Life & Technology

Cyber Criminals, hang your heads in shame! Not 48 hours after the release of windows7 and already these cowardly crooks are trying to hoodwink us all into parting with our precious details under the guise of remaining compliant with Windows. There is danger in this data. Let me show you the tell tale sign that screams ‘Wrong Way – Go Back’ so you can ensure you don’t get CyberScammed!

Just now, arriving in my email is a note with a heading – “Microsoft has released an update for Microsoft Outlook”. The email goes on to say that I need to up-date my Outlook and can do so by clicking on this link – “http://update.microsoft.com/microsoftofficeupdate/KB910737/default.aspx?ln=en-us&email=blahblahblah”.

Looking a little closer, it is clear this is nothing more than another attempt to get me to install malware on my pc. When I look at the html code in the website address, and sneak a peak at the real address I will be visiting to download this so called ‘up-date’, I see I will visit – “http://update.microsoft.com.modesftp.eu/microsoftofficeupdate/”.

Um, http://update.microsoft.com.modesftp.eu? OK – this is different to where the email says I am going, isn’t it! I was supposed to go Microsoft, but infact will be going to ‘modesftp.eu’.

CyberCriminals are clever, but not that clever on this occassion. Be warned people, Windows7 is here and if you want to act on the release, visit a PC software retailer, not a dodgy website.

Unless you have been hidden under a rock, you’ll know that Microsoft has released its latest version of its operating system, Windows 7.

With teething problems with the past two iterations, Microsoft has pulled out all stops stating that it is one of the best yet. I’m not 100 percent sure, because I haven’t had a full-on go at it yet, but from what I’ve seen so far, I like it.

So what can it do? First of all it allows you to connect all your family computers together. It means you can have contact with the rest of your family quickly, easily with little fuss.

Mums and dads will be happy that there is an added security feature so they can not only keep an eye on the kids, but make sure they are doing their homework and not just playing computer games.

It also has Media Player 12 that allows streaming and a “play to” feature, so you can stream to other PCs that have Windows 7 running. You can also have remote media streaming, which means you can play music or videos from your home PC while you’re on the road.

Overall, a good product, and I have only scratched the surface as far as its capabilities.

Finally, it is easy to upgrade from XP and Vista by going to this webpage and it will tell you whether your PC can take the upgrade. An upgrade will cost about $140, while as a standalone product it will be about $240.

The day you get your first smart phone you should first think, not what can I do with this, but when should I not be using this.

I love my smart phone, however one morning my 18 month old looked at a mobile phone picture for sale in a retailer catalogue and said ‘Dadda’. It was clear that I was spending too much time on it. For my daughter to associate me with a mobile phone meant one thing and one thing only, when at home, my phone and I needed to spend far less time together.

My phone is so much in my life, I keep it backed up daily and look after it with all the attention it needs to operate normally. At work, I live on it. But that’s when I need it to accomplish work tasks more quickly. At home I was reading the paper, looking up the weather, reading emails, listening to music and generally stuffing around with the various apps I use to get me through the day. So, I turned a new leaf! I decided that from now on when I am home the phone is a phone. If it rings I will answer it, if it doesn’t then it sits in it’s cradle waiting to ring.

I noticed a couple of things quickly:
1) My friends don’t ring very often
2) When I was playing with my phone I was not spending time connecting with my family.

One weekend down and my daughter is back to yelling ‘Dadda’ when she wants to play. I’m not having withdrawl symptons from leaving the phone alone and life is just as great as it was when I had access to all the amazing apps I had access to.

Try it yourself and let me know how you fared when restoring the balance.