Microsoft is not going to call you

The scam of the week involves people claiming to be representatives from Microsoft cold calling people with offers of free technical support help.  After getting unsuspecting victims to believe that their computers are infected, the scammers then convince the victims to buy worthless software.  In short, Microsoft and almost every other computer related company on the planet will not call you to do a free security check.  Hang up.  You can barely understand the conversation you have when you call them, let alone them calling you....

Recuva to Recover those files

Hopefully most of you know that when you erase a file, it really is not initially erased.  I won't get into the specifics as to how this all works, but if you find that you accidentally erased some vital files (typically pictures), there are many programs on the Internet you can buy that claim to be able to get those files back.  Hold your wallet and download the program Recuva (pronounced "Recover" and get those files back.  Recuva is made by the great folks that make CCleaner.  Simply tell the program what type of files you are looking for, where to look and sit back and let it go to work.  Oh, it is completely free.

Initial impression about Google Music Service

Last night I got my invite to use Google Music.  For those unaware, it is one of the three new cloud music services in which you upload your music collection to the cloud.  Once there, you access it from any Internet connected computer or Android device.  Initial impression is that you may want to set aside a lot of time for the initial upload to the Google servers.  To start, you download the music manager software.  It is the program that does the uploading.  You tell it where your music is and it uploads it.  Interesting enough, it uploads from anywhere.  I keep my music on a NAS (Network Attached Storage, Drobo to be specific).  It takes it from there.  Anytime you add music, it will automatically upload it.  It recognized that I had over 9000 songs and immediately started uploading.  8 hours later, it is up to 1656 songs uploaded.  Apparently this will take awhile.....  More to come

Good Google, Bad Google

Well on the good news front, when you use Gmail inside of Google Chrome's web browser, Google automatically encrypts your email, making it safer to use.  This new feature has been rolled out in the wake of recent hacking attempts in China into Gmail accounts.  You will notice when logging into Gmail it will begin with https:// and not the typically used http://.  The technology used to enforce the encryption is called HSTS, which stands for HTTP Strict Transport Security and which lets a browser specify that a Web site may only be used over a secure HTTP connection. HTTP, or Hypertext Transfer Protocol, is the standard that governs how Web browsers communicate with Web servers to retrieve a Web page.

Read more: http://news.cnet.com/8301-30685_3-20071239-264/chrome-encrypts-gmail-whether you-want-it-or-not/#ixzz1PT8qejzx

On the bad side, an exclusive investigation by CNET has revealed that when using Google Maps, Google has been collecting more than your IP address at the location.  They have also been collecting your Hardware ID of the device you are using (ie. computer, smartphone).  What this means is that, technically, Google can track your whereabouts and has a history of your whereabouts.   All the privacy advocates are throwing up at this point.

Windows Update day!

Get off your rump and make sure your Windows is updated.  For a more thorough description of what fixes are made with this update, click here.

Spacesniffer...see exactly what is stored on your hard drive

Do you know exactly what types of files are occupied on your hard drive?  If not, check out a free program called Spacesniffer.  It will give you a visual display of what folders and files are on your computer in a nice graphical display.  Best of all, it's free.