LANcom Technology Blog

Del.icio.us is a social bookmarking website, and what it allows you to do is conveniently store all your favourite internet links so that you can access them from any computer connected to the internet (all you have to do it login to the website to get access to your links)

Another great advantage of Del.icio.us is that when you save a link you can tag it with words that will make it easy for you to find the next time you are looking for it. For example if you were planning a holiday you could tag all the links to places you were considering staying with the words ‘holiday’ and ‘accommodation’. Then when you wanted to review all the places you had found you can simply type “holiday accommodation” into the search box of your ‘my Del.icio.us’ page and all the links you had tagged with that would come up.

Some of the other suggested uses for Del.icio.us are:

• Create an online cookbook by saving links to recipes and tagging them according to style of cuisine, time to cook etc. Then you could just for example type ‘Moroccan’ and ‘60mins’ into the search box and get a list of links to appropriate recipes you had saved.
• Visit ecommerce sites and create a wish-list. You can then send people a link to your Del.icio.us wish-list of links to make it easier for them to buy you gifts.
• Collaborate with Friends or co-workers on a shared account to collect and organises bookmarks that are relevant to the group.
• Researching for a project? You could use Del.icio.us to organise and keep all of you source materials.

Another way you can use Del.icio.us is to find links to the things that interest you. On the Del.icio.us website you can search for a topic and Del.icio.us will search through all the pages that other people have added to Del.icio.us and order them according the ones that have been favourited most. So you can see other peoples favourite links on a particular topic.

To learn more about Del.icio.us click here

To register for your free account click here

To visit the Del.icio.us homepage and check out the hotlist of most favourited links click here

There are many benefits to upgrading to a flat-panel/ LCD monitor such as less power consumption, more space on your desk and increased eye comfort (Click here to read more). If this is something you are considering or if you already have LCD screen but are looking to buy another here are a few things you need to think about.

Size and resolution- When buying a monitor the size really comes down to a personal choice and will depend on: how many programs you would like to keep open at one time, the size of your desk, and your preferred screen resolution. At a lower resolution fewer items will fit on the screen but they appear larger. At a Higher resolution more items will fit but they’re smaller.

It’s good practice to set LCD monitors to there native resolution, this results in the best clarity, and different sized monitors have different native resolutions. For example typically a 19 inch standard ratio monitor will be 1280 x 1024, while a 20 inch standard ratio monitor will be higher at 1600 x 1200.

Wide screen virus standard ratio - Once again this comes down to your own personal preferences. While wide screens are great if you plan to watch movies on your computer there are also other reasons you may want a wide screen monitor. Some computer applications are easier to work with using a wide screen. You may also benefit from a wide screen monitor if you would like to have more open windows displayed side by side.

Digital versus analog connection – Before you buy your flat-panel monitor you need to need to know whether the video adapter on your computer has a DVI (digital visual interface) port or the older style analog VGA port. Then you can buy a monitor with a connection that matches that port. If your computer has one of both or you have a converter then this will not really be an issue for you.

Price – When you’re buying a flat-panel monitor, size versus price is going to be something you will have to weigh up. Some people will be perfectly satisfied with a smaller display at a lower price, but before you make this decision you need to think long and hard about what you will be using it for. Will you be doing a lot of reading online? Do you need to have more than one window open at once? If you answered yes to either of these you may want to lean towards a larger display to make things easier for yourself.

More information on this topic from Microsoft can be found by clicking here.

Microsoft has a great article on their website detailing what you can do when you’re working on a slow internet connection. Here are a few of their suggestions.

1. If you are going to send multiple files by email, then compress them first. This speeds things up. You can do this using Winzip or another compression tool.

2. If you want to speed up your internet browsing, you could turn off your graphics in Internet Explorer. This means that your WebPages will load much faster but will appear without any pictures, animations, or videos. To do this in Internet Explorer:

1. Click on Tools
2. Click Internet Options and go to the Advanced tab
3. Now scroll down till you see the Multimedia section and clear the ticks from these boxes:
• Play animations in Web pages
• Play sounds in Web pages
• Play videos in Web pages
• Show pictures
4. Now click Apply

3. If you often reference a particular page why not save it so you can view it offline, this means you won’t have to wait for it to load each time. For instructions on how to do this click here.

4. If you don’t want to turn off your graphics in Internet Explorer another option would be to increase the size of your Temporary Internet Files cache. This increases the amount of images from the internet your computer stores, which means when you go to open a page you have opened in the past it will load much faster because images will already have been downloaded. This however does mean that you are using up more space on your computer. To do this in Internet Explorer:

1. Click on Tools
2. Click on Internet Options
3. On the General tab go to the Browsing history section (This may also be called the Temporary Internet Files section) and click Settings.
4. Under Check for newer versions of stored pages, Make sure Automatically is selected.
5. Now you can increase the amount of disk space to be used. Make sure this number is at least 250MB
6. Click OK
   

To see the full Microsoft article click here

Windows Live Photo Gallery is free and it makes managing, sharing, and enhancing your photos easy.

With Windows Live Photo Gallery you can:

• Assign tags or keywords to photos. You can also keep your images organized by name, date, rating, and type, all of which makes finding the right photo or photos easy.
• Automatically stitch together several photos in a series to create a panoramic view. Click here to see how.
• Windows live photo gallery can be used to easily publish your photos on Flickr or your Windows Live space
• If you’re running Windows Vista, you can even make a Photo Gallery slideshow you create work as your screen saver.

To use Windows Live Photo Gallery you need either Windows XP Service pack 2 or later, or Windows Vista. If you would like to check which version of XP you computer is running right click on My Computer and select Properties.

For more information and download options for Windows Live Photo Gallery click here.

There is no denying laptop theft happens. Nearly half a million were stolen in the US last year so we thought we would put this quick tip list of what you can do to help prevent it from happening to you.

1. Lock it down - One option is to secure your laptop to a stationary object when you’re not using it or moving it. Most laptops have security slots in the side or back, which can be connected to a security cable that releases with a key or code.
2. Keep it out of site – When travelling with your laptop in the car keep it out of site when you are not using it e.g. lock in the boot.
3. Carrying it with you – Take your laptop with you on the plane
4. Keep your eyes on it and avoid putting it on the floor – When you are in a public place like a waiting room or coffee shop avoid putting your laptop on the floor and if you have to put it down keep your eyes on it at all times.

Since being careful is no guarantee that your laptop won’t get stolen here are a couple of things you can do to ensure your data is safe should laptop theft happen to you.

1. Back up your data – You should backup the files on your laptop regularly e.g. weekly to minimise the amount of data you will lose if your laptop is stolen. For instructions on how to do this backup click here.
2. Encrypt your data – Encrypted files need an encryption key to be read, which means that if your laptop is stolen others will not be able to view them. In Windows XP and Windows Vista you can select files and folders that you would like to encrypt. To learn how to do this in Windows XP click here, to do it in Windows Vista click here.

According to this article by Computer World, malware which includes all programs designed with a malicious intent such as spyware, viruses, and Trojans are on the rise.

Many security venders have noted a significant increase in the amount of malware on the internet in the last few years. Symantec has said that between January and June of this year they detected 212,101 new malicious code threats, which is an increase of 185% over the same period last year.

To learn more about Malware, how you get it, and what you can do to prevent it Click here.

Back in March we posted about how Google AdWords work and the obvious benefits such as: Reaching people who are already looking to find out about your product/service, only paying if someone is actually interested enough to click on your ad (better ROI), and measurability (click here to see this post).

But there is a lot more to Google AdWords than that. When you sign up for a standard Google AdWords account you also get access to a number of great free tools to help you improve the performance of your ads. These include:

1. The Campaign optimiser tool – This is a tool you can apply to your AdWords campaign and it will give you advice on how you can increase the number of clicks your ads are receiving.
   
2. Keyword tool – This tool helps you come up with different keywords that you could use. You type the words or words that you would like your ad to appear for in Google searches and the keyword tool suggests alternative words that you may also like to consider using.
   
3. Edit campaign negative words – With this tool you can enter words that you don’t want your ad to show up for. So for example if you where the florist with the keyword ‘red roses’ you may want to have the negative word ‘growing’ because you don’t want your ad to show up for people searching about ‘growing red roses’
   
4. Site exclusion – This tool allows you to select sites that you do not want your ad to appear on because as well as your ad showing up on Google search results it also shows up on relevant Google network sites. So if there is a Google network site you do not want your ad to appear on you can use this tool
   
5. IP Exclusion – This tool means that you can stop people with a particular IP address from viewing you ads. This could be really useful if you were running a promotion that you were trying to keep your competitors from finding out about.
6. Traffic estimator - With the traffic estimator tool you can type in a keyword, a maximum cost per click that you are prepared to pay for that word and the Geographic location. The tool will then calculate the search volume so how many people search that term, the estimated ad position so how far down the list your ad will appear, the Estimated Average cost per click that you will pay, the estimated clicks per day you will receive, and the estimated cost per day.
   

To learn more about Google AdWords click here.

Computer World has an article today with a great list of online Christmas shopping safety tips. Here’s what they suggest you do to keep your online shopping safe this Christmas.

1. Only shop with online merchants you know and trust
2. Order from secure websites. When you reach the stage where you have to enter any personal information look for a locked padlock or unbroken key icon next to the address bar (unsecured sites may show an unlocked padlock or a broken key). Here is what the locked padlock looks like in Internet Explorer 7.
3. Keep printouts of everything. This includes copies of your order; web pages describing what you ordered; web pages that tell the seller’s name, address and telephone number; and any email confirmations you get. If the date does not appear on any of these printouts write this on them as well.
4. Use just one credit card for online purchases. This can make it easier to detect wrongful charges.
5. Don’t give out unnecessary information.
6. Don’t send your credit card information by email
7. Don’t give out your password to e-commerce sites to anyone
8. Don’t give out your bank information, no one needs it for an online order
9. Double check every website address. For more information on what to look for to identify a Phishing scam click here.
10. Don’t click on links within emails. Type the website address yourself, very carefully.
11. Remember that if the deal seems too good to be true it probably is.