Yes, you can download Wikipedia...all of Wikipedia

The website that put the encyclopedia to death is yours for the downloading.  Wikipedia is the world’s most popular and up to date encyclopedia. It is like an external brain of sorts that we can access anytime to gain knowledge about hundreds of thousands of topics, but only as long as we have internet access. That really doesn’t have to be the case though, since you can use Kiwix to download and read the entirety of Wikipedia completely offline.  The program is available as a portable application, but can also be installed the traditional way. When you launch it for the first time, it asks you to download the catalogue of available wikis, which you definitely must download. I didn’t understand it at first, so I pressed no; ‘Do not ask anymore’ was enabled by default so I had to reinstall the program to be able to one-click download the catalog.

It's a great tool that will give you Wikipedia, even without an internet connection.   Give it a try!

I love free software

For those of you who do, I have a site for you.  It is quite simply www.ilovefreesoftware.com.  A site dedicated to finding, reviewing and linking you to the best free software on the Internet.  A must have if you hate paying for any software.

This google snooping is getting annoying...

Here I am sitting here canvassing the internet for fun and useful information to pass along to you.  I hits me suddenly, it seems that almost every search that I have conducted over the past week is showing up on pages I find for unrelated sites.  I purchased a suit this past week for a wedding that I will be attending next week, so of course I shopped around online to see if any local retailer was having a sale.  Now on at least 3 pages, I am getting Jos. A. Bank ads in my face.  This also happened for another item I was googling for information about.  This is getting annoying, maybe there should be a button on that ad that says, "Already purchased product, go away!"

New Page under What's New!!

Added!:  How to easily backup and migrate your browser bookmarks.  This is especially helpful when recovering from a virus or getting a new computer.  Follow the instructions and never lose your bookmarks again!  You can also try Xmarks or Firefox sync as well.   Link is on the left of this page under What's New!!

Back to School Security tip #5 &6

5. Don't Over-Share, Part 1. A friend asks, "Hey, can I use your password to log in and look something up?" Requests like this are all too common, and the correct response is very simple—just say no. Don't share your login credentials with anybody. If you want to be nice, offer to log in yourself and look up whatever your friend was seeking.

6. Don't Over-Share, Part 2. Configure your social media accounts so that only your friends can see your posts, and limit the amount of personal profile information that's publicly visible. Oh, and those pictures from the frat's keg party? Do yourself a favor and just don't post those at all. If someone else does so, untag yourself at the very least. You'll thank yourself years later when you've graduated and started looking for a job.

Back to School Security tip #4

4. Manage Your Passwords. Like anyone else, students connect with many, many secure sites, each of which demands a password. The only reasonable way to use a unique, strong password for each site is to engage the help of a password manager utility. Install it, check and change any weak passwords, and set it to automatically log out after a short period of inactivity.