InPictures online tutorials are based on pictures, not words. There’s no complicated multimedia, just pictures that show exactly what to do. Nothing to buy or download.
This site just launched today. Current tutorial offerings include Microsoft Office 2003 and OpenOffice.org programs, with more to come.
Their essay entitled Killing Off The Camel is interesting reading as well.
This is an index of the web sites included in the 1999-2006 annual lists issued by the American Library Association to recognize outstanding reference sites on the World Wide Web. A great place to begin research on a multitude of topics.
…you’ll never know what you’ll get!
Preston Gralla on the Computerworld website:
“The next time you’re at an airport looking for a wireless hot spot, and you see one called “Free Wi-Fi” or a similar name, beware — you may end up being victimized by the latest hot-spot scam hitting airports across the country. You go to an airport or other hot spot and fire up your PC, hoping to find a free hot spot. You see one that calls itself “Free Wi-Fi” or a similar name. You connect. Bingo — you’ve been had!The problem is that it’s not really a hot spot. Instead, it’s an ad hoc, peer-to-peer network, possibly set up as a trap by someone with a laptop nearby. You can use the Internet, because the attacker has set up his PC to let you browse the Internet via his connection. But because you’re using his connection, all your traffic goes through his PC, so he can see everything you do online…”
The article provides tips for safe wireless networking and avoiding rogue networks.
We’ve witnessed this situation firsthand at the Birmingham (Ala.) International Airport.
In the picture above, “TheAuthorityLAN” is the legitimate airport access point. Note the two peer-to-peer connections at the bottom… This screenshot was made on 09/29/2006.
Another article that we think is required reading for anyone using public wireless network access is Mr. Gralla’s How to protect yourself at wireless hot spots.
And, as always, if you need help or have questions about securing your computer or wireless connection, contact us!
OpenOffice.org is a free, open source alternative to Microsoft Office and other major office suites. Visit http://openoffice.org/ to find out more about it and to download it.
Part of what makes OpenOffice.org so attractive (besides being free to download, use and distribute) is its cross-compatibility with documents, spreadsheets, and presentations created with Microsoft Office. OpenOffice.org Writer will open, edit, and save Microsoft Word .doc files. The same goes for OpenOffice.org Calc and Microsoft Excel .xls files, and for OpenOffice.org Impress and Microsoft PowerPoint .ppt files.
This page from Idealware offers a feature-by-feature strengths and weaknesses comparison between Microsoft Office 2003 and OpenOffice.org.
When OpenOffice.org is installed, it is set up by default to save Writer, Calc, and Impress files in their respective native (.odt for Writer, .ods for Calc, .odp for Impress) formats. These formats have been approved by the International Standards Organization as the international standard for office data.
This would be fine if everyone were using these standards. For now, the reality is that the majority of businesses and people that create and exchange documents, spreadsheets and presentations in the US do so using Microsoft’s software and standards.
This guide will show you how to configure the OpenOffice.org suite to automatically save Writer files as .doc, Calc files as .xls, and Impress files as .ppt. These files can then be easily opened and edited in Microsoft Office 97, 2000, and 2003.
This will enable OpenOffice.org users to exchange files with Microsoft Office users.
Begin by opening the OpenOffice.org Writer program. Once Writer is open, select Tools from the menu bar at the top, and then select Options from the bottom of the Tools menu as shown here.
Once the Options window opens, find the Load/Save entry in the left-hand column, and then click on the “plus-sign” next to it to expand it.
The first expanded entry under Load/Save is General. Click on the word General to highlight it and display the available options.
(click image below to open enlarged in a new tab or window)
Note the two “drop-down” menus under the Default file format heading at the bottom of the window. This is where the save settings will be changed as shown below.
To save OpenOffice.org Writer documents as Microsoft Word 97/2000/XP .doc files, click on the Always save as drop-down on the right and change the default selection from OpenDocument Text to Microsoft Word 97/2000/XP as shown above.
Next, click on the Document type drop-down on the left and select Presentation from the menu.
click image below to open enlarged in a new tab or window)
Next, click on the Always save as drop-down on the right and change the default selection from OpenDocument Presentation to Microsoft PowerPoint 97/2000/XP as shown above.
(click image below to open enlarged in a new tab or window)
Finally, click on the Document type drop-down on the left and select Spreadsheet from the menu. Then click on the Always save as drop-down on the right and change the default selection from OpenDocument Spreadsheet to Microsoft Excel 97/2000/XP as shown above.
In reference to the note provided which states “Not using OpenDocument as the default format may cause formatting or content to be lost.”, we have never found this to be an issue. To be safe, it is recommended to use the Save as… feature when editing files originally created in Microsoft Office. Save your edited version under a slightly different file name so you’ll have an unchanged original version saved as well.
Finish by clicking the OK button to close the Options window and save your changes.
If you’re using OpenOffice.org on Windows and have available hard drive space, you also may want to download and install the free Word, Excel and PowerPoint Viewers from Microsoft. These have two main uses for the OpenOffice.org user. You can then create a document, spreadsheet, or presentation in OpenOffice.org, save it, and then open it in the appropriate Microsoft Office Viewer to see how it looks formatting and content-wise. You can also use the appropriate Microsoft Office Viewer to open any file that you may receive that won’t open using OpenOffice.org. Though the Microsoft Office Viewers will not allow the editing of files, content can be copied out of the viewer and pasted into the appropriate OpenOffice.org application using the Copy Paste menus or keyboard commands.
The Ramblings of a Digital Educator blog has some great links to free online OpenOffice.org and Microsoft Office tutorials.
Edit (01/29/2007): Kaj Kandler’s blog also lists training resources for OpenOffice.org, as does his Plan-B for OpenOffice.org website. The screencast tutorials at Plan-B are free while the site is beta-testing.
And, why should the average computer user be concerned about it?
The IT Security website recently posted an explanation detailing the different types of malware in terms that the average computer user or layman can understand. It should be required reading for anyone who uses a computer.
From their site: “Malware, or malicious software, simply means any unwanted code or program that embeds itself on a computer without the user’s knowledge.”
Here and here are some real-world examples of why keeping your computer secure and malware-free is more important
now than it has ever been. Here are even more “malware horror stories”.
Hacker-turned-computer security consultant Kevin Mitnick recently wrote a list of the top ten steps computer users should take to protect their information and computing resources from the bad boys and girls of cyberspace.
Carputers specializes in removing malware from your computer. We’ll also secure your computer and your home or small business network. Fixing problems isn’t enough - proactive security measures must be put in place to keep those same problems from returning.
The old adage “An ounce of prevention…” applies here as well. A new computer (or a new installation of Windows) needs to be secured before connecting it to the internet for the first time.
If you’re not sure how to do this, contact us - we’d be happy to help!
of the main Carputers website. We’ll use it to post news, links to interesting and/or informative websites, computer tips, how-tos and other stuff we think should be shared with home and small business computer users.