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Scam Warning

December 20, 2009 // Posted in computers, internet, scam, security, virus, warning, worm  |  No Comments

Scam Warning
I received a call the other day. Person on the other end had an Indian accent. Told me he was calling about my “computer problem” and wanted me to walk through settings on my system.

I engaged this person in conversation, repeatedly asking him who he was, who he was with, how he got my number and why he was calling me.

He insisted that I had placed a support call and he was trying to help me.

I had not placed any such call.

Today I learned that my mother also received a similar call. (She has no computer).

Needless to say I didn’t allow any “support”.

THis link seems to indicate there’s a new technique going around.
http://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-800-698-9034

I’m uncertain what the scam exactly is, wether they collect your info directly, have you visit a link that installs spyware or a system hijack, but if you receive ANY calls from anyone offering support, I strongly suggest you reject them.

Also, be aware that Microsoft wont call you out of the blue, so be doubly aware of that.

Conflicker

April 1, 2009 // Posted in internet, security, spyware  |  No Comments

Make sure your firewall is up.
Try to manually run a windows update.

If both work, you’re probably clean.

In the mean time, make sure that your antivirus is up to date, and actively running.
Spyware/Malware protection also is good to have running.

There’s alot of hype about this one, but 3M out of 1B pc’s isn’t that big a deal.

There’s over 100,000 worms, viruses, etc out there.

The same precautions count for all of them:
– Use a reliable antivirus, and keep it current
– use a reliable malware shield, and keep it current
– use an on system firewall, and verify it’s on.
– use a hardware firewall and make sure it’s working
– make sure your system is up to date software wise.

Also
– don’t open strange email attachments
– scan your email
– use a spam blocker to cut down on your spam
– don’t visit bad websites
– don’t use bootleg software from crack sites that may open holes in your armor or install nasties. .

See also: iant Internet worm set to change tactics April 1

Q&A: How do you get people to volunteer work for your money-making on-line business without complaint and with consistent, quality performance?

March 27, 2009 // Posted in advertising, business, development, forum, internet, marketing, promotion, web, website  |  No Comments

Q&A: How do you get people to volunteer work for your money-making on-line business without complaint and with consistent, quality performance?

Question:
How do you get people to volunteer work for your money-making on-line business without complaint and with consistent, quality performance?

Answer:
My experience has shown that when people care about something, they will often put in the time to make it a success. Convention presenters have known this for years, and are often run by volunteer staffs in the hundreds, all working towards a common goal of a successful and entertaining event. Many of the same reasons apply when looking for staff for online communities. Treat your people right, stand behind them, give them guidance so that they know what is expected of them, and train them in how to do their job well. Don’t treat them like slaves, or free help. Let them know when they are doing well, and show the your gratitude. A little appreciation shown can go a long way towards keeping god people happy. All of that however is useless, unless you have a purpose for which they will put in the time and effort. Make your enterprise one that people can feel a part of, that they can feel ownership of, and a part of, and you will find good people willing to help you build your dreams, together.

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Bob Hubbard, is the CEO of SilverStar WebDesigns Inc. and an Administrator at MartialTalk.com and KenpoTalk.com. He can be reached through those sites.

Q&A: How fancy and how big should your opening page be?

March 20, 2009 // Posted in browser, business, computers, development, internet, marketing, web, website  |  No Comments

Q&A: How fancy and how big should your opening page be?

Question:
How fancy and how big should your opening page be?

Answer:
There are several different views on this. Some will recommend long and wordy, others hort an terse, others flashy, others simple. My suggestion is to tailor the page toward your goals for the site.

I recomend using a couple of graphics, 2-3 paragraphs of good descriptive text, loaded with strong keywords for the search engines to latch onto. This gives you a good starting point. You can add more paragraphs, but be mindful of how many graphics you place. Each one adds to the overall size of your main page, and slows down it’s loading, especially for dialup users. A slow page detracts from the user experience.

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Bob Hubbard, is the CEO of SilverStar WebDesigns Inc. and an Administrator at MartialTalk.com and KenpoTalk.com. He can be reached through those sites.

Q&A: How many different colors should you use on a webpage?

March 13, 2009 // Posted in browser, development, internet, web, website  |  No Comments

Q&A: How many different colors should you use on a webpage?

Question:
How many different colors should you use on a webpage?

Answer:
Finding proper color balance for a website is crucial to having a pleasing look. To many clashing colors makes your site look amateurish and often childish. I usually recommend using a minimum of different colors, looking instead for an easy on the eyes background, with a clearly contrasting color for fonts. Black text on a white or off white background for example. I then use other colors to compliment the design. Red on Blue gives a weird 3D like effect and is very hard on most peoples eyes. Shades of blue, green and brown, as well as darker reds seem to work the best. For cues on what colors compliment, I refer to traditional graphics tools like color charts.

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Bob Hubbard, is the CEO of SilverStar WebDesigns Inc. and an Administrator at MartialTalk.com and KenpoTalk.com. He can be reached through those sites.

What is Virtual Hosting? By Bob Hubbard

March 2, 2009 // Posted in development, hosting, internet, sales, security, server, shared, virtual, website  |  No Comments

What is Virtual Hosting?
By Bob Hubbard

Look everywhere on the Internet and you will see thousands of web hosts offering incredible hosting deals, for peanuts. How can anyone make money selling 20 gigabytes of space for $5 a month? Doesn’t it cost more than that for all the equipment and staff and whatnot? It sure does. Web hosts can offer this through a system called Virtual Hosting.

Virtual Hosting, also called “Shared Hosting” is where multiple web sites (www.anyname.com) are served off the same physical server. This saves each customer from purchasing their own expensive server, performing the setup, hiring support staff and providing the appropriate environment. The great majority of web sites are set up this way.

Virtual Hosting allows someone to run a website without having to buy equipment, maintain that same equipment, pay for expensive maintenance agreements, keep trained technicians on staff, install and maintain expensive high speed data connections, and provide expensive on site security for all of this expensive equipment.

It allows a web hosting company to divide the costs among many different clients who share part of the same physical server, at a great savings to their clients.

The pluses of virtual hosting are the lower costs and easy setup. You often don’t need to know more than how to use a free web page design tool to use it.

The minuses include poor support, too many shared hosting companies going under due to under charging, as well as all the problems one could expect if they were to live in an over crowded apartment complex due to a condition called “over selling.”

“OverSelling” is where your host sells more space than the server can physically provide. If your host is selling an “unlimited” space plan, or even hundreds of gigabytes of space, you can be certain they are “Over Selling”.

Budget hosts will cram hundreds of accounts onto a single server. Each account uses X% of the servers memory, processor and physical hard drive space. If a single account uses too much, you start to see server slow downs, connection problems, and errors.

Reliable hosts carefully monitor these issues, and will sometimes move accounts between servers to balance the loads and keep things working smoothly for all their customers. Sometimes that’s not enough, and hosts will recommend upgrading to a “Virtual Server”, or a real server, depending on the situation.

A “Virtual Server” is exactly what is sounds like. It’s a server, which is entirely in a larger servers memory. It functions like it’s physical counterpart, in that it has a limited amount of memory, and drive space, but it differs from conventional Virtual Hosting in that rather than share space, processor and memory, it’s all yours. Virtual hosting can be a short-term answer when you have out grown a shared environment, but can’t afford a full dedicated server of your own.

In most cases however, the great majority of websites will work fine in a Shared environment, as long as you choose a reliable hosting company that won’t overload their servers, and who doesn’t offer the unattainable.

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Bob Hubbard is an administrator of the popular martial arts portal site MartialTalk.com and president of SilverStar WebDesigns inc., a web site design and hosting company specializing in affordable solutions for martial artists. Bob can be reached at webmaster@martialtalk.com
Article Copyright © 2009 – Bob Hubbard – All Rights Reserved. This article may be reproduced provided all text, the author bio and these terms are kept intact.

Choosing a Domain Name for your new Web Site by Bob Hubbard

January 5, 2009 // Posted in business, domain registration, internet  |  No Comments

Choosing a Domain Name for your new Web Site
by Bob Hubbard

Choosing your domain name is a key part of your online presence. Your name should reflect you, be short, easy to remember, and help people think of you.

Choosing one is easy, as is registering it. The hard part unfortunately is finding one that meets your needs, because so many good names are already taken by others. Researching for available names can sometimes take hours, even for professionals.

There are many different endings for your domain name. The most common ones are .com, .net and .org, with .com being the preferred one. Other extensions exist such as .ca for Canadian domains, and .co.uk for United Kingdom sites. Rates for registration vary depending on where you register it, and which extension you are using. $8-15 per year is normal for a .com domain.

When picking names, avoid ones with a – or _ between words. Most people will forget to type those in and will end up somewhere else.

Avoid numbers as well, unless they are part of your business name. Some people use their phone numbers for example, or street address, and later regret it if they relocate the business.

When I discuss possible names with my clients, I often ask them for a list of key words and phrases that describe their business. I’ll use those as well as the business’s name to find available names for consideration.

One important thing to remember when you do register. Double check that spelling! Registration fees aren’t refundable, so be certain before you push that button.

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Bob Hubbard is the CEO of SilverStar WebDesigns Inc, a web design and hosting company specializing in martial arts sites, as well as an administrator on the popular martial arts communities MartialTalk.com, Kenpotalk.com and FMATalk.com. He is also a respected professional photographer specializing in martial arts event, nature and portrait photography. His martial arts photography can be found there as well as at his martial arts photography web site, martialphotos.com. He may be reached through these sites.
Copyright © 2008 – Bob Hubbard – All Rights Reserved
Permission is granted to reprint this article on websites, blogs and ezines provided all text, links and authors bio is left intact.

Tip Of The Week : Your Website Doesn’t Close The Sale, You Do!

December 31, 2008 // Posted in advertising, development, internet, marketing, website  |  No Comments

Your Website Doesn’t Close The Sale, You Do!

People send hundreds of thousands of dollars on fancy, feature rich, deep content websites, then wonder why they are poor. The truth is, while a website can do a lot of things, it can’t close the sale.

People still prefer to deal with other people, and a website is no substitute for the human touch. Prompt follow up and follow through by live people still is what makes a business a success.

Use your website as one of the tools in your sales kit, but make sure you add the human touch. Prompt reply, good service, and great communications are what’s needed to succeed today.

- Bob

Taking Better Action photos By Bob Hubbard

December 29, 2008 // Posted in business, internet, martialarts, photography  |  No Comments

Taking Better Action photos
By Bob Hubbard

Ever been at a martial arts or other sporting event and taken pictures and not been happy with what you got? Were the eyes red and demonic looking, or did the subjects look like blurs or whispery ghosts? Here’s a couple of suggestions to help you improve your shots.

1 – Know your camera settings.

Most people simply put their camera on “automatic” and hope for the best. This works in most cases, but action shots require a bit more knowledge to get right. Check and see if your camera has an “Action” or “Sports” mode. These settings use preset settings from the manufacturer to try and optimize your camera to capture fast moving action. While not perfect, it will usually improve what you do get.

2 – Use your Flash.

Yes, even in what to you looks like a nice and bright room, using your flash can help to “freeze” the action for your camera to catch it, and will add some pop to your shot.

3 – Enable Red Eye protection.

Many current pocket cameras today include a mode that ties to minimize those evil glowing demon eyes you get when using flash. Red eye is caused by the flash being too close to the lense, and the flash being “seen” in the eye. This is part of why professional photographers use those special grips and have the flash way up over the camera. If your flash is too harsh, try taping a little tissue paper over the light to soften it. Be aware that doing so will shorten the range and brightness of the light.

4 – Know what ISO your camera is set at.

Simply put, properly setting your camera’s ISO will improve your pictures. A low ISO like 100-200 tends to be sharp, clear. High ISO’s like 800-1600= ten to be on the fuzzy side, and grainy. So, why use a high ISO? The higher the number the more light sensitive your digital film is. Use a high ISO in low light situations.

5 – Take some test shots.

Digital cameras are great in that you can take as many shots as you want and not have to worry about bad ones. Before the event, take some test shots and preview them on the screen. Delete the ones that are really off, tweak your settings and try a few more.

Sports photography is a fun activity, but getting the best quality shots takes a little work. I hope that these tips help you enjoy your photography more.

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Bob Hubbard is a professional photographer specializing in martial arts event, nature and portrait photography. He is also the CEO of SilverStar WebDesigns Inc, a web design and hosting company specializing in martial arts sites, as well as an administrator on the popular martial arts communities MartialTalk.com, Kenpotalk.com and FMATalk.com. His martial arts photography can be found there as well as at his martial arts photography web site, martialphotos.com. He may be reached through these sites.
Copyright © 2008 – Bob Hubbard – All Rights Reserved
Permission is granted to reprint this article on websites, blogs and ezines provided all text, links and authors bio is left intact.

Q&A: I was told I broke the Internet? Is that possible?

December 26, 2008 // Posted in internet  |  No Comments

Q&A

Question:
I was told I broke the Internet? Is that possible?

Answer:
No. The Internet is made up of a huge number of connected networks of computers and servers. The Internet has been designed to be redundant to allow communications to go through in the event of an emergency. It is still possible for outages to occur in some areas that aren’t as redundantly wired due to power outages, or the occasional cable being cut. But it’s highly unlikely that you did it.

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