Joyce's Wall

Tuesday, 16 August 2016

Microsoft is killing off Windows Live Mail

Windows Live Mail is a desktop email program Microsoft introduced to replace Outlook Express. It is part of the Windows Essentials suite, which includes several fine programs: Live Mail, Live Writer, Photo Gallery, MovieMaker and OneDrive. (It used to include Messenger, which was replaced by Skype.) Unfortunately, the suite has not been updated since 2012, because Microsoft switched to developing securely sandboxed, touch-oriented apps instead.

Windows Live Mail 2012 will not stop working, and you can still use it to download emails from any standard email service. However, Microsoft is moving all its own email services – Office 365, Hotmail, Live Mail, MSN Mail, Outlook.com etc – to a single codebase at Outlook.com. Windows Live Mail 2012 does not support the new APIs (applications programming interfaces) required to provide full synchronisation with Outlook.com. Microsoft could update Windows Live Mail 2012, but instead, it has asked users to switch to a different email program.

Microsoft suggests ...
Microsoft suggests using either its free Mail app or Outlook, the email and personal information manager that is part of Microsoft Office. Outlook costs money, but Microsoft is offering Live Mail users a free subscription to Office 365 for one year. (You should have received this offer by email, but if not, the details are online.)

See article HERE

Tuesday, 26 July 2016

Digital Detox

Do you need to do a digital detox?

The digital age is an interesting paradox – we are constantly connected, yet more disconnected than ever. While it’s tempting to bemoan the rise of the machines, we have to accept that they’re here to stay. So, how do we strike a healthy balance? If you spend hours staring at a screen and twitch at the thought of losing your phone, it might be time to try a digital detox.

Switching off
Before deciding to (temporarily) ditch your devices, it’s worth asking yourself a few questions to assess your level of dependence – this will help you to create a game plan:

· Do you check your smartphone first thing in the morning?

· How often are you on social media?

· Do you find yourself mindlessly surfing the internet just for something to do?

· Have you ever had more than one screen open at a time? (e.g. television, computer, phone, iPad etc.)

· Have you ever panicked when your device’s battery runs low?

· Do you think you could last a day without digital technology?

Being constantly ‘plugged in’ affects the brain at a chemical level, creating an unsustainable reward cycle of instant gratification that has to be continually fed. Neuroscientists, psychologists and the medical community at large have documented the consequences of this trend, finding that it can:

· discourage conversation and social engagement

· reduce concentration, memory, attention span and productivity

· suppress empathy and emotional communication

· influence poor sleep patterns, headaches, anxiety and depression

Nasty stuff, right? While you may not be ‘addicted’, you will still likely find value from a tech break. However, proceed at your own pace – if you’re heavily dependent, try cutting back instead of going cold turkey. Here are some of the benefits of a digital detox:

1. Remember how to be ‘present’
With such constant stimulation, our brains don’t get any downtime. It’s no wonder we then experience cognitive problems. Try going for a walk, sitting in a café, riding the train … All without distraction from your default device. Just be in that moment. It’s a great reminder to be observant and engaged with the world around you.

2. Improved sleep quality and brain power
The bright light from digital devices affects the brain’s melatonin levels, which makes it difficult to fall asleep and achieve adequate rest. This has a roll-on effect to daytime concentration and energy levels. The solution? Switch off at least half an hour before bedtime. However, if you need to wean yourself out of this habit, try an app that filters the blue light from your screen at night.

3. Rediscover the art of conversation
Sometimes you just don’t feel like talking, and smartphones provide a convenient sanctuary, but there’s no substitute for a great conversation. Set yourself a challenge to talk to one new person for the week – in person – even if it’s only brief. You’ll feel better for it, and you never know who you may meet!

Tuesday, 28 June 2016

Cover up

Covering up your camera and microphone

Are you as cautious as I am? The first thing I do when purchasing a new laptop is cover up the camera with a piece of cardboard or sticky tape. I have been writing about this practise for many years.

A photo posted on Tuesday by Facebook creator and CEO Mark Zuckerberg (above) showed his laptop computer in the background. You can clearly make out sticky tape placed over the camera. Mashable are also reporting that the image shows the microphone input covered up also.

In this day and age you can never be too careful. Once a hacker has gained access to your computer, they can activate your audio and listen in to sounds around your computer, while also activating the camera to spy on you.

As with anything in life, it's always best to play it safe. Cover up!

Passwords

Researchers may have discovered a way to create perfect passwords

We’re all aware of the importance of a strong password, although the strongest are almost impossible to remember. Researchers may have found a poetic way to tackle this problem.

The conundrum of perfect passwords is one we all have to manage each day. Websites will often ask you for an eight-digit (minimum) password that contains a random selection of upper and lower case letters combined with numbers and the odd symbol, such as a dollar sign or ampersand. In theory, coming up with these passwords may be easy enough, but remembering them can almost make your head explode. In short, a strong password will be impossible to remember, but an easy-to-remember password may end up being quite weak or ‘hackable’.

However, researchers Marjan Ghazvininejad and Kevin Knight from the University of Southern California (USC) may have solved this dilemma, and have recently published a paper that advises people on how they may be able to create ‘uncrackable’, memorable passwords.

The USC researchers were inspired by a clever Xkcd comic created by Randall Munroe, which showed how a phrase consisting of four random words could make the perfect password. The example given was "correct horse battery staple", and it’s believed to be more secure and more memorable than the combination of random letters, numbers and symbols recommended by most online security experts.

The theory behind the security of a random word phrase such as ‘correct horse battery staple’ is based on cryptography. According to Kevin Knight:

“The secret here is that those four random words are actually generated based on one very large random number. That random number is then broken up into segments, each of which corresponds with a word in the dictionary. It's basically a form of cryptography. To guess the full random number, a computer might have to test billions of billions of billions of possibilities before it hits on the right one.”

Randall Munroe proposed using this large number to pick four random words, but Ghazvininejad and Knight think that the most secure and memorable formula is to use four (or more) words to create a random word poem.

They do this by assigning every word in the dictionary with a distinct code. They then use a computer program to generate a very long random number, which is broken into smaller pieces and then translated into two short phrases. The final phrase consists of two lines rhyming in iambic tetrameter. Confused? Here are some examples:

Australia juggernaut employed

the Daniel Lincoln asteroid

A peanut never classified

expected branches citywide

These passwords may sound simple, but Mr Knight estimates that it would take a modern-day computer around 5-million years to crack them. Pretty secure, huh?

They’ve even created an online password generator for people to try out. At the moment, it’s still in testing phase, so it’s advised that you don’t use them for your password until all the kinks are ironed out. In the meantime, if you’d like a poem password, you can provide Ghazvininejad and Knight with an email address and they’ll generate a secure password for you.

Friday, 24 June 2016

Fake emails

How to tell the difference between real and fake emails

According to the latest Kaspersky Lab statistics, around 60 per cent of emails sent worldwide are spam. The vast majority of these spam emails are created to scam you of your hard-earned money. So Drew explains how to spot a fake email.

What to look for?
Scammers are becoming more cunning than ever before with how they create scams and the words that they use in those emails. While emails from the prince of Nigeria asking you to help transfer some money in exchange for a percentage for your troubles have fallen off significantly, local and online service scams are rising.

Anyone using an email address ending with .au is being targeted at a more specific level than someone using a .com email address. This is because the scammer knows your email address relates to a person living in Australia.

Be on the lookout for emails from Telecommunication companies (Optus/Telstra etc), banking institutions (Westpac, Commonwealth Bank etc), online payment services (Paypal, Western Union), mail companies (Fed EX or Aus Post) and the Australian Tax Office (ATO).

Before opening an attachment or clicking through to a website, be sure that you are expecting an email, including the information, from the company. The trick I find most useful in determining whether an email is a scam is to scroll my mouse over the linked information in the email. By doing this, a display of the website url you’d be taken to will be shown. This will allow you to make an educated decision (if the link is going to www.telstra.com.au then you know it is a real email).

Another trick is to also check the email address from which you received the email. If it looks dodgy or untypical of that organisation, it’s most likely unsafe.

As with anything in life, if an offer sounds too good to be true, it generally is. Never click a link that you aren’t expecting.

Wednesday, 1 June 2016

Accounts Hacked

425 million user accounts hacked in massive online security breach

In what is being called the biggest online security breach of all time, the usernames, email addresses and passwords of 425 million Myspace and Tumblr users have been hacked and are now available for sale online. The hacked data emerged for sale through a well-known hacker website and is available for purchase price of $4300. Both Myspace and Tumblr have confirmed that the user data was compromised as a result of security breaches several years ago.

These breaches are not isolated incidents. Just last month, LinkedIn confirmed a breach of 164 million accounts back in 2012, which was only revealed after the compromised data emerged for sale online. A hacker group that has stolen more than one billion passwords in the past few years is believed to be responsible for all three breaches.

In all three cases though, credit card or bank details were not stolen. The hackers were simply after email addresses and user passwords. With this information, hackers can attempt to access other websites and email accounts.

The lesson we all need to learn from these security breaches is that you just cannot trust anyone except yourself to keep your data secure. Take action at your end by ensuring that your email passwords are different to those used for any other website. It is also highly recommended that you take your security protocols one step further by using unique passwords for each different website you visit.

Find out if your email address has compromised at www.haveibeenpwned.com
Read more from www.theage.com.au
Read more from www.arstechnica.com

Monday, 30 May 2016

Best Websites

The three best websites for technology how-tos and helpful hints

We live in a wonderful world of technology. But sadly, TVs go on the fritz, computers crack up, codes break and phones don’t behave – so learn how to fix disobedient technology with the help of these top tech tips sites.

HowToGeek
HowToGeek is an online magazine that offers fascinating articles about all things technology. It also provides simple-to-follow tutorials on topics that range from ‘how do I turn on my TV’ to ‘how do I program my TV to take over the world’. Just kidding, but you get my drift.

The information is presented in a palatable, straight-forward format, perfect for tech amateurs but also interesting enough for hard-core tech heads.

Tech-recipes
Tech-recipes is a website authored by a massive community of users who provide step-by-step guides for a diverse range of tech issues. You can learn anything on Tech-recipes, from formatting spreadsheets in Google Sheets, to making the most of your smartphone camera. There are also many simple tutorials that show you how to build your own website or blog. Tech-recipes pretty much covers all things Android, Apple, Windows and internet.

HowStuffWorksTECH
HowStuffWorks has been enlightening the world since 1998, with its unbiased, reliable and succinct explanations of, you guessed it, how stuff works! HowStuffWorks provides tech tutorials and how-tos and also covers a broad range of really interesting subjects, from animals to adventure, entertainment and culture to cars, and money to lifestyle – just to name a few. This is by far one of the most informative sites on the internet.

Oh, and although we don’t market ourselves as tech experts, we do believe that our own tech tutorials are incredibly insightful and helpful. We also love the challenge of answering your specific questions. So, if you have any tech-related queries, send them in to us and we’ll do our very best to answer. And if we can’t, we’ll certainly point you in the right direction!