In the context of this article, "account" refers to anything on the internet that requires a username and password in order to access it, such as a web-based email account, instant messenger account, and so on.

There’s an old word (if you could call it that) that’s been used time and time again in thousands of different I.T. departments across the world, and that word is PEBKAC, pronounced "pebb-kack." It stands for, "Problem Exists Between Keyboard and Chair."

PEBKAC accurately states the #1 reason why people get their account(s) compromised, that being end user stupidity and/or lack of knowledge.

Here are some classic examples of PEBKAC:

"My husband/wife and I use the same email account because it’s more convenient."

Not good. One of you is going to inevitably make a major error that will lead to you losing the email account in some way. It doesn’t matter how long you’ve gotten away with it to this point, nor does it matter how much you trust each other. One of you will screw up, probably very innocently with no bad intentions whatsoever. And when it happens (and it will,) bye-bye email account.

Email accounts should only be used per individual. Shared accounts is just a bad, bad idea because there are way too many things that can go wrong just from normal use.

"I use the same password for my email as I do for my online banking account, because remembering passwords is just too hard."

Dumb. This means if one of your accounts is compromised, so are the others. Why? Because you probably use the same username as you do password for all your accounts.

Solution to problem: Use KeePass.

"I keep my account information in a Notepad text file on my desktop."

Not smart. Okay, so you’ve got the right idea to at least keep track of your accounts, but in the worst possible way. Anybody who goes in front of your computer can open the file up as its in plain sight. And even if you’re the only one who uses your PC, if your hard drive crashes, your account info is gone.

Again, KeePass it. Store the database on a USB stick. It’s encrypted.

Here’s a few other ill-advised methods for your consideration:

• Using the browser to store all username/password information. Bad because anybody who uses your PC has access to everything, and I guarantee you’re not backing up your credential information.
• Using a browser bookmark synchronization service to store all username/password information. Also bad. The bookmarks supplied with account credentials are still on your local drive. You’re at least backing up your stuff, but are still poising your account information to be compromised from the locally cached copy.
• Setting site preferences to keep you logged in for more than 24 hours. Thankfully, online banking prohibits this – even down to an auto-logout after 10 minutes of inactivity. But other web sites do not do this. There are some (like Gmail for example,) that have a small checkbox that state to keep you logged in. I strongly recommend against using features like this, because I guarantee you’re never clicking the "log out" link but rather just closing the browser. This means somebody else can simply walk up to your PC, open the browser, go into the history to see where you’ve been, then have complete full access to whatever you were signed into just by clicking a few links. It’s all right there.

If you exercise basic common sense when it comes to your account information, the chances of your accounts getting compromised decreases dramatically.

I’m not saying to get all paranoid and lock down your PC like Fort Knox. What I am saying is that you should be aware of the simple ways (as outlined above) not-so honest people can get to your information.

By individualizing account credentials, using an external means of account information storage and routinely clearing your browser history, these simple steps add a rather good level of protection. No, it will not protect you from all means of ways an account can be compromised, but it’s a really good start.

On the PCMech LIVE show I do every week Wednesdays from 8pm-10pm EST I periodically get asked if there is an alternative way to participate in chat. This is because for some the text chat using the browser method is just too small, and/or the chat text scrolls by too fast for some to read, and so on.

Yes, there is an alternative way. You can connect by using a traditional IRC chat client.

Here’s how to do it.

1. Get a Ustream account.

This is free. Go to www.ustream.tv and sign up an account. You do this so you have a name of your own in chat rather than ustream-12345 random number assignment as a chat name.

2. Know the necessary server information and channel name.

Ustream has to the best of my knowledge four chat servers, that being:

• chat01.ustream.tv
• chat02.ustream.tv
• chat03.ustream.tv
• chat04.ustream.tv

The channel name for the PCMech LIVE show is:

#David-Risley-Show

All IRC channels start with the # symbol, so it must be included.

The reason to know all the servers is just in case one is acting slow. Should that occur, you have other servers you can connect to which may be much faster.

3. Pick an IRC client that you’d like to use.

There are several available, but here are some more popular choices:

mIRC

Not free, but the best there is for Windows.

Pidgin

Known primary as an instant messenger client but has very good IRC support.

Chatzilla

An add-on for the Firefox browser. Easy to use and easy on the eyes.

XChat

Free for Linux, pay-software for Windows. Arguably one of the best IRC clients for Linux.

Colloquy

IRC client for Mac OS X. Arguably the best there is for the Mac.

There are many others, but the point is that you’ve got some good choices.

4. How to connect the manual way

(All IRC clients have ways of automating logins to servers and joining channels, which I’ll get to in a moment.)

First you set your "nick," that being your nickname:

/nick your-ustream-username

Next you connect to a chat server.

/server chat01.ustream.tv

When connected you may be prompted (but not always) to enter your Ustream account password, this is done by issuing in the command:

/PASS your-ustream-password

After that, you join a channel. For the PCMech LIVE show, this is the command:

/join #David-Risley-Show

5. Automating things in IRC

Each client automates the way it does things differently, so you will have to refer to the client documentation to figure out how to get things done automatically.

I can give you a few tips however.

• Usually when you set your "nick" for the first time, it will keep that name for any time you want to connect in the future. This allows you to skip the /nick command entirely.
• Nearly all IRC clients have a way of storing server addresses (ex: chat01.ustream.tv.) Using this feature will allow you to skip the /server command entirely.
• Nearly all IRC clients have a "Favorites" feature where you can specify favorite channels. Using this feature you can setup up #David-Risley-Show as a favorite that you can simply double-click to join once connected and authenticated. This allows you to skip the /join command entirely.

The only thing on Ustream IRC you can’t skip is the /PASS command. This is something unique to Ustream as it does not use what’s called a nickname server (known simply as the command /nickserv on many popular IRC services.)

Features of using a traditional IRC client over the browser way

Customized interface

You can use a white background with black text, black background with white text or whatever other color combination you like. You can also use any font you want using any size.

Much better buffer control

The chat area for Ustream in the browser is too small for many and text whips by too fast. Using the IRC client you have a much larger window and can scroll up and down thru it easily compared to the browser.

/ignore command

Is there a chatter bothering you that you don’t want to see? Use "/ignore username" and ta-da, you don’t see their text anymore for the remainder of the chat session.

Easier direct messaging

Although this is generally frowned upon unless you specifically ask the user first, you can easily double-click any chatters name and it will pop up a secondary window for direct chat, similar to an instant message. This is sometimes known as "PM’ing" a user, with PM meaning personal message or private message. The browser method allows this as well, but it’s a bit tough to manage because the chat window is so small.

See you Wednesdays from 8pm-10pm EST!

Now that you’ve got the know-how, chatting on PCMech LIVE will be a much easier experience if the browser method proved to be inconvenient for you.

Also bear in mind the instructions above will work for any Ustream chat, even for shows other than ours. All you have to know is the channel name (as in the name with the # in front of it.) Any show host should know this information and will readily give it to you so you can connect via IRC client instead of the browser.

Note that this is for the web-based version of Hotmail. If you are using Hotmail with the Windows Live mail client, see this instead.

Hotmail does allow for the use of limited HTML in email signatures, and this does include the use of images as long as they are hosted in a public place.

All that’s required for you to do this is the following:

1. Use a free image hosting service and upload your image there.
2. Get the direct link to the image from the image hosting service.
3. Input this link into your signature using the HTML <img> tag.

Here’s how that’s done:

First, get your image. Use whatever image you want.

Second, host your image. For this example I will be using ImageShack because it has a super-friendly auto-resize feature. Simply check the box for "resize image" and select "100×75 avatar." This is absolutely perfect for signatures as it’s just the right size so it won’t annoy people you send mail to.

For my example I will use an image of a disgustingly ugly pair of dopey pants:

After you upload your image to ImageShack, you will see a screen for a "Direct link to image," like this:

Click the word "link" to the right of "Direct." You will then have the full direct link to the image in your address bar:

Leave this open for now because you’ll need to come back to it in a moment.

Open a new tab in your browser. This is done easily with CTRL+T.

Go to www.hotmail.com and login to your Hotmail account.

On the far right, click Options then More Options, like this:

Select Personal e-mail signature under Customize your mail, like this:

In the email signature editor, select Edit in HTML, like this:

In your email signature, type:

<img src="">

..like this:

Go back to your other tab where your ImageShack hosted image is. Highlight all the text in the address bar and press CTRL+C to copy.

Now go back to your email, click between the two quotes and press CTRL+V to paste.

It should look something like this when done:

Now click Edit in HTML and change back to Rich Text. Your image will now show in your signature. Click once after the image to see your blinking cursor, then type whatever text you want to appear.

Example:

When finished, click the Save button at bottom right.

At the top left of the next page, click Go to inbox to go back to your mail.

Click New to compose a new email.

You’ll see something like this:

..and that’s all there is to it.

A few quick end notes:

• If you’re thinking about using Flickr to host your email signature image, don’t. Having a direct-linked image with no link-back to Flickr is a violation of their community guidelines.
• Sometimes when loading your signature, the image may not show up instantly as it has to "call" it from another server every time it loads. This is usually just a very short pause since the image is small.
• Being that your image is hosted elsewhere, there is the chance that it will get deleted after a certain amount of time. This is easily remedied by simply re-uploading the image and re-editing your signature to reflect the new location. Be sure to save whatever image you use for your signature somewhere local (like a USB stick for example) just in case you have to do this.
• DO NOT direct-link from somebody else’s web site, because that’s just plain rude and it "steals" bandwidth. Either host it with a free image hosting service, put it on your own web site, or don’t do it all.
• No, those are not my pants.

Notes for Yahoo! Mail users:

I know this article is about Hotmail, but believe me, if there were a way to do this in Y! Mail, I’d happily instruct you how to do it. Y! Mail currently does not allow any HTML whatsoever in their email signatures, however, something in the back of my mind distinctly remembers that they used to allow it.. I’m pretty sure of that although I can’t prove it.

When Y! updated their mail system fairly recently, a few things in the mail signature section broke.

For example, if you try to insert an emoticon, which is a direct-use Y! feature, you get this lovely little message:

Yahoo evidently likes dangling the carrot for its mail users. The stationary (as in the last icon on the right in the signature editor) doesn’t work either, by the way. Gee, thanks Yahoo.

People save web pages to ensure they can retrieve information later without having to load it on the internet. It also is a way of retrieving a web page just in case the original web site has an outage or goes offline for whatever reason.

There are two basic ways of saving web pages, that being via the browser or "printing it" to a PDF.

Via the browser

The browser that has the absolute best web page save feature is Internet Explorer 8, due to the fact it can save entire web pages as a "Web Archive." When you click File/Save As (if you don’t see that in your IE 8, press ALT on your keyboard to bring up that menu,) you’ll see it as a save option:

When you choose to save it will "crunch" everything into a single file:

Why is this the best? Because it’s a single file that contains everything (and that’s why it’s labeled as an archive.) All the text, all the images and everything included. If you load it afterward, it looks exactly the way it was originally. It is to the best of my knowledge the only browser that does it right.

Other browsers, such as Firefox, save as "Web page, complete" and it’s nothing but a huge mess. An HTML file will be saved which is the web page, but a subfolder will also be created with all the images, JavaScript files, etc. You can literally get 20+ files out of a single web page save.

Love or hate IE 8, it rules the roost when it comes to web page archiving.

Drawbacks:

• Only one – it’s proprietary to IE 8. Otherwise it’s the best way to archive a web page.

Via PDF Creator

If you don’t use IE 8 and want a web to save web pages a single files that include images and so on, the best way to do this is to use PDF Creator to create PDF files. This is free software that will install a virtual print driver and can be used in your web browser of choice.

Once installed, go to any web page, load it, then click File/Print or press CTRL+P. 

Choose PDF Creator from the window that appears:

..click OK.

The page will be crunched and made ready for PDF rendering:

You’ll see this:

Click the Save button at bottom right. You’ll be asked to name the file and where you want to save it to. Once done, the page is archived as a PDF.

Drawbacks:

• Many times the PDF creator will default to a serif font (Times New Roman) instead of the font seen on the original web page.
• Any links in the web page will not work in the PDF.

These drawbacks are usually acceptable being it’s the text you care about the most when it comes to a web page. Any images on the page will be embedded in the PDF; all text is searchable as well.

In addition, the PDF created even for very large web pages will be small in file size, suitable for sending in email if you want to send it off to a friend.

Via ScreenGrab

This is for Firefox only.

ScreenGrab is a FireFox plugin. It allows you to save a PNG or JPEG screen shot of any web page, but does so far better than ALT+PrintScreen. ScreenGrab will take an image of the entire page including the full length. The screen shot taken will look identical to what you see on-screen.

Drawbacks:

• Since the output file is an image, none of the text can be searched and links won’t work either.
• The default output file is a PNG. If the web page you save is very long, the file saved will be enormous.
• On very large web pages it can cause Firefox to freeze up when attempting to take a full screen shot, particularly on slower computers.

You can make the screen shot ScreenGrab takes to be smaller by purposely not using the browser maximized, because yes, ScreenGrab captures everything – including all the white space on the sides.

To use ScreenGrab, install the add-on, then on any web page, right-click and choose ScreenGrab:

"Complete Page/Frame" will save the entire page, length and all.

"Visible portion" only captures what the browser is displaying at that moment.

"Selection" allows you to select what you want captured.

"Window" acts like ALT+PrintScreen does.

Choosing to Save will save the file. Choosing to Copy will copy the image to the clipboard buffer where you can paste into another program such as an image editor, Word, etc.

Optical media for computers is a form of technology that everybody uses at the present time, be it for storing data, playing games and so on.

Data on optical media can be a pain to work with at times, especially if the disc starts to wear down with age, or gets accidentally pitted or scratched. That being said, here are 5 utilities you should have.

1. nrg2iso

Site: http://www.roland-illig.de/lang.delphi.nrg2iso.html (there is an English version on that page, just scroll down)

NRG is Nero’s version of an ISO. Although the vast majority of optical disc images are ISO these days, you may run into an NRG periodically. Some disc image mounting/burning utilities will “understand” NRG but most don’t. In that case you need convert it to an ISO. nrg2iso does this easily and quickly. Works in nearly all versions of Windows, including Windows 7. Once you convert the NRG to an ISO you can easily burn it to a disc.

2. bin2iso

Site: http://www.weethet.nl/english/download.php (scroll down and the download link is there)

This is another disc image format you may run into that you can’t burn or mount – especially if the CUE file is missing from it. Bin2iso will take care of this in short order (even without the CUE file) and convert the BIN to an ISO file. This software is really old and 32-bit only, but it does work.

3. Daemon Tools / Virtual CloneDrive

Site (Daemon Tools): http://www.daemon-tools.cc/eng/home
Site (Virtual CloneDrive): http://www.slysoft.com/en/virtual-clonedrive.html

When working with ISO disc images that you want data access to without burning them to disc, you mount them virtually as a drive letter.

If using Windows XP, the best tool for this is Daemon Tools. If using Vista or Windows 7, the best tool is Virtual CloneDrive.

Both are easy to use. With Daemon Tools you right-click its taskbar icon to mount ISOs as a drive letter. With Virtual CloneDrive you can right-click an ISO and mount, or simply double-click and ISO to do the same thing.

4. ImgBurn

Site: http://www.imgburn.com/

ImgBurn works on any Windows (from 95 all the way to 7) including all 64-bit editions! It also works under Linux in WINE easily as well. When you want to burn a disc image, you need not look any further than this. It always works, never fails, is light and additionally will build images as well.

5. Nero 9

Site: http://www.nero.com/enu/nero9-introduction.html

This is a paid title but worth it if you’re desperate to retrieve data off a damaged disc.

Let’s say you have a disc but it is very scratched and pitted. The disc on insert does spin up but on any attempt to read the data, it won’t work. You’ve tried over and over again copy the data off the disc but your optical drive absolutely won’t do it. You know your optical drive is fine, but the disc isn’t “playing nice” with you.

Nero Burning ROM (included with Nero 9) may be able to help.

What most optical software utilities do is try a set number of times to retrieve data off a disc at the fastest speed possible. After a few attempts it will give up, citing the disc as unreadable. Nero Burning ROM on the other hand will slow down the disc reading speed – even to below 1x if it has to – and copy any bits of data it can retrieve even if it can’t finish a full copy. During the process you will see Nero spit out a bunch of read errors, but that’s okay because it will keep going until it finds the next readable part of the disc, copy and continue as best it can.

For example, if there’s a document file on a disc that has a section of the data that’s completely corrupted from physical damage, Nero Burning ROM will copy it anyway. We’ll say the document is 50 pages long. The copy Nero creates may have corrupted data between pages 18 and 25, but at least you got something. And that’s better than nothing. That alone makes the software worth its price.

Nero 9 carries a hefty price tag of $70, and while the suite of apps you get is large, it’s the Burning ROM program that saves the day because it can mean the difference between getting data back or having it lost forever.

Using background images for web pages is something most people do not know how to do correctly. Typically most will use an image that is not suitable for the text on the web page, as some parts of the image will be light and others dark. In addition, the image looks terrible tiled.

A small tiled image is by far the best thing to use if you want a background image for your social profile, blog or web pages. Not only does it load very quickly, but also looks the same on all resolutions and with the right tile looks seamless.

But how do you create one of these? Where do you get ideas from?

That’s easy, use BgPatterns. It is an app that exists only in the browser and is super-easy to use. Many different types of tiles are available in all colors. You’ll have a perfect image for tiling in no time. See video below for details.

Also bear in mind creating tiled images works great for computer wallpaper as well, particularly on older computers with limited video display abilities. If the redraw speed on your video card is slow but you still want a nice wallpaper, a small tiled image is definitely the way to go.

I received a question in the PCMech Premium area that asked if Windows 7 will have an improved Add/Remove that will completely uninstall programs compared to the way XP does it. My answer was an easy no, and I explained why. In this article I go into detail on that.

First I’ll say programs that leave crap behind is definitely not a Windows-only thing. On the Mac it’s more or less required to have App Zapper. In Linux there’s BleachBit. In other words, no OS is safe from crap left behind by third-party programs.

The question however is: Why does this happen in the first place?

There are three basic answers.

Answer 1: The more stuff the program "hooks" into, the more difficult it will be to uninstall.

In the question I received originally, the cited example was Adobe Reader. This software is notorious for leaving a lot of junk behind because of all the stuff it hooks into.

On install, Reader is a standalone program. But on an "express" install it will hook itself into Internet Explorer, and Firefox and possibly Microsoft Office. That’s a lot of stuff Reader got its claws into, and therefore the more difficult it will be to get out.

Answer 2: Not closing programs before uninstall (error on user’s part).

You know how many programs state, "Please close all your applications before installing [this]." The exact same is correct for uninstalling as well. Some programs are "smart" enough to say, "Hey! You! Close your stuff before uninstalling so I can get out of here safely!" However many programs don’t do this.

Example: Java.

The vast majority of us use Java only in the web browser. If the browser is running while you do your uninstall, chances are high something will screw up.

Answer 3: Crappy code.

If a third-party program installs bad, it will uninstall bad. Crap code is crap code, plain and simple, and no operating system can magically fix that.

Things you can do when things screw up with the uninstall of a program

Install it again to uninstall it again

Although this sounds ridiculous, this does work the vast majority of the time. You install something, decide you don’t like it and go to uninstall it. The uninstall procedure gives an error. Uh-oh. So you run a "cleaner" program to get rid of it. That didn’t work either. Are you now stuck with it for life?

No.

Installing the program again will usually fix whatever problem it had, allowing you to uninstall it properly the second time.

Close all programs first

Close the browser(s). Close your anti-virus temporarily. Close anything else you have open. All of it. Do it whether you feel you need to or not. After that, then uninstall.

Using a cleaner? Reboot after uninstall of a program before running it.

You install a program. That program hooks itself into many things. You uninstall that program. However the OS still thinks you have it installed because of the currently loaded session. So you reboot. On the newly established session, the OS then "knows" it’s completely gone. At that point, then you run the cleaner program and not before.

Does the program use add-ons or plugins?

As great as add-ons/plugins are, they can leave behind a ton of junk. Firefox is a good example of this. The uninstall process does not remove all those add-ons you put in there, nor does it remove any configuration files specifically for those add-ons. You need to first uninstall all that stuff before removing the browser program itself.

Avoid upgrading programs if the versions are too far apart

Let’s say that for whatever reason you’re running an ancient version of OpneOffice, version 1. You see version 3.1 and decide it’s a good idea to upgrade.

Not really.

Were you at OO version 2, then I’d say go ahead with the upgrade. But from version 1, no. Too old. Chances are high something will mess up.

What happens with old versions of software is that the new versions that are significantly ahead release-wise will usually not install "clean", thereby causing problems later.

General rule of thumb: If the program in question is two major releases ahead concerning the version number, you’re better off uninstalling the old, and performing a from-scratch install of the new (unless the program in question is specifically supports an upgrade from something two releases or greater behind).

What’s the worst program you had a hard time getting rid of?

Were you able to uninstall it, or is it still there? Do you think it was your error, or do you recommend people stay away from X program like the plague? Let us know in the comments.

Credit, love it or hate it, is something that’s necessary for many people to buy things. And I’m sure there are more than a few of you out there who have applied for credit online and been denied faster than you can say, "Hey! My credit rating is good! What gives?"

What gives is that you’ve been dealt the cold shoulder of a computer that deemed you unworthy of a credit line.

If you need credit for anything, my advice is simple: Apply over the phone or in person whenever the option presents itself. The rep you speak with on the phone has more of an interest in approving you compared to a non-human computer.

Lines of credit worth having for computer stuff

Apple Financial

Macs are frickin’ expensive. With Apple Financial/Juniper they have 0% for 12 months on any first (keyword there) purchase over $1,000 – which is unfortunately quite easy to rack up when buying Apple products.. (sheesh!) If you plan on buying Apple stuff, you’re going to need this unless you have really deep pockets.

Phone: 1-800-MY-APPLE

Dell Financial Services

Good for consumers and small-biz owners that specifically want to build credit. The nice part is that with DFS, they’ll allow you to finance just about anything – even for super-low amounts, and that’s an advantage.

Phone: Depends what type of customer you are. Info is here. If you’re just a regular consumer, call the main line 1-800-WWW-DELL.

Bill Me Later

Both NewEgg and TigerDirect accept this, as well as many other retailers. Granted, the interest rate sucks, but you get 90 days no-interest no-payment on any cart purchase over $250 in most instances. "Cart purchase" means that the items in the online shopping card meet or exceed $250. So if you buy a motherboard, CPU, monitor and lump it all into a single purchase that goes over $250, that’s financeable thru BML.

Note that you don’t have to apply for it. Just use it on purchase at checkout. However it is recommended you get yourself an account at the BML site to track spending better.

A very, very old email tip to prevent nasty code executions from spam on email clients was to simply disable the preview pane altogether. But you have to remember back then that email clients were decidedly "dumb". Today they’re much smarter. For example, you can disable/enable the preview pane at whim in Mozilla Thunderbird just by pressing F8. In addition, just about every client has the ability to force-read all mail in plain text; this thwarts almost all spam from triggering web bugs letting the spammer know you opened the mail.

Webmail on the other hand is a different story. Your browser is not an email client by design.

As most people know, spam routinely has embedded images in them and as a webmail user you have no option to force-read webmail in plain text. So on the instances where spam accidentally gets in your inbox with embedded images, spammers are crafty enough where the images will display anyway, send the web bug, and as a result you get more spam.

Fortunately for you, the subject line of spam emails usually make it very obvious what they are. For the times spam lands in your inbox, you can bypass opening it altogether and delete without opening it.

Here’s how it’s done using Hotmail, Yahoo Mail or Gmail:

Hotmail

Change the reading pane setting to Off. This is on the right side of the screen when logged in and looks like this:

When you see a spam land in the inbox, put a check in the box, then click the Delete or Junk link.

Yahoo Mail

In the "new" mode, click View then Reading Pane OR just press v on your keyboard.

When you see a spam, right-click the mail and delete or check the box for the spam and click the Delete or Spam button.

In Yahoo Mail "classic" mode there isn’t any reading/preview pane of any kind. On mails you see as spam in the inbox, check the box and delete or mark as spam.

Gmail

This mail system by default shows all mail as threaded conversations. To see a mail you must click thru. If you see a spam, check the box for that conversation, then click the Report spam button.

Windows Live Mail is a great email client, no question. But one very longstanding complaint is the way it renders fonts. Whereas in other mail clients it’s stupidly easy to make mails look a specific way for text, in Windows Live Mail (and the previous Outlook Express) it is, put politely, a challenge.

This tutorial is how to get the fonts to look monospaced (i.e. Courier New) everywhere for email content. And I’ll also instruct how to switch back and forth between monospaced and rich-styled HTML format.

Windows Live Mail by default hides the menu bar. To show it, just press ALT. If you want it to stay there permanently, press ALT+M (to bring up menu options), then M again. To hide it, repeat process.

Click Tools then Options, then the Read tab. You see this:

Check the box for Read all messages in plain text. Then click the Fonts button.

You see this:

Set the proportional font and fixed-width font to Courier New. Then set the font size to Smaller. Then click OK.

Click the Send tab. You see this:

Check the box for Reply to messages using the format in which they were sent. You do this so when anybody sends you an email with photos in it and you want to include those photos in the reply, there’s no special steps needed.

Next to Mail Sending Format, tick the option for Plain text.

Click the Compose tab. You see this:

Set the Compose Font for both mail and news to 10 pt. Courier New.

Click OK.

When viewing a mail, such as the PCMech Newsletter, it will look like this:

If you want to view this in the original HTML version, there are two ways:

1. Click View, then Message in HTML.
2. Press ALT+SHIFT+H

Then it looks like this:

You can switch back to plain text by closing and opening the email again.

Lastly, on replies if the message is in HTML, the compose window will load everything, including all images, custom fonts and so on. If you want to switch to a plain text reply in the compose window, click Format then Plain text, otherwise leave as is.

Why use the plain text only option?

It decreases the risk of having malicious code executed in your emails. Granted, WL Mail is very good at suspecting phishing attempts and does not allow images from unknown senders, but choosing the option to read in plain text only adds an extra layer of security.

Why change all the font settings like this?

Configuring WL Mail in this fashion gives all your emails a uniform look that’s easier on the eyes. The default way it’s configured makes some mails have huge text while others do not, with little consistency from mail to mail.

Don’t like monospaced? Use any font and size options you want.

For those with not-so perfect vision, using the above methods with a different font (such as Trebuchet MS) with a larger size (such as ‘Larger’ combined with Trebuchet MS 14pt) will make all your emails much easier to read and reply to.

In 2007 I did a video on how to share files/folders to Windows with Ubuntu. But since version 8 of that OS the way in which this is done has changed a bit. It is simplified somewhat, but the drawback now is that in order to change the Workgroup name you must edit a configuration file manually instead of having the ability to do it in the GUI like before.

In the video – and here on this post – I make the request that if anybody knows how to change the Workgroup name without manually editing the smb.conf file, please feel free to comment and explain how that’s done, because I couldn’t find it.

Granted, the command line is not a bad thing, but the point here is that you used to be able to edit the Workgroup name via the GUI and now that feature seems to be gone – unless it’s hiding somewhere where I can’t find it?

See video for details.

craigslist, love it or hate it, is a great site to find.. well.. anything. However you’re limited to searching just one local area at a time.

However you can search multiple areas via the use of a particular web site and an RSS reader (like Google Reader, Feed Demon or even Windows Live Mail or Mozilla Thunderbird) to get the job done.

The web site to use is crazedlist.org, but from the moment you visit that site a big nastygram appears in the middle of your browser (which is not an ad). It says you can either mess around with your browser to disable referrers, or use RSS feeds instead.

Trust me when I say the RSS way is much easier. And more convenient.

Let’s say for the moment you want to perform a nationwide search of craigslist. If you do this directly via the crazedlist.org web site, so much data will be pushed to your browser that it will crash it, and your IP address will be flagged as "bad" by craigslist.

Instead, you do a nationwide search this way. For demonstrative purposes, we’ll use Google Reader to handle the feeds.

From the top left drop-down we select all. You immediately get a warning:

Click OK.

For our example search, we’ll use "1967 camaro". Here’s how I filled mine out:

• Search for 1967 camaro
• in sale/wanted
• cars & trucks (all)
• No price selected
• "Pics" checked for "ads must have photos"

DO NOT click the Search button. Repeat: DO NOT do that.

Click the big orange Get RSS Feeds button instead.

You will see this:

In Firefox: Right-click "this link" and choose "Save Link As"

In Internet Explorer: Right-click "this link" and choose "Save Target As"

When the save screen appears, change Save as type: to All Files, and type in the file name as 1967 camaro.opml, like this:

Now all we have to do is import this into Google Reader.

Note before continuing: Just about every RSS Reader has the ability to import standardized OPML files. Whether you’re using an app or a web site, they all should have some ability to import OPML.

With Google Reader it’s very easy to import an OPML file. You go to www.google.com/reader, login with your Google account (such as a Gmail account), then click Settings at the extreme top right, then the Import/Export tab, like this:

From here you click the Browse button, go to the Desktop where you saved the OPML file and upload it.

In a US nationwide search, this results in 328 feed subscriptions. When you click Back to Google Reader, it will look something like this:

All subscriptions will be listed by state abbreviation then locale for "1967 camaro", all with photos.

Why is it OK to multi-search craigslist the RSS way and not direct via crazedlist.org?

It’s for the reasons crazedlist.org states. Having a mountain of data sent to your browser has a high tendency of crashing it, and craigslist is very wise to those who make unreasonable search requests from their servers. And yes, performing a massive nationwide search is considered unreasonable and they will block your IP in short order.

RSS feeds on the other hand are much more "civil". Furthermore they act as a saved search of sorts. Once you import it all into Google Reader or other feed reader, any new listings that match your keywords will show up.

For those that have been reading my articles for some time (this is Rich, by the way, better known as "Not Dave"), I can’t stand optical discs. They’re slow to write, scratch easily, have inferior life span compared to USB sticks and the list goes on.

However the one thing I absolutely can’t argue with is that it currently is the absolute cheapest way to back up your stuff. Being the frugal guy I am, that’s why I use them.

The one thing I can’t stand more than optical discs are jewel cases. You know these as the "plastic case that always has the flap fall off at the hinge, rendering it useless."

I absolutely will not use jewel cases. Instead, I use paper sleeves and you should too.

Here’s why:

1. You can write on them with a regular pen.

Pen or pencil, actually. No labels required. No Sharpie marker required. Very convenient.

2. They stack easier.

Paper sleeves are, obviously, paper thin. So you can stack more of them at a time while still protecting the discs.

3. You can buy a lot more of them at any given time.

They come in 50-packs and stay in a nice tidy little box.

4. You don’t mind giving them away.

Situation: A friend comes over. You show him or her the latest version of some freeware you just downloaded and they want a copy. So you burn a copy on disc. The friend asks for a case to put the disc in. You have a few, but really don’t want to part with them because they’re so scarce.

With paper sleeves you simply don’t care. Pop in a sleeve, give to the friend with a smile because you’ve got a ton of them.

5. Cheap!

Self-explanatory.

Crafty tip: You can make your own paper sleeves. Impress your friends. See video below.

So yeah, if you’re just that cheap, you can grab a piece of paper out of your printer and make your sleeves that way.

This is going to be one of those "Duh, that’s common sense" things, but it’s amazing how many people still do this.

We’ve all heard that you should use different passwords for different accounts; that much is obvious. And you can use a utility like KeePass Password Safe to do it with (which I use personally). But I also suggest the use of different user names as well.

Let’s say your email address is JohnDoe@yahoo.com. You send an email to me. From the beginning of your email address, I can easily guess that you probably use JohnDoe for other services on the internet as well.

I go to Google, and search you. Wow, look at that, you have a MySpace page. And a Flickr account. Hey, look, now I have photos of you. I know what you look like. You also have an eBay account. Now I know what you’re buying and selling. Then on one of your profiles it lists your full name, town and state. So I go to www.pipl.com or www.123people.com. It turns out your name is listed in the phone book. Now I have your address, phone number, information on other people living in your household..

I got all this information just by your Yahoo user name alone, and it only took seconds.

There’s three things you can do to avoid being snooped like this.

First, exercise the use of different user names for different accounts you use.

Second, get your number out of the phone book. Call your phone provider and make it unlisted. When next year’s edition is released, your information won’t be public.

Third, go to every single internet directory you can find (such as AnyWho) and make a request to have your information removed. They will comply and it doesn’t cost you anything except a few minutes of your time.

"But I use the same user name everywhere and I’m used to it. What can I do?"

Not a problem. Examine your public profile(s), such as profiles.yahoo.com/YOUR-YAHOO-ID. Check your public Yahoo profile. Check your public eBay profile. Check all the services that have public profiles. If there’s anything there you don’t want people seeing, simply modify and make it private.

"How do I know what’s out there about me now?"

Search for yourself on Google by the user name you most commonly use. Then search by your real full name. Also use Pipl and 123people as linked above and search for yourself that way. Examine the results, and if there’s anything about yourself you don’t want public, take appropriate measures to make it private.

"I think you’re being paranoid about this. Who cares if my address and phone is public?"

Do you like telemarketer calls? Do you like junk postal mail? Do you like spam?

Obviously not.

You don’t make your information private to necessarily avoid people like you and me, but rather to avoid corporations looking to sell you crap you don’t want or need.

Your identity can also easily be tied to the user name you most commonly use.

If you keep a keen eye on your public profiles, make use of different user names and make your personal information unpublicized, you will command much more control on how much information people – or corporations (particularly the more seedy ones) – know about you.

Lots of us have more than just one computer in the home. And with instant messenger apps, that unfortunately means only one computer can use a single IM account at a time.

For example, if you use Yahoo Messenger and login to one PC in the home, then use the same account to login with on another, it will "kick off" the first one.

You can have multiple logins per single account on just about any messenger service, but it’s all dependent on what software you use.

AIM

The AIM service does allow multiple logins per single account. The best software to use to take advantage of this feature is AIM Lite or Pidgin.

AIM Lite by default has this enabled, but with Pidgin you have to check a box:

…and then you’re good to go.

Windows Live Messenger

The current version of WL Messenger does allow simultaneous logins. There should be no special setup necessary to make this work, however the only drawback is that you must use the same software on all computers that connect.

For example, if one PC uses Windows Live Messenger and the other Pidgin, WL Messenger will boot off Pidgin and vice versa.

Everything else

The absolute easiest way I have found to have same-account logins on multiple computers is by using the Meebo Notifier. This is Windows-only software but it works fantastic. The app acts as a gateway of sorts to the web interface, but has a nice n’ tidy icon in the taskbar to notify you of new messages on as many computers as you want.

Meebo will configure any IM account you can possibly think of.

The only drawback I found is that if you put one of the computers in hibernation (typical for a laptop), it will log out Meebo on the other PCs in your home network. But other than that it works flawlessly.

And yes, this is a bit of a hybrid between web-based IM and client-based, but it does work and that’s the whole point.

What about Jabber?

While it’s true Jabber will allow a "login as many times as you want anywhere" type of IM, setup is annoying for non-XMPP messaging services.

In Windows (or Mac OS X or Linux), you’d most likely use the Psi messenger which easily allows for XMPP connectivity. But after than you have to find a Jabber server that allows for non-XMPP IM service "transport", and that’s the annoying part.

So you go to the Jabber server list, connect up to a server, perform a service discovery and see if the protocol you want is available for transport. If it’s not available, you have to move on to the next server. Hunt, peck, hunt, peck.. it’s annoying. And there’s no guarantee the server will be there tomorrow or even prove to be reliable when working.

Jabber is truly awesome. I’m not kidding. This is why Google Talk uses that protocol. And it would be great if all other IM services adopted the protocol as well. But that isn’t the case currently, so we’ll have to stick with what’s useful for us.