Free Computer Consultant ………. Daily Insights

People like easy passwords, people like simple systems.

Today’s news tells us that Governor Palin’s Yahoo email that she foolishly used for official business was hacked. They don’t know how yet, she may have been duped by a forged email into revealing her password (which you should never do anyway) or maybe by asking her to change it via a forged website.

It’s also possible that they got the password sent to them by Yahoo! since many of her private information is public knowledge - birthday, etc.

My advice is to NEVER use real information when signing up for one of these services. Use a password safe to store all of this information in.

And do not ever assume that what you send in an unencrypted email is private. Hackers and good ‘ol Uncle Sam can get it. Maybe even an IT person at your company or ISP.

Should you maybe take a look at some privacy software made easy?

There are new video formats on the web all the time, and even some of the old tried and true websites change the way the video is handled. (Even YouTube continues to evolve.)

I like to download videos so that I can watch them uninterrupted and to play later for myself or a family member and not deal with the download time or the bandwidth usage a second time.

You might also guess that I don’t watch many Yahoo! videos, since they seldom play promptly - if at all. And no way I know of to download them.

I just updated my video download page on the website with a great new FireFox add-on that works on every site I have tried except Yahoo!

And it’s so simple to use. Just click the rotating balloon type button next to the address bar. It will come alive if there is a video on the page.

A client had a very usable, but a bit out of date Compaq workstation; P4 2.8Ghz. But the integrated video was inadequate to handle Dual Monitors - naturally.

Unfortunately, this PC only had PCI slots, no AGP, so I was forced to buy a new video card (I have a couple of used AGP cards that were up to the task on my shelf which I would have given him). I chose a BFG Tech card from one of my favorite retailers, NewEgg.com, who happen to be on my recommended vendors list.

No matter what I tried, I just couldn’t get the 2nd display to do more than 800×600 in 16 colors - not only gross but unusable.

So I placed a call to BFG Tech, which has 7×24 service - this was on a Saturday morning. After a 20 minute hold, a technician came on the phone, asked my name, phone number and problem. I gave him my name and callback number, which he verified.

As I began describing the problem, the line went dead! I waited a short while for a callback and none came. This doesn’t speak too well of BFG’s Tech Support.

At this point I had wasted over an hour and it was time to call it quits. So I removed the BFG PCI card and informed the client that dual monitors just weren’t going to happen on this PC.

Here comes the good part: In less than 5 minutes I had received an RMA for refund from NewEgg.com via their website.

Now that’s service. I highly recommend NewEgg.com for hardware and software purchases.

The credit problems in America have been brewing for a long time. Download Maxed [NOT HERE, Google Video dropped it]. (July 2008 - this is why you want to download videos you like, never know when they will be pulled!).

I see Google is getting with it on their own video site and allowing video download to MP4 format. If that doesn’t work for you, see my blog entry on Video Download from the other day.

You can watch it on your PC if you want, but this video is almost an hour and a half long (don’t turn it off during the credits, one of the best lines comes after that - just listen to David Bowie and Freddie Mercury and wait).

We watched on the big screen TV since that’s a lot more comfortable than gathering the family around a PC.

I used Video Lan Player and selected full screen (output from my laptop). Looked very good.

Get the details and links from my video download page.

We found a site that allows you to download video from YouTube in the new format post Aug 23, 2007.

DownThisVideo.com

WARNING!

Ads on this site are not safe for work / family.

As soon as we find a better, family-safe site for video download we will post it here.

Over the summer I created a number of videos, primarily on the topic of routers, wireless routers and configuring security on wireless routers.

Setting up a router or configuring encryption on a wireless router is really not that hard to do. I uploaded the videos to make it easier for those not ordinarily comfortable doing something like that to have the confidence to give it a try.

You can see these videos on Associated Content. Use my own custom linkFreeComputerConsultant.

If you want to make a couple bucks submitting content to the internet on a topic you have knowledge, consider signing up on Associated Content.

YouTube changed their video format on August 23, 2007. As a result of this “improvement”, video download programs like javamoya and keepvid no longer work.

I don’t know the details, but quite frankly I wonder why Google (YouTube) doesn’t provide video download functionality itself. If most people have the kind of broadband that doesn’t cause the video to stop and start (or just stop) then my video download page on my website wouldn’t be one of the most popular pages.

I’m not suggesting that lack of video download ability will cause viewers to abandon YouTube in favor of more worthwhile pursuits, of which most anything else is a better use of time, but since Google wants to own the world (that part they don’t already own) it surprises me that they don’t cover all the bases.

In fact, Google even launched a service to allow surfers to scan outer space in much the same way as they can now view the surface of planet earth.

I am very pleased to announce that my video How To Upgrade Memory in a Laptop at Associated Content has been on the front page for a couple of days now and appears to be pretty popular.

Check it and post a comment there (and here) if you like.

The EDUCAUSE/Internet2 Computer and Network Security Taskforce, The National Cyber Security Alliance and the Research Channel held a contest seeking videos that explain computer security problems and how to safeguard against these threats. The winning videos can be seen below. They are all under 2 minutes in length.

I have not watched them all, but I’m presuming the reviewers were likely more knowledgeable than I, so it should be good stuff.

Watch them here.

I just uploaded a video to YouTube:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vj7iMAgji0I]

In it I am cloning a hard drive using Acronis True Image Workstation. The hard drive is from a USB hard drive enclosure; which is why I like building my own - I can upgrade when I need to for a minimum amount of cash.