Posted on February 4, 2012 by Sara
The latest lens for the Squidoo 52 Lens Challenge is a book review on Learn to Do Bavarian Crochet. It is an interesting stitch to crochet and although the history for it is uncertain crocheters don’t mind as you’ll see a number of interesting blankets in a rainbow of colors.
Want to join me in this challenge? Check out the official page for this challenge on Squidoo. Sign up for the newsletter and start receiving the lessons.
If you joined the challenge in January and have a completed lens be sure to add it to the plexo on the 52 Week Challenge lens.
Posted on November 29, 2011 by Sara
Kelly has discounted her Smart Blogging Skills eCourse to just $29. This is a complete 15-week course that will renew your blog just in time for 2012. Each lesson comes with an audio and a homework assignment. By the end of the course you will have over 50 pages of content and a great start to a new year.
As an added bonus a lifetime membership to WP Live Support is now included in this course. This will help you get to know WordPress and ask the question you need to make you feel comfortable with this platform.
I hope you all have a great Holiday and I encourage you to set a schedule for your blogging so that you enjoy it and your family.
Posted on September 22, 2011 by Sara
Currently I’m learning the design aspect of wordpress and sometimes I just want to give up. I’m fine with adding posts and approving comments – I’m even fine with uploading themes and plugins – design is just not my thing.
This is exactly why I chose this Starter blog from Mom Webs Hosting – it was already laid out for me and they even installed it for me. Simple. Now I just need to figure out how to work with it. 
Lucky for me Angela Wills, the lady leading the Web Design Mojo class offers class repeats for her students. Believe me I think I’m going to have to take her class at least 2 more times to fully understand what I am doing.
I am keeping tabs on my skills via a Squidoo page on my progress. It’s not pretty as I’m always changing things up which is a web designers nightmare. I need to just stick to one thing and learn it before trying to launch into the next. This is easier said than done for my bipolar mind which at times is just racing from one thought or idea to the next.
I’m embarrassed a bit about creating the page now as I don’t want to portray Angela in a bad light – it really is the student ‘me’ who is bad – her lessons are very detailed and she is available in daily email coaching as well as live Question and Answer sessions on Wednesdays. Other people do wonderfully in her class I’m just a tech disabled mom. I hope I can present a clean, finished site by the end of the six week session.
Posted on September 21, 2011 by Sara
Today while I was downloading some lapbook lessons for my 5th grader I happened upon the internet session timer for children that Jason, HomeschoolShare.com’s Webmaster, developed for his own family.
Highlights of this tool:
- Adjustable time control
- Warns before kicking the child off
- Easily closed by the user
- Password gives user more time if needed [right now it is hard coded so you can't choose your own]
- Tracks time for the total day not just for one session – i.e. your child can choose to spend his 1 hour in three sessions or all in one.
- Enter allowed internet sites
Visit Homeschool Share for the download file [it is a zip file] and follow Jason’s instructions on how to set it up.
Posted on August 19, 2011 by Sara
With the dawn of the internet age you need to think more seriously about how you can protect yourself from Identity Theft.
I know it’s a somber topic to think about but with paying bills online, email, facebook, twitter, paypal and more you need to have a plan in place.
1. Create long passwords using Capital letters, lower case letters, symbols and numbers
The longer your password is the less likely it can be hacked. To make a secure password you need one that uses a variety of symbols, letters, and numbers. I know this is a hassle especially when you have 30+ accounts online.
i.e. mydogsam2010 is insecure but %^Lwe981! is a bit more secure but not hacker proof. Keep your passwords in a secure location or sign up for a service like LastPass.com.
Lastpass.com is a free service that manages all of your passwords and allows you to log onto your websites with just one click of the mouse. All the data is encrypted on your PC and only YOU can view it. It is a free software program with an optional upgrade which is just $1.00/month. LastPass is also available for Linux and Mac users.[another free password manager is RoboForm]
2. Do The Shred
No, I’m not talking about the dance step but I am talking about shredding everything with personal information. Junk mail, catalogs and credit offers – these need to be shredded if your name and address are on them. All an identity thief needs is your name, your address, your social security number and a phone number [sometimes just your name and address] and they can set up a ‘new life’ as YOU.
Don’t think though because you are on top of the shred that your information isn’t out there. Google your name or pseudo names and you will see how ‘private’ the internet really is. However, doing your part and shredding the things that can be used by thieves before you trash them can help at least with your local thieves.
3. Protecting Your IP Address
Yes, your online identity can be stolen as well. For each person who accesses the internet, an IP address is given to them. Internet thieves want your IP address as well. [IP address tells someone where and how to find you] If you have been attacked with malicious mal-ware you are most likely a victim of IP or Internet ID theft. Why would an identity thief want your IP address? To steal your private information and to attack other computers as YOU.
How can you hide your IP address? About.com author Paul Gil has a great article about this. He gives you the paid option [i.e. Anonymizer.com $79/year] as well as the free option provided by Tor and Privoxy. [both Tor and Privoxy need to be used together]
One more thing to note about IP address privacy is that it is different than browser privacy. When you choose to browse anonymously you are only hiding your traffic and downloads from others who use your computer – NOT your ip address. [for more information check out Firefox's explanation]
4. Protecting Yourself from Malware Attacks
Malware, short for malicious software, consists of programming (code, scripts, active content, and other software) designed to disrupt or deny operation, gather information that leads to loss of privacy or exploitation, gain unauthorized access to system resources, and other abusive behavior.[1] The expression is a general term used by computer professionals to mean a variety of forms of hostile, intrusive, or annoying software or program code. – Wiki-Malware
Malware is code that thieves put on your computer to infect it with various forms of identity theft software-code such as keyloggers, crackers, hackers, viruses, worms, trojan horses, rootkits, spam, web bugs, child safety aka inappropriate emails and websites, popups/unders, tracking cookies, and spyware. [to name a few] You can get infected by opening an email, downloading an infected file or by visiting an infected site.
How to protect yourself? You can install a Malware detector such as Malware bytes which has a free version. You can check out all such programs if you go to CNET.com.
Do note that the real-time protection is restricted to the paid version, as is the scheduler for updates and scans. Overall, though, Malwarebytes Anti-Malware is a responsive malware remover that does what it should with a minimum of fuss. – CNET review
5. Always, Always, Always UPDATE
You know those pesky pop ups reminding to update windows, flash player, etc.. Those are important. Usually these updates have to to do with weak spots in the these programs that have been fixed until the next vulnerability is found.
My son is an example of this – he hated to interrupt his gaming for these updates and so put them off until one day he could no longer access his computer – HE was infected with malicious malware. Another thing he neglected was regular backups to his computer.
The reason these things popup every now again is because they are necessary to keep your computer running as smoothly as possible because hackers work 24/7 365/year and believe me they know how nontechnical most computer users are. Just take the time to run the updates, do the scans, and backup your computer – you will save yourself a lot of trouble for WHEN you computer does get infected.
Conclusion:
There is absolutely no 100% safe way to browse and do business on the internet. There are ways to protect yourself and the above 5 theft deterrents will help protect you on some level.
Keep up-t0-date with the new security threats out there and always back up your computer because, if like my son, you just ignore it, one day when your computer crashes, you will lose everything and have to start all over again.
Resources for further Study:
