Terry's Computer Tips - Newsletter
December 5, 2005

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Volume 1, Number 25 -- Monday, December 5, 2005
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

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6.  Followup: Protecting Our Children On The Internet

Clif, of the Clif Notes Newsletter that I mentioned last week, wrote to say:

Hi Terry,

Another way to help protect surfing children. I just happened to run into this program you might be interested in showing your readers. It's gotten very good user reviews and it's simple enough to use that most folks can install it. No tweaking needed.

http://www.snapfiles.com/reviews/Naomi/naomi.html

Quote from Snapfiles:
Naomi - Internet content filtering

Naomi is an Internet content filtering program, intended for families and parents in particular. It constantly monitors all Internet connections for inappropriate materials, and immediately closes down the browser if encountered. The programs considerations include obscene or violent contents; pornography and erotism in the form of images or texts, as well as sites that popularize drugs, gambling, terrorism, hate propaganda and more. The program uses a built-in filter list (which cannot be modified) as well as heuristic scanning and semantic analysis of web pages and links. It recognizes more than 10 major languages and supports the ICRA labeling system. The interface is password protected to prevent unauthorized disabling of the filter. Naomi`s biggest strength is that it is completely fool-proof and fully automatic, with no additional configurations (other than picking a password), it supports any browser or Internet application and does not change any of your settings - on the downside, it does not offer any control over the filters. The filtering worked well during our tests.

Have fun!

Clif
http://clifnotes.net & http://clifnotes.tk
Devoted to promoting Freeware and Free Information

Thanks for the tip, Clif. I'm sure we have some readers who will be interested in this one. Although you did not explicitly mention the price of Naomi, but I knew what it would be.  Free!

Given the price, I think many parents will be interested in Naomi and give it a try.

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7.  Cyber Security Webcast -- December 15, 2005

The next Cyber Security Webcast sponsored b the US Department of Homeland Security US-CERT and the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center is scheduled for Thursday, December 15th from 3:00pm-4:00pm EST.

The topic of this session from the National Webcast Initiative is "Cyber Security Tips During the Holiday Season - Son't let the Cyber Space Grinch Steal Your Holiday!"

The webcast's registration page has this to say:

Why this Session is Important to You:
With the holiday season approaching quickly, this informative presentation will include a few smart e-shopping tips that can help minimize your troubles and ensure that you have a good online shopping experience – especially around the holidays. The broadcast will also include such topics as online shopping transactions and the need to secure your private information online; understanding how to properly check your security settings on the new computer you just received as a gift; and making sure that free time for kids on holiday break doesn’t become free time for mischievous making in cyber space!

Who Should Attend:
This session is open to all and is applicable to anyone who uses a computer whether for business or pleasure. Those is particular who may most benefit from this session include, federal, state and local government staff, small business owners/managers, non-profit organizations, students, as well as home users.

Technical Knowledge Required:
This session is rated as “non/low technical.”

Format of Webcast:
This session will feature an interactive Powerpoint presentation accompanied by audio.

The session typically uses a Microsoft online meeting product. When you register, you will get the details and be invited to download and configure the meeting software. You will not have to have Powerpoint on your computer.

I expect that the presentation will be available later for download. At that point, if you do not have PowerPoint, you can always download OpenOffice.org, the free office suite.

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8.  Shopping at eBay!

One of the more non-traditional shopping places for this Christmas season is eBay! . If you have not ever tried it, eBay is a shoppers' and bargain hunters' dream site.

An old saying epitomizes the eBay phenomena: "One man's trash is another man's treasure." And, eBay gets their cut from sellers, who pay fees to list their goods, fees for pictures and fees based on the actual selling prices. Of course, if you pay via Paypal or credit cards (including credit cards via Paypal), sellers get to pay fees there, too. (Paypal was having so much fun that eBay bought it a couple years ago.)

eBay shopping is still a win-win. In some cases, sellers are clearing their old stuff out of closets, attics and spare rooms. Other sellers purchase new goods and let the eBay auction thrill get the buyers enthralled.

Therein lies the challenge with eBay. Decide what you want to buy. Decide what it is worth. Bid up to that amount and stop.

eBay! makes that process easy, too. They have an automatic bidding function, in which you can enter your maximum bid. Then, the bidding wizard will automatically keep you at the winning position until someone tops your winning bid.

There are a number of people who make their living or just some additional money running businesses on eBay. Of course, there are a number of hard-copy and electronic books to teach you how to buy effectively -- for yourself or for resale -- and to sell effectively.

eBay's big claim to fame is their rating system. Individual buyers rate individual sellers, individual sellers rate individual buyers, and the ratings and comments are readily visible to all. For recent sales & purchases, the rating system also displays the details on the item. This lets you verify that you are buying something similar to the previous sales, if that is important. If I was buying a $2,000 notebook computer, I'd want to deal with someone who had massive positive feedback for computers, not for used paperback books (just an example; I don't know any sellers who fall into those qualifications).

One of the tricks to shopping on eBay is to search for multiple different names and identifiers for the product in which you are interested. Sometimes, you will find the product misspelled in the listing -- and you can be one of the few bidders. Again, an example, say you are looking for a Pentium III 933 MHz processor. You should also search for PIII, P-III, P3. You might even forget the 933 for a bit, to get slower and faster processors in the listing. Look for CPU as well as for "processor."

For a list of some of the eBay-related eBooks available, check my web site's eBay Tips page.

So, check out eBay! If you have never tried it before, register as a user, bid on something, and join in the fun. You will find lots of neat stuff, from computers to clothes, from books to CDs, from cameras to espresso machines.

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9.  Recommend my Terry's Computer Tips Newsletter to Your Friends

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9.  Send me some email!

I always have time to read emails from you -- the readers of Terry's Computer Tips.  I can not promise a personalized response, but I reply to many of the questions, tips, comments and feedback emails.  I also may use your email in my newsletter!

Send me your comments, send me your tips, send me your questions, and send me your feedback!

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Back to Part 1   Part 2

Volume 1, Number 25 -- Monday, December 5, 2005
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

Copyright © 2005 Terry A. Stockdale.  All rights reserved.