Tips and Resources

More on the Death of XP

My opinion posted yesterday that people running Windows XP should either upgrade or unplug from the Internet has resulted in some excellent challenges. I’ve been told that there is a reputable article published here or there that says that if you take some precautions you can keep running XP.

Windows XP SP3

The most common rebuttal has been that the writer is running an antivirus program and they say that will protect them. And, the idea that an anti-virus program should keep you safe is very reasonable.

There are steps you can take that a consensus of experts say will give you good protection. However, I have not run across any expert that says simply using an anti-virus program is sufficient. I don’t understand the technical details, but apparently some holes in the operating system allow evil access in places/times that anti-virus programs cannot guard.

Unfortunately, I think that most people are not tech savvy enough to follow the recommended safety steps. Therefore, I believe the only solutions for most people are to upgrade or unplug.

Leo Laporte, the Tech Guy

If you’re feeling stampeded into upgrading and do not want to, here is a clear description of what you should do to protect your computer from The Tech Guy, Leo Laporte .

I don’t think the recommendations are easy enough for most non-IT folk to follow. I see people having problems running their computer without Administrator privileges which is Laporte’s top safety tip. You need to follow the recommendations to operate without Admin privileges so that any evil program you stumble into does not have the authority to actually plant itself in your PC. Of course, when YOU want to install a new program or get an update for a program, you will need to re-logon your computer using a privileged account. While this is not a difficult procedure, I think most non-nerds will find these procedures difficult to comply with.

Many non-geeks also use Internet Explorer (IE) as their browser. IE is reknown for security problems, and older versions of IE — like those that came with Windows XP — are the worst of the worst. Changing to the more secure Chrome or Firefox can be done by downloading the browser (click on the link in this sentence to get the browser you want), installing it, starting it up, and making it your machine’s default browser (the browsers will ask if you want them to be the default).

I think people can switch browsers, but I worry that some won’t follow all the steps and Internet Explorer will still be used on the Internet some times. And, yes most people I know will run up-to-date antivirus programs. They also know better than to open attachments in emails or to click on links in those emails. But, almost everyone, me included, sometimes slips up and lets antivirus subscriptons expire and clicks when they shouldn’t.

You’re going to have to be perfect when you surf with XP after April 8th. That’s an awful lot to ask!

Even the people who say it’s safe to keep using XP with protection don’t impress me with their confidence. USA Today’s reassurance that XP can be safe starts off in an unsettling way, … their first step in assuring safe operations is to make sure you have a complete backup of all your files. That tells me that the author is not hugely confident that the recommended steps will actually protect you!

So, as disruptive and costly as it is, my best recommendation for non-techy folks with XP systems remains for them to upgrade or unplug come April 8th.

By Ozdachs|2014-03-25T18:01:26-07:00March 25th, 2014|Tips and Resources, Windows|0 Comments

You Have Two Weeks to Replace Your Windows XP PC

If you are running Windows XP on your computer you absolutely must upgrade it by April 8th or stay completely off the Internet.

If you use a Mac or have a PC running Windows 7 or Windows 8, you can click back to Facebook or Google yak breeding in New Zealand. This post doesn’t concern you.

For Windows XP users: This is not a drill!

Here’s why.

Microsoft has announced that it is discontinuing support for the Windows XP operating system on April 8th. Computers with XP will continue to run, but Microsoft won’t write any more code or offer any more fixes for that operating system.

That doesn’t sound very alarming. Your old computer will still work. The operating system has been around for a long time, it’s stable, and it’s unlikely that suddenly some function will break.

The problem is that the bad guys of the world are waiting for Microsoft to stop updating XP so they can unleash code on websites and in emails that will exploit security holes in the XP operating system.

Every week since XP came out in October, 2001, Microsoft has responded to discovered security problems by issuing patches through Windows Update. Bad guys kept finding new obscure security holes to attack your system, and Microsoft has kept filling the holes.

On April 8th, those weekly security patches will stop. But, the bad guys won’t quit searching for new flaws. And, they will find them. In fact, most IT gurus suspect that hackers are not acting on the flaws they have discovered recently; they are waiting until after April 8th to unleash them on the Internet where they will flourish unchallenged.

Worse, many flaws deep in the Windows code are in routines written originally for Windows XP which also have been used by the newer Windows 7 and 8. Windows 7 and 8 will continue to be updated, and hackers are going to watch carefully for what is patched by Microsoft. These evil coders will see if routines fixed in Windows 7 and 8 are also present in Windows XP. In effect, the weekly updates to the recent operating systems will point out to bad guys where they should attack XP systems.

Anti-virus and anti-malware programs won’t be able to protect you against all of the attacks which are based on exploiting flaws in the operating system.

The attacks typically come from email attachments and scripts embedded on sleazy web pages you’re tricked into going to or which you’ve gotten to because you’ve mistyped the web address. It’s hard to never typo www.ammazon.com instead of www.amazon.com! It’s easy to get fooled into clicking to open an email attachment or to visit a site that’s supposed to let you download a video but instead tries to send you a malicious program.

Once on your computer, the evil applications can monitor your keystrokes to get your bank username and password and then send off the information to the program’s authors in Russia. Or, the program can encrypt everything on your disk and demand that you send cash to a blackmailer if you want the key to decrypt your photos, financial information, and documents. Or, … whatever!

In my opinion, you should not use a Windows XP computer on the Internet after April 8th. It’s just too dangerous.

If you’re running XP now, you have two choices.

One is to update the computer’s operating system to Windows 7 or 8. However, many old computers do not have the minimum resources required for these new operating systems. And, even if they can run a newer version of Windows, they will do so very slowly.

Therefore, I recommend that you purchase a new computer. Hardware prices are less than 1/3 of what they were in 2002, according to Microsoft ⁽¹⁾. Plus, Microsoft is offering a $100 “instant savings” on computers you buy through them to replace an XP box.

Whether you go through Microsoft, pick up a new PC at Costco, or switch to a Mac, you’ll be okay. But, please, do not keep running XP! I really don’t want to spend the rest of 2014 helping people who kept using XP thinking that they’d be okay because they don’t view porn, shop online, or do anything stupid.

No matter how careful you are, your XP computer will be vulnerable after April 8th. Please, update!

By Ozdachs|2014-03-23T08:47:10-07:00March 23rd, 2014|Tips and Resources|1 Comment

Kickstarter Email sent February 15, 2014

I just received email from Kickstarter warning us that bad guys had hacked their site and stolen user data.

Kickstarter is doing the responsible thing by notifying its users, and it’s reassuring that credit card data was not taken.

The one gotcha is that encrypted account passwords were stolen. Kickstartser says that with enough time, the bad guys could break the encryption, copy your password, and try signing on to other sites on the Internet using your email address and the de-crypted password stolen from Kickstarter.

Fortunately, if Kickstarter used reasonable encryption technology, it’s not likely that bad guys would be able to easily or quickly break the encryption and get your password in a readable form. But, Kickstarter’s message provides a concrete example of the security mumbo-jumbo we are given every day.

You should use unique passwords for every site, especially sites like banking or ordering sites which remember your credit card number. When you use unique passwords, if a site is broken into you have to change your password for that one site. If you share passwords among sites, you have to change that password on every site it’s used when it’s compromised on any of the sites.

Remembering and managing passwords can be a pain, I know. The solution is to use a password management tool that learns and remembers your passwords as you type them online.

I use LastPass, and recommend it highly. The basic service is free, and the premiem features are $1/month.

LastPass has browser plugins for Chrome, Internet Explorer, and Firefox… the browsers I use. They have plugins for other browsers, too. These plugins watch for me to enter usernames and passwords, and they they ask me if LastPass should remember the data. If I say yes, LastPass stores the information securely, and I can have LastPass enter the username and password for me next time I visit the site.

Moreover, the information LastPass captures in Chrome is available to me in Firefox and on other computers. I just sign on to LastPass when I start my browser and all of my usernames and passwords are available for retrieval.

As far as my Kickstarter password, it was a unique nonsense series of numbers, letters, and special characters which was itself generated by LastPass. I am feeling very smug. I logged on to Kickstarter, had LastPass generate a new password there, and was done.

So, if you are a Kickstarter user, go to their site and change your password. Maybe start using LastPass while you do it! And, if used the Kickstarter password at other sites, then definitely visit all those sites and replace the common password with the random bits that LastPass will generate.

By Ozdachs|2014-02-15T15:18:27-08:00February 15th, 2014|Tips and Resources|3 Comments

Puppy “Zenith” Can Help with Your Marketing

Good looking pictures make all the difference in your website, social media posts, and printed marketing materials. Previous blog posts have talked about how sex sells and told you to load up on photographs of pretty women, babies, and pets.

But, you can’t just grab a photo of a Golden Globe winning actor from another web site and stick it on one of your pages as if the star was a raving fan of your business.

I am not a lawyer, so if you want specific legal advice, contact an attorney. However, let me tell you the rules I follow when I create web pages and social media for my clients.

You must have the right to use the photograph — maybe you took the picture (you own it) or you bought a license to use the image from a photo service.
If the subject in the photograph is identifiable and if you’re using the photograph for commercial purposes (this includes beauty shots designed make your web site attractive), you must have a model release. Either ask the subject to sign a release yourself, or make sure that the photo service you’re using gets releases from their models.
If you are using a picture to illustrate a news story, you do not need a release as long as the picture was taken in a public place where the subject doesn’t have an reasonable expectation of privacy. This means you can use pictures you take of church members BBQing in an article about the picnic without getting a release from each person in the crowd. The photograph can include children, too.
Although you can use photos of recognizable people for editorial purposes, it’s my policy to remove pictures from the website/Facebook/wherever if the subject says they don’t want their picture published.

The rules as I understand them — see non-lawyer caveat above! — are pretty simple. Use pictures you’ve taken or ones you have permission to use. If you’re using the photo for a non-editorial purpose and a person is identifiable in a picture, get a model release from that person.

You cannot use any picture or graphic you find in a Google search, on Flickr, or anywhere else on the Internet, unless the photo is marked in some way that gives you explicit permission to use it. Flickr and possibly other photo sites encourage people to give permission to others to copy their works using Creative Commons licenses. But, most images are not tagged with permission, and by default a photograph is protected by copyright law and copying is not allowed.

Pictures that grab the attention of your potential clients are powerful components of your Internet marketing effort. If you have the pictures you want for your Internet campaign, great! Use them! If you’re looking for more photographs, I take some darn good photographs (see examples — especially the puppy pictures). I am happy to come over with my camera and take the pictures you want. Or, browse stock photos available for licensing on the service I like best, Dreamstime.

Just make sure you get pictures of puppy Zenith or something equally appealing on your Internet marketing materials now!

By Ozdachs|2014-01-13T07:41:00-08:00January 13th, 2014|Product Recommendations, Professional Services, Tips and Resources|0 Comments

Sex Sells and Facebook Knows It

I was somewhat startled when I went to Facebook to catch up with news and encountered a provocative photograph in the sidebar.

Facebook taunted me that the post they were displaying received 95% more “engagement” than the my own recent pitiful posts. They suggested that the remedy to my isolation was to Boost Post — to pay them to display my posts in more places more frequently.

Well, okay. Maybe paying Facebook to display my posts as “sponsored” in the newsfeeds of people I don’t know would get some new people to read the Ozdachs page, like it, and buy our services. Maybe.

But, what I really took away from Facebook’s recommendations was a reminder that sex sells. The post that received 95% more attention was a crotch shot posted by a bar whose business page I had set up. The client is now publishing his own posts, and I confess that I admire his talent for grabbing eye balls and getting people to LIKE the photo or click through for more information on the featured event. He used a classic marketing technique: he used sex to get attention for his business.

I suggest to clients that we illustrate their pages/posts/hard-copy material with photographs of babies, puppies, and pretty young women. Research shows that images of those subjects gets readers to pause and pay attention to the material. It turns out that pictures of kittens and well-endowed young men are equally effective.

My own preference is to get users to stop and click by using pictures of adorable dogs. They can be used in any forum, and puppies don’t risk offending the sensibilities of more traditional or conservative viewers. Maybe the impulse to pet a dachshund isn’t as strong as the sex drive, but in my opinion a puppy is a more appropriate graphic for a business-to-business focus.

Of course, if you are attracting customers to your bar, you might focus more on sexy photographs. Or, if you’re selling estate planning, you would be smart to load up your site with smiling babies of the inheriting generation.

In business, your task is to create an appealing image that will stand out from the crowd of messages hitting your prospective client. Pretty women, babies, and puppies stop people from paging down or tossing your flier away without a second glace. Give your message a chance to reach a customer.

Do what Facebook does. Let sex sell for your business!

By Ozdachs|2014-01-12T08:54:35-08:00January 12th, 2014|Facebook, Tips and Resources|0 Comments

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More on the Death of XP

You Have Two Weeks to Replace Your Windows XP PC

Kickstarter Hacked — User Data Stolen

Can I Use that Picture?

Sex Sells and Facebook Knows It