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Here are just some of the cool features built into Google. Try them out and you might find Google opens up a whole new door for you.

Use quotation marks – To find documents with the exact phrase in them, use quotes.

Use the + sign – Use the plus sign in front of words to make sure it will be included.

Use the – sign – Use the minus sign in front of a word to eliminate it in the search.

Try a Wildcard – Inserting a * in between phrases will result in any word within that phrase.

Dictionary - Google is a dictionary, type (define:) before a word to get the definition.

Calculator – Google is a powerful calculator, just type (2+2) and remember the proper order of operation for more complex problems.

Site search – Type a word and then (:edu) to find results only in the .edu domain. Works on all domains, .com, .gov etc.

Synonyms – Use ( ~ ) to search for synonyms of the word you type.

Use OR – Type “snake” “dog” or “cat” to get search results with snake and either dog or cat.

Numerical searches – Type (Ronald Reagan 1984…1989) to get results on Ronald Reagan during this time period.

Conversions – Type (32cm to ft) to get a centimeter to foot conversion.

Questions Answered – Ask google a question as a statement. If you want to know the US population, type (“is the population of US”).

File format – To find a specific file format, type (filetype:) and the file type.

Scenario: You have too many passwords you have to remember for tons of web sites. Let’s face it, just about everyone uses the same password or couple of passwords because it is too hard to remember passwords for so many web sites. The problem with using the same password for multiple web sites is that some web sites are better at securing your data like your passwords than others. If "Joe Hacker" discovers your username and password at "someblog.com" he or she might try to use it at bankofamerica.com, chase.com or every other online banking institution to gain access to whatever bank account you might own.

Enter Password Maker! Best used with Firefox, Password Maker securely uses one password you pick and creates a password using your master password and the web site domain name you want the password for. This allows you to have a different password for all your online accounts without having to remember a different password. I find this tool works best as a plugin for Firefox, quite possibly the world’s best web browser because it creates a button and does all of the work for you. Basically, you click a button, enter your master password, and copy and paste the password created.

I have tested the firefox plugin in in Windows Vista, OSX 10.6, and Ubuntu 9.04 and it should work on XP and Windows 7. For more information go to: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/469 or http://passwordmaker.org/

Security Tips for using this program:

1. You Master Password should not be the same as any of your usernames for your web sites.

2. Don’t save your master password in the program. Enter your master password every time for added security.

3. Use longer passwords, the default is 7 in Password Maker but there is nothing stopping you from having a long random password that is 20 characters, accept a poorly designed web site requiring short passwords.

4. Add an additional password only you know in addition to your created password from Password Maker. This should not be the same as any usernames or your master password. For example, if the password generated for your bank account is "09rl-sle" add a word or phrase in front of behind it making your password something like "goodpassword09rl-sle."

5. Never share your usernames, passwords, or master password with anyone.

I came across the web site wordtracker.com today and it had an article with a few tips from a book about Search Engine Optimization. Some of the quotes from the auther Peter Kent seem to agree with so much that I have been saying for so long. When talking about SEO companies Kent says, “Over the last few years as I speak to more clients and hear their stories, it has led me to believe that 80% of the business is scam.”

Some other things I read like using forums, blogs, and adding links all make me think this is a really good book to look at. If you want to optimize your web site

 on search engines like Google, you have to do the work yourself. Don’t waste your money with companies that just do stuff that is already offered for free. For the full story, check out wordtracker.com/acadamy/peter-kent If you want to purchase the book, you can buy it below from Amazon.com for usually much cheaper than Barnes and Noble or Borders.

 

Many people don’t realize how easy it is to block porn and other negative things from the Internet on your computer. A little service called Open DNS will do this not only for free but also with amazing functionality. I am not going to take the time to explain how to set it up because it is well documented on opendns.org but I would like people to know what you can do.

First, this system is a group system where thousands of people can vote or request certain web sites to be banned or put in a particular category. When you pay for a service that actively blocks all porn web sites, they are bound to miss a few but with a community, it makes it much harder. Porn, nudity, file sharing, movie downloading, instant messaging, and many more are all categories of sites you can automatically block by the click of a button. If you need to get to a certain web site in a category, you can enable that site instead of allowing that category of sites through or you can just block sites you want.

Second, you set it up in your router so it makes it pretty hard for your kids to figure it out. Don’t give them the password!

Third, you can look at stats and see where people try to go. This is a really nice function but you are unable to tell what computer did it. Also when you go to a site that is blocked, you get a web page that says the site is blocked and tells you why.

Finally, a really cool shortcut feature allows you to program web site shortcuts. For example, if you go to a web site with a really long URL frequently, you can make it be a name or even letter! Whatever you want. So if you go to areallylongurl.com you can make it so you type "a" in the address bar hit enter and it will take you to that site.

I really recommend Open DNS. Given the recent dns spoofing flaw, I decided to try it. I am really amazed. I would even pay for a service like this. Open DNS says they get their money by adds on searches or on the page that says you are being blocked from a restricted site. The adds are not annoying and I only notice them when testing bad web sites. Open DNS is used by many big businesses to keep their employees off of numerous types of web sites.

Because fraud is so rampant on ebay, many ebay sellers are requiring their buyers to confirm their address so that they will be covered by ebay and Paypal’s Seller Protection Policy. But what does this mean? This is ebay and Paypal’s way of verifying your identity. The system they have built covers the seller in the event of fraud and they buyer gets some other benefits too.

So how as an ebay buyer do you do this? Generally, you add your bank account to Paypal, Paypal sends you two small deposits, and you then report back the deposits. It is not full proof but it must have good enough success for ebay to support it.

As an ebay Seller, I have had Paypal tell me that someone fraudulently stole one of my buyer’s account to buy something from me. When this happens, I am liable and Paypal will always reverse the transaction taking the money out of my account but since I shipped it to the address given in Paypal and they had a confirmed address, they covered it and did not take the funds from me.

Had I not followed ebay and Paypal’s rules and the buyer’s address was not confirmed, they would have taken the money from me end of story. Im pretty sure if you add your bank account to Paypal as a buyer, you get coverage in the even that the seller is fraudulent.

As a buyer or seller, you will run across someone who will try to rip you off. If you are going to sell or buy on ebay, please read ebay’s policies before buying or selling anything. Many people jump right in and get ripped off right away. Others who are more cautious, get through without ever getting ripped off because of ebay’s policy.

If you need at a minimum, weekly dose of tech news and commentary, please tune in to KFI am 640 talk radio on the weekends from 11 am to 2 pm for Leo Laporte The Tech Guy. If you cant tune in your radio, you get the stream from KFI at KFI640.com, or twit.tv/live which will soon be twitlive.tv.

Leo is amazing at helping people learn and solve everyday technical problems an average user might have. The show may sometimes get geeky, but is made for an audience that may or may not know anything about tech. Leo has been a source of inspiration for me and I hope for you too.

Leo also creates too many to count, podcasts that release just about every day. Check out twit.tv for getting any of his shows delivered to you via RSS or iTunes.

I don’t really get what the big deal is with social web sites like Facebook and Myspace but if it is where the people are, the rest will come. There is an epidemic of social network hacking that I want everyone to be aware of. This is pretty rampant because I have received this hack from many friends and have heard of many others. The simple way to not get hacked is pay attention.

There are two ways you will get hacked: an email is sent to you that is not connected to your account or a message from a friend is sent to you.

Here is how it works, a friend who has had their account hacked sends you a message about a comment they sent you. In the message it says, "click here to read the message" or something of that nature but what happens is Myspace says "you must be logged in to do that." Now if you think about it, you had to be logged in to read the email so you are really already logged in, the link to the message is actually a link to another web site that looks exactly like Myspace. This web site is called a phishing site and it is there to collect your username and password. Now the person who hacked your friends account has now hacked yours and then the same email is sent to all your friends and the cycle goes on.

You can also get hacked by a random spam email in your regular email inbox that says the same thing only it brings you to the same phishing web site.

So how do you stop this from happening! First, if you get an email and you think there is something in Myspace that needs your attention, actually type the web address for Myspace in your web browser. Never click links in email. If you are checking messages after you know you logged in and one of the links requires you to log in again, don’t do it! If this happens, forget about it and don’t try to find out what the message is. Just send a message from that friend asking if they sent a message and if not, they might have been hacked.

I think scams like this are fairly common with Youth because they don’t take the time to think about what they are doing. Just click, click, click, and get to wherever they need to be as quick as possible. It is becoming increasingly important to not trust email from our financial institutions. If you receive notice from your bank that there is a problem, don’t click any links in email, go directly to their web site via your web browser. If there is a problem with your account, they will tell you when you log in.

All over various blogs and YouTube there is mention about a game called Crayon Physics. Crayon Physics which can be found here, is a game where you draw shapes with crayons to solve puzzles. Currently, the game is free and only the first basic version of the game is available for download. Don’t get me wrong, this game may sound really basic but it is really fun and addicting. The author promises an updated version soon where you can draw any shape other than squares but I would try it out in the mean time. This game is Windows only. It is fun to see what you can do with Crayon Physics.

With Google threatening Microsoft’s Office with Google Docs and Spreadsheets, Microsoft is taking a step towards cloud computing. As mentioned before, cloud computing is the idea of using the applications on your computer from the web. In other words, you don’t install software on your computer, you edit your documents online via a web browser. So far, Microsoft is far from it. I am not really a big cloud computing advocator, but I am not sure what Microsoft is trying to do with Office Live.

Office Live online has a few same features as Google Docs & Spreadsheets. For starters, Office Live servers as a place where you can store files online and collaborate with few or as many people as you want. You and others you allow can edit online Office documents. Microsoft, as usual is late to the plate. I am not sure at this point, but I don’t think there is a way to embed a word doc or spreadsheet in a web page like Google Docs and you also need to have Office on your computer to use the service. Requiring Office on your computer is a huge disadvantage when compared to Google Docs because it is completely free where the Office suite is very expensive. I would not expect anything from Office to be free anytime soon since it is a huge money maker from Microsoft. To be honest, I don’t see many people using this service. I see business people using this service because documents are often revised many times before they are made public. At this time, I am not sure what versions of Office, Office Live is compatible with, anyone trying this service with an older version of Office or from Office on the Mac, let me know. Try it out at http://www.officelive.com/default.aspx

In case you have not heard, today Apple released the SDK for the iPhone and iPod Touch and there will be a 2.0 update for iPhones in June. SDK stands for software developer kit and it will allow mobile software developers create everything from games to useful applications for iPhones and iPod Touches without having to use the browser.

Here are some of the highlights you have to look forward to in the iPhone:

-iPhone gets Enterprise support. This is the single most important thing to me. The iPhone will now have Microsoft Exchange and Active Sync support. This means my exchange server can now auto sync my contacts and give me push email through my iPhone. This won’t happen until the next software update but I am so happy for this.

-There will be an App store for the iPhone and and iPod Touch via iTunes for purchasing and installing software. This will be the only way to get software for your iPhone if it is not hacked.

- The game Spore will be available for the iPhone. Cool, and even though I can’t wait to play this game, I think I will want to play it on my computer.

-AIM, which was reported to be the most requested App will be available.

-Testing starts today with the beta release of the SDK but everything goes official in late June. What is odd to me, in the presentation, it said shipping in June. What is shipping? Are we going to see a new iPhone with 3G speeds? That is what the rumor is. I really hope it is true.

-Sim Unlock software will not be allowed in the iPhone App store. This means if you want software that is available for a hacked iPhone that is not available in the App store, you will still have to hack your iPhone. After June, and other than wanting to you use your phone on another carrier, I don’t see the reason to hack your iPhone anymore.