or is it against policy?
  • How many email accounts do I need and what is being offered?

There are several advantages and disadvantage of free web host service providers vs. paid host service providers.

Advantages

  • Easy sign-up
  • Great option for short term sites
  • No cost for web hosting
  • Quick and easy to learn
  • Does not require knowing programming codes
  • Availability of site builders and templates
  • No cost sub domains
  • A free place for new site development

Disadvantages

  • Little or no customer support
  • Banner ads
  • Crowded servers with downtime
  • Minimal features
Filed Under: Computers, Websites Tagged With: , , ,

The Internet: Advantages and Disadvantages

January 26, 2011 By

The Internet is a virtual trove of treasured information with all types of data, images, and videos available at your fingertips. This information can be both advantageous and disadvantageous to users.

Advantages

  • Communication: Keeping in touch with friends and family has never been easier using email, social networking sites, chat room, and IM.
  • Services: Online banking, making reservations, shopping, seeking a job, and looking for advice are easy to do with 24/7 convenience.
  • Download: The Internet offers opportunities to download for free music, games, videos, and other entertainment software.
  • Chat: Community forums, chat rooms, and other groups are available to make new friends and meet people that share your interests.
  • Entertainment: Missed your favorite program or want to hear about celebrity gossip, the Internet has sites available to check out the latest.
  • E-Commerce: Do you need to maneuver commercial goods or transact business deals? The Internet allows for the transfer information across the world.

Disadvantages

  • Theft: Personal information and other pertinent information can be obtained via the Internet from profiles and places your shop making it a breeding ground for identity thieves.
  • Immorality: Thousands of sites with pornography and other immoral materials in the form of text, pictures, and video are readily available. They can easily be found by unsupervised children using the Internet.
  • Spam: Using email can generate bulk amounts of unsolicited information to your inbox. It serves no purpose but to clog up the system and spread viruses.
  • Infection: If you are not careful about the sites you visit and the information you download, then you have a higher potential of having your system infected with viruses, spyware, and other malicious types of malware.
  • Filtration: Make too broad a search query using your search engine and a large number of hits are displayed making it difficult to filter out information.
  • Accuracy: Not all information available on the Internet is correct and authentic.
  • Time Waster: The Internet can become addicting with people taking time away from the important things to instead chat, surf, or play games.
Filed Under: Computers, Websites Tagged With: , , ,

Internet Tips: Internet safety guidelines for parents

January 25, 2011 By

The Internet can be fun to use, but it can also be dangerous for children. The FBI reported that over one million pedophiles are online ever day in chat rooms, instant message, and community forums. Meaning a child has a one in four chance of being approached while online. Parents need to play an important active role in educating children on the proper ways to use the Internet safely.

Setup these guidelines with your child before letting them go online:

  • Create computer rules which include approved web sites, amount of time on computer, and location of computer.
  • Check out parental control options provided by your service provider. Many of them include site options, monitoring, and filter capabilities.
  • Have your child create a screen name to use online that does not include their real name.
  • Discuss with your child to never give out personal information such as full name, age, school, address, phone number, or email address to anyone and never to share pictures.
  • If the child uses email or chat, have a discussion about never setting up personal or private chats with online friends.
  • Discuss stranger danger and how a child should never setup a meeting or meet with someone that they have met online.
  • Move the computer to the den or family area so that computer usage can be monitored.
  • Discuss what actions to take should your child receive an email message, IM, or other communications that is offensive or dangerous. Actions should include not responding to the aggressor, notifying parents and proper authorities, saving a copy of the offensive materials, and logging off.
  • Discuss what actions to take should your child see something that makes them confused, scared, or uncomfortable. Actions should include notifying parent or teacher, shutting off monitor, and discussing how they feel.
  • Locate child-friendly search engines that can be used for completing homework.
  • Setup email accounts that allow parental viewing access and become familiar with friends your children chat with using email, IM, or chat rooms

The most important rule should be that the child cannot use the computer without a parent’s permission.

Filed Under: Websites Tagged With:

Internet: Safety tips for Internet users

January 23, 2011 By

While the Internet is a great place to shop, obtain information, and meet people, it can be also dangerous to users young and old. Every Internet user should have safe guidelines in place to ward of hackers, predators, and identity thieves.

  • Antivirus and anti-spyware

Antivirus software applications protect your computer from viruses that will destroy information, crash systems, and decrease performance. Statistics show that computers without antivirus software are infected within 15 minutes.

Spyware installs on your system undetected without permission to control the use of your computer. They are designed to steal passwords, create pop-ups, and open the door to identity theft. Anti-spyware detects the unauthorized and unusual activities or downloads.

  • Personal information

Personal information such as full name, location, birth date, and phone numbers should never be included in social network profiles, chat rooms, or on bulletin boards. Identity thieves can gain access to assets including bank accounts, credit cards and reports, and other information of importance.

  • Firewalls

Make sure that your firewall is turned on as it is designed to filter internet traffic and insure harmful programs and hackers can’t obtain access to your system. Firewalls guard your computer by impeding communication from sources that you have not granted permissions.

  • Phishing

Be leery of emails, texts, and pop-ups that request personal information to update your accounts. Banks, credit card companies, and even utility companies will not solicit information over the Internet. Use only phone numbers tied to your financial statements or bills when conducting business.

  • Browser security

Consider installing multiple Internet browsers as Internet Explorer is the main target for viruses and spyware. Also secure your browser through the Internet option or tools menu by increasing your online security settings.

  • Passwords

Create passwords that are at least 8 characters long with letters, numbers, and figures. Never use your name, child’s name, address, or even zip code as your password. Keep passwords off of your computer hard drive, desktop, or out in the open to ward against thieves and hackers.

  • Programs and Attachments

Never open an email attachment from someone you don’t know as this is the most common way of transferring viruses to a computer. When receiving attachments from someone you know, run the antivirus application to make sure that nothing harmful has attached itself.

If a program application download does not come from a trusted site such as Microsoft, then don’t download it. The majority of these programs along with programs from game sites and unsolicited pop-ups contain spyware, malware, or viruses.

Filed Under: Websites Tagged With: ,

The Importance of Antivirus Software

January 21, 2011 By
Lazy Bone 1.0 IDE Xmas + Winter Edition
Image by livibetter via Flickr

Did you know that you are setting your computer system up for a major catastrophe if you don’t have antivirus software installed on it?

Yes, it can happen to you, and without warning. Computer systems that don’t have any type of guard against virus loading on their computers are at a high risk. You can lose your files, documents, photos and many pieces of important information if your computer is infected with a virus.

To further convey this serious magnitude of the need for antivirus software, most people would be quite surprised to know how easy it is for your computer to become infected with a virus. By simply opening up a harmless looking email, or by clicking on a link within an email, or by clicking on a link that comes through a pop-up window, you are essentially exposing your computer to potentially fatal applications that can shut down your entire system.

What’s the remedy? Antivirus software is the answer.

Let’s say that you forgo the idea to guard your computer with an antivirus software. What do you risk? You risk an email Trojan infiltrating your computer, you risk a virus infecting your contact database of information and spreading it across the board, and you risk malware being installed onto your computer’s hard drive, causing even more complications and inconveniences.

PC Tools Free Antivirus software is going to help protect your computer from malicious spam, malware and viruses that can be damaging to your hard drive. When you receive unsolicited emails from senders that you did not request, or that are relentlessly annoying, despite your requests at having your name removed, this is considered “spam” and can be hard to get rid of with even the best of efforts. This is why using specific antivirus software is preferable and more reliable than leaving your system to chance.

Filed Under: Computers, Equipment, Websites, WWW Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Fun with Internet Odds-Making

January 21, 2011 By

Sometimes people think gambling is always a losing proposition, but in reality, it’s often a much closer match than it initially appears. And while some games stack the deck in favor of the house, others can be learned with such depth and comprehension that the odds turn dramatically in your favor.

One case in point would be playing blackjack, where there are many instances of people upping their odds so substantially by being able to predict whether a high or low card is coming out next, that they win most of the time. And that’s as good as it gets in the online casino games world, where the ratio of winning to losing can be much closer to 1:1. You win some, you lose some. Gaining the upper hand by using a system is challenging and forbidden, so leave your efforts to come up with 21 behind and scoot over to the virtual poker games table.

By trying to match up anything from a pair to a royal flush–five cards in a row of the same suit–you can do pretty well in Texas Hold ‘em style poker. That’s because unlike other games, you’re given 7 total cards, which ups your probability of getting some reasonable hand or other. The rest is up to your betting skill to pull off, by either pretending you’ve got more or less than you’ve actually got! Skill in this arena can lead to some pretty sizable winning hands.

For those less interested in trying to craftily beat the odds, try some good old fashioned luck. Play some roulette, but play it smart. Here is a game where selection of the wheel is important. Two wheel types exist, and one removes a “neutral” (or more correctly, “house wins”) color tab from the two colored wheel, leaving only one space above fifty-fifty in the house’s favor. By betting on colors rather than numbers, odds increase, even if the payout decreases.

Filed Under: Design, Websites Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Search Engines: Information, features, and providers

January 20, 2011 By

Web search engines are designed to search for specific information on FTP servers and the web. Search result hits may consist of images, information, webpages, and other types of files.

The top 5 preferred search engines in order include:

  • Google
  • Yahoo!
  • Bing (aka MSN Live)
  • Ask (aka AskJeeves)
  • AOL Search

A search engine operates, in the following order:

  • Web crawling

Web crawling is a type of program that browses the web in a systematic mechanized manner or in a methodical approach.

  • Indexing

Indexing involves collecting, analyzing, and storing data to facilitate the retrieval of information in a fast and accurate manner.

  • Searching

Searching involves unstructured and indistinguishable querying of data to satisfy information requirements.  Web search categories include informational, navigational, connectivity, and transactional queries.

The features of a search engine include:

  • Default

Default occurs when multiple words or terms are entered into a search engine without using Boolean operators, symbols, or phrase marks.

  • Boolean

Boolean refers to how various words or terms are combined in a search (i.e. and, or, but)

  • Proximity

Proximity defines the specific distance within a record various terms or words should be from each other.

  • Truncation

Truncation is the aptitude of a search engine to query just a portion of a word.

  • Stemming

Stemming is the aptitude of a search engine to query word variants including past tense, present tense, plurals, singular forms, etc.

  • Fields

Fields refer to the capability of a research engine to locate word variants such as plurals, singular forms, past tense, and present tense in titles, descriptions, and other parts of webpages.

  • Limits

Limits are the ability to constrain search results by adding specific restriction to the search which includes data and language limitations.

  • Stop Words

Stop words are repeatedly occurring words or symbols that are not searchable including the word “the”, numbers, and HTML strings.

  • Sorting

Sorting is the search engines ability to organize query results by relevance, date, alpha order, root URL, or host name.

When using a search engine, users want one that delivers easy to read interface, helpful search options, and relevant search results.

Filed Under: Websites Tagged With: ,

Websites: Basic information about websites

January 19, 2011 By

A website is a collection of related materials such as images, web pages, videos, and other digital assets that are interconnected, located on a server, and maintained by a group, organization, or individual.

Static websites

Similar to printed brochure information, static websites display the same information to visitors and provide standardized consistent information.

Advantages include:

  • Little or no programming skills to create webpage
  • Particular web hosting requirements are not necessary
  • Information is static and requires little or no maintenance
  • A web server or application server is not required for direct viewing by a web browser

Disadvantages include:

  • Maintaining large numbers of static data is impractical without automated tools
  • Interactivity or personalization are restricted by client-side browser

Dynamic websites

Based on specific criteria, dynamic websites customizes and changes itself automatically and on a frequent basis. The dynamic website changes due to the user actions and responds to these needs by providing relevant information

Dynamic webpages are simple to utilize due to templates or forms that allows the user to add data, images, and other materials with ease.  However, they require a certain level of programming experience to create interactive web design.

Advantages include:

  • User options that can modified and customized.
  • Offer personalized experience via database access, content manipulations, and dynamic codes
  • Features and actions can run and perform simultaneously
  • Basic website plans for dynamic webpages are manageable and budge friendly

Disadvantages include:

  • Customized web pages are not cache friendly web pages o
  • Scripts may require additional concern at the time of installation and uploading when utilizing Unix-related servers
  • Webpages utilize templates to develop the data and content for the site creating similar and unoriginal pages

The most common types of websites include:

  • Affiliate
  • Blogs
  • F&A
  • Brand building
  • Community
  • Corporate
  • Commercial
  • Personal
  • Non-profit
  • Government
Filed Under: Websites Tagged With: ,

Finding a Connection for Businesses

January 11, 2011 By
Infographic on how Social Media are being used...
Image via Wikipedia

Social Media and SEO

With the popular social networking sites being so active online with so many different users, it’s important for businesses to understand how to use those tools to increase their business awareness and bring traffic to their sites. Delivering excellent customer service is very important for any business to thrive. Having an online presence in the form of a social networking platform would be invaluable tool for the business to use in developing a connection with their customers.

To properly use social media and social networking, you must first find out what your customers want and need. In the early period of the ’90s and late ’90s, the Internet became a viable tool for businesses to use in marketing. That’s when websites started getting attention, and people were buzzing about websites and wondering who had one. Over time, the Internet has significantly changed the face of business and today, there is more concentration on areas like social networking, blogging, websites and other methods of marketing.

Using search engine optimization (SEO) in the structure of the online business helpstremendouslyby driving traffic to the site. It can be done through articles, video uploads, or through the use of social media.

The Customer Connection

One very keen marketing method is using survey software to gauge customers’ satisfaction. With this software, a business can essentially get all of the feedback and input that it needs from its customers in order to make sure that they are delivering what the customer is looking for. Questions are posed to the customers and, with the given answers, the business is able to develop a tracking plan, an action plan or amechanismfor attending to the needs of the customers. Since most companies now have online and offline presences, it is important to be able to reach them through both methods so as to be as effective as possible while developing efficient service.

Filed Under: Computers, Websites Tagged With: , , ,
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